1. Language Part 2

2. Language Family: A collection of languages related through a common ancestral language that existed long before recorded history
Language Branch: a collection of languages within a family related through a common ancestral language that existed several thousand years ago
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

3. Major Language Families Percentage of World Population
Fig. 5-11a: The percentage of world population speaking each of the main language families. Indo-European and Sino-Tibetan together represent almost 75% of the world’s people.

4. Language Families of the World

5. Classification of Languages
Language families form the trunks of the trees
Language branches form from the trunks of trees
Language groups form smaller branches off of larger language branches
Ex. Northern Germanic and Western Germanic form off of the Germanic language branch
Super-families are shown as roots, but their existence is controversial and speculative
Numbers on tree indicate millions of native speakers

6. Figure: 05-12r
Title:
Language family tree.
Caption:
Right side. Language families are divided into branches and groups. Shown here are language families and individual languages that have more than 5 million speakers. Numbers on the tree are in millions of native speakers. Native speakers are people for whom the language is their first language. The totals exclude those who use the languages as second languages. Below ground level, the language tree's "roots" are shown. However, the theory that several language families had common origins tens of thousands of years ago is a highly controversial speculation advocated by some linguists and rejected by others.

9. Indo-European Branches
Divided into 8 branches
Indo-Iranian, Romance, Germanic, Balto-Slavic, Albanian, Armenian, Greek, and Celtic
Bigger 4
Indo-European language family is most extensive spoken in the world
Nearly 3 billion speak Indo-European as first language

11. Origin and Diffusion of Indo-European
Single common ancestral language cannot be proven because it would have existed before the invention of writing or recorded history
Concept of Proto-Indo-European derives from the physical attributes of words in various Indo-European languages
Some roots of words are the same
Linguists and anthropologists disagree on when and where the language originated

12. Origin and Diffusion of Indo-European
2 major theories/models of origin and diffusion
Kurgan Model – Military conquests
developed by Marija Gimbutas
Kurgans were nomadic people whose homeland is between modern day Russia and Kazakhstan
Dates back to 4300 B.C.
Nomadic herders who domesticated horses and cattle and migrated in search of grasslands
Kurgan warriors conquered much of Europe and South Asia

13. Kurgan Theory of Indo-European Origin
In the Kurgan theory, Proto-Indo-European diffused from the Kurgan hearth north of the Caspian Sea, beginning about 7000 years ago.

14. Origin and Diffusion of Indo-European
Anatolian Hearth Theory – agricultural practices
Developed by archaeologist Colin Renfrew (and supported by biologist Russell Gray)
Renfrew argues 2,000 years before the Kurgans people dispersed from Anatolia towards Greece and throughout Europe from that point
Renfrew believes the migration into Europe and South Asia occurred along agricultural practices rather than military conquest

15. Anatolian Hearth Theory of Indo-European Origin
Fig. 5-10: In the Anatolian hearth theory, Indo-European originated in Turkey before the Kurgans and diffused through agricultural expansion.

16. Agriculture Theory
With increased food supply and increased population, speakers
from the hearth of Indo-European languages migrated into Europe.

17. Renfrew Hypothesis:
Proto-Indo-European began in the Fertile Crescent, and then:
From Anatolia diffused Europe’s languages
From the Western Arc of Fertile Crescent diffused North
Africa and Arabia’s languages
From the Eastern Arc of Fertile Crescent diffused Southwest
Asia and South Asia’s languages.

18. The Indo-European Languages
Germanic
Indo-Iranian
Balto-Slavic
Romance

19. Germanic Branch of Indo-European
Fig. 5-6: The Germanic branch today is divided into North and West Germanic groups. English is in the West Germanic group.

20. German Branch of Indo-European
Both English and German part of West Germanic language group
Structurally similar and many common words
West Germanic divided into High Germanic and Low Germanic subgroups
Based on elevations of present-day Germany
German is part of High Germanic subgroup
English is part of Low Germanic subgroup
Other Low Germanic languages include: Dutch, Flemish, Afrikaans, and Frisian

21. Germanic Branch also includes North Germanic Languages
Four Scandinavian languages including: Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, and Icelandic
Derive from Old Norse (prior to 1000 A.D.)

22. Indo-Iranian Branch of Indo-European
Indo-Iranian is largest branch of Indo-European language family
Over 100 individual languages
Over 1 billion people
Indo-Iranian branch divided into an eastern group (Indic) and western group (Iranian)

23. Geographically in India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh
Indic (Eastern) Group
Geographically in India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh
Hindi – spoken in many different ways, but only one official way to write the language using a script called Devanagari
Urdu – Principal language in Pakistan
Similar to spoken Hindi, but written with Arabic alphabet
Long tradition of being Muslim
Bengali – most popular important language in Bangladesh

24. India is very culturally diverse in language
Indic (Eastern) Group
India is very culturally diverse in language
India has four major language families
Indo-European (primarily in the north)
Dravidian (south)
Sino-Tibetan (northeast)
Austro-Asiatic
India’s constitution recognizes 18 official languages

25. Figure: 05-07
Title:
Languages and language families in South Asia.
Caption:
The region has four main language families—Indo-European, Dravidian, Sino-Tibetan, and Austro-Asiatic. More than 90 percent of the people of India speak at least one of the country's 18 official languages, 17 of which are written in red on the map. The eighteenth official language Sanskrit is primarily a language of religion and literature.

