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Transcript of Linguistics 1
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Linguistics 101: An Introduction to the Study of Language
Part One: Introduction to Linguistics
Every human knows at least one language, spoken or signed. Linguistics is thescience of language, including the sounds, words, and grammar rules. Words in
languages are nite, but sentences are not. It is this creative aspect of human
language that sets it apart from animal languages, which are essentially
responses to stimuli.
The rules of a language, also called grammar, are learned as one acuires a
language. These rules include phonology, the sound system, morphology, the
structure of words, syntax, the combination of words into
sentences, semantics, the ways in which sounds and meanings are related, and
the lexicon, or mental dictionary of words. When you know a language, youknow words in that language, i.e. sound units that are related to specic
meanings. !owever, the sounds and meanings of words are arbitrary. "or the
most part, there is no relationship between the way a word is pronounced #or
signed$ and its meaning.
%nowing a language encompasses this entire system, but this knowledge
#called competence$ is di&erent from behavior #called performance.$ 'ou may
know a language, but you may also choose to not speak it. (lthough you are not
speaking the language, you still have the knowledge of it. !owever, if you don)t
know a language, you cannot speak it at all.
There are two types of grammars* descriptive and prescriptive. Descriptive
grammars represent the unconscious knowledge of a language. English
speakers, for e+ample, know that me likes apples is incorrect and I like apples
is correct, although the speaker may not be able to e+plain why. -escriptive
grammars do not teach the rules of a language, but rather describe rules that
are already known. In contrast, prescriptive grammars dictate what a
speaker)s grammar should be and they include teaching grammars, which are
written to help teach a foreign language.
There are about ,/// languages in the world right now #give or take a fewthousand$, and linguists have discovered that these languages are more alike
than di&erent from each other. There are universal concepts and properties that
are shared by all languages, and these principles are contained in the niversal
!rammar, which forms the basis of all possible human languages.
Part "#o: $orphology and Syntax
$orphemes are the minimal units of words that have a meaning and cannot be
subdivided further. There are two main types* free and bound. "ree morphemescan occur alone and bound morphemes must occur with another morpheme. (n
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e+ample of a free morpheme is bad, and an e+ample of a bound morpheme is
ly. It is bound because although it has meaning, it cannot stand alone. It must
be attached to another morpheme to produce a word.
"ree morpheme* bad
0ound morpheme* lyWord* badly
When we talk about words, there are two groups* lexical #or content$
and function #or grammatical$ words. Le+ical words are called open class words
and include nouns, verbs, ad1ectives and adverbs. 2ew words can regularly be
added to this group. "unction words, or closed class words, are con1unctions,
prepositions, articles and pronouns3 and new words cannot be #or are very rarely$
added to this class.
A%xes are often the bound morpheme. This group includes pre&xes' su%xes'
in&xes' and circum&xes. 4re+es are added to the beginning of anothermorpheme, su5+es are added to the end, in+es are inserted into other
morphemes, and circum+es are attached to another morpheme at the
beginning and end. "ollowing are e+amples of each of these*
4re+* re6 added to do produces redo
7u5+* 6or added to edit produces editor
In+* 6um6 added to fkas #strong$ produces umikas #to be strong$ in 0ontoc
8ircum+* ge6 and 6t to lieb #love$ produces geliebt #loved$ in 9erman
There are two categories of a5+es* derivational and in(ectional. The main
di&erence between the two is that derivational a5+es are added to morphemes
to form new words that may or may not be the same part of speech and
in:ectional a5+es are added to the end of an e+isting word for purely
grammatical reasons. In English there are only eight total in:ectional a5+es*
6s ;rd person singular present she waits
6ed past tense she waited
6ing progressive she)s eating
6en past participle she has eaten
6s plural three apples
6)s possessive Lori)s son
6er comparative you are taller
6est superlative you are the shortest
The other type of bound morphemes are called bound roots. These aremorphemes #and not a5+es$ that must be attached to another morpheme and
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do not have a meaning of their own. 7ome e+amples are ceive in perceive
and mit in submit.
)nglish $orphemes
(. "ree<. =pen 8lass
>. 8losed 8lass
0. 0ound
<. (5+
a. -erivational
b. In:ectional
>. ?oot
There are si+ ways to form new words. *ompounds are a combination of
words, acronyms are derived from the initials of words, +ac,-formations are
created from removing what is mistakenly considered to be an
a5+, a++reviations or clippingsare shortening longer words, eponyms are
created from proper nouns #names$, and +lending is combining parts of words
into one.
8ompound* doghouse
(cronym* NBA #2ational 0asketball (ssociation$ or scuba #self6contained
underwater breathing apparatus$
0ack6formation* edit from editor
(bbreviation* phone from telephone
Eponym* sandwich from Earl o Sandwich
0lending* smog from smoke and og
9rammar is learned unconsciously at a young age. (sk any ve year old, and he
will tell you that I eat and you eat, but his dog eats. 0ut a human)s
syntactical knowledge goes farther than what is grammatical and what is not. It
also accounts for ambiguity, in which a sentence could have two meanings, andenables us to determine grammatical relationships such as sub1ect and direct
ob1ect. (lthough we may not consciously be able to dene the terms, we
unconsciously know how to use them in sentences.
7ynta+, of course, depends on le+ical categories #parts of speech.$ 'ou probably
learned that there are @ main parts of speech in grammar school. Linguistics
takes a di&erent approach to these categories and separates words into
morphological and syntactic groups. Linguistics analyAes words according to their
a5+es and the words that follow or precede them. !opefully, the following
denitions of the parts of speech will make more sense and be of more use thanthe old denitions of grammar school books.
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Open Class Words
.ouns BBBBB C plural endings
dogs
-et. (d1. BBBBB #this is called a 2oun 4hrase$
the big dog
/er+s BBBB C tense endingsspeaks
(u+. BBBB #this is called a Derb 4hrase$have spoken
Adective
s
BBBB C er est
small
-et. BBBB 2oun
the smaller child
Adver+s(d1. C ly
uickly
BBBB (d1. or Derb or (dv.
uickly ran
Closed Class Words
Determiners
a, an, the, this, that,these,
those, pronouns,
uantities
BBBB (d1. 2oun
this blue book
Auxiliary
/er+s
forms of be, have,
may,
can, shall
24 BBBB D4
the girl is swimming
Preposition
s
at, in, on, under, over,
of
BBBB 24 #this is called a 4repositional
4hrase$in the room
*onunction
sand, but, or
2 or D or (d1. BBBB 2 or D or (d1.
apples and oranges
Su+categoriation denes the restrictions on which syntactic categories #parts
of speech$ can or cannot occur within a le+ical item. These additional
specications of words are included in our mental le+icon. Derbs are the most
common categories that are subcategoriAed. Derbs can either be transitive or
intransitive. "ransitive ver+s take a direct ob1ect, while intransitive
ver+s take an indirect ob1ect #usually they need a preposition before the noun$.
