Why is English related to other languages? English is part of the Indo- European language family. Language family – collection of languages related through a common ancestor that existed long before recorded history. Language Branch – collection of languages related through a common ancestor that existed several thousand years ago. Indo-European is divided into eight branches. –Four largely spoken. –Four less extensive.

Indo-European - Germanic Language Group – collection of languages within a branch that share a common origin in the relatively recent past. West Germanic division –High Germanic –Low Germanic

Indo-European - Facts Branch with most speakers – Indo-Iranian. Most widely used languages in India belong to the Indic group of the Indo-Iranian branch of Indo-European. Most widely used Slavic languages are the eastern ones, primarily Russian. Most spoken West Slavic language is Polish. Four most widely used Romance languages: Spanish, Portuguese, French, and Italian.

Romance Languages Use of Latin – Roman Army and Vulgar Latin. French dialect – Francien, North and South. Spanish and Portuguese – 90% of speakers outside of Europe. Spanish is official language of 18 LA states. Portuguese = Brazil Creole (creolized language) is a language that results from the mixing of the colonizer’s language with the indigenous language.

Origin & Diffusion of Indo-European Theory – language diffused primarily through warfare and conquest. Theory – diffusion resulted from the peaceful sharing of food. Indo-Iranian branch = migration from Anatolia or indirectly via Russia.

Other Language Families ~50% of all people speak a language in the Indo- European family. ~20% speak a language in the Sino-Tibetan family. ~5% each speak a language in one of these four families: –Afro-Asiatic (Middle East) –Austronesian (Southeast Asia) –Niger-Congo (Africa) –Dravidian (India)

Preserving Local Languages Extinct languages – no longer spoken or read in daily activities by anyone in the world. Peru – 16c. = 500 languages; Today = 57, half of which face extinction. Hebrew – has been revived since Israel was established in 1948 and became one of the country’s official languages.

Other Languages Celtic – 2000 years ago = Germany, France, Italy; Today = Scotland, Wales, Ireland, and Brittany Peninsula in France Education Act (Britain) made Welsh language training a subject in all schools in Wales. Irish-language TV station began broadcasting in Cornish is taught in grade schools and adult evening courses and is used in some church services (spelling issues).

Multilingual States Boundary between the Romance and Germanic branches runs through the middle of Belgium and Switzerland. Southern Belgians = French; Northern Belgians = (Dutch) Flemish Switzerland = 4 languages; German, French, Italian, and Romansh.

Isolated Languages Isolated Language – unrelated to any other and therefore not attached to any language family. Arise through lack of interaction with speakers of other languages. Example: Basque Icelandic is related to other languages. Over the past 1000 years, it has changed less than any other in the Germanic branch. Why?

Global Dominance of English Well-educated speakers of two languages will use English. Language of international communication is known as a lingua franca (language of the Franks). Was originally applied by Arab traders during the Middle Ages to describe the language they used to communicate with Europeans, whom they called Franks. Simplified form = pidgin language – constructed by learning a few of the grammar rules and words of a lingua franca, while mixing in some elements of their own languages. Other than English, modern lingua franca languages include Swahili in East Africa, Hindustani in South Asia, and Russian in the former Soviet Union.

Diffusion of English Expansion diffusion through distribution, migration, and conquest. Spread of a trait through the snowballing effect of an ideas rather than through the relocation of people. Unlike most examples of expansion diffusion, recent changes in English have moved up from common usage and ethnic dialects rather than directed down to the masses by elite people. Examples: African-Americans and residents of Appalachia. Use of Ebonics is controversial within the African- American community. Speaking an Appalachian dialect produces both pride and problems.

Diffusion of Other Languages Franglais – spread of English in the French language. Spanglish – English diffusing into the Spanish language, especially by 17 million Hispanics in the US.

Title:Branches of Indo-European language family. Caption: 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 more than 1 billion speakers, the greatest number of any Indo-European branch. Keywords:languages, language families, Indo-European language family, English, French

Title:Romance branch of Indo-European language family. Caption: 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. Keywords:Romance languages, language families, Indo-European language family

Title:Language families. Caption: 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. Keywords:languages, language families, Indo-European language family

Title:Language families. Caption: 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. Keywords:languages, language families, Indo-European language family

Title:Languages in Belgium. Caption: 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. Keywords:languages, multilingual states, Belgium, Flemish, Dutch, French

Title:Internet hosts 1999, by location. Caption: 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. Keywords:languages, English, Internet hosts