Chapter 5 language

1. Chapter 5language

2. Key Issue #1 Where are English-Language Speakers Distributed?

3. Where Are English Language Speakers Distributed? • Global distribution of language results from 2 geographic processes-interaction and isolation • Origin and diffusion of English • English is spoken by appx ½ billion people as a first language & 2 billion people live in a country where English is an official language • English colonies • Origins of English • German invasions • Norman invasions

4. English-Speaking Countries Fig. 5-1: English is the official language in 42 countries, including some in which it is not the most widely spoken language. It is also used and understood in many others. Figure 5-2

5. Invasions of England5th–11th centuries Fig. 5-2: The groups that brought what became English to England included Jutes, Angles, Saxons, and Vikings. The Normans later brought French vocabulary to English.

6. Where Are English Language Speakers Distributed? • Dialects of English • Dialect = a regional variation of a language set apart by vocabulary, spelling, & pronunciation. • Isogloss = a word-usage boundary • Standard language = a well-established dialect • Dialects • In England • Differences between British and American English

7. Old and Middle English Dialects Fig. 5-3: The main dialect regions of Old English before the Norman invasion persisted to some extent in the Middle English dialects through the 1400s.

8. Where Are English Language Speakers Distributed? • Dialects of English • Dialects in the United States • Settlement in the eastern United States • New England, Middle Atlantic, & Southeastern • Regional pronunciation differences are more familiar than word differences

9. Dialects in theEastern U.S. Fig. 5-4: Hans Kurath divided the eastern U.S. into three dialect regions, whose distribution is similar to that of house types

10. Soft Drink Differences Figure 5-8

11. http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2013/12/20/sunday-review/dialect-quiz-map.htmlhttp://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2013/12/20/sunday-review/dialect-quiz-map.html http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uWtXd_yRllA My Fair Lady

12. Key Issue #2 Why Is English Related to Other Languages?

13. Why Is English Related to Other Languages? • Indo-European languages • English is a part of the Indo-European language family-collection of languages related through a common ancestor • Language branch = collection of related languages • Indo-European = eight branches • Four branches have a large number of speakers: • Germanic • Indo-Iranian • Balto-Slavic • Romance

14. Why Is English Related to Other Languages? • Indo-European languages • A language group -collection of languages within a branch that share a common origin in the relatively recent past and display relatively few differences in grammar and vocabulary. • For example, West Germanic is the group within the Germanic branch of the Indo-European family to which English belongs.

15. Indo-European Language Family Fig. 5-5: The main branches of the Indo-European language family include Germanic, Romance, Balto-Slavic, and Indo-Iranian.

16. Linguistic Differences in Europe and India Figure 5-10 Figure 5-11

17. Germanic Branch of Indo-European Fig. 5-6: The Germanic branch today is divided into North and West Germanic groups. English is in the West Germanic group.

18. South Asian Languages and Language Families Fig. 5-7: Indo-European is the largest of four main language families in South Asia. The country of India has 18 official languages.

19. Romance Branch of Indo-European Fig. 5-8: The Romance branch includes three of the world’s 12 most widely spoken languages (Spanish, French, and Portuguese), as well as a number of smaller languages and dialects.

20. Why Is English Related to Other Languages? • Origin and diffusion of Indo-European • A “Proto-Indo-European” language? • Internal evidence • Nomadic warrior theory • Sedentary farmer theory

21. Kurgan Theory of Indo-European Origin“Nomadic Warrior” Theory Fig. 5-9: In the Kurgan theory, Proto-Indo-European diffused from the Kurgan hearth north of the Caspian Sea, beginning about 7,000 years ago.

22. Anatolian Hearth Theory of Indo-European Origin“Sedentary Farmer” Theory Fig. 5-10: In the Anatolian hearth theory, Indo-European originated in Turkey before the Kurgans and diffused through agricultural expansion.

23. Key Issue #3 Where are Other Language Families Distributed?

24. Where Are Other Language Families Distributed? • Classification of languages • Indo-European = the largest language family • 46 percent of the world’s population speaks an Indo-European language • Sino-Tibetan = the second-largest language family • 21 percent of the world’s population speaks a Sino-Tibetan language • Mandarin = the most used language in the world

25. Language Families of the World Fig. 5-11: Distribution of the world’s main language families. Languages with more than 100 million speakers are named.

26. Major Language FamiliesPercentage of World Population Fig. 5-11a: The percentage of world population speaking each of the main language families. Indo-European and Sino-Tibetan together represent almost 75% of the world’s people.

27. Where Are Other Language Families Distributed? • Languages of the Middle East and Central Asia • Afro-Asiatic • Arabic = most widely spoken • Altaic • Turkish = most widely spoken • Uralic • Estonian, Hungarian, and Finnish

28. Language Family Trees Fig. 5-12: Family trees and estimated numbers of speakers for the main world language families.

29. Chinese Ideograms Fig. 5-13: Chinese language ideograms mostly represent concepts rather than sounds. The two basic characters at the top can be built into more complex words.

30. Where Are Other Language Families Distributed? • African language families • Extensive linguistic diversity • 1,000 distinct languages + thousands of dialects • Niger-Congo • 95 percent of sub-Saharan Africans speak a Niger-Congo language • Nilo-Saharan • Khoisan • “Click” languages

31. Language Families of Africa Fig. 5-14: The 1,000 or more languages of Africa are divided among five main language families, including Austronesian languages in Madagascar.

32. Languages of Nigeria Fig. 5-15: More than 200 languages are spoken in Nigeria, the largest country in Africa (by population). English, considered neutral, is the official language.

33. Key Issue #4 Why Do People Preserve Local Languages?

34. Why Do People Preserve Languages? • Preserving language diversity • Extinct languages • 473 “endangered” languages today • Examples • Reviving extinct languages: Hebrew • Preserving endangered languages: Celtic • Multilingual states • Walloons and Flemings in Belgium • Switzerland • Isolated languages • Basque • Icelandic

35. Language Divisions in Belgium Fig. 5-16: There has been much tension in Belgium between Flemings, who live in the north and speak Flemish, a Dutch dialect, and Walloons, who live in the south and speak French.

36. Language Areas in Switzerland Fig. 5-17: Switzerland remains peaceful with four official languages and a decentralized government structure.

37. Why Do People Preserve Languages? • Global dominance of English • English: An example of a lingua franca • Lingua franca = an international language • Pidgin language = a simplified version of a language • Expansion diffusion of English • Ebonics

38. Why Do People Preserve Languages? • Global dominance of English • Diffusion to other languages • Franglais • The French Academy (1635) = the supreme arbiter of the French language • Spanglish • Denglish

39. French-English Boundary in Canada Fig. 5-18: Although Canada is bilingual, French speakers are concentrated in the province of Québec, where 80% of the population speaks French.

40. Internet Hosts, by Language Fig 5-1-1a: The large majority of internet hosts in 1999 used English, Chinese, Japanese, or European languages.