1. Geography of Language Where are English speakers distributed?
Why is English related to other languages?

2. What’s language?
Language- speech communication- a collection of sounds that a group of people understand to have the same meaning
Literary tradition- written communication

3. World Languages 6,912 known living languages
Only 10 spoken by more than 100 million
100 spoken by 5 million or more
70 spoken by 2-5 million people
Rest spoken by less than 2 million

4. Language Family- a collection of languages related through a common ancestral language that existed before recorded history
Language Branch-a collection of languages related through a common ancestral language that existed several thousand years ago
Language group- collection of languages within a branch that share a common origin in recent past and display few differences in grammar/vocab
Dialect- a regional variation of a language distinguished by distinctive vocab, spelling, and pronunciation
Official language- used by gov’t for laws, public documents, road signs, $, etc
Standard language- a dialect that is well established and widely recognized as the most accepted

5. Language Distribution
The distribution of language results primarily from migration- people carry it with them like folk cultural diffusion
Distribution of language results from interaction and isolation. Interaction keeps language similar, isolation creates differences and explains language regions
Language spreads through 2 things- migration and conquest

6. Distribution of English
English is spoken fluently by ½ billion people, more than any other except Mandarin- wider distribution
English spread wherever the British established colonies: 1st Ireland, then N. America, S. Asia, S. Pacific, and S. Africa.
The US spread English to the Philippines
2 billion live in countries where English is official

8. Origins of English By 2000 BC Celts invaded and settled British Isles
450 AD- Angles, Saxons, and Jutes invaded and migrated pushing Celts to edge of islands
Name England comes from Angle-land, in Old English Engle-land, language called Englisc
Angles came from a corner, or angle, of Germany called Schleswig-Holstein

9. Origins of English 800’s AD Vikings invade, add words
1066 AD- William the Conqueror invades from Normandy, France- French becomes official language for next 300 yrs. Parliament used French until 1489.
Germanic language used by commoners and French used by elites- blended to make English
FR- celestial, equestrian, masculine, feminine
DE- sky, horse, man, woman

11. Standard British English
Called BRP, or British Received Pronunciation
Not established until the 18th century
Despite a standard, strong regional differences persist-northern, midland, southern
Path- M, N- /a/; S- /ah/
Butter- M, N- /oo/
Cat- SE- /e/

13. Why is American English different from British English?
Years of Isolation- Atlantic Ocean
BRP not established until America declared independence
BRP based on upper class, when colonists lower class
Colonists encountered new animals, artifacts, places, and used Indian names
Noah Webster created American dictionary and grammar- nationalism

14. How is American English different from British English?
Spelling/Vocab:
New animals- moose, chipmunk, raccoon
New artifacts- squash, canoe, moccasin
Places- Mississippi, Illinois, Miami
Webster- honor (honour), color (colour), defense (defence)

15. How is American English different from British English?
Pronunciation:
Main difference is pronunciation of a and r
Fast, path, half (ah), not (a)
Brits eliminate r unless before vowel: Lord (laud)
Secretary (secret’ry), necessary (necess’ry)
Pronunciation has changed more in England than here

16. Dialects in the US
3 main branches: New England, Middle Atlantic, Southeastern
NE- from E. Anglia, SE England
MA- diverse- Germans, Scotch-Irish, Dutch, Scandinavian
SE- from SE England, socioeconomically diverse

18. Dialects in the US
Any word not used nationally has a distinctive geographic space, like a functional region
The boundaries of word use are called an isogloss
Small stream is “brook” in NE, “run” in MA, and “branch” in SE
Mass media influence local speech: a frying pan was called a “spider” in NE and “skillet” in MA

21. Pronunciation http://alt-usage-english.org/audio_archive.shtml
In NE they drop the “r” in heart and lark, substitute “ah” for r ending in ear and care
SE- Tuesday, “Tyuesday”, mine “mi-yen”
MA- origin of standard American English, ‘cause most settlers to the west came from MA
NE had most contact w/ England, so they’re closest to British English

22. English is part of the Indo-European language family
Language Family- a collection of languages related through a common ancestral language that existed before recorded history (Indo-European)
Language Branch-a collection of languages related through a common ancestral language that existed several thousand years ago (Germanic)
Language group- collection of languages within a branch that share a common origin in recent past and display few differences in grammar/vocab (West Germanic)
Dialect- a regional variation of a language distinguished by distinctive vocab, spelling, and pronunciation

24. Indo-European Branches
Indo-European languages are spoken by over 3 billion people
8 total. 4 main ones- Romance, Germanic, Indo-Iranian, Balto-Slavic
4 minor- Albanian, Greek, Celtic, Armenian

26. Germanic Branch
W. Germanic is our group, divided into High and Low from the elevation of Germany.
High German became standard Deutsch, Low German is ancestor of English
North German is Scandinavian

28. Indo-Iranian Branch
This branch has the most speakers worldwide- 1 billion
Indic (east) and Iranian (west) groups
Hindi spoken by 1/3 of Indians, script called Devanagari
Urdu main language in Pakistan, spoken like Hindi but Arabic script
Both belong to Hindustani, a lingua franca, or common tongue
India has 18 official languages

30. Balto-Slavic Branch
1 language until 600s AD when Slavs entered Europe and developed in isolation
Divided into East, West, South Slavic
E. Slavic- Russian, Ukrainian, Belarusan ,
W. Slavic- Polish, Czech, Slovak
S. Slavic- spoken in Bosnia/Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro, Serbia
Bosnians/Croats use Roman alphabet, others use Cyrillic alphabet

31. Romance Branch
Evolved from Latin 2000 yrs ago- product of Roman Empire
4 main- Spanish, French, Portuguese, Italian- mountains separate the Romance languages
5th- Romanian, separated by Slavs
Vulgar Latin is the form spoken by peoples of the Roman Empire, spread by soldiers.
Ex: Horse- Literary term equus, (equestrian, equine); Vulgar term caballus, (caballo, cavalo, cheval, cal)
Empire collapsed 5th century, by 8th century distinct languages

33. Romance Branch Dialects
FR- langue d’oil in North and langue d’oc in South. Both shortened versions of Latin hoc illud est (It is so).
Sp- Castilian, Aragon, Leon, etc
Sp and Port. Worldwide importance because of colonialism
Creole- mixing of colonizer’s language with language of people being dominated

34. Origin and Diffusion of Indo-European
The existence of proto-Indo-European cannot be proved. Evidence comes from root words.
Beech, oak, bear, deer, pheasant, bee all have common roots in Indo-European languages.
Elephant, camel, rice, bamboo have no common root- must have been added later
There are common root words for snow and winter, but not ocean. Probably cold climate, inland

35. Where did Indo-European Originate? How did it spread?
Theory 1- (Gimbutas) a people called Kurgans, nomadic herders, domesticated cattle/horses on steppes of Russia/Kazakhstan. They migrated in 4300 BC searching for grassland and used horses to conquer Europe and S. Asia
Spread through Conquest!

37. Where did Indo-European Originate? How did it spread?
Theory 2- (Renfrew) 6300 BC, believes originated in Anatolia (Asia Minor, Turkey) and diffused along with agricultural practices. Indo-European dominates because ag practices increase population- hunter/gatherers absorbed
Gray supports this theory but argues 6700BC