1. The Mosaic of Languages
Chapter 5
The Human Mosaic

2. Why geographers study language
Provides the single most common variable by which cultural groups are identified
Provides the main means by which learned customs and skills pass from one generation to the next
Facilitates cultural diffusion of innovations
Because languages vary spatially, they reinforce the sense of region and place
Study of language called linguistic geography and geolinguistics by geographers

3. Terms used in the study of language
Language — tongues that cannot be mutually understood
Dialects — variant forms of a language that have not lost mutual comprehension
A speaker of English can understand the various dialect of the language
A dialect is distinctive enough in vocabulary and pronunciation to label its speaker
Some 6,000 languages and many more dialects are spoken today

4. Terms used in the study of language
Pidgin language — results when different linguistic groups come into contact
Serves the purposes of commerce
Has a small vocabulary derived from the various contact groups
Official language of Papua, New Guinea is a largely English-derived pidgin language, which includes Spanish, German, and Papuan words

5. Terms used in the study of language
Lingua franca — a language that spreads over a wide area where it is not the mother tongue
A language of communication and commerce
Swahili language has this status in much of East Africa

6. Kenya

7. Kenya
Kenya has two official languages: Swahili and English. These lingua franca facilitate communication among Bantu, Nilotic, and Cushitic language speakers.
Swahili developed along the coast of East Africa where

8. Kenya Bantu came in contact with Arabic spoken by Arab sea traders.
English became important during the British colonial period and is still associated with high status.

9. Kenya
This shopping center caters to Maasai herders who speak a Nilotic language and Kikuyu farmers who speak a Bantu language.
Jambo means “hello” in Swahili.

10. The Mosaic of Languages
Linguistic Culture Regions
Linguistic Diffusion
Linguistic Ecology
Culturo-Linguistic Integration
Linguistic Landscapes

11. Language characteristics used to define linguistic culture regions
isoglosses — borders of individual word usages or pronunciations
No two words, phrases, or pronunciations have exactly the same spatial distribution
Spatially isoglosses crisscross one another
Typically cluster together in “bundles”
Bundles serve as the most satisfactory dividing lines among dialects and languages

13. Language characteristics used to define linguistic culture regions
Overlap of languages complicates drawing of linguistic borders
In any given area more than one tongue may be spoken — Ecuador
Language barriers are rarely sharp

15. Language characteristics used to define linguistic culture regions
Geographers encounter a core/periphery pattern rather than a dividing line
Dominance of language diminishes away from the center of the region
Outlying zone of bilingualism
Linguistic “islands” often further complicate the drawing of language borders

16. Language characteristics used to define linguistic culture regions
Dialect terms often overlap considerably, making it difficult to draw isoglossess
Linguistic geographers often disagree about how many dialects are present
Disagreement also occurs on where lines should be drawn
Boundaries are necessarily simplified and at best generalizations

19. Language families The Indo-European language family
Largest most wide-spread family
Spoken on all continents
Dominant in Europe, Russia, North and South America, Australia, and parts of southwestern Asia and India
Subfamilies—Romance, Slavic, Germanic, Indic, Celtic, and Iranic
Subfamilies are divided into individual languages
Seven Indo-European tongues are among the top 10 languages spoken in the world
By comparing vocabularies in various languages one can see the kinship

20. Language families The Afro-Asiatic family
Has two major divisions—Semitic and Hamitic
Semitic covers the area from Tigris-Euphrates valley westward through most of the north half of Africa to the Atlantic coast
Domain is large but consists of mostly sparsely populated deserts
Arabic is the most widespread Semitic language
Arabic has the most number of native speakers—about 186 million
Hebrew was a “dead” language used only in religious ceremonies
Today Hebrew is the official language of Israel
Amharic a third major Semitic tongues has 20 million speakers in the mountains of East Africa

