1. THE DIFFUSION AND MOSAICS OF LANGUAGES

2. Tracing Linguistic Diversification
Diffusion of languages
Sound shifts
William Jones and ancient Sanskrit
Jacob Grimm and consonants
From Jones and Grimm to the (Proto) Indo-European language
This concept had major implications creating major research tasks

3. The Language Tree Divergence August Schleicher Languages to dialects
Dialects isolated becoming discrete languages
Language tree model

4. The Language Tree Convergence Replacement
Long-isolated languages making contact
Human mobility complicates language study
Languages and relocation diffusion
Replacement
Replacement or modification of language by stronger invaders of a less advanced people goes on today
No reason to believe it has not happened ever since humans began to use language

6. Theories of Language Diffusion
Roots
Proto-language had words for landscape features, certain vegetation
Indicators of where a language may have developed
Conquest theory
Somewhere north of the Black Sea in the vast steppes of Ukraine and Russia
> 5000 years ago, used horses, developed the wheel, and traded

7. Theories of Language Diffusion
Agriculture theory
Source area in Anatolia, Turkey
Few words for plains but many for high-relief landforms
Non-plains-dwelling animals and trees
Mesopotamian Cultural Hearth
Support for the theory
Distance decay

8. Agricultural Theory Drawbacks of the theory
Not much farming in Anatolia

9. The Search For The Superfamily
Renfrew’s agricultural hearths model
Russian scholars long interested
Nostratic

10. The Search For The Superfamily
Nostratic
Vocabulary
No names for domestic plants or animals
Hunter-gatherers, ~ 14,000 years ago
Possible ancestral language for many other languages
Links widely separated languages
Perhaps a direct successor of a proto-world language

11. Diffusion to the Pacific
When populated by people?
Diffusion into the Pacific north of Indonesia and New Guinea
Austronesian
Malay-Polynesian
Speed of diffusion amazing considering the fragmented Pacific realm
Most of Polynesia settled within several centuries

13. Diffusion to The Americas
Diffusion in the Americas
Dominated by Indo-European languages
Pre-Columbian populations quite low
If Bering land-bridge hypothesis, then most intricately divided branch of language tree
The Greenberg hypothesis
3 families of indigenous American languages
Implies a period longer than the (generally) accepted 12,000-to-13,000-year-ago immigration into the Americas

15. Influences on Individual Languages
Individual tongues
Contact important for non-written languages
Three critical components have influenced the world's linguistic mosaic:
Literacy
Technology
Political organization

16. Influences on Individual Languages
Printing press
Germany 1588
Easier to publish texts
Rise of national states
Integrated state territory
Common linguistic influences via interaction

17. MODERN LANGUAGE MOSAICS

18. Changing Cultural Composition in the United States
Hispanics population on the rise
An “official” second language?
Even divides Hispanic communities
Hispanic policy organization report, 1990
Early European immigrants faced language barrier…

19. Language and Culture Current debates
Language vs. cultural preservation
English = international communication standard
Some countries have made English (or another language) their official language
Neocolonialism to some
Emotional attachment important
What is the US’s official language?

20. Language and Trade The Esperanto experiment Lingua franca
Linguistic convergence of Frankish, Italian, Greek, Spanish, and Arabic
Today’s usage of “lingua franca”
Swahili has become the lingua franca of East Africa
In West Africa Hausa is a regional tongue

22. Language and Trade Creolization “Pidgin” Sometimes a mother tongue
Difficult distinguishing between them & dialects

23. Multilingualism Few true monolingual states left Multilingual states
Japan, Uruguay, Venezuela, Iceland, Portugal, Poland, and Lesotho
Multilingual states
Linguistic fragmentation can reflect cultural pluralism

25. Multilingualism Regional expression Examples: Switzerland Russia
Andean Cultures

27. Multilingualism
Canada
French & English speaking areas
Still divided

28. Multilingualism Belgium Dutch-speaking and French-speaking regions
Brussels officially bilingual, but majority speak French
Reflects 19th century efforts to build an integrated state
Linguistic partition in 1920s
For Flemish identity
Language regions tend to foster regionalism

29. Multilingualism Nigeria A colonial creation
Three major regional languages
230 established tongues
English as “official” language
Repercussions?

30. Official languages Serve different purposes
Enhance internal communication and interaction
Colonial influence
Official language can cause problems
Hindi example
US official language? None!

31. Toponymy The systematic study of place names Two part names
Reveal a lot about a culture
Examples?
Why, AZ; Nothing, AZ; Ajo, AZ; Marana, AZ
Peru, ME; Bolivia, SC
Two part names
Many place names consist of two parts
A specific or given part
Generic or classifying part
E.g., Pennsylvania (Penn’s Forest)

32. Toponymy Taxonomy of Toponymy
Historian George Stewart classified place names into ten categories
Descriptive
Associative
Incident
Possessive
Commendatory
Commemorative
LA (El Pueblo de Nuestra Senora la Reina de los Angeles de Porciuncula)
Folk-etymology
Manufactured
Mistake
So-called Shift names

33. Toponymy Changing place names Elicit strong passions
E.g., post-colonial African countries; Burma to Myanmar; Siam to Thailand
Changing city or town names often more difficult than changing in territory names
Post-Soviet Union
Thousands of places were renamed
Many bitter arguments
South Africa today...

34. Language and The Global Cultural Mosaic
African Storyteller; Gaelic Bard; Troubadour
Tales contain history and psyche of the people
Language can reveal how people view reality
Language and religion are two cornerstones of culture

35. Discussion Question, set #1
Language divergence involves the differentiation of languages over time and space.
Where in North America is language divergence in progress today?
What geographic factors contribute to this process here (in N.A.) and elsewhere?

36. Discussion Question, set #2
Over the more than two centuries of its existence, the US has been a largely English-speaking country. For African-Americans, European-Americans, and Asian-Americans, English became the first (often the only) language. Today, Spanish is challenging this English monopoly.
What geographic factors play major roles in this process? How? Why?