Human Geography Unit 4

accent

The particular pronunciation of a particular nation, location, or individual.

Indo-European

The largest language family with nearly half of the world’s languages, originating in the forests north of the Black Sea that spread westward to Europe, eastward to India, southward to the Mediterranean, and northward to Scandinavia.

Isogloss

A particular geographical area sharing the pronunciation of a particular vowel or other language characteristics.

Language

A method of communicating feelings and ideas using conventional signs and gestures, particularly vocally.

language familes

Languages that are related and share a common ancestor.

lingua franca

A specific language chosen or used to bridge a communication gap between different cultures

Multilingualism

Promoting or using multiple languages

Pidgin

A simplified language that develops so that two or more groups can communicate when they do not have a common language.

polyglot

A multilingual person

Slang

The use of expressions and words that are not considered standard to a language or a dialect

Taxonomy

The science and practice of classification.

Toponyms

The study of place names.

Language geography

a branch of human geography that studies the elements of language and the geographic distribution of language

First field of language geography

studies distribution and space of languages throughout history

Second field of language geography

studies the linguistic variation of languages

Which field of language geography is human geography most interested in?

First, distribution and space

Effect of a lack of commonality in languages or multiple languages

divisions/ inability to communicate

Language taxonomy

the practice and science of classifying languages (each language has its own taxonomy)

What determines classification?

• genetic classification of languages (how language evolved over time)

• typological classification (grammar and structure)

Proto-language

the common ancestor language in a language family

comparative linguistics

the branch of historical linguistics that compares languages to establish their relatedness through history

Branches

subdivisions in a language family

Number of language families

9

Sino-Tibetan

mainly east asia

Niger-Congo

mainly sub-saharan Africa

Afro-Asiatic

Mainly southwest Asia and Africa (North Africa and the Horn of Africa mostly)

Austronesian

Mainly Madagascar, Oceania, and maritime Southeast Asia

Dravidian

Mainly South Asia

Altaic

Mainly Central Asia, Northern Asia, Siberia, and Anatolia

Austro-Asiatic

Mainly mainland Southeast Asia

Tai-Kadai

Mainly Southeast Asia

Romance languages

subdivision of the Latin Branch (derived from Latin)

• after the Roman Empire fell different regions spoke Latin but became isolate so the language evolved into many languages

• 5 main languages are: Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese, and Romanian

Monolingualism

Promoting or using one language

Vernacular

the native language of a country or area

Creole

when two languages form a pidgin and then is acquired by children so it becomes a primary language

pidgin rule (except for creoles)

always a second language

Centum-satem isogloss

one of the most well-known isoglosses

• from the Indo-European language family

• based on the evolution of three dorsal consonants (consonants that use the mid-body of the tongue to pronounce)