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Chapter 6

Chapter 6. Language. Language - communication. people feel passionate about their own language 5000-6000 languages spoken today (very debatable) not static, change continually most societies have a “standard language”. Standard languages.

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Chapter 6

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  1. Chapter 6 Language

  2. Language- communication • people feel passionate about their own language • 5000-6000 languages spoken today (very debatable) • not static, change continually • most societies have a “standard language”

  3. Standard languages • published, widely distributed and purposefully taught in modernized countries. Sets quality. People with power and influence decide what the standard language will be • State exams • Civil service exams • SATs

  4. Language v. Vocalization • What is Language? using signs, gestures, change continuously • Vocalization: communication sound- speech • Language and Culture: cornerstones of culture (redefines and reinforces our culture) • assimilation: peoples who were colonized were forced to give up their native language (Native Americans, Aborigines, Africans, etc.)

  5. dialects • - regional variations of a standard language • accents can reveal where someone is from • isolglosses- a geographic boundary which a particular linguistic feature occurs • mutual intelligelibility- 2 people can understand each other when speaking • Dialect Chains: dialects nearest to each other geographically will be the most similar (further away you get, the less intelligible = less spatial interaction) • 7,000 dialects in the world

  6. Dialects in the Eastern U.S. Fig. 5-4: Hans Kurath divided the eastern U.S. into three dialect regions, whose distribution is similar to that of house types (Fig. 4-9).

  7. Classification and distribution of languages • What distinguishes a language from a dialect? • it is under debate • classify languages into • language families- languages are classified at the global scale; within a family the languages have a shared but fairly distant origin • language subfamily- more similarities • language groups- set of individual languages • there are 20 major language families • Indo-European is the largest

  8. Major Language FamiliesPercentage of World Population Fig. 5-11a: The percentage of world population speaking each of the main language families. Indo-European and Sino-Tibetan together represent almost 75% of the world’s people.

  9. Major World Languages • Chinese has the most speakers • 2nd is English (also has many speakers as a second language) • Sub-Saharan Africa has over 1000 languages • in Madagascar people speak a language not in African language family but in the Malay-Polynesian family because many people sailed from southeast Asia and settled in Madagascar

  10. Languages of Europe • Indo-European language family is the predominant family • exceptions include: • Uralic in Hungary and Finland • Altaic in Turkey

  11. Other European Languages Romance languages • French, Spanish, Italian, Romanian and Portuguese • found in regions once dominated by the Roman empire Germanic • English, German, Danish, Norwegian and Swedish • this shows the expansion out of northern Europe to the west and south • some Germanic people moved into edges of the Roman empire and their language took over • other Germanic people moved into areas never part of an empire (Sweden, Norway and Denmark)

  12. Romance Branch of Indo-European Fig. 5-8: The Romance branch includes three of the world’s 12 most widely spoken languages (Spanish, French, and Portuguese), as well as a number of smaller languages and dialects.

  13. Germanic Branch of Indo-European Fig. 5-6: The Germanic branch today is divided into North and West Germanic groups. English is in the West Germanic group.

  14. European Languages Cont. Slavic languages • (Russian, Polish, Czech, Slovak, Ukrainian, Slovenian, Serbo-Croatian and Bulgarian) • spread as Slavic people migrated out of Ukraine 2000 years ago to eastern Europe and took over the language of the Roman empire • in Europe there is a high correlation between language spoken and a countries borders (with a few exceptions where language extend into parts of other countries

  15. Indo-European Language Family Fig. 5-5: The main branches of the Indo-European language family include Germanic, Romance, Balto-Slavic, and Indo-Iranian.

  16. Languages of India • 4 main language families: • The 2 main ones: • Indo-European (Hindi is the main language) • Dravidian • The 2 lesser ones • Sino-Tibetan • Austro-Asiatic • there are 15 major languages spoken • 11/15 are Indo-European • 1600 other languages but only with a few speakers

  17. South Asian Languages and Language Families Fig. 5-7: Indo-European is the largest of four main language families in South Asia. The country of India has 18 official languages.

  18. Languages of Africa • over 1000 languages spoken • most are unwritten • 4 major language families • Largest is Niger-Congo

  19. Language Families of Africa Fig. 5-14: The 1,000 or more languages of Africa are divided among five main language families, including Austronesian languages in Madagascar.

  20. Chinese- One language or many? • Chinese is spoken by more people • but they have many dialects of Chinese that are very different (almost like another language) • Mandarin is the dominant dialect

  21. Linguistic Diversification • Language diversification is charted through sound shifts • Linguists can recreate extinct languages using: • backward reconstruction-used to track sound shifts and hardening of consonants “backward” toward the original language • deep reconstruction-recreate language that preceded current ones • William Jones and Jacob Grimm hypothesized the existence of an ancestral language. • (Proto) Indo-European is the predecessor of Latin, Greek, and Sanskrit.

