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Language Part 1

Language Part 1. Definition Numbers Importance Classification Language terms. Language. System of communication through speech, a collection of sounds that a group of people understands to have the same meaning Sounds have specific meaning to specific groups

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Language Part 1

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  1. Language Part 1 • Definition • Numbers • Importance • Classification • Language terms

  2. Language • System of communication through speech, a collection of sounds that a group of people understands to have the same meaning • Sounds have specific meaning to specific groups • Excludes body language, sign language, writing

  3. “DURAK” Russian = Fool Turkish = Bus Stop

  4. Importance of Language • Essence of culture • No culture exists without language • Protecting and preserving language • French Language Academy • 1635: founded by Louis XIII • 1992: ban foreign words • 1996: French becomes the official language

  5. Impact on Culture? German • Umlauts = dots above certain vowels • Umlauts cause mouth to turn down • Movement of muscles in face = affect mood • Reason why Germans have reputation for being grumpy?

  6. History French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Romanian… • All came from Latin • In the Romance branch of the Indo-European language family (English is in the Germanic branch)

  7. Spanish words with Arabic origin islam — Islam jirafa — giraffe lila — lilac lima — lime limón — lemon masacre — massacre masaje — massage máscara — mask mazapán — marzipan mono — monkey naranja — orange ojalá — I hope, God willing olé — bravo paraíso — paradise ramadán — Ramadan sorbete — sherbet sofá — sofa rubio — blond talco — talc tamarindo — tamarind tarea — task tarifa — tariff toronja — grapefruit zanahoria — carrot http://spanish.about.com/cs/historyofspanish/a/arabicwords_2.htm aceite — oil adobe — adobe Alá — Allah albacora — albacore albahaca — basil alcade — mayor alcatraz — pelican alcázar — fortress, palace alcohol — alcohol algodón — cotton almanaque — almanac almirante — admiral arroz — rice asesino — assassin atún — tuna azafrán — saffron azúcar — sugar azul — blue (same source as English "azure") baño — bathroom barrio — district café — coffee cero — zero Corán — Koran cuzcuz — couscous guitarra — guitar hasta — until

  8. English word origins Whiskey: Gealic (Scottish) Vodka: Russian (-ka suffix means little, little water) Tattoo: Tahitian, sailors took up the habit Tea: Chinese Smorgasbord: Swedish Chocolate: Nahuatl (Aztecs) Cookie: Dutch (English’s closest major language relative, many people speak it) Jerky: Quechua (Incan) Goulash: Hungarian Yoghurt: Turkish (not “yogurt” but “yo-ert”) Curry: Tamil (India) Pajamas: Farsi (Iranian, Persian) Bandana: Hindi Kindergarten: German Piano: Italian Pal: Romani (Gypsy) Silhouette: French from Basque (chaparral is Spanish from Basque) Geyser: Icelandic Psycho: Greek Incognito: Italian, Latin

  9. Centripetal Force Hebrew, a Semitic language in the Afro-Asiatic language family • Liturgical language since about 2000 BC • Diminished in 4th century BC • AD 70: Roman-enforced Jewish diaspora • Zionist movement: Jews return to Palestine • Israel established in 1948 • Hebrew chosen as one of two official languages (the other is Arabic) • Hebrew was the only language that could unite the disparate cultural groups

  10. Centrifugal Force Language in Belgium • 3 languages: • Wallonia: French • Flanders: Flemish (Dutch dialect) • Eastern Wallonia: German • Sharp language divide • Complex system of government • Difficulty setting boundary • Political crisis

  11. Many speak few Few speak many

  12. Variations in Language Counts • Whitney 1000 • Pei 3000 • 1974 Ethnologue 5800 • Surveys • Discovery / death • Language / dialect debate • Written component 1-2 per year discovered 1 per week dies off Chinese? Norwegian, Swedish, Danish? Croatian, Serbian?

  13. Classification • 3 general principles of taxonomy (the science of how to classify) • 1. Convergence (similarities) • Accident • Onomatopoeia • Human tendency • 2. Borrowing • 3. Common origin

  14. Languages with different origins may converge and reflect similarities • Accident • Onomatopoeia (http://www.eleceng.adelaide.edu.au/Personal/dabbott/animal.html) • Human tendency

  15. Language classification system Language family (e.g. Indo-European) Language branch (e.g. Germanic) Language group (e.g. West Germanic) Language (e.g. English) Dialect (e.g. American)

  16. Similarities between languages

  17. Creole language: a mix of the colonizer’s language and the indigenous language Dialect: regional form of a language Exonym: name given by one group to language of another (German, Deutsch, Aleman, Tedesco) Extinct/dead language: no longer natively spoken Isolated language: unrelated to other languages (Basque) Lingua franca: a medium of communication between peoples of different languages Liturgical language: relegated to use in religious services Official language: the language the government conducts business in Pidgin language: an auxiliary language used by speakers of two different languages; a simplified form of one of the languages, with a reduced vocabulary, grammatical structure, and considerable variation in pronunciation. Revived language: a language that comes back from obscurity/disuse Standard language: a language in its proper form

  18. Language Part 2 Selected language families • Indo-European • Sino-Tibetan • Afro-Asiatic • Austronesian • Dravidian • Altaic • Uralic • Niger-Congo • Khoisan • Amerindian • Japanese • Caucasian Indo-European language family (origin theories) English (origin)

  19. Language families • Language family: a collection of languages related through a common ancestral language that existed long before recorded history • Approximately 100 language families in the world

  20. The Indo-European language family • Indo-European (I-E) is the world’s most spoken language family • 3 billion people, approximately half the world, including English speakers • North America, South America, Europe, North Asia, South Asia, Australia, South Africa

