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The Origin and Evolution of Languages: A Brief History

Explore the fascinating history of languages, from the origins of human communication to the development of major language families. Discover the diversity and complexity of languages around the world.

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The Origin and Evolution of Languages: A Brief History

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  1. You can call me Profe Tewell…or Entrenador Tewell… or Profe-Entrenador Tewell • It’s time to TALK a little about LANGUAGE…

  2. Origin of Languages

  3. History and Evolution • Scientists don’t know when language was first used by humans or their ancestors • Estimates range • 2 million years ago Homo habilis • 40 thousand years ago  Cro-Magnon man • Writing came much later, so there’s not a lot of data • Oral tradition • There are an estimated 6,089 languages actively used in the world

  4. Babel • Christian tradition • Babel (Babylon) was a city that united humanity, all speaking a single language and migrating from the east; it was the first city to be built after the Great Flood. The people decided their city should have a tower so immense that it would have "its top in the heavens." Do you know how the story goes?

  5. Culture Hearth • An area where a distinctive set of cultural traits develops • Fertile Crescent (Mesopotamia) • Nile River Valley (Modern Egypt, Ethiopia)

  6. Indus Valley Fertile Crescent (Mesopotamia) Huong-Yellow River Meso- (Middle) America Ganges Plain Nile River Valley West Africa Andean America

  7. The first person that I see touch their nose with their left index finger gets….. • To answer a question about this lesson… • If they get it right, man…it’s CANDY CITY!

  8. Question • How many languages are there, roughly? • A. 4,000 • B. 5,000 • C. 6,000 • D. 7,000

  9. Brothers, Sisters, Cousins • Just like our society, languages are grouped into families that have common ancestors • Who is the common ancestor of you and your mother or father? • Who is the common ancestor of you and your cousin? • What language is the common ancestor of French and Spanish? • From what language has English evolved?

  10. Major Language Families • Indo-European Largest Family • 3 billion speakers • Roughly half the World’s population • Divided into 443 different languages • Most of the major languages of Europe, the Americas, and many Asian languages

  11. Indo-European (cont’d) • Each of the following languages is an Indo-European language that has more than 100 million speakers • Bengali (India, Bangladesh) • English (scattered…why?) • French (scattered…why?) • German (scattered…why?) • Hindi (India) • Portuguese (scattered…why?) • Russian (Russia and former USSR) • Spanish (scattered…why?)

  12. You thought the last one was complicated…get a gander at the next one!

  13. Diffusion of Indo-European Languages

  14. Subfamilies of Indo-European Languages • Germanic • German • English • Dutch • Norwegian • Swedish • Danish • Others (Frisian, Afrikaans)

  15. Subfamilies of Indo-European Languages • Romantic • Derived from Latin …Roman Empire • French • Spanish • Portuguese • Italian

  16. Sino-Tibetan • 2nd largest in terms of the number of native speakers • 250 different languages • Major subfamily Chinese languages

  17. Diffusion of Sino-Tibetan Languages

  18. Afro-Asiatic • 285 million native speakers • 240 different languages • Including: Arabic, Hebrew • North Africa • East Africa • Southwest Asia (Middle-East)

  19. Afro-Asiatic

  20. Tribal • Central and Southern African Languages • Were spread by the Bantu Tribe between 5 and 7 thousand years ago (5000 BC-3000BC) • The Bantu were forced to move southward because of invasion, drought, and possible internal strife

  21. “Tribal” is the name that I have given to those languages originating with the Bantu Migration • Khosian • Niger-Congo • Nilo-saharan • Languages used primarily south of the Sahara Desert

  22. Austronesian • Fewest number of native speakers • Largest number of languages… • Where  From Madagascar to Easter Island

  23. Why are there so few Austronesian language speakers, yet so many languages?

  24. A “Created Language?” • Esperanto… • Compilation of different languages • Designed to make it easy for everyone to communicate • 1800s-early 1900s  as many as 2 million people learned the language • No country adopted it, though • The Esperanto Alphabet: • a b c ĉ d e f g ĝ h ĥ i j ĵ k l m n o p r s ŝ t u ŭ v z

  25. Most Widely Spoken Languages? • Mandarin Chinese (874 million, 16 countries) • Hindi (366 million, 17 countries) • English (341 million, 104 countries) • Spanish (322 million, 43 countries) • Bengali (207 million, 9 countries) • Portuguese (176 million, 33 countries) • Russian (167 million, 30 countries) • Japanese (125 million, 26 countries) • German (100 million, 40 countries) • Korean (78 million, 31 countries) • French (77 million, 53 countries)

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