Transcript Supplemental Chapter 5 PPT

Language
Key Issues
* Origins of Language
1.
2.
3.
4.
Where are English language speakers distributed?
Why is English related to other languages?
Where are other language families distributed?
Why do people preserve local language?
* The American Perspective
The Importance of Language to
Geographers
• Language and religion are two of the most
important cultural traits for geographers to study.
• Geographers describe the spatial distributions of
language and religion across the landscape
because these distributions are useful measures
of cultural identification.
Language and Religion Are Tied
to Patterns of Migration
• Why do people living in different places speak
the same language and practice the same
religion?
– Because people migrate from one place to
another.
• Why do people living in different places speak
different languages and practice different
religions?
– Because of lack of migration or other forms of
spatial interaction.
• Defines Human Cultural
– 2.5 million years ago
– Proto-tongue
• Language divergence- develop variations upon
need (Snake, Iceberg, Buffalo)
• Language replacement- invaders replace
• Language extinction- language is dead
– Follow diffusion through reverse
reconstruction- words that are similar to a
geographic area
The Indo-European Language
Family
• Branches of Indo-European
– Germanic branch
– Indo-Iranian branch
– Balto-Slavic branch
– Romance branch
• Origin and diffusion of Indo-European
– Kurgan and Anatolian theories
Language Families
Indo-European Language Family
The main branches of the IndoEuropean language family include
Germanic, Romance, Balto-Slavic,
and Indo-Iranian.
Germanic Branch
of Indo-European
The Germanic branch today is
divided into North and West
Germanic groups. English is in
the West Germanic group.
Romance Branch of IndoEuropean
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.
South Asian Languages & Language
Families
Indo-European is the largest of
four main language families in
South Asia. The country of
India has 18 official languages.
The Complexities of Overlapping
Languages
Kurgan Theory of Indo-European
Origin
In the Kurgan theory, Proto-Indo-European diffused from the Kurgan
hearth north of the Caspian Sea, beginning about 7000 years ago.
Anatolian Hearth Theory of
Indo-European Origin
In the Anatolian hearth theory, Indo-European originated in Turkey
before the Kurgans and diffused through agricultural expansion.
Roots of Language
•Literary tradition- a system of written
communication.
•Many languages lack a literary tradition,
therefore impeding advancement and
documentation.
Ideograms
Ideogram- “letters” that
represent ideas or concepts,
not specific pronunciations.-
Chinese; Japanese
- Sumerian and Egyptian
have both ideographic
and phonetic
components.
How to Write Down a Language?
Phonetic
•Most languages,
including Romance
languages
•Symbols (letters) generally
represent sounds, not
ideas.
A phonetic
alphabet is the key
innovation.
Language as Element of Cultural
Diversity
• 6000+ Languages spoken today, not including dialects
•1500+ Spoken in Sub-Saharan Africa alone
•400+ in New Guinea alone
•100+ in Europe
However, this diversity is diminishing:
•2000+ Threatened or Endangered Languages
Key Issue 1: Where are Englishlanguage speakers distributed?
• Language- a system of communication through
speech, or other conventional methods, that groups of
people understand to have the same meaning.
• Language (another definition)- Organized system of
spoken words by which people communicate with
one another with mutual comprehension (Getis,
1985).
– Official language- language designated for use by a
country’s government.
• English is spoken by one-half a billion people across
the globe.
– It is the official language of at least 42 countries; two
billion people live in one of these countries.
• The widespread diffusion of English is thanks to the
colonial practices of the British.
– Through their colonization of the Earth, English was spread
eventually to N. America, Ireland, S. Asia, S. Pacific, S.
Africa, and numerous other remote locations.
Germanic Branch - English
Diffused throughout the world by hundreds of years of British
colonialism. Brought to New World by British colonies in 1600s.
Has become an important global lingua franca.( Universal
Language)
Indo-European Language
Family - Germanic Branch
West Germanic
•English (514 million)
•German (128)
•Dutch (21)
East Germanic
•Danish (5)
•Norwegian (5)
•Swedish (9)
Germanic Branch - Icelandic
Iceland colonized by
Norwegians in AD 874.
Largely unchanged
because of isolation
combined with literary
tradition.