  21. The Sino-Tibetan language family • Spoken by 26% of the world, mostly in China • Sino-Tibetan language family branches • 1. Sinitic • 2. Austro-Thai • 3. Tibetan-Burman

  22. The Sino-Tibetan language family branches • Sinitic (Chinese languages) • Mandarin • The most used language in the world • Spoken by 75% of Chinese people • 1 of 6 official languages of the UN • Other languages are spoken in southern and eastern China (Wu, Min, Yue/Cantonese, etc.) • Chinese languages have many homonyms (words that sound the same but have different meanings) • The written component: • Consistent written form for all Chinese languages: words pronounced differently but written the same way • Thousands of characters, some represent sounds (as in English), but most are ideograms which represent ideas or concepts • Austro-Thai • Thai • Tibetan-Burman • Burmese

  23. The Afro-Asiatic language family • Spoken by 6% of the world, the world’s 3rd largest language family • North Africa and southwest Asia • Includes Arabic, Hebrew, Berber, and other languages • Afro-Asiatic languages used to write the holiest books of the 3 major world religions (Judaism, Christianity, Islam)

  24. Arabic • The major Afro-Asiatic language • 200 million native Arab speakers • Language of the Quran (Koran) • 1 of 6 official languages of the UN • How it differs from English • Formation of compound words doesn’t exist • English: ultraviolet • Arabic: that-which-is-beyond-violet-ness • No rules – you could write right to left or left to right, or plowing • No punctuation

  25. Official languages of the UN • English • French • Russian • Spanish • Mandarin • Arabic

  26. The Austronesian language family • Spoken by 5% of the world, mostly in SE Asia • Most speakers are in Indonesia, the world’s 4th most populous country • Indonesia has many languages (739) • Javanese (spoken mostly on the island of Java) • Indonesian (used as a second language) • Malay (used mostly in Malaysia) • Tagalog, used in the Philippines, is in the Central Philippine branch of the Austronesian language family and the base for Pilipino, an official language of the Philippines

  27. The Dravidian language family • Spoken by 4% of the world, mostly in India • Examples • Telugu • Tamil: 55 million

  28. The Altaic language family • Spoken by 3% of the world, mostly in Asia (Eastern Mediterranean, Central Asia, North Asian Pacific) • Turkish is the most widely used Altaic language • In 1928, Ataturk ordered that the language be written with the Roman alphabet, instead of Arabic letters • Other Altaic languages include Azerbaijani, Uzbek, Kazakh, Uyghur, and Turkmen • Most speakers of Altaic languages are Muslim • The Soviet Union used to govern most of the Altaic-speaking region; when it dissolved in the early 1990s, Altaic languages became official in newly independent countries (Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan) • A problem is that the boundaries of the countries do not coincide with the regions where the speakers are clustered

  29. Mustafa Kemal Atatürk (1881–1938), first president of Turkey The Decree on dress targeted the religious insignia used outside times of worship. Kemal passed a series of laws beginning from 1923, especially the Hat Law of 1925 which introduced the use of Western style hats instead of the fez, and the Law Relating to Prohibited Garments of 1934, which emphasized the need to wear modern suits instead of antiquated religion-based clothing such as the veil and turban.

  30. The Uralic language family • Every European country is dominated by Indo-European speakers, except for 3: Estonia, Finland, and Hungary (they speak languages in the Uralic family) • Location: pockets in Europe and Siberia • Central Europe • Northern Europe • Western Siberia • Origin: the “Ural Mountains” (separate Europe from Asia – European Russia and Asiatic Russia)

  31. The Niger-Congo language family • Spoken by 3% of the world, mostly in sub-Saharan Africa • Spoken by 95% of people in sub-Saharan Africa • Niger-Congo has 6 branches with many languages: • Benue-Congo is the largest branch • Includes 3 languages spoken natively by 10 million people • Swahili is spoken by 800,000 people, but used as a second language by 30 million Africans and has an extensive literature (Africa has about 900 million people)

  32. The Khoisan language family • Clicking • Bushmen of the Kalahari Desert http://www.nigeriamasterweb.com/10mbebe/Bushmen.jpg

  33. The Amerindian language family • Location: New World (western hemisphere) • Arctic • US southwest • Yucatan Peninsula/Central America • Andean South America • Amazon Basin • Examples • Navajo (130,000 people) • Cherokee • Nahuatl • Mayan • Quecha

  34. The Japanese language family • Spoken by 2% of the world • Developed as an independent language because Japan is an island country • Chinese cultural traits have diffused into Japan • Written with Chinese ideograms, but also with phonetic symbols (like Western languages)

  35. The Indo-European language family • Spoken by half of the world • Location • North America: English, Spanish, French • Middle America/Caribbean: Spanish, English, French, Dutch • South America: Spanish, Portuguese, English, Dutch, French • Africa (southern South Africa (R.S.A.)): English, Afrikaans (like Dutch, but for politically reasons, referred to as its own language) • Europe: English, Spanish, French, Italian, Portguese, Romanian, Greek, German, Celtic, Albanian, Swedish, Armenian… • Asia: (north Asia – Siberia, southwest Asia – Iran, south Asia – Pakistan/India): Russian, Farsi, Urdu, Hindi • Australia/New Zealand: English

  36. Indo-European language similarities

  37. Indo-European language family branches • Balto-Slavic • Russian • Bulgarian • Serbian • Czech • Polish • Croatian • Celtic • Irish/Scots Gaelic • Welsh • Breton • Cornish • Manx • Germanic • English (closest minor language relative: Frisian; closest major language relative: Dutch) • Dutch • German • Icelandic • Indo-Iranian • Kurdish • Farsi • Urdu • Hindi • Pashto • Romance • Spanish - • French - • Italian - All come from Latin • Romanian - • Catalan -

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