Language Flashcards
Language
A set of sounds and symbols that is used for communication.
Standard language
It is the one we speak.
Dialects
Differences in vocabulary, syntax (way words are put together to form phrases), pronunciation, cadence and even the pace of speech.
Isogloss
a line on a dialect map marking the boundary between linguistic features.
Language families
Languages that have a shared but distant origin.
Subfamiles
Where the commonalities are more definite and the origin is more recent.
Proto-Indo-European
Ancestral Indo-European language connected to hearth of ancient Latin, Greek, and Sanskrit.
Proto-Eurasiatic
Eurasiatic is a proposed language macrofamily that would include many language families historically spoken in northern, western, and southern Eurasia.
Language Divergence
When spatial interaction among speakers of a language breaks down and the language fragments first into dialects and then into discrete tongues.
Backward Reconstruction
Linguists can find how languages fit together and where the branches were once joined.
Language convergence
Collapses two languages into one.
Extinct langauge
Often happens – when descendants choose to use another language, abandoning the language of their ancestors.
Conquest theory
Provides a theory that holds that early speakers of Proto-Indo-European spread from east to west on horseback, overpowering earlier inhabitants and beginning the diffusion and differentiation of Indo-European tongues.
Romance languages
French, Spanish, Italian, Romania, and Portuguese – lie in areas once controlled by the Roman Empire.
Germanic Languages
English, German, Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish – due to expansion & migration of people out of northern Europe to the west and south.
