Key Issue 3: Where Are Other Language Families Distributed?

Classification of Languages Indo-European Sino-Tibetan Afro-Asiatic Austronesian Dravidian Altaic Niger-Congo Japanese “Other”

Distribution of Language Families: Sino-Tibetan Family China & Southeast Asia Sinitic Branch: Mandarin, Cantonese, Wu, Min, & Hakka –Structure of the Chinese language –Script: ideograms Austro-Thai Branch Tibeto-Burman Branch

Chinese Characters Over Time

Other East & Southeast Asian Language Families Japanese Chinese culture diffused to Japan Script: 3 forms Korean Not written with ideograms Script: Hankul

Afro-Asiatic Language Family North Africa & Southwestern Asia Arabic & Hebrew Bible & Quran

Altaic Language Family Turkey & Mongolia Turkish most widely used Dissolution of the Soviet Union

Uralic Language Family Estonia, Finland, Hungary Proto-Uralic First used 7,000 years ago by people living in the Ural Mountains

African Language Families No one knows exactly how many languages are spoken in Africa Only 8 (of at least 1,000) are spoken by more than 10 million people Most lack a written tradition

Languages Spoken in Africa

Niger-Congo Language Family More than 95% of people in sub-Saharan Africa speak languages in this family, which includes 6 branches. Benue-Congo Branch: Swahili

Nilo-Saharan Language Family North-central Africa 6 branches The total number of speakers of each individual language is extremely small

Khoisan Language Family Southwest Africa Clicking sounds Hottentot—named by the white settlers

Nigeria: Conflict Among Speakers of Different Languages Nigeria has 493 distinct languages! Only 3 are widespread Groups living in different regions have often battled

Languages in Nigeria

Austronesian Language Family Mostly in Indonesia 6% of the world’s people speak an Austronesian language Javanese Indonesian (lingua franca!) Malay Madagascar (Malagasy)

Language Families in Africa

So… Where are other language families distributed?