Ap Human Geography Chapter 5 Key Issue 1-2
Language Branch
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
Language Family
A collection of languages related to each other through a common ancestor long before recorded history
Language Group
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
Which of the following language families includes Arabic?
Afro Asiatic Arabic is spoken by over 200 million people worldwide and is part of the Afro-Asiatic language family. Hebrew is also in the Afro-Asiatic language family and is linguistically similar to Arabic. Indo-European languages include English and Russian. Dravidian is spoken in Southern India. Nilo-Saharan is spoken across north-central Africa.
After the Soviet Union ended Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, and Turkmenistan used which family as third official language?
Altaic
Uralic
Altaic and Uralic family once thought to be linked as one family, but recent points to distinct origins uralic traceable back to common language, Proto-Uralic, first used 7k years ago by people in Ural mountains of today's Russia, North of Kurgan homeland Migrants carried Uralic to Europe, carving out homelands for themselves in the midst of Germanic and Slavic speaking peoples and retaining their language as a major element of cultural identity.
Germanic Branch of Indo-European
English and German are both languages in the *West Germanic* group (German may seem hard to learn, but structurally similar and have words in common) West Germanic is further divided into *High Germanic and Low Germanic subgroups*, so named because they are found in high and low elevations within present-day Germany. The Germanic language branch also includes *North Germanic* languages, spoken in Scandinavia . The four Scandinavian languages—Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, and Icelandic—all derive from Old Norse (principle lang spoken through Scandinavia before 1000.)
Diffusion to North America: DIffusion and origin of English
English first diffused west from enland to NA in 17th century. First successful english colonies built in NA including Jamestown. After England defeated French to dominate NA colonies, English was secured as official lang in NA British took control of Ireland, South Asia, South Pacific, and south Africa. English became official here even if only upper class could speak it. More recent, US responsible for diffusing english most notably Philippines which was ceded by US after Span-Am War.
What is the origin of the name of the Romance language branch?
Its evolution from the Latin language spoken by the Romans
Which of the following language families utilizes a distinctive clicking sound?
Khoisan
Which of the following statements correctly describes the nomadic warrior hypothesis of the origin and diffusion of Proto-Indo-European?
Kurgan warriors spoke Proto-Indo-European and conquered much of Europe and South Asia.
Diffusion of lang predated history vs lang branches and individual langs
Lang families that predate recored history means we can only speculate Lang branches and individual langs have originated and diffused in recored history (English and ROmance lang branches are examples)
Which of the following terms refers to a collection of languages related through a common ancestral language that existed long before recorded history?
Language family
Which of the following statements regarding the South Slavic group of languages is correct?
Languages such as Bosnian, Croatian, and Serbian are viewed as distinct languages by their speakers.
Chinese languages use symbols that represent words or ideas rather than sounds. Which of the following terms describes this system of writing
Logograms
Lang w largest number of speakers?
Mandarin (in China, Mandarin is most widely spoken)
Which of the following statements regarding the origin of English is correct?
Modern English primarily evolved from the languages spoken by the Germanic tribes that invaded the British Isles.
Niger Congo
More than 95% of people in sub-Saharan Africa speak from this family. One is *Swahili* - first lang of only 800,000 people and an official language in one country (Tanzania), however it is spoken as a second language by approximately 30 mil Africans. Especially in rural areas, local lang is used to communicate w other from same village and Swahili used to communicate w outsiders.
AFRICAN LANGUAGE FAMILIES
Niger-Congo, Nilo-Saharan, Khoisan No one knows the precise number of languages spoken in Africa, and scholars disagree on classifying those known into families. In 1800's, European missionaries and colonial officers began to record African languages using Roman and Arabic alphabet. More than 1000 distinct langs and several thousand named dialects have been documented (most lack written tradition)
Korean
Not written with logograms (unlike sino tibetan and Japanese). Instead uses Hankul - where each letter represents a sound like in Western languages more than half of Korean vocab derive from Chinese words. Chinese and Japanese words are principle source for creating new words to describe new techs and concepts.