Highly developed literary
tradition. Ancient sagas
can be read by modern
speakers of Icelandic.
Development of English
•
•
•
•
British Isles until the Celts arrived around 2000 B.C., speaking languages that we
appropriately call, Celtic.
Around 450 B.C. Germanic tribes, the Anglos, Saxons, and Jutes, invaded and
pushed the Celts farther north and ruled “England” for several hundred years.
Modern English would resemble German to a large degree had not the Normans
invaded in 1066 A.D.
These French ruled for nearly 300 years, and made their language the official
language of the Isles.
– King Richard spoke French as his primary language and the royal court spoke French for
many years after the invasion
•
•
Once they were driven out, few people wished to speak the “enemy’s” language
anymore, but the French influence on the language had already taken place.
Today’s English can be seen as a hybrid of the original Germanic languages, with
some Celtic and French mixed in. (along with varying degrees of influence from a
large number of other languages.)
– English is seen as a very ugly language due to this mesh up
Development of English
Germanic Tribes
(Germany/Denmanrk)
• Jutes
• Angles
• Saxons
Vikings (Norway)
• 9th - 11th Centuries
Normans (French)
• Battle of Hastings, 1066
• French was official language
for 150 years.
• Dialect- a regional variation of a language
distinguished by a distinctive vocab, spelling, and
pronunciation.
– English has the largest # of dialects b/c of its wide
diffusion.
– Do you have a dialect? How about Coach Serina?
• Standard language- a dialect well-established and
recognized for government use.
– Which way are we taught in school
• British Received Pronunciation- the official dialect of
English used by politicians, broadcasters, and actors
in Great Britain.
• “My Fair Lady” was a musical in the 50’s that depicted social
effects of dialect.
• Differences between British and American English are:
– Vocab- different mainly because settlers in America encountered new
objects and experiences, many of which were assigned Native
American names.
– Grammar- distinctly different because Americans had a strong national
feeling for an independent identity.
• The first American dictionary, published by Noah Webster was purposely
altered from British spelling to differentiate the two languages.
– Pronunciation- the most obvious reason for differences is that large
expanse of water that seems to separate the U.S. from the U.K. The
extreme physical separation caused the language to diverge into two
very distinct dialects.
• Dialects within the States are numerous and varied due to the number of
people in the U.S., the wide land area across which the language is spoken,
the historical mobility of the American people as they ventured across the
West, and the varied ethnicity of the English-speakers within this country.
• Three main dialects exist in England:
-Northern
-Midland
-Southern
• These are used to classify many of the dialects within the U.S.
– What are some words that are different for each of these regions?
• Isogloss- the word-usage boundary that can be constructed for any word.
Key Issue 2: Why is English related to
other languages?
• Language family- a collection of languages related
through a common ancestor that existed long before
recorded history.
• Language branch- a collection of languages within a
family that are related through a common ancestor
that existed several thousand years ago.
• Language group- collection of languages within a
branch that share a common origin in relatively recent
history.
• Largest family is Indo-European, spoken by nearly 3
billion people.
Indo-European Language
Family (50% of World)
Main Branches:
• Germanic
- Dutch, German
• Romance
- Spanish, French
• Baltic-Slavic
- Russian
• Indo-Iranian
- Hindu, Bengali
Indo-European
Language Branches
Non-Indo-European
Language Families and
Branches
• Vulgar Latin- the Latin that people in the
provinces learned; substandard.
• Evidence exists that a “super family” language
once was used, known as Proto-IndoEuropean.
– little conclusive evidence has been found, and the
issue is hotly debated among linguists. Most
theories on the diffusion of language are
conjecture and invalidated.
Which languages share a common ancestor?