Transitive verb* to eat I ate an apple. #direct ob1ect$
Intransitive* to sleep I was sleeping in the bed. #indirect ob1ect$
Individual nouns can also be subcategoriAed. "or e+ample, the noun idea can be
followed by a 4repositional 4hrase or that and a sentence. 0ut the
noun compassion can only be followed by a 4repositional 4hrase and not a
sentence. #Fngrammatical sentences are marked with asterisks.$
the idea of stricter laws his compassion for the animals
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the idea that stricter laws are
necessary
Ghis compassion that the animals are
hurt
Phrase structure rules describe how phrases are formed and in what order.
These rules dene the following*
2oun 4hrase #24$ #-et.$ #(d1.$ 2oun #44$
Derb 4hrase #D4$ Derb #24$ #44$
4repositional 4hrase #44$ 4rep. 24
7entence #7$ 24 D4
The parentheses indicate the categories are optional. Derbs don)t always have to
be followed by prepositional phrases and nouns don)t always have to be
preceded by ad1ectives.Passive Sentences
The di&erence between the two sentences Hary hired 0ill and 0ill was hired by
Hary is that the rst is active and the second is passive. In order to change an
active sentence into a passive one, the ob1ect of the active must become the
sub1ect of the passive. The verb in the passive sentence becomes a form of be
plus the participle form of the main verb. (nd the sub1ect of the active becomes
the ob1ect of the passive preceded by the word by.
Active Passive
Hary hired 0ill. 0ill was hired by Hary.
7ub1ect C Derb C =b1ect =b1ect C be C Derb C by C 7ub1ect
Part "hree: Phonetics and Phonology
There are three types of the study of the sounds of language. Acoustic
Phonetics is the study of the physical properties of sounds. AuditoryPhonetics is the study of the way listeners perceive sounds. Articulatory
Phonetics #the type this lesson is concerned with$ is the study of how the vocal
tracts produce the sounds.
The orthography #spelling$ of words in misleading, especially in English. =ne
sound can be represented by several di&erent combinations of letters. "or
e+ample, all of the following words contain the same vowel sound* he, believe,
Lee, 8aesar, ke , amoeba, loudl , machine, people, and sea. The following poem
illustrates this fact of English humorously #note the pronunciation of the bold
words$*
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I take it you already ,no# of tough and +ough and cough and dough
7ome may stumble, but not you, on hiccough, thorough, slough,
and through
7o now you are ready, perhaps, to learn of less familiar traps
0eware of heard, a dreadful #ord, that looks like +eard, but sounds like +ird.
(nd dead, it)s said like +ed, not +ead3 for goodness) sake, don)t call it deedJWatch out for meat and great and threat. #They rhyme
with suite and straight and de+t.$
( moth is not a moth in mother, nor +oth in +other, +roth in +rother.
(nd here is not a match for there, nor dear and fear, for +ear and pear.
(nd then there)s dose and rose and lose 6 1ust look them up 6
and goose and choose
(nd cor, and #or, and card and #ard and font and front and #ord and s#or
d
(nd do and go, then th#art and cart, come, comeJ I)ve hardly made a start.
( dreadful language Why man aliveJ I)ve learned to talk it when I was ve.(nd yet to write it, the more I tried, I hadn)t learned it at fty6ve.
! Author "nknown
The discrepancy between spelling and sounds led to the formation of
the International Phonetics Alpha+et #I4(.$ The symbols used in this
alphabet can be used to represent all sounds of all human languages. The
following is the English 4honetic alphabet. 'ou might want to memoriAe all of
these symbols, as most foreign language dictionaries use the I4(.
4honetic (lphabet for English 4ronunciation
p pill d dill h heal K but
b +ill n neal l leaf a1 light
m mill s seal r reef 1 boy
f f eel A eal 1 you M bit
v veal N chill w #itch O bet
P thigh Q 2ill i beet R f oot
S thy #hich e bait a#e
U shill k , ill u boot a bar
V aure g gill o boat sof a
t till X ring Y bat aw co#
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7ome speakers of English pronounce the words which and witch di&erently, but if
you pronounce both words identically, 1ust use w for both words. (nd the
sounds K and are pronounced the same, but the former is used in stressed
syllables, while the latter is used in unstressed syllables. This list does not even
begin to include all of the phonetic symbols though. =ne other symbol is the
glottal stop, Z which is somewhat rare in English. 7ome linguists in the Fnited7tates traditionally use di&erent symbols than the I4( symbols. These are listed
below.
3S3 IPA
U [
V \
N t[
Q d\
F R
The production of any speech sound involves the movement of air. (ir is pushed
through the lungs, laryn+ #vocal folds$ and vocal tract #the oral and nasal
cavities.$ 7ounds produced by using air from the lungs are
called pulmonic sounds. If the air is pushed out, it is called egressive. If the air
is sucked in, it is called ingressive. 7ounds produced by ingressive airstreams
are e1ectives, implosives, and clicks. These sounds are common among (frican
and (merican Indian languages. The ma1ority of languages in the world usepulmonic egressive airstream mechanisms, and I will present only these types of
sounds in this lesson.
*onsonants
8onsonants are produced as air from the lungs is pushed through the glottis #the
opening between the vocal cords$ and out the mouth. They are classied
according to voicing, aspiration, nasaloral sounds, places of articulation and
manners of articulation. /oicing is whether the vocal folds vibrate or not. The
sound s is called voiceless because there is no vibration, and the sound A is
called voiced because the vocal folds do vibrate #you can feel on your neck ifthere is vibration.$ =nly three sounds in English have aspiration, the sounds
b, p and t. (n e+tra pu& of air is pushed out when these sounds begin a word
or stressed syllable. !old a piece of paper close to your mouth when saying the
words pin and spin. 'ou should notice e+tra air when you say pin. (spiration is
indicated in writing with a superscript h, as in p]. 2asal sounds are produced
when the velum #the soft palate located in the back of the roof of the mouth$ is
lowered and air is passed through the nose and mouth. =ral sounds are produced
when the velum is raised and air passes only through the mouth.
