The Human Mosaic CHAPTER FOUR Speaking about Places: The Geography of Language.

The Human MosaicThe Human Mosaic

CHAPTER FOURCHAPTER FOUR

Speaking about Places: The Geography of Language

Introduction

- Difference between Language and Dialect? - What is a Pidgin Language? - A Lingua Franca? - Are you Monolingual, Bilingual, or

Polyglot? - Do you know any words you use that are not “English”?

Spanish gas station sign in New York City

Translating animal sounds!

Claiming spaces / naming places

I) Linguistic Culture Regions

A. Language Families 1) Indo-European Language Family

Slavic, Germanic, Romance, Iranic, Indic, Celtic, etc.

Mother (English) Mutter (German) Madre (Spanish) Meter (Greek) Madar (Iran) Matka (Polish)

What is behind the global significance of Indo-European languages?

2) Afro-Asiatic Family a) Semitic (Arabic, Hebrew, Amharic) b) Hamitic (Berbers, Tuaregs, Cushites)

3) Other Language Familiesa) Altaic (Turkic, Mongolic)b) Niger-Congo (south of Sahara Desert;

Swahili) c) Austronesian (Polynesian; Malay-

Indonesian) d) Uralic Family (Finnish, Hungarian)

e) Sino-Tibetan (Chinese, Burmese, Tibetan) f) Austro-Asiatic (Vietnamese and

Cambodian)g) Other Families (Khoisan of the Kalahari;

Dravidian of S-India; Native American tongues; Basque; etc.)

- languages like Basque are “language isolates” as they do not have any genealogical relationship with other living languages

Linguistic Family Tree

Major dialects of North America

B) English Dialects in the United States

- the use of “isoglosses” in geolinguistics - three major dialects in the United States:

1) Northern Dialect 2) Midland Dialect 3) Southern Dialect

Is it soda, pop, or coke?

Turnpike, parkway, interstate, or freeway?

Buggies? Draws? Skeeter? Tater? Britches?

Are you perhaps fixin' to do something?

Ebonics and AAE: pidgin language or dialect?

Sign in Arab Quarter of Nazareth in north Israel

Texting and language modifications.

II) Linguistic Diffusion

- 10,000 BP about 15,000 languages - today less than 6,000 languages - importance of relocation diffusion!

A. Indo-European Diffusion

- 9,000 BP in SE-Turkey - importance of agriculture in the diffusion - later dispersal of Latin, English, and

Russian

B. Austronesian Diffusion

- 5,000 BP in SE-Asia - from New Zealand to Madagascar (!) - Polynesian and the study of Ward, Webb,

and Levison

Dominant language families of Native America

Bantu expansionism

Diffusion of the Polynesian language

Dialect boundaries

C. Searching for the Primordial Tongue

(NOVA: “In Search of the Primordial Tongue”)

- Nostratic in the Middle East about 12,000 to

20,000 BP (Indo-European, Uralic, Altaic, etc.)

- Dene-Caucasian (Sino-Tibetan) - Na-Dene (American-Indian) - What is the Primordial Tongue of all these?

D. Linguistic Globalization?

Will continuing globalization create just a handful of dominating languages? What are the most likely candidates?

Isoglosses for Spanish loanwords in Texas

Word use from Midland to Southern

Spread of the northern dialect with migration

Mesh of language and empire in South America

States with “English-only” laws.

Col. French vs. indigenous Polynesian

Ten most prevalent languages on the internet.

Distribution of the world’s nearly extinct languages.

Global “language hotspots” in need of protection.

III) Linguistic Ecology

A. Habitat and Vocabulary - Inuit (arctic climate) / Arabic (desert climate)- Spanish / Scottish Gaelic (rough terrain) - English (wet coastal plain)

B. Habitat Provides Refuge - linguistics refuge areas (e.g. Native

Americans) - linguistic shatter belts (e.g. Caucasus Mnts)

C. Habitat Guides Migration - Diffusion of Indo-European Language - Stable vs. Unstable Language Borders- importance of natural infrastructure (e.g.

rivers, coastlines)

Linguistic shatter belt

IV. Culturo-Linguistic Interaction

A. Technology and Linguistic Dominance - role of agricultural revolution - writing (~ 6 millennium BP in Egypt &

Sumeria) - Trans-Siberian Railroad vs. Cyberspace

B. Language and Empire - Imperial Expansions and their result

C. Social Moral Model - Charles Withers’ study of conquered

people - Example of Native Americans

- low social status - losing pride in one's culture

- Bilingual People in the United States - 1910 (~25%) vs. today (< 14%)

WWI / Lusitania

D. Economic Development Model

- example of Wales in the United Kingdom - clearance model & changeover model

E. Language and Religion

- Islam and Arabic - Latin and Roman Catholicism - Protestant Reformation and the

Standardization of the German language

Retreat of the Welsh language.

V. Linguistic Landscapes

A. Messages

- "hostile" vs. "friendly" landscape - the big yellow M

B. Toponyms (Place names)

- Huntsville (specific “Hunts” / generic “ville”)

- generic toponyms of the United States- Northern: Randolph CENTER, Orange

SOUTH - Midland: PittsBURGH, HarrisBURGH - Southern: Cypress BAYOU, Gum GULLY

Samoan sign as part of the cultural landscape

Korean signage as illegible

Graffiti used to mark “territory”.

Aborigine specific toponym with English generic name

C. Toponyms and Cultures of the Past

- Arabic place names on Iberian Peninsula - Guadalquivir, Guadalajara

- Native American place names in the U.S. - states, rivers, mountains, etc.

- Spanish place names in the U.S.

D. Toponyms and Environmental Modifications

- Neuroth & Bayreuth - What about Frankfurt? Erfurt? Schweinfurt?

Cleaning up a colonial history

Arabic toponyms in Iberia

Names ending in itz, zig, and in identify Slavic origin.