AP Human Geo ch 5 vocab

chapter 5 vocab

Centrifugal Force

A cultural value that tends to pull people apart

Centripetal Force

A cultural value that tends to unify people

Creole Language (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, and pronunciation

Endangered Language

A language that is threatened or dying because it is losing users and may not be retained by the younger generation

Extinct Language

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

Institutional Language

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

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

A system of communication through speech, movement, sounds, or symbols that a group of people understands to have the same meaning

Language Branch

A collection of languages related through a common ancestor that can be confirmed through archaeological evidence

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 a government for the conduct of business and publication of documents

Spanglish

A combination of Spanish and English spoken by some Hispanic Americans

Stable Language

A language in daily use by people of all age, from children to elderly individuals

Standard Language

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

Subdialect

A subdivision of a dialect

Working Language

A language designated by an international organization or corporation as its primary means of communication for daily correspondence and conversation

Threatened Language

A language that is currently used for face-to-face, everyday communication, but is losing speakers and users over time

Dying Language

A language that is still spoken in daily use, primarily by older generations, but is no longer being taught to children or transmitted naturally from parents to youth

Developing Language

A language that is spoken in daily use by people of all ages and possesses a literary tradition, though it is not yet widely distributed or institutionalized globally

Indo European

The world’s largest language family

Cultural Relativism

The practice of understanding a culture's beliefs, values, and practices on its own terms, rather than judging them through the standards of one's own culture

Ethnocentrism

The tendency to judge, evaluate, or look down upon other cultures using the standards, values, and norms of one's own culture, often viewing one's own culture as superior

Stereotype

A simplified, standardized, and often biased mental picture, generalization, or expectation held in common about a specific group of people, place, or culture

Relocation Diffusion

The spread of cultural traits, languages, religions, or innovations through the physical movement of people who migrate to a new location

Contagious Diffusion

A form of expansion diffusion in which a cultural trait, idea, disease, or innovation spreads rapidly and continuously from its point of origin to nearby people and places through direct, person to person contact

Hierarchical Diffusion

A type of expansion diffusion in which an idea, trend, cultural trait, or innovation spreads from nodes or persons of authority, power, prestige, or wealth down to smaller or less influential places and people

Stimulus Diffusion

A form of expansion diffusion where an underlying idea, principle, or innovation spreads to a new region or culture, but the specific form or implementation changes to fit local conditions, needs, or beliefs

Cultural Convergence

The process by which two or more cultures or places become increasingly similar as they share ideas, technologies, values, and practices through increased interaction

Cultural Divergence

The process by which two or more cultural groups become increasingly different and distinct from each other over time

Cultural Hearths

The geographic origin point or birthplace where a cultural trait, innovation, religion, language, or technology first develops before spreading outward through cultural diffusion

Acculturation

The process where an individual or a minority/immigrant group adopts the cultural traits, values, or behaviors of a more dominant culture while still retaining core elements of their own original culture

Assimilation

The process by which an individual or minority group adopts the cultural traits, language, values, and norms of a dominant culture, completely or largely replacing their original cultural identity

Syncretism

The blending of traits from two or more distinct cultures or belief systems to create a brand new, combined cultural form

Multiculturalism

The coexistence of multiple distinct cultural and ethnic groups within the same society or place, where each group maintains its unique cultural identity instead of merging into a single dominant culture