Language!
Where the language is used, how they are grouped,
why distributed that way
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Some Stats to Start with
 The world has 7299 languages only 10 (including
English) are spoken by at least 100 million people.
 They include: Spanish, Portuguese, Russian,
German, Mandarin, Hindi, Bengali, Arabic, Japanese
 500 Million People speak English and it is the
official language of 50 countries
 Mandarin has more speakers but is clustered mainly
in China.
Why so many English Speakers?
 British dominance since the 1600’s and colonization
throughout the world:
 North America, United States and Canada
 Ireland, Scotland, Wales
 South Asia
 South Pacific
 Southern Africa
 And then there’s American dominance
 South Pacific, Caribbean, Philippines
Dialect
 Regional variations of a particular language
 British vs. American English
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Spelling, Vocabulary, Pronunciation
The “King’s English” known as British Received
Pronunciation
Cockney English known as the working class language
 Dialects in the US
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East Coast, South, Midwest
Monolingual regions, Multilingual regions
EVERY LANGUAGE HAS SLANG
 Cockney Rhyming Slang- English odd humorous use
of code phrases “going up the apples”
 Pidgin languages-simplified forms of a language
that use key vocabulary and limited grammar
 Pidgin languages can evolve into separate
languages-French Creole which is French with
African dialectal sounds and vocabulary
 Most former French colonies have a mixed language
of French and Indigenous called Patois
Lingua Franca?
 French has historically been the bridge or utility
language so it’s versatility coined the term “lingua
franca”
 Lingua Franca is used to describe any language that
bridges peoples from around the world
 In the 21st century English is accepted as the global
“lingua franca”
Language Families
 Indo-European (2.5 Billion)
 Sino-Tibetan (1.4 Billion)
 Afro-Asiatic (284 Million)
 Austronesian (244 Million)
 Dravidian (203 Million)
 Niger-Congo (172 Million)
 Altaic (128 Million)
 Japanese (122 Million)
 Korean (67 Million)
Language Families
 Language Families
 Language Groups
 Language Sub-Groups
For example: English comes from Indo-European
family, Germanic Group, Western Germanic sub-group.
Two Theories on European Language
Development
 Anatolian theory: states that some portion of
prehistoric peoples from the Indian subcontinent
migrated to what is modern day Turkey and then
migrated further into Europe
 Kurgan theory: states that some portion of
prehistoric peoples from the Indian subcontinent
migrated to central Asia and through the Eurasian
steppe into Europe.
 As a side: Genetic evidence proves that Europeans
are descendants of prehistoric Aryan Indians