Some Indo-European Shared Words
English
Sanskrit
Greek
Latin
Armenian
Old Irish Lithuanian
me
father
mother
brother
mam
pitar
matar
bhratar
eme
pater
mater
-
me
pater
mater
frater
is
hayr
mayr
elbayr
athair
mathair
brathair
mane
motina
brolis
daughter
cow
eoh (OE )
hound
foot
new
bears
two
three
duhitar
gavasvas
svan
pad
navas
bharati
duva
trayas
thugaterbous
hippos
kuon
podne(w)os
pherei
duo
treis
bos
equus
canis
pednovus
fert
duo
tres
dustr
kov
sun
otn
nor
bere
erku
erek
bo
ech
con
nue
berid
do
tri
dukter
guovs(Latv)
asva, mare
sun
naujas
du
trys
Many Indo-European languages have common words for snow,
winter, spring; for dog, horse, cow, sheep bear but not camel,
lion, elephant, or tiger; for beech, oak, pine, willow, but not
palm or banyan tree.
Indo-European Language Family Romance Branch
Like English these languages have
been spread by Colonialism.
• Spanish (425 million)
• Portuguese (194)
- most in Brazil
• French (129)
• Italian (62)
• Romanian (26)
Indo-European Family - Romance Branch
The Roman Empire, at its height in 2nd century A.D., extinguished many
local languages. After the fall of Rome in the 5th century,
communication declined and languages evolved again.
Literature was all written in Latin until the 13th and 14th centuries.
• Dante Alighieri’s 1314 Inferno written in vulgar latin (Florentine).
Key Issue 3: Where are other language
families distributed?
•
The main language families of the world, other than Indo-European (spoken by
50% of world population) are:
-Sino-Tibetan spoken by 20% of pop; in China and S.E. Asia
-Afro-Asiatic spoken by 5% of pop; N. Africa and S.W. Asia and Mid East
-Austronesian spoken by 5% of pop; S.E. Asia
-Niger-Congo spoken by 5% of pop; sub-Saharan Africa
-Dravidian spoken by 5% of pop; in India
-Remaining 10% speak one of following:
-Nilo-Saharan
-Amerindian
-Caucasian (Georgian)
-Altaic
-Uralic
-Japanese
-Korean
-Ausro-Asiatic
Distribution of Other
Language Families
• Classification of languages
• Distribution of language families
– Sino-Tibetan language family
– Other East and Southeast Asian language
families
– Afro-Asiatic language family
– Altaic and Uralic language families
– African language families
• 19 Languages Families
– Each has its own branch
• Groups
– Language
» Dialects
• Indo European is the largest- Sino-Tibetan 2nd
– Germanic Branch (West)- English
– Romance- Spanish, Italian etc..
• Prot-Indo European- original- What theory backs this up
– Conquest theory- Kurgan Hearth
– Agriculture theory- farming on the Danube- “snow”- but not
“sea”
Mono Lingual and Multi Lingual
State
• Language often defines a culture or
creates a homogeneous nation
– Multilingual states are countries that speak
more then one language- Often creates
problems- The Basque, Walloons, English
– Monolingual- Not many left because of our
friction of distance
Conflict because of Language
• Canada
• Belgium
• Cyprus
• Nigeria
• English and French in Quebec
• Dutch and the French- Belgium
• Greek and Turkey- Island off of
Turkey- “Green Line”
• Hausa, Yoruba, Ibo 230+
Language
Divisions in
Belgium
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.
Language Variations
• Official Language- Used by the govt for
legal proceedings
– May have more then one- Canada
• Standard Language- acceptable or taught
form of language- Mid-West
– British Received Pronunciation
– Germans learn High German
Language Families of the
World
Distribution of the world’s main language families. Languages with
more than 50 million speakers are named.
Language
Families
of Africa
The 1000 or more languages of Africa are divided among five main
language families, including Austronesian languages in Madagascar.
Languages of Nigeria
More than 200 languages are spoken in Nigeria, the
largest country in Africa (by population). English,
considered neutral, is the official language.
Languages and Language
Families
World Languages
• 6000+ Languages spoken
today, not including dialects
• 1500+ Spoken in Sub-Saharan
Africa alone
• 400+ in New Guinea alone
• 100+ in Europe
However, this diversity is
diminishing:
• 2000+ Threatened or
Endangered Languages
Sino-Tibetan Language Family (20%)
Branches:
• Sinitic
- Mandarin (1075),
Cantonese (71),
• Austro-Thai (77)
- Thai, Hmong
• Tibeto-Burman
- Burmese (32)
Chinese languages based on 420 one syllable
words with meaning infered from context
and tone.
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.
