Why are Languages Distributed the way they are?

Key Question 2:

How are Languages Formed?

• Can find linkages among languages by examining sound shifts – a slight change in a word across languages over time.

eg. Milk = lacte in Latinlatta in Italianleche in Spanishlait in French

• Language divergence – when a lack of spatial interaction among speakers of a language breaks the language into dialects and then new languages.

• Language convergence –when peoples with different languages have consistent spatial interaction and their languages collapse into one.

How are Languages Formed?

History of English• Old English: 450- 1100 CE

– Old German meets Celt– Norse invasion– Beowulf

• Middle English: 1100- 1500 CE– Old German/Celtic meets Old French

(Nordic)– 1066: Normans– Chaucer

Modern English: 1500- current day• Early Modern:

– German/ Celtic/ French (Nordic) meets new words and changes pronunciation (Great vowel shift- shorter sounds)

– Exploration– Shakespeare

• Late Modern– Standardized Spelling– Changes in vocabulary

(Industrial Revolution)

How do Linguists Study 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

Searching for the first language

• The “Ur language”• Nostratic—ancestral speech of Middle

East 12,000 to 20,000 years ago– Ancestor to nine modern language families – A 500-word dictionary has been compiled

• Contemporary to ↑: Dene-Caucasian– led to Sino-Tibetan, Basque, and Native-

American: Na-Dene

From Anatolia diffused Europe’s languagesFrom the Western Arc of Fertile Crescent diffused North

Africa and Arabia’s languagesFrom the Eastern Arc of Fertile Crescent diffused Southwest

Asia and South Asia’s languages.

Renfrew Hypothesis:Proto-Indo-European began in the Fertile Crescent, and then:

Agriculture TheoryWith increased food supply and increased population, speakers from the hearth of Indo-European languages migrated into Europe.

Conquest Theory

• Major theory of how Proto-Indo-European diffused into Europe which holds that they early speakers of PIE spread westward on horseback, overpowering earlier inhabitants and beginning the diffusion and differentiation of Indo-European tongues– Vast #’s of archaeologists, linguists and human

geographers have long supported this theory• Celtic- region’s oldest language – supports theory

that newer languages came from farther east.

Dispersal HypothesisIndo-European languages first moved from the hearth eastward into present-day Iran and then around the Caspian and into Europe.

The Languages of Europe

Romance languages

Germanic languages

Slavic languages

Language families • The Indo-European language family

– Largest most wide-spread family– Subfamilies—Romance, Slavic, Germanic,

Indic, Celtic, and Iranic• Subfamilies are divided into individual languages

– By comparing vocabularies in various languages one can see the kinship

Mother = Madre = Màthair = Mutter = Mère = Mati = Mataji english spanish german french Hindi?Serbo-

croatian??

Indo-European diffusion• Earliest speakers from southern and

southeastern Turkey (Anatolia) ca. 8 or 9 thousand years ago– Diffused west and north into Europe

• 2 theories: – Spread of agriculture– conquest

• Later language diffusion occurred with the spread of great political empires: Latin, English, and Russian– Conqueror’s language spread hierarchically

• Spread of Latin with Roman conquests• Spanish in Latin America

The environment and vocabulary • Spanish language

– rough terrain– differences in shape and configuration of

mountains

• Scottish Gaelic– rough terrain– Common attribute spoken by hill people

• Romanian tongue– rugged terrain– use of terrain for livestock herding

• English– Developed in wet coastal plains– Poor in words describing mountainous terrain

The environment provides refuge • Inhospitable environments offer

protection and isolation–Harder or less likely to be conquered–Mountains tend to isolate inhabitants–Linguistic refuge areas

• Rugged hill and mountain areas• Excessively cold or dry climates• Impenetrable forests and remote

islands• Extensive marshes and swamps

Examples of linguistic refuge areas• Caucasus Mountains • Alps, Himalayas, and highlands

of Mexico are linguistic shatter belts

• American Indian tongue Quechua → Andes Mountains of South America

• Rocky Mountains of northern New Mexico, still has an archaic form of Spanish

• Appalachian Mts- historically preserved 17th century English

http://ncsu.edu/linguistics/ncllp/dialectquiz.php

Euskera

The Basque speak the Euskera language, which is in now way related to any other language family in Europe.

How did Euskera survive?

Switzerland• Switzerland has four

recognized national languages: French, German, Italian, and Romansch.

• Romansch, Latin group, is spoken by only 1.1% of the population.

Other major language families • Sino-Tibetan language family

– 2nd largest language family• 403 languages

– Extends throughout most of China and Southeast Asia– Mandarin and Cantonese = dialects or languages?

• The Afro-Asiatic family – Has two major divisions—Semitic and Hamitic

• Semitic → from Tigris-Euphrates valley westward across the north half of Africa

– Arabic is the most widespread Semitic language– Hebrew (which used to be “dead”) is the official language of Israel

• Smaller number speak Hamitic languages– Expansion of Arabic decreased the area and number of speakers

Languages of Subsaharan Africa

- extreme language diversity

- effects of colonialism

Nigeria

more than 400 different languages.