The Human Mosaic
CHAPTER 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!
- crosslinguistic onomatopoeias
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 Families
a) 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
- What are: Draws? Skeeter? Taters? Britches?
- Are you perhaps fixin' to do something?
- What do you call a sandwich?
- po’boys (LA), hoagies (NY), grinders (PA)
- Ebonics: African-American vernacular English,
language or dialect?
- Do You Speak American? Who Sounds Gay?
Is it soda, pop, or coke?
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.