  22. The Language Tree • August Schleicher suggested the basic process of language formation is language divergence. • Divergence- dialects to other languages when isolated • Languages branch into dialects. • Isolated dialects become a separate language. • When people move and languages come into contact, this causes language convergence. • Language replacement occurs when smaller groups are affected by cultural events- modification of language by stronger invaders of a less advanced people

  23. Language Family Trees Fig. 5-12: Family trees and estimated numbers of speakers for the main world language families.

  24. Invasions of England5th–11th centuries Fig. 5-2: The groups that brought what became English to England included Jutes, Angles, Saxons, and Vikings. The Normans later brought French vocabulary to English.

  25. Old and Middle English Dialects Fig. 5-3: The main dialect regions of Old English before the Norman invasion persisted to some extent in the Middle English dialects through the 1400s.

  26. Theories of Language Diffusion Conquest Theory • home source on the steppes of Ukraine and Russia • people used horses and the wheel • people conquered others as they dispersed across Europe and Asia Agricultural Theory • home source is modern-day Turkey (Anatolia) • people used horses and the wheel to farm • farming spread through Middle East and Europe • supported by genetic research- genes diluted w/westward movement, but still present in the people there • critics point to area as not good farmland

  27. Kurgan Theory of Indo-European Origin Fig. 5-9: In the Kurgan theory, Proto-Indo-European diffused from the Kurgan hearth north of the Caspian Sea, beginning about 7,000 years ago.

  28. Anatolian Hearth Theory of Indo-European Origin Fig. 5-10: In the Anatolian hearth theory, Indo-European originated in Turkey before the Kurgans and diffused through agricultural expansion.

  29. Language Super-family • Russian scholars found common words and established an more ancient language • The pre-Proto-Indo-European language is called Nostratic. • Nostratic existed at least 14,000 years before the present.

  30. American Diffusion • The Native American population was very small, yet contained the most number of languages (200). • The Greenberg Hypothesis breaks the languages into three families. • These families are Amerind, Na-Dene, and Eskimo-Aleut. • The hypothesis states divergence must have occurred more than 12,000-13,000 years ago. • New archeological discoveries support the dating.

  31. Official Languages • in the US, we don’t have an official language • due to high numbers of Spanish immigrant many feel we should also use Spanish • there are many opponents to this • English has become the main language of international communication • often countries will make English the official language, not the indigenous language

  32. Esperanto • in early 20th century, an attempt to make a world language called Esperanto • this eventually failed • Europeans already multi-lingual • Too much time to learn • Unfair to non-Indo-European speakers

  33. Lingua franca • a common language to communicate for speakers of different languages • started with traders • Arabic was the lingua franca during the spread of Islam • English during colonial times

  34. Creolization • when language spread through relocation diffusion, it often changes • pidgin- simplified, modified form of a language- a language revised and simplified through contract with other languages) • creolization- when the pidgin form replaces an original language

  35. Pwned The best word ever!

  36. Definition • Pwned means to take complete control over someone or something.

  37. Origin • The word pwned derived from the word “owned”, which was a common gaming word. However, gamers frequently typed a P instead of an O by accident causing the word “pwned” to become popular.

  38. Pictures of Pwnage

  39. Multilingualism • very few monolingual states (Japan, Portugal) • but they still have other languages spoken (many Koreans live in Japan) • some are bilingual (Canada and Belgium) • others have many (Switzerland)

  40. Canada • when Canada was formed, Quebec remained a French speaking region • now laws say all signs in Quebec must be in French • non French speaking Canadians don’t like this

  41. French-English Boundary in Canada Fig. 5-18: Although Canada is bilingual, French speakers are concentrated in the province of Québec, where 80% of the population speaks French.

  42. Belgium • divided into Dutch and French speaking regions • in 19th century, French became the official language • Dutch speakers protested this (want to use Dutch in school, court etc) • the debate continues

  43. Language Divisions in Belgium Fig. 5-16: There has been much tension in Belgium between Flemings, who live in the north and speak Flemish, a Dutch dialect, and Walloons, who live in the south and speak French.

  44. Nigeria • many languages spoken • made English the official language • kids must are taught in English • teachers don’t like this because it takes away from instruction time and does not prepare the kids for life in a local village

  45. Languages of Nigeria Fig. 5-15: More than 200 languages are spoken in Nigeria, the largest country in Africa (by population). English, considered neutral, is the official language.

  46. Official languages • many countries adopted the language of their colonizers to unify the many languages spoken • India adopted both Hindi and English • some resent have the language of their oppressors • South Africa has 11 official languages- the most

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