Chapter 5: Languages Flashcards
define language
form of communication, uses sounds that have a meaning to a group
what is an institutional language
language used in education, work, mass media, government.
what is a literacy tradition
language written and spoken
what is a developing language
spoken in daily use with a literacy tradition that is not widely distributed
what is a vigorous language
spoken in daily use but lacks a literacy tradition
what is a threatened language
used for face-to-face communication but losing users
what is a dying language
used by older people, but not transmitted to children
what are the 3 types of language classification
- language family: collection of languages related to each other through a common ancestor long before recorded history
- language branch: common ancestor that can be confirmed though archaeological evidence (not as big as family)
- language group: share common origin in the relatively recent past and display relatively few differences in grammar and vocal.
what are the 4 most frequent writing systems
Cyrillic, latin, arabic, Chinese
what are the 8 info-european language branches
romance, germanic, indo-iranian, alto-slavic, Albanian, Armenian, celtic, greek
what is a lingua franca
language that is mutually understood and commonly used in trade by people who have different native languages
what is a pidgin language
speech that adopts simple grammar and limited vocabulary of a lingua franca, used to communicate between 2 different languages
what is a de facto language
predominate but not official language
what is a logogram
symbol represents word rather than sound
what is a dialect
regional varieties of a language distinguished by vocabulary, spelling, and pronunciations
what is an isogloss
word usage boundary related to dialects
what are 2 challenges in distinguishing between language and dialect
- globalization surpasses dialect and language varieties
2. cultural identity encourages new languages
what is an official language
adopted by government for the conduct of business and publication of documents
what is a creole language
language resulted from mixing of colonizer and indigenous languages
what is an endangered language
it is at risk of extinction, few surviving speakers
what is an isolated language
unrelated to other languages, no language family
what is a big reason for dead languages
migration and conquest
what is a growing language
extinct/nearly extinct language that is coming back
