The Geography of Language

Cultural Geography

C.J. Cox

Language Overview

• Geographer’s Perspective of Language

• Language as the foundation of Culture

• Key Terms

• Language Divisions

• Spatial Distribution of Languages

• Why do people speak the same language differently in distinct regions?

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?

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)

Cultural Aspects Language May Influence

• Character and sounds of a culture

• Visual landscapes of signs (script, letters, ideograms)

Cultural Values A Language May Indicate

• class structure

• gender differences in vocabulary

• environmentally specific vocabulary

• formal and informal relationships

• technology of a culture

Language• Language:

– a system of communication• that uses sounds• writing (literary tradition• and or gestures

– meanings of symbols and sounds are learned

Hearth Area of the Indo-European Languages

Key Term

• Ideograms: The system of writing used in China and other East Asian Countries in which each symbol represents an idea or a concept rather than a specific sound, as is the case with letters in English.

Key Term

• Lingua Franca: a language mutually under-stood and commonly used in trade by people who have different native languages.

– A language of commerce• English• Spanish• Chinese• Japanese

Language Divisions

• Language Families

• Languages Branches

• Languages Groups

• Languages

• Dialects

• Accents

Language Families• a collection of individual languages with

a common ancestor

a family may be divided into several divisions or branches

Language Branches

• a group of languages that share a common origin but have evolved into different languages

• example: Romance Branch - Indo-European Family

– French, Spanish, Portuguese, Romanch

Language Groups

• Several individual languages within a language branch– share a common origin in recent past– few differences in grammar and vocabulary

Language Groups in Northern Europe

Language

• Language: – a system of communication

• that uses sounds• writing (literary tradition• and or gestures

– meanings of symbols and sounds are learned

World’s Top 10 Languages• Mandarin Chinese 726 Million• English 427 Million• Spanish 266 Million• Hindi 182 Million• Arabic 181 Million• Portuguese 165 Million• Bengali 162 Million• Russian 158 Million• Japanese 124 Million• German 121 Million

English Speaking Countries

Interesting Facts about the English Language

• English is spoken as a first language by 427 million

• English is spoken as a second language by another 350 million

• English is the most widely taught language in over 100 countries

• In 70 countries English has official status: – more than any other language

Dialect

• Pronunciation of a

language distinct to

a certain region

– New England Dialect– Southern Drawl– Australian Dialect

Why Do People Living in Distinct Locations Speak English

Differently?• Isolation over long periods of time

• Integration with other cultures

• Interplay of migrants

Key Terms

• Isogloss: An area of distinct word usage or pronunciation that can be defined as a distinct region with boundaries.

• Accent: Non standard pronunciation of language by a a non native speaker– First generation immigrant

Language Overview

• Geographer’s Perspective of Language

• Language as the foundation of Culture

• Key Terms

• Language Divisions

• Spatial Distribution of Languages

• Why do people speak the same language differently in distinct regions?

The Geography of Language

Cultural Geography

C.J. Cox

Top 10 Languages by Population• The population figures in this table refers to first language speakers in all countries. Note that these figures are updated from the 13th Edition of the Ethnologue (1996). Last updated: February 1999