Afro-Asiatic Language Family
Main Branch:
Semitic
•Arabic (256)
Language of the Koran;
spread by Islamic Faith and
Islamic (Ottoman) Empires
•Hebrew (5)
Language of the old
Testament (with Aramaic);
completely revived from
extinction in Israel, 1948.
Niger-Congo Difffusion
• proto-Bantu peoples originated in
Cameroon-Nigeria
• They spread throughout southern
Africa AD 1 - 1000
• Bantu peoples were agriculturalists
who used metal tools
• Khoisan peoples were huntergatherers and were no match for the
Bantu.
• Pygmies adopted Bantu tongue and
retreated to forest
• Hottentots and Bushmen retained the
clicks of Khoisan languages
Polyglot
States
In Switzerland, four official languages, a history of
peace and tolerance, and a political system that puts
power in the hands of local leaders help ensure peace.
Polyglot
States
Nigeria has more than 200
individual languages! English
is the official language. Even
though only 20% speak
standard English, 80% speak
pidgin English.
In Nigeria ethnic conflict between
southern Ibos and western Yoruba led the
government to move the capital to a more
neutral central location (Abuja). Many
other ethnic battles rage continuously.
Polyglot
States
India has 16 official
languages. Hindi is
spoken in the north by
about 400 million, but
the majority in the south
speak Dravidian
languages (Tamil) and
resist Hindi. English
functions as a lingua
franca for government,
education, and big
business.
How about the U.S.?
The U.S. Constitution
specifies no official
language. The Supreme
Court has consistently
ruled that governments
must assist in the
learning of English,
especially in the schools.
However, many states
and local jurisdictions
provide ballots and
information in multiple
languages.
Fill in your map using your book
Key Issue 4: Why do people preserve
local languages?
• Extinct language- language no longer spoken or used
in daily activities by anyone in the world.
• Isolated language- a language unrelated to any other
and not attached to any specific branch.
– Ex. Basque, spoken by over 1 million people in the
Pyrenees Mts. of Spain.
– Icelandic, spoken by the Norwegians who originally
emigrated to Iceland and remained isolated for several
hundred years.
Other Variations
• Lingua franca- a universal language understood globally.
• Pidgin language- a simplified version of a lingua franca, used
to communicate typically in areas where contact is just
beginning.
• Ebonics- the dialect spoken by many blacks who migrated
from the South to the large cities in the North who wished to
preserve their distinctive accents.
• Franglais- the hybrid English-French language resulting from
a combination of the two.
• Spanglish- similar to franglais, only a English-Spanish
hybridization.
PIDGIN - a form of speech that adopts simplified
grammar and limited vocabulary from a lingua
franca, used for communication between speakers of
two different languages.
Examples include Hawaiian Pidgin,
Haitian Patois, and the creoles of West
Africa that resulted from the slave trade.
“No eat da candy, Bruddah, it's pilau. Da
thing wen fall on da ground.”
Give us da food we need fo today an every day.
Hemmo our shame, an let us go
Fo all da kine bad stuff we do to you,
Jalike us guys let da odda guys go awready,
And we no stay huhu wit dem
Fo all da kine bad stuff dey do to us.
No let us get chance fo do bad kine stuff,
But take us outa dea, so da Bad Guy no can hurt us.
Cuz you our King.
You get da real power,
An you stay awesome foeva.
Dass it!”
Matthew 6:9-13 “The Lord’s Prayer”
- Taken from Da Jesus Book, a twelve year effort by 6 linguists
to translate the New Testament into Hawaiian Pidgin,
published 2001
DIALECT - a regional variety of a language
distinguished by pronunciation, spelling, and
vocabulary.
Social Dialects - can denote social class and standing.
Vernacular Dialects - the common, slang, speech of a region.
Term
Is he fair dinkum?
Why I declare!
Down by the crick
bludger
mosquito hawk
nappies
Meaning
Is he real or genuine?
That’s remarkable!
Down by the stream
freeloader; welfare
dragon fly
diapers
Location
Australia
Deep South (U.S.)
Middle Atlantic States
Australia
South (U.S.)
Britain; Brit. Colonies
Endangered Languages
•As recently as 3,000 years ago, there were
10,000 to 15,000 languages in the world.
