Upload
cameron-morrison
View
218
Download
0
Embed Size (px)
Citation preview
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
Example: Dialect
• African American Vernacular English (AAVE)– Aka “Ebonics”
• Standard American English
Language Formation
• 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 Languages of Europe
• Romance languages– French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese
• Germanic languages– English, German, Danish, Swedish
• Slavic languages– Russian, Polish, Czech
The Case of Euskera
Spoken by the Basque and in no way related to any other language family in Europe
How Do Languages Diffuse?
• 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– Haitian creole, Jamaican patois
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
• Town with the longest name in the world– In Wales (UK)
• Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwlllla-ntysiliogogogoch
• Translation:"Saint Mary's Church in the hollow of white hazel near a rapid whirlpool and the Church of Saint Tysilio near the red cave."