1. Basic Language Terminology What concepts do we need to know so we can do the fun stuff?

2. Standard Language Languages with multiple dialects may recognize one as the standard language Widely recognized as the most acceptable for government, business, education, and mass communication –May be sustained by government through official state exams for teachers, civil servants E.g. British Received Pronunciation (BR) = “the King’s English”the King’s English

3. Dialect Distinctive local or regional variant of a language that remains mutually intelligible to speakers of other dialects of that languagelocal or regional variant dialects –English  Australia, Scotland, Mississippi, New JerseyNew Jersey Dialect chains –Nearest geographically = most similar Isogloss –Geographic boundary of linguistic feature Which dialect is the “true” language?

4. Isogloss: you all / you guys / you / y’all

5. Difference between British and American English Dialects Three main differences: 1.Vocabulary –Settlers in America encountered many new objects and experiences not present in England. –Climate and geography differ significantly between England and America. 2.Spelling –Noah Webster sought to make English used in America distinct from England to reduce cultural dependence by changing spellings of words in his dictionary. 3.Pronunciation –Chief cause was limited interaction between speakers of varying dialects.

6. Why Do Individual Languages Vary among Places? Distinguishing between Languages and Dialects –Dialect or language Increasingly difficult to determine whether two languages are distinct or whether they are dialects of the same language. Several languages in Italy that have been traditionally classified as dialects of Italian are now viewed by Ethnologue as distinct enough to merit consideration as a new language. –Examples include Emiliano-Romagnolo, Liguri, Lombard, and Sicilian.

7. When Languages Collide Pidgin –Composite language consisting of a small vocabulary from the languages of the groups in contact –Usually used for trade and commerce E.g.,Tok Pisin (“talk business”) = English derived pidgin in Papua New Guinea Creole –Derived from pidgin but has acquired fuller vocabulary Gullah – English + several West African languages – spoken in the South Carolina Sea IslandsGullah Lingua franca –Language of communication and commerce used widely where it is not the native language –English is becoming the global lingua franca

8. Creole - a language that results from the mixing of a colonizer’s language with an indigenous language and survives long enough to become a mother tongue. Evolves from a pidgin language and DOES HAVE native speakers. Road sign in Guadeloupe Creole meaning Slow down. Children are playing here. The literal translation is "Lift your foot. There are small people playing here".

9. How to Write Down a Language Phonetic Most languages, including Romance languages Symbols (letters) generally represent sounds, not ideas. A phonetic alphabet is the key innovation

10. Ideograms Characters represent ideas, not sounds Chinese; Japanese Sumerian and Egyptian have both ideographic and phonetic components. How to Write Down a Language

11. Classification of World Languages In what ways are language families distributed globally?

12. World’s languages organized into 1.Language Families: collection of languages related through a common ancestral language 2.Language Branches: collection of languages within a family related through a common ancestral language. Differences are not as significant or as old as between families. 3.Language Groups: collection of languages within a branch that share a common origin in the relatively recent past and display similar grammar and vocabulary.

13. Tree trunks represent langue FAMILY Tree branches represent BRANCHES (obviously!) Tree leaves represent GROUPS

16. HOW do you think languages have diffused in different ways over space?

17. How do Languages Diffuse? Human interaction: 2,000 years ago-Han China, Roman Empire-spread languages over vast empires Print distribution: Gutenberg’s movable type printing press (1452-first Gutenberg Bible) helped to diffuse, standardize & stabilize European languages Migration: ancient & more recent migration from 16 th century to now diffused languages e.g. Spanish, Portuguese, English & French Trade: encouraged the spread of goods & languages Rise of nation-states: stabilized & standardized languages Colonialism: mercantilism & colonies spread European languages in the Americas, Africa & Asia

18. Origin & Diffusion of Languages Mother Tongue: the first language spoken by Homo sapiens about 200,000 years ago. Deep reconstruction: by studying sound shifts, linguists try to re-create an extinct language. Language divergence: the differentiation that takes place over time and distance. Language convergence: when long isolated languages make contact through diffusion. Language replacement: traditional languages of small groups of less advanced people were replaced or greatly modified by an invading tongue. Linguists can find linkages among languages by examining sound shifts – a slight change in a word across languages over time.