Now: about 6000 left.
•Of those, 1/2 will be gone by the year 2100 and
all but 500 of the rest will be endangered.
•More than 90 percent of the languages in
existence today will be extinct or threatened in
little more than a century if current trends
continue.
Language Diversity and
Uniformity
• Preserving language diversity
–
–
–
–
Hebrew: reviving extinct languages
Celtic: preserving endangered languages
Multilingual states
Isolated languages
• Global dominance of English
– English as a lingua franca
– Diffusion to other languages
Language
Divisions in
Belgium
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.
Language Areas in
Switzerland
Switzerland remains peaceful with four official languages and a
decentralized government structure.
Old French Dialects
The Geography of Old French
• Old French is a term sometimes used to
refer to the langue d'oïl, the continuum of
varieties of Romance language spoken in
territories corresponding roughly to the
northern half of modern France and parts of
Belgium and Switzerland during the period
roughly from 1000 to 1300 A.D.
• It was known at the time as the langue d'oïl to
distinguish it from the langue d'oc, (also then
called Provençal) which bordered these
areas to the south.
French-English Boundary in
Canada
Although Canada is bilingual, French speakers are concentrated in
the province of Quebec, where 80% of the population speaks French.
•
The Environment Provides
Refuge
Inhospitable environments offer protection and
isolation
• Provide outnumbered linguistic groups refuge from
aggressive neighbors
• Linguistic refuge areas
–
–
–
–
Rugged bill and mountain areas
Excessively cold or dry climates
Impenetrable forests and remote islands
Extensive marshes and swamps
• Unpleasant environments rarely attract conquerors
• Mountains tend to isolate inhabitants of one valley
from another
Examples of Linguistic Refuge
Areas
• Rugged Caucasus Mountains and nearby
ranges in central Eurasia are populated by a
large variety of peoples
• Alps, Himalayas, and highlands of Mexico are
linguistic shatter belts — areas where diverse
languages are spoken
• American Indian tongue Quechua clings to a
refuge in the Andes Mountains of South
America
• In the Rocky Mountains of northern New
Mexico, an archaic form of Spanish survives
due to isolation that ended in the early 1900s
Examples of Linguistic Refuge
Areas
• The Dhofar, a mountain tribe in Oman,
preserve Hamitic speech that otherwise
has vanished from Asia
• Tundra climates of the far north have
sheltered certain Uralic, Altaic, and
Inukitut (Eskimo) speakers
• On Sea Islands, off the coast of South
Carolina and Georgia, some remnant of
an African language, Gullah, still are
spoken
Linguistic Ecology
• Today environmental isolation is no
longer the linguistic force it once was
• Inhospitable lands and islands are
reachable by airplanes
• Marshes and forests are being drained
and cleared by farmers
• The world is interactive
Internet Hosts
A large proportion of the world’s internet users and hosts are in the
developed countries of North America and western Europe.
Online Population
English is still the largest language on the internet, but there has been
rapid growth in many others, especially Chinese.
This graphic shows the uneven numbers of speakers of languages in the
world. Nearly 80% of the world's population speaks only 83 (1.1%) of the
world's languages. The 3,586 (51.2%) smallest languages are spoken by
only 0.2% of the world's population.