Places of Articulation
0ilabial* lips together
Labiodental* lower lip against front teeth
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Interdental* tongue between teeth
(lveolar* tongue near alveolar ridge on roof of mouth #in between teeth and hard
palate$
4alatal* tongue on hard palate
Delar* tongue near velum
9lottal* space between vocal folds
The following sound is not found in the English language, although it is common
in languages such as "rench and (rabic*
Fvular* raise back of tongue to uvula #the appendage hanging down from the
velum$
$anners of Articulation
7top* obstruct airstream completely
"ricative* partial obstruction with friction
(&ricate* stop airstream, then release
Liuids* partial obstruction, no friction
9lides* little or no obstruction, must occur with a vowel
'ou should practice saying the sounds of the English alphabet to see if you can
identify the places of articulation in the mouth. The sounds are described by
voicing, place and then manner of articulation, so the sound 1 would be called a
voiced palatal glide and the sound s would be called a voiceless alveolar
fricative.
4ila+ia
l
La+iodenta
l
Interdenta
l
Alveola
r
Palata
l
/elar !lottal
Stop 5oral6p
b
t
d
k
g
.asal
5stop6m n X
7ricativef
v
P
S
s
A
U
Vh
A8ricate N Q
!lide
w 1
wh
Li9uid l r
"or rows that have two consonants, the top consonant is voiceless and the
bottom consonant is voiced. 2asal stops are all voiced, as are liuids. The
sound 1 is also voiced. If sounds are in two places on the chart, that means they
can be pronounced either way.
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/o#els
Dowels are produced by a continuous airstream and all are voiced #at least in
English 6 ^apanese does have voiceless vowels, however$. They are classied
according to height of the tongue, part of tongue involved, and position of the
lips. The tongue can be high, mid, or low3 and the part of the tongue used can be
front, central or back. =nly four vowels are produced with rounded lips and onlyfour vowels are considered tense instead of la+. The sound a would be written
as a low back la+ unrounded vowel. Hany languages also have vowels called
diphthongs, a seuence of two sounds, vowel C glide. E+amples in English
include o in boy and ow in cow. In addition, vowels can be nasaliAed when they
occur before nasal consonants. ( diacritic mark _` is placed over the vowel to
show this. The vowel sounds in bee and bean are considered di&erent because
the sound in bean is nasaliAed.
Part of "ongue
"ront 8entral 0ack
"ongue
eight
!ighi
M
u
#
Hide
O
K
o
$
Low Y a
The bold vowels are tense, and the italic vowels are rounded. English alsoincludes the diphthongs* _a1 as in bite, _aw as in cow, and _o1 as in boy.
"or the complete I4( chart with symbols for the sounds of every human
language, please visit the International Phonetic Association;s #e+site. (nd
you)re looking for a way to type English I4( symbols online, please
visit ipa3typeit3org
$aor *lasses of Sounds 5Distinctive 7eatures6
(ll of the classes of sounds described above can be put into more general
classes that include the patterning of sounds in the world)s
languages. *ontinuant sounds indicate a continuous air:ow, while non-
continuant sounds indicate total obstruction of the
airstream. O+struent sounds do not allow air to escape through the nose,
while sonorant sounds have a relatively free air:ow through the mouth or nose.
The following table summariAes this information*
O+struent Sonorant
*ontinuant fricatives liuids, glides, vowels
.on-*ontinuant oral stops, a&ricates nasal stops
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Major Class Features
_C 8onsonantal consonants
_6 8onsonantal vowels
_C7onorant nasals, liuids, glides, vowels_6 7onorant stops, fricatives, a&ricates #obstruents$
_C (ppro+imant glides _1, w
_6 (ppro+imant everything else
Voice Features
_C Doice voiced
_6 Doice voiceless
_C 7pread 9lottis aspirated _p], t], k]
_6 7pread 9lottis unaspirated
_C 8onstricted 9lottis e1ectives, implosives
_6 8onstricted 9lottis everything else
Manner Features
_C 8ontinuant fricatives _f, v, s, A, U, V, P, S
_6 8ontinuant stops _p, b, t, d, k, g, Z
_C 2asal nasal consonants _m, n, X
_6 2asal all oral consonants
_C Lateral _l
_6 Lateral _r
_C -elayed ?elease a&ricates _N, Q
_6 -elayed ?elease stops _p, b, t, d, k, g, Z
_C 7trident noisy fricatives _f, v, s, A, U, V
_6 7trident _, S, h
Place Features
_Labial involves lips _f, v, p, b, w
_8oronal alveolar ridge to palate _P, S, s, A, t, d, U, V, n, r, l
_C (nterior interdentals and true alveolars
_6 (nterior retro:e+ and palatals _U, V, N, Q, 1
_-orsal from velum back _k, g, X
_9lottal in laryn+ _h, Z
Vowels
!eight _ high _ low
0ackness _ back
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Lip ?ounding _ round
Tenseness _ tense
Whereas phonetics is the study of sounds and is concerned with the production,
audition and perception of of speech sounds #called
phones$, phonology describes the way sounds function within a given languageand operates at the level of sound systems and abstract sound units. %nowing
the sounds of a language is only a small part of phonology. This importance is
shown by the fact that you can change one word into another by simply
changing one sound. 8onsider the di&erences between the words time and dime.
The words are identical e+cept for the rst sound. _t and _d can therefore
distinguish words, and are called contrasting sounds. They are distinctive
sounds in English, and all distinctive sounds are classied asphonemes.
$inimal Pairs
Hinimal pairs are words with di&erent meanings that have the same sounds
e+cept for one. These contrasting sounds can either be consonants or vowels.
The words pin and bin are minimal pairs because they are e+actly the same
e+cept for the rst sound. The words read and rude are also e+actly the same
e+cept for the vowel sound. The e+amples from above, time and dime, are also
minimal pairs. In e&ect, words with one contrastive sound are minimal pairs.
(nother feature of minimal pairs is overlapping distribution. 7ounds that occur in
phonetic environments that are identical are said to be in overlapping
distribution. The sounds of _Mn from pin and bin are in overlapping distribution
because they occur in both words. The same is true for three and through. The
sounds of _Pr is in overlapping distribution because they occur in both words as
well.
7ree /ariation
7ome words in English are pronounced di&erently by di&erent speakers. This is
most noticeable among (merican English speakers and 0ritish English speakers,
as well as dialectal di&erences. This is evidenced in the ways neither, for
e+ample, can be pronounced. (merican English pronunciation is _niSr, while
0ritish English pronunciation is _na1Sr.