21. Language families The Afro-Asiatic family
Has two major divisions—Semitic and Hamitic
Smaller number of people speak Hamitic languages
Share North and East Africa with Semitic speakers
Spoken by the Berbers of Morocco and Algeria
Spoken by the Tuaregs of the Sahara and Cushites of East Africa
Originated in Asia but today only spoken in Africa
Expansion of Arabic decreased the area and number of speakers

22. Other major language families
Africa south of the Sahara Desert is dominated by the Niger-Congo family
Spoken by about 200 million people
Greater part of the Niger-Congo culture region belongs to the Bantu subgroup
Includes Swahili—the lingua franca of East Africa

23. Other major language families
Altaic language family
Includes Turkic, Mongolic, and several other subgroups
Homeland lies largely in deserts, tundras, and coniferous forests of northern and central Asia
Uralic family
Finnish and Hungarian are the two most important tongues
Both have official status in their countries

24. Other major language families
Austronesian language family
Most remarkable language family in terms of distribution
Speakers live mainly on tropical islands
Ranges from Madagascar, through Indonesia and the Pacific Islands, to Hawaii and Easter Island
Longitudinal span is more than half way around the world
Latitudinally, ranges from Hawaii and Taiwan in the north to New Zealand in the south
Largest single language in this family is Indonesian —5O million speakers
Most widespread language is Polynesian

25. Other major language families
Sino-Tibetan language family
One of the major language families of the world
Extends throughout most of China and Southeast Asia
Han Chinese is spoken in a variety of dialects as a mother tongue by 836 million people
Han serves as the official form of speech in China

26. Other major language families
Japanese/Korean language family
Another major Asian family with nearly 200 million speakers
Seems to have some kinship to both the Altaic and Austronesian

27. Other major language families
Austro-Asiatic language family
Found in Southeast Asia, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, and spoken by some tribal people of Malaya and parts of India
Occupies a remnant peripheral domain
Has been encroached upon by Sino-Tibetan, Indo-European, and Austronesian

29. London, England
This display of newspapers illustrates the fact that London is an international city as well as a major migration destination.
In South Kensington, sizable foreign contribute complexity

30. London, England to the linguistic landscape.
Both Indo-European (e.g. French, Spanish and Swedish) and Afro-Asiatic (Arab) language families are represented here.

31. Other major language families
Occupy refuge areas after retreat before rival groups
Khoisan — found in the Kalahari Desert of southwestern Africa, characterized by clicking sounds
Dravidian — spoken by numerous darker-skinned people of southern India and northern Sri Lanka
Others include — Papuan, Caucasic, Nilo-Saharan, Paleosiberian, Inukitut, and a variety of Amerindian
Basque — spoken on the borderland between Spain and France is unrelated to any other language in the world

32. English dialects in the United States
Dialects reveal a vivid geography
American English is hardly uniform from region to region
At least three major dialects, corresponding to major culture regions, developed in the eastern United States by the time of the American Revolution
Northern
Midland
Southern

34. English dialects in the United States
The three subcultures expanded westward and their dialects spread and fragmented
Retained much of their basic character even beyond the Mississippi River
Have distinctive vocabularies and pronunciations
Drawing dialect boundaries is often tricky

36. English dialects in the United States
Today, many regional words are becoming old-fashioned, but new words display regional variations
The following words are all used to describe a controlled-access divided highway
Freeway — a California word
Turnpike and parkway — mainly northeastern and Midwestern words
Thruway, expressway, and interstate

37. English dialects in the United States
Many African-Americans speak their own form of English — Black English
Once dismissed as inferior substandard English
Grew out of a pidgin that developed on early slave plantations
Today, spoken by about 80 percent of African-Americans
Used by ghetto dwellers who have not made their compromises with mainstream American culture
Many features separate it from standard speech, for example:
Lack of pronoun differentiation between genders
Use of undifferentiated pronouns

38. English dialects in the United States
Many African-Americans speak their own form of English — Black English
Not recognized as part of the proper grammar of a separate linguistic group
Considered evidence of verbal inability or impoverishment
In the Southern dialect, African-Americans have made substantial contributions to speech
Southern dialect is becoming increasingly identified with African-Americans
Caucasians in the Southern region are shifting to Midland speech

