• Basic Vocabulary

  • Language
    • Sounds or symbols with an agreed upon meaning used to convey thought
  • Dialect
    • Variation of a language
    • Subtle, distinct differences
      • More than an accent
  • Pidgin
    • A language used by a small group of people to carry out commerce
    • Small vocabulary
    • Quantitative, Location, time
    • Not a person’s main, primary language.
  • Creole
    • A pidgin language that has become more developed such that it is a fully functional language with a large vocabulary
    • Not just used for commerce anymore
    • Happens over long period of time
  • Lingua Franca
    • Well established language that is used widely in areas where it is not the primary language
    • Allows people of multiple
    • Established in areas of multiple different languages where a community can share one common language
    • (no one can speak each other’s language, but all can speak English. English would be lingua franca)
  • Bilingualism
    • Able to speak 2 languages
  • Language Family
    • A group of related languages derived from a common ancestor
  • Polyglot
    • Geographic area where multiple languages are spoken
    • Switzerland

• Language Families

  • See map page 118-119
  • Indo-European
  • Sino-Tibetan
  • Afro-Asiatic
  • Niger-Congo
  • Altaic
  • Uralic
  • Austronesian

• Language Diffusion

  • Relocation diffusion
    • People of different cultures spreading their traditions based on where they move
  • Conquest diffusion
    • When a country spreads its culture to a country it takes over
    • Different governments that merge must speak similar language
  • Indo-European Diffusion
    • Anatolian Hypothesis
      • Language started in or around Anatolia, modern day turkey
      • Linked to plant domestication
      • Peaceful diffusion
    • Kurgan Hypothesis
      • Linked to animal domestication
      • Aggressive spread
  • Austronesian Diffusion
    • Began in interior of SE Asia
    • Traveled via boat
    • Simulations to determine path of diffusion

• Religion and Language Diffusion

  • Arabic
    • From the Quran (Islam)
    • Not supposed to be translated from Arabic
    • To be a good Muslim, you have to know Arabic
    • With spread of Muslim faith comes spread of desire to learn Arabic
  • Hebrew
    • Old testament
    • Jewish faith
    • Bar mitzvah
      • Part of the tradition is speaking a reading in Hebrew
  • Latin
    • All books and writings were in Latin
    • Not spoken as vernacular
    • Only spoken by the scholars
    • All the intelligence was contained in Latin, so normal people couldn’t read

• Language’s Shifting Boundaries

  • Isogloss - the border of usage of an individual word or pronunciation

  • Slang- commonly spoken words that are not part of the standard vocabulary

    • Often used by subcultures
    • Drug dealers
    • Activities ex. Sports, hobbies

  • American English dialects

    • Northern
    • Midland
    • Southern
    • Hill southern/ Midwestern

  • See map p. 127

  • AAVE - example of an ethnolect

    • African American vernacular English
    • Ebonics
    • Areas have some of the most poorly funded, poorly run schools in the US
    • Southern region or other urban areas of the country

  • Spanglish

    • Spanish speaking people say “ok” after a sentence

• Language Globalization

  • Language goes the same was as culture
  • Only about 300 languages expected to exist by 2100
  • Technological advancements -> language dominance
    • Agricultural advancements led to spread of Indo-European languages
    • Modern mass media and communications tech
  • Imperialism
    • Conquest diffusion
    • Ancient / modern.

• Language modification

  • Texting
    • OMG, LOL, etc
    • Symbols, emoticons
    • These are language specific
  • Twitter
    • Limited number of characters

• Empires and the Diffusion of Language

  • China
  • South America
  • British Empire
  • Transportation systems within empires

• Habitat and vocab

  • Table 4.2 (p 135)
  • Vocab is more specific and prolific for things that are commonplace and important
  • Ice/ snow words in arctic regions
  • Mountain words in the Himalaya
  • Linguistic Refuge - language protected by inhospitable areas

Notes taken from: Malinowski, Jon C., and David H. Kaplan. Human Geography. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2013. Print.