Language
vocab, models, and important facts
Etymology is the study of words and their origin.
Statistics:
Interaction and isolation led to the development of different languages over time.lization leads to threatened/endangered languages.
Globa
Languages help distinguish different cultures and keep their uniqueness.
Languages are also formed by language divergence(a lack of spatial interaction among speakers of a language that breaks the language into dialects and new languages) or language convergence(when peoples with different languages have consistent spatial interaction and their languages collapse into one).
A pidgen language is a simplified form of speech developed from two or more languages. Ex: Spanglish. A creole language is a language that results from the mixing of colonial language with the indigenous language of the people being dominated. Ex: modern English.
Languages are divided in many ways:
LANGUAGE AS A SOURCE OF CONFLICT
Iceland:
Quebec:
Multilingualism is the common use of two or more languages in a society.
Monolingual state is a country in which only one language is spoken
Bilingualism is the fluency in two or more languages.
A polyglot is a person who is able to speak or write multiple languages. A monoglot is a person who is fluent in writing or speaking only one language.
Spanish, Portugese, French, Italian, and Romanian are all parts of the Romance branch.
Toponym: A common name of a place.
Isogloss: A boundary that separates regions in which different languages usage predominate.
ENGLISH
English is of the Indo-European language family, the Germanic language branch, and the West(low) Germanic group.
English is the official language of about 50 countries.
English is the lingua franca of the world. A lingua franca is a language mutually understood and commonly used by people who have different languages. English is a globalizing language which breaks barriers of different languages.
Language dominance is when one language is most commonly used in an area that it becomes dominant over smaller languages. Ex: English.
Origin of English:
Statistics:
- About 50% of the world speaks one of twelve languages.
- Estimated to be over 6,000 languages worldwide.
- There are over 2,000 endangered or threatened languages.
Interaction and isolation led to the development of different languages over time.lization leads to threatened/endangered languages.
Globa
Languages help distinguish different cultures and keep their uniqueness.
Languages are also formed by language divergence(a lack of spatial interaction among speakers of a language that breaks the language into dialects and new languages) or language convergence(when peoples with different languages have consistent spatial interaction and their languages collapse into one).
A pidgen language is a simplified form of speech developed from two or more languages. Ex: Spanglish. A creole language is a language that results from the mixing of colonial language with the indigenous language of the people being dominated. Ex: modern English.
Languages are divided in many ways:
- Language families: A collection of languages related to each other through a common ancestor long before recorded history.
- Language branches: A collection of languages related through a common ancestor that existed several thousand years ago. Differences are not as extensive or as old as with language families and archaeological evidence can confirm that the branches derived from the same family.
- Language groups: A collection of languages within a branch that share a common origin in the relatively recent past and display relatively few differences in grammar and vocabulary.
- Language: A system of communication through the use of speech; a collection of sounds understood by a group of people to have the same meaning.
- Dialects: Regional variations of a language distinguished by vocabulary, spelling and pronunciation. Social dialects denote social class and standing. Vernacular dialects show the common speech and slang of a region.
- Accents: The manner in which people speak and the way words are pronounced in different parts of the world.
- Slang: An informal, often short-lived kind of language used in place of standard words.
- Afro-Asiatic family: Spoken in North Africa and the Middle East. Main branch is Semitic(includes Hebrew and Arabic languages).
- Sino-Tibetan: Spoken in South Asia, East Asia, and SE Asia.
- Indo-European: Most widely spoken. Used in most of North America, South America, Europe, and much of Australia. Main branches are Germanic, Romance, Baltic-Slavic, and Indo-Iranian. The Indo-European hearth(origin) is most likely located in Turkey(Anatolia).
- Basque languages the only in Europe that survived from before Indo-European speakers.
- Mandarin Chinese has the most speakers worldwide.
LANGUAGE AS A SOURCE OF CONFLICT
Iceland:
- Iceland was colonized by Norwegians in AD 874 and its language remained mostly unchanged due to isolation.
- Ethnic conflict between southern Ibos, western Yoruba, and northern Hausa in Nigeria led to a more centralized location of the country's capital, Abuja.
- There is a sharp divide between the Walloons of south Belgium and the Flemings of northern Belgium. The Walloons speak French and the Flemings speak Flemish. They each have control of their own half of Belgium, but the state capital, Brussels, is split between the two groups. Flemings want separate countries. French is the official language of the state.
Quebec:
- Quebec, Canada is a bilingual country, speaking French and English, but French is the official language. The different language speakers want to split up Quebec.
Multilingualism is the common use of two or more languages in a society.
Monolingual state is a country in which only one language is spoken
Bilingualism is the fluency in two or more languages.
A polyglot is a person who is able to speak or write multiple languages. A monoglot is a person who is fluent in writing or speaking only one language.
Spanish, Portugese, French, Italian, and Romanian are all parts of the Romance branch.
Toponym: A common name of a place.
Isogloss: A boundary that separates regions in which different languages usage predominate.
ENGLISH
English is of the Indo-European language family, the Germanic language branch, and the West(low) Germanic group.
English is the official language of about 50 countries.
English is the lingua franca of the world. A lingua franca is a language mutually understood and commonly used by people who have different languages. English is a globalizing language which breaks barriers of different languages.
Language dominance is when one language is most commonly used in an area that it becomes dominant over smaller languages. Ex: English.
Origin of English:
- Three Germanic tribes, the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes, kicked the Celtics out of the British Isles and brought their own language, englisc, with them. Around the 9th century, Norwegian vikings immigrated to the British Isles. The combination of Germanic, French(Normans), and Norwegian languages eventually created the English language. British colonizers brought English to the Americas.