AP Human Geography: Chapter 5 Vocab

Accent

Distinctive manner of oral expression.

Dialect

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

Esperanto

The most widely spoken constructed international auxiliary language.

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.

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

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 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.

Language family

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

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.

Monolingual

A country in which only one language is primarily spoken.

Bilingual

A country in which only two languages are widely spoken.

Multilingual

A country in which more than two languages are widely spoken.

Official language

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

Orthography

A method of representing the sounds of a language by written or printed symbols; for example, letters in the English alphabet.

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.

Toponym

The name given to a portion of Earth's surface.

Trade language

Language used between native speakers of different languages to allow them to communicate so that they can trade with each other.

Vernacular

a characteristic language of a particular group; slang