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

     2. Canada   * french spoken in Quebec and legally mandated this is cause of tension and calls for Independence

     3. Nigeria   * strife and war between the 529 languages groups. Moved their capital to a “neutral” area

     4. 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

     2. 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

     2. Cornish   * languages dead revived by standardizing of writing and now use in some church services

     3. Breton   * Declining numbers but taught in schools

     4. Irish   * Official laonguage of Ireland (Gaelic). taught and celebrated in Irish music found on road signs and etc

     5. 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

  \      2. 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

  \      3. 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

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