Transcript of Language. Introduction to Language Language Tidbits Most people in the United States know only...
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- Language
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- Introduction to Language
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- Language Tidbits Most people in the United States know only
English English is the official language in over 50 countries A
third of the worlds population live in countries where English is
the official language English is the second most spoken language in
the world
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- What is language? Language: a system of communication through
speech, a collection of sounds that a group of people understands
to have the same meaning Does Ebonics meet this criteria? Literary
Tradition: a system of written communication
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- Language Continued Many countries have an official language.
This is used by governments for laws, reports, and public objects
If a country has more than one official language, than they can
require all public documents to be in both languages As of 1988,
Canada has two official languages, English and French
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- Global Distribution of Language The distribution of language is
a result of interaction and isolation Interaction occurs when a
group of people migrates to another place and teaches their
language to the people they encounter (Ex: British Colonization)
Isolation occurs if the people have few connections after the
migration (Ex: Spanish in Latin America)
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- Origin of English English is widely distributed through the
world as a result of British Imperialism English diffused to North
America in the 1600s with the settling of Jamestown English
diffused to Ireland, India, Australia, New Zealand, Southern
Africa, etc. in the form of British Colonialism
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- British Commonwealth
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- Origin of English in England The Celts came to Great Britain in
2000 B.C. (or B.C.E.) speaking Celtic In 450 A.D. (C.E.), tribes
from Europe invaded, pushing the Celts into modern-day Scotland and
Wales The invading tribes were the Angles, Jutes, and Saxons
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- German Invasion All three were Germanic tribes, hence English
having Germanic roots All the tribes had a common language, but
after being isolated, the language took on a form of its own This
was also due to other European influences that migrated to Great
Britain
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- Norman Invasion One reason English and German are different
today is due to the Normans The Normans spoke French, and it was
the official language of England for 300 years The royal family
spoke French, but the people spoke English In 1489, English became
the official language of England
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- Dialects of English Dialect: a regional variation of a language
distinguished by distinctive vocabulary, spelling, and
pronunciation (Is Ebonics a dialect?) Usually, a speaker of one
dialect can understand the speaker of another (Ex: American English
and Australian English)
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- What is this song about? Waltzing Matilda Once a jolly swagman
sat beside the billabong, Under the shade of a coolibah tree, And
he sang as he sat and waited by the billabong You'll come a
waltzing matilda with me Waltzing matilda, waltzing matilda You'll
come a waltzing matilda with me And he sang as he sat and waited by
the billabong You'll come a waltzing matilda with me.
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- Dialects Continued Sometimes a dialect is recognized as being a
standard language Example: British Received Pronunciation (BRP)
This was the language used at universities like Oxford and
Cambridge Oh why cant the English learn to speak?
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- British and American English The first colonists spoke a
British form of English With isolation from Great Britain, and the
arrival of immigrants, the form of English shifted into what it is
today American and British English differ in three ways:
vocabulary, spelling, and pronunciation
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- Vocabulary New physical features had to be given names New
animal and plant species also had to be named Native Americans also
added to our vocabulary: canoe and moccasin New inventions like the
elevator (lift), flashlight (torch), toilet (loo)
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- Spelling Webster was determined to make American English
unique, and published his dictionary with that agenda He created
new grammar and spelling rules Color vs. Colour, Analyze vs.
analyse Center vs. Centre
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- Pronunciation One key difference between American and British
pronunciation are the sounds of the letters a and r. Fast vs.
faaaahhhst Lord vs Laaahhhd Secretary vs. Secratry See Hugh Laurie
teach British slang!
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- Dialects in the United States There are many words in the
United States that are unique to that region An isogloss is a
word-usage boundary Cellar or Basement? Coke, Pop, or Soda? Water
fountain or drinking fountain? Are Mary, Merry, and Marry
pronounced the same? Wedgie anyone?
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- Indo-European Language Branch
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- Why is English related to Other Languages? English is part of
the Indo-European language family A language family is a collection
of languages related through a common ancestor that existed long
before recorded history. Indo-European is the language family with
the most speakers.
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- Indo-European Branches Within language families are language
branches A language branch is a collection of languages related
through a common ancestor that existed thousands of years ago.
