Languages of China Chinese has the most speakers of any language. It is one of the world’s oldest languages spoken by the greatest contiguous population on Earth. Southern China-the most variety and dialects-most are mutually unintelligible. Some scholars argue that for this reason-it is not one language, but several. Mandarin-the dominate language of the North spoken by 700 million including Beijing. Wu is next with 100 million speakers in Shanghai area. Yue-or Cantonese is spoken by 70 million in the SE. Pinyin is a system of phonetically spelling Chinese characters as spoken in Mandarin in the Latin alphabet. Translation from Chinese to English is often a problem: The floor of the bathroom was wet and the sign warned people about the slippery tiles.  Beneath the Chinese, the sign had English subtitles that said: “Fall down carefully.”

Languages of China Note the complexity of the language map in the southern part of China. Why? Proximity to many other lands across the water and other cultures to the south?

Chinese Ideograms Fig. 5-13: Chinese language ideograms mostly represent concepts rather than sounds. The two basic characters at the top can be built into more complex words.

Street scene in Hong Kong, Now known as Xianggang Since 1997 take over by Red China. How does it feel to be illiterate? This is a cultural landscape that is very unfamiliar to Westerners. All literate Chinese-no matter which of the many languages of China they speak, recognize the same ideographs for house, rice and tree.

Translation from Chinese to English is sometimes problematic Translation from Chinese to English is sometimes problematic. A photo from a 2007 visit to China. Bottom right-another Chinese translation gone bad/

Languages of India India had 4 language families with the largest being Indo-European and Dravidian. There are 15 major languages-all but 4 are Indo-European. Over 1,600 lesser languages. The largest Indo-European language is Hindi Largest Dravidian tongue is Telugu. Of India’s 1 billion people most speak either an Indo-European or a Dravidian language. Notice that the Dravidian language family is confined to the south which resulted from the Aryan invasion of Indo-European speakers in ancient times. Northern India is predominantly Indo-European with the largest group being Hindi. There are 15 major languages-all but 4 are Indo-European, but 1,600 minor languages, some spoken by only a few thousand. Telagu, the largest Dravidian language is concentrated in the province of Andra Pradesh. Tamil is spoken by 75 million, mostly in Tamil Nadu. There are also Tamil speakers on the island nation of Sri Lanka. India’s federal government divisions closely follow the linguistic isoglosses (lines that divides linguistic features or groups).

South Asian Languages & Language Families Fig. 5-7: Indo-European is the largest of four main language families in South Asia. The country of India has 18 official languages.

Languages of Africa There are 1,000 spoken languages in Africa and many are unwritten. There are 4 major indigenous language families; Afro-Asiatic of N. Africa Nilo-Saharan Niger-Congo Khosian Largest ethnic groups are associated with a language. Afro-Asiatic of North Africa includes Somali, Amharic and Tuareg Nilo-Saharan includes Dinka, Turkana and Nuer in East Africa Niger-Congo-the largest family includes Hausa, Yoruba, Zulu, Swahili and Kikuyu. The largest sub-family is Bantu spoken near and south of the Equator. Bantu like Celtic in Europe was once the dominant language of the continent. Khoisan is a small language family spoken by the Bushmen of the Kalahari-noted for distinctive “clicking” vocalizations. The largest ethnic groups are associated with certain dominant languages such as Hausa, Yoruba and Zulu. Attempts to consolidate ethnic groups across boundaries and the struggle for power between groups has been a major cause of conflict

Languages of Subsaharan Africa - extreme language Languages of Subsaharan Africa - extreme language diversity - effects of colonialism

Nigeria More than 400 different languages.

Language and Culture “No one was allowed to speak the language – the Dena’ina language. They [the American government] didn’t allow it in the schools, and a lot of the women had married non-native men, and the men said, ‘You’re American now so you can’t speak the language.’ So, we became invisible in the community. Invisible to each other. And, then, because we couldn’t speak the language – what happens when you can’t speak your own language is you have to think with someone else’s words, and that’s a dreadful kind of isolation [emphasis added].” Clare Swan, elder, Kenaitze band, Dena’ina Indians

Language and National Identity Standard Language a language that is published, widely distributed, and purposefully taught. Government usually plays a big role in standardizing a language.

Street scene in France-note the boulangerie, patisserie, lunch sign. The French government has fought very hard to prevent the infusion of English or other foreign words into the French language

Language Divisions in Belgium Flanders (Flemish language) Wallonia (French language) Fig. 5-16: There has been much tension in Belgium between Flemings, who live in the north and speak Flemish, a Dutch dialect, and Walloons, who live in the south and speak French.