Chapter 5 Language

World of Tongues Estimates of distinct languages in the world range from 2,000 to 4,000. Aside from the 10 largest languages: ▫Another 100 languages are spoken by at least 5 million people. ▫And another 70 languages are spoken by at least 2 million people.

Languages Today  Even as English has achieved an unprecedented globalization, some people are trying to preserve local diversity in language.  The global distribution of languages resulted from a combination of two geographic processes—interaction (migration) and isolation.

English Speaking Countries Fig. 5-1: English is the official language in 42 countries, including some in which it is not the most widely spoken language. It is also used and understood in many others.

Origin of English in England We know very little of early British languages, until the Celts arrived around 2000 B.C.E. Then around 450 C.E., tribes from mainland Europe invaded, pushing the Celts into the remote northern and western parts.

Invasions of England (5 th –11 th centuries) Fig. 5-2: The groups that brought what became English to England included Jutes, Angles, Saxons, and Vikings. The Normans later added French vocabulary to English.

Norman Invasion English is different from German because England was conquered by the Normans in The Normans, who came from present-day Normandy in France, spoke French. The common people continued to speak English. During that period, the Germanic language used by the common people and the French used by the leaders mingled to form a new language. History of English in Ten Minutes

Differences between British and American English U.S. English differs from that of England in three significant ways: vocabulary, spelling, and pronunciation. Vocabulary is different because Americans encountered many new objects and experiences, which were given names borrowed from Native Americans. As new inventions appeared, they acquired different names on either side of the Atlantic. Noah Webster argued that spelling and grammar reforms would help establish a national language, reduce cultural dependence on England, and inspire national pride.

Interaction between the two groups was largely confined to exchange of letters and other printed matter rather than direct speech. Surprisingly, pronunciation has changed more in England than in the United States. British and English Pronunciation Differences in Pronunciation

British Slang Words Below are a few slang words commonly used in Britain. Bloke - man. 'John is a nice bloke to know.‘ Botched - poor quality repairs. 'He made a botched job of fixing the television.‘ Bottle - courage. 'He doesn't have the bottle to ask her.‘ Cheesed Off - fed up Chuck it down - to rain, often heavily. 'It is going to chuck it down soon.' Chuffed - If you are chuffed, you are happy with something. 'I was chuffed to win a medal!‘ Daft - Crazy / stupid Dosh - Money / cash 'I haven't got much dosh to give you.‘ Gobsmacked - Incredibly amazed. 'I was gobsmacked when I saw my birthday presents.‘ Gutted - Not happy because of an event that has occurred that didn't go your way. 'I was gutted when I didn't win the race‘ Jammy - Used in place of lucky when describing someone else. 'He was very jammy winning the lottery'. Scrummy - Delicious. Shortened from scrumptious. 'The food was very scrummy' Skint - Broke. No money. 'I'm skint, I wont be able to buy the DVD today.' to Snog - to long kiss Telly - Television 'I watched the news on the telly last night.' Ellen: British vs. American Slang

Regional Pronunciation Regional pronunciation differences are more familiar to us than word differences, although it is harder to draw precise isoglosses for them. The New England accent is well known for dropping the /r/ sound, shared with speakers from the south of England. Residents of Boston maintained especially close ties to the important ports of southern England and received more exposure to pronunciation changes.

Minor Dialects Today 21 Accents Regional Dialect Examples

Issue 2: The Indo-European Language Family Origin and diffusion of Indo-European ▫Kurgan and Anatolian theories Branches of Indo-European ▫Germanic branch ▫Indo-Iranian branch ▫Balto-Slavic branch ▫Romance branch

Indo-European Language Tree The Indo-European language family developed as a result of migration and isolation of groups that can only be reconstructed through linguistic and archaeological theories.

Kurgan Theory of Indo-European Origin Fig. 5-9: In the Kurgan theory, Proto-Indo-European diffused from the Kurgan hearth north of the Caspian Sea, beginning about 7,000 years ago. (Gimbutas)

Anatolian Hearth Theory of Indo-European Origin Fig. 5-10: In the Anatolian hearth theory, Indo-European originated in Turkey before the Kurgans and diffused through agricultural expansion. (Renfrew)

Indo-European Language Family Fig. 5-5: The main branches of the Indo-European language family include Germanic, Romance, Balto-Slavic, and Indo-Iranian.

Germanic Branch of Indo-European West Germanic is divided into High Germanic and Low Germanic subgroups. ▫High German, spoken in the southern mountains of Germany, is the basis for the modern standard German language. ▫English is classified in the Low Germanic subgroup. The Germanic language branch also includes North Germanic languages, spoken in Scandinavia. Fig. 5-6: The Germanic branch today is divided into North and West Germanic groups. English is in the West Germanic group.

