LANGUAGE
Chapter 6
Language and Political Conflict
Belgium:
Flanders (Flemish/Dutch)
Wallonia (French)
Brussels officially bilingual
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What Are Languages, and What Role
Do Languages Play in Culture?
• Language: A set of sounds, combinations of
sounds, and symbols used for communication
• Standard language: A language that is published,
widely distributed, and purposefully taught
• Role of government in standardizing a language
The Internet: Globalization of Language
Language and Politics
Non-English Speakers
Political issue of speakers of Spanish and other
languages vs. those desiring English only
Language and Cultural Identity
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• Federal level:
• officially bilingual
• Provinces:
– Quebec• officially French
– New Brunswick –
• only province
officially bilingual
– Other provinces
• officially English
Quebec vs. Canada
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Mutual Intelligibility
• Isogloss: A geographic boundary within which a
particular linguistic feature occurs
• Criterion for a language: Speakers can understand each
other
– Problems
• Measuring “mutual intelligibility”
• Standard languages and government impact on
what is a “language” and what is a “dialect”
– Dialect: variant of standard language by ethnicity or
region
• Vocabulary
• Syntax
• Cadence, pace
• Pronunciation
English Speaking Countries
Fig. 5-1: English is the official language in 42 countries, including some in which it is
not the most widely spoken language. It is also used and understood in
many others.
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Example of Dialect
Minor Dialects Today
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What American Do You Speak?
http://www.alphadictionary.com/articles/yankee
test.html
http://www.pbs.org/speak/seatosea/officialamer
ican/
http://popvssoda.com:2998/
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The Queens English
• A dialect is a regional variation of a
language distinguished by distinctive
vocabulary, spelling, and
pronunciation.
• English has an especially large number
of dialects.
• One particular dialect of English, the
one associated with upper-class
Britons living in the London area, is
recognized in much of the Englishspeaking world as the standard form
of British speech, known as British
Received Pronunciation (BRP).
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Differences in Vocabulary and Spelling
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English in the United States and England evolved independently
(Isolation) during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
U.S. English differs from that of England in three significant ways:
vocabulary, spelling, and pronunciation.
The vocabulary is different because settlers in America
encountered many new objects and experiences, which were
given names borrowed from Native Americans.
Spelling diverged because of a strong national feeling in the
United States for an independent identity.
Noah Webster, the creator of the first comprehensive American
dictionary and grammar books, was not just a documenter of
usage, he had an agenda.
Webster argued that spelling and grammar reforms would help
establish a national language, reduce cultural dependence on
England, and inspire national pride.
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Differences in Pronunciation
• Differences in pronunciation between
British and U.S. speakers are immediately
recognizable.
• Interaction between the two groups was
largely confined to exchange of letters and
other printed matter rather than direct
speech.
• Surprisingly, pronunciation has changed
more in England than in the United States.
• People in the United States do not speak
“proper” English because when the
colonists left England, “proper” English
was not what it is today.
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British Slang Words
Below are a few slang words commonly used in Britain.
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Bloke - man.
'John is a nice bloke to know.'
Botched - poor quality repairs.
'He made a botched job of fixing the
television.'
Bottle - courage.
'He doesn't have the bottle to ask her.'
Cheesed Off - fed up
Chuck it down - to rain, often heavily.
'It is going to chuck it down soon.'
Chuffed - If you are chuffed, you are
happy with something.
'I was chuffed to win a medal!'
Daft - Crazy / stupid
Dosh - Money / cash 'I haven't got much
dosh to give you.'
Gobsmacked - Incredibly amazed.
'I was gobsmacked when I saw my
birthday presents.'
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Gutted - Not happy because of an event
that has occurred that didn't go your way.
'I was gutted when I didn't win the race'
Jammy - Used in place of lucky when
describing someone else.
'He was very jammy winning the lottery'.
Scrummy - Delicious. Shortened from
scrumptious.
'The food was very scrummy'
Skint - Broke. No money.
'I'm skint, I wont be able to buy the DVD
today.'
to Snog - to long kiss
Telly - Television
'I watched the news on the telly last
night.'
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Why Are Languages
Distributed the Way They Are?
