Slide Notes for Chapter 5: Language 05 Language English-speaking countries. 05-01 English-speaking countries

05 Language Invasions of England. 05-02 Invasions of England. The first speakers of the language that became known as English were tribes that lived in present-day Germany and Denmark. They invaded England in the fifth century a.d. The Jutes settled primarily in southeastern England, the Saxons in the south and west, and the Angles in the north, eventually giving the country its name: Angles’ Land, or England. From this original spatial separation, the first major regional differences in English dialect developed, as Figure 5–3 shows. Invasions by Vikings in the ninth century and Normans in the eleventh century brought new words to the language spoken in the British Isles. The Normans were the last successful invaders of England. (Source: From Albert C. Baugh and Thomas Cable, A History of the English Language, 3d ed., © 1978, p. 47. Reprinted by permission of Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ.)

05 Language Old English and Middle English dialects. 05-03 (Left) Old English dialects, before the Norman invasion of a.d. 1066. (Right) Middle English dialects (1150–1500). The two maps show that important dialects of Middle English corresponded closely to those of Old English. The Old English Northumbrian dialect, spoken by the Angles, split into Scottish and Northern dialects. The Old English Mercian dialect, spoken by the Saxons, divided into East Midland and West Midland, and the West Saxon dialect became known as the Southwestern dialect. The Old English Kentish dialect, spoken by the Jutes, extended considerably in area and became known as the Southeastern dialect. (Source: From Albert C. Baugh and Thomas Cable, A History of the English Language, 3d ed., © 1978, p. 53. Reprinted by permission of Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ.)

05 Language Dialects in eastern United States. 05-04 Dialects in eastern United States. The most comprehensive classification of dialects in the United States was made by Hans Kurath in 1949. He found the greatest diversity of dialects in the eastern part of the country, especially in vocabulary used on farms. Kurath divided the eastern United States into three major dialect regions—Northern, Midlands, and Southern—each of which contained a number of important subareas.

languages, English, dialects, United States, South

05 Language Branches of Indo-European language family. 05-05 Branches of Indo-European language family. Most Europeans speak languages from the Indo-European language family. In Europe the three most important branches are Germanic (north and west), Romance (south and west), and Slavic (east). The fourth major branch, Indo-Iranian, clustered in southern and western Asia, has over 1 billion speakers, the greatest number of any Indo-European branch.

languages, Indo-European language family, Germanic languages, language families, German

05 Language Languages and language families in South Asia. 05-07 Languages and language families in South Asia. The region has four main language families: Indo-European, Dravidian, Sino-Tibetan, and Austro-Asiatic. More than 90 percent of the people of India speak at least one of the country’s 14 official languages, written in red on the map.
languages, Indo-European language family, India, Hindi, Sino-Tibetan language family, Dravidian language family, language families

05 Language Romance branch of Indo-European language family. 05-08 Romance branch of Indo-European language family. Romance includes three of the world’s 12 most widely spoken languages (Spanish, Portuguese, and French) plus two other widely spoken tongues (Italian and Romanian). The map also shows boundaries among some dialects of Spanish and French. Catalán is a dialect of Spanish and the official language of Andorra. French dialects include Occitan (langue d’oïl) and langue d’òc. Rhaeto-Romanic languages include Romansh, Ladin, and Friulian.

languages, Indo-European language family, Romance languages, French, Spanish, Italian, language families

05 Language Origin and diffusion of Indo-European (Kurgan hearth theory). 05-09 Origin and diffusion of Indo-European (Kurgan hearth theory). The Kurgan homeland was north of the Caspian Sea, near the present-day border between Russia and Kazakhstan. According to this theory, the Kurgans may have infiltrated into Eastern Europe beginning around 4000 b.c. and into central Europe and southwestern Asia beginning around 2500 b.c.

05 Language Origin and diffusion of Indo-European (Anatolian hearth theory). 05-10 Origin and diffusion of Indo-European (Anatolian hearth theory). Indo-European may have originated in present-day Turkey 2,000 years before the Kurgans. According to this theory, the language diffused along with agricultural innovations west into Europe and east into Asia.

05 Language Language families. 05-11a Language families. Most language can be classified into one of a handful of language families. The pie chart shows the percentage of people who speak a language from each major family. You can see that Indo-European and Sino-Tibetan languages dominate, with Indo-European spoken by about 50 percent of Earth’s people, and Sino-Tibetan spoken by about 20 percent. The map colors show the distribution of each family. Note especially the worldwide span of Indo-European languages but the relatively narrow diffusion of Sino-Tibetan tongues. Languages that have more than 100 million speakers are identified on the map.