• Rank Language Name Primary CountryPopulation

• 1 MANDARIN China 885,000,000

• 2 SPANISH Spain 332,000,000

• 3 ENGLISH United Kingdom 322,000,000

• 4. BENGALI Bangladesh 189,000,000

• 5 HINDI India 182,000,000

• 6 PORTUGUESE Portugal 170,000,000

• 7 RUSSIAN Russia 170,000,000

• 8 JAPANESE Japan 125,000,000

• 9 GERMAN Germany 98,000,000

• 10 CHINESE, WU China 77,175,000

• 11 JAVANESE [JAN] Indonesia, Java, Bali 75,500,800

• 12 KOREAN [KKN]Korea, South 75,000,000

• 13 FRENCH [FRN]France 72,000,000

• 14 VIETNAMESE [VIE] Viet Nam 67,662,000

• 15 TELUGU [TCW] India 66,350,000

• 16 CHINESE, YUE [YUH] China 66,000,000

• 17 MARATHI [MRT] India 64,783,000

• 18 TAMIL [TCV] India 63,075,000

• 19 TURKISH [TRK] Turkey 59,000,000

• 20 URDU [URD] Pakistan 58,000,000

• 21 CHINESE, MIN NAN [CFR] China 49,000,000

• 22 CHINESE, JINYU [CJY] China 45,000,000

• 23 GUJARATI [GJR] India 44,000,000

• 24 POLISH [PQL] Poland 44,000,000

• 25 ARABIC, EGYPTIAN SPOKEN [ARZ] Egypt 42,500,000

• 26 UKRAINIAN [UKR] Ukraine41,000,000

• 27 ITALIAN [ITN] Italy 37,000,000

• 28 CHINESE, XIANG [HSN] China 36,015,000

• 29 MALAYALAM [MJS] India 34,022,000

• 30 CHINESE, HAKKA [HAK] China 34,000,000

• 31 KANNADA [KJV] India 33,663,000

• 32 ORIYA [ORY] India 31,000,000

• 33 PANJABI, WESTERN [PNB] Pakistan 30,000,000

• 34 SUNDA [SUO] Indonesia 27,000,000

• 35 PANJABI, EASTERN [PNJ] India 26,013,000

• 36 ROMANIAN [RUM] Romania 26,000,000

• 37 BHOJPURI [BHJ] India 25,000,000

• 38 AZERBAIJANI, SOUTH [AZB] Iran 24,364,000

• 39 FARSI, WESTERN [PES] Iran 24,280,000

• 40 MAITHILI [MKP] India 24,260,000

• 41 HAUSA [HUA] Nigeria 24,200,000

• 42 ARABIC, ALGERIAN SPOKEN [ARQ] Algeria 22,400,000

• 43 BURMESE [BMS] Myanmar 22,000,000

• 44 SERBO-CROATIAN [SRC] Yugoslavia 21,000,000

• 45 CHINESE, GAN [KNN] China 20,580,000

• 46 AWADHI [AWD]India 20,540,000

• 47 THAI [THJ] Thailand 20,047,000

• 48 DUTCH [DUT] Netherlands 20,000,000

• 49 YORUBA [YOR] Nigeria 20,000,000

• 50 SINDHI [SND] Pakistan 19,720,000

• 51 ARABIC, MOROCCAN SPOKEN [ARY] Morocco 19,542,000

• 52 ARABIC, SAIDI SPOKEN [AEC] Egypt 18,900,000

• 53 UZBEK, NORTHERN [UZB] Uzbekistan 18,466,000

• 54 MALAY [MLI] Malaysia, Peninsular 17,600,000

• 55 AMHARIC [AMH] Ethiopia 17,413,000

• 56 INDONESIAN [INZ] Indonesia 17,050,000

• 57 IGBO [IGR] Nigeria 17,000,000

• 58 TAGALOG [TGL] Philippines 17,000,000

• 59 NEPALI [NEP] Nepal 16,056,000

• 60 ARABIC, SUDANESE SPOKEN [APD] Sudan 16,000,000

• 61 SARAIKI [SKR] Pakistan 15,015,000

• 62 CEBUANO [CEB] Philippines 15,000,000

• 63 ARABIC, NORTH LEVANTINE SPOKEN [APC] Syria 15,000,000

• 64 THAI, NORTHEASTERN [TTS] Thailand 15,000,000

• 65 ASSAMESE [ASM] India 14,634,000

• 66 HUNGARIAN [HNG] Hungary 14,500,000

• 67 CHITTAGONIAN [CIT] Bangladesh 14,000,000

• 68 ARABIC, MESOPOTAMIAN SPOKEN [ACM] Iraq 13,900,000

• 69 MADURA [MHJ] Indonesia, Java, Bali 13,694,000

• 70 SINHALA [SNH] Sri Lanka 13,220,000

• 71 HARYANVI [BGC] India 13,000,000

• 72 MARWARI [MKD] India 12,104,000

• 73 CZECH [CZC] Czech Republic12,000,000

• 74 GREEK [GRK] Greece 12,000,000

• 75 MAGAHI [MQM] India 12,000,000

• 76 CHHATTISGARHI [HNE] India 10,985,000

• 77 DECCAN [DCC] India 10,709,800

• 78 CHINESE, MIN BEI [MNP] China 10,537,000

• 79 BELARUSAN [RUW] Belarus10,200,000

• 80 ZHUANG, NORTHERN [CCX] China 10,000,000

• 81 ARABIC, NAJDI SPOKEN [ARS] Saudi Arabia 9,800,000

• 82 PASHTO, NORTHERN [PBU] Pakistan 9,685,000

• 83 SOMALI [SOM] Somalia 9,472,000

• 84 MALAGASY [MEX] Madagascar 9,398,700

• 85 ARABIC, TUNISIAN SPOKEN [AEB] Tunisia 9,308,000

• 86 RWANDA [RUA] Rwanda 9,306,800

• 87 ZULU [ZUU] South Africa 9,142,000

• 88 BULGARIAN [BLG] Bulgaria 9,000,000

• 89 SWEDISH [SWD] Sweden 9,000,000

• 90 LOMBARD [LMO] Italy 8,974,000

• 91 OROMO, WEST-CENTRAL [GAZ] Ethiopia 8,920,000

• 92 PASHTO, SOUTHERN [PBT] Afghanistan 8,206,000

• 93 KAZAKH [KAZ] Kazakhstan 8,000,000

• 94 ILOCANO [ILO]Philippines 8,000,000

• 95 TATAR [TTR] Russia 8,000,000

• 96 FULFULDE, NIGERIAN [FUV] Nigeria 7,611,000

• 97 ARABIC, SANAANI SPOKEN [AYN] Yemen 7,600,000

• 98 UYGHUR [UIG] China 7,595,512

• 99 HAITIAN CREOLE FRENCH [HAT] Haiti 7,372,000

• 100 AZERBAIJANI, NORTH [AZE] Azerbaijan 7,059,000

• 101 NAPOLETANO-CALABRESE [NPL] Italy 7,047,400

• 102 KHMER, CENTRAL [KMR] Cambodia 7,039,200

• 103 FARSI, EASTERN [PRS] Afghanistan 7,000,000

• 104 AKAN [TWS] Ghana 7,000,000

• 105 HILIGAYNON [HIL] Philippines 7,000,000

• 106 KURMANJI [KUR] Turkey 7,000,000

• 107 SHONA [SHD] Zimbabwe 7,000,000

• The entire database from which this table is extracted is available as a tab-delimited file suitable for importing into a database or spreadsheet program: http://www.sil.org/ftp/ethnolog13/langpop99.zip

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Used with permission granted at APSI, USF, Tampa, FL 2012