Speaking About PlacesThe Geography of Language

Speech is a basic aspect of cultureWe use it to:

Pass on traditionsPass on learningPreserve a way of life

Language is essential to communication and so influences political, social, and economic institutions.

Political boundaries often follow language boundaries

Physical features of the land can affect the distribution of languages.barrier – isolation – no change or mixing of

languagesBarriers like rough terrain can create

linguistic refuge areas.

Language is a system of communication which uses speech, a collection of sounds that are understood by a group of people to have the same meaning – most of the time.

Fig. 4.1, p. 108We use language to name or rename a place

or a person.Through this naming, we claim the place or

person as our own.

Many languages, although not all, are accompanied by a system of writing and have a literary tradition.

Many languages spoken on earth today may have evolved from a common tongue (language).

Reflecting on Geography, p. 109

Themes: RegionPeople in different parts of the world speak

different individual languages, and language is a central part of culture.

We learn about culture through language.As the culture changes, so do some elements

of language:Gay – used to mean “happy”Other examples????

Usually, speakers of separate languages can’t totally understand each other -- even 2 different speakers of English.

In contrast, in a country you may have speakers who use a dialect of the dominant language.A dialect is a variant form of a language where

mutual comprehension is possibleA dialect is a regional variant of a language

and is distinctive enough in vocabulary and pronunciation to label its speaker as coming from one particular place or another.

About 6,000 languages and even more dialects are spoken today

When different linguistic groups come into contact, a pidgin language forms, characterized by a very small vocabulary derived from the languages of the group with whom they came into contact:West African Pidgin English (used in trade)See handoutWhen pidgin acquires a fuller vocabulary and

becomes the native language of a group, it is then called creole.

When there is a country where many different languages are spoken, one language rises above all the others to become the lingua franca in that area.It is the language of communication and

commerce spoken across a wide areaSwahili in East AfricaPidgin in West AfricaEnglish worldwideWhen a person can speak 2 languages fluently, we

say that person is bilingual. If a person speaks many languages, that person is a polyglot.

A. Language Families a collection of languages that are related

because of a common ancestorwhen words in different languages sound alike

or almost alike, they must be related. Ex: Spanish and Italian

language families are broken down into Branches: a collection of languages that have a common origin but split into languages

See handout and pp. 110-111

Language Families Branches

Groups (sometimes) Languages

Dialects

B. Indo-European Language Familynearly ½ of the people in the world speak an

Indo-European languagethe largest and most widespread language,

English, belongs to this familylooking at individual words of the Indo-

European Family, one is able to see similaritiesP. 111Handout

Indo-European is the largest language family and English belongs to this familyEnglish comes from languages spoken for only

the last 1500 yearsEngland was invaded by tribes called the

Angles, Jutes, and Saxons from the area of Denmark and part of Germany

England means “Angles Land”English is a combination of these dialectsThere were similarities among these

languages, so they were known as Germanic Languages

Over time and because of subsequent invasions, English changed

As English became more politically secure, their language diffused around the world through the establishment of colonies

We know English reached our shores first in 1607, Jamestown, Virginia and then in 1620, Plymouth, Massachusetts

Other British colonies were formed in Africa, Asia, and on many islands in the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans.

By the 1950s, English was the official language in countries where ¼ of the world’s population lived.

That changed when most colonies gained independence in the early 1960s.

Other Indo-European Branches and LanguagesRomance Languages – branch

Developed from Latin, the Roman language; hence the name Romance

5 most widely used languages are French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, & Romanian

Another, Catalan, has fewer speakersThese languages spread because of colonizing

efforts

Sino-Tibetan Family(Sin0=China)Second only to Indo-European in sizeBurmese-Tibetan Branch has 400 languages

African-Asiatic Family- #3 in size- thousands of languages- most have no written language (no literary tradition)- Arabic and Hebrew

Niger-Congo FamilySpoken by 95% of Sub-Saharan AfricaContains 6 branchesBenue-Congo Branch is the largest and

contains half the languages in this familyOther branches: Adamawa-Eastern, Gur, Kwa,

Mande, & West AtlanticSwahili is the most important language of the

Benue-Congo Branch Official language of Tanzania and the lingua franca

of east Africa. It has a strong Arabic influence from Muslim traders.

Other African Languages – less widely usedNilo-Saharan Family

Found in north-central AfricaA few million speakersHas 6 branches: Fur, Koma, Maba, Saharan,

Songhai, & Chari-Nile (the number of speakers is small)

Khoisan Family- found in southwest Africa- uses clicking sounds- the most important language in this family is Hottentot

Theme: MobilityLanguages were often spread through

relocation diffusionBecause of mobility, migration, some

languages are no longer spoken in their place of origin

Languages change when people migrate, picking up new terms and blending them into the language

Earliest speakers of Indo-European languages lived in southern and southeastern Turkey called Anatolia 9,000 years ago

According to the Anatolian Hypothesis, the earliest diffusion of people who spoke an Indo-European language had to do with the beginnings of agriculture

As farms spread, so did the people and their languages

As people became more dispersed, they lost contact with others and languages changed creating new groups of Indo-European Language Family

Some disagree with this hypothesis saying people moved and languages changed because of horses and their movement, not because of farming.

