Where are other language families distributed?

1. Where are other language families distributed? Classification of languages Distribution of language families

2. Classification of Languages

4. Sino-Tibetan • Spoken by 26% of world- China and SE Asia • 3 branches- Sinitic, Tibeto-Burman, Austro-Thai • Sinitic includes Mandarin, spoken by ¾ Chinese • Others Sinitic languages spoken in S. China • Small # of languages promotes unity

5. Sino-Tibetan • Based on 420 one syllable words. • Listener gets meaning based on context and tone of voice • Ex: shi can mean lion, corpse, house, poetry, ten, swear, or die • Kan jian literally means “look see”, which tells you what jian means in this case

6. Sino-Tibetan • 1 Writing system for all Sinitic languages- contains thousands of characters • Some are sounds, but most are ideograms- ideas or concepts, not specific sounds • Difficult to learn to write- 16% pop can’t write

9. Tibeto-Burman • Main language Burmese, used in Myanmar (Burma)

10. Austro-Thai • Main language Thai, used in Thailand, Laos, parts of Vietnam

11. Austro-Asiatic • Main language Vietnamese, used in Vietnam, Cambodia • Vietnamese alphabet developed by Catholic missionaries using Roman alphabet 17th century

12. Japanese/Korean • Considered 2 families, though Korean may be related either to Japanese or Altaic • Japanese uses Chinese characters • Korean uses Hangul, where characters represent sounds like the alphabet

13. Afro-Asiatic Family • 4th largest family in world- N. Africa/SW Asia • Includes Arabic, Hebrew- important because holy books of 3 western religions written in this family • Arabic spoken 200 million, many more have some knowledge ‘cause of the Koran

14. Altaic • Once thought to be linked as one family • Altaic stretches from Turkey across Asia to W. China • Traditionally written in Arabic script • USSR forced the “stans” to use the Cyrillic alphabet, in 1928 Kemal Ataturk adopted Roman letters to modernize Turkey and align it w/ Europe

15. Altaic/Mongolian

16. Uralic • Originated in Ural Mts. • Spoken in Finland, Estonia, Hungary

18. African Language Families • Over 1000 spoken in Sub-Saharan Africa • Arabic dominates in the North • Other Afro-Asiatic includes Hausa, Amharic, Oromo, Somali • Over 95% in sub-Saharan Africa speak from Niger-Congo family, which includes 6 branches • 5% speak Khoisan or Nilo-Saharan

19. Niger-Congo Family • Youraba, Igbo, Shona are major languages • Swahili is native to only 800,000, but spoken by 30 million- lingua franca w/ strong Arabic influence • Swahili has an extensive literary tradition

20. Nilo-Saharan • Relatively few speakers but very diverse- many branches, groups • Major language is Songhai

21. Khoisan • That’s the one with the clicking sounds • Main language Hottentot • See “The Gods Must Be Crazy” • Spoken SW Africa

22. Austronesian/Indo-European • Malagasy is most closely related to Ma’anyan, spoken 1,900 miles away on Borneo • Afrikaans is closely related to Dutch, a Germanic language

24. Nigeria • Has 493 distinct languages • 15% Hausa, Youraba, Igbo, 55% the other 490 • Great source of regional/internal conflict • Moved capital to reduce tension • English a neutral language

26. Why do people preserve local languages? Preserving language diversity Global dominance of English

27. Globalization • Globalization has made English the first global lingua franca • On the other hand, dominance of English has created a desire to protect local languages • Languages are becoming extinct at the most rapid rate in history • 516 languages are nearly extinct- some people still alive, but not passing language on to next generation

28. Nearly extinct • 46 Africa, 170 Americas, 78 Asia, 12 Europe, 210 in Pacific • Gothic died in 1500, as did the entire E Germanic language branch. Why? • Cultural integration- switched to Latin when they became Christian • Same in Peru- people are switching to Spanish- economic opportunity, pop culture, etc

29. Hebrew • By the 4th century BC Hebrew was used only for religious services- dead language • Revived from religious texts after 1948- creation of Israel • Eliezer Ben-Yehuda revived Hebrew

30. Celtic languages • Only spoken today in N. Scotland, Wales, W. Ireland, and Brittany- once dominated all of W. Europe • 2 groups- Brythonic and Gaelic • Irish Gaelic spoken by 350,000 people • 1300s- Irish forbidden to speak their own language in front of their English masters- tally stick • Cornish died in 1777 with Dolly Pentreath- last words- “I will not speak English… you ugly, black toad!”

31. Celtic languages • Parents encouraged English to compete for jobs • In Wales, Ireland Celtic is being revived- mandatory in schools • Cornish revived in 1920s 100 people fluent, controversy surrounding spelling • American tourism in part pushing Irish revival

32. Multilingual States • Belgium and Switzerland- Belguim divided between French speaking Walloons and dutch speaking Flemish • Economic and political differences, along w/ culture create internal conflict • Switzerland has 4 official languages, German, French, Italian, and Romansh • Coexist peacefully because of decentralized gov’t

35. Isolated languages • Isolated languages are unrelated to any other • Basque is spoken in SW France and NE Spain by 600,000 people. Isolation in mts. Has preserved it. • Icelandic- has changed little in 1000 yrs. Because of isolation, but related to Scandinavian languages- N. Germanic group

36. Pidgin language/Lingua Franca • Simplified form of lingua franca- has no native speakers- second language for everyone • If it becomes a native language then it is a creole language • Modern lingua francas include Russian, Spanish, English, Indonesian, Hindustani, Swahili • English as 2nd language for 90% European students, 500 million people worldwide

37. Language Convergence • Franglais- eng/Fr, • Spanglish- eng/Sp • Denglish- eng/De