1. The Human Mosaic CHAPTER FOUR
Speaking about Places:
The Geography of Language

2. Introduction - Difference between Language and Dialect?
- What is a Pidgin Language?
- A Lingua Franca?
- Are you Monolingual, Bilingual, or Polyglot?
- Do you know any words you use that are not “English”?

3. Spanish gas station sign in New York City

4. Translating animal sounds!

5. Claiming spaces / naming places

6. I) Linguistic Culture Regions
A. Language Families
1) Indo-European Language Family
Slavic, Germanic, Romance, Iranic, Indic, Celtic, etc.
Mother (English) Mutter (German) Madre (Spanish) Meter (Greek) Madar (Iran) Matka (Polish)
What is behind the global significance of Indo-European languages?

8. a) Semitic (Arabic, Hebrew, Amharic)
2) Afro-Asiatic Family
a) Semitic (Arabic, Hebrew, Amharic)
b) Hamitic (Berbers, Tuaregs, Cushites)
3) Other Language Families
a) Altaic (Turkic, Mongolic)
b) Niger-Congo (south of Sahara Desert; Swahili)
c) Austronesian (Polynesian; Malay-Indonesian) d) Uralic Family (Finnish, Hungarian)
e) Sino-Tibetan (Chinese, Burmese, Tibetan)
f) Austro-Asiatic (Vietnamese and Cambodian)
g) Other Families (Khoisan of the Kalahari; Dravidian of S-India; Native American tongues; Basque; etc.)
- languages like Basque are “language isolates” as they do not have any genealogical relationship with other living languages

10. Linguistic Family Tree

12. Major dialects of North America

13. B) English Dialects in the United States
- the use of “isoglosses” in geolinguistics
- three major dialects in the United States:
1) Northern Dialect
2) Midland Dialect
3) Southern Dialect
Is it soda, pop, or coke?
Turnpike, parkway, interstate, or freeway?
Buggies? Draws? Skeeter? Tater? Britches?
Are you perhaps fixin' to do something?
Ebonics and AAE: pidgin language or dialect?

14. Sign in Arab Quarter of Nazareth in north Israel

15. Texting and language modifications.

16. II) Linguistic Diffusion
- 10,000 BP about 15,000 languages
- today less than 6,000 languages
- importance of relocation diffusion!
A. Indo-European Diffusion
- 9,000 BP in SE-Turkey
- importance of agriculture in the diffusion
- later dispersal of Latin, English, and Russian
B. Austronesian Diffusion
- 5,000 BP in SE-Asia
- from New Zealand to Madagascar (!)
- Polynesian and the study of Ward, Webb, and Levison

17. Dominant language families of Native America

18. Bantu expansionism

20. Diffusion of the Polynesian language

21. Dialect boundaries

22. C. Searching for the Primordial Tongue
(NOVA: “In Search of the Primordial Tongue”)
- Nostratic in the Middle East about 12,000 to 20,000 BP (Indo-European, Uralic, Altaic, etc.) - Dene-Caucasian (Sino-Tibetan)
- Na-Dene (American-Indian)
- What is the Primordial Tongue of all these?
D. Linguistic Globalization?
Will continuing globalization create just a handful of dominating languages? What are the most likely candidates?

23. Isoglosses for Spanish loanwords in Texas

24. Word use from Midland to Southern

25. Spread of the northern dialect with migration

26. Mesh of language and empire in South America

27. States with “English-only” laws.

28. Col. French vs. indigenous Polynesian

29. Ten most prevalent languages on the internet.

30. Distribution of the world’s nearly extinct languages.

31. Global “language hotspots” in need of protection.

32. III) Linguistic Ecology
A. Habitat and Vocabulary
- Inuit (arctic climate) / Arabic (desert climate)
- Spanish / Scottish Gaelic (rough terrain)
- English (wet coastal plain)
B. Habitat Provides Refuge
- linguistics refuge areas (e.g. Native Americans)
- linguistic shatter belts (e.g. Caucasus Mnts)
C. Habitat Guides Migration
- Diffusion of Indo-European Language
- Stable vs. Unstable Language Borders
- importance of natural infrastructure (e.g. rivers, coastlines)

35. Linguistic shatter belt

36. IV. Culturo-Linguistic Interaction
A. Technology and Linguistic Dominance
- role of agricultural revolution
- writing (~ 6 millennium BP in Egypt & Sumeria)
- Trans-Siberian Railroad vs. Cyberspace
B. Language and Empire
- Imperial Expansions and their result
C. Social Moral Model
- Charles Withers’ study of conquered people Example of Native Americans
- low social status
- losing pride in one's culture
- Bilingual People in the United States (~25%) vs. today (< 14%)
WWI / Lusitania

37. D. Economic Development Model
- example of Wales in the United Kingdom clearance model & changeover model
E. Language and Religion
- Islam and Arabic
- Latin and Roman Catholicism
- Protestant Reformation and the Standardization
of the German language

38. Retreat of the Welsh language.

39. V. Linguistic Landscapes A. Messages
- "hostile" vs. "friendly" landscape
- the big yellow M
B. Toponyms (Place names)
- Huntsville (specific “Hunts” / generic “ville”)
- generic toponyms of the United States
- Northern: Randolph CENTER, Orange SOUTH
- Midland: PittsBURGH, HarrisBURGH
- Southern: Cypress BAYOU, Gum GULLY

40. Samoan sign as part of the cultural landscape

41. Korean signage as illegible

42. Graffiti used to mark “territory”.

43. Aborigine specific toponym with English generic name

44. C. Toponyms and Cultures of the Past
- Arabic place names on Iberian Peninsula Guadalquivir, Guadalajara
- Native American place names in the U.S.
- states, rivers, mountains, etc.
- Spanish place names in the U.S.
D. Toponyms and Environmental Modifications
- Neuroth & Bayreuth
- What about Frankfurt? Erfurt? Schweinfurt?

45. Cleaning up a colonial history

46. Arabic toponyms in Iberia

47. Names ending in itz, zig, and in identify Slavic origin.