APHG- Language (Kiana Chhbabria)

Accent

A distinctive mode of pronunciation of a language, especially one associated with a particular nation, locality, or social class.

Dialect

A regional variation of a language distinguished by vocabulary, spelling, and pronunciation, particular to a specific region or social group.

Extinct Language

A language that no longer has any speakers, or that is no longer in current use.

Ideogram

A written character symbolizing the idea of a thing without indicating the sounds used to say it. Used in Mandarin (Chinese)

Isogloss

A geographic boundary line delimiting the area in which a given linguistic feature occurs.

Isolated Language

A natural language with no demonstrable genealogical (or "genetic") relationship with other languages or language families; that is, one that has not been demonstrated to descend from an ancestor common with any other language. i.e A language family with only one language. (Basque)

Language Branch

A Subsection of a Language Family. Differences are not as extensive or old as with language families. i.e The Romance "-------" of the Indo-European language family.

Language

The method of human communication, either spoken or written, consisting of the use of words in a structured and conventional way.

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. An individual language, including all dialects (I.e. Italian, German, English)

Language Family

A collection of languages related to each other through a common ancestor long before recorded history. The trunk of the language tree, from which language branches come from.

Indo European language family

Largest language family that includes English and most other languages in the Western Hemisphere. Also used in South and Southwest Asia. Includes the Germanic branch, Indo-Iranian branch, Balto-Slavic branch, and Romance branch.

Sino-Tibetan Language Family

2nd largest language family. Includes Madarin, Thai, Cantonese and Burmese

Lingua Franca

A Language mutually understood and commonly used in trade by people who have different native languages (currently English worldwide).

Literary Tradition

A Language that is written as well as spoken.

Monolingual State

A country in which only one language is spoken (i.e. Japan, Korea)

Bilingual

The ability to speak two languages.

Multilingual State

A country in which more than one language is in use (India, Nigeria, Belgium, Switzerland)

Official Language

The language adopted for use by the government for the conduct of business and publication of documents, a language that is given special legal status.

Pidgin Language

A Form of speech that adopts a simplified grammar and limited vocabulary of a lingua franca, used for communications among speakers of two different languages.

Standard Language

The specific form of a language used for official government business, education, and mass communications.

Toponym

The name of a place, often reflecting that place's history and culture.

Vernacular

Using a language or dialect native to a region or country rather than a literary, cultured, or foreign language. It is usually the language of the common people.

Creole

A language that results from the mixing of a colonizer's language with the indigenous language of the people being dominated. Developed out of an earlier pidgin stage. Passed down to the next generation

Denglish

The term is used in all German-speaking countries to refer to the increasingly strong influx of English or pseudo-English vocabulary into German.

Franglais

A form of French using many words and idioms borrowed from English.

Spanglish

A hybrid language combining words and idioms from both Spanish and English, especially Spanish speech that uses many English words and expressions.

Romance Branch

A language branch of the Indo-European Language Family. This branch includes languages that evolved from Latin (the language of the Romans). The 5 main languages include: Spanish, Portuguese, French, Italian, and Romanian.

Afro-Asiatic Language Family

This language family is found in northern Africa and southwestern Asia (Middle East), where Islam is the dominant religion. This family includes the languages of Arabic and Hebrew. Hebrew is spoken in Israel, a Jewish state, and Arabic is spoken throughout the region since it is the language of the Koran, the Islamic holy book.

Niger-Congo Language Family

More than 95% of people in Sub-Saharan Africa speak languages from this family. This family includes Swahili, the lingua franca in Africa, used by many to communicate as a second language, due to so many different native languages.

Prehistoric Subgroup

A language that predates the current language family, before the written record. Ex: Proto-Indo-European

Kurgan/Conquest Theory

Proposed by Marija Gimbutas, this theory argues the Proto-Indo-European language diffused by military conquest as nomadic herders on horseback (Kurgans) invaded west from the Asian Steppe ( border between Russia and Kazakhstan) around 4300 B.C in search of grasslands.

Agriculture Theory (Anatolian Hypothesis)

Proposed by Colin renfrew, this theory argues the Proto-Indo-European language diffused by way of agriculktural practices around the Danube River Valley in 6300 BC.

British Received Pronunciation (BRP)

The dialect of English associated with upper class Britons living in the London area now considered the

standard form of British speech.

Language Divergence

When a lack of spatial interaction (isolation) among speakers of a language breaks the language into

dialects and then new languages.

Language Convergence

When peoples with different languages have consistent spatial interaction and their languages collapse

into one (i.e. pidgin and creole).

Backward Reconstruction

When linguists track sound shifts and the hardening of consonants backward to reveal an "original"

language.

Swahili

The lingua franca in Africa, used by many to communicate as a second language, due to so many different native languages. This language was developed between African and Arab traders and is one for the few African languages with extensive literature. It is part of the Niger-Congo language family.

Mandarin

This language is the most spoken language in the world. It is spoken by approximately three-fourths of the Chinese people, and is used by the Chinese government. There is no single Chinese language. Instead of letters, Chinese languages use ideograms (characters) that mostly represent concepts rather than sounds.

Arabic

This language serves as a unifying force in the Middle East (Northern Africa and Southwest Asia), typically referred to as the Arab World. This language is the language of Islam (used in the Koran),, which is predominant throughout the region. This language belongs to the Afro-Asiatic language family and is the official language in two dozen countries of North Africa and southwestern Asia, from Morocco to the Arabian Peninsula.

Hebrew

This language was an extinct language that has been revived. It diminished in use in the fourth century B.C. and was thereafter retained only for Jewish religious services. When Israel was established in 1948, this language became one of the new country's two official languages, along with Arabic. This language was chosen to unify the Jews of Israel and give them a sense of nationalism, since Israel was created by Jewish refugees and migrants who spoke many different languages. Reviving this language required the creation of many new words for the modern world.

Basque

Also known as Euskera, this isolated language predates the Indo-European language and is not related to any other language family in Europe. Spoken in the Pyrenees Mountains (between Spain and France), the mountainous homeland created isolation, making the preservation of the language possible.

Globalization

The process by which businesses or other organizations develop international influence and operate on an international scale. Currently, America dominates the world with multinational corporations and media, which has made English the world's current lingua franca (international language of business).

Quebec

This province in Canada primarily speaks French, due to its history of colonization. As a result, Canada is officially bilingual, recognizing both English and French as official languages.

Belgium

This multilingual state in Europe, which is part of the francophone world, has experienced tensions between its two language groups. The Flemings live in the north province Flanders and speak Flemish, a Dutch dialect. The Walloons live in the south province Wallonia and speak French. Brussels, the capital city if officially bilingual to create a since of unity in the country.

Antagonism between the Flemings and Walloons is aggravated by economic and political differences.

Historically, the Walloons dominated Belgium's economy and politics and French was the official state language.