Phones and Allophones
Phonemes are not physical sounds. They are abstract mental representations of the phonological units of a language.Phones are considered to be any single
speech sound of which phonemes are made. 4honemes are a family of phones
regarded as a single sound and represented by the same symbol. The di&erent
phones that are the realiAation of a phoneme are called allophones of that
phoneme. The use of allophones is not random, but rule6governed. 2o one is
taught these rules as they are learned subconsciously when the native language
is acuired. To distinguish between a phoneme and its allophones, I will use
slashes to enclose phonemes and brackets _ to enclose allophones or phones.
"or e+ample, _i and _ are allophones of the phoneme i3 _M and _M are
allophones of the phoneme M.
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*omplementary Distri+ution
If two sounds are allophones of the same phoneme, they are said to be in
complementary distribution. These sounds cannot occur in minimal pairs and
they cannot change the meaning of otherwise identical words. If you interchange
the sounds, you will only change the pronunciation of the words, not the
meaning. 2ative speakers of the language regard the two allophones asvariations of the same sound. To hear this, start to say the word cool #your lips
should be pursed in anticipation of u sound$, but then say kill instead #with your
lips still pursed.$ 'our pronunciation of kill should sound strange because cool
and kill are pronounced with di&erent allophones of the phoneme k.
2asaliAed vowels are allophones of the same phoneme in English. Take, for
e+ample, the sounds in bad and ban. The phoneme is Y, however the
allophones are _Y and _Y . 'et in "rench, nasaliAed vowels are not allophones of
the same phonemes. They are separate phonemes. The words beau _bo and bon
_b are not in complementary distribution because they are minimal pairs andhave contrasting sounds. 8hanging the sounds changes the meaning of the
words. This is 1ust one e+ample of di&erences between languages.
Phonological <ules
(ssimilation* sounds become more like neighboring sounds, allowing for ease of
articulation or pronunciation3 such as vowels are nasaliAed before nasal
consonants
6 !armony* non6ad1acent vowels become more similar by sharing a feature or set
of features #common in "innish$
6 9emination* sound becomes identical to an ad1acent sound
6 ?egressive (ssimilation* sound on left is the target, and sound on right is the
trigger
-issimilation* sounds become less like neighboring sounds3 these rules are uite
rare, but one e+ample in English is _fMfP becoming _fMft #f and P are both
fricatives, but t is a stop$
Epenthesis* insertion of a sound, e.g. Latin homre became 7panish hombre
6 4rothesis* insertion of vowel sound at beginning of word
6 (napty+is* vowel sound with predictable uality is inserted word6internally
6 4aragoge* insertion of vowel sound at end of word6 E+crescence* consonant sound inserted between other consonants #also called
stop6intrusion$
-eletion* deletion of a sound3 e.g. "rench word6nal consonants are deleted
when the ne+t word begins with a consonant #but are retained when the
following word begins with a vowel$
6 (phaeresis* vowel sound deleted at beginning of word
6 7yncope* vowel sound is deleted word6internally
6 (pocope* vowel sound deleted at end of word
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Hetathesis* reordering of phonemes3 in some dialects of English, the word asked
is pronounced _Yks3 children)s speech shows many cases of metathesis such as
aminal for animal
Lenition* consonant changes to a weaker manner of articulation3 voiced stop
becomes a fricative, fricative becomes a glide, etc.
4alataliAation* sound becomes palatal when ad1acent to a front vowel
8ompensatory Lengthening* sound becomes long as a result of sound loss, e.g.
Latin octo became Italian otto
Assimilation in )nglish
(n interesting observation of assimilation rules is evidenced in the formation of
plurals and the past tense in English. When pluraliAing nouns, the last letter is
pronounced as either _s, _A, or _A. When forming past tenses of verbs, the 6ed
ending is pronounced as either _t, _d, _d. If you were to sort words into three
columns, you would be able to tell why certain words are followed by certainsounds*
Plural nouns
s A A
cats dads churches
tips bibs kisses
laughs dogs 1udges
Past "ense
t d d
kissed loved patted
washed 1ogged waded
coughed teased seeded
!opefully, you can determine which consonants produce which sounds. In the
nouns, s is added after voiceless consonants, and A is added after voiced
consonants. A is added after sibilants. "or the verbs, t is added after voiceless
consonants, and d is added after voiced consonants. d is added after alveolar
stops. The great thing about this is that no one ever taught you this in school.
0ut thanks to linguistics, you now know why there are di&erent sounds #because
of assimiliation rules, the consonants become more like their neighboring
consonants.$
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=riting <ules
( general phonological rule is ( 0 - BB E #said* ( becomes 0 when it occurs
between - and E$ =ther symbols in rule writing include* 8 any obstruent, D
any vowel, j nothing, word boundary, # $ optional, and eitheror. (deletion rule is ( j E BB #( is deleted when it occurs after E$ and an insertion
rule is j ( E BB #( is inserted when it occurs after E$.
(lpha notation is used to collapse similar assimilation rules into one. 8 _
voice BB _ voice #(n obstruent becomes voiced when it occurs before a
voiced obstruent (2- an obstruent becomes voiceless when it occurs before a
voiceless obstruent.$ 7imilarly, it can be used for dissimilation rules too. 8 _6
voice BB _ voice #(n obstruent becomes voiced when it occurs before a
voiceless obstruent (2- an obstruent becomes voiceless when it occurs before a
voiced obstruent.$ 9emination rules are written as 8<8> 8>8> #for e+ample,
pd dd$
Sylla+le Structure
There are three peaks to a syllable* nucleus #vowel$, onset #consonant before
nucleus$ and coda #consonant after nucleus.$ The onset and coda are both
optional, meaning that a syllable could contain a vowel and nothing else. The
nucleus is reuired in every syllable by denition. The order of the peaks is
always onset 6 nucleus 6 coda. (ll languages permit open syllables #8onsonant C
Dowel$, but not all languages allow closed syllables #8onsonant C Dowel C
8onsonant$. Languages that only allow open syllables are called 8D languages. In
addition to not allowing codas, some 8D languages also have constraints on thenumber of consonants allowed in the onset.
The sonority prole dictates that sonority must rise to the nucleus and fall to the
coda in every language. The sonority scale #from most to least sonorous$ is
vowels 6 glides 6 liuids 6 nasals 6 obstruents. 7onority must rise in the onset, but
the sounds cannot be ad1acent to or share a place of articulation #e+cept _s in
English$ nor can there be more than two consonants in the onset. This e+plains
why English allows some consonant combinations, but not others. "or e+ample,
price _pra1s is a well6formed syllable and word because the sonority rises in the
onset #p, an obstruent, is less sonorous than r, a liuid$3 however, rpice _rpa1s isnot a syllable in English because the sonority does not rise in the onset.
