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



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



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.



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



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$*



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#



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



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.



/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

http://www2.arts.gla.ac.uk/IPA/fullchart.html

http://ipa.typeit.org/

http://ipa.typeit.org/

http://www2.arts.gla.ac.uk/IPA/fullchart.html



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



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.



*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



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.$



=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



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



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



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.



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



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.



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



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,



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



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



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



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

http://ielanguages.com/enghist.html

http://ielanguages.com/enghist.html



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



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



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 âpanese 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, âvanese 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, ôrdan 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.



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.

Linguistics 1

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