1. Language

2. Objectives
Today we will be able to identify how language originates and diffuses

3. Definition of Language
Sapir (1921:7) in Language:
Language is a purely human and non-instinctive method of communicating ideas, emotions and desires by means of voluntarily produced symbols.
Mario Pei and Frank Gaynor (1954) in A Dictionary of Linguistics:
Language is a system of communication by sound, i.e., through the organs of speech and hearing, among human beings of a certain group or community, using vocal symbols possessing arbitrary conventional meanings.

4. Definition of Language
Jack et al.(1985) in Longman Dictionary of Applied Linguistics:
Language is the system of human communication by means of a structured arrangement of sounds (or their written representation) to form larger units, e.g. morphemes, words, sentences.
Hadumod Bussmann (1996) in Routledge Dictionary of Language and Linguistics:
Language is a vehicle for the expression or exchange of thoughts, concepts, knowledge, and information as well as the fixing and transmission of experience and knowledge. It is based on cognitive processes, subject to societal factors and subject to historical change and development.

5. Amy Walker

6. Indo-European Branches and Groups
English is part of the Indo-European Language family
Language Family – a collection of languages related through a common ancestral language that existed long before recorded history.
Indo-European language family has 9 branches
Language Branch – a collection of languages related through a common ancestral language that existed several thousand years ago that derive from the same language family
Branches are divided into language groups
Language Group – a collection of languages within a branch that share a common origin in the relatively recent past and display relatively few differences in grammar and vocabulary
Where did English come from?

7. 8 Branches of Indo-European
Indo-Iranian
Romance
Germanic
Balto-Slavic
Albanian
Armenian
Greek
Celtic

8. Where did Indo-European Language Originate and Diffuse?
Proto-Indo-European Language Diffusion Theories
Proto-Indo-European – Thought to be the common ancestor of all Indo-European languages.
All Indo-European languages have common roots
Linguists and anthropologists disagree on when and where the language originated and the process of diffusion.
Nomadic Warrior Thesis vs. Sedentary Farmer Thesis.

9. Nomadic Warrior Thesis – Marija Gimbutus
The Kurgan Homeland was north of the Caspian Sea, near the present day border between Russia and Kazakhstan.
TCL_11e_Figure_05_18_L

10. The earliest archaeological evidence of the Kurgans dates to around 4300 B.C.
TCL_11e_Figure_05_18_L

11. According to this theory, the Kurgans may have infiltrated into Eastern Europe beginning around 4000 B.C.
TCL_11e_Figure_05_18_L

12. The Kurgans were among the first people to domesticate horses and cattle. They migrated in search of grasslands for their animals westward through Europe and east toward Siberia, and south east to Iran and South Asia.
TCL_11e_Figure_05_18_L

13. Between 3500 and 2500 B.C., Kurgan warriors, using their domesticated horses as weapons, conquered much of Europe and South Asia.
TCL_11e_Figure_05_18_L

14. Sedentary Farmer Theory
TCL_11e_Figure_05_19_L

15. Indo-Iranian Diffusion
Sedentary Farmer Hypothesis
Language diffused
through the sharing of
food

16. Anatolia (modern day Turkey)

17. Western arc of Fertile Crescent came the languages of North Africa and Arabia

18. From the Fertile Crescent’s eastern arc, ancient languages spread into present day Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India.
Later, they would be replaced by Indo-European languages

19. Nomadic Warrior Thesis vs. Sedentary Farmer Thesis
Nomadic Warrior Thesis – Proto-Indo-European language diffused through conquest of Europe by the Kurgans around 4300 BC
Sedentary Farmer Thesis – Proto-Indo-European language diffused throughout Europe and South Asia with agricultural practices rather than by military conquest.