The Ha+imality 8ondition states that onsets are as large as possible up to the
well6formedness rules of a language. =nsets are always preferred over codas
when syllabifying words. There are also constraints that state the ma+imum
number of consonants between two vowels is four3 onsets and codas have two
consonants ma+imally3 and onsets and codas can be bigger only at the edges of
words.
Part 7our: Semantics and Pragmatics
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Semantics
Le+ical semantics is concerned with the meanings of words and the meaning of
relationships among words, while phrasal semantics is concerned with the
meaning of syntactic units larger than the word. 4ragmatics is the study of how
conte+t a&ects meaning, such as how sentences are interpreted in certain
situations.
7emantic properties are the components of meanings of words. "or e+ample, the
semantic property human can be found in many words such as parent, doctor,
baby, professor, widow, and aunt. =ther semantic properties include animate
ob1ects, male, female, countable items and non6countable items.
"he -nyms
!omonyms* di&erent words that are pronounced the same, but may or may not
be spelled the same #to, two, and too$
4olysemous* word that has multiple meanings that are related conceptually orhistorically #bear can mean to tolerate or to carry or to support$
!omograph* di&erent words that are spelled identically and possibly pronounced
the same3 if they are pronounced the same, they are also homonyms #pen can
mean writing utensil or cage$
!eteronym* homographs that are pronounced di&erently #dove the bird and dove
the past tense of dive$
7ynonym* words that mean the same but sound di&erent #couch and sofa$
(ntonym* words that are opposite in meaning
Complementar pairs% alive and dead
&radable pairs% big and small #no absolute scale$
!yponym* set of related words #red, white, yellow, blue are all hyponyms of
color$
Hetonym* word used in place of another to convey the same meaning #1ock used
for athlete, Washington used for (merican government, crown used for monarcy$
?etronym* e+pressions that are no longer redundant #silent movie used to beredundant because a long time ago, all movies were silent, but this is no longer
true or redundant$
"hematic <oles
Thematic roles are the semantic relationships between the verbs and noun
phrases of sentences. The following chart shows the thematic roles in
relationship to verbs of sentences*
"hematic
<oleDescription )xample
(gent the one who performs an action 'aria ran
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Themethe person or thing that undergoes an
actionHary called (ohn
Location the place where an action takes place It rains in Spain
9oal the place to which an action is directed 4ut the cat on the porch
7ourcethe place from which an action
originates
!e :ew from Chicago to
L(
Instrumentthe means by which an action is
performed
!e cuts his hair with
scissors
E+periencer one who perceives somethingShe heard 0ob play the
piano
8ausative a natural force that causes a change)he wind destroyed the
house
4ossessor one who has something The tail o the cat got
caught
?ecipient one who receives something I gave it to the girl
Sentential $eaning
The meaning of sentences is built from the meaning of noun phrases and verbs.
7entences contain truth conditions if the circumstances in the sentence are true.
4araphrases are two sentences with the same truth conditions, despite subtle
di&erences in structure and emphasis. The ball was kicked by the boy is a
paraphrase of the sentence the boy kicked the ball, but they have the same truth
conditions 6 that a boy kicked a ball. 7ometimes the truth of one sentence entails
or implies the truth of another sentence. This is called entailment and the
opposite of this is called contradiction, where one sentence implies the falseness
of another. *e was assassinated entails that he is dead. *e was
assassinated contradicts with the statement he is alive.
Pragmatics4ragmatics is the interpretation of linguistic meaning in conte+t. Linguistic
conte+t is discourse that precedes a sentence to be interpreted and situational
conte+t is knowledge about the world. In the following sentences, the kids have
eaten alread andsurprisingl+ the are hungr , the linguistic conte+t helps to
interpret the second sentence depending on what the rst sentence says. The
situational conte+t helps to interpret the second sentence because it is common
knowledge that humans are not usually hungry after eating.
$axims of *onversation
9rice)s ma+ims for conversation are conventions of speech such as the maximof 9uantity that states a speaker should be as informative as is reuired and
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neither more nor less. The maxim of relevance essentially states a speaker
should stay on the topic, and the maxim of manner states the speaker should
be brief and orderly, and avoid ambiguity. The fourth ma+im, themaxim of
9uality, states that a speaker should not lie or make any unsupported claims.
Performative SentencesIn these types of sentences, the speaker is the sub1ect who, by uttering the
sentence, is accomplishing some additional action, such as daring, resigning, or
nominating. These sentences are all a5rmative, declarative and in the present
tense. (n informal test to see whether a sentence is performative or not is to
insert the words , hereb before the verb. , hereb challenge ou to a match or ,
hereb fne ou -.// are both performative, but , hereb know that girl is not.
=ther performative verbs are bet, promise, pronounce, beueath, swear, testify,
and dismiss.
Presuppositions
These are implicit assumptions reuired to make a sentence meaningful.
7entences that contain presuppositions are not allowed in court because
accepting the validity of the statement mean accepting the presuppositions as
well. *ave ou stopped stealing cars0 is not admissible in court because no
matter how the defendant answers, the presupposition that he steals cars
already will be acknowledged. *ave ou stopped smoking0 implies that you
smoke already, and Would ou like another piece0 implies that you)ve already
had one piece.
Deixis
-ei+is is reference to a person, ob1ect, or event which relies on the situationalconte+t. "irst and second person pronouns such as my, mine, you, your, yours,
we, ours and us are always deictic because their reference is entirely dependent
on conte+t. -emonstrative articles like this, that, these and those and
e+pressions of time and place are always deictic as well. In order to understand
what specic times or places such e+pressions refer to, we also need to know
when or where the utterance was said. If someone says I)m over hereJ you
would need to know who I referred to, as well as where here is. -ei+is marks
one of the boundaries of semantics and pragmatics.
Part 7ive: .eurolinguistics
The human brain consists of </ billion nerve cells #neurons$ and billions of bers
that connect them. These neurons or gray matter form the cortex, the surface of
the brain, and the connecting bers or white matter form the interior of the
brain. The brain is divided into two hemispheres, the left and right cerebral
hemispheres. These hemispheres are connected by thecorpus callosum. In
general, the left hemisphere of the brain controls the right side of the body and
vice versa.