26. Iranian (Western) Group
Major Iranian languages are Persian {Farsi} (Iran), Pashto (eastern Afghanistan and western Pakistan), and Kurdish (Kurds in Iran, northern Iraq, and eastern Turkey)
Languages written in Arabic alphabet

27. East Slavic and Baltic Groups
Balto-Slavic Branch
of Indo-European
Slavic was once a single language, but are now divided into East, West, and South Slavic groups and a Baltic group because of migration and isolation
East Slavic and Baltic Groups
Russian is the primary language
Gained importance after World War II (Soviet Union)
Independent countries (following fall of Soviet Union) have adopted other official languages
Ukrainian and Belarusian are other important East Slavic languages

28. Balto-Slavic Branch of Indo-European West and South Groups
Polish is most spoken West Slavic language – followed by Czech and Slovak (latter two very similar)
Most important South Slavic language is spoken in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro, and Serbia
Bosnians and Croats write in Roman alphabet
Montenegrins and Serbs use Cyrillic alphabet

29. (Letters in parenthesis indicate the English transliteration of the Cyrillic letters.)

30. Balto-Slavic Branch of Indo-European West and South Groups
After Yugoslavia divided, language names changed
Language formerly known as Serbo-Croatian offended many so now known as Bosnian, Croatian, and Serbian (unique, but linguists consider them one)
Some differences now exists
Bosnian Muslims have introduced Arabic words
Croats have replaced words with Serbian origin
Most differences small – still understand each other (even though small differences preserved)

31. Romance Branch of Indo-European
Fig. 5-8: The Romance branch includes three of the world’s 12 most widely spoken languages (Spanish, French, and Portuguese), as well as a number of smaller languages and dialects.

32. Origin and Diffusion of Romance Languages
All Romance languages developed from Latin, the Roman language
Encompassed throughout Roman Empire
Vulgar Latin – spoken form of Latin introduced by Roman soldiers throughout the empire
Refers to “the masses” of the populace
Collapse of the Roman Empire led to greater regional variation in spoken Latin

33. Romance Branch of Indo-European Evolved from Latin language (Romans)
Four most used contemporary Romance languages are Spanish, Portuguese, French, and Italian
Physical boundaries create barriers to communication – keeping languages different
Romanian is fifth most important Romance language
Principal language of Romania and Moldova
Separated by Slavic speaking people

34. Signs in Barcelona, Spain
Signs in Barcelona are written both in Catalán (top) and Spanish (bottom).

35. Romance Branch of Indo-European Other Romance Languages
Romash – spoken in Switzerland (40,000 people)
Catalán – Andorra (70,000 people) and about 6 million people in eastern Spain
Sardinian – mixture of Italian, Spanish, and Arabic spoken on the island of Sardinia
Ladin – South Tyrol in northern Italy (30,000 people)
Friulian – Northeast Italy (800,000 people)
Ladino – mixture of Spanish, Greek, Turkish, and Hebrew (100,000 Sephardic Jews in Israel)

36. Classification of Languages
Information regarding world language families
Indo-European family = 48% of world population
Sino-Tibetan family = 26% of world population
Afro-Asiatic family = 6% of world population
Austronesian family = 5% of world population
Dravidian family = 4% of world population
Altaic family = 3% of world population
Niger-Congo family = 3% of world population
Japanese family = 2% of world population
Remaining 3% speak language belonging to one of 100 smaller language families

37. Distribution of Language Families

38. Sino-Tibetan Language Family
Encompasses China and several smaller countries in Southeast Asia
Sinitic branch typically holds Chinese languages
Austro-Thai and Tibetan-Burman are smaller branches
See figure 5-12 for visual explanation
Sinitic Branch
Mandarin Chinese most important
Spoken by 3/4 of Chinese people
Official language of China and Taiwan

39. Chinese language is based on 420 one-syllable words
Each sound denotes more than one thing
Ex. jian has more than 20 meanings
Listener must infer the meaning from the context in the sentence and the tone of voice speaker uses
Chinese writing is a collection of thousands of characters
Most are ideograms – represent ideas or concepts, not specific pronunciations
Over 4,000 years old
Difficult to learn

40. Chinese Ideograms
Fig. 5-13: Chinese language ideograms mostly represent concepts rather than sounds. The two basic characters at the top can be built into more complex words.

41. Afro-Asiatic family
Includes Arabic, Hebrew, and other languages spoken in northern Africa and southwestern Asia
International significance of this family is based on the writings of the holiest books of three major world religions (Judeo-Christian Bible and Islamic Qur'an)
Arabic is the major language
Official language in two dozen countries
Includes large percentage of world’s Muslims

42. Austronesia Language Family
Spoken primarily in Indonesia
The many islands have led to a large number of languages and dialects
739 actively uses languages
Indonesian is used as second language by 140 million in order to communicate with speakers of other languages
Malagasy spoken on Madagascar (1,900 miles from other Austronesian groups)

43. African Language Families
More than 1,000 languages and several thousand dialects have been documented
Minimal interaction among thousands of cultural groups (each with their own language, religion, and cultural traditions) has led differences
Difficult to document African languages because most lack a written tradition
Northern Africa dominated by Arabic
Languages in Sub-Saharan Africa more complex

44. Niger-Congo Language Family
Spoken by more than 95% of people in sub-Saharan Africa
Largest branch is Benue-Congo
Includes three languages used by at least 10 million
Yoruba, Igbo, and Shona
Swahili is first language of only 800,000 people, but is a second language for over 30 million Africans
Originally developed through interaction among African groups and Arab traders – has extensive literature
Swahili—the lingua franca of East Africa

45. lingua franca
A language mutually understood and commonly used in trade by people who have different native languages

46. Languages of Subsaharan Africa - extreme language
Languages of Subsaharan Africa - extreme language diversity - effects of colonialism

47. Languages of Nigeria
Fig. 5-15: More than 200 languages are spoken in Nigeria, the largest country in Africa (by population). English, considered neutral, is the official language.

48. E-Commerce Languages 2000 & 2004 lingua franca
English and English-speaking countries still dominate e-commerce, but other languages are growing rapidly.