Indo-European is divided into eight branches: West Germanic,
Romance, Baltic-Slavic, Indo- Iranian, Greek, and Armenian
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- Germanic Branch English is part of the Germanic Language Group
A language group is 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
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- Western Germanic Branch Includes the languages of German,
English, Afrikaans, and Dutch German is spoken mainly in Germany,
Austria, and Switzerland English is spoken on every continent (key
places: Great Britain, United States, Canada, India, Japan, and
Australia) Afrikaans is spoken in South Africa Dutch is spoken in
the Netherlands
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- West Germanic Branch There are over 669 million native speakers
The Germanic branch also includes North Germanic languages of
Swedish, Norwegian, Icelandic, and Danish]
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- Romance Branch The Romance Branch evolved from the Latin
language spoken by Romans 2,000 years ago It has 859 million native
speakers. The four most common Romance languages are Spanish,
Portuguese, French, and Italian French and Spanish are two of the
six official UN languages
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- Romance Branch Romanian is spoken in Romania and Moldova. Other
Romance Languages include Romansh (one of Switzerlands four
official languages), and Catalan (spoken in Spain, and the official
language of Andorra) Haitian Creole is a language spoken in
Haiti
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- History of the Romance Languages Latin was spread by the
soldiers of the Roman Empire When they conquered a group of people,
they taught them Latin The people spoke a different form of Latin
called Vulgar Latin, or Latin of the People. Ex: The Latin word for
horse is equus, but the vulgar Latin word for horse was caballus.
Italian: cavallor, Spanish: caballo, Portuguese: cavalo, and
French: cheval
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- Spanish and Portuguese Both of these languages are important
around the world due to Spanish and Portuguese imperialism Spanish
is the official language in 18 Latin American countries Portuguese
is the official language of Brazil This is due to the Treaty of
Tordesillas of 1493
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- Haitian Creole When a language is a mix of a colonial language
and an indigenous language, it is said to be a creole or creolized
language A creolized language forms when a colonized group adopts
the language of the dominant group, but makes some changes
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- Language A systematic means of communicating ideas and feelings
through the use of signs, gestures, marks, or vocal sounds
Linguistic Geography is the study of speech areas and the local
variations by mapping word choices, pronunciations, or grammatical
constructions
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- Language Families A grouping of languages with a shared, but
fairly distinct origin The most common language family is the
Indo-European family English is the most widely used language
Mandarin is spoken by the largest number of native speakers Romance
languages form a sub-family in the Indo- European family and
include Spanish, French, and Italian
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- Languages A standard language is a language designated for use
by the government, schools, media, and other aspects of public life
An official language is one endorsed by the government as the one
everyone should know and use A country may have more than one
official language
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- Dialects A regional variation of a standard language Isogloss
is a word usage boundary Ex: Coke vs. Pop
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- Language Barriers Bilingualism is the ability to communicate in
two languages Multilingualism is the ability to communicate in more
than two languages Pidgin is a combination of languages Ex:
Spanglish It becomes a creole language if the Pidgin language is
the first language of the people that speak it
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- Lingua Franca An established language that comes to be spoken
and understood over a large area English is lingua franca for most
of the world Toponymy: the study of place names Extinct Language:
languages that were once used, but no longer spoken Revived
Language: the reclamation of an extinct language Ex: Hebrew
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- Balto-Slavic Branch The roots of the Slavic language are Asian
Due to isolation of different groups when they arrived in Eastern
Europe, different languages emerged Languages include: Ukrainian,
Russian, Czech, Slovak, Polish, Serbo-Croatian, Baltic, and
Bulgarian
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- Baltic-Slavic Branch Russian is the most widely spoken
language, and is spoken by 80 percent of the Russians Russian is
one of the six official languages of the UN Ukrainian is spoken in
the Ukraine, and Belorusian in Belarus. The Baltic languages
include Estonian, Latvian, and Lithuanian.
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- Baltic-Slavic Branch Other widely spoken languages are Polish
(Poland), Czech (Czech Republic), and Slovak (Czech Republic)
Speakers of Czech and Slovak can understand each other Slovenian is
in Slovenia, Macedonian in Macedonia, and Serbia-Croatian is spoken
by Bosnians, Croats, and Serbs.
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- Indo-Iranian Branch The Indo-Iranian branch has the most
speakers. It has over 100 languages with over 1 billion native
speakers The branch includes the languages of Persian (Farsi),
Bengali, Hindi, Urdu, and Punjabi
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- The Indic Group One-third of Indians use an Indic languages
called Hindi It is spoken many different ways, but there is a
common written form of the language called Devanagari Indias
constitution recognizes 18 official languages
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- The Indic Group Pakistans principal language is called Urdu,
and the written form of the language is Arabic Bangladeshs official
language is Bengali
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- The Iranian Group Indo-Iranian languages are spoken in Iran and
neighboring countries Persian or Farsi is the main language in
Iran. Other languages include Kurdish and Pathan. All of these are
written in Arabic.
