Language

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Language by Mind Map: Language

1. What Are Languages, and What Role Do Languages Play in Cultures?

1.1. The French gov't works hard to protect the French language

1.1.1. they passes a law in 1975 banning the use of foreign words in advertisements, television, and radio broadcasts, etc.,

1.1.1.1. in 1992, France amended its constitution to make French the official language

1.1.1.1.1. in 1994, they passed another law to stop the use of foreign words in France

1.2. The internet is dominated by English and Chinese languages

1.3. Language

1.3.1. a set of sounds and symbols used for communication

1.3.1.1. also an integral part of culture, reflecting and shaping it

1.4. Language and Culture

1.4.1. Language is one of the cornerstones of culture

1.4.1.1. who we are as a culture, as a people, is reinforced and redefined moment by moment through shared language

1.4.1.1.1. in the US where the Spanish-speaking population is growing, some Spanish speakers and their advocates are demanding the use of Spanish in public affairs

1.4.2. soem 30 states today have declared English the official language of the state

1.4.2.1. in the southwest, many people speak a different language than English at home

1.4.2.1.1. Hawaii, and New Mexico have bi-lingual education

1.4.3. in Canada, most French-speaking people live in Quebec

1.4.3.1. the gov't required all advertisements must be in French

1.5. What Is a Language?

1.5.1. Mutual Intelligibility

1.5.1.1. two people can understand each other when speaking

1.5.1.1.1. Serbian and Croatian & Hindu and Urdu & Spanish and Portuguese & Navajo and Apache

1.5.2. most linguists and linguistic geographers recognize between 5000 and 7000 languages

1.6. Standardized Language

1.6.1. standard language

1.6.1.1. one that is published, widely distributed, and purposefully taught

1.6.2. people with influence and power choose the standard language

1.7. Dialects

1.7.1. variants of a standard language along regional or ethnic lines

1.7.1.1. dialect chains

1.7.1.1.1. dialects nearest to each other geographically will be the most similar

1.7.1.1.2. linguists think about dialects in terms of dialect chains

1.7.2. Isogloss

1.7.2.1. geographic boundary within which a particular linguistic feature occurs, but such a boundary is rarely a simple line

1.7.3. the Common Name For A Soft Drink Map represents that states call a "soda" or "pop" or "coke"

2. Why Are Languages Distributed The Way They Are?

2.1. Linguists classify languages in terms that are also used in biology and for the same reasons

2.1.1. at the global scale, we classify languages into language families

2.1.1.1. sub-families

2.1.1.1.1. consist of individual languages whose spatial extent is smaller, and every individual language had its dialects whose territorial extent is smaller still

2.2. Definition And Debate

2.2.1. many dozens of language families

2.2.1.1. The Indo-European language family has the widest geographic distribution and speakers

2.2.1.1.1. due to contiguous as well as relocation diffusion

2.2.1.1.2. English is the most widely spoken Indo-European language

2.2.2. If one were to argue about the dialects of Chinese being separate languages, they would say that people speak in those dialects and require separate subtitles to be able to understand what people are saying, and not everyone in China speak Mandarin

2.2.2.1. The "People of Han" are united by their ability to read the characters in which Chinese is written

2.2.3. Remoteness helps keep languages spoken by small numbers exist today

2.2.4. a language from the Austronesian family is spoken in Madagascar because of seafarers from the islands of Southeast Asia crossing the Indian Ocean to Madagascar

2.3. Language Formation

2.3.1. sound shifts

2.3.1.1. slight change in a word across languages within a subfamily or through a language family from the present backward toward its origins

2.3.1.2. Linguists use the study of sound shifts to trace the origins of languages

2.3.1.2.1. looking at sound shifts for single words across time and across languages

2.3.2. Proto-Indo-European

2.3.2.1. an ancestral Indo-European language

2.3.3. Reconstructing the Vocabulary of Proto Indo-European and Its Ancient Ancestor

2.3.3.1. linguists use a technique called backward-reconstruction to track sound shifts

2.3.3.1.1. using deep reconstruction, linguists can re-create the language that preceded the extinct language

2.3.3.2. Nostratic

2.3.3.2.1. ancient ancestor of the Proto-Indo-European language

2.3.3.3. studying ancient languages gives us clues about past ways of life

2.3.3.3.1. the vocabulary used can reveal much about the lives and environments of its speakers

2.3.4. Locating the Heart of Proto-Indo-European

2.3.4.1. German linguist August Schleicher

2.3.4.1.1. first to compare the world's language families to the branches of a tree

2.3.4.1.2. Language Divergence

2.3.4.1.3. language convergence

2.3.4.2. Languages become extinct either when all descendants perish

2.3.4.2.1. or when descendants choose to use another language, abandoning the language of their ancestors

2.3.4.3. the hearth of the Proto-Indo-European language is believed to be in the vicinity of the Black Sea or east-central Europe

2.3.5. Tracing the Routes of Diffusion of Proto-Indo-European

2.3.5.1. conquest theory

2.3.5.1.1. holds that early speakers of Proto-Indo-European spread from east to west on horseback, overpowering earlier inhabitants and beginning the diffusion of Indo-European tongues

2.3.5.2. agricultural theory

2.3.5.2.1. proposes that Proto-Indo-European diffused westward through Europe with the diffusion of agriculture

