Chapter 5: Language #104-114

Language Family: A collection of languages related to each other through a common ancestor long before recorded history.

Afro-Asiatic, Altaic, Austro-Asiatic, Austronesian, Dravidian, Indo-European, Japanese, Korean, Niger-Congo, Nilo-Saharan, Quechuan, Sino-Tibetan, & Uralic are the language families of the world that have at least 10 million native speakers. Language families can be further broken down into more specific categories, which are language branches and language groups. An example of a language family and one of its accompanying branches and groups is Indo-European (family), then Germanic (branch), and then West Germanic (branch), and, finally, English (group). Of the major language families, 2/3 of the people in the world speak a language in the Indo-European or Sino-Tibetan families. Indo-European is spoken most often in Europe, S. Asia, and N. & S. America, whereas Sino-Tibetan is spoken most often in China and SE Asia.

Lingua Franca: A language mutually understood and commonly used in trade by people who have different native languages

An example of a language that is lingua franca is English. In order to complete trade, speakers of two different languages mix their languages together to create a lingua franca. The word is derived from the term "language of the franks", and originally was applied by Arab traders to describe the language they utilized with the Europeans (Franks).

Syncretism: The blending of traditions from the past and the present.

Because traditions are collections of customs, syncretic traditions encompass customs from both the present and the past. Thus, cultural traits from the past and present have a hand in the creation of syncretic traditions. This encompasses languages, since language can change as advancements continue on a global scale. While embracing culture and customs of the past, and welcoming innovations and ideas of the future, syncretic traditions can be made.

Official Language: The language adopted for use by the government for the conduct of business and publication of documents.

Countries can have more than one official language, and may require that they be used in all public documents. To easily spot a country's official language, check laws, reports, and public objects, as they will display the country's official language(s). For example, money, stamps, and road signs will all show the official language of the country they are located in. Most often, the official language of a country will be understood by the majority of its citizens. This is not always true, since countries with British roots sometimes designate English as their official language, despite the # of English speakers in that country being low.

Creole: A language that results from the mixing of a colonizer's language with the indigenous language of the people being dominated.

In creolized languages, colonizers adopt the language of the dominant group, but make changes to its grammar or vocabulary. Some Romance languages spoken in former colonies are often classified as separate, creolized languages because they are highly different from the language spoken by European colonizers. Examples of such languages include French Creole (Haiti), Papiamento (serialized Spanish- Netherlands Antilles; West Indies, and Portuguese Creole (Cape Verde islands).

Dialect: A regional variety of a language distinguished by vocabulary, spelling, and pronunciation.

In general, different dialect speakers can understand one another. Dialects show distinctive features of the environments in which groups live, which is why geographers study them. In the U.S., four general language dialects can be outlined. They are: Northern (located in the North Central, The North, Inland North, NYC, W. New England, & E. New England), Midlands (located in The Midland, St. Louis Corridor, W. PA, and Mid-Atlantic), Western (located in The West), and Southeastern (located in Texas South, The South, Inland South, Charleston, and Florida). Within the east, dialects can become even more distinctive, branching into New England (PA, NJ, VT, ME, RI, CT, MA, & NY) Southeastern (SC, NC, VA, & DE), and Midland (PA, DE, MD, VA, WV, & Western NC & SC) dialects.

Isogloss: A boundary that separates regions in which different language usages predominate.

Isoglosses are formed because of words that are not used nationally. These words have some extent to which they are used within a nation, thus spawning boundaries known as isoglosses. Isoglosses are determined by collecting data from people, especially natives of rural areas. Often, isoglosses of different words coalesce, which can eventually form regions. An example of an isogloss is the boundary separating the dialects of those in the Western dialect region of the U.S. versus those in the Southern dialect region of the U.S.

Mutual Intelligibility: The ability of two people to understand one another when talking.

Mutual intelligibility is often shown when people of two different dialects speak to each other. Though their dialect uses differing grammar and vocabulary, each speaker is able to understand the other, mostly due to the fact that each dialect stems from the same language. For example, if a Southerner greets a group of Northerners with "Y'all!", they will likely understand, just as a Northerner saying "Youse" to a group of Southerners would be understandable for them. Similarly, speakers of languages from the same branch will probably be able to loosely understand each other, such as speakers of Italian and Spanish (ex: amo meaning love in both).

Pidgin: A form of speech that adopts a simplified grammar and limited vocabulary of a lingua franca.

Pidgin language is used for communications among speakers of two different languages. These speakers or groups form a pidgin language by learning words and grammar rules of a lingua franca, such as English, and adding elements of their own languages. Pidgin languages have no native speakers. Rather, they are spoken in addition to one's native language.

Linguistic Diversity Index (LDI): An index demonstrating the amount of different languages in a region, or its language diversity.

The higher a country's LDI, the more languages are spoken there (more diversity of languages). Conversely, the lower a country's LDI, the less languages are spoken there (less diversity of languages). The LDI is measured on a scale of 0 to 1, with 1 being the most diverse. The LDI of a country can show its multicultural nature. For example, it is likely that a country located near an international shipping port would have a high diversity to meet the needs of all the merchants passing through. Of all the countries in the world, Papua New Guinea has the highest LDI (most languages spoken).

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.

The world's three most widely spoken languages are English, Mandarin Chinese, and Spanish. The majority of the languages on Earth, roughly 6,524 of approximately 6,909, are spoken by less than 1 million people. Languages are further organized in more specific classifications: language family, language branch, and language group. In a diagram of these languages and their classifications, language families make up the "trunk" of a tree, language branches make up the branches of the tree, and the language groupings are all the leaves on a branch. Often, languages are related, whether extending from the same family or branch, such as English and German (West Germanic branch).

Group 2 Relationship

These groups all relate because they show the influence of outside cultures. Syncretic languages emerge from the acceptance of past and present customs in a culture, and, often, the present cultures emerge from influence of other nations and their cultures. Similarly, pidgin and creole languages emerge from influences of outside languages. Creole languages gain their influence from colonizers entering a new country, and pidgin languages gain their influence from cultures sharing the need to understand a lingua franca. Overall, these words all share in common an influence of culture from other nations that affect a nation's language.

Group 1 Relationship

These words all relate to each other since they describe how languages are organized and differ from one another, and how they are used differently. Language families expand on the concept of language as a way of organizing, and dialects demonstrate that languages can divide further and change from one another. Isoglosses illustrate both the differences in languages by showing dialect boundaries, but also show how dialects can be organized on a map. Lingua franca and official languages also show the instances in which languages may be used, either in public or in trading. LDI shows what countries speak the most or fewest languages based on the language diversity in that nation. Finally, mutual intelligibility shows that, though languages are different, they can often be understood fundamentally by non-native speakers.