Unit Three Part One: Culture and Language

Question 1

Cultural diffusion

Answer 1

The spread of new knowledge and skills from one culture to another.

Question 2

Culture

Answer 2

way of life of a group of people who share beliefs and similar customs.

Question 3

Culture hearth

Answer 3

a center where cultures developed and from which ideas and traditions spread outward.

Question 4

Culture region

Answer 4

Division of the Earth based on a variety of factors, including government, social groups, economic systems, language, or religion.

Question 5

accent

Answer 5

A way of pronouncing words that indicates the place of origin or social background of the speaker.

Question 6

Dialect

Answer 6

A regional variety of a language distinguished by vocabulary, spelling, and pronunciation.

Question 7

Ebonics

Answer 7

Dialect spoken by some African Americans (Outdated term, replaced with AAVE: African American Vernacular English)

Question 8

Extinct Language

Answer 8

A language that was once used by people in daily activities but is no longer used.

Question 9

Ideogram

Answer 9

The system of writing used in China and other East Asian countries in which each symbol represents an idea or concept rather than a specific sound, as is the case with letters in English.

Question 10

Isogloss

Answer 10

A boundary that separates regions in which different language usages predominate.

Question 11

Language Branch

Answer 11

A collection of languages related through a common ancestor that existed several thousand years ago. Differences are not as extensive or as old as with language families, and archaeological evidence can confirm that the branches derived from the same family.

Question 12

Language

Answer 12

A system of communication through the use of speech, a collection of sounds understood by a group of people to have the same meaning.

Question 13

Language Group

Answer 13

A collection of languages within a branch that share a common origin in the relatively recent past and display relatively few differences in grammar and vocabulary.

Question 14

Language Family

Answer 14

A collection of languages related to each other through a common ancestor long before recorded history.

Question 15

Lingua Franca

Answer 15

A language mutually understood and commonly used in trade by people who have different native languages

Question 16

Literary Tradition

Answer 16

A language that is written as well as spoken

Question 17

mono-linguality

Answer 17

Speaking only one language

Question 18

bi-linguality

Answer 18

speaking two languages

Question 19

multi-linguality

Answer 19

speaking several languages

Question 20

Official Language

Answer 20

The language adopted for use by the government for the conduct of business and publication of documents.

Question 21

orthography

Answer 21

The study of correct spelling

Question 22

Pidgin

Answer 22

A form of speech that adopts a simplified grammar and limited vocabulary of a lingua franca, used for communications among speakers of two different languages.

Question 23

standard language

Answer 23

The form of a language used for official government business, education, and mass communications.

Question 24

Toponym

Answer 24

The name given to a portion of Earth’s surface.

Question 25

Custom

Answer 25

The frequent repetition of an act, to the extent that it becomes characteristic of the group of people performing the act.

Question 26

Folk Culture

Answer 26

Culture traditionally practiced by a small, homogeneous, rural group living in relative isolation from other groups.

Question 27

Habit

Answer 27

A repetitive act performed by a particular individual

Question 28

Isolated Langauge

Answer 28

A language that is unrelated to any other languages and therefore not attached to any language family.

Question 29

Taboo

Answer 29

A restriction on behavior imposed by social custom.

Question 30

Terrior

Answer 30

The contribution of a location’s distinctive physical features to the way food tastes

Question 31

Acculturation

Answer 31

The adoption of cultural traits, such as language, by one group under the influence of another.

Question 32

Assimilation

Answer 32

the social process of absorbing one cultural group into harmony with another

Question 33

Multiculturalism

Answer 33

a condition in which ethnic groups exist separately and share equally in economic and political life

Question 34

Cultural Practice

Answer 34

Routine activities common to a people that may reflect religion, traditions, economic survival, community organization, and regional ideology.

Question 35

cultural relativism

Answer 35

the practice of judging a culture by its own standards

Question 36

Nativist

Answer 36

a person who favors those born in his country and is opposed to immigrants

Question 37

Ethnocentrism

Answer 37

evaluation of other cultures according to preconceptions originating in the standards and customs of one’s own culture.

Question 38

Cultural Landscape

Answer 38

An approach to geography that emphasizes the relationships among social and physical phenomena in a particular study area.

Question 39

sequent occupance

Answer 39

the notion that successive societies leave their cultural imprints on a place, each contributing to the cumulative cultural landscape

Question 40

Post Modern Architecture

Answer 40

A reaction in architectural design to the feeling of sterile alienation that many people get from modern architecture. Postmodernism uses older, historical styles and a sense of lightheartedness and eclecticism. Buildings combine pleasant-looking forms and playful colors to convey new ideas and to create spaces that are more people-friendly than their modernist predecessors.

Question 41

traditional architecture

Answer 41

buildings use building materials available and reflect social/environmental customs of the people EX) log cabins

Question 42

cultural beliefs

Answer 42

The predominant beliefs in a culture about right and wrong, what is most important in life, and how life should be lived. May also include beliefs about where and how life originated and what happens after death.

Question 43

Centripetal force

Answer 43

A cultural value that tends to unify people

Question 44

Centrifugal Force

Answer 44

A cultural value that tends to pull people apart