Tai Kadai
Once was a branch of of Sino-Tibetan. Langs of this family mostly spoken in Thailand and neighboring portions of China. Similarities with the Austronesian family have led some scholars to think people speaking these languages may have migrated from the Philippines.
Which of the following languages is one of the four most widely spoken contemporary Romance languages?
Portugese (not romanian bc that is 5th)
Which of the following persons or individuals is credited with devising the sedentary farmer hypothesis of Proto-Indo-European diffusion?
Renfrew (not Gray)
Origin and Diffusion of Romance Languages
Romance langs include Spain, Portugese, French, Italian, and Romanian bc they all developed from latin, the Romans language. City of Rome brought diffusion of latin langs At peak, Roman extended all lands bordering Mediterranean Sea. As conquering roman armies occupied vast Roman empire, bringing latin w them. In process, lang spoken by natives of Roman provinces were gotten rid of in favor of lang of conquerors Latin varied one province to another (integrated w lang formerly spoken there; growing size took a lot of time where the lang was evolving so diff latin given to different provinces in different times) Provinces introduced Vulgar Latin (spoken form) by soldiers stationed throughout empire. Following collapse of Roman Empire, communication declined and more variation came. Regions of former empire became new langs but some persisted w latin. (some converted to former langs and others took langs of conquering groups of people from North and East who spoke Germanic and Slavic) Migrants unable to communicate w speakers of same lang at homeland, major differences emerged between old and new locations leading to diff langs (like w Latin)
In which of the following regions is the Balto-Slavic branch of the Indo-European language family spoken?
Russia
Russian lang importance changes (East slavic and baltic groups)
Russian increased importance w Soviet Union rise. Force Russian on people who speak other langs to create unity. In eastern euro countries they were dominated by soviet union so they taught Russia as second lang. So many non-Russian seakers measure diversity in soviet union, and desire to use langs other than Russia caused its breakup. Sov Un going away leads to more official langs other than Russian but Russia is lang among former Sov Un officials.
There is often more than one word for something in the English language. Man, for example, could also be referred to as masculine. A horse might also be an equine. What is the reason for this?
Simple English words generally stem from German while more elegant words stem from French.
Which of the following language families includes Mandarin and Yue?
Sino Tibetan
Which of the following cultural features is an example of a literary tradition?
Textbook (Not folk music or body language or oral songs)
Indo Iranian Branch
The branch of the Indo-European language family with the most speakers. This branch includes more than 100 individual languages divided into an *eastern group (Indic)*, which includes the languages of Hinid and Urdu and a *western group (Iranian)*, which includes Farsi and Kurdish.
Indo European
Which is the most widely used language family, the predominant one in Europe, South Asia, and North and Latin America?
Which of the following definitions of language is correct?
a system of communication through speech
Nilo Saharan
family spoken by a few million in north-central Africa, immediately north of Niger Kongo language region. Divisions within this family exemplify the problem of classifying African languages. Despite having relatively few speakers, the Nilo Saharan family is divided into *6 branches plus numerous groups and subgroups* Total number of each individual Nilo Saharan language is extremely small
other language families
in addition to sino tibetan several other language families spoken by large numbers of people could be found in east and southeast asia. Looking at distribution, can see a physical reason for their independent development: they are clustered on either islands or peninsulas.
