CHAPTER 5: LANGUAGE

 Essential element of culture  Most important medium of culture transmission  Distribution of language:  Historical/conquest  Isolation or Cultural integration  Migration  Economic Domination  Money and technology  Political boundaries  Physical boundaries LANGUAGE

 English is/was diffused primarily from migration.  Evolves from interaction and isolation  Originated in England  Diffused to the other world areas via colonies  In recent years, US responsible for diffusing English  England to North America, Ireland (17 th century)  England to South Asia, South Pacific (18 th century)  England to South Africa (19 th century) LANGUAGE: ENGLISH

French English

 Celts pushed to Wales, Scotland, Cornwall  Vikings, Germans brought “German English” = Germanic  Normans brought French; 300 year reign w/French as official language  Anglo/Saxon/Jutes: gave regional dialects  Commoner Germanic mixed with aristocratic French to form “Modern English” INVASIONS

 Colonists responsible for dominant patterns in English Western Hemisphere  Vocabulary  American settlers gained new objects/experiences from Native Americans  New inventions = new names  Spelling  Desire to be independent of England  Noah Webster’s dictionary/grammar books helped to create this independence-hoping to inspire national pride  Pronunciation  Isolation: Communication was from letters/printed materials between England and colonies. BRITISH VS AMERICAN ENGLISH

 Our dialects are different due to the original settlers  Isogloss: -word usage boundary

REGIONAL PRONUNCIATION

 New Englanders drop the ‘r’ sound : ‘cah’ for ‘car’  Southerners known for a ‘twang’ or long ‘i’ sound REGIONAL PRONUNCIATION

 Mandarin Chinese #1; English #2  Chinese: Sino-Tibetan Family (PRC and small SE Asia countries)  English: Indo-European Family (50% of world)  Mandarin is official language, though no SINGLE Chinese language  Chinese Language is based on 420 one-syllable words, speakers must combine to make 2 syllable, listener must read context to determine meaning.  Use ideograms: ideas/concepts not pronunciations  Use characters; not letters ENGLISH VS CHINESE

 Acculturation: process of adopting the cultural traits or social patterns of another group  Assimilation: process where a minority group gradually adopts the customs and attitudes of the prevailing culture  What’s the difference?  Examples:  Both can occur due to conquest/war. (British colonies, Normans)  English’s globalization due to media = acculturation  Slavic  Mandarin Chinese ACCULTURATION/ASSIMILATION OF LANGUAGE

INDO-EUROPEAN

 High German-standard German language  Low German- English  North German-Scandinavia- Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, and Icelandic GERMANIC BRANCH

 100+ individual languages  Eastern- Indic (widely used)  Western-Iranian  Most speakers of Indo- European family  Hindi (Indic)  Urdu (Indic-Pakistan)  India has 18 official languages  Iranian-Iran, Afghanistan, W Pakistan, N Iraq, E Turkey INDO-IRANIAN

SOUTH ASIAN BRANCH

 Slavic was single language, migration from Asia to E Europe created several differences  East Slavic- Russian, Ukrainian, Belarusian  West Slavic: Polish, Czech, Slovak  South Slavic: Serbo- Croatian, Bulgarian BALTO-SLAVIC BRANCH

 Includes 3 of the 12 most widely spoken languages in world (French, Spanish, Portuguese) ROMANCE BRANCH

 People’s Republic of China and smaller countries in SE Asia  Sinitic Branch  Austro-Thai Branch  Tibeto-Burman Branch SINO-TIBETAN FAMILY

 ¾ of people speak Mandarin  Tens of millions speak other languages  Government imposing Mandarin country wide

 Austronesian: Indonesia, Madagascar  Austro-Asiatic: SE Asia, Vietnam  Tai Kadai: Thailand, Phillipines  Japanese  Korean CONNECTIONS TO SINO-TIBETAN

 Arabic = official language  Hebrew Language  Middle East, Northern Africa, Southwestern Asia AFRO-ASIATIC

ALTAIC FAMILY

 Estonia, Finland, Hungary  Ural Mtns (7,000 yrs ago) URALIC FAMILY

 95% speak language from this family  6 branches NIGER CONGO

 Swahili  Strong Arabic influences  Extensive literature BENUE-CONGO BRANCH

 Few million in North- Central Africa  Maasi-best known spoken by warrior-herdsmen of East Africa NILO-SAHARAN FAMILY

 3 rd important family in sub- Saharan Africa  In southwest  Uses clicking sounds KHOISAN FAMILY

 Extinct language: no longer spoken or read in daily activities by anyone in the world  Numbers in the 1000s  16 th century Amazon- 500; today- 57 w/ ½ looking at extinction PRESERVING LANGUAGE

 After 4 th century only used in Jewish religious services  1948: became Israel’s official language w/ Arabic  4,000 new words created along w/modern dictionary HEBREW: LANGUAGE REVIVED

 Celtic: 2,000 years ago: spoken in Germany, France, Italy and the UK  Today: Remote parts of Scotland, Wales, Ireland and France’s Brittany peninsula  75,000 speak Irish Gaelic  Less than 80,000 in Scotland  ¼ in Wales  Britain’s 1988 Education Act allowed language training of Welsh: history/music  1996-Irish TV station  Few hundred fluent in Cornish ENDANGERED LANGUAGES

 International Communication Language: Most will refer to English if speak different languages GLOBALIZATION OF ENGLISH

 English surpasses all for internet host language  Lingua Franca: language of international communication  “Language of the Franks”  Pidgin Language: two groups that learns English or other lingua Franca in simplified form  Creole: mixing of a colonizer’s language w/indigenous language  Other LF: Swahili, Hindustani, Russian  LF Dialects: African-Americans, Appalachia Residents  Ebonics TECHNOLOGY LANGUAGES

 Franglais  French and English  French not happy.  Spanglish  Spanish and English  “Cubonics”  Denglish  Deutsch (German) and English ENGLISH DIFFUSION WITH OTHER LANGUAGES

 Language can be the essence of a cultural group  Preserving it means preserving their heritage and who they are  Lose the language = lose the foundational soul of the people  It is an element of cultural identity. When you hear a language you can define the people. LANGUAGE = CULTURE