What are Languages and What roles do they play in Culture? AP Human Geography Chapter 6 Section 1 What are Languages and What roles do they play in Culture?

Language “a set of sounds, combinations of sounds, and symbols that are used for communications” Vocalization most important aspect of language Umbrella of different dialects Often marked by actual differences in vocabulary

Language and Culture Helps preserve local and national culture How might this work? Can reveal the culture a person is from Can reveal how cultures view reality Lacking words for god, having no terms to illustrate sense of chronology, lacking vocabulary to criticize government

Language Laws Colonizers and Imperialism forced conquered people to speak a certain way Cultures may make a certain language the “official language” or a Standard Language to preserve it

Standard Language “language that is published, distributed, and purposefully taught” Sustained by the government Variations in a standard language can exist Although the word is spelled the same it is pronounced differently

Dialects “Variants of a standard language along regional or ethnic lines” Differences in: Vocabulary Syntax (How words are put together to form phrases) Pronunciation Cadence (rhythm in speech) Pace of Speech

Dialects and Accents An accent is the way that particular person or group of people sound. It’s the way somebody pronounces words, the musicality of their speech, etc. A dialect describes both a person’s accent and the grammatical features of the way that person talks. Isogloss – a geographic boundary of a specific linguistic feature Not simply a line for a boundary

Examples of Different Dialects Soda vs. Pop vs. Coke About to vs. Fixin Ya’ll vs. Yous I have vs. I got Car may sound like caa in Boston Oil may sound like all in Texas

Mutual Intelligibility “two people can understand each other when speaking” Theory that languages are not mutually intelligible but dialects are Dialect Continuum: Languages A and B are mutually intelligible. So are Languages B and C. Languages A and C however are not. This theory’s not always accurate though: Spanish and Portuguese Navajo and Apache Mandarin and Cantonese Chinese

Dialect Chains Links of related dialects Dialects nearest each other are the most similar Dialects become more, or less, intelligible to each other based on distance