Indo-Iranian Branch  The branch of the Indo-European language family with the most speakers is Indo-Iranian; more than 100 individual languages divided into an eastern group (Indic) and a western group (Iranian).

Indic Group (Indo-Iranian Language Branch) Approximately one-third of Indians, mostly in the north, use an Indic language called Hindi.

Urdu (Indic Group) Pakistan’s principal language, Urdu, is spoken very much like Hindi but is written with the Arabic alphabet, a legacy of the fact that most Pakistanis are Muslims, and their holiest book (the Quran) is written in Arabic.

South Asian Language Families Fig. 5-7: Indo-European is the largest of four main language families in South Asia. The country of India has 18 official languages.

Iranian Group (Indo-Iranian Language Branch) Indo-Iranian languages spoken in Iran and neighboring countries form a separate group from Indic. The major Iranian group languages include Persian (sometimes called Farsi) in Iran, and Kurdish, used by the Kurds of western Iran, northern Iraq, and eastern Turkey.

Balto-Slavic Branch This language family can be broken down into four groups. ▫East Slavic ▫Baltic ▫West Slavic ▫South Slavic

Romance Branch Fig. 5-8: The Romance branch includes three of the world’s 12 most widely spoken languages (Spanish, French, and Portuguese), as well as a number of smaller languages and dialects.

Spanish and Portuguese Speaking Countries Spanish and Portuguese have achieved worldwide importance because of the colonial activities of their European speakers. Approximately 90 percent of the speakers of these two languages live outside Europe. Spanish is the official language of 18 Latin American states, while Portuguese is spoken in Brazil. The division of Central and South America into Portuguese- and Spanish-speaking regions is the result of a 1493 decision by Pope Alexander VI. (Treaty of Tordesillas) Top Ten Languages

Issue 3: Distribution of Other Language Families Classification of languages Distribution of language families ▫Sino-Tibetan language family ▫Other East and Southeast Asian language families ▫Afro-Asiatic language family

Language Families of the World Fig. 5-11: Distribution of the world’s main language families. Languages with more than 100 million speakers are named.

Fig. 5-11a: The percentage of world population speaking each of the main language families. Indo-European and Sino-Tibetan together represent almost 75% of the world’s people.

Language Family Trees Fig. 5-12: Family trees and estimated numbers of speakers for the main world language families.

Sino-Tibetan Family There is no single Chinese language. Spoken by approximately three-fourths of the Chinese people, Mandarin is the most widely used language in the world. The Chinese government is imposing Mandarin countrywide.

Structure of Chinese Languages They are based on 420 one-syllable words. This number far exceeds the possible one-syllable sounds that humans can make, so Chinese languages use each sound to denote more than one thing. The listener must infer the meaning from the context in the sentence and the tone of voice the speaker uses. Dude Commercial

Chinese Ideograms Fig. 5-13: Chinese language ideograms mostly represent concepts rather than sounds. The two basic characters at the top can be built into more complex words.

Distinctive Language Families Japanese Chinese cultural traits have diffused into Japanese society, including the original form of writing the Japanese language. Japanese is written in part with Chinese ideograms, but it also uses two systems of phonetic symbols. Korean Korean is written not with ideograms but in a system known as hankul. In this system, each letter represents a sound.

Afro-Asiatic Language Family The Afro-Asiatic language family includes Arabic and Hebrew, as well as a number of languages spoken primarily in northern Africa and southwestern Asia. Arabic is the major Afro-Asiatic language, an official language in two dozen countries of North Africa and southwestern Asia, from Morocco to the Arabian Peninsula.

Multilingual States The boundary between the Romance and Germanic branches runs through the middle of Belgium and Switzerland. Belgium has had more difficulty than Switzerland in reconciling the interests of the different language speakers.

Language Divisions in Belgium Fig. 5-16: There has been much tension in Belgium between Flemings, who live in the north and speak Flemish, a Dutch dialect, and Walloons, who live in the south and speak French.

Language Areas in Switzerland Fig. 5-17: Switzerland remains peaceful with four official languages and a decentralized government structure.

French-English Boundary in Canada Fig. 5-18: Although Canada is bilingual, French speakers are concentrated in the province of Québec, where 80% of the population speaks French.

Global Dominance of English One of the most fundamental needs in a global society is a common language for communication. Increasingly in the modern world, the language of international communication is English. When well-educated speakers of two different languages wish to communicate with each other in countries such as India or Nigeria, they frequently use English.

Chapter 5 Language The End