Key Issue #3: Where Are Other Language Families Distributed? Classification of Languages 8 Largest Families: ①Indo-European (48% of world) – English, Hindi, Spanish, etc. (Europe, Americas, South Asia) ②Sino-Tibetan (26%) – Mandarin (East & SE Asia) ③Afro-Asiatic (6%) – Arabic (Middle East, N. Africa) ④Austronesian (5%) – SE Asia, Polynesia ⑤Dravidian (4%) – South