Chapter Five Flashcards
Language
A system of communication through speech, movement, sounds, or symbols that a group of people understands to have the same meaning.
Centripetal Force
A force that tends to unify people.
Centrifugal Force
A force that tends to pull people apart.
Institutional Language
A language used in education, work, mass media, and government.
Developing Language
A language in daily use by people of all ages, from children to elderly individuals.
Vigorous Language
A language in daily use by people of all ages, but it lacks a literary tradition.
Threatened Language
A language used for face-to-face communication, but is losing users.
Dying Language
A language still used by older people, but is not being transmitted to children.
Literary Tradition
A language that is written as well as spoken.
Language Family
A collection of languages related through a common ancestral language that existed long before recorded history.
Language Branch
A collection of languages within a family related through a common ancestral language that existed several thousand years ago; differences are not as extensive or as old as between language families, and archaeological evidence can confirm that the branches derived from the same family.
Language Group
A collection of languages within a branch that share a common origin in the relatively recent past and display many similarities in grammar and vocabulary.
Vulgar Latin
A form of Latin used in daily conversation by ancient Romans, as opposed to the standard dialect, which was used for official documents.
Lingua Franca
A language mutually understood and commonly used in trade by people who have different native languages.
Logograms
Symbols that represent words or meaningful parts of words.
