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Language

Language. Linguistics. Language @ heart of culture W/o lang., culture cannot be passed on Literary tradition  cultural continuity Ideograms v. alphabets Mandarin = oldest surviving writing system Printing press! Between 4-8,000 different lang. (depends on definition)

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Language

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  1. Language

  2. Linguistics Language @ heart of culture W/o lang., culture cannot be passed on Literary tradition  cultural continuity Ideograms v. alphabets Mandarin = oldest surviving writing system Printing press! Between 4-8,000 different lang. (depends on definition) (ethnologue.com lists 7,413) 600+ in India most are 1000+ in Africa preliterate (writing)

  3. Examples of the African Click LanguagesVocalization is the crucial part of the def. of lang!Xhosa language – South Africa http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZlp-croVYwKhoisan – Namibia –http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nz44WiTVJww

  4. Part I. Language Classification Language Family = collection of related langs. with a “prehistoric” ancestor Indo-European is largest 50%; Sino-Tibetan (20%) is 2nd Afro-Asiatic (Northern Africa/Middle East) Austronesian (Southeast Asia) Niger-Congo (Sub-Saharan Africa) Dravidian (India)

  5. Diffusion of Indo-European languages The origin of words we use all the time http://www.businessinsider.com/european-maps-showing-origins-of-common-words-2013 11?utm_content=bufferb7d3a&utm_source=buffer&utm_medium=facebook&utm_campaign=Buffer

  6. Hungarian surrounded by Indo-European languages! Why?

  7. B. Language Branch Collection of related langs. w/ a more recent ancestor More recent language divergence Indo-European has 8 branches: 4 major: Germanic, Romance, Balto-Slavic, Indo-Iranian 4 minor: Hellenic, Albanian, Celtic, Armenian

  8. C. Language Group Common modern ancestor w/ similar vocab. and grammar Ex: West Germanic v. North Germanic English is West Germanic D. Language i.e. English, Hindi, Arabic, etc.

  9. D. Dialects: Standard vs. vulgar Standard language (standard “dialect”) Sets quality of a lang., (part of cultural ID & national concern) May be sustained by gov’t policies (ex: tests for teachers or officials) Powerful people decide the standard language Ex of standard lang.: Chinese = “Mandarin” British English = “British Received Pronunciation” American Sign Language

  10. Why is British Received Pronunciation and American English so different? What cohorts left Britain for the USA? Mostly lower/middle class immigrants (not speakers of BRP) Webster  “national” American English dialect B/c of time and isolation vocab. & pronunciation considerably different Different words for new inventions Examples??? American vs. British English.. http://esl.about.com/library/vocabulary/blbritam.htm?once=true&terms=british-american

  11. English Dialects http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3UgpfSp2t6k Amy Walker 21 Accents (2:36) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4NriDTxseog Amy Walker, How to do an American accent? (6:40) Some other great video clips to introduce you to dialects and variations in language. The cockney pronunciation segment from My Fair Lady (the Rain in Spain) and the clip of Lucy and Ricky discussing how they (Ricky) will teach their child proper English pronunciation http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJr9SSJKkII (4:47) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MAL9VD6Lz9Y&t=8s (3:05)

  12. Vulgar Dialects Variants of the standard lang. Regional accents reveal origin Dialects marked by difference in vocab. = “isogloss” Isogloss = line separating 2 diff. words 4 same concept Ex. “Coke” vs. “soda” vs. “pop” http://www.reelseo.com/best-vimeo-videos-november-2013/Regional VariationsMore common  dialects differ in pronunciation IF 2 dialects become “mutually unintelligible”  two separate languages emerge  “language divergence”

  13. Language Divergence The basic process: time and isolation Separation Time & isolation  branch into dialects Dialects remain isolated Pronunciations change, new words created for new discoveries More time & isolation  dialects become discrete languages  “mutually unintelligible” Ex. Vulgar Latin  Romance Languages How does this relate to time-distance decay?

