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What Religion and Where in the World?

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Presentation on theme: "What Religion and Where in the World?"— Presentation transcript:

1 What Religion and Where in the World?
Eastern Orthodox Latvia

2 The Mosaic of Languages
Ch 5 Language

3 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 Area of Specialty for GEOGRAPHY Study of language called linguistic geography and geolinguistics by geographers

4 Terms used in the study of language Do NOT confuse the two!
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

5 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 Speakers of different languages need to communicate but don't share a common language. Examples of use in the world: Official language of Papua, New Guinea is a largely English-derived pidgin language, which includes Spanish, German, and Papuan words Spanglish

6 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 & commerce Swahili language has this status in much of East Africa English is Lingua franca of international business world-wide

7 Kenya

8 Kenya Kenya = 2 official languages: Swahili & English.
These lingua franca facilitate communication among Bantu, Nilotic, & Cushitic language speakers. Swahili developed along the coast of East Africa where Bantu came in contact with Arabic spoken by Arab sea traders.

9 Kenya English became important during the British colonial period & is still associated with high status. This shopping center caters to Maasai herders who speak a Nilotic language & Kikuyu farmers who speak a Bantu language. Jambo = “hello” in Swahili.

10 On your copy outline with hi-liter countries that speak Swahili

11 On Colonial Chloropleth language map of Africa- Color the countries the following colors
French- Blue English - Red Portuguese- Yellow Italian- Green, Spanish - Orange -

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

13 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

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15 English dialects in the United States
Dialects reveal a vivid geography American English is hardly uniform from region to region At least 3 major dialects, corresponding to major culture regions, developed in the eastern United States by the time of the American Revolution Northern Midland Southern

16 Dialect Activity http://polyglot.lss.wisc.edu/dare/Audio.html

17 English dialects in the US
The 3 subcultures expanded westward & their dialects spread & fragmented Retained much of their basic character even beyond the Mississippi River Have distinctive vocabularies & pronunciations Drawing dialect boundaries is often tricky

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19 English dialects in the US
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

20 English dialects in the US
Many African-Americans speak their own form of English — Black English aka Ebonics 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 pronounsNot 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

21 English dialects in the US
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 & pronunciation proliferate The homogenizing influence of radio, television, and other mass media is being defied

22 Pop vs Soda http://www.popvssoda.com/
What Patterns can you identify? Why do they exist?

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

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

27 Indo-European diffusion
Earliest speakers apparently lived in southern & southeastern Turkey (Anatolia) about 8 or 9 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

28 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

29 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

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33 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 yrs ago & diffused from there

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

35 The environment and vocabulary
How the environment affects vocabulary Spanish language derived from Castile Rich in words describing rough terrain (fig 4.2) Distinguishes subtle differences in shape & 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

36 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

37 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

38 The environment provides refuge
Inhospitable environments offer protection & isolation Provide outnumbered linguistic groups refuge from aggressive neighbors (isolation) 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

39 Examples of linguistic refuge areas
Rugged Caucasus Mountains & 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

40 Switzerland Switzerland has 4 recognized national languages: French, German, Italian, & Romansch. Romansch, (Latin origin), is spoken by only 1.1% of the population. Nevertheless, it has survived in the alpine linguistic refuge of the upper Rhine & Inn Rivers & was given official recognition in 1938.

41 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

42 Language families The Indo-European language family
Largest most wide-spread family Spoken on all continents Dominant in Europe, Russia, North & South America, Australia, & parts of southwestern Asia & 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

43 Language families The Afro-Asiatic language family
Has two major divisions —Semitic & 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

44 Language families The Afro-Asiatic family
Has two major divisions—Semitic & 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

45 Other major language families
Niger-Congo family 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

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

47 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

48 Other major language families
Sino-Tibetan language family (#2 spoken) 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

49 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

50 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, & Austronesian

51 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

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53 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

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


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