What Religion and Where in the World?

1. What Religion and Where in the World? • Eastern Orthodox • Latvia

2. The Mosaic of Languages Ch 5 Language

3. Why geographers study language • Provides the single most common variable by which cultural groups are identified • Provides the main means by which learned customs & skills pass from one generation to the next • Facilitates cultural diffusion of innovations • Because languages vary spatially, they reinforce the sense of region and place • Study of language called linguistic geography and geolinguistics by geographers

4. Terms used in the study of language • Language — tongues that cannot be mutually understood • Dialects — variantforms of a language that have not lost mutual comprehension • A speaker of English can understand the various dialect of the language • A dialect is distinctive enough in vocabulary and pronunciation to label its speaker • Some 6,000 languages and many more dialects are spoken today

5. Terms used in the study of language • Pidgin language — results when different linguistic groups come into contact • Serves the purposes of commerce • Has a small vocabulary derived from the various contact groups • Why it develops: Speakers of different languages need to communicate but don't share a common language. • Where: Official language of Papua, New Guinea is a largely English-derived pidgin language, which includes Spanish, German, & Papuan words • Example: Spanglish

6. Terms used in the study of language • Lingua franca — a language that spreads over a wide area where it is not the mother tongue • A language of communication and commerce • Swahili language has this status in much of East Africa • English is Lingua franca of international business world-wide

7. Kenya

8. Kenya • Kenya has two official languages: Swahili & English. These lingua franca facilitate communication among Bantu, Nilotic, & Cushitic language speakers. • Swahili developed along the coast of East Africa where Bantu came in contact with Arabic spoken by Arab sea traders.

9. Kenya • English became important during the British colonial period and is still associated with high status. • This shopping center caters to Maasai herders who speak a Nilotic language & Kikuyu farmers who speak a Bantu language. • Jambo means “hello” in Swahili.->

10. On your copy outline with hi-liter countries that speak Swahili

11. On your Colonial Chloropleth language map of Africa- Color the countries the following colors French- Blue English - Red Portuguese- Yellow Italian- Green, Spanish - Orange -

12. The Mosaic of Languages • Linguistic Culture Regions • Linguistic Diffusion • Linguistic Ecology • Culturo-Linguistic Integration • Linguistic Landscapes

13. Language characteristics used to define linguistic culture regions • isoglosses — bordersof individual word usages or pronunciations • No 2 words, phrases, or pronunciations have exactly the same spatial distribution • Spatially isoglosses crisscross one another • Typically cluster together in “bundles” • Bundles serve as the most satisfactory dividing lines among dialects & languages

15. English dialects in the U.S. • Dialects reveal a vivid geography • American English is hardly uniform from region to region • At least 3 major dialects, corresponding to major culture regions, developed in the eastern United States by the time of the American Revolution • Northern • Midland • Southern

16. Dialect Activity http://polyglot.lss.wisc.edu/dare/Audio.html

17. English dialects in the United States • The three subcultures expanded westward & their dialects spread and fragmented • Retained much of their basic character even beyond the Mississippi River • Have distinctive vocabularies and pronunciations • Drawing dialect boundaries is often tricky

19. English dialects in the United States • Today, many regional words are becoming old-fashioned, but new words display regional variations • The following words are all used to describe a controlled-access divided highway • Freeway — a California word • Turnpike and parkway — mainly northeastern and Midwestern words • Thruway, expressway, and interstate

20. English dialects in the United States • Many African-Americans speak their own form of English — Black English • Once dismissed as inferior substandard English • Grew out of a pidgin that developed on early slave plantations • Today, spoken by about 80% of African-Americans • Used by ghetto dwellers who have not made their compromises with mainstream American culture • Many features separate it from standard speech, for example: • Lack of pronoun differentiation between genders • Use of undifferentiated pronouns Not recognized as part of the proper grammar of a separate linguistic group • Considered evidence of verbal inability or impoverishment • In the Southern dialect, African-Americans have made substantial contributions to speech • Southern dialect is becoming increasingly identified with African-Americans • Caucasians in the Southern region are shifting to Midland speech

21. English dialects in the United States • American dialects suggest we are not becoming a more national culture by overwhelming regional cultures • Linguistic divergence is still under way • Dialects continue to mutate on a regional level • Local variations in grammar & pronunciation proliferate • The homogenizing influence of radio, television, and other mass media is being defied

22. Pop vs Soda http://www.popvssoda.com/ What Patterns can you identify? Why do they exist?

25. London, England • While English is spoken in many parts of the world, all English words are not mutually intelligible. • This London tube (subway) sign say that anyone performing there (eg singing or playing for money) is subject to a fine of subsection. • Are tubes, subway, and busking dialect words?

