Chapter 5: Language Flashcards
What are the four classification layers of languages?
- Family- not related to other families (Indo-European)
- Branch- (Romance, Germanic)
- Group- hard to distinguish the languages
- Dialect- variation of same language
What are some ways we can tell that languages are related?
having a similar alphabet, spelling, geography, root words, conjugation
Proto-Indo Eurpean spread very far, what are the two hypothesizes of how?
- Nomadic Warrior, meaning they conquered land and brought language with them
- Sedentary Farmer, which is slower, spreading language by trade and farming
What is an isogloss?
A word usage boundary
What is a lingua franca? What are some examples?
A language that is used by many people that have a different native language. Ex. English, Swahilli, Hindi, Russian, Indonesian, ASL
Centripital vs Centrifugal forces
Centripital pulls people together
Centrifugal pulls people apart
Classifications of how much languages are used (5)
- Institutional- used in govt, education, media,
- developing- used daily by many generations
- vigorous- developing w/o literary tradition (both written and spoken)
- threatened- only face to face, loosing users
- dying- only elderly
where did language originate?
Africa
What type of diffusion do languages typically spread by?
Relocation Diffusion, but english spread with expansion diffusion
What is a Creole language?
A mix of the language of colonizer and the original language of a place.
What is a Pidgin language?
A simplified version of two languages so they can communicate.
Northern, Midland, South, and West are all examples of dialects of what country?
US
