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Geography of Language Where are English speakers distributed?
Why is English related to other languages?
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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/
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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
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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)
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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!
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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
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