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- Greek and Armenian Greek and Armenian are in the Indo- European
family, but are not language branches Greek is spoken in Greece,
and has 12 million native speakers. Armenian is spoken in Armenia,
and has 6 million native speakers.
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- Language Families A grouping of languages with a shared, but
fairly distinct origin The most common language family is the
Indo-European family English is the most widely used language
Mandarin is spoken by the largest number of native speakers Romance
languages form a sub-family in the Indo- European family and
include Spanish, French, and Italian
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- Languages A standard language is a language designated for use
by the government, schools, media, and other aspects of public life
An official language is one endorsed by the government as the one
everyone should know and use A country may have more than one
official language
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- Language Barriers Bilingualism is the ability to communicate in
two languages Multilingualism is the ability to communicate in more
than two languages Pidgin is a combination of languages Ex:
Spanglish It becomes a creole language if the Pidgin language is
the first language of the people that speak it
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- Lingua Franca An established language that comes to be spoken
and understood over a large area English is lingua franca for most
of the world Toponymy: the study of place names Extinct Language:
languages that were once used, but no longer spoken Revived
Language: the reclamation of an extinct language Ex: Hebrew
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- Origin and Diffusion of Indo- European The existence of a
single ancestor cannot be proved with certainty, because it would
have existed thousands of years before the invention of writing or
recorded history. Individual Indo-European languages share common
root words for winter and snow but not for ocean. Therefore,
linguists conclude that original Proto-Indo-European speakers
probably lived in a cold climate, or one that had a winter season,
but did not come in contact with oceans.
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- Kurgan Theory of Indo-European Origin Fig. 5-9: In the Kurgan
theory, Proto-Indo-European diffused from the Kurgan hearth north
of the Caspian Sea, beginning about 7,000 years ago.
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- Nomadic Warrior Theory
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- Sedentary Farmer Theory
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- Anatolian Hearth Theory of Indo- European Origin Fig. 5-10: In
the Anatolian hearth theory, Indo-European originated in Turkey
before the Kurgans and diffused through agricultural
expansion.
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- Language Families of the World Fig. 5-11: Distribution of the
worlds main language families. Languages with more than 100 million
speakers are named.
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- Major Language Families Percentage of World Population Fig.
5-11a: The percentage of world population speaking each of the main
language families. Indo-European and Sino-Tibetan together
represent almost 75% of the worlds people.
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- Indo-European Languages Continued
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- Balto-Slavic Branch The roots of the Slavic language are Asian
Due to isolation of different groups when they arrived in Eastern
Europe, different languages emerged Languages include: Ukrainian,
Russian, Czech, Slovak, Polish, Serbo-Croatian, Baltic, and
Bulgarian
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- Baltic-Slavic Branch Russian is the most widely spoken
language, and is spoken by 80 percent of the Russians Russian is
one of the six official languages of the UN Ukrainian is spoken in
the Ukraine, and Belorusian in Belarus. The Baltic languages
include Estonian, Latvian, and Lithuanian.
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- Baltic-Slavic Branch Other widely spoken languages are Polish
(Poland), Czech (Czech Republic), and Slovak (Czech Republic)
Speakers of Czech and Slovak can understand each other Slovenian is
in Slovenia, Macedonian in Macedonia, and Serbia-Croatian is spoken
by Bosnians, Croats, and Serbs.
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- Indo-Iranian Branch The Indo-Iranian branch has the most
speakers. It has over 100 languages with over 1 billion native
speakers The branch includes the languages of Persian (Farsi)-Iran,
Bengali-Bangladesh, Hindi-India, Urdu-Pakistan, and Punjabi-
India
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- The Indic Group One-third of Indians use an Indic languages
called Hindi It is spoken many different ways, but there is a
common written form of the language called Devanagari Indias
constitution recognizes 18 official languages
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- The Indic Group Pakistans principal language is called Urdu,
and the written form of the language is Arabic Bangladeshs official
language is Bengali
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- The Iranian Group Indo-Iranian languages are spoken in Iran and
neighboring countries Persian or Farsi is the main language in
Iran. Other languages include Kurdish and Pathan. All of these are
written in Arabic.
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- Greek and Armenian Greek and Armenian are in the Indo- European
family, but are not language branches Greek is spoken in Greece,
and has 12 million native speakers. Armenian is spoken in Armenia,
and has 6 million native speakers.
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- Sino-Tibetan Family The Sino-Tibetan family encompasses
languages spoken in the Peoples Republic of China as well as
several smaller countries in Southeast Asia.
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- Sinitic Branch Chinese Languages There is no single Chinese
language. Spoken by approximately three- fourths of the Chinese
people, Mandarin is by a wide margin the most used language in the
world. Other Sinitic branch languages are spoken by tens of
millions of people in China. The Chinese government is imposing
Mandarin countrywide.
