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Geolinguistics The Mosaic of Languages Why do geographers study language? Provides the single most common variable by which cultural groups are identified Provides the main means by which learned customs and skills pass from one generation to the next Facilitates cultural diffusion of innovations Because languages vary spatially, they reinforce the sense of region and place The study of language is called linguistic geography and geolinguistics by geographers Terms used in the study of language Language — tongues that cannot be mutually understood Dialects — variant forms of a language that have not lost mutual comprehension A speaker of English can understand the various dialect of the language A dialect is distinctive enough in vocabulary and pronunciation to label its speaker Some 6,000 languages and many more dialects are spoken today Terms used in the study of language Pidgin language — results when different linguistic groups come into contact Serves the purposes of commerce Has a small vocabulary derived from the various contact groups Official language of Papua, New Guinea is a largely English-derived pidgin language, which includes Spanish, German, and Papuan words Terms used in the study of language Lingua franca — a language that spreads over a wide area where it is not the mother tongue A language of communication and commerce Swahili language has this status in much of East Africa The Mosaic of Languages Linguistic Culture Regions Linguistic Diffusion Linguistic Ecology Culturo-Linguistic Integration Linguistic Landscapes Language characteristics used to define linguistic culture regions isoglosses — borders of individual word usages or pronunciations No two words, phrases, or pronunciations have exactly the same spatial distribution Spatially isoglosses crisscross one another Typically cluster together in “bundles” Bundles serve as the most satisfactory dividing lines among dialects and languages Hispanic Language usage zones in Texas Language characteristics are used to define linguistic culture regions Overlap of languages complicates drawing of linguistic borders In any given area more than one tongue may be spoken — Ecuador, Quebec, Belgium, Switzerland Language barriers are rarely sharp Language characteristics used to define linguistic culture regions Geographers encounter a core/periphery pattern rather than a dividing line Dominance of language diminishes away from the center of the region Outlying zone of bilingualism Linguistic “islands” often further complicate the drawing of language borders Language characteristics used to define linguistic culture regions Dialect terms often overlap considerably, making it difficult to draw isoglossess Linguistic geographers often disagree about how many dialects are present Disagreement also occurs on where lines should be drawn Boundaries are necessarily simplified and at best generalizations Linguistic regions Language families The Indo-European language family The Afro-Asiatic language family The Niger-Congo language family The Austronesian language family The Sino-Tibetan language family The Japanese/Korean language family The Austro-Asiatic language family The Altaic language family The Uralic language family The Indo-European language family The Indo-European language family Largest, most wide-spread family Spoken on all continents Dominant in Europe, Russia, North and South America, Australia, and parts of southwestern Asia and India Subfamilies—Romance, Slavic, Germanic, Indic, Celtic, and Iranic Subfamilies are divided into individual languages Seven Indo-European tongues are among the top 10 languages spoken in the world By comparing vocabularies in various languages one can see the kinship The Afro-Asiatic family The Afro-Asiatic family Has two major divisions—Semitic and Hamitic Semitic covers the area from Tigris-Euphrates valley westward through most of the north half of Africa to the Atlantic coast Domain is large but consists of mostly sparsely populated deserts Arabic is the most widespread Semitic language Arabic has the most number of native speakers—about 186 million Hebrew was a “dead” language used only in religious ceremonies Today Hebrew is the official language of Israel Amharic a third major Semitic tongues has 20 million speakers in the mountains of East Africa The Afro-Asiatic family continued The Afro-Asiatic family Has two major divisions—Semitic and Hamitic Smaller number of people speak Hamitic languages Share North and East Africa with Semitic speakers Spoken by the Berbers of Morocco and Algeria Spoken by the Tuaregs of the Sahara and Cushites of East Africa Originated in Asia but today only spoken in Africa Expansion of Arabic decreased the area and number of speakers Niger-Congo language family Africa south of the Sahara Desert is dominated by the Niger-Congo family Spoken by about 200 million people Greater part of the Niger-Congo culture region belongs to the Bantu subgroup Includes Swahili—the lingua franca of East Africa The Austronesian language family Austronesian language family Most remarkable language family in terms of distribution Speakers live mainly on tropical islands Ranges from Madagascar, through Indonesia and the Pacific Islands, to Hawaii and Easter Island Longitudinal span is more than half way around the world Latitudinally, ranges from Hawaii and Taiwan in the north to New Zealand in the south Largest single language in this family is Indonesian —5O million speakers Most widespread language is Polynesian The Sino-Tibetan language family The Sino-Tibetan language family is one of the major language families of