Ch. 5 Key Issue 3Where are Other Language families Distributed?

Language Family Rank1. Indo-European (46% speak one)2. Sino-Tibetan (21% speak one)3. Afro-Asiatic4. Austronesian5. Niger-Congo6. Dravidian- southern India7. Austro-Asiatic8. Altaic

Sino-Tibetan• 2nd most spoken Family; China and other

small countries in SE Asia• Mandarin (“common speech”)- most

used language in world• About 1400 different dialects are

mutually incomprehensible but standardized writing= national unity and mutual comprehension • Low writing rate because of ideograms usage• If spoken Cantonese is written, it cannot be

understood by other dialects

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e73btaVo868

Other E and SE Asian FamiliesThese languages are clustered on islands

and peninsulas • Austronesian- Indonesia, Madagascar?• Austro-Asiatic- SE Asian countries:

Vietnamese (most spoken)• Dravidian- mostly in southern India • Tai Kadai- SE Asia, China• Japanese (Kanji- ideograms diffused

from China)• Korean- roots in Altaic, new words

combine Japanese and Chinese

Mid East and Central Asia• Afro-Asiatic- Arabic (Islamic Quran),

Hebrew (Judeo-Christian Bible)• Altaic- Turkish; Central Asia; countries

forced to use Russian under SU, official Altaic languages after independence• Uralic- origins in Ural Mtns, dispersed

throughout the Indo-European language countries (Estonia, Finland, Hungary)= Cultural identity!

(Sub-Saharan) African FamiliesPerfect example of how isolation

creates new languages: 1000s of tribes never communicated= different languages• Niger-Congo- 95% speak it; Swahili is

second language of 30 million people•Arabic roots, used to communicate with outsiders

• Nilo-Saharan- small groups of speakers between Niger-Congo and Arabic groups of Africa• Khoisan- Hottentot: use of “clicking”

sounds

Nigeria• 141 million people speak 500 different

languages• British colonialization created the country of

Nigeria agglomerating (combining) many diverse people

• Adopted English as official language after independence • Helps avoid linguistic conflicts among Nigeria’s 3 biggest languages• Children must learn in school- learning English takes time away from learning other subjects• English becomes irrelevant for most when they graduate as they now cannot function in local Nigerian society