  14. Part II. Languages of the World AP Goal … Know what language/ language branch/ language family is spoken in almost every place on Earth!! 1. Mandarin = most common primary lang. Chinglish. Can it be translated to English? http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2010/05/03/world/asia/20100503_CHINGLISH.html?_r=0 2. English official lang. 40+ countries 2 billion+ in a country w/ English official language Who is #2 in English speakers b/h U.S.? (India =“ 398 scheduled languages, 11 extinct”; 22 official languages) Many not mutually understood. Each state has an official language!3. Could English be spoken in some places JUST for business and not casually? Why and where? Six Official languages of U.N.? _________________

  15. The six official languages of the United Nations are Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian, and Spanish. They are the mother tongue or second language of 2.8 billion people, nearly half the world population, and are official languages in more than half the States in the world.

  16. Languages of Europe Indo-Euro. lang. dominates Language map & pol. boundaries usually overlap SW Europe is ___Romance___ NW Europe is __Germanic______ E. Europe is ____Slavic___ (Keep in mind Estonia, Hungary and Finland – Uralic language family)

  17. European Languages cont. Romance languages dominate in 5 States (Countries) E. boundary of Germ. = East of Germanic  Balto-Slavic tongues Believed Uralic lang. spread 7000-10,000 years ago Basque language = mystery in history = “isolated lang.”

  18. What was vulgar Latin? Vulgar Latin in Roman Empire (roads) Collapse by Germanic tribes led to Vulgar Latin’s evolution to 5 Romance lang. What if two dialects reach a point of mutual unintelligibility?

  19. Languages of Indiahttp://www.mapsofindia.com/culture/indian-languages.html 4 lang. families Indo-Euro. most speakers Dravidian 2nd Less known Austroasiatic and Indo-Pacific 15 major lang.; all but four are Indo-European (Bengali and Hindi most common) Dravidian languages clustered in SE (Tamil/Telugu) Pol. divisions reflect regional languages Hindi is the main Indo-Euro lang. (Indo-Iranian branch) w/ 300+ million speakers

  20. Languages of Africa 1. Most preliterate 2. Largest fam.= Niger-Congo Oldest are the Khoisan languages (clicks) View map to see 4 major(Families) as well asAustronesian

  21. Mandarin: One lang. or many? (Sino-Tibetan family) 1. World's oldest written lang. 2. Spoken by the greatest contiguous pop. cluster on Earth Divided by dialects that are mutually unintelligible Mandarin dominates with about 900 million speakers Written lang. ALWAYS same  unifying force Several efforts have been made to create a truly national language… today’s pinyin (standard romanization system) Pinyin, or Hanyu Pinyin, is the official phonetic system for transcribing the Mandarin pronunciations of Chinese characters into the Latin alphabet in the People's Republic of China, Republic of China (Taiwan), and Singapore.

  22. South America Impact of Colonialism Treaty of Tordesillas divided New World into 2 spheres: Western “half” = Spain Eastern “half” = Portugal

  23. Proto-Indo-European Language Hearth and Diffusion

  24. Proto-Indo-European (PIE) language? Indo-European language = world's most common Proto-Indo-European (common ancestor of Indo-European) Use reverse lang. divergence to guess all I-E languages came from ONE lang. Similar words Hypothesize about origin?

  25. Diffusion of Proto-Indo-European language? Conquest theory Originated N of Black Sea (steppes of Ukraine/Russia) 2. Lang. diffused west thru conquest! Superior tech. (wheel) Domesticated horses

  26. Historical Spread of the Chariot(Years are BC)

  27. B. Agriculture Theory Diffusion by SHARING agriculture techniques = spread of farming Origin: Anatolia in Turkey (hilly words) Supporting evidence: Few words for plains but many for relief landforms Few words for trees/animals that live on the plains Leading hearth of ag. innovation nearby (Mesopotamia) Some genetic evidence

  28. Part III. Globalization vs. Local Diversity Globalization of lang. Lingua franca? Any common language spoken by peoples w/ diff. native tongues. (business purposes) Exs: Swahili, Indonesian, Russian, Arabic English (most important) Technology, Navigation, Education, Pop Culture, Tourism, Finance Negative correlation between lingua franca & local language.