Extinct or Endangered Languages
- Cameroon (11)
BISHUO
BUNG
BUSUU
DULI
GEY
LUO
NAGUMI
NDAI
NGONG
YENI
ZUMAYA
Extinct Languages - USA (93)
ABNAKI-PENOBSCOT ACHUMAWI AHTENA APACHE, KIOWA
APACHE, LIPAN ATAKAPA ATSUGEWI BILOXI CADDO
CAHUILLA CATAWBA CHEHALIS, LOWER CHEROKEE CHETCO
CHINOOK CHINOOK WAWA CHITIMACHA CHUMASH
CLALLAM COEUR D'ALENE COOS COQUILLE COWLITZ
CUPEÑO EYAK FLATHEAD-KALISPEL GALICE GROS VENTRE
HAN HAWAI'I PIDGIN SIGN LANGUAGE HOLIKACHUK HUPA
IOWA-OTO KALAPUYA KANSA KASHAYA KATO KAWAIISU
KITSAI KOYUKON LUMBEE LUSHOOTSEED MAIDU,
NORTHEAST MAIDU, NORTHWEST MAIDU, VALLEY MANDAN
MARTHA'S VINEYARD SIGN MATTOLE MENOMINI MIAMI
MIWOK MOBILIAN MOHEGAN MONO NANTICOKE NATCHEZ
NISENAN NOOKSACK OFO OSAGE POMO POWHATAN
QUAPAW QUILEUTE QUINAULT SALINAN SALISH SERRANO
SHASTA SIUSLAW SNOHOMISH TANAINA TILLAMOOK
TOLOWA TONKAWA TÜBATULABAL TUNICA TUSCARORA
TUTELO TUTUTNI TWANA UNAMI WAILAKI WAMPANOAG
WAPPO WASCO-WISHRAM WINTU WIYOT WYANDOT YANA YOKUTS
YUKI YUROK
Endangered Languages
Why are they disappearing?
Globalization and Economic Change
Migration (Urbanization)
Deforestation
Economic Development
- Lingua Francas
Media
Internet (Requires Arabic
Character Set)
• The most obvious, and the main, reason for
preserving a language is to preserve language
diversity and to promote a self-identity.
• Many groups have revived their languages
recently in order to help preserve an integral
part of their culture
– Examples include Hebrew and Celtic
Origin, Diffusion, and Dialects
of English
• Origin and diffusion of English
– English colonies
– Origin of English in England
• Dialects of English
– Dialects in England
– Differences between British and American
English
– Dialects in the United States
Invasions
of England
5th - 11th
centuries
The groups that brought what
became English to England included
Jutes, Angles, Saxons, and Vikings.
The Normans later brought French
vocabulary to English.
Old & Middle English Dialects
The main dialect regions of Old English before the Norman invasion
persisted to some extent in the Middle English dialects through the 1400s.
British English
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Southern English engages in r-dropping, that
is, r's are not pronounced after vowels, unless
followed by another vowel.
Cockney - Originally the dialect of the working
class of East End London.
Estuary English - From London down the
Thames and into Essex, Sussex, and even
Kent, a new working and middle class dialect
has evolved and is rapidly become "the"
southern dialect. It combines some of the
characteristics of Cockney with RP, but makes
much less use of Cockney slang.
East Anglian - This dialect is very similar to
the Southern
The dialect of the East Midlands, once filled
with interesting variations from county to
county, is now predominantly RP. R's are
dropped, but h's are pronounced.
The West Country - r's are not dropped, initial
s often becomes z (singer > zinger) & initial f
often becomes v (finger > vinger).
West Midlands - This is the dialect of Ozzie
Osbourne!
Lancashire - This dialect, spoken north and
east of Liverpool, has the southern habit of
dropping r's.
Yorkshire - This dialect is known for its singsong quality, a little like Swedish, and retains
its r's.
Northern - The Northern dialect closely
resembles the southern-most Scottish dialects.
Dialects in
the Eastern
U.S.
Hans Kurath divided the eastern
U.S. into three dialect regions,
whose distribution is similar to that
of house types.
English Dialects in the United
States
• Dialects reveal a vivid geography
• American English is hardly uniform from region
to region
• At least three major dialects, corresponding to
major culture regions, developed in the eastern
United States by the time of the American
Revolution
– Northern
– Midland
– Southern
English Dialects in the United
States
• The three subcultures expanded westward
and their dialects spread and fragmented
– Retained much of their basic character even
beyond the Mississippi River
– Have distinctive vocabularies and
pronunciations
– Drawing dialect boundaries is often tricky
Languages and the Settlement
Patterns of NC
• What impacts on
North Carolina’s form
of southern English
can be attributed to
the introduction of all
of these groups of
settlers?
–
–
–
–
Germans
Scotch Highlanders
Scotch-Irish
Swiss
• Lingua Franca- Universal Language of business
– Swahili- English- Mandarin
• Isogloss• Pidgin- simplified Lingua Franca forced by the dominate
culture
– Pidgin French, Gullah
• Once it is taught to their kids it becomes part of their culture and is
in turn called CREOLE- pidgin language that is the main language
of the people
• Ebonics- the dialect spoken by many blacks who migrated
from the South to the large cities in the North who wished to
preserve their distinctive accents.