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The auditory cortex receives and interprets auditory stimuli, while the visual
cortex receives and interprets visual stimuli. The angular gyrus converts the
auditory stimuli to visual stimuli and vice versa. The motor cortex signals the
muscles to move when we want to talk and is directed by 0roca)s area. The
nerve ber connecting Wernicke)s and 0roca)s area is called the arcuate
fasciculus3
Lateraliation refers to any cognitive functions that are localiAed to one side of
the brain or the other. Language is said to be lateraliAed and processed in the left
hemisphere of the brain. 4aul 0roca rst related language to the left side of the
brain when he noted that damage to the front part of the left hemisphere #now
called 4roca;s area$ resulted in a loss of speech, while damage to the right side
did not. !e determined this through autopsies of patients who had acuired
language decits following brain in1uries. ( language disorder that follows a brain
lesion is called aphasia, and patients with damage to 0roca)s area have slow
and labored speech, loss of function words, and poor word order, yet good
comprehension.
8arl Wernicke also used studies of autopsies to describe another type of aphasia
that resulted from lesions in the back portion of the left hemisphere #nowcalled =ernic,e;s area.$ Fnlike 0roca)s patients, Wernicke)s spoke :uently and
with good pronunciation, but with many le+ical errors and a di5culty in
comprehension. 0roca)s and Wernicke)s area are the two main regions of the
corte+ of the brain related to language processing.
(phasics can su&er from anomia' argon aphasia' and ac9uired dyslexia.
(nomia is commonly referred to as tip of the tongue phenomenon and many
aphasics e+perience word nding di5culty on a regular basis. ^argon aphasia
results in the substitution of one word or sound for another. 7ome aphasics may
substitute similar words for each other, such as table for chair, or they may
substitute completely unrelated words, such as chair for engine. =thers may
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pronounce table as sable, substituting an s sound for a t sound. (phasics who
became dysle+ic after brain damage are called acuired dysle+ics. When reading
aloud words printed on cards, the patients produced the following substitutions*
Stimuli <esponse One <esponse "#o
(ct 4lay 4lay
7outh East West
!eal 4ain Hedicine
The substitution of phonologically similar words, such as pool and tool, also
provides evidence that a human)s mental le+icon is organiAed by both phonology
and semantics.
0roca)s aphasics and some acuired dysle+ics are unable to read function words,
and when presented with them on the cards, the patients say no, as shown in the
following e+ample*
Stimuli One <esponse Stimuli "#o <esponse
Witch Witch Which noJ
!our Time =ur noJ
Wood Wood Would noJ
The patient)s errors suggest our mental dictionary is further organiAed into partsconsisting of ma1or content words #rst stimuli$ and grammatical words #second
stimuli.$
In addition, split6brain patients #those who have had their corpus callosum
severed$ provide evidence for language lateraliAation. If an ob1ect is placed in the
left hand of split6brain patient whose vision is cut o&, the person cannot name
the ob1ect, but will know how to use it. The information is sent to the right side of
the brain, but cannot be relayed to the left side for linguistic naming. !owever, if
the ob1ect is placed in the person)s right hand, the person can immediately name
it because the information is sent directly to the left hemisphere.
Dichotic listening is another e+perimental techniue, using auditory signals.
7ub1ects hear a di&erent sound in each ear, such as boy in the left ear and girl in
the right ear or water rushing in the left ear and a horn honking in the right ear.
When asked to state what they heard in each ear, sub1ects are more freuently
correct in reporting linguistic stimuli in the right ear #girl$ and nonverbal stimuli
in the left ear #water rushing.$ This is because the left side of the brain is
specialiAed for language and a word heard in the right ear will transfer directly to
the left side of the body because of the contralateraliAation of the brain.
"urthermore, the right side of the brain is specialiAed for nonverbal stimuli, such
as music and environmental sounds, and a noise heard in the left ear will transferdirectly to the right side of the brain.
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Part Six: *hild Language Ac9uisition and Second Language Ac9uisition
Linguistic competence develops in stages, from babbling to one word to two
word, then telegraphic speech. 0abbling is now considered the earliest form oflanguage acuisition because infants will produce sounds based on what
language input they receive. =ne word sentences #holophrastic speech$ are
generally monosyllabic in consonant6vowel clusters. -uring two word stage,
there are no syntactic or morphological markers, no in:ections for plural or past
tense, and pronouns are rare, but the intonation contour e+tends over the whole
utterance. Telegraphic speech lacks function words and only carries the open
class content words, so that the sentences sound like a telegram.
"hree theories
The three theories of language acuisition* imitation'
reinforcement and analogy, do not e+plain very well how children acuirelanguage. Imitation does not work because children produce sentences never
heard before, such as cat stand up table. Even when they try to imitate adult
speech, children cannot generate the same sentences because of their limited
grammar. (nd children who are unable to speak still learn and understand the
language, so that when they overcome their speech impairment they
immediately begin speaking the language. ?einforcement also does not work
because it actually seldomly occurs and when it does, the reinforcement is
correcting pronunciation or truthfulness, and not grammar. ( sentence such as
apples are purple would be corrected more often because it is not true, as
compared to a sentence such as apples is red regardless of the grammar.(nalogy also cannot e+plain language acuisition. (nalogy involves the
formation of sentences or phrases by using other sentences as samples. If a child
hears the sentence, I painted a red barn, he can say, by analogy, I painted a
blue barn. 'et if he hears the sentence, I painted a barn red, he cannot say I
saw a barn red. The analogy did not work this time, and this is not a sentence of
English.
Ac9uisitions
4honology* ( child)s error in pronunciation is not random, but rule6governed.
Typical phonological rules include* consonant cluster simplication #spoonbecomes poon$, devoicing of nal consonants #dog becomes dok$, voicing of
initial consonants #truck becomes druck$, and consonant harmony #doggy
becomes goggy, or big becomes gig.$
Horphology* (n overgeneraliAation of constructed rules is shown when children
treat irregular verbs and nouns as regular. Instead of went as the past tense of
go, children use goed because the regular verbs add an 6ed ending to form the
past tense. 7imilarly, children use gooses as the plural of goose instead of geese,
because regular nouns add an 6s in the plural.
The >Innateness ypothesis> of child language acuisition, proposed by 2oam8homsky, states that the human species is prewired to acuire language, and
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that the kind of language is also determined. Hany factors have led to this
hypothesis such as the ease and rapidity of language acuisition despite
impoverished input as well as the uniformity of languages. (ll children will learn
a language, and children will also learn more than one language if they are
e+posed to it. 8hildren follow the same general stages when learning a language,
although the linguistic input is widely varied.
The poverty of the stimulus states that children seem to learn or know the
aspects of grammar for which they receive no information. In addition, children
do not produce sentences that could not be sentences in some human language.
