Cultural GeographyLanguage

Language• Human capacity for acquiring and using complex

systems of communication.• Cultural trait that is learned from one generation

to the next.• Fundamental component in cultural identity.

• The scientific study of language in any of its senses is called linguistics.

LANGUAGE=One of the oldest, most geographically diverse,

and most complex cultural traits on earth.

It is speculated that nearly 2.5 million years

ago language first developed to organize

human activity.

Language Divergence• Occurs when languages or dialects grow from one

original source because of the migration of original speakers to new lands or contact with new languages.

• Prehistory- at least 10,000 languages spoken throughout the world.

• Today- about 5,000 to 7,000 languages remain.

WHY?????

Language Tree Hierarchy

•Language Family•Branches•Groups•Language•Dialects

Most linguistically diverse continents• Africa• Over 2100 languages spoken (some counts over 3000)

• Asia• Over 2100 languages spoken

New Guinea• World’s great concentration of linguistic diversity.• Rugged terrain and limited interaction between tribal

groups• 900 languages

• Different from world trend.

Language Family• A collection of many languages, all of which came

from the same original tongue long ago, that have since evolved different characteristics.

Percent of World’s Speakers• Indo-European- 44.78% • Sino-Tibetan- 22.28%• Niger-Congo- 6.26%• Afro-Asiatic- 5.93%• Austronesian- 5.45%• Dravidian- 3.87%

Indo-European• Almost 50% of the world’s people speak

languages belonging to this family.

• Dominant in Europe, Russia, North and South America, Australia, and parts of Southwestern Asia and India.

• Includes the Germanic and Romance Languages

• Also the Slavic, Indic, Celtic, and Iranic.

Sino-Tibetan• Over 20 % of the world’s people speak languages

from this family.

• Most of Southeast Asia and China

• Comprised of Chinese (language with the most speakers), Burmese, Tibetan, Japanese, and Korean.

Afro-Asiatic, Niger Congo, Altaic, and Austroneasian Language Families

• 30% of the world’s populations speak languages from these families.

Language Isolate• A natural language with no demonstrable

genealogical (or "genetic") relationship with other languages.

• One that has not been demonstrated to descend from an ancestor common with any other language.

• They are in effect language families consisting of a single language.

• Commonly cited examples include Basque, Ainu, and Burushaski.

Language Groups• A set of languages with a relatively recent

common origin and many similar characteristics. • Romance Languages (French, Italian, Portuguese,

Romanian, Spanish)

Dialects• Geographically distinct versions of a single

language that vary somewhat from the parent form.

Isoglosses• Geographical boundary lines where different

linguistic features meet.

Pidgin• Language that may develop when two groups of

people with different languages meet. The pidgin has some characteristics of each language.

• Creole• A pidgin language that evolves to the point at which it

becomes the primary language of the people who speak it.

Lingua Franca• Working Language, Bridge Language, Vehicular

Language

• An extremely simple language that combines aspects of two or more other, more-complex languages used for quick and efficient communication.• Can be a developed language.

• English=•Current lingua franca of international business, science, technology, and aviation.

• There are many other lingua francas centralized on particular regions, such as Arabic, Chinese, Russian, Spanish, and Swahili.

Official Languages• Language in which all government business

occurs in a country.

What’s the official language of the United States of

America?

Standard Language• Acceptable form of a given language as declared

by political or societal leaders.

Top 10 Native Languages• Mandarin Chinese (885,000,000 speakers)• Spanish (332,000,000 speakers)• English (322,000,000 speakers)• Bengali (189,000,000 speakers)• Hindi (182,000,000 speakers)• Portuguese (170,000,000 speakers)• Russian (170,000,000 speakers)• Japanese (125,000,000 speakers)• German (standard) (98,000,000 speakers)• Wu Chinese (77,175,000 speakers)

Polyglot• A multilingual state

Language Extinction • Occurs when a language is no longer in use by

any living people.

• Thousands of languages have become extinct since language first developed, but the process of language extinction has accelerated greatly during the past 300 years.

Literacy• The ability to read and write.

Literacy Rates

1 1 Georgia˜100.02 2 Cuba 99.93 2 Estonia 99.84 2 Latvia 99.85 5 Barbados 99.76 5 Slovenia 99.77 5 Belarus 99.78 5 Lithuania 99.79 5 Ukraine 99.710 5 Armenia 99.711 11 Kazakhstan 99.612 11 Tajikistan 99.613 13 Azerbaijan 99.514 13 Turkmenistan 99.515 13 Russia 99.516 16 Hungary 99.417 17 Kyrgyzstan 99.318 17 Poland 99.319 19 Tonga 99.2

20 20 Albania 99.121 20 Antigua and Barbuda 99.0 22 20 Australia 99.023 20 Austria99.024 20 Belgium 99.025 20 Canada 99.026 20 Czech Republic 99.027 20 North Korea 99.028 20 Denmark 99.029 20 Finland99.030 20 France 99.031 20 Germany 99.032 20 Guyana 99.033 20 Iceland99.034 20 Ireland 99.035 20 Japan 99.036 20 South Korea 99.037 20 Luxembourg 99.0 38 20 Netherlands 99.0 39 20 New Zealand 99.0 40 20 Norway 99.041 20 Slovakia 99.042 20 Sweden 99.043 20 Switzerland 99.044 20 United Kingdom 99.0

Toponyms• Place names given to certain features on the land

such as settlements, terrain features, and streams.

• The various ways different cultures have named the land throughout history can provide insights into historical cultural migration patterns and diffusion processes across the globe.

• Gives insight on:• Ownership• Origins• Aspirations