Language Flashcards
define language
set of mutually intelligible symbols and or sounds used for communication
what are dialects
differences within a language
dialects include variations in what
- pronunciation
- vocab
- syntax
- cadence
- spelling
what is cadence
how fast or slow we talk
common dialect connected on a map via an _______
isogloss
to connect dialects back to ancient languages, linguists use ___________ _____________
backwards reconstruction
what was William Jones’ tactic?
syntax commonalities. (ex. Greek and Latin connected to Sanskrit)
what is Jacob Grimm’s tactic?
sound shifts- consonants get harder as you go back
what is PIE
Proto Indian European
what is the most spoken language family
Proto Indian European
explain the Kurgan Hearth
dispersal of PIE from the area between the black sea and the caspian sea, relocation diffusion via conquest
-proof? oldest lang is furthest from the hearth
explain the Renfrew hypothesis
anatolian hearth in the fertile crescent diffuses via contagious diffusion along with agriculture
-proof? plant genetics
Explain Oppenheimer hearth
India then keeps moving west
what leads to language change?
human interaction
lingua franca
language used for purposes of trade
- can be a single lang (ex English)
- can be pidgin
- can be Creole
pidgin
at least 2 languages combined for purposes of trade
-simple vocab and structure
Creole
is a pidgin langauge that becomes the native tongue
standard language
the language taught in schools
official language
govt. imposed
prescriptive language
the way a language should be spoken
descriptive language
the way a language is spoken
gatekeepers
keep peop;le out
Shibboleth
password keep people in and out of society or the “in group”
does the US have an official language
no
the official language can be _____________ or ____________–
monolingual or multilingual
upper class use __________ _______ to keep others out
prescriptive grammar
the lower class uses _____ to keep others out
slang
what is deep reconstruction
recreating the language that preceded another language
language divergence
where lack of spatial interaction among speakers of a language breaks language into dialects and isolation breaks it into two different languages
language convergence
collapses two languages into one
what are the romance languages
- french
- spanish
- italian
- romanian
- portugese
where are the romance languages mainly spoken
where the roman empire once ruled
what are the germanic languages
- english
- danish
- german
- norweigian
- swedish
what are the slavic languages
- russian
- polish
- czech
- slovak
- ukranian
- slovenian
- serb-croatian
- bulgarian
give an example of the ancient language
nostratic
what are the five language families
- sino-tibetan
- afro-asiatic
- PIE
- Niger Congo
- Amerindian
what is the language that originates from sino tibetan
mandarin chinese
what is the the subfamily that comes from afro asiatic
semantic
what two languages come from the semantic sub family
- arabic
- hebrew
what three subfamiles originated from PIE
- romance
- germanic
- indic
give an example of an indic language
hindi
example of english dialects
- US
- British
- Australian
