APHG Chp 5 KBAT

Anatolian Hypothesis

Sedentary Farmer Hypothesis on origins of Indo-European language family.

Creole or creolized language

A language that results from the mixing of a colonizer's language with the indigenous language of the people being dominated.

Dialect

A regional variety of a language distinguished by vocabulary, spelling, an pronunciation.

Extinct Language

A language that was once used by people in daily activities but is no longer used.

Ideogram

The system of writing used in China and other East Asian countries in which each symbol represents an idea or a concept rather than a specific sound, as is the case with letters in English.

Isogloss

A boundary that separates regions in which different language usages predominate.

Isolated language

A language that is unrelated to any other languages and therefore not attached to any language family.

Kurgan Hypothesis

Nomadic Warrior Hypothesis on origins of Indo-European language family.

Language

A system of communication through the use of speech, a collection of sounds understood by a group of people to have the same meaning.

Language Branch

A collection of languages related through a common ancestor that existed several thousand years ago. Differences are not as extensive or as old as with language families, and archaeological evidence can confirm that the branches derived from the same family.

Language Family

A collection of languages related to each other through a common ancestor long before recorded history.

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.

Lingua Franca

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

Literary Tradition

A language that is written as well as spoken.

Official Language

The language adopted for use by the government for the conduct of business and publication of documents.

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

Accent

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

National Language

A language which has some connection—de facto or de jure—with a people and perhaps by extension the territory they occupy. The term is used variously. This language may for instance represent the national identity of a nation or country.

Orthography

The conventional spelling system of a language

Slang

A type of language that consists of words and phrases that are regarded as very informal, are more common in speech than writing, and are typically restricted to a particular context or group of people.

Syntax

The arrangement of words and phrases to create well-formed sentences in a language.

Polyglot

A person who knows and is able to use several languages.

Trade Language

Common languages used by merchants who did not speak a common tongue.

Vernacular

The language or dialect spoken by the ordinary people in a particular country or region.

Vocabulary

The body of words used in a particular language.