If Latin was the language of the Roman Empire, why don't the areas of the former Roman Empire still all speak Latin today?
isolation after Roman Empire crash
Altaic
thought to originate in teppes bordering the Qilian Shan and Altai mountains between Tibet and China. Present distribution covers 8000 km band of asia. By far most speakers is Turkish When soviet union governed most altaic speaking region of Central asia, use of this family of language was suppressed to create homogeneous national culture. When soviet union dissolves in 1990's, Altaic languages became official in many independent countries like Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, and Turkmenistan
Sedentary Farmer Hypothesis
*Colin Renfrew and Russell Gray; originals lived 2,000 yrs before Kurgans; Anatolia (Turkey); to Greece, then west towards italy, france, spain; diffuse by agricultural practices; isolation caused diff languages* *Indo Europeans may have originated in present day turkey 2k years before Kurgans. In theory, the lang diffused along w agricultural innovations, west into Europe and east into Asia* colin renfew argued first Proto Indo Euro speakers were 2k years before Kurgans in eastern Anatolia part of present day Turkey. Russel Grey supports but thinks its even earlier. Renfre thinks they diffused westward from Antolia to Greece and from Greece westward to Italy area. From Mediterranean coast, northward to central and northern france on to british isles. Indo European also said to spread north from great toward central Europe according to Renfrew. From there to Baltic sea, and Ukraine. and later to homeland of Kurgans (where there is evidence of Kurgans in 4300 BCE) Indo Iranian branch originated either directly through Anatolia migration or indirectly by way of Russia. Renfrew argues Indo Euro diffued w agricultural practices and not military. More numerous speakers w growing own food supply. Regardless of how, communication was poor between people (farmer or warriors) and increasingly distinct languages evolved.
Nomadic Warrior Hypothesis
*Kurgan homeland north of Caspian sea near present day Kazakhstan and Russia border. In theory, Kurgans infiltrated into Eastern Europe and into central Europe and Southwest Asia in later years* Marija Gimbutas Hyp on how Indo-European came about; thought Kurgan People (Russia/Kazakhstan) were first Proto indo euro speakers; who were nomadic herders; Homeland between present day Russia and Kazakstan migrated in search of grassland for animals; took them to Europe, SIberia, and Iran and S Asia, used horses as weapons to conquer most of Europe and South Asia
4 most widely spoken Indo-European branches
-Germanic - north and west -Romance - south and west -Baltic-Slavic - east -Indo-Iranian - southern and western Asia In Europe (where most use Indo European branch) three most widely used branches is Germanic (*North and West*), Romance (*south and west*), and Slavic (*east*). Fourth major branch, Indo Iranian, has more than 1 billion speakers (*clustered in southern and western asia*), the *greatest number of any Indo European branch*
West and South Slavic Groups
-West Slavic most spoken = Polish, then Czech, then Slovak (C and S similar langs) - Czechoslovakia used to attempt to balance the use of Czech and Slovak when it was one country for unity even though more C than S - Slovaks now use the language as a way to reclaim national identity of newly free state of Slovakia. -Most widely used south lang was lang in Yugoslavia before it split into Bsonia, Croatia, Motenegro, and Serbia: Serbo-Croation -Serbo-Croatian=name offends Bosnians and Croatians because it recalls when they were once in a country dominated by Serbs. Names are now used separately to talk about one language (Bosnian, Croatian, and Serbian are referred to separately but are the same language). - Montenegrans and Serbs use the Cyrillic alphabet and Bosnians and Croats use the Roman alphabet -Differences came in South Slavic langs. Isolation and hostility between Bosnians, Croates, and Serbs caused distinct langs -Differences among slavic langs kinda small tho. They could prob understand eachother but these differences are being preserved for independence movements.
Recognized langs in India (Iranian Eastern Group cont)
15 indo European, 4 Dravidian, 2 Sino Tibetan, and 1 Austro Asiatic. India is obligated to encourage use of these langs. Hindu spoken many diff ways and could be seen as collection of many langs, however it is written only one way (Devanagari). Urdu spoken like Hindu but diff lang. Urdu written in Arabic alphabet, legacy of the fact that Muslims speakers use this and their holy book is Arabic written.
