Unit 6: LANGUAGE

I. What are Languages, and What Role do Languages Play in Cultures?

Language is a foundation of culture. It is also…

UNIVERSAL

• No human group anywhere has ever been found that does not have a spoken language.
• There are many languages that do not have a written form
• There are occasional physically normal individuals who have no language at all (Victor the Wild Boy of Aveyron, Genie)

FUNDAMENTAL

• Language is crucial for social interaction, to express complex emotions and ideas, and an important aspect of developmental child psychology (“Windows of Opportunity”)

Language Defined

Languages subtly gradate one to another.

• Dialects and other regional differences may eventually lead to incomprehensibility and emerge into a new language.

• Migration and Isolation explain how a single language can later become two or more.

Mutual Intelligibility

ISOGLOSS: A geographic boundary within which a particular linguistic feature occurs

• Criterion for a language vs dialect? Speakers can still understand each other.

Language and National Identity

STANDARD LANGUAGE: A language that is published, widely distributed, and purposefully taught.

• Government usually plays a big role in standardizing a language

Language Families

II. Why Are Languages Distributed the Way They Are?

Language Families

A language family is a group of languages which are descended from a single common earlier language

​

How many languages are there?

…Not an easy question to answer

​

• Living and Dead Languages (Italian vs. Latin)

** Acculturation: where an immigrant family, on average, takes THREE GENERATIONS to lose their primary language

• Revivals (Hebrew – from living to dead to living again)

• New Discoveries (isolated communities in Amazon, Oceania, central Africa, etc.)

• What distinguishes a “Language” from a “Dialect”?

• 6,000 Languages spoken today… Or more? Or less?

​

​

How are Languages Formed?

Linkages among languages are marked by SOUND SHIFTS (slight changes in words across languages over time)

MILK

Latin: lacte

French: lait

Spanish: leche

Italian: latte

Case Study: Romance Languages

England, although once part of the Roman Empire, did NOT develop into a truly Romance language…

�The Study of Historical Languages

• Backward Reconstruction – tracking sound shifts and hardening of consonants “backward” to original language
• Deep Reconstruction – recreating an extinct language that preceded later languages
• Language Extinction – typically develops over generations, no more native speakers
• NOTE: Do not confuse extinction with acculturation, where an immigrant family, on average, takes THREE GENERATIONS to lose their primary language (NYC)
• Proto-Indo-European language hearth was somewhere likely in the vicinity of the Black Sea

How are Languages Formed?

• Language divergence –

when a lack of spatial interaction among speakers of a language breaks the language into dialects and then new languages.

(ex. Vulgar Latin into Romance Languages)

​

• Language convergence –

when peoples with different languages have consistent spatial interaction and their languages collapse into one.

(ex. Arabic, Vulgar Latin offshoots and Indigenous American languages blend into modern Spanish)

Language Family Divisions

• Language Families
• Language Branches
• Language Groups
• Languages
• Dialects
• Accents

​

• Indo-European
• Germanic
• West Germanic
• English
• American Standard
• slight Philly

​

Do we have dialect bias in the United States?

Do you think the UK, Nigeria, India, Jamaica, Australia, etc. have dialect/accent bias?)

Idriss Elba (2007)

Dialects

What differentiates a LANGUAGE from a DIALECT is “Mutual Intelligibility”

​

Standardized versions of languages and governments influence what is considered a “language” or a “dialect”

​

DIALECTS: a variant of standard language by ethnicity or region based on:

• Vocabulary
• Syntax / Grammar
• Pronunciation (NOTE: Accents mainly differ in pronunciation, not the other factors)

​

CASE STUDY: English Dialects...

County Kerry, Ireland Yorkshire, England Standard UK vs Standard USA Tangier Island, Virginia Hoi Toider Black English(AAVE)

Indo-European Language Family account for 50% of all languages spoken!

The main branches of the Indo-European language family include: Germanic, Romance, Balto-Slavic, and Indo-Iranian.