The principles of Fniversal 9rammar underlie the specic grammars of all
languages and determine the class of languages that can be acuired
unconsciously without instruction. It is the genetically determined faculty of the
left hemisphere, and there is little doubt that the brain is specially euipped for
acuisition of human language.
The >*ritical Age ypothesis> suggests that there is a critical age for
language acuisition without the need for special teaching or learning. -uring
this critical period, language learning proceeds uickly and easily. (fter this
period, the acuisition of grammar is di5cult, and for some people, never fully
achieved. 8ases of children reared in social isolation have been used for testing
the critical age hypothesis. 2one of the children who had little human contact
were able to speak any language once reintroduced into society. Even the
children who received linguistic input after being reintroduced to society were
unable to fully develop language skills. These cases of isolated children, and of
deaf children, show that humans cannot fully acuire any language to which they
are e+posed unless they are within the critical age. 0eyond this age, humans are
unable to acuire much of synta+ and in:ectional morphology. (t least for
humans, this critical age does not pertain to all of language, but to specic parts
of the grammar.
Second Language Ac9uisition "eaching $ethods
&rammar!translation% the student memoriAes words, in:ected words, and
syntactic rules and uses them to translate from native to target language and
vice versa3 most commonly used method in schools because it does not reuire
teacher to be :uent3 however, least e&ective method of teaching
1irect method% the native language is not used at all in the classroom, and thestudent must learn the new language without formal instruction3 based on
theories of rst language acuisition
Audio!lingual% heavy use of dialogs and audio, based on the assumption that
language learning is acuired mainly through imitation, repetition, and
reinforcement3 in:uenced by psychology
Natural Approach% emphasis on vocabulary and not grammar3 focus on meaning,
not form3 use of authentic materials instead of te+tbook
Silent Wa% teachers remain passive observers while students learn, which is a
process of personal growth3 no grammatical e+planation or modeling by the
teacher)otal 2hsical 3esponse% students play active role as listener and performer,
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must respond to imperative drills with physical action
Suggestopedia% students always remain comfortable and rela+ed and learn
through memoriAation of meaningful te+ts, although the goal is understanding
Communit 4anguage 4earning% materials are developed as course progresses
and teacher understands what students need and want to learn3 learning
involves the whole person and language is seen as more than 1ustcommunication
Communit 4anguage )eaching% incorporates all components of language and
helps students with various learning styles3 use of communication6based
activities with authentic materials, needs of learner are taken into consideration
when planning topics and ob1ectives
7our s,ill areas
The four skill areas of learning a foreign language need to be addressed
consistently and continually. 9ood lesson plans incorporate all four* Listening'
Spea,ing' <eading 5and /oca+ulary6' and =riting 5and !rammar6 . 2ativespeakers do not learn the skill areas separately, nor do they use them
separately, so they shouldnt be taught separately. !owever, it is easy to fall into
the trap of teaching about the language, instead of actually teaching the
language. Host te+tbooks resort to teaching grammar and vocabulary lists and
nothing more.
Part Seven: Sociolinguistics
( dialect is a variety of language that is systematically di&erent from othervarieties of the same language. The dialects of a single language are mutually
intelligible, but when the speakers can no longer understand each other, the
dialects become languages. 9eographical regions are also considered when
dialects become languages. 7wedish, 2orwegian, and -anish are all considered
separate languages because of regular di&erences in grammar and the countries
in which they are spoken, yet 7wedes, 2orwegians, and -anes can all
understand one another. !indi and Frdu are considered mutually intelligible
languages when spoken, yet the writing systems are di&erent. =n the other
hand, Handarin and 8antonese are mutually unintelligible languages when
spoken, yet the writing systems are the same.( dialect is considered standard if it is used by the upper class, political leaders,
in literature and is taught in schools as the correct form of the language. =vert
prestige refers to this dominant dialect. ( non6standard dialect is associated with
covert prestige and is an ethnic or regional dialect of a language. These non6
standard dialects are 1ust as linguistically sophisticated as the standard dialect,
and 1udgments to the inferiority of them are based on social or racist 1udgments.
(frican6(merican English contains many regular di&erences of the standard
dialect. These di&erences are the same as the di&erences among many of the
world)s dialects. 4honological di&erences include r and l deletion of words likepoor #pa$ and all #awe.$ 8onsonant cluster simplication also occurs #passed
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pronounced like pass$, as well as a loss of interdental fricatives. 7yntactic
di&erences include the double negative and the loss of and habitual use of the
verb be. *e late means he is late now, but he be late means he is always late.
( lingua franca is a ma1or language used in an area where speakers of more
than one language live that permits communication and commerce among them.English is called the lingua franca of the whole world, while "rench used to be the
lingua franca of diplomacy.
( pidgin is a rudimentary language of few le+ical items and less comple+
grammatical rules based on another language. 2o one learns a pidgin as a native
language, but children do learn creoles as a rst language. *reoles are dened
as pidgins that are adopted by a community as its native tongue.
0esides dialects, speakers may use di&erent styles or registers #such as
contractions$ depending on the conte+t. Slang may also be used in speech, but
is not often used in formal situations or writing. 2argon refers to the uniuevocabulary pertaining to a certain area, such as computers or medicine. Words or
e+pressions referring to certain acts that are forbidden or frowned upon are
considered ta+oo. These taboo words produce euphemisms, words or phrases
that replace the e+pressions that are being avoided.
The use of words may indicate a society)s attitude toward se+, bodily functions or
religious beliefs, and they may also re:ect racism or se+ism in a society.
Language itself is not racist or se+ist, but the society may be. 7uch insulting
words may reinforce biased views, and changes in society may be re:ected in
the changes in language.
Part )ight: istorical Linguistics
Languages that evolve from a common source are genetically related. These
languages were once dialects of the same language. Earlier forms of 9ermanic
languages, such as 9erman, English, and 7wedish were dialects of 4roto6
9ermanic, while earlier forms of ?omance languages, such as 7panish, "rench,
and Italian were dialects of Latin. "urthermore, earlier forms of 4roto69ermanic
and Latin were once dialects of Indo6European.
Linguistic changes like sound shift is found in the history of all languages, as
evidenced by the regular sound correspondences that e+ist between di&erent
stages of the same language, di&erent dialects, and di&erent languages. Words,
morphemes, and phonemes may be altered, added or lost. The meaning of words
may broaden, narrow or shift. 2ew words may be introduced into a language by
borrowing, or by coinage, blends and acronyms. The le+icon may also shrink as
older words become obsolete.
