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The Cultural Significance of Language in Shaping Identity and Place

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joshua
17 diapositives · 358 Views · Jul 22, 2014

This overview highlights the cultural importance of language as a crucial medium for communication and identity within societies. It defines language as a collection of sounds and words that structure perception and influence cultural indexes. With over 3,000 distinct languages worldwide, major languages like Mandarin and English reflect historical migrations, economic dominance, and political divisions. The concept of toponyms emphasizes how language shapes place identity and social processes. Language serves as a political tool, influencing culture through official language policies and memorialization efforts.

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  1. Ch. 5: LANGUAGE Objective: Explain the cultural importance of language.

  2. Defining Language • Pronunciation and combination of words used to communicate within a group of people • Important cultural index • Structures individual perception of world

  3. World’s Major Languages • 3,000 distinct languages • 50% of world population speak one of 12 major languages • Mandarin Chinese is largest with 885 million • English is the primary language of 350 million and is the official language of about 50 countries

  4. The Geographer’s Perspective of Language • What is the distribution of world languages • density • concentration • Patterns • How is culture influenced or limited by this language distribution? • How does the language reflect the culture?

  5. Language Distribution Indicates • History and conquest • Isolation or integration of cultures • Migration of peoples • Economic Domination of certain cultures • Influence of wealth and technology • Political Divisions (country boundaries) • Physical geography barriers (mts., deserts)

  6. Cultural Values A Language May Indicate • class structure • gender differences in vocabulary • environmentally specific vocabulary • formal and informal relationships • technology of a culture

  7. Official Languages of Countries

  8. Language can be used as a political tool • Language often used as a cultural weapon (English vs. Spanish) • many states have adopted “Official English” policies as a result

  9. What Role does Language Play in Making Places?

  10. Place • Place – the uniqueness of a location, what people do in a location, what they create, how they impart a certain character, a certain imprint on the location by making it unique.

  11. Toponym • Toponym – a place name • A toponym: • Imparts a certain character on a place • Reflects the social processes in a place • Can give us a glimpse of the history of a place • Has its roots in migration

  12. 9 Categories of Toponyms

  13. Changing Toponyms • When people change the toponym of a place, they have the power to “wipe out the past and call forth the new.” - Yi-Fu Tuan, geographer

  14. Changing Toponyms • Major reasons people change toponyms: • After decolonization • After a political revolution • To memorialize people or events (Martin Luther King Jr. ) • To commodify or brand a place (amusement parks, stadiums) • Also changes the cultural landscape

  15. Martin Luther King, Jr. Streets Geographer Derek Alderman asks: * Where are MLK streets? * Why are they where they are? * What controversies surround memorializing MLK with a street name?