the world extends throughout most of China and Southeast Asia Han Chinese is spoken in a variety of dialects as a mother tongue by 836 million people Han serves as the official form of speech in China The Japanese/Korean language family The Japanese/Korean language family is another major Asian family with nearly 200 million speakers seems to have some kinship to both the Altaic and Austronesian The Austro-Asiatic language family The Austro-Asiatic language family is found in Southeast Asia, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, and spoken by some tribal people of Malaya and parts of India occupies a remnant peripheral domain has been encroached upon by SinoTibetan, Indo-European, and Austronesian Other major language families Altaic language family Includes Turkic, Mongolic, and several other subgroups Homeland lies largely in deserts, tundras, and coniferous forests of northern and central Asia Uralic family (Fenno-Ugric) Finnish and Hungarian are the two most important tongues Both have official status in their countries Other language families Occupy refuge areas after retreat before rival groups Khoisan — found in the Kalahari Desert of southwestern Africa, characterized by clicking sounds Dravidian — spoken by numerous darker-skinned people of southern India and northern Sri Lanka Others include — Papuan, Caucasic, Nilo-Saharan, Paleosiberian, Inukitut, and a variety of Amerindian Basque — spoken on the borderland between Spain and France is unrelated to any other language in the world The Mosaic of Languages Linguistic Culture Regions Linguistic Diffusion Linguistic Ecology Culturo-Linguistic Integration Linguistic Landscapes Searching for the “mother” tongue Using controversial techniques, paleolinguists seek elusive prehistoric tongues Nostratic—ancestral speech of the Middle East 12,000 to 20,000 years ago Ancestral to nine modern language families A 500-word dictionary has been compiled Contemporary with Nostratic were other ancient tongues including DeneCaucasian Searching for the “mother” tongue Dene-Caucasian reputedly gave rise to Sino-Tibetan, Basque, and one form of early Native-American called Na-Dene Scholars are attempting to find the original linguistic hearth area from which all modern languages have derived It is believed the original language hearth arose in Africa perhaps 250,000 years ago and diffused from there Indo-European diffusion Earliest speakers apparently lived in southern and southeastern Turkey (Anatolia) about eight or nine thousand years ago Diffused west and north into Europe Represented expansion of farming people at expense of hunters and gatherers As people dispersed and lost contact, different variant forms of the language caused fragmentation of the family Indo-European diffusion Later language diffusion occurred with the spread of great political empires, especially Latin, English, and Russian Relocation and expansion diffusion were not mutually exclusive Relocation diffusion by conquering elite implanted their language Implanted language often gained wider acceptance by expansion diffusion Conqueror’s language spreads hierarchically Spread of Latin with Roman conquests Spanish in Latin America Austronesian diffusion Presumed hearth in the interior of Southeast Asia 5,000 years ago Initially spread southward into the Malay Peninsula In a process lasting several thousand years, people sailed in tiny boats across the. uncharted vast seas to New Zealand, Easter Island, Hawaii, and Madagascar Sailing and navigation was the key to Austronesian spread, not agriculture Austronesian diffusion The remarkable diffusion of the Polynesian people From the eastern part of the Austronesian culture region Occupy hundreds of Pacific islands in a triangularshaped realm New Zealand, Easter Island, and Hawaii form the three apexes of the realm Made a watery leap of 4000 km from the South Pacific to Hawaii Used outrigger canoes Went against prevailing winds into a new hemisphere with different navigational stars No humans had previously found the isolated Hawaiian Islands Sailors had no way of knowing that land existed in the area Austronesian diffusion Geographers John Webb and Gerard Ward studied the prehistoric Polynesian diffusion Their method involved the development of a computer model building in data on: Winds Ocean currents Vessel traits and capabilities Island visibility Duration of voyage, etc. Both drift and navigated voyages were considered Austronesian diffusion Over one hundred thousand voyage simulations were run through the computer Their conclusions Triangle was probably entered from the west— direction of the ancient Austronesian hearth area “Island hopping”—migrated from one visible island to another Core of eastern Polynesia likely reached by navigated voyages Outer arc from Hawaii through Easter Island to New Zealand reached by intentionally navigated voyages The Mosaic of Languages Linguistic Culture Regions Linguistic Diffusion Linguistic Ecology Culturo-Linguistic Integration Linguistic Landscapes The environment and vocabulary How the environment affects vocabulary Spanish language derived from Castile Rich in words describing rough terrain Distinguishes subtle differences in shape and configuration of mountains Scottish Gaelic Describes types of rough terrain Common attribute spoken by hill people Romanian tongue Also from a region of rugged terrain Words tend to be keyed to use of terrain for livestock herding The environment and vocabulary English Developed in wet coastal plains Very poor in words describing mountainous terrain Abounds with words describing flowing streams Rural American