39. English dialects in the United States
American dialects suggest we are not becoming a more national culture by overwhelming regional cultures
Linguistic divergence is still under way
Dialects continue to mutate on a regional level
Local variations in grammar and pronunciation proliferate
The homogenizing influence of radio, television, and other mass media is being defied

40. London, England

41. London, England
While English is spoken in many pats of the world, all English words are not mutually intelligible.
This London tube (subway) sign say that anyone performing there (eg singing or playing for money) is subject to a fine of subsection.
Are tubs, subway, and busking dialect words?

42. The Mosaic of Languages
Linguistic Culture Regions
Linguistic Diffusion
Linguistic Ecology
Culturo-Linguistic Integration
Linguistic Landscapes

43. Indo-European diffusion
Earliest speakers apparently lived in southern and southeastern Turkey (Anatolia) about eight or nine thousand years ago
Diffused west and north into Europe
Represented expansion of farming people at expense of hunters and gatherers
As people dispersed and lost contact, different variant forms of the language caused fragmentation of the family

44. Indo-European diffusion
Later language diffusion occurred with the spread of great political empires, especially Latin, English, and Russian
Relocation and expansion diffusion were not mutually exclusive
Relocation diffusion by conquering elite implanted their language
Implanted language often gained wider acceptance by expansion diffusion
Conqueror’s language spread hierarchically
Spread of Latin with Roman conquests
Spanish in Latin America

45. Austronesian diffusion
Presumed hearth in the interior of Southeast Asia 5,000 years ago
Initially spread southward into the Malay Peninsula
In a process lasting several thousand years, people sailed in tiny boats across the. uncharted vast seas to New Zealand, Easter Island, Hawaii, and Madagascar
Sailing and navigation was the key to Austronesian spread, not agriculture

47. Austronesian diffusion
The remarkable diffusion of the Polynesian people
Form the eastern part of the Austronesian culture region
Occupy hundreds of Pacific islands in a triangular-shaped realm
New Zealand, Easter Island, and Hawaii form the three apexes of the realm
Made a watery leap of 2,500 miles from the South Pacific to Hawaii
Used outrigger canoes
Went against prevailing winds into a new hemisphere with different navigational stars
No humans had previously found the isolated Hawaiian Islands
Sailors had no way of knowing that land existed in the area

49. Austronesian diffusion
Geographers John Webb and Gerard Ward studied the prehistoric Polynesian diffusion
Their method involved the development of a computer model building in data on:
Winds
Ocean currents
Vessel traits and capabilities
Island visibility
Duration of voyage, etc.
Both drift and navigated voyages were considered

50. Austronesian diffusion
Over one hundred thousand voyage simulations were run through the computer
Their conclusions
Triangle was probably entered from the west—direction of the ancient Austronesian hearth area
“Island hopping”—migrated from one visible island to another
Core of eastern Polynesia likely reached by navigated voyages
Outer arc from Hawaii through Easter Island to New Zealand reached by intentionally navigated voyages

52. Searching for the primordial tongue
Using controversial techniques, linguists seek the more elusive prehistoric tongues
Nostratic—ancestral speech of the Middle East 12,000 to 20,000 years ago
Ancestral to nine modern language families
A 500-word dictionary has been compiled
Contemporary with Nostratic were other ancient tongues including Dene-Caucasian

54. Searching for the primordial tongue
Dene-Caucasian reputedly gave rise to Sino-Tibetan, Basque, and one form of early Native-American called Na-Dene
Scholars are attempting to find the original linguistic hearth area from which all modern languages have derived
It is believed the original language hearth arose in Africa perhaps 250,000 years ago and diffused from there

55. The Mosaic of Languages
Linguistic Culture Regions
Linguistic Diffusion
Linguistic Ecology
Culturo-Linguistic Integration
Linguistic Landscapes

