GEOGRAPHY OF LANGUAGE

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GEOGRAPHY OF LANGUAGE
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Why do some regions have a greater diversity of
languages than others?

• A process
• original human settlement of area brings original
  language or languages
• subsequent isolation leads to increasing
  divergence through time
• areas with greatest geographic isolation and most
  limited inter-group contact from each other will
  see the greatest numbers of dialects and then
  languages develop
• new groups may come into region and dominate and
  replace local languages, adding their languages
  to the diversity but possibly eliminating some
  local languages
• following 3, areas with little inter-group
  contact, tending to have stable and abundant
  resources, and/or otherwise be separated by
  geographic barriers, such as mountains, dense
  jungles, etc such regions may have high
  linguistic diversity
• example map of Africa - the dry Sahara with high
  human mobility and sparse resources has low
  linguistic diversity, while the densely vegetated
  equatorial areas (associated with less human
  mobility) have higher linguistic diversity.

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Language Classification

• language family collection of individual
  languages related to each other by virtue of
  having a common ancestor
• language branch a group of closely related
  languages
• dialect form of a language spoken in a local or
  regional area, defined by vocabulary, cadence
  (rhythm), pronunciation, grammar/syntax (how
  words make phrases), and pace. Note that accent
  refers only to distinctive pronunciation.
• family/branch/language/dialect
• (Indo-European family/ Romance branch/ Spanish
  language/ Castilian)
• Standard language dialect used for mass
  communications and education
• Official language language adopted for use by
  the government

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Indo-European common words

• When we are aware that father corresponds to
  Dutch vader, Gothic fadar, Old Norse fadir,
  German Vater, Greek pater, Sanskrit pitar-, and
  Old Irish athir
• or that English brother corresponds to Dutch
  broeder, German Bruder, Greek phrater, Sanskrit
  bhratar-, Old Slavic bratu, Irish Brathair
• Together with many other such similarities and
  other evidence,we are led to the hypothesis that
  the languages of a large part of Europe, and even
  a part of Asia, were at one time from the same
  origin.
• Source http//www.wordinfo.info/words/index/info/
  view_unit/4184/?letterEspage4

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Indo-European (cont.)

• William Jones (1786) studied ancient religious
  texts of India (in Sanskrit), noticed sim.
  grammar and vocab. with Latin and Greek
• must have come from a common sourceWhere?
• regions where words shared by modern
  Indo-European languages would have a use
• fish but not ocean
• had goats, cows, horses, but not grapes
• oak, beech, pine, birch, willow, bear, wolf
  suggest a cold, forested environment
• People, language, culture spread as far as India
  and Great Britain

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Language Change and Survival

• divergence differentiation over time and space.
  Isolated dialects may become languages (eg.
  Latin to Spanish, French, Portuguese, Romanian,
  Italian)
• convergence the contact of long isolated
  languages through relocation diffusion.
• replacement when the language of a traditional
  people is replaced or severely modified or
  simplified by a dominant invader
• remnant languages survivors of an invasion
  usually due to either isolation caused by
  physical barriers or lack of conquest by invaders

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Language Change and Survival (cont.)

• Once diffused into isolated areas, language
  change tends to be slower than in less isolated
  areas
• Pidgin mother tongue simplified and modified by
  contact with other languages. Typically consists
  of less than 500 words, and developed by people
  who do not share a common language, but need to
  talk to each other
• Creole when a pidgin language has become the
  mother tongue of a community, usually after a
  few generations. creolization
• involves expansion of vocabulary, grammar, and
  style
• Lingua Franca common language spoken by various
  groups who need to communicate

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Why do languages change through time?

• replacement
• natural drift in time
• borrowing
• relocation of speakers
• changes in environment

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• Consonant softening
• The story of Indo European