Chapter 5: Languages
How does a Chinese Logogram differ from English letters?
Chinese logograms are symbols that represent words rather than sounds, like English letters
Why is the proof of a Proto-Indo-European language difficult to find?
Proof of a Proto-Indo-European language is difficult to find because it would have existed before the invention of writing or recorded history.
What is the function of a Standard Language?
Standard Language is a dialect that is well established and widely recognized as the most acceptable for government, business, education, and mass communication.
What do historians believe caused the splitting up of the Slavic language?
Historians believe that the cause of the splitting of the Slavic language is when several groups of Slavs migrated from Asia to different areas of Eastern Europe and thereafter lived in isolation from one another.
Why did Kemal Ataturk use language as a tool to modernize his country of Turkey?
How Kemal Ataturk uses language as a tool to modernize his country of Turkey is by ordering Turks to write Turkish with Roman letters instead of Arabic. Ataturk believed that using Roman letters would help modernize Turkey's economy and culture through increased communications with European countries.
It is necessary for a country to have an official language because it is used for laws, reports, public objects, money, and stamps.
How language is organized/classified using Mandarin in the example is that Mandarin is obviously the largest leaf in the tree because it includes 825 possible prehistoric families. Figure 5-3 displays each language family as a separate tree at ground level because differences among families predate recorded history.
How did the use of Russian force the unity of countries within the Soviet Union and what happened to those countries after the Soviet Union fell?
How the use of Russian forced the unity of countries within the Soviet Union is because Russians forced native speakers of other languages to learn Russian as a way of fostering cultural unity among the country's diverse peoples. What happened to those countries after the Soviet Union fell was that the newly independent republics adopted official languages other than Russian, although Russian remains the language for communication among officials in the countries that were formerly part of the Soviet Union.
Why is it necessary for a country to have an official language?
It is necessary for a country to have an official language because it is used for laws, reports, public objects, money, and stamps.
A creolized language is a result of what event?
It is the result of when a colonized group adopts the language of the dominant group but makes some changes from their own language.
How is the spread of Romance Branch Dialects similar to the spread of English Dialects?
Romance Branch Dialects and English Dialects are both spread and developed due to colonization.
How do the Southeast and Northeast differ in their pronunciations:
Southeast - The southeastern dialect makes some one syllable words such as "half" and "mine" into two syllables. Northeast - The northeastern dialect drops the /r/ sound. This characteristic is shared with speakers from the south of England.
What is a superfamily and why might their inclusion in the discussion of language be an issue?
Superfamilies are families that existence are highly controversial and speculative from tens of thousands of years ago.
How did the fall of the Roman Empire contribute to the regional variation of languages?
The collapse of the Roman Empire declined communication among the former provinces. As a result, there was greater regional variation in spoken Latin. The regions of the former Roman Empire became isolated enough to eventually develop distinct languages.
What main language did the Romance Languages evolve from?
The main language that the Romance languages evolved from is Ladino.
What is considered the most spoken Afro-Asiatic language and where do most of the speakers gain their language knowledge?
The most spoken Afro-Asiatic language is Arabic. Where most of the speakers gain their language knowledge is from Islam's holiest book.
What is the official language language of China and what language family does it belong to? How does China view the country's multiple languages?
The official language of China is nothing because there is no single Chinese language, but the most commonly used is Mandarin. What family is belongs to the Sinitic branch of the Sino-Tibetan family. How China views the country's multiple languages is a good thing because it shows national strength and unity.
What are the similarities regarding the diffusion of English and the diffusion of the Romance languages?
The similarities regarding the diffusion of English and the diffusion of the Romance languages is the origin and initial diffusion of language families predate recorded history, so we can only speculate about them. On the other hand, language branches and individual languages have originated and diffused since recorded history began.
Looking at the figure 5.3 what are the top 3 language families spoken around the world?
The top 3 language families spoken around the world according to figure 5-3 is Mandarin, English, and Spanish.
What factors might influence this difference of dialect?
The westward movement of colonists diffused certain English dialects. However, majority of Americans most likely find northeastern and southeastern accents sounding unusual since the standard pronunciation of the American West comes from the Midlands. The dialects in the former Midland colonies greatly differ from those spoken north and south. This is because the speakers came from the north rather than the south of England or from other countries.
What is a characteristic of creolized language?
What is a characteristic of creolized language?
What are the 5 most common Romance languages?
a. Spanish b. Portuguese c. French d. Italian e. Romanian
