Types of Language Non-spoken languages Sign language Body language Touch or tactile language Spoken languages Natural languages Artificial languages

Languages by Size About 6,900 languages A lot of small languages and just a handful of very large languages (recent phenomenon) Languages by Size

Language Families Most languages have a historical relationship with one or more other languages. The term language family and branch express these relationships. 6 major language families: Indo- European, Sino-Tibetan, Afro-Asiatic, Niger-Congo, Austronesian, Trans-New Guinea Geographers tend to focus on the major language families when making and using maps.

Language Families: Indo-European The Indo-European language family has the largest number of speakers and the widest geographical distribution The Indo-European language family is divided into multiple branches.

Language Families: Indo-European Renfrew Hypothesis: Began in the Fertile Crescent (FC) and then Europe’s languages came from Anatolia, N. Africa and Arabia’s languages came from the Western Arc of FC, SW Asia and S. Asia’s languages came from the Eastern Arc of the FC

Language Families: Indo-European Agriculture Theory: With increased food supply and population, migration of speakers from the hearth of Indo-European languages into Europe

Language Families: Indo-European Dispersal Hypothesis: From the hearth eastward into present-day Iran Around the Caspian Into Europe

European Languages Language Sub-Families of Europe Romance languages Germanic languages Slavic languages

South Asian Languages Indo-European is the largest of four main language families in S. Asia. The country of India has 18 official languages.

Sub-Saharan African Languages Dominant language family: Niger-Congo Relatively recent migration Continued recognizable similarities among subfamilies

How Do Languages Diffuse? Human interaction Print distribution Migration Trade Rise of nation-states Colonialism Religion Tourism

Multilingualism Monolingual State One language is spoken Multilingual State More than one language is spoken Official Language Gov’t-selected language(s) used to enhance communication in a multilingual state

Case Study: Nigeria Hundreds of languages Nigeria – a colonial creation Choice of English as “official” language rather than any indigenous language

Linguistic Dominance Not all countries have an official language Many of the world’s languages are largely unofficial Unofficial, or stateless, languages typically aren’t used for gov’t functions and are rarely taught in schools

Language Dynamics Languages change over time New technologies and innovations can add new vocabulary words Words are also borrowed form other languages – loanwords Migration can cause languages to change

Pidgin and Creole Languages Pidgin language – combines parts of two or more languages into a simplified structure and vocab Creole language – Pidgin language that developed a more complex structure and vocab Pidgin and Creole Languages

Lingua Francas Lingua franca – language used among speakers different languages for trade and commerce English is used as a lingua franca for commerce, science, travel, business, and pop culture

Global Dominance of English The language of international communication is often English

Language Endangerment and Diversity The world is currently experiencing the fastest rate of language extinction ever Geographers analyze how linguistically diverse a country is by computing a linguistic diversity index (LDI)

Dialect Regions Geographer Hans Kurath began the study of dialect geography Kurath identified isoglosses, which shows the boundary of word usage

Standard Dialects Some standard dialects can be accepted as the norm or authoritative model of language usage These dialects usually are associated with her status or prestige (the Queen’s English) Standard dialects are not the only way to properly use a language

Toponyms Toponyms are influenced by political power and settlement history Toponyms change after decolonization, after a political revolution, or to memorialize people or events