Language

CHAPTER 6: LANGUAGE

1. WHAT ARE LANGUAGES, AND WHAT ROLE DO LANGUAGES PLAY IN CULTURE?

Language and Culture Language: a set of sounds and symbols that is

used for communication. Language is a cornerstone of culture Governmental policies have affected language

Assimilation (e.g. the Quebecois of Canada using their influence in Canadian society to ensure that laws make Canadians speak both French and English)

Bilingualism (e.g. the controversy in the United States between English and Spanish involving the “Official English” policies and their countermovement)


What Is a Language? Languages are often differentiated between

based on mutual intelligibility Mutual intelligibility: the ability of two people

to understand each other when speaking Controversy in using this differentiation exists: there is

no accurate way to measure it, and there are a few exceptions to it (e.g. Mandarin Chinese and Cantonese Chinese are the same but not mutually intelligible; Danish and Norwegian differ but are mutually intelligible).

There is a range of 3,000 to 6,000 estimated languages.


Standardized Language Standardized language: a language that is

published, widely distributed, and purposefully taught.

New words are added to describe new innovations

Power and influence affect the standardized language


Dialects Dialects: variants of a standard language along

regional or ethnic lines Affected by differences in vocabulary, syntax,

pronunciation, cadence, and speech pace Dialect chains: a set of contiguous dialects in

which the dialects nearest to each other at any place in the chain are most closely related Distribute across space: the farther the distance from

an original point, the stranger a dialect is Isogloss: a geographic boundary within which a

particular linguistic feature occurs Determine vocabulary differences (e.g. in the US the

name used for soft drink changes from region to region)

2. WHY ARE LANGUAGES DISTRIBUTED LIKE THEY ARE?

Language Formation Language families: classifications of languages Sound shift: a slight change in a word across

languages within a subfamily or through a language family from the present backward to its origin William Jones—saw a connection between Sanskrit and

ancient Latin and Greece (1700s), noting that they all probably arose from the same source

19th century—Jakob Grimm—suggested that sound shifts show that hard consonants in languages turned softer over the years of the language’s activity E.g. vater (German) vader (Dutch) father (English)

Proto-Indo-European: an ancestral Indo-European language (first major linguistic hypothesis) To find the existence of such a language: (1) vocabulary

had to be reconstructed, (2) language’s hearth had to be located, (3) routes of diffusion needed to be traced.

Language families of the world

Indo-European Languages


Language Formation (continued)1. Reconstructing vocabulary of Proto-Indo-European

Backward reconstruction: tracking sound shifts and the hardening of consonants “backward” toward the original language

Extinct language: a language without any native speakers

Deep reconstruction: recreation of the language before an extinct language

Vladislav Illich-Svitych and Aharon Dolgopolsky—two Russian linguists who met up after much individual deep reconstruction and found many similarities

Nostratic: ancient ancestor of the Proto-Indo-European Used 14,000 years ago before the 1st Agricultural

Revolution


Language Formation (continued)2. Locating the Proto-Indo-European hearth

Language divergence: spatial interaction among speakers of a language breaks down and the language fragments first into dialects and then into discrete tongues

Language convergence: collapsing two languages into one

By analyzing the Proto-Indo-European’s vocabulary, linguists and geographers know the environment of its hearth and aspects of the users’ culture and economy

One possible hearth—Black Sea, east-central Europe Renfrew hypothesis: three sources of agriculture each

gave rise to a major language family Stephen Oppenheimer argued against it, saying people

originated in Central Africa, followed the eastern coast, the Southern Arabian Peninsula, and finally ended up in India 80,000 years ago (another possible hearth for the Proto-Indo-European)


The Renfrew hypothesis, otherwise known as the Anatolian hypothesis


Language Formation (continued)3. Tracing Proto-Indo-European routes of diffusion Diffusion theories commonly focus on Europe because:

1. The language diffused into Europe over time2. There is a significant body of research focused on the early

peopling of Europe Conquest theory: early speakers of Proto-Indo-European

spread from east to west on horseback (for every 25 years, the agricultural frontier moved 11 miles)

Dispersal hypothesis: Indo-European languages that arose from Proto-Indo-European were first carried eastward into southwest Asia, then to the Caspian Sea, then across Russian-Ukrainian plains, then to Balkans

1991—genes taken from many different Europeans provided evidence in favor of the agriculture theory—showed farmers moved westward and northward and their genes changed as a result of distance decay


The Languages of Europe Half the world speaks Indo-European languages Celtic people brought Indo-European languages to Europe

3,000 years ago—migrations and empire building led to the alteration of Celtic into the three characterizations of a European linguistic pattern Romance languages (French, Spanish, Italian, Romanian,

Portuguese): lie in areas once controlled but not subsequently overwhelmed by the Roman Empire

Germanic languages (English, German, Danish, Norwegian, Swedish): reflect the expansion of peoples out of northern Europe to the west and south

Slavic languages (Russian, Polish, Czech, Slovak, Ukrainian, Slovenian, Serbo-Croatian, Bulgarian): developed as Slavic people migrated from a base in present-day Ukraine close to 2000 years ago