South—river, creek, branch, fork, prong, run, bayou, and slough The environment and vocabulary Vocabularies develop for features of the environment that involve livelihood Detailed vocabularies are necessary to communicate sophisticated information relevant to the adaptive strategy Linguistic regions reflect environmental factors Environmental barriers and natural routeways “guided” linguistic groups along certain paths Indo-Europeans traveled through low mountain passes to the Indian subcontinent, avoiding the Himalayas and barren Deccan Plateau In India today, the IndoEuropean/Dravidian language boundary seems to approximate an ecological boundary Linguistic regions reflect environmental factors Mountain barriers frequently serve as linguistic borders In part of the Alps, speakers of German and Italian live on opposite sides of a major ridge Portions of mountain rim along the northern edge of the Fertile Crescent form the border between Semitic and Indo-European tongues Linguistic regions reflect environmental factors Linguistic borders that follow such physical features tend to be stable and endure for thousands of years Language borders that cross plains and major routes of communication are frequently unstable — Germanic-Slavic boundary on the North European Plain Linguistic Ecology Today environmental isolation is no longer the linguistic force it once was Inhospitable lands and islands are reachable by airplanes Marshes and forests are being drained and cleared by farmers The world is interactive The Mosaic of Languages Linguistic Culture Regions Linguistic Diffusion Linguistic Ecology Culturo-Linguistic Integration Linguistic Landscapes English dialects in the United States Dialects reveal a vivid linguistic geography American English is hardly uniform from region to region At least three major dialects, corresponding to major culture regions, developed in the eastern United States by the time of the American Revolution Northern Midland Southern English dialects in the United States The three subcultures expanded westward and their dialects spread and fragmented Retained much of their basic character even beyond the Mississippi River Have distinctive vocabularies and pronunciations Drawing dialect boundaries is often tricky English dialects in the United States Today, many regional words are becoming old-fashioned, but new words display regional variations The following words are all used to describe a controlled-access divided highway Freeway — a California word Turnpike and parkway — mainly northeastern and Midwestern words Thruway, expressway, and interstate English dialects in the United States Many African-Americans speak their own form of English — Black English Once dismissed as inferior substandard English Grew out of a pidgin that developed on early slave plantations Today, spoken by about 80 percent of AfricanAmericans Used by ghetto dwellers who have not made their compromises with mainstream American culture Many features separate it from standard speech, for example: Lack of pronoun differentiation between genders Use of undifferentiated pronouns Black English Black English is not recognized as part of the proper grammar of a separate linguistic group related to social and economic status; considered by some as evidence of verbal inability or impoverishment spread by popular mass media e.g. MTV In the Southern dialect, African-Americans have made substantial contributions to speech patterns and language use The Southern dialect is becoming increasingly identified with African-Americans Caucasians in the Southern region are shifting to Midland speech English dialects in the United States American dialects suggest the US is not becoming a more national culture by overwhelming regional cultures Linguistic divergence is still under way Dialects continue to mutate on a regional level Local variations in grammar and pronunciation proliferate The homogenizing influence of radio, television, and other mass media is being defied The Mosaic of Languages Linguistic Culture Regions Linguistic Diffusion Linguistic Ecology Culturo-Linguistic Integration Linguistic Landscapes London, England London, England While English is spoken in many parts of the world, all English words are not mutually intelligible. This London tube (subway) sign say that anyone performing there (eg singing or playing for money) is subject to a fine of subsection. Are tube, subway, and busking dialect words? Switzerland Switzerland has four recognized national languages: French, German, Italian, and Romansch. Romansch, a language of Latin origin, is spoken by only 1.1% of the population. It has survived in the alpine linguistic refuge of the upper Rhine and Inn Rivers and was given official recognition in 1938. Kenya Kenya Kenya has two official languages: Swahili and English. These lingua franca facilitate communication among Bantu, Nilotic, and Cushitic language speakers. Swahili developed along the coast of East Africa where Bantu came in contact with Arabic spoken by Arab sea traders. Kenya English became important during the British colonial period and is still associated with high status. Kenya This shopping centre caters to Maasai herders who speak a Nilotic language and Kikuyu farmers who speak a Bantu language. Jambo means “hello” in Swahili. London, England This display of newspapers illustrates the fact that London is an international city as well as a major migration destination. In South Kensington, a sizable foreign population contributes to the complexity of the linguistic landscape. London, England Both Indo-European (e.g. French, Spanish and Swedish) and Afro-Asiatic (Arab) language families are represented here.