Language – acquisition, transfer, adaptation

What are languages and what role do they play in cultures?Why are languages distributed the way they are?How do languages diffuse?What role does language play in making places?

Dawson 2012

What language is this?

• Whan that Aprille with his shoures swote• The droghte of Marche hath perced to the rote

When April with his sweet showers has struck to the roots the dryness of March

Chaucer, Canterbury Tales, 1387

Language – standardized sets of sounds and symbols used for communicationdefines cultures and groupsused to isolate or control cultures and groups

• Verbal language• Written language

– Formal– informal

• Non-verbal – Body language– Ideograms– Sign language

Language – set of sounds, combinations of sounds, and symbols used to exchange information- reflection of culture and organization of the world

animistic religions have no word for GodChinese has no verb tenses or pluralsLatin based languages have gender divisions

- identifying attribute, shared experience, identifier for nationalist beliefs, ethnic identity

- Language as a weapon, demand to speak or refuse to speak official language - varying enforcement and criteriabased on perceived threat from ?, ??, ?? (someone from outside)Could this be a threat to the localCulture?

multilinguistic

Neolocalism – changing the mean-ing of native words to represent new concepts

Blue states have passed (non-binding) law that makes English official language

% population (by county) who did NOT speak English at home)

– Bilingualism –demand to promote use of 2 languages• Quebecois movement to use French in everyday life• Official documents, popular media

Standardized languages

• Generally accepted, used for publishing, trade, education– May be brought back to represent the national identity

• Ireland – Gaeltacht, movement to use Gaelic words in place of English Irish government workers must now pass test in basic Gaelic, road signs had all been changed to Gaelic but most Irish people could only read English (after 200 years of English control)

ideogram -graphical symbol that represents an idea, rather than a group of letters arranged as in alphabetic languages. Examples of ideograms include wayfinding signage, such as in airports and other environments where many people may not be familiar with the language of the place they are in, as well as Arabic numerals and mathematical notation, which are used worldwide regardless of how they are pronounced in different languages

• Dialects – word meanings (soda, pop), syntax (where you stay?), pronunciations (Washington or Woreshington), cadence (rhythm), pace (fast or slow)– Isogloss area where dialect occurs every word has unique isogloss

England and United States – 2 countries divided by a common languageJust exactly what is a circus?

Why are languages distributed the way they are?

• Some languages are related, divided into families• Greenberg - all languages are descended from common ancient language.

Evidence - words like ``akwa'' (water) ``dik'' (finger/digit/one/ten) are used in some form by distinct languages all over the world.

• Time era and location of formation of individual languages is reconstructed– Compare sounds lacte (latin), latta (It), leche (Sp), lait (Fr)– compare common words for objects to get location– Common words will show you the common ancestry or culture

From National Geographic

Fig 6.8 Proto-Indo-European Language tree1. What languages are most closely associated to English2. The whole tree is at a macro (global) scale.

Indo-European part is at mesoscale, English branch is microscale.

What would twigs off of English branch represent. List 5 twigs using common present-day names.

3. Use any of the theories of language evolution and human migration

Renfrew (Anatolian) Oppenheimer (Indian) Gimbutas (Kurgan), in one paragraph to describe the diffusion of the language tree.

use the terms: language divergence, convergence

Why did some civilizations not use certain words/meanings?

Sanskrit Avestan Greek Latin Gothic Englishpita pater pater fadar father padam poda pedem fotu foot bhratar phrater frater brothar brother bharami barami phero fero baira bear jivah('living') jivo wiwos qius quick sanah hano henee senex sinista senile virah ('man') viro wir wair were(wolf) tris tres thri three deka decem taihun ten satem he-katon centum hund(rath) hundred

3 major European sub families, based on historic migration and proximity patterns

Romance – French, Spanish, Italian, Romanian, Portuguese

Germanic – English, German, Danish, Norwegian, Swedish

Slavic – Russian, Polish, Czech, Slovak, Ukrainian, Slovenian, Serbo- Croatian, Bulgarian

Other relics: Hungarian, Finnish, Estonian, Turkish, Gaelic, Euskera

Languages of Sub Saharan AfricaLinguistic diversity shows cultural/ethnic diversity – each language represents a

specific cultural groupLanguage map does not match political map, which can result in __

100 million people speak 400 languages3 major – Hausa, Yoruba, Ibo

In this example from Nigeria – England as the Imperial, colonizing country made English the “official” language.This was seen as a way of unifying the state.Colonial education and government laws were all printed in English.

How do languages diffuse?• Acquiring new language may have been based on need to trade, conquest by

another state or ethnic group• Latin was language of European rule until printing press 1440, allowed for

development of vernacular language results in national identity– Bible became primary way of teaching language

• Lingua franca trade /commerce language comprising multiple languages• Pidgin language simplified combination of 2 or more languages

– Pidgin is normally a 2nd language– Becomes Creole when it develops native language with recognized structure and common vocabulary

What role does language play in making places?• Toponyms place names based on

– Descriptive, associative, commemorative, commendatory, historic incidents, possessions, folk cultural, manufactured, mistakes, shift names

– Using a map of Florida, find an example for each type w/description if necessary

• Postcolonial (Leopoldville – Kinshasa)• Postrevolutionary (Congo – Zaire - Congo)• Memorial -