26. The Mosaic of Languages • Linguistic Culture Regions • Linguistic Diffusion • Linguistic Ecology • Culturo-Linguistic Integration • Linguistic Landscapes

27. Indo-European diffusion • Earliest speakers apparently lived in southern and southeastern Turkey (Anatolia) about eight or nine thousand years ago • Diffused west and north into Europe • Represented expansion of farming people at expense of hunters and gatherers • As people dispersed and lost contact, different variant forms of the language caused fragmentation of the family

28. Indo-European diffusion • Later language diffusion occurred with the spread of great political empires, especially Latin, English, and Russian • Relocation and expansion diffusion were not mutually exclusive • Relocation diffusion by conquering elite implanted their language • Implanted language often gained wider acceptance by expansion diffusion • Conqueror’s language spread hierarchically • Spread of Latin with Roman conquests • Spanish in Latin America

29. Austronesian diffusion • Presumed hearth in the interior of Southeast Asia 5,000 years ago • Initially spread southward into the Malay Peninsula • In a process lasting several thousand years, people sailed in tiny boats across the. uncharted vast seas to New Zealand, Easter Island, Hawaii, and Madagascar • Sailing and navigation was the key to Austronesian spread, not agriculture

31. Austronesian diffusion • The remarkable diffusion of the Polynesian people • Form the eastern part of the Austronesian culture region • Occupy hundreds of Pacific islands in a triangular-shaped realm • New Zealand, Easter Island, and Hawaii form the three apexes of the realm • Made a watery leap of 2,500 miles from the South Pacific to Hawaii • Used outrigger canoes • Went against prevailing winds into a new hemisphere with different navigational stars • No humans had previously found the isolated Hawaiian Islands • Sailors had no way of knowing that land existed in the area

33. Austronesian diffusion • Geographers John Webb and Gerard Ward studied the prehistoric Polynesian diffusion • Their method involved the development of a computer model building in data on: • Winds • Ocean currents • Vessel traits and capabilities • Island visibility • Duration of voyage, etc. • Both drift and navigated voyages were considered

34. Austronesian diffusion • Over one hundred thousand voyage simulations were run through the computer • Their conclusions • Triangle was probably entered from the west—direction of the ancient Austronesian hearth area • “Island hopping”—migrated from one visible island to another • Core of eastern Polynesia likely reached by navigated voyages • Outer arc from Hawaii through Easter Island to New Zealand reached by intentionally navigated voyages

36. Searching for the primordial tongue • Using controversial techniques, linguists seek the more elusive prehistoric tongues • Nostratic—ancestral speech of the Middle East 12,000 to 20,000 years ago • Ancestral to nine modern language families • A 500-word dictionary has been compiled • Contemporary with Nostratic were other ancient tongues including Dene-Caucasian

38. Searching for the primordial tongue • Dene-Caucasian reputedly gave rise to Sino-Tibetan, Basque, and one form of early Native-American called Na-Dene • Scholars are attempting to find the original linguistic hearth area from which all modern languages have derived • It is believed the original language hearth arose in Africa perhaps 250,000 years ago and diffused from there

39. The Mosaic of Languages • Linguistic Culture Regions • Linguistic Diffusion • Linguistic Ecology • Culturo-Linguistic Integration • Linguistic Landscapes

40. The environment and vocabulary • How the environment affects vocabulary • Spanish language derived from Castile • Rich in words describing rough terrain (Table 5.3) • Distinguishes subtle differences in shape and configuration of mountains • Scottish Gaelic • Describes types of rough terrain • Common attribute spoken by hill people • Romanian tongue • Also from a region of rugged terrain • Words tend to be keyed to use of terrain for livestock herding

41. The environment and vocabulary • English • Developed in wet coastal plains • Very poor in words describing mountainous terrain • Abounds with words describing flowing streams • Rural American South—river, creek, branch, fork, prong, run, bayou, and slough

43. The environment and vocabulary • Vocabularies develop for features of the environment that involve livelihood • Detailed vocabularies are necessary to communicate sophisticated information relevant to the adaptive strategy

44. The environment provides refuge • Inhospitable environments offer protection and isolation • Provide outnumbered linguistic groups refuge from aggressive neighbors • Linguistic refuge areas • Rugged bill and mountain areas • Excessively cold or dry climates • Impenetrable forests and remote islands • Extensive marshes and swamps • Unpleasant environments rarely attract conquerors • Mountains tend to isolate inhabitants of one valley from another

45. Examples of linguistic refuge areas • Rugged Caucasus Mountains and nearby ranges in central Eurasia are populated by a large variety of peoples • Alps, Himalayas, and highlands of Mexico are linguistic shatter belts — areas where diverse languages are spoken • American Indian tongue Quechua clings to a refuge in the Andes Mountains of South America • In the Rocky Mountains of northern New Mexico, an archaic form of Spanish survives due to isolation that ended in the early 1900s

47. Examples of linguistic refuge areas • The Dhofar, a mountain tribe in Oman, preserve Hamitic speech that otherwise has vanished from Asia • Tundra climates of the far north have sheltered certain Uralic, Altaic, and Inukitut (Eskimo) speakers • On Sea Islands, off the coast of South Carolina and Georgia, some remnant of an African language, Gullah, still are spoken

48. Switzerland • Switzerland has four recognized national languages: French, German, Italian, and Romansch. • Romansch, a language of Latin origin, is spoken by only 1.1% of the population.

49. Switzerland • Nevertheless, it has survived in the alpine linguistic refuge of the upper Rhine and Inn Rivers and was given official recognition in 1938.

50. Switzerland • This traditional Engadine (Inn valley) house is decorated by sgraffito whereby designs are scratched through a white limewash coating to expose the underlying grey plaster.