Modern English

List of English words with dual French and Anglo-Saxon variations

Germanic Branch - English

• Diffused throughout the world by hundreds of years of British colonialism. Brought to New World by British colonies in 1600s. Spread even further through American economic, cultural, and military dominance in the 20^th century.
• Has become an important global LINGUA FRANCA (any widely-used language used for commerce, diplomacy, science, and technology)

Balto-Slavic Branch of Indo-European

The Balto-Slavic branch can be divided into East, West and South Slavic.

​

Some Balto-Slavic languages use the LATIN alphabet, while others use the CYRILLIC alphabet.

Byzantine Influences:�The Cyrillic Alphabet

Indo-Iranian Branch of Indo-European

The Indo-Iranian branch is the largest branch with over 1 billion speakers and stretches from parts of Turkey (Kurdish minorities) through Iran (Farsi or Persian) into India (Hindi/Urdu) and Bangladesh (Bengali).

South Asian Languages & Language Families

Indo-European is the largest of four main language families in South Asia.

The country of India has 22 recognized languages.

Although Hindi is the official language of India, many areas resist its use and English serves as the Lingua Franca.

Language Families

Language Families

Sino-Tibetan Language Family (25% of all languages spoken on the planet)

Sino-Tibetan Language Family

3 Main Branches:

• Sinitic � - Mandarin (1,075 mill.),�Cantonese (71 mill.),
• Austro-Thai� - Thai, Hmong (77 mill.)
• Tibeto-Burman � - Burmese (32 mill)

Chinese (Sinitic) languages are based on approximately 420 syllabic sounds with different meanings inferred from context and tone. (Chinese tongue twisters!)

Shang Dynasty: 1523-1028 BCE

Oracle Bones

Oracle Bones Calendar

The Evolution of Chinese�Writing during the Shang

Pictographs

Semantic-Phonetics

The Language Families of Africa

The 1,000 or more languages of Africa are divided among six main language families.

Afro-Asiatic Language Family

Largest Branch:

Semitic

• Arabic (290 million)

Language of the Koran; spread by Islamic Faith and Islamic Empires as a lingua franca

• Hebrew (5 million)

Language of the Torah (Old Testament); completely revived from extinction in Israel in 1948 (dead since the year 200!)

A Swahili coin (notice Arabic text)

Niger-Congo Language Family

• Diffused throughout most of sub-Saharan Africa through the Bantu peoples originating in modern-day Cameroon/Nigeria
• Bantu people begin migrating south and east, beginning around 3000BCE, possibly because of desertification
• Khoisan peoples, the original inhabitants, were hunter-gatherers and were no match for the Bantu.
• Khoikhoi and Bushmen still retain the “clicks” of Khoisan Languages

Bantu Migrations: 3000BCE-1100 CE

As a result of the Bantu migrations and the spread of the Niger-Congo Family, the Khoisan Languages, the oldest in the world, have been virtually eradicated…

​

Niger-Congo Language Family

Monolingual / Monoglot State a country in which only one language is spoken

�Multilingual /Polyglot State �a country in which more than one language is in use

�Official Language�government-selected language(s) to enhance communication in a polyglot state

III. How Did Certain Languages Become Dominant?

Polyglot States

• Nigeria is the result of a colonial creation.
• It has over 400 individual languages!
• English is the official language even though only 20% speak standard English.
• Ethnic conflict between the Yoruba, Igbo and Hausa led to the establishment of Abuja as capital, moving it away from Lagos.

Polyglot States

In Switzerland, four official languages, a history of peace and tolerance, and a political system that puts power in the hands of local leaders help ensure peace.

How about the USA?

• The U.S. Constitution specifies no official language.
• The Supreme Court has consistently ruled that governments must assist in the learning of English, especially in the schools.
• However, many states and local jurisdictions provide ballots and information in multiple languages.

SUMMARY: World Languages

IV. What Role Does Language Play in Making Places?

• Toponym – A place name that imparts a certain character, reflects social processes, and can give a glimpse of the history of a place

Changing Toponyms

• Postcolonial Toponyms: New governments rename countries, cities, and towns to reflect their independence.

​

​

Changing Toponyms

• When people change the toponym of a place, they have the power to “wipe out the past and call forth the new.”

​

​

Leningrad = St.. Petersburg, Stalingrad = Volgograd

Changing Toponyms

• Memorial Toponyms: People change a toponym to memorialize an important person or event.

​

​