05 Language Language families. 05-11b Language families. Most language can be classified into one of a handful of language families. The pie chart shows the percentage of people who speak a language from each major family. You can see that Indo-European and Sino-Tibetan languages dominate, with Indo-European spoken by about 50 percent of Earth’s people, and Sino-Tibetan spoken by about 20 percent. The map colors show the distribution of each family. Note especially the worldwide span of Indo-European languages but the relatively narrow diffusion of Sino-Tibetan tongues. Languages that have more than 100 million speakers are identified on the map.

05 Language Language family tree. 05-12a Language family tree. Language families are divided into branches and groups. Shown here are language families and individual languages that have more than 5 million speakers. Numbers on the tree are in millions of native speakers. Native speakers are people for whom the language is their first language. The totals exclude those who use the languages as second languages. Below ground level, the language tree’s “roots” are shown. However, the theory that several language families had common origins tens of thousands of years ago is a highly controversial speculation advocated by some linguists and rejected by others.

05 Language Language family tree. 05-12b Language family tree. Language families are divided into branches and groups. Shown here are language families and individual languages that have more than 5 million speakers. Numbers on the tree are in millions of native speakers. Native speakers are people for whom the language is their first language. The totals exclude those who use the languages as second languages. Below ground level, the language tree’s “roots” are shown. However, the theory that several language families had common origins tens of thousands of years ago is a highly controversial speculation advocated by some linguists and rejected by others.

05 Language Chinese language ideograms. 05-13 Chinese language ideograms. The Chinese languages are written with ideograms, most of which represent ideas or concepts rather than sounds. About 240 key characters may be built into more complex words. These are examples of words built from two basic characters—”Sun” and “person.”

05 Language Africa’s language families. 05-14 Africa’s language families. Nearly 1,000 languages have been identified in Africa, and experts do not agree on how to classify them into families, especially languages in central Africa. On the large island of Madagascar, the language is unrelated to other African languages. Madagascar’s Austronesian language is from a language family spoken across a wide area of the South Pacific (see Figure 5–11). This wide diffusion indicates that early speakers of Austronesian on the island of Madagascar must have migrated long distances. Languages with more than 5 million speakers are named on the map.

05 Language Nigeria’s main languages. 05-15 Nigeria’s main languages. National unity is severely strained by the lack of a common language that a large percentage of the population can understand. To encourage unity among the disparate cultural groups, Nigeria has moved the national capital from Lagos, in the Yoruba-speaking southwest, to Abuja, in the country’s center. This central and “neutral” location was selected to avoid existing concentrations of the major rival cultural groups.

05 Language Languages in Belgium. 05-16 Languages in Belgium. Belgians are sharply divided by their language differences. Flemings in the north speak Flemish, a Dutch dialect. Walloons in the south speak French. The two groups have had difficulty sharing national power. As a result, considerable power has been transferred to two regional assemblies, one each for Flanders and Wallonia. This road sign in Flanders shows city names in Dutch. Had this been Wallonia, the sign would have shown the French equivalents Bruxelles, Anvers, and Courtrai, respectively. The photograph shows no motor vehicles because truck drivers had blocked the highway to protest high fuel costs.

05 Language Languages in Switzerland. 05-17 Languages in Switzerland. Switzerland lives peacefully with four official languages, including Romansh, which is used by only 1 percent of the population. Although the country can be divided into four main linguistic regions as shown, people living in individual communities, especially in the mountains, may use a language other than the prevailing local one. The Swiss, relatively tolerant of speakers of other languages, have institutionalized cultural diversity by creating a form of government that places considerable power in small communities.

05 Language English/French language boundary in Canada. 05-18 English/French language boundary in Canada. More than 80 percent of Québec’s residents speak French, compared to approximately 6 percent for the rest of Canada. The boundary between Canada’s French- and English-speaking regions is not precise; mixed areas exist along the borders with New Brunswick, Newfoundland, Ontario, and the United States.

05 Language Internet hosts in 1999. 05-18-01 Internet hosts 1999. Matrix Internet and Directory Services prepared the map to show a clustering of a large percentage of the world's Internet users in the relatively developed countries of North America, Western Europe, and Japan.