1. Language
When we study language, we are uncovering in part what makes us human, getting a peek at the very nature of human nature. As we uncover how languages and their speakers differ from one another, we discover that human natures too can differ dramatically, depending on the languages we speak. LERA BORODITSKY, The Wallstreet Journal.

2. What is Language?
Language: A system of communication through the use of speech, a collection of sounds understood by a group of people to have the same meaning.
System of communication
Can be written and/or spoken
Many languages do not have a written component
More difficult to track diffusion & more susceptible to language extinction
How many today?
Maybe 4,000?

4. Written Language Pictograms Ideograms Alphabets Logograms Phonetics
The system of writing used in China and other East Asian countries in which each symbol represents an idea or a concept rather than a specific sound, as is the case with letters in English.
Alphabets

5. Logograms Began as simple pictures Example: Characters represent ideas
Pictograms
Ideograms
Began as simple pictures
Example:
Early Egyptian hieroglyphs
Characters represent ideas
Example:
Chinese

6. Phonetics Small number of arbitrary symbols for all sounds
Alphabet
Small number of arbitrary symbols for all sounds
1st alphabet: Phoenician
Example: Roman (English)

7. Diffusion of Language War/Conquest Migration (Relocation Diffusion)
Isolation
Economic development/spread of technology
Physical/cultural barriers

8. Language Classification
Language Families
Language Branches
Language Groups
Languages
Dialects
Accents

9. Major Language Families
Indo-European – 3 billion
Sino-Tibetan – 1.5 billion
Afro-Asiatic – 500 million
Austronesian – 250 million
Dravidian – 250 million
Niger-Congo – 200 million
Altaic – 200 million
Japanese – 125 million
Add up these 8 families
90% of human language

10. Language Families
Language Family: A collection of languages related to each other through a common ancestor long before recorded history.
Languages that are related through a common ancestor before recorded history
How many?
Maybe 100
Indo-European language family

11. Indo-European

12. Language Branches
Language Branch: A collection of languages related through a common ancestor that existed several thousand years ago. Differences are not as extensive or as old as with language families, and archaeological evidence can confirm that the branches derived from the same family.
The groups of languages that share a common ancestor (language family)
Indo-European Family
8 Branches

13. 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.
Collection of languages from a common origin in the relatively recent past
Germanic Language Branch
Northern Germanic
Western Germanic

14. Language, Dialect, Accent
Language is understood among a certain group of people
Dialect: A regional variety of a language distinguished by vocabulary, spelling, and pronunciation.
Dialect: regional
Vocabulary
Spelling
Pronunciation
Accent: A unique way that speech is pronounced by a group of people speaking the same language
Accent: sub regional/local

17. New York Times Dialect Quiz

19. Caramel

21. Lawyer

23. Group of two more

25. Pajamas

27. Sweetened Carbonated Beverage

29. Miniature Lobster

31. Roads into a circle?

33. Sandwich with cold cuts

35. Where do you drink water in a school?

37. Drive thru liquor store

39. Montreal: An Island of French Start at 14:41

40. Language Conflict Nigeria Africa 3 language families (527 languages)
Afro-Asiatic
Nil0-Saharan
Niger-Congo
Movement of the capital
Official language
English

41. Language Conflict Belgium Europe
Flemings (Flemish, a variant of Dutch)
Walloon (French)
Capital (Brussels) in legally bilingual center
Activists still push for a division of Belgium into two countries

42. Lingua Franca
Lingua Franca: A language mutually understood and commonly used in trade by people who have different native languages.
English

44. Additional Language Notes
Pidgin and Creole
Isolated Language
Pidgin: A form of speech that adopts a simplified grammar and limited vocabulary of a lingua franca; used for communications among speakers of two different languages.
Creole: Mix of language between colonizers’ & indigenous
“A pidgin which has become a native language”
Isolated Language: A language that is unrelated to any other languages and therefore not attached to any language family.
Korean is isolated from the Sino-Tibetan language family
Basque (N. Spain, SW France) isolated from Romance languages of Indo-European family

45. Hawaiian Pidgin
-Diverse immigrant groups living in Hawaii such as Japanese, Chinese, Portuguese, Filipino, and Europeans.
-Created so all these groups as well as the native Hawaiians could do business.
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47. Language Extinction
Extinct Language: A language that was once used by people in daily activities but is no longer used.
One language disappears every 14 days
Hebrew
Disappeared around the 4th C. BCE (other than Jewish religious practices)
Aramaic
Arabic
Revived when Israel became an official state in 1948
One of two official languages of Israel (Arabic)

48. What Will the World Speak in 2115?