56. The environment and vocabulary
How the environment affects vocabulary
Spanish language derived from Castile
Rich in words describing rough terrain (Table 5.3)
Distinguishes subtle differences in shape and configuration of mountains
Scottish Gaelic
Describes types of rough terrain
Common attribute spoken by hill people
Romanian tongue
Also from a region of rugged terrain
Words tend to be keyed to use of terrain for livestock herding

57. The environment and vocabulary
English
Developed in wet coastal plains
Very poor in words describing mountainous terrain
Abounds with words describing flowing streams
Rural American South—river, creek, branch, fork, prong, run, bayou, and slough

59. The environment and vocabulary
Vocabularies develop for features of the environment that involve livelihood
Detailed vocabularies are necessary to communicate sophisticated information relevant to the adaptive strategy

60. The environment provides refuge
Inhospitable environments offer protection and isolation
Provide outnumbered linguistic groups refuge from aggressive neighbors
Linguistic refuge areas
Rugged bill and mountain areas
Excessively cold or dry climates
Impenetrable forests and remote islands
Extensive marshes and swamps
Unpleasant environments rarely attract conquerors
Mountains tend to isolate inhabitants of one valley from another

61. Examples of linguistic refuge areas
Rugged Caucasus Mountains and nearby ranges in central Eurasia are populated by a large variety of peoples
Alps, Himalayas, and highlands of Mexico are linguistic shatter belts — areas where diverse languages are spoken
American Indian tongue Quechua clings to a refuge in the Andes Mountains of South America
In the Rocky Mountains of northern New Mexico, an archaic form of Spanish survives due to isolation that ended in the early 1900s

63. Examples of linguistic refuge areas
The Dhofar, a mountain tribe in Oman, preserve Hamitic speech that otherwise has vanished from Asia
Tundra climates of the far north have sheltered certain Uralic, Altaic, and Inukitut (Eskimo) speakers
On Sea Islands, off the coast of South Carolina and Georgia, some remnant of an African language, Gullah, still are spoken

64. Switzerland
Switzerland has four recognized national languages: French, German, Italian, and Romansch.
Romansch, a language of Latin origin, is spoken by only 1.1% of the population.

65. Switzerland
Nevertheless, it has survived in the alpine linguistic refuge of the upper Rhine and Inn Rivers and was given official recognition in 1938.

66. Switzerland
This traditional Engadine (Inn valley) house is decorated by sgraffito whereby designs are scratched through a white limewash coating to expose the underlying grey plaster.

67. Linguistic Ecology
Today environmental isolation is no longer the linguistic force it once was
Inhospitable lands and islands are reachable by airplanes
Marshes and forests are being drained and cleared by farmers
The world is interactive

68. The environment guides migration
Migrants were often attracted to new lands that seemed environmentally similar to their homelands
They could pursue adaptive strategies known to them
Germanic Indo-Europeans chose familiar temperate zones in America, New Zealand, and Australia
Semitic peoples rarely spread outside arid and semiarid climates
Ancestors of modern Hungarians left grasslands of inner Eurasia for new homes in the grassy Alföld, one of the few prairie areas of Europe

69. The environment guides migration
Environmental barriers and natural routeways guided linguistic groups along certain paths
Indo-Europeans traveled through low mountain passes to the Indian subcontinent, avoiding the Himalayas and barren Deccan Plateau
In India today, the Indo-European/Dravidian language boundary seems to approximate an ecological boundary

70. The environment guides migration
Mountain barriers frequently serve as linguistic borders
In part of the Alps, speakers of German and Italian live on opposite sides of a major ridge
Portions of mountain rim along the northern edge of the Fertile Crescent form the border between Semitic and Indo-European tongues

71. The environment guides migration
Linguistic borders that follow such physical features tend to be stable and endure for thousands of years
Language borders that cross plains and major routes of communication are frequently unstable — Germanic-Slavic boundary on the North European Plain