Classification by language families
(groups of related languages)
Major World Languages
Language Family
Major Language
Numbers (in
millions)
Indo-European
English
445
Hindi
366
Spanish
340
Chinese
1,211
Burmese
32
Japanese
125
Korean
78
Afro-Asiatic
Arabic
211
Malay-Polynesian
Indonesian
154
Dravidian (India)
Telugu
69
Altaic
Turkish
61
Sino-Tibetan
Japanese-Korean
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Language Formation
• Linkages among languages marked by sound
shifts, slight changes in a word across languages
over time
Milk = lacte in Latin
leche in Spanish
lait in French
latta in Italian
• Language divergence: Breakup of a language into
dialects and then new languages from lack of
interaction among speakers
• Language convergence: When peoples with
different languages have consistent interaction
and their languages blend into one
The Study of Historical Languages
Backward reconstruction: Tracking sound
shifts and the hardening of consonants
backward to reveal an “original” language
• Can deduce the vocabulary of an extinct
language
• Can recreate ancient languages (deep
reconstruction)
Historical Linkages among Languages
• Indo-European
language family
• Proto-Indo-European
language
• Nostratic Language
(ancient ancestor of
Proto-Indo-European
Language)
Origins of Proto-Indo-European
Renfrew Hypothesis: Began in the Fertile Crescent,
and then
• Europe’s languages from Anatolia
• North Africa and Arabia’s languages from the
Western Arc of Fertile Crescent
• Southwest Asia and South Asia’s languages from
the Eastern Arc of Fertile Crescent
Agriculture Theory
With increased food supply and population,
migration of speakers from the hearth of IndoEuropean languages into Europe
Dispersal Hypothesis
• From the hearth eastward into present-day Iran
• Around the Caspian
• Into Europe
The Language Sub-Families of Europe
• Romance languages
• Germanic languages
• Slavic languages
South Asian Languages and
Language Families
Fig. 5-7: Indo-European is the largest of four main language families in South Asia.
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The country of India has 18 official languages.
Languages of Subsaharan Africa
• Dominant language family: Niger-Congo
– Relatively recent migration
– Continued recognizable similarities among
subfamilies
• Displacement of Khoisan family, now in
southwestern Africa
Nigeria
• More than 400
languages
• Nigeria a colonial
creation
• Choice of English
as “official”
language rather
than any
indigenous
language
How Do Languages Diffuse?
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Human interaction
Print distribution
Migration
Trade
Rise of nation-states
Colonialism
Elizabeth J. Leppman
Effects of Spatial Interaction
• Lingua franca: A language used among speakers
of different languages for trade and commerce
• Pidgin language: A language created when people
combine parts of two or more languages into a
simplified structure and vocabulary
• Creole language: A pidgin language that has
developed a more complex structure and
vocabulary and has become the native language
of a group of people
Multilingualism
• Monolingual state: A
country in which only
one language is spoken
• Multilingual state:
A country in which more
than one language is in
use
• Official language:
Government-selected
language or languages
to try to enhance
communication in a
multilingual state
Global Language
• English as lingua franca for
– Commerce
– Science
– Travel
– Business
– Popular culture
• Continued use of native languages for dayto-day activities
Global Dominance of English
• One of the most fundamental
needs in a global society is a
common language for
communication.
• Increasingly in the modern world,
the language of international
communication is English.
• When well-educated speakers of
two different languages wish to
communicate with each other in
countries such as India or Nigeria,
they frequently use English.
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• One Global Language?
• Esperanto Experiment
– occurred in early 1900s
– based on Latin & other
Eur. languages
– failed – not a global
tongue (Indo-Eur.), lacked
practical utility
• English – becoming a
lingua franca of the world
(commerce and science)
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What Role Does Language Play
in Making Places?
• Place: The uniqueness of a location, what people
do in a location, what they create, how they impart
a certain character, a certain imprint on the
location
• Toponym: A place name
– Imparts a certain character on a place
– Reflects the social processes in a place
– Can give a glimpse of the history of a place
Changing Toponyms
Major reasons people change toponyms
• After decolonization
• After a political revolution
• To commodify or brand a place
• To memorialize people or events