 Language! Where the language is used, how they are grouped, why distributed that way

Some Stats to Start with  The world has 7299 languages only 10 (including English) are spoken by at least 100 million people.  They include: Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, German, Mandarin, Hindi, Bengali, Arabic, Japanese  500 Million People speak English and it is the official language of 50 countries  Mandarin has more speakers but is clustered mainly in China.

Why so many English Speakers?  British dominance since the 1600’s and colonization throughout the world:  North America, United States and Canada  Ireland, Scotland, Wales  South Asia  South Pacific  Southern Africa  And then there’s American dominance  South Pacific, Caribbean, Philippines

Dialect  Regional variations of a particular language  British vs. American English  Spelling, Vocabulary, Pronunciation  The “King’s English” known as British Received Pronunciation  Cockney English known as the working class language Cockney English  Dialects in the US  East Coast, South, Midwest  Monolingual regions, Multilingual regions

EVERY LANGUAGE HAS SLANG  Cockney Rhyming Slang- English odd humorous use of code phrases “going up the apples”  Pidgin languages-simplified forms of a language that use key vocabulary and limited grammar  Pidgin languages can evolve into separate languages-French Creole which is French with African dialectal sounds and vocabulary  Most former French colonies have a mixed language of French and Indigenous called Patois

Lingua Franca?  French has historically been the bridge or utility language so it’s versatility coined the term “lingua franca”  Lingua Franca is used to describe any language that bridges peoples from around the world  In the 21 st century English is accepted as the global “lingua franca”

Language Families  Indo-European (2.5 Billion)  Sino-Tibetan (1.4 Billion)  Afro-Asiatic (284 Million)  Austronesian (244 Million)  Dravidian (203 Million)  Niger-Congo (172 Million)  Altaic (128 Million)  Japanese (122 Million)  Korean (67 Million)

Language Families  Language Families  Language Groups  Language Sub-Groups For example: English comes from Indo-European family, Germanic Group, Western Germanic sub-group.

Two Theories on European Language Development  Anatolian theory: states that some portion of prehistoric peoples from the Indian subcontinent migrated to what is modern day Turkey and then migrated further into Europe  Kurgan theory: states that some portion of prehistoric peoples from the Indian subcontinent migrated to central Asia and through the Eurasian steppe into Europe.  As a side: Genetic evidence proves that Europeans are descendants of prehistoric Aryan Indians