Austronesian
6% of the world's people speak this, most are from Indonesia (4th most populous country) W Indonesia being dispersed along thousands of islands it has a lot of languages (722 in active use) Most widely used first language in Indonesia is Javanese mostly on island Java where 2/3 of the countries population is clustered. Malagasy also belongs to the Austronesian family because of migration from Indonesia to Madagascar 2000 years ago
How many branches of Indo-European
8 branches English belongs to Indo European, the worlds most widely spoken language family
Romance Branch
A language branch of the Indo-European Language Family. This branch includes languages that evolved from Latin (the language of the Romans). 4 main: Spanish, Protugese, French, and Italian Rugged mountains (strong intervening obstacles between people living on opposite sides) are boundaries between the regions where these 4 langs are are spoken (Spain, Portugal, France and Italy) 5th most widely used Romance lang is Romanian (in Romania and Moldova) separated from other Romance speaking Euro countries by Slavic people. Distribution of Romance langs show difficulty in establishing number of distinct langs in world. Other Romance langs are Romansh and Catalan and Sardinian which are different sizes, locations, and mixtures of other langs. Other Romance langs have individual literary traditions (some tongues can be used in lit but not have official status in countries)
Literary Tradition
A language that is written as well as spoken; system of written communication however hundreds of spoken languages lack this. The lack of written records makes it difficult to document the distribution of languages.
Logogram
A symbol that represents a word or meaningful parts of words rather than a sound We are fluent speakers of at least one indo euro language so we know the structure of it. But chinese is very different because they write primarily with logograms ability to read a book requires understanding thousands of logograms. words related to bodies of water for ex include symbols representing river and other strokes altering river in some way
Language
A system of communication through the use of speech; a collection of sounds understood by a group of people to have the same meaning. Many languages have a literary tradition most US only know english, 2/3 of dutch high schools have learned at least 3 languages, and even in other English speaking countries foreign languages are studied more frequent than in the US. For ex) 2/3 of 10 year olds in UK are learning a foreign language in school
German Invasion: Origin and Diffusion of English
Angles, Jutes, and Saxons - Germanic Tribes invading Britain. Where modern english primarily evolved from. These shared a similar lang similar to that of other people in the region from which they came. English traced back to england often Anglo Saxons after the two larger tribes At some point before recording, German all spoke a common lang. Common origin of english can be reconstructed by analyzing lang differences that emerged from Germanic groups when they migrated and evolved independently. Other people invaded england and added to basic english. Vikings landed on northeast coast in 9th century. They enriched w many new words to english but Vikings were still conquered.
Afro Asiatic
Arabic is the major language of this fam and is an official language in 2 dozen countries of Southeast Asia and North Africa. (one of 6 official languages of UN) Addition to 200 mil native Arabic speakers, a large percent of world Muslims have at least some knowledge of Arabic because Islam's holiest book, (the Koran/Quran) was *written in Arabic in 17 century* This family also includes *Hebrew*, the language of the bible
OTHER ASIAN LANGUAGE FAMILIES (in addition to Sino-Tibetan)
Austronesian Austro-asiatic tai kadai Japanese Korean
In which of the following South American countries is Portuguese the dominant language?
Brazil
Origin and Diffusion of English
British Isles inhabited for thousands of years but nothing is known of early langs until Celts arival w celtic lang. Tribes from mainland Europe invaded pushing celtics into remote northern and western Britain.
Norman Invasion: Origin and Diffusion of English
English very different from German today because english was later conquered by Normans who spoke french where England's official lang was made french meaning leading officials spoke french. Majority w little education tho did not so they kept speaking english. Enland lost control of Normandy during King John reign and entered French conflict. Fewer wanted to speak french so English became main again. Parliament changed official lang back to english but French still lingered w when Parliament did business matters. During 300 year period french was official in England, Germanic used by common and French used by leaders mingled to from a new lang. French invaders gave more elegant words, while German gave more straighfoward words to Modern English. Contemporary distribution of english speakers exist because england migrated w languages and established colonies.
6 Official Languages of the UN
English, French, Spanish, Russian, Arabic, & Mandarin -EU however has 23 official language (wants to acknowledge every culture there)
Which three countries don't use Indo-European families as their languages?
