Chapter 5: Languages

Where Are the World’s Languages Distributed? Key Issue #1 Where Are the World’s Languages Distributed? L.O. 5.1.1: Understand how languages are classified Languages are classified as institutional, developing, vigorous and endangered L.O. 5.1.2: Identify the worlds largest language families The two largest language families are Indo-European and Sino-Tibetan L.O. 5.1.3: Identify the names and distribution of the two largest language families Indo-European I predominant language family of Europe, Latin America, North America, South Asia and South Pacific. Sino-Tibetan is the predominant language of family of East Asia L.O.5.1.4: Identify the distribution of the largest language families other than Indo-European and Sino-Tibetan The remaining major language families are centered in Asia

What Are Local & Popular Cultures? Language is one of the oldest and most geographically diverse cultural traits on Earth. The distribution of language around the world is the direct result of migration, and the interaction or isolation of language speakers.

Introducing Languages Currently, about 5,000 to 7,000 languages remain, with Africa and Asia being the most linguistically rich continents. The world’s greatest concentration of linguistic diversity is on the island of New Guinea – Rugged terrain and social mores limit interactions and have enable some 900 languages to persist into the present day.

Classifying Languages Of the worlds 7,102 languages, Many countries (578) designate at least one institutional language as an official language which is then used in government, law, education and media. Languages are classified (according to Ethnologue) as: (1) Institutional Language has been developed to the point that it is used and sustained by institutions beyond the home and community. (2) Developing These languages are in the initial stages of development. Literature in a standardized form is being used by some though this is not yet widespread or sustainable.

Classifying Languages (3) Vigorous These are not developing, but neither are they endangered since they enjoy vigorous face-to-face use in daily life by all generations. (4) Endangered Typically do not have a literary element and numbers of speakers are declining because another language is spoken by predominantly younger population

Organizing Language Families Languages are organized into language families – a collection of languages related through a common ancestral language (the same original tongue) long ago. Although all languages in a language family have a common origin, two members of the same family may sound very different depending on how long ago the two languages branched off.

Organizing Language Families A language branch is a collection of languages within a family related through a common ancestral language within the past several thousand years. About 50% of the world’s people speak languages belonging to the Indo-European branch family – Branches include the Romance branch (Spanish, French) and Germanic Branch (English, German).

Organizing Language Families The smallest organization and the most recent is the language group -A collection of languages within a branch with a common origin in the recent past and containing similar grammar and vocabulary. This can be represented by actual languages like English and German which are part of the Germanic Branch.

Two Largest Language Families: Indo-European Indo –European , the most widely used language family is the predominant on in Europe, South Asia and North and Latin America It has eight branches including four that are widely used – Indo- Iranian, Germanic, Romance and Balto-Slavic.

Two Largest Language Families: Sino-Tibetan Encompasses languages spoken in the People’s Republic of China – the world’s most populous state- and several smaller countries in Southeast Asia. No single Chinese language Mandarin (spoken by ¾ of Chinese people) is the most-used language in the world and the official language of both the People’s Republic of China and Taiwan.

Two Largest Language Families: Sino-Tibetan

Southeast Asia Language Families: The three Largest language families of the Southeast Asia are Austronesian, Austro- Asiatic and Tai-Kadai Austronesian – 6% of the worlds people – mostly in Indonesia (4th most populous state) – Javanese spoken by 84 million people

Southeast Asia Language Families: Austro-Asiatic- 2% of worlds people – Vietnamese is the most spoken. Tai-Kadai –Mainly spoken in Thailand and portion of China

East Asia Language Families: Two most widely used language families outside of China are Japanese and Korean. Korean – More than half of the Korean vocabulary derives from Chinese Words. Japanese and Chinese words are the principal sources for creating new words to describe new technology and concepts.

Other Asian Language Families: Dravidian languages are the principal ones in southern India – two most widely used are Telugu and Tamil.

Other Asian Language Families: Altaic (altayic) language with most speakers is Turkish -became official language of several countries that gained independence when Soviet Union broke up—e.g., Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, and Turkmenistan.

Other Asian Language Families: Uralic – Uralic languages are traceable back to the Ural mountains of present day Russia – Estonians, Finns and Hungarians speak languages that belong to the Uralic family.

African Language Families: Afro-Asiatic- Arabic is major language an official language in two dozen countries of Southwest Asia and North Africa. One of the six official languages in U.N. 206 million people speak and write the official language Arabic.

African Language Families: Niger-Congo- More than 95% of the people in sub-Saharan Africa speak languages of Niger-Congo.

African Language Families: Swahili is official language only in Tanzania but is first language of 15 million people and second language of 25 million more. Developed through interaction among African groups and Arab traders, so its vocabulary has strong Arabic influences.

African Language Families: Nilo-Saharan- Spoken by 43 million people in north-central Africa. Divisions within the Nilo-Saharan family exemplify the problem with classifying African languages –Few speakers but divided into six branches, plus numerous groups and subgroups.

America’s Other Language Family: Quechuan (catch-juan)- Most widely used language family in the Western Hemisphere other than Indo- European. It speakers live primarily in the Andes Mountains of western South America.