AP Human Geography - Culture : Pop and Folk Language

Assimilation

The process where a minority group gradually adopts the customs, language, and values of a dominant culture, often losing its original cultural identity.

Folk Culture

Culture traditionally practiced by a small, homogeneous, rural group living in relative isolation.

Custom

A repetitive act performed by a group of people until it becomes a characteristic of that group.

Terroir

A repetitive act performed by a group of people until it becomes a characteristic of that group.

Popular Culture

Culture found in large, heterogeneous societies that share certain habits despite personal differences.

Acculturation

The process of cultural changes that result when two groups meet, where the minority adopts some traits of the dominant culture while retaining its own unique identity.

Habit:

A repetitive act that a particular individual performs.

Franglais

A combination of français and anglais; English words that have integrated into the French language.

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.

Literary Tradition

A language that is written as well as spoken.

Received Pronunciation (RP)

The dialect of English associated with upper-class speakers in London, widely accepted as the standard form in Britain.

Official Language

The dialect of English associated with upper-class speakers in London, widely accepted as the standard form in Britain.

Isolated Language

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

Denglish

A combination of Deutsch (German) and English, referring to the influx of English words into German.

Creole Language

A language that results from the mixing of a colonizer's language with the indigenous language of the people being dominated, eventually becoming a native tongue.

Standard Language

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

Vulgar Latin

A form of Latin used in daily conversation by ancient Romans, as opposed to the standard dialect used for official documents.

Spanglish

A hybrid combination of Spanish and English.

Iogloss

A geographic boundary line separating regions where different language-related features or dialect words predominate.

Institutional Language

A language used in education, work, mass media, and government.

Extinct Language

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

Pidgin Language

A simplified form of speech that adopts a reduced vocabulary and grammar of a lingua franca for basic communication between speakers of different languages.

Developing Language

A language spoken in daily use with a literary tradition, though it is not widely distributed or institutionalized.

Subdialect

A subdivision of a dialect that shares relatively minor differences in pronunciation or vocabulary.

Language Branch

A collection of languages related through a common ancestral language that existed thousands of years ago.

Ebonics

African American Vernacular English (AAVE), regarded by some linguists as a distinct dialect or language with roots in West African, Caribbean, and US slave languages.

Logogram

A symbol that represents a word or a meaningful morpheme rather than a sound (e.g., Chinese characters).

Dialect

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

Lingua Franca

A language mutually understood and commonly used for trade or communication by people who have different native languages

Language Family

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

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.

Vigorous Language

A language that is spoken in daily use and has an active oral tradition, even if it lacks a widespread written/literary tradition.

Taboo

A restriction on behavior imposed by social custom