Estonia, Finland, Hungary every European country is dominated by Indo European speakers except for these three, that use the Uralic family
In which of the following countries does the primary spoken language belong to the Uralic language family?
Finland The Uralic language family, whose name comes from the Ural Mountain range in Russia, is spoken primarily in Finland, Estonia, and Hungary. In every other European country, including Ukraine, an Indo-European language is dominant. The Turkish language is part of the Altaic language family, while Austro-Asiatic is found in Cambodia.
English, an Indo-European language, belongs to which of the following language branches?
Germanic
Indic (Eastern) Group
Group of Indo-Iranian Branch of Indo-European. 1 billion people in India speak a language from this group. Most used langs in India and neighboring countries of Bangladesh and Pakistan, are Indic group of indo Iranian branch of indo European fam Hindi is a large language (and India's official lang) from this group and fam. Started as variety of Hudistani spoken in new dehli to growing into national lang in 19th century when British encouraged its use in govt. When India was independent they wanted Hindu as official lang but other lang speakers objected. So english (colonial British rulers lang) was made secondary official. Some other Indian lang people may be forced to speak English as common lang Hindi is a lingua franca in India, and many people speak smaller languages and use Hindi to communicate with people from farther away.
High and Low Germanic Languages
High German, spoken in the southern mountains of Germany, is the basis for the modern standard German language. English is classified in the Low Germanic subgroup (of west Germanic group). Other low Germanic langs include Dutch (spoken in Netherlands) and Flemish (dialect of Dutch spoken in northern Belgium). Afrikaans, a lang of south Africa, similar to Dutch bc Dutch settlers moved to South Africa 300 years ago. Frisian is spoken by few residents of northeastern Netherlands. A dialect of German spoken in the northern lowlands of Germany is also classified as Lower (bc its in the lowlands)
Which of the following languages is a part of the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European language family?
Hindi
Origin and Diffusion of Indo-European
If Germanic, Romance, Balto Slavic, and INdo Iranian all Indo Euro, then they must have same ancestor. But existence of a single ancestral language cannot be proven for certainty because it would have existed thousands of years before writing or recorded history, said ancestral language is Proto-Indo-European Evidence of Proto Indo Euro once existed is internal (derived from physical attributes of words themselves in various indo euro langs. For example, animal and tree words were consistent w all indo euro langs meaning they experienced same daily lives. But other features have diff roots in diff indo euro langs not tracing it back to Proto Indo Euro and must have been added later. common root words for winter and snow but not ocean show proto indo probably lived in colder areas w no ocean contact. Generally accept that Proto indo Euro existed by disagree on when diffused and how, and where it started. One theory thinks lang diffused most through warfare and conquest while another thinks its from sharing food.
Iranian (Western) Group of Indo-Iranian Branch
Indo Iranian langs spoken in Iran and neighboring countries. These form a separate group from Indic within in this Indo Iranian branch of the Indo Euro family. major Iranian group languages include Persian in Iran, Pahto in eastern Afghanistan and western Pakistan, and Kurdish. These languages are written in the Arabic alphabet
Official Language
The language adopted for use by the government for the conduct of business and publication of documents; many countries designate this used by govt for laws, reports, and public objects such as road signs money and stamps. a country with more than one official language may require all public documents to be in all languages. an official language could be understood by most of a countries citizens, or few may understand it (like previous English colonies whose official is English even thought few citizens can speak it) Earth's heterogeneous collection of languages is one of the obvious examples of cultural diversity (almost 7k languages; 11 of these spoken by 100 million people and 6.5k spoken by less than a mil; distribution of some languages easy to document, but others like in Africa and Asia are difficult if not impossible)
East Slavic and Baltic Groups
The most widely used languages in this group are the eastern ones, primarily Russian, which is spoken by more than 80 percent of the Russian people. Russian is one of the six official languages of the United Nations. - ALSO (after russian): Ukranian and Belarusan languages are two most common used East Slavic langs and are official langs in Ukraine and Belarus
Sino Tibetan
This family contains the languages spoken in China (most populous state in world at 1.3 billion) and in countries of Southeast Asia. Languages of China generally belong to the *Sinitic branch of the Sino Tibetan family* There is no single Chinese language; Mandarin most common (spoken by 3/4 of Chinese people; *most used language in the world*) 7 other sinitic branch languages are spoken by at least 20 mil each in China, mostly in southern and eastern parts of the country (however Chinese govt imposing mandarin countrywide)
Estonia, Finland, and Hungary use which type of family language?