8hange comes about as a result of the restructuring of grammar by children
learning the language. 9rammars seem to become simple and regular, but thesesimplications may be compensated for by more comple+ities. 7ound changes
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can occur because of assimilation, a process of ease of articulation. 7ome
grammatical changes are analogic changes, generaliAations that lead to more
regularity, such as sweeped instead of swept.
The study of linguistic change is called historical and comparative linguistics.
Linguists identify regular sound correspondences using the comparative methodamong the cognates #words that developed from the same ancestral language$
of related languages. They can restructure an earlier protolanguage and this
allows linguists to determine the history of a language family.
Old )nglish' $iddle )nglish' $odern )nglish
=ld English qq6</ 8E 0eowulf
Hiddle English </6<// 8E 8anterbury Tales
Hodern English <//6present 7hakespeare
2honological change% 0etween <// and <// 8E, the 9reat Dowel 7hift took
place. The seven long vowels of Hiddle English underwent changes. The high
vowels _i and _u became the diphthongs _a1 and _aw. The long vowels
increased tongue height and shifted upward, and _a was fronted. Hany of the
spelling inconsistencies of English are because of the 9reat Dowel 7hift. =ur
spelling system still re:ects the way words were pronounced before the shift took
place.
'orphological change% Hany Indo6European languages had e+tensive case
endings that governed word order, but these are no longer found in ?omancelanguages or English. (lthough pronouns still show a trace of the case system
#he vs. him$, English uses prepositions to show the case. Instead of the dative
case #indirect ob1ects$, English usually the words to or or . Instead of the genitive
case, English uses the word o or 5s after a noun to show possession. =ther cases
include the nominative #sub1ect pronouns$, accusative #direct ob1ects$, and
vocative.
Sntactic change% 0ecause of the lack of the case system, word order has
become more rigid and strict in Hodern English. 2ow it is strictly 7ub1ect 6 Derb 6
=b1ect order.Orthographic change% 8onsonant clusters have become simplied, such as hlaf
becoming loaf and hnecca becoming neck. !owever, some of these clusters are
still written, but are no longer pronounced, such as gnaw, write, and dumb.
4e6ical change% =ld English borrowed place names from 8eltic, army, religious
and educational words from Latin, and everyday words from 7candinavian. (ngle
and 7a+on #9erman dialects$ form the basis of =ld English phonology,
morphology, synta+ and le+icon. Hiddle English borrowed many words from
"rench in the areas of government, law, religion, literature and education
because of the 2orman 8onuest in </ 8E. Hodern English borrowed words
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from Latin and 9reek because of the in:uence of the classics, with much
scientic terminology.
"or more information, read the istory of )nglish page.
Part .ine: *lassi&cation of Languages
Indo-)uropean family of languages
• Italic #Latin$
o ?omance
8atalan
"rench
Italian
=ccitan #4rovenal$
4ortuguese
?haeto6?omansch
?omanian
7panish
• 9ermanic
o 2orth 9ermanic
-anish
"aroese
Icelandic
2orwegian
7wedish
o East 9ermanic
9othic #e+tinct$
o West 9ermanic
(frikaans
-utch
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English
"lemish
"risian
9erman
'iddish
• 7lavic
o Western
8Aech
4olish
7lovak
7orbian
o Eastern
0elarusian
?ussian
Fkrainian
o 7outhern
0ulgarian
8roatian
Hacedonian
=ld 8hurch 7lavonic
7erbian
7lovene
• 0altic
o Latvian
o Lithuanian
o =ld 4russian #e+tinct$
• 8eltic
o 0rythonic
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0reton
8ornish #e+tinct$
9aulish #e+tinct$
Welsh
o 9oidelic
Irish
Han+ 9aelic #e+tinct$
7cots 9aelic
• !ellenic #9reek$
• (lbanian
• (rmenian
• (natolian #e+tinct$
• Tocharian #e+tinct$
• Indo6Iranian
o Indo6(ryan #Indic$
(ssamese
0engali
0ihari
9u1arati
!indi6Frdu
Harathi
4un1abi
?omani
7anskrit
7indhi
7inghalese
o Iranian
(vestan
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0alochi
"arsi #4ersian$
%urdish
4ashtu #(fghan$
7ogdian
ralic #or "inno6Fgric$ is the other ma1or family of languages spoken on the
European continent. "innish, Estonian and !ungarian are e+amples.
Afro-Asiatic languages are spoken in 2orthern (frica and the Hiddle East. They
include 0erber, Egyptian, =motic and 8ushitic languages #7omali, Iraw$ as well
as the modern 7emitic languages of !ebrew, (rabic and (mharic, in addition to
languages spoken in biblical times, such as (ramaic, (kkadian, 0abylonian,
8anaanite, and 4hoenician.
The Altaic languages are classied as ^apanese and %orean, though some
linguists separate these languages into their own groups.
Sino-"i+etan languages include Handarin, !akka, Wu, 0urmese, Tibetan, and all
of the 8hinese dialects.
Austro-tai languages include Indonesian, ^avanese and Thai3 while
the Asiatic group includes Dietnamese.
The Dravidian languages of Tamil and Telugu are spoken in southeastern Indiaand 7ri Lanka.
The *aucasian language family consists of / di&erent languages, and is
divided into 8artvelian #south 8aucasian$, 2orth6West 8aucasian and 2orth6East
8aucasian language groups. 7ome languages are 9eorgian, Hegrelian, 8hechen,
Ingush (varian, LeAgian and -argin. These languages are mostly spoken in
9eorgia, Turkey, 7yria, Iran, ^ordan and parts of the ?ussian federation.
The .iger-*ongo family includes most of the (frican languages. (bout <,//
languages belong to this group, including the 0antu languages of 7wahili,
Tswana, hosa, ulu, %ikuyu, and 7hona. =ther languages are Ewe, Hina, 'oruba,Igbo, Wolof, %ordofanian and "ulfulde.
=ther (frican language groups are .ilo-Saharan, which includes >// languages
spoken in 8entral and Eastern (frica3 and?hoisan, the click languages of
southern (frica. The %hoisan group only contains about ;/ languages, most of
which are spoken in 2amibia and 0otswana.
The Austronesian family also contains about q// languages, spoken all over
the globe. !awaiian, Haori, Tagalog, and Halay are all representatives of this
language family.
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Hany languages are, or were, spoken in 2orth and 7outh (merica by the native
peoples before the European conuests. %nowledge of these languages is
limited, and because many of the languages are approaching e+tinction, linguists
have little hope of achieving a complete understanding of
the Amerindian language families.