Chapter 9 - The Diffusion of Languages

1. Chapter 9 - The Diffusion of Languages • Tracing Linguistic Diversification • The Language Tree • Theories of Language Diffusion • Diffusion to the Pacific and the Americas • Influence on Individual Languages

2. Tracing Linguistic Diversification • Hints from Analysis of “Sound Shift” - Milk - lacte (Latin) - latta (Italian) - leche (Spanish) and lait (French) - Eight - octo (Latin) - otto - ocho -huit • Such backward reconstruction,called “deep reconstruction”, is crucial to linguistic research • William Jones - discovered the resemblance between Sanskrit (ancient Indian language) and Greek and Latin in 18th century • Jacob Grimm, 19th century, suggested that related languages have similar consonants which would change over time in a predictable way(Softening of consonants)

3. Proto Indo-European Language • Ancestral language • The predecessor of Latin, Greek, and Sanskrit • Link Romance language and other languages together To prove its existence: 1) reconstruction 2) Locate the hearths 3) Diffusion routes must be traced 4) knowledge of the ways of life

4. Divergence - August Schleicher • Language divergence -languages differentiated over time and space • 19th century, suggested by August Schleicher, Language - dialects - isolated dialects - discrete languages, for example - Spanish and Portuguese an now is Quebecois French • languages spread by relocation diffusion, but sometimes cause long- isolated languages, difficult for reconstruction • Replacement • Invasion of major language causes the replacement process which make the reconstruction of small branch of the language complicate. • Language Island - Hungarian, Finnish, Estonia and Basque survive (fig 8-3)

5. Theories of Language Diffusion • Conquest Theory • from Black Sea (proposed homeland, today Ukraine and Russia) spread westward using horse and wheel and trading, sound shift represents a long period of westward divergence, beginning the diffusion and differentiation of Latin, Germanic and Slavonic languages • Celtic group was pushed to the west of the Europe by newer language • Agriculture Theory • After more archeological records revealed, Luca Cavalli-Sforza and Robert Ammerman proposed that agriculture not conquest diffused the P-I-E languages. Proposed homeland - Anatolia (Turkey), between 7 and 9000 years ago.

6. Agriculture Theory • 1n 1984, Thomas Gamkrelidze and Victor Ivanov (who reconstructed most of Proto-Indo-European Language), proposed the source area: Anatolia in modern Turkey • Vocabulary - mountain streams, valleys, rapids, lakes, mountain trees, and other high-relief landforms

7. Support for the Agr. Theory • Analyses of protein (gene)-shows the evidence of the distance decay from southern Turkey -Balkans-west and northern Europe. Farming spread into Europe. • Every generation (25yrs) Ag.frontier moved 11 miles. In 1500yrs, European frontiers would have been completely penetrated by farmers (Ammerman and Cavallo-Sforza)

8. Drawback of the Ag. theory • Anatolian region not a good place for farming and no archeological evidence to support the culture hearth • Some prefer the dispersal hypothesis (fig 9-2) and fig9-3

9. The search for a superfamily • Colin Renfrew - 3 Agr. Hearths • 1) Anatolia -Indo-European • 2) Western arc of Fertile Crescent - languages of Africa and Arabia • 3) Eastern arc of Fertile Crescent - Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India, later replaced by Indo-European

10. The Renfrew Model 3 Agri. hearths 1) Anatolian -> Europe Indo-Europ 2) Western arc of the Fertile Crescent -> N Africa and Arabia 3) Eastern arc of the Fertile Crescent -> Iran, Irag, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India, later replaced by Indo-Eur

11. Russian Scholars-Vladislav Illich-Svitych and Aharon Dologopolsky • Nostratic - pre-Proto-Indo-European reconstructed by them independently • No domesticated plants or animals in Nostratic - hunter-gatherers,not farmers- “dog=wolf” means domestication of wolves • About 14,000 years ago, dog bones were found - Nostratic may have been used.

12. Nostratic • Could be the ancestral language of 1)Proto-Indo-European (Indo-European) 2)Kartvelian language (southern Caucasus), 3) Uralic-Altaic (Hungarian, Finnish, Turkish and Mongolian) 4) Dravidian and 5) Afro-Asiatic (Arabic) • But, we still don’t know what gave rise to Nostratic.

13. Pacific Diffusion Taiwan • Papuan from New Guinea,extended east- and westward • Austronesian began in coastal China - Taiwan (6000yrs ago) • Puzzles- 1)Why took so long from East Asia to islands off the Asia’s coast • 2) Complexity due to invasion of other languages or isolation? • 3) No Nostratic model for the languages of the Asian mainland reconstructed Philippines Malayo-Polynesian (Madagascar, Melaniesia Micronesia and Fiji) Polynesian (Maori in New Zealand)

14. Figure 9-6 Austronesian - reached Taiwan 6000 yrs ago (words for rice, field, farm, water buffalo, plow and canoe) • New Zealand - 1000 years ago • Australia - 50,000 to 60,000 years ago • New Guinea - even earlier Bellwood’s Pacific-realm model shows the stages in the expansion of Austronesian languages

15. Diffusion in the Americas • Native Americans, no more than 40 millions before the European invasion, came from Asia via Bering land bridge around 12,000 to 13,000 yrs ago (long believed) • The Languages were supposed to be simple without other language’s presence, but there are as many as 200 American Indian Languages now. • Divergence occurred within short period of time after crossing Bering Land Bridge. • The Greenberg Hypothesis-three indigenous American Languages -1)Oldest and largest -Amerind, 2) Na-Dene-Canada, Alaska and Apache and Navajo and 3) Eskimo-Aleut

16. Greenberg Hypothesis • If Amerind Languages are the same family, the divergence must have occurred during a period of more than 12000 yrs. • Support and Controversies • No proper reconstruction procedures involved • He compared similar-sounding words in contemporary languages not sound-shifts. • Supportive archeological data, first wave of migration may have happened 40,000 B.P. • Dental data- supported three wave of migration • Majority of linguists still doubt the 3-wave and 3-family hypothesis. • But, the controversy will be resolved from Genetic and Archeological research, eventually.

17. Guatemala • 15 30 N and 90 15 W • Area - slightly smaller than Tennessee • Pop - 12.6 million • - 1.89 /1000 migrants • Roman Catholic, Protestant, indigenous Mayan beliefs • Languages - Spanish 60%, Amerindian 40% • Literacy - 50%, 75% below poverty line

18. Individual Languages • Remain in contact with each other->keep the languages alive • Three components influences world’s language mosaic: Writing-makes languages stabilized Technology-interaction between people Political Org - Limit access/scope • Middle Ages - invention of • printing press and rise of • nation-state are important • factors to the modern • languages. Such as.. • Printings of Luther Bible in • German and King James Bible • in English set the standard • forms of languages for • Germany and English • Chinese/Latin-dispersed languages • over continents through Pol. org. • Languages diverged after • Roman Empire fell

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