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
