Anthro 4 Final

Pachuco

1940s Mexican American youth subculture associated with distinct slang, fashion, and identity

Nahuatl

Language of the Aztecs that influenced Spanish and English vocabulary

Algic language family

Native American language family including languages such as Yurok

Yurok

Indigenous group and language from California

Quechua

Language of the Inca civilization still spoken today

Plains Indian Sign Language

Gesture-based communication system used across tribes for intergroup communication

Uto-Aztecan language family

Large Indigenous language family including Nahuatl

Tongva

Indigenous people and language of the Los Angeles region

Toponyms

Place names derived from a language or culture

Prestige variety

Language variety considered socially high status

Standard language

Official or socially dominant form of a language used in schools, media, and government

Dialect continuum

Gradual language variation across geographic regions

Liturgical language

Language used primarily for religious rituals and sacred texts

Gullah

Creole language spoken by Black communities in the southeastern United States

Pidgin

Simplified contact language with no native speakers

Creole

Fully developed language that evolves from a pidgin

African American English (AAE)

Rule-governed language variety associated with Black speech communities in the United States

Shibboleth

Word or pronunciation used to identify group membership

Speech community

Group of people who share language norms and ways of speaking

Language ideology

Beliefs and assumptions about language and how it should be used

Linguistic terrorism

Term used by Anzaldúa to describe shaming or oppression based on language use

Counterlanguage

Language variety used to resist dominant social structures and express identity

Semiotics

Study of signs and meaning-making

Sign

Something that represents something else to someone

Icon

A sign that resembles what it represents

Index

A sign directly connected to what it represents

Symbol

A sign whose meaning is arbitrary and socially learned

Interpretant

The meaning created in the mind when interpreting a sign

Common ground

Shared understanding necessary for communication

Code model

View of communication as sending fixed signals from sender to receiver

Referential function

Language function focused on conveying information

Phatic function

Language function focused on maintaining social relationships

Metalinguistic function

Language used to talk about language itself

Poetic function

Language function focused on style, form, or aesthetics

Conative function

Language function directed toward influencing others or giving commands

Emotive function

Language function expressing feelings or emotions

Deixis

Words whose meaning depends on context, such as “here” or “you”

Semiotic callusing

Process where repeated exposure dulls the emotional impact of signs

Honorifics

Respectful language forms signaling status or politeness

Address terms

Names or titles used to address others

TV pronouns

Distinction between formal and informal second-person pronouns

Positive politeness

Strategies used to build social closeness and solidarity

Negative politeness

Strategies used to respect distance and avoid imposition

Gloria Anzaldúa

Scholar who argued language is tied to identity, resistance, and power

Marcyliena Morgan

Scholar who studied AAE as a speech community and counterlanguage

Charles Peirce

Semiotic theorist who developed icon, index, and symbol categories

Emile Benveniste

Linguist who argued personhood is created through language

Erica Cartmill

Researcher who critiques biased assumptions about animal communication

Jorge Luis Borges

Writer whose works explore language, memory, abstraction, and identity

Funes the Memorious

Borges story illustrating that thinking requires abstraction and forgetting differences

Abjad

Writing system that primarily represents consonants

Abugida

Writing system where consonant symbols include vowel information

Alphabet

Writing system with symbols for individual consonants and vowels

Syllabary

Writing system with symbols representing syllables

Logogram

Symbol representing a word or concept

Semasiograph

Symbol system communicating meaning without direct spoken language

Rebus principle

Using symbols representing sounds to create words in writing systems

Cuneiform

Ancient Mesopotamian writing system using wedge-shaped marks

Hieroglyphs

Ancient Egyptian writing system using pictorial symbols

Turtle shell divination

Ancient Chinese practice connected to early writing development

Hangul

Alphabet created for the Korean language

Sequoyah

Creator of the Cherokee syllabary

King Sejong

Korean ruler who sponsored the creation of Hangul

Mesrop Mashtots

Creator of the Armenian alphabet

Yuri Knorozov

Scholar who helped decipher Mayan writing

Orthography

Standardized spelling conventions of a language

Script

Visual symbols used to write language

International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)

System for representing speech sounds consistently

Place of articulation

Location in the vocal tract where a sound is produced

Manner of articulation

How airflow is manipulated to produce speech sounds

Vernacularization

Process of shifting from elite sacred languages to local spoken languages

Print capitalism

Mass production of printed materials in vernacular languages for profit

Martin Luther

Religious reformer who translated the Bible into German and promoted vernacular literacy

Benedict Anderson

Scholar who developed the theory of imagined communities

Imagined communities

Communities formed through shared media and national identity despite members never meeting

Nation

Socially constructed political community imagined as shared and unified

Reformation

Religious movement challenging the authority of the Catholic Church

The Jesuit Relations

Accounts written by Jesuit missionaries about Indigenous peoples in North America

The Enlightenment

European intellectual movement emphasizing reason and critique of authority

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Enlightenment philosopher associated with ideas about society and the “noble savage”

Kondiaronk

Wendat statesman whose critiques of European society influenced Enlightenment thought

Oka Crisis

1990 conflict between Mohawk protesters and the Canadian government over land rights

Noble savage

Idea that Indigenous peoples were morally pure because of closeness to nature

Myth of the myth of the noble savage

Argument that Indigenous critiques of Europe were more sophisticated and influential than often acknowledged

Schismogenesis

Process where groups define themselves through opposition to one another

Selective writing systems

Writing systems used only in limited contexts or by elites

Bound writing systems

Writing systems closely tied to specific languages, cultures, or institutions

Winter Count

Pictographic historical record system used by Plains Indigenous peoples

Athabaskan languages

Indigenous language family spoken in western North America

Chumash languages

Indigenous languages historically spoken in coastal California

Algic languages

Language family including Algonquian and Yurok languages

Iroquoian languages

Indigenous language family including Mohawk and Cherokee

Media ideologies

Beliefs about how media should function and what forms are trustworthy or authentic

Counterpublic

Alternative public sphere formed outside dominant social structures

Emic

Insider perspective within a culture

Etic

Outsider analytical perspective on a culture

Bahasa gay

Queer speech style used in Indonesia

Polari

Historic coded language used in queer communities in Britain

Cryptolect

Secret or semi-secret language variety used by a specific group

Graphic pluralism

Use of multiple writing systems within a single language or society