• Spanglish- similar to franglais, only a English-Spanish
hybridization.
English Dialects in the United
States
• American dialects suggest we are not
becoming a more national culture by
overwhelming regional cultures
– Linguistic divergence is still under way
– Dialects continue to mutate on a regional level
– Local variations in grammar and
pronunciation proliferate
– The homogenizing influence of radio,
television, and other mass media is being
defied
Simplified Dialect Regions of
America
Dialect Regions of America
The British and Americans
Two Peoples Separated by a Common Language
• British
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block of flats
chips
crisps
fag
lift
loo
mince
nappy
pram
queue
rucksack
spanner
torch
• American
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apartment building
French fries
potato chips
cigarette
elevator
restroom
ground beef
diaper
baby carriage
line of people
backpack
wrench
flashlight
Percent Spanish-Speaking
Residents by State
The Trail of Tears
Language Extinction in America
Endangered Languages include:
Kansa ( < 20 speakers, Siouan)
Mohave ( < 75 speakers, Yuman)
Sac/Sauk ( < 20 speakers, Algonquian)
Wichita ( < 3 speakers, Caddoan)
• Oklahoma holds highest
density of indigenous
languages in the United
States.
• This Hotspot includes
languages originally spoken in
the area as well as the
languages of tribes from
farther east that were forcibly
relocated onto reservations in
Oklahoma during the 1800s.
• Many of these languages are
highly endangered as the
younger generations shift to
speaking English.
Language Extinction in America
• The Northwest Pacific Coast
and Western Plateau is one of
the most endangered hotspots.
• Every language in the
American part of the hotspot is
endangered or moribund.
• As you go farther north and
east, the languages are more
robust, but throughout British
Columbia indigenous
languages spoken near urban
centers are threatened
because speakers of
indigenous languages are
Endangered Languages include:
Kutenai (< 10 speakers, isolate, spoken in Canada and U.S.)
likely to shift to speaking
Quileute (< 10 speakers, Chemakuan, spoken in U.S.)
English.
Squamish (< 20 speakers, Salish, spoken in Canada)
Yakima (< 10 speakers, Sahaptian, spoken in U.S.)
An English Speaking World ?
• More than 320 million people - a tenth of the world's
population - speak English as their first language; hundreds
of millions more as their second language.
– English is the language used for all Air Traffic Control.
– Fifty percent of the world's telephones are in English-speaking
countries.
– Fifty percent of the songs on the European hit parade are in English.
– Eighty percent of all computer data is in English.
– During World War II, BBC radio broadcasts in English were heard
throughout Europe.
– The Edward R. Morrow, W.W. II Victory-in-Europe broadcasts of 1945,
along with the subsequent decline of the British Empire, signaled the
rise of the U.S. variety of English to prominence.
• U.S. English has been disseminated world-wide by U.S.
business concerns and the military and is associated with
economic and political power.
English Speaking Countries
English is an official language in 50 countries, including some in which it is
not the most widely spoken language. It is also used and understood in
many others.
Key Concepts
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Dialect
Language branch
Language family
Language group
Literary tradition
Extinct language
Creolized language
Ebonics
Shatter belts
Multilingual states
• Isogloss
• Lingua franca
• British Received
Pronunciation
• Pidgin language
• Franglais
• Spanglish
• Denglish
• Revived language
• Isolated language
Key Concepts
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Custom
Folk culture
Popular culture
Taboo
Habit
Culture wars
National culture
International culture
Subculture
Acculturation
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Enculturation
Cultural landscapes
Monochronic cultures
Polychronic cultures
Cultural areas
Indigenous cultures
Globalization of popular
culture
• Environmental problems of
cultural globalization
• Rubenstein, James- Cultural Landscape; An
Introduction to Human Geography
• http://www.glendale.edu/geo/reed/cultural/cultur
al_lectures.htm
• http://www.quia.com/pages/mrsbellaphg.html
• Ike Heardhttp://geoearth.uncc.edu/people/iheard/1105syll
abus.html
• Google