19. An example of sound shift: –Latin for milk is lacte –Italian is latta –Spanish is leche –French is lait Another example of sound shift is: –German vater –Dutch vader –English father Still another example is: –Latin for eight is octo –Spanish is ocho –French is huit

20. How do languages become dominant?

21. Distribution of Indo-European Branches –Four most widely spoken branches 1.Germanic branch –Spoken primarily in northwestern Europe and North America –Divides into High and Low Germanic subgroups »English is classified in the Low Germanic group 2.Indo-Iranian branch –Spoken primarily in South Asia –Most speakers of the language branch –Subdivided into eastern group (Indic) and western group (Iranian)

22. BRANCHES OF THE INDOEUROPEAN LANGUAGE FAMILY Most Europeans speak languages from the Indo-European language family. In Europe, the three most widely used branches are Germanic (north and west), Romance (south and west), and Slavic (east). The fourth major branch, Indo-Iranian, clustered in southern and western Asia, has more than 1 billion speakers, the greatest number of any Indo-European branch

23. LANGUAGE GROUPS OF THE GERMANIC BRANCH: Germanic languages predominate in Northern and Western Europe

24. Distribution of Indo-European Branches –Four most widely spoken branches 3.Balto-Slavic branch –Spoken primarily in Eastern Europe –Divided into… »East Slavic and Baltic Groups: most widely used language is Russian followed by Ukrainian and Belarusian. »West and South Slavic Groups: most spoken west Slavic language is Polish followed by Czech and Slovak, while the most widely spoken south language is Serbo-Croatian

25. Distribution of Indo-European Branches –Four most widely spoken branches 4.Romance branch –Spoken primarily in southwestern Europe and Latin America –Most widely used are Spanish, Portuguese, French, and Italian. »Regions where spoken languages tend to correspond to the political boundaries of Spain, Portugal, France, and Italy

26. © 2014 Pearson Education, Inc. Topic: Origins and Diffusion of English Aim: How did English develop and diffuse throughout the world? Do Now: Take a guess as to what the white colored countries are on this map.

27. © 2014 Pearson Education, Inc. Q & A about English… Q: What do you call a person who speaks multiple languages? A: A polyglot. Q: What do you call a person who speaks two languages? A: Bilingual. Q: What do you call a person who speaks only one language? A: American. Why do you think so few Americans speak any other language than English?

28. © 2014 Pearson Education, Inc. English as the global “lingua franca”

29. © 2014 Pearson Education, Inc. Colonial Possessions, 1914 The extent of the British Empire greatly expanded the use of the English language

30. © 2014 Pearson Education, Inc.

31. Global Dominance of English –Lingua franca = language of international communication Ex. English –First language of 328 million people –Spoken fluently by another ½ to 1 billion people –Official language in 57 countries –People in smaller countries learn English to participate more fully in the global economy and culture Other Examples –Swahili in East Africa –Hindi in South Asia –Indonesian in Southeast Asia –Russian in former Soviet Union (central Asian states)

32. © 2014 Pearson Education, Inc.

33. Global Dominance of English (continued) –English on the Internet Majority of content on Internet is in English. –Dominance of content in English is waning. »Percentage of English-language online users declined from 46 percent in 2000 to 27 percent in 2010. *Mandarin will likely replace English as the most-frequently used online language before 2020.

34. © 2014 Pearson Education, Inc. Global Dominance of English –Expansion Diffusion of English Recent growth is an example of expansion diffusion—spread of a trait through “snowballing” effect Expansion has occurred in two ways with English. 1.English is changing through diffusion of new vocabulary, spelling, and pronunciation. 2.English words are fusing with other languages. »Ex. Words, such as cowboy, hamburger, jeans, and T-shirt were allowed to diffuse into French. »Ex. English words have spurred the creation of English- like words to replace traditional Spanish words, such as parquin (Spanglish) for estacionamiento (Spanish)

35. © 2014 Pearson Education, Inc. Origins of English in England itself (history of English)

36. © 2014 Pearson Education, Inc. Why Is English Related to Other Languages? Origin and Diffusion of English –Modern English evolved primarily from languages spoken by three Germanic tribes invading the British Isles 1.Angles- from southern Denmark 2.Jutes- from northern Denmark 3.Saxons- from northwestern Germany –Over time, others invaded England and their languages influenced the basic English Vikings from present-day Norway Normans from present-day Normandy in France spoke French

37. © 2014 Pearson Education, Inc. INVASIONS OF ENGLAND The first speakers of the language that became known as English were tribes that lived in present-day Germany and Denmark. They invaded England in the fifth century. The Jutes settled primarily in southeastern England, the Saxons in the south and west, and the Angles in the north, eventually giving the country its name—Angles’ Land, or England. Invasions by Vikings in the ninth century and Normans in the eleventh century brought new words to the language spoken in the British Isles. The Normans were the last successful invaders of England.

