Language and Cultural History

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Language and Cultural History

• How language can teach us about the history and
  culture of a people

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Language

• Language
• Method of mutually-understandable communication
• Set of sounds, combination of sounds and symbols
• Language is an essential part of culture
• Why do people feel so strongly about bilingual v.
  English-only education?

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Language

• Standard Language
• Widely published and distributed
• Purposefully taught
• Lexicon (Vocabulary)
• Syntax (Structure)
• Phonetics (Sounds)
• Orthography (Writing system)

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Dialects

• Dialects
• Variants on standard language by region
• Isogloss
• Contour line representing area where language
  feature is present
• Where is the line between dialect and language?

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Origins of Words

• Alcohol
• Arabic
• Amok
• Malay
• Chasm
• Greek
• Coach
• Hungarian

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Origins of Words

• Embargo
• Spanish
• Finger
• German
• Geyser
• Icelandic
• Juggernaut
• Hindi

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Origins of Words

• Schmalz
• Yiddish
• Typhoon
• Chinese
• Umbrella
• Italian
• Yogurt
• Turkish

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Gypsies
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The Roma
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Where did they come from?

• Gypsy
• Egypt?
• Certain words sounded like Sanskrit

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Where?

• The Romani language has many similarities to some
  modern Indian dialects.
• Linguists concluded that the Roma left from
  Northwest India in the 12th Century

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But Why?

• Languages helps again
• Roma words for non-Roma
• Gadjo civilian
• Das slave prisoner
• Roma has a plethora of military words that have
  their origin in Sanskrit

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Therefore

• By using language and historical texts, scholars
  were able to trace the origin of the Roma to an
  army in India that fought against an invading
  Muslim army and was dispersed for a long trek
  through the centuries.

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Ancient Battle

• Ghaznavid Empire
• Moghul
• Rajputs
• Kshatriya (warrior caste)
• Shudra (servant caste)
• 1080
• Defeated by Seljuks
• Diaspora