2.3.5.3. dispersal theory

2.3.5.3.1. holds that the Indo-European languages arose from Proto-Indo-European were first carried eastward into Southwest Asian, next around the Caspian Sea, and then across the Russian-Ukrainian plains and on into the Balkans

2.4. The Languages Of Europe

2.4.1. 3 Indo-European Language subfamilies are common in Europe

2.4.1.1. Romance, Germanic, and Slavic

2.4.1.1.1. the Romance languages are spoken in areas by the Roman Empire

2.4.2. English belongs to the Germanic Languages

2.4.3. Language and Politics

2.4.3.1. A comparison of Europe's linguistic and political maps show a high correlation between the languages spoken and the political organization of space

2.4.3.1.1. one language is in no way related to any other language

2.5. Languages of Subsaharan Africa

2.5.1. Indo-European, Afro-Asiatic, Niger-Congo, Saharan, and Sudanic are the 5 most common language families in Africa

2.5.1.1. more than 500 languages are spoken in Nigeria

2.5.1.1.1. European colonists are responsible for the arbitrary borders of most of Africa

3. How Do Languages Diffuse?

3.1. rise of empires, of larger-scale, more technologically sophisticated literate societies, some languages began to spread over larger areas

3.1.1. In the Middle Ages, the invention of the Gutenberg printing press contributed to language diffusion

3.1.1.1. since 1500, the world has experienced several waves of globalization ranging from European Colonialism to America-led globalization, linguistic interaction

3.1.1.1.1. Trade and commerce have also been factors to language diffusion since 1500

3.2. Lingua Franca

3.2.1. a language used among speakers of different languages for the purpose of trade and commerce

3.2.1.1. Pidgin Language

3.2.1.1.1. when people speaking two or more languages are in contact and they combine parts of their languages in a simplified structure and vocabulary

3.2.2. línguas franca that are mentioned

3.2.2.1. pidgin language

3.2.2.1.1. Arabic during the expansion of Islam

3.2.3. Creole Language

3.2.3.1. pidgin language that has developed a more complex structure and vocab and has become the native language of a group of people

3.3. Multilingualism

3.3.1. Monolingual state

3.3.1.1. countries where almost everyone speaks the same language

3.3.1.1.1. in result of migration and diffusion, no country is truly monolingual today

3.3.2. Multilingual state

3.3.2.1. countries in which more than one language is in use

3.4. Official Languages

3.4.1. countries aften adopt an official language

3.4.1.1. to tie the people together

3.4.1.1.1. In some countries, citizens objected to using a language that they associated with colonial repression

3.5. Global Language

3.5.1. English is the world's lingua franca today

3.5.1.1. Global language

3.5.1.1.1. a common language of trade and commerce used around the world

4. What Role Does Language Play In Making Places?

4.1. Toponym

4.1.1. place-names

4.2. George Stewart

4.2.1. American toponyms

4.2.1.1. certain themes dominate American toponyms. Developed classification scheme focussed on ten basic types of place names

4.3. the stories of toponyms quite often have their roots in migration, movement, and interaction among people

4.4. Toponyms we see on a map depend in large part on who produced the map

4.4.1. some embattled locales have more than one name at the same time

4.5. Changing Toponyms

4.5.1. People in a small town in Wales feared the loss of the Welsh language and despised the role the English had played in diminishing the use of the Welsh language

4.5.1.1. the people renamed their town with a Welsh word unpronounceable by others

4.5.1.1.1. Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch

4.5.2. Toponyms are part of the cultural landscape

4.5.2.1. changes in place-names give us an idea of the layers of history, the layers of cultural landscape in a place

4.5.3. Postcolonial Topoynms

4.5.3.1. Sometimes when power changes within a country, they change their name

4.5.3.1.1. Before example

4.5.3.1.2. After example

4.5.4. Postrevolution Toponyms

4.5.4.1. changes in names through coups and revolutions

4.5.4.1.1. Before example

4.5.4.1.2. After example

4.5.5. Memorial Toponyms

4.5.5.1. changes of a name to memorialize an important person or event

4.5.5.1.1. hundreds of parks in the US are named Memorial Park for hundreds of such persons and events

4.5.6. Commodification of Toponyms

4.5.6.1. practice of buying, selling, and trading toponyms

4.5.6.1.1. International media corporations that reach across the globe bring known names to new places, drawing consumers to the place based on what they have heard or experienced elsewhere

5. Field Note

5.1. In Belgium, they speak French and Flemish

5.1.1. Flemish speakers live in the northern region of Flanders

5.1.1.1. French speakers like in the southern region of Wallonia

5.1.2. economic differences between linguistic groups have been a divisive issue for generations

5.1.2.1. Frenchification

5.1.2.1.1. promoted French and used it when interacting with their counterparts in other countries

5.1.3. Brussels opposed growing Frenchification of Flanders

5.1.3.1. Brussels is a bilingual capital

5.1.4. with language-group identity on the rise, conflicts between linguistic "communities" became a central feature of Belgian political life

5.1.4.1. after the 1960s Belgian heavy industry became less competitive, and the country's economy shifted to high technology, light industry, and services, with much of the new economy concentrating in Flemish-speaking Flanders

5.1.4.1.1. the economic power in Belgium flipped, with the French-speaking industrial south taking a back seat to the Flemish-speaking north

5.1.5. The role Brussels serves as the European Union Capital may prevent Belgium from splitting into two countries