Another hypothesis is the Kurgan Hypothesis which says that the rise of Indo-European languages took place in the central Asian steppes 6,000 years ago

So there is disagreement among those who care about such things

What we do know is that some Indo-European languages were spread through conquest: British Empire, the Roman Empire

The language of the conqueror usually takes hold: Latin in the Roman Empire and English in the British Empire

Austronesian DiffusionLanguage began in S.E. Asia 5,000 years ago.Spread southward to Malaysia, Indonesia,

New Zealand, Easter Island, Hawaii, and Madagascar

Used small boats in their migration, great sailing skills

Took perhaps thousands of years2500 miles coveredIsland hopping

Religion and Linguistic MobilityThose who spoke a particular language may

have helped to spread a particular religion.Ex: Arabic / Islam

Arabs initially spread their religion by taking over territory

The Qur’an, until recently, was only in Arabic.

Certain languages have religious status;Latin – Roman CatholicArabic – IslamHebrew -- Judaism

When a religious book is translated into a particular language, it can help save a dying languageWales -- Welsh

Saved this Celtic language from becoming extinct

Language BoundariesGeographers try to place boundaries on a map

to show where different languages are found.The border of usage of an individual word or

pronunciation is called an Isogloss.In the U.S. there are 3 isoglosses on the east

coast: Northern (r – less, cah for car), Midland (Police and Balmer for Baltimore), & Southern ( clipped and extended ( hi and te ent)

P. 119, map

Some words become outdated: ice box instead of refrigerator or even fridge.

Slang terms can become quite commonrefers to words and phrases that are not part of a

standard, recognized vocabulary for a given language but are used and understood by some or most of its speakers

sub-cultures have their own slang whose words are not readily understood by outsiders. Was it designed that way???

it’s another way that language changes over timeThere can also be a blending of 2 languages: Spanglish

Theme: GlobalizationThe diffusion of some languages has brought

about the demise of other languages.10,000 years ago there were about 1 million

people and 15,000 languagesToday, there are almost 7 billion people speaking

40% as many languagesSome believe all but 300 languages will be

extinct or dying by 2100Some believe 3,000 languages are endangeredDiffusion has increased the number of speakers

of some languages like English while other languages have been eliminated.

As people die off so do some of their languages.

Language Hotspot – places where languages are endangered

Technology, Language, & EmpireThis ranges from the ability to write down the

spoken word to using the internet with all that it offers

In this technological world, some languages tend to dominate, like English.

The predominance of English corresponds to technological superiority.

Writing, itself, came about as early as 5300 years ago in Sumer, Mesopotamia, and Egypt – mainly for record keeping and some literature.

Later documents were copied by hand

Followed by the use of the printing pressWhen colonial empires developed, language

spread with the conqueror. Language can help hold a country or an

empire togetherP. 121, mapEven though most colonies are now

independent, the languages imposed on them often remain.

Ex: Cameroun, French and English

You can find English in Africa, S. Asia, the Philippines and the Pacific Islands.

In some areas the language of the colonizers or former colonizers becomes the language of the elite/ educated.

On the internet you can get something translated instantly

P. 123 & 125

Theme: Nature/CultureLanguage interacts with the environment in 2 ways:

Physical habitat shapes language – the words usedEnvironment can guide migrations of those speaking

various languages: Go here, not there.

Habitat and VocabularyA language is rich in words to describe a particular habitat or climate feature like snow.

EX: English developed in wet coastal plains of N. Europe. Not a lot of words to describe mountains.

Habitat Shapes Language Areas -- MigrationEnvironmental barriers and natural routes have

sent different linguistic groups onto certain paths.Prevailing winds/water influence the path of a shipMountains divide – France and SpainOpen areas make movement easierInhospitable areas can provide isolation and

refuge and are called Linguistic Refuge AreasToday, isolation has pretty much been overcome,

so it doesn’t play the role it once did.

Theme: Cultural LandscapeLanguage is just about everywhere on the

landscape:Road signs BillboardsGraffiti Store signSigns on lawnsThis reflects the dominant language, can show

bilingual areas, or troubled areas.Linguistic landscapes can give out messages that

are friendly, unfriendly, or political.

Quebec has tried to get rid of signs in English even though Canada is officially bilingual.

Ireland has signs in Gaelic, and they’d like to eliminate signs in English.

Toponyms –Place names:Show historyDescribe lay of the landNamed for people

There are 2 parts to a place name: generic and specific

Generic Specific -ville Catons ville

-burg Frost burg- polis Anna polis

In the United States you can trace the migration paths of people through toponyms.New England Term: Center/Corner either

north, south, east, or west. You’ll find a repetition of names when people moved on and settled elsewhere: Troy Center, Michigan Center

Midland Terms: Gap, Cove, Hollow, Knob, or –burg; Ex: Hare Hollow, Cumberland Gap, Kentuck Knob, Fredericksburg

Southern Terms: Bayou, Gully, Store; Ex: Gum Gully, Cypress Bayou, Hall’s Store

Place names remain even after the culture has evolved, changed, or died out.

Smaller towns tend to hold on to original namesEx: Maori names in New Zealand; 40% of

small towns have Maori names; however the 4 largest cities in New Zealand have European names

P. 135, Doing Geography & Maps