38. © 2014 Pearson Education, Inc. Origin and Diffusion of Language Families –English diffuses across the world - how??? Migrated with the people of England when they established colonies over four centuries –English is an official language in most former British colonies Diffusion to North America –First successful colony was Jamestown, VA, in 1607 –Defeat of France by England secured English as the dominant language in North America –United States responsible for diffusing English to several places—e.g., Philippines

39. © 2014 Pearson Education, Inc. Language Family of English –Indo-European It is theorized that Germanic, Romance, Balto-Slavic, and Indo- Iranian languages all stemmed from a common ancestral language called… –Proto-Indo-European Linguists and anthropologists continue to debate when and where the Proto-Indo-European language originated and how it diffused. –Because modern Indo-European languages share words for “snow” but not “sea”, hearth is believed to have been somewhere with snow but not sea »Reverse reconstruction

40. © 2014 Pearson Education, Inc. ORIGIN AND DIFFUSION OF INDO- EUROPEAN (NOMADIC WARRIOR THEORY) The Kurgan homeland was north of the Caspian Sea, near the present- day border between Russia and Kazakhstan. According to this theory, the Kurgans may have infiltrated into Eastern Europe beginning around 4000 b.c. and into central Europe

41. © 2014 Pearson Education, Inc. ORIGIN AND DIFFUSION OF INDOEUROPEAN (SEDENTARY FARMER THEORY ) Indo-European may have originated in present-day Turkey 2,000 years before the Kurgans. According to this theory, the language diffused along with agricultural innovations west into Europe and east into Asia.

42. Languages of Asia and Africa

43. Chinese has the most speakers of any language. It is one of the world’s oldest languages spoken by the greatest contiguous population on Earth. Southern China-the most variety and dialects-most are mutually unintelligible. Some scholars argue that for this reason-it is not one language, but several. 1.Mandarin-the dominate language of the North spoken by 700 million including Beijing. 2.Wu is next with 100 million speakers in Shanghai area. 3.Yue-or Cantonese is spoken by 70 million

45. India’s Official Languages Indo-European Family Assamese Bengali Gujarati Hindi Kasmiri Konkani Marathi Nepali Oriya Panjabi Sanskrit Sindhi Urdu Dravidian Family Kannada Malayalam Tamil Telugu Sino-Tibetan Family Manipuri

46. Other Asian Language Families –Several other language families spoken by large numbers of people in East and Southeast Asia. Isolation on islands and peninsulas contributed to overall independent development. –Austronesian –Austro-Asiatic –Tai Kadai –Japanese –Korean

47. Where Are Language Families Distributed? Languages of Southwest Asia and North Africa and Central Asia: –Two largest language families are… 1.Afro-Asiatic –Arabic is major language. »Official language in 24 countries of S.W. Asia and North Africa »One of the six official languages in U.N. 2.Altaic –Altaic language with most speakers is Turkish. –Altaic language became official language of several countries that gained independence when Soviet Union broke up—e.g., Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, and Turkmenistan.

48. African Language Families –More than 1,000 distinct languages have been documented. Several thousand dialects recognized. Most lack a written tradition. –Niger-Congo Swahili –First language of 800,000 people –Official language of Tanzania –Spoken by 30 million Africans »Language used to speak with outsiders from different villages

49. AFRICA’S LANGUAGE FAMILIES More than 1,000 languages have been identified in Africa, and experts do not agree on how to classify them into families, especially languages in central Africa. Languages with more than 5 million speakers are named on the map. The great number of languages results from at least 5,000 years of minimal interaction among the thousands of cultural groups inhabiting the African continent. Each group developed its own language, religion, and other cultural traditions in isolation from other groups.

50. Today, close to 100 million people across the southern half of Africa speak related languages, collectively known as Bantu languages. Linguistic evidence shows that the root Bantu language emerged in what is now Nigeria and Cameroon by 2000 B.C. By 1000 B.C., in a series of migrations, Bantu speakers had spread south to the savanna lands of Angola and east to the Lake Victoria region. Over the next 1500 years they scattered throughout central and southern Africa, interacting with and absorbing indigenous populations as they spread.