  29. Swahili Swahili has become the lingua franca of East Africa Lingua Franca - a language that is adopted as a common language between speakers whose native languages are different. http://www.glcom.com/hassan/lessons/useful_swahili_words.html Developed from African Bantu languages, Arabic, and Persian Has a complex vocabulary and structure

  30. Hausa In West Africa Hausa is a regional lingua franca

  31. Language Replacement Stronger culture forces lang. on less advanced people Colonialism’s linguistic legacy: Acculturation or assimilation? Latin America – Treaty of Tordesillas Africa USSR U.S. and UK today Globalization of L. F. may = language extinction (Sanskrit, Cornish, Native American lang., etc.)

  32. Pidgin Mixture of 2 or more langs; allows comm. b/t speakers of different tongues. Simple grammar  easier to learn Few synonyms Learned as second languages. aka “Contact Language” Ex: Spanglish, Chinglish, Franglais, African pidgins

  33. Creole and Creolization 1. Pidgins  mother tongue a) Process = “Creolization” b) 2 languages blend together = one native language Ex. Swahili, Afrikaans, French Creole 2. Stable over time, complex grammar & vocab 3. Difficult to distinguish b/t dialect/pidgin/creole 4.Rubenstein = “lang. resulting from mixing of colonizer’s lang w/ indigenous lang.”

  34. Forces Centripetal Force an attitude that tends to unify people and enhance support for a state Centrifugal Force a force that divides people and countries

  35. Preservation of Local Diversity Minority lang. revival because… Maintenance of a unique culture Amer. Indians Quebec in Canada Spanish-speakers in the U.S. Force for devolution (transfer of power away from central gov’t.) Basques in Spain Maori in New Zealand (local autonomy) Gov’t attempting to promote unity = “centripetal force” 22 official lang. in India 11 official lang. of South Africa 2 official lang. in Belgium 2 official lang. in Canada

  36. Preservation cont. Promote nationalism with a group of people = “centripetal force” Hebrew in Israel Gaelic in Ireland/Scotland Quebec banning non-French signs & ads Use of technology Maintaining and reinforce language Welsh TV programs/radio stations Spanish speakers w/ Spanish TV stations To attract tourists Unique experiences! Signs & topynyms changed to reflect native culture

  37. Multilingualism VERY few monolingual states Ex: Japan, Portugal, Poland, Venezuela, Lesotho Most even have some people w/ minority lang. Japan: 500,000+ Koreans Venezuela indigenous langs Linguistic fragmentation = cultural pluralism? Multilingual states = centrifugal force?

  38. Multilingualism Case Studies A. Nigeria Unimaginable linguistic diversity – legacy of colonialism (some sources suggest 500+ languages 4 major regional lang. (Hausa, Igbo, Yoruba, and Fulani) ~12 major local languages spoken by 1 to 5 million people Adopted English as its "official language” Has precluded (prevented) major cultural conflict based on language Caused problems for children first entering school knowing only traditional languages Only spoken by small, urban minority

  39. Multilingualism Case Studies B. Canada Large French-speaking territory w/ even larger English-speaking area French law and language sustained in Quebec French language was protected in parliament and in the courts Language divides the country 60 Minutes – War of Words - Quebec Language Wars http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKOGgYaqwhg (7:44) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iki-pwrCpE8 (5:24)

  40. Will Quebec succeed and secede?

  41. Multilingualism Case Studies C. Belgium Dutch-speaking region in the north (Flemish) & French-speaking region in the south Brussels (capital) officially bilingual, French-speaking majority Language region that separates Romance and Germanic branches of Indo-European language family

  42. Multilingualism Case Studies Belgium Conflict has been largely nonviolent Languages/ethnic issues dominate politics

  43. Multilingualism Case Studies D. The failure of Cyprus to unify

  44. Multilingualism Case Studies E. Switzerland German speaking (63.7%), French speaking (20.4%), Italian speaking (6.5%), Romansch (0.5%) http://www.omniglot.com/writing/romansh.htm

  45. Official languages Serve different purposes Used to enhance communication & unity among peoples who speak diverse traditional languages Former African colonies sometimes adopt European languages Creating an official language has caused problems for some countries Ex: When Hindi was given official status in India, riots and disorder broke out in non-Hindi areas Some former colonies chose two or more official languages

  46. 30 states have declared English their official language

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