Critical Thinking What’s the official language of the United States?
Post on 29-Dec-2015
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Critical Thinking
• What’s the official language of the United States?
Language and Cultural History
How language can teach us about the history and culture of a people
Language
• Language– Method of mutually-understandable
communication– Set of sounds, combination of sounds and
symbols – Language is an essential part of culture
• Why do people feel so strongly about bilingual v. English-only education?
Language
• Standard Language– Widely published and distributed– Purposefully taught
• Lexicon (Vocabulary)
• Syntax (Structure)
• Phonetics (Sounds)
• Orthography (Writing system)
Dialects
• Dialects– Variants on standard language by region– Isogloss
• Contour line representing area where language feature is present
• Where is the line between dialect and language?
The English Language?
• Alcohol
• Amok (to “run amok”)
• Boondocks
• Chasm
• Embargo
• Finger
• Geyser
• Juggernaut
• Schmalz
• Typhoon
• Umbrella
• Yogurt
Origins of Words
• Alcohol
• Amok
• Boondocks
• Chasm
• Arabic
• Malay
• Tagalog
• Greek
Origins of Words
• Embargo
• Finger
• Geyser
• Juggernaut
• Spanish
• German
• Icelandic
• Hindi
Origins of Words
• Schmalz
• Typhoon
• Umbrella
• Yogurt
• Yiddish
• Chinese
• Italian
• Turkish
Gypsies
The Roma
Where did they come from?
• “Gypsy”
–Egypt?
Where?
• The Romani language has many similarities to some modern Indian dialects.
• Linguists concluded that the Roma left from Northwest India in the 12th Century
But Why?
• Languages helps again– Roma words for non-Roma
• Gadjo = “civilian”• Das = “slave; prisoner”
– Roma has a plethora of military words that have their origin in Sanskrit
Therefore
• By using language and historical texts, scholars were able to trace the origin of the Roma to a military group in India
One Theory: Ancient Battles
• Ghaznavid Empire– Moghul
• Rajputs– Kshatriya (warrior caste)– Shudra (servant caste)
• Defeated in battle– Diaspora
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