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- Structure of Chinese Language The structure of Chinese
languages is quite different (from Indo-European). They are based
on 420 one-syllable words. This number far exceeds the possible
one-syllable sounds that humans can make, so Chinese languages use
each sound to denote more than one thing. The listener must infer
the meaning from the context in the sentence and the tone of voice
the speaker uses. In addition, two one-syllable words can be
combined.
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- Chinese Ideograms Fig. 5-13: Chinese language ideograms mostly
represent concepts rather than sounds. The two basic characters at
the top can be built into more complex words.
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- Austro-Thai and Tibeto-Burman In addition to the Chinese
languages included in the Sinitic branch, the Sino- Tibetan family
includes two smaller branches, Austro-Thai and Tibeto- Burman.
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- Distinctive Language Families - Japanese Chinese cultural
traits have diffused into Japanese society, including the original
form of writing the Japanese language. Japanese is written in part
with Chinese ideograms, but it also uses two systems of phonetic
symbols.
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- Distinctive Language Families - Korean Korean is usually
classified as a separate language family. Korean is written not
with ideograms but in a system known as hankul (phonetic). In this
system, each letter represents a sound.
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- Distinctive Language Families - Vietnamese Austro-Asiatic,
spoken by about 1 percent of the worlds population, is based in
Southeast Asia. Vietnamese (is) the most spoken tongue of the
language family. The Vietnamese alphabet was devised in the seventh
century by Roman Catholic missionaries.
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- Afro-Asiatic Language Family The Afro-Asiatic-once referred to
as the Semito-Hamitic language family includes Arabic and Hebrew,
as well as a number of languages spoken primarily in northern
Africa and southwestern Asia. Arabic is the major Afro-Asiatic
language, an official language in two dozen countries of North
Africa and southwestern Asia, from Morocco to the Arabian
Peninsula.
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- Altaic and Uralic language families The Altaic and Uralic
language families were once thought to be linked as one family
because the two display similar word formation, grammatical
endings, and other structural elements. Recent studies, however,
point to geographically distinct origins.
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- Altaic Languages
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- Uralic Languages Every European country is dominated by Indo-
European speakers, except for three: Estonia, Finland, and Hungary.
The Estonians, Finns, and Hungarians speak languages that belong to
the Uralic family, first used 7,000 years ago by people living in
the Ural Mountains north of the Kurgan homeland.
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- 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.
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- Niger-Congo Language Family More than 95 percent of the people
in sub-Saharan Africa speak languages of the Niger-Congo family,
which includes six branches with many hard to classify languages.
The remaining 5 percent speak languages of the Khoisan or
Nilo-Saharan families.
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- Swahili The largest branch of the Niger- Congo family is the
Benue- Congo branch, and its most important language is Swahili.
Its vocabulary has strong Arabic influences. Swahili is one of the
few African languages with an extensive literature.
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- Nilo-Saharan Language Family Nilo-Saharan languages are spoken
by a few million people in north-central Africa, immediately north
of the Niger-Congo language region. The best known of these
languages is Maasai, spoken by the tall warrior-herdsmen of east
Africa.
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- Khoisan Language Family The third important language family of
sub- Saharan Africa Khoisanis concentrated in the southwest.
Khoisan language use clicking sounds.
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- Austronesian Language Family About 6 percent of the worlds
people speak an Austronesian language, once known as the
Malay-Polynesian family. The most frequently used Austronesian
language is Malay-Indonesian. The people of Madagascar speak
Malagasy, which belongs to the Austronesian family, even though the
island is separated by 3,000 kilometers (1,900 miles) from any
other Austronesian-speaking country.
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- Languages of Nigeria Africas most populous country, Nigeria,
displays problems that can arise from the presence of many speakers
of many languages. Groups living in different regions of Nigeria
have often battled. Nigeria reflects the problems that can arise
when great cultural diversityand therefore language diversityis
packed into a relatively small region. Fig. 5-15: More than 200
languages are spoken in Nigeria, the largest country in Africa (by
population). English, considered neutral, is the official
language.
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- Preserving Language Diversity Thousands of languages are
extinct languages The eastern Amazon region of Peru in the
sixteenth century (had) more than 500 languages. Only 57 survive
today, half of which face extinction. Gothic was widely spoken in
Eastern and Northern Europe in the third century A.D. The last
speakers of Gothic lived in the Crimea in Russia in the sixteenth
century. Many Gothic people switched to speaking the Latin language
after their conversion to Christianity.