Human Geography Ch. 5 Flashcards
Characteristics of language
- System of communication through speech
- Collection of sounds a group of people understand to have the same meaning
Used by government for conducting business and publishing documents
Official language
Characteristics of a language family
- Collection of languages related through a common ancestral language
- Existed before written history
Characteristics of a language branch
- Collection of languages within a family related through a common ancestral language
- Existed several thousand years ago
Collection of languages within a branch that share a common origin in relatively recent past
Language Group
What two language families are used by 2/3 of the world?
Indo-European and Sino-Tibetan
What are the 4 branches of Indo-European languages?
Germanic, Indo-Iranian, Romance, and Balto-Slavic
What languages are Germanic?
Scandinavian languages
Characteristics of the Indo-Iranian branch
- Most speakers
- Most widely used in South Asia (Hindi in India)
What did Romance evolve from?
Latin
What are examples of Romance languages?
Spanish, Portuguese, French, and Italian
Balto-Slavic is most widely used in ______
Russia
Where are Balto-Slavic languages?
Russia and Eastern Europe
What are the three possible ways of how languages spread?
Diffusion, Nomadic Warrior Theory, and Sedentary Farmer Theory
How would languages spread through diffusion?
- Through migration
- Migration and isolation are key dialect-formation processes
Characteristics of the Nomadic Warrior Theory
- First Indo-European speakers may have been Kurgan people
- Conquered much of Europe and South Asia (in search of grassland for animals)
Colin Renfrew believes Indo-European migrated in Europe and South Asia with agricultural practices
Sedentary Farmer Theory
English =
language of England
How did English spread?
Migration from England to various parts of the world
English is the official language in ___ countries
54
Where is English predominant?
U.S., Australia, UK
What language may become the leading language by online users? (possibly also most important language of social media)
Chinese
Language of international communication
Lingua Franca
Characteristics of Lingua Franca
- Spread through diffusion
- English most important
Mixes simplified grammar and limited vocabulary of lingua franca with another language
Pidgin English
________ is regional variation of a language distinguished by _______, _______, and ________.
Dialect
vocabulary, spelling, pronunciation
A subdivision of a dialect
Subdialect
Generally speakers of one dialect ___ understand of another dialect
can
Dialects in U.S. are a result of _________ movement of colonists from 3 East Coast dialect regions
westward
Word-usage boundary
Isoglosses
What is an example of an isoglass?
Soft drink dialects
Why is there a difference between American and British dialects?
Isolation
When did American and British dialects evolve differently?
18th and 19th centuries
In what ways does U.S. English differ from England’s?
- Vocabulary
- Spelling
- Pronunciation
Why is the U.S. English vocabulary different from that in England?
Different encounters and inventions
Why is the U.S. English spelling different from that in England?
Diverged because of U.S. strong national identity
Why is the U.S. English pronunciation different from that in England?
Interaction was done largely through print
Language unrelated to any other language
Isolated language
What type of language is not attached to any language family
Isolated language
Once used by people in daily activities but no longer in use
Extinct languages
What are extinct languages due to?
Globalization
Language at risk of extinction because it has few surviving speakers
Endangered languages
Endangered languages are spoken by ______ generations
older
