AP Human Geography
Discussion Questions -- Ch. 6 – Language
Introduction – Due Tuesday, Feb. 4 2014
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Account for the predominance of French in the southern regions and capital of Belgium.
Describe the resolution of the language issue in Belgium.
Account for the change in economic fortunes in the two regions of Belgium.
Explain the anticipated consequences of greater federalization in Belgium.
Discuss the factors that keep Belgium from splitting into two separate countries.
Examine the map on page 150 and answer the following questions.
6. Identify the Language Families of Europe that do not belong to the Indo-European Branches.
7. Identify the countries where Basque is spoken.
8. Identify the Romance language that is not in the same area (contiguous) with the others.
9. Identify the non-Slavic language that is spoken in many Slavic countries.
10. Identify the countries where Celtic languages are spoken.
What are languages, and what role do languages play in cultures? – Due Thursday, Feb. 6 2014
11. What percentage of websites are in English?
12. Identify the states in the U.S. that are officially bilingual.
13. Identify the groups in Quebec that are generally opposed to the laws that have promoted the primacy
of French in that province.
14. Identify the thirteen states with counties where more than thirty-five percent of the population speaks a
language other than English at home. [Figure 6.4]
15. Using the chart of the top ten non-English languages, determine the percentage of non-English speaking
homes where an Asian language is spoken.
16. Using the chart of the top ten non-English languages, determine the percentage of non-English speaking
homes where a Romance language is spoken.
17. Using the chart of the top ten non-English languages, determine the percentage of non-English speaking
homes where a Slavic language is spoken.
18. Identify the component elements of a dialect.
19. Ask a friend or family member (not in APHUG!) if he or she wants to go get a “pop” and record their
response (physical or verbal).
20. Discuss the difference between a standard language and a dialect
CONTINUED BELOW!!!
Why are languages distributed the way they are? – Due Monday, Feb. 10
21. Identify the language family spoken in Laos and Cambodia.
22. Discuss William Jones (1700s) and Jakob Grimm’s (1800s) contributions to the formulation of the
theory of Proto-Indo-European languages.
23. Describe the 1960s findings of Aaron Dolgopolsky and Vladislav Illich-Svitych with regard to the
speakers of ancient Nostratic.
24. Explain the difficulty in reconstructing the branches and trunk of August Schleicher’s language tree.
25. Identify the theoretical hearth of the Proto-Indo-European language and describe its likely inhabitants.
26. Analyze the evidence used to support the agricultural as opposed to the conquest theory of the
diffusion of the proto-Indo-European languages into Europe.
27. Identify the languages of the Western Germanic branch of the Proto-Indo- European language branch
of the language tree.
28. Which of the Northern Germanic languages is not a member of the Scandinavian family of languages?
29. Which of the Romance languages has been mistakenly omitted from the Latin- based languages?
30. Is the Armenian language more closely related to German or Sanskrit? Explain.
31. Identify the languages of the Sanskrit branch of the language tree.
32. Identify the languages of the Iranian branch of the language tree.
33. Identify the western Slavic languages
34. Account for the decline of Celtic languages over the last 3,000 years.
35. Describe the consequences of the Norman invasion of England in 1066 for the development of the
English language.
Why are languages distributed the way they are? PART II – Due Tuesday, Feb. 11
36. Explain the theories for the survival of a Romance language on the western shores of the Black Sea.
37. Identify the members of the Altaic family of languages.
38. Outline the provisions for autonomy granted to Spain’s Basques in its 1979 (Spanish) constitution.
39. Identify the similarities of the Bantu languages of Sub-Saharan languages and discuss their
significance.
40. Outline the major features of Nigeria’s linguistic diversity.
41. Evaluate Nigeria’s adoption of English as its official language.
CONTINUED BELOW!!!!
How do languages diffuse? – Due Thursday, Feb. 13
42. Explain the origins of the first widely known lingua franca.
43. Identify the component language influences and geographic spread of Swahili.
44. Compare and contrast Creole languages with pidgin languages.
45. Identify the countries in Africa that have adopted the language of their former imperial colonizers as
the official language.
46. Identify the five language families of India.
47. Identify the important areas of cross-cultural communication in which it appears that English has
emerged as a global language.
What role does language play in making places? – Due Monday, Feb. 17
48. Explain the relationship between toponyms and social processes.
49. Identify the ten basic types of place names designated by Professor George Stewart in his 1982 Names
on the Land: A Historical Account of Place-Naming in the United States.
50. Associate five local or regional place names with five different categories from George Stewart.
51. Identify two post-colonial and two post-revolutionary toponyms from two different regions.
52. Discuss the issues of locating commemorative streets in honor of Martin Luther King Jr.
53. Identify three examples of locally or regionally commodified place names.