Chapter 8: Political Geography The Cultural Landscape: An Introduction to Human Geography.
Chapter 5: Language The Cultural Landscape: An Introduction to Human Geography.
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Chapter 5: Language The Cultural Landscape: An Introduction to Human Geography
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Transcript of Chapter 5: Language The Cultural Landscape: An Introduction to Human Geography.
Chapter 5: Language
The Cultural Landscape: An Introduction to Human Geography
Where Are English Language Speakers Distributed?
• Origin and diffusion of English– English is spoken by 328 million
as a first language
English-Speaking Countries
Figure 5-2
Where Are English Language Speakers Distributed?
• Origin and diffusion of English– English colonies– Origins of English
• German invasions• Norman invasions
Figure 5-3
Where Are English Language Speakers Distributed?
• Dialects of English– Dialect = a regional
variation of a language– Isogloss = a word-usage
boundary– Standard language = a
well-established dialect
Where Are English Language Speakers Distributed?
• Dialects of English– Dialects
• In England• Differences
between British & American English
Figure 5-5
Where Are English Language Speakers
Distributed?
• Dialects of English– Dialects in the US
• Settlement in eastern US– Current differences in the
eastern US» Pronunciation differences
Figure 5-7
Where Are English
Language Speakers
Distributed?
Why Is English Related to Other
Languages?• Indo-European
branches– Language branch
• Collection of related languages
– 8 branches• 4 have many
speakers:– Germanic– Indo-Iranian– Balto-Slavic– Romance
Branches of the Indo-European Family
Figure 5-9
Why Is English Related to Other Languages?
• Indo-European branches– Germanic
• German invasion of England 1500 years ago
• West– Most similar to English– High– Low
• North– Scandinavia
Figure 5-10
Why Is English Related to Other
Languages?
• Indo-European branches– Indo-Iranian
• Most speakers• Over 100 languages• 2 Groups:
– Indic (Eastern)» Hindi
– Iranian (Western)
Figure 5-11
Why Is English Related to Other Languages?
• Indo-European branches– Balto-Slavic
• East Slavic & Baltic– Most widely used
» Russian
• West Slavic & South Slavic– Czechoslovakia
» Polish, Czech, Slavic– Hostility between Bosnians,
Croats, Serbs» 3 distinct languages
Why Is English Related to Other Languages?
• Indo-European branches– Romance
• Latin origin• Spanish, Portuguese,
French, Italian– Mountains
– Romance Language Dialects
• Francien• Castilian
Romance BranchFigure 5-12
Why Is English Related to Other Languages?
• Indo-European branches– 2 distinct languages or 2
dialects of the same language?
– Creole• Mix of colonizer’s language
& indigenous language
Why Is English Related to Other Languages?
• Origin and diffusion of Indo-European– A “Proto-Indo-European” language?
• Internal evidence
Nomadic Warrior Theory
Figure 5-14
• Kurgans– 4300BC
– Nomadic herders of horses & cattle
– Searched for grasslands
Sedentary Farmer Theory
Figure 5-15
• Lived more than 2000 years before Kurgans– Language spread through
agricultural practices
Where Are Other Language Families Distributed?
• Classification of languages– Indo-European = largest language family
• 46% of the world’s population speak an Indo-European language
Language Family Tree Figure 5-17
Language Families
Figure 5-16
Where Are Other Language Families Distributed?
• Classification of languages– Sino-Tibetan = 2nd largest language family
• 21% of the world’s population speaks a Sino-Tibetan language
– Mandarin: most used language in the world
• Ideograms
Where Are Other Language Families Distributed?
• Languages of East and Southeast Asia– Austronesian
• Indonesia– Javanese =
most widely spoken
– Austo-Asiatic• Vietnamese =
most widely spoken
– Japanese• Uses phonetic symbols like Western languages
– Korean
Where Are Other Language Families Distributed?
• Languages of the Middle East and Central Asia– Afro-Asiatic
• Arabic = most widely spoken
– Altaic• Turkish = most widely
spoken
– Uralic• Estonian, Hungarian, and Finnish
Where Are Other Language Families Distributed?
• African language families– Extensive linguistic
diversity• 1,000 distinct
languages & thousands of dialects
Figure 5-19
Where Are Other Language Families Distributed?
• African language families– Niger-Congo
• 95% of sub-Saharan Africans speak a Niger-Congo language
– Nilo-Saharan– Khoisan
• “Click” languages– San Bushmen
Figure 5-20
Why Do People Preserve Languages?
• Preserving language diversity– Extinct languages
• 473 “endangered” languages today
– Examples• Reviving extinct
languages: Hebrew• Preserving endangered
languages: Celtic
Why Do People Preserve Languages?
• Preserving language diversity– Multilingual states
• Walloons & Flemings in Belgium
– Isolated languages• Basque• Icelandic
Figure 5-23
Why Do People Preserve Languages?
• Global dominance of English– English: example of a
lingua franca • Lingua franca = an
international language• Pidgin language = a
simplified version of a language
• Expansion diffusion• Ebonics
– Job opening
Why Do People Preserve Languages?
• Global dominance of English– Diffusion to other
languages• Franglais
– French Academy (1635) = arbiter of French language
• Spanglish
• Denglish
The End.