Uralic
Swahili
Used to communicate w outsiders first lang of only 800,000 people and an official language in one country (Tanzania), however it is spoken as a second language by approximately 30 mil Africans. originally developed through interaction among African groups and Arab traders, so its vocab has strong *Arabic influences* Also Swahili is one of the few African languages with an extensive literature
Khoisan
Uses clicking. Whites in Southern Africa upon hearing this, derisively and onomatopoeically named the most important Khoisan lang *Hottentot*
Japanese
Uses some Chinese logograms and uses two systems of phonetic symbols (like western languages, used either in place of the logograms or alongside them) Chinese traits diffused to Japanese society including original form of writing the Japanese language (structures of two languages differ) foreign terms may be written with one of these sets of phonetic symbols
Which of the following languages is the most widely spoken in the Austro-Asiatic language family?
Vietnamese Vietnamese, the most widely spoken language in the Austro-Asiatic language family, is written using a Roman alphabet with the addition of diacritical marks. Javanese is the most widely spoken language in Indonesia and is in the Austronesian language family. Japanese and Korean are each unique language families.
Which of the following terms refers to the language spoken by the general population of the Roman Empire?
Vulgar Latin
Mandarin
What is the most commonly used Sino-Tibetan language? It is also the most used language in the world. official language of both China and Taiwan, and one of 6 official languages in UN
LANGUAGES OF *SOUTHWEST* ASIA AND *NORTH* AFRICAN AND *CENTRAL* ASIA
afro asiatic altaic uralic two largest lang families in Southwest Asia and North africa and central asia are Afro asiatic and altaic. Uralic once classified w Altaic
4 distinct langs (swedish, danish, etc) emerged after 1000 AD in Scandinavia because...
of migration and the political organization of the region into 4 independent and isolated countries
A country mandates that Spanish must be used on all signs, in government reports and school textbooks. This is an example of a (n) __________.
official lang
Slavic lang
once a single lang but evolved into many langs w several slavs migrating from Asia to Eastern Asia isolating from one another. This branch then gets divided into East west and south slavic groups as well as Baltic group.
The small number of languages in China (compared to India for example) is a source of what?
source of national strength and unity. Unity also fostered by a consistent written form for all Chinese languages. Although pronounced different, they are all written the same
Austro Asiatic
spoken by 2% of world's population. Based in southeast Asia Vietnamese, the most spoken tongue of the Austro Asiatic family, is written with out familiar Roman alphabet, with the addition of a large number of diacritical marks above the vowels. Vietnamese alphabet was devised in the 17th century by roman catholic missionaries
classification of language
thousands of languages can be organized into smaller lang families. Larger lang families further divided into language branches and groups. -large families trunk of tree -individual languages the leaves -branches of language are branches on trees -Germanic, Balto-Slavic, and Indo-Iranian branches divide further into language groups (thicker trunks and leaves, more speakers there) 2/3 of the people speak a language belonging to Indo-European or Sino-Tibetan language family. Seven other language families are used by 2 and 6 percent of world while remain 5 percent used by 100 smaller families.
recorded history of language
trees separated at ground level because of differences in recorded history. Some think language families were joined together as a handful of super families thousands years ago. These super families shown as roots because they are controversial and speculative Quentin Atkinson argues all languages can be traced to Africa where languages are most complex and diverse. He thinks humans outside Africa show less language diversity because their languages had a shorter time to evolve into new ones than Africa