There is a correlation between languages spoken and political organization of space, with a few exceptions


Languages of Sub-Saharan Africa African languages are very diverse/fragmented Niger-Congo is the dominant language family Studying subfamilies helps geographers

understand migration and settlement patterns in Subsaharan Africa

Oldest languages Khoisan (“click” languages) Bantu speaking invaders limited the spread and use of

Khoisan but is a relatively new language in Africa: The longer a language has been in a place, the more

likely the sounds will have shifted and languages splintered, but the Bantu languages are relatively unaltered


Language Families of Africa


Languages of Sub-Saharan Africa (continued) Three major languages of Nigeria

Housa (in the north) Yoruba (in the southwest) Ibu (in the southeast)

Nigeria is very linguistically diverse—500 languages are spoken

British colonialism contributed to the creation of Nigeria and many of the arbitrary borders in Africa that completely ignore cultural division

English is the official language of Nigeria to avoid the political charge attached to the other three languages but it serves little purpose to Nigerians

3. HOW DO LANGUAGES DIFFUSE? Lingua Franca

Trade encouraged people speaking different languages to find ways of communicating with each other (led to the development of a lingua franca) Lingua franca: ¹a tongue spoken in ancient Mediterranean

parts comprised of a mixture of Italian, French, Greek, Spanish, and Arabic; ²a common language for purposes of trade and commerce Franks were in the Mediterranean for purposes of seaborne

commerce in the 1200s and ended up mixing French, Italian, Greek, Spanish, and Arabic

English is a lingua franca, as is Swahili in East Africa Pidgin language: when parts of two or more languages

are combined in a simplified structure and vocabulary Creole language: a language that began as a Pidgin

language but was later adopted as the mother tongue by a people in place of the mother tongue

3. HOW DO LANGUAGES DIFFUSE?

Multilingualism Monolingual states: countries in which only one

language is spoken Few monolingual states exist (Japan, Uruguay, Venezuela,

Iceland, Denmark, Portugal, Poland, Lesotho) Multilingual states: countries in which more than

one language is spoken In some multilingual states, linguistic fragmentation reflects

divisive forces as well as strong cultural pluralism

Official Languages Official language: the language selected to promote

internal cohesion Countries with linguistic fragmentation tie people together

by adopting an official language Some citizens object to the official language chosen Some countries have two or more official languages

3. HOW DO LANGUAGES DIFFUSE?

Global Languages Global language: a common language of trade

and commerce used around the world English is having increased usage

Will not become the kind of global language where every person uses it in day-to-day activities because:

1. Population rates are lower in English-speaking places2. People in non-English speaking places are unwilling to

abandon their language (they don’t want to abandon their culture by switching to English)

Used as an international language of commerce in increasing frequency.

4. WHAT ROLE DOES LANGUAGE PLAY IN MAKING PLACES?

Changing Toponyms Toponyms: place names

When people change the names of places, they have the power to change the places’ history Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliog

ogogoch—town changed its name because it feared the loss of the Welsh language

Changes in place names give us an idea about the layers of history and cultural landscape Kenai Peninsula in AK—Natives called it Nanwalek in

the early 1800s. Changed it to Alexandorf when the Russians took it over. Americans changed it to English Bay when they mapped it. Natives changed it back to Nanwalek.


Changing Toponyms (continued) Types of Toponyms

Post-Colonial Toponyms People choose new toponyms to escape the colonial

past as soon as power changes hands Name changes in Africa: Upper Volta to Burkina Faso,

Gold Coast to Ghana, Nyasaland to Malawi, and Northern and Southern Rhodesia to Zambia and Zimbabwe

Name changes in Asia: East Pakistan to Bangladesh, the Netherlands East Indies to Indonesia

New independent countries changed names to reflect independence but did not wipe all names away Change: Leopoldville became Kinshasa, capital of the

Congo; Salisbury, Zimbabwe, became Harare; Lourenço Marques, Mozambique, to Maputo

Same: Etoile (the Congo), Colleen Bawn (Zimbabwe), Cabo Delgado (Mozambique)


Changing Toponyms (continued) Types of Toponyms (continued)

Post-Revolution Toponyms Independence and changes in power through coups

and revolutions both prompt name changes General Mobutu Sese Seko changed the Belgian Congo

to Zaïre, which was adopted willingly by other governments. 1997—Laurent Kabila ousted Mobutu and changed it again to Democratic Republic of the Congo, which everybody adopted.

Name changes can make people react strongly



Memorial Toponyms People choose to change toponyms to memorialize

an important person or event Change to Memorial Park in the US for hundreds of

people and events Events like decolonization or a political revolution

spur changes as well African Americans in the US change street names to

commemorate Martin Luther King Jr. Revolutions in the thought and behavior Change to reflect the surrounding community (MLK

Jr. Dr.)



Commodification of Toponyms International media corporations that have global

reach bring known names to new places Disney Corporation opened Tokyo Disneyland in 1983

and Disneyland Paris in 1990—capitalize on the success of Disneyland in the US

Stadiums Opening of tunnels in NY named after sponsors

Language

Technology

Transcript of Language