Topic: Language Introduction• Aim: In what ways in Language an essential element of culture?

• Do Now: List 5 words that you know in a different language in your notebook, along with how you know each of these words (who taught you?)

Video “The Offensive Translator”

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XY66ZJ0TFUI

The Seris have more than 50 terms for kinship relationships, such as between these two cousins, many specific to the gender and birth order of the relative. A woman uses a different word for father than a man does.

Discussion: How Many of You…

Speak another language fluently?

Understand but don’t speak another language?

Both speak and understand another language?Can write fluently in another language?Actually think in a different language at times?

Geographer’s Perspective on Language:• Language is an essential element of culture, possibly the most important medium by which culture is transmitted.

• Languages even structure the perceptions of their speakers. Attitudes, understandings, and responses are partly determined by the words available.

• Languages are a hallmark of cultural diversity with distinctive regional distributions.

•Going by native speakers (people who speak it as a first language), what are the top 10 spoken languages (by number of speakers) in the world today? (if you know why, even better!)

World’s Top 10 Languages:

1. Mandarin Chinese 726 Million2. English 427 Million3. Spanish 266 Million4. Hindi 182 Million5. Arabic 181 Million6. Portuguese 165 Million7. Bengali 162 Million8. Russian 158 Million9. Japanese 124 Million10.German 121 Million

World Languages:

• 7,000 + languages spoken today, not including dialects

• 1500 plus spoken in Sub-Saharan Africa alone

• 400 + in New Guinea alone

• 100 + in Europe

•However, this diversity is diminishing:

• 2000 plus Threatened or Endangered Languages

Language Distribution indicates:

• History and conquest• Isolation or integration of cultures• Migration of peoples• Economic domination of certain cultures

• Influence of wealth and technology • Political Divisions (country boundaries)

• Physical geography barriers (mountains, deserts, etc.)

Cultural Aspects Language May Influence:

• Character and sounds of a culture• Visual landscapes of signs (script, letters, ideograms)

Cultural Values A Language May Indicate:

• class structure• gender differences in vocabulary• environmentally specific vocabulary• formal and informal relationships • technology of a culture

Language Defined:Organized system of spoken words by which people communicate with one another with mutual comprehension (Getis, 1985).This can be spoken (verbal) or unspoken (gestures and body language)

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

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

Language Terms• Standard language: an official language sustained by the state in the form of state examination for teachers, civil servants and others.

• Dialect: regional variation of a standard language. Can indicate social class (e.g. - cockney English)

• Language family: a group of languages descended from a single, earlier tongue. Have a shared, but distant common origin

•HOW do you think languages have diffused in different way over space(besides migration, which we already discussed)?

How do Languages Diffuse?• Human interaction: 2,000 years ago-Han China, Roman Empire-spread languages over vast empires

• Print distribution: Gutenberg’s movable type printing press (1452-first Gutenberg Bible) helped to diffuse, standardize & stabilize European languages

• Migration: ancient & more recent migration from 16th century to now diffused languages e.g. Spanish, Portuguese, English & French

• Trade: encouraged the spread of goods & languages

• Rise of nation-states: stabilized & standardized languages

• Colonialism: mercantilism & colonies spread European languages in the Americas, Africa & Asia

Origin & Diffusion of Languages • Mother Tongue: the first language spoken by Homo sapiens about 200,000 years ago.

• Deep reconstruction: by studying sound shifts, linguists try to re-create an extinct language.

• Language divergence: the differentiation that takes place over time and distance.

• Language convergence: when long isolated languages make contact through diffusion.

• Language replacement: traditional languages of small groups of less advanced people were replaced or greatly modified by an invading tongue.

• Linguists can find linkages among languages by examining sound shifts – a slight change in a word across languages over time.

• An example of sound shift:– Latin for milk is lacte– Italian is latta– Spanish is leche– French is lait

• Another example of sound shift is:– German vater– Dutch vader– English father

• Still another example is– Latin for eight is octo– Spanish is ocho– French is huit

Ideograms- Chinese; Japanese

- Sumerian and Egyptian have both ideographic and phonetic

components.

How to Write Down a Language?

How to Write Down a Language?

Phonetic

Most languages, including Romance languages

Symbols (letters) generally represent sounds, not ideas. A phonetic alphabet is the key innovation.

Non-Verbal Communication:

•What does the ‘V’ sign made with one hand mean?

• The Letter V in American Sign Language

• A sign of peace (palm out)• A sign for victory (palm out) as used by Churchill at the end of WWII (left)

• Rabbit ears when taking a picture

• The number 2

However, in the United Kingdom, if your palm is facing inwards, it is the equivalent of our middle finger!

IT DEPENDS ON WHERE YOU ARE….

Summary: Cultural Gaffes

• http://www.peacecorp.gov/wws/multimedia/videos/culturalgaffes/