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Unit 5 Ap Human Geography Language 

I am highlighting in blue what I know if you see it just ignore it.

^^Key Issue #1^^- Language Distribution

A. What is it?

  • Language- Communication though speech or writing with sounds and symbols that carry an agreed upon meaning
    • Example- sign language is included in the non-material culture

B. Language and Migration (Linguistic Geography)

  • Linguistic Geography- the study of speech areas and can be used as a tool to trace migration patterns
  • Interesting Facts
    • Madagascar´s language is similar to Indonesia though they are over 2,500 miles apart
  • Self Questions
    • What language families would you expect to be alike
    • What conclusion can we draw from this
  • Tracking Language History
    • Divergence- Language that breaks into different dialects due to lack of spatial interaction
    • Example- American English/ British English
    • Convergence- When two languages become similar due to constant spatial interaction
    • Example- Greek/Romanian
    • We can track migration by looking at language divergence and convergence

C. Classifying Languages

  • 7,100 languages exists today
  • Institutional- language used in education, work, and government
  • Official- a government designated language (state language)
  • Developing- a language with a literary tradition
  • Vigorous- daily used language with no literary tradition
  • Literary Tradition- language that has a written form
  • Self Questions
    • What is the official language of India
    • What does that tell us about it’s history

D. Organizing Language Families

  1. Language Families- language with a shared, but prehistoric origin language
  2. Language Branches- smaller groups of languages within a family from the historic era
  3. Language - group of languages in a family with many similarities in grammar and vocab
  4. Language- Communication though speech or writing with sounds and symbols that carry an agreed upon meaning
  5. Dialect- a particular version of a language
  6. Accents- smaller pronunciation variations

E. Largest Language Families

  1. Indo- European- language found in Europe, South Asia, North America, and Latin America

    • Branches
    1. Indo- Iranian (Hindi-India)
    2. Germanic (German-English)
    3. Romance (Spanish-French)

  2. Sino- Tibetan

    • China- Mandarin the most common language in the world

F. Other Large Language Families

  • Southeast Asia
    • Austronesian
    • Austro-Asiatic
  • East Asia
    • Japanese
    • Korean
  • Africa
    • Afro-Asiatic (Arabic)
    • Niger Congo (Swahili)
  • Random
    • Dravidian
    • Altaic
    • Uracil
  • Other American
    • Quechua

Review for Key Idea #1

  1. Language is an example of what?
    • Non-material cultural
  2. Madagascar’s language is most connected to the language of?
    • Indonesia
  3. Lack of spacial interaction might cause a language to what?
    • Diverge
  4. What do these terms mean
    • Institutional - language used in education, work, and government
    • Official - a government designated language (state language)
    • Developing - a language with a literary tradition
    • Vigorous - daily used language with no literary tradition
  5. Put these in order from biggest to smallest “group”
    • Language Group (3rd)
    • Language Family (1st)
    • Dialects (5th)
    • Language Branch (2nd)
    • Language (4th)
    • Accent (6th)
  6. What is the largest language family?
    • Indo- European
  7. Which language is the most spoken
    • Mandarin

^^1232Key Issue #2^^- Indo-European Language Family

A. What is it?

  • Indo- European- a language family spoken by 40% of worlds population and has a common prehistoric language ancestor

B. Theories of Origin

  • Sedentary Farmer thesis (Peaceful)
    • Also called “Renfew Hypothesis”
    • Indo-European started in the Fertile Crescent
    • Language diffused peacefully though agricultural trade
  • Nomadic Warrior Thesis
    • Kurgan Theory or Conquest Theory
    • Indo- European began in the vicinity of JW Russia
    • Kurgan Warriors brought the language with them as they conquered other areas

C. Indo-European Branches

  • Romance language **

    1. French
    2. Spanish
    3. Italian

  • Germanic Language

    1. English
    2. German
    3. Norwegian

  • Slavic Language

    1. Russian
    2. Polish
    3. Czech

  • **Orgin and Diffusion

    • Spread by the government and military of the Roman Empire
    • Came From the spoken Latin (Vulgar/Basic Latin) missing with the regional languages

D. Largest Indo-European Branch: Indo-Iranian

  1. Persian (Farsi) - Iran
  2. Hindi- India
  3. Kurdish- Kurds
  • Other Details
    • Linguistic Fragmentation- when people in a country speaks many different language, This is often caused by physical or cultural barriers
    • Example- Papua, new guinea has over 850 languages making it the most linguistically diverse place on earth

E. The English Language (Origin and Diffusion)

  1. Origin of English
    • Britain was populated by staking tribes from Denmark and Germany called the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes
    • Vikings from Norway attacked later and adds their language
    • French Normans attacked later and adds their language
  2. The Diffusion of English
    • Britain- British Colonies (N.A. Ireland South Asia, Australia, and South Africa)- United States- United States Annexes (Philippines)
  3. Examples of English Language Convergences
    • Fraglais- French and English
    • Spanglish- Spanish and English

F. English as a Global Lingua Franca

  1. What is a Lingua Franca?
    • Lingua Franca: a language of international communication to ease business and government interaction
    • Examples-
      • English
      • Mandarin Chinese
      • Swahili
    • Struggle to balance accepting global culture at the expense of local identity
  2. English Speaking Countries
    • English is an official language in 58 countries and widely required education in European countries Japan, China, etc
    • English also dominated on the internet
  3. What is a Pidgin
    • a simplified version of a language that rules and vocabulary from another language
    • It has no native speakers by definition

Key Issue #3- Language Variation Among Locations

A. Dialects and Sub dialects

  • Dialect- a regional variation of language distinguished by distinctive vocab, spelling, and pronunciation and usually reflect differences in environment

B. English Dialects

  • English Dialects- the differences in English result from colonization and thousands of miles of separation from the source nation
  • Vocabulary- difference physical feature, animals, Indian, influence, and inventions (Biscuits and Cookies)
  • Spelling- Webster’s dictionary deliberately diverged from the British spellings dropping u’s and c for s (Colour and Flavour)
  • Pronunciation- difference due to only having printed contact between each other (Dropping the r’s on words like “car”)

C. Dialects in the U.K.

  • Dialects and very much connected with the location at conquering tribes. The ‘standard language’ is called “received pronunciation”- the queens English

D. U.S. Dialects

  • Isogloss- the boundary or limit of a word’s usage plotted geographically (Soda and Pop)

E. Distribution of U.S. Dialects

  • Original 3 based on colonization
  • Movement across the continent gave us a 4th western
  • Mass Media is softening the differences
  • Ebonics- controversial dialect based on…
    • African- American speech patterns (we be, you be)
  • Appalachian English-
    • Controversial dialect based on mountain white speech patterns (going up yonder to the crick in the holler)
    • Creole- when a pidgin more fully develops from a colonized people group taking on simplified version of colonizer’s language

F. Dialects Become Languages

  • Dialects- sometimes dialects diverge so much that they come reconsidered as separate languages
  • Examples
    • Catalan- spoken in Andorra and Catalonia Spain. Represents a form of Independence (rebellion) for them

G. Standardizing Languages

  • Government often promote standardizing languages to encourage cultural unity
    • Example- French Academie Francaise
  • Natives also gather to standardize languages globally such as Portuguese and Spain

H. Gender and Language

  • Some languages have male and female forms of words- not English

  • Female are more likely to say “and uh”

  • Women are less likely to interrupt men

  • Self Question

    1. How do you live peacefully with multilingual places

    I) Multilingual Places

    1. Switzerland
    • Officially recognizes 4 languages and put political power in the local hands
    1. Canada
    • french spoken in Quebec and legally mandated this is cause of tension and calls for Independence
    1. Nigeria
    • strife and war between the 529 languages groups. Moved their capital to a “neutral” area
    1. Belgium
    • Divison by language and economics and led to call the separation and independence

Key Issue #4- Survival of Local Languages

A. Endangered Languages

  • 7102 languages, 2447 are endangered, 1531 are troubled because they aren’t being taught by parents to their kids

  • Worst areas- south pacific, latin america, and north america

    1. South Pacific
    • Australia- English is the official language and immigrants are required to learn it. Also original langues are secondary
    • New Zealand- Maori and English are both official
    1. North America
    • 142 dying languages, 61 troubled
    • Example- Miami native language is being revived by one single teacher

B. Preserving Languages (Ex. Celtic)

  • The united nation and the European union and making efforts to persevere dying languages such as the “Year of Indigenous languages”

    1. Welsh
    • It was made required education, official language and promoted by being used on road signs, music, and entertainment
    1. Cornish
    • languages dead revived by standardizing of writing and now use in some church services
    1. Breton
    • Declining numbers but taught in schools
    1. Irish
    • Official laonguage of Ireland (Gaelic). taught and celebrated in Irish music found on road signs and etc
    1. Scottish Gaelic
    • Desire to presage Scottish heritage and literature

C. Languages Isolates and Extinct Languages

  • \

    1. Language Isolates- is a language that has no relation to any other language
    • Example- Basque is a language isolate
    • Basque
    • Caused by limited interaction due to mountains surrounding them
    • Pre Indo-European language with no family
    • 600,000 people speak it and is sustainable
    1. Unchanged Languages
    • Languages that have remained unchanged over long periods of time though they are part of the established branch
    • Example- Icelandic part of the German Branch of Indo-European
    1. Extinct Languages- and language once used daily that has been abandoned
    • Example- Peru from 500 to 92 languages with only million speakers (Cuzco-Quechua Language)
    • Example- US- 74 languages are extinct
    • Think Globalization

D. New and Growing Languages

  • Languages that are invented, revived and preserved
  1. New Languages- newly discovered or newly created languages
  • Example- Koro Aka
  • Warlpiri Rampaku in Lamanujan Australia
  1. Growing Languages- languages that were understood but rarely used, but are
  • Example- Hebrew in Israel

E. Some Random Reminders

  1. Why are some languages endangered
  • Globalization
  • Colonialism
  1. Why preserve a language
  • Maintain Independence and power
  • Provide unity for a person
  • Tourist appeal
  • Preserve the cultural heritage
  • Nationalism
  1. Some Extra Vocab
  • Agricultural Theory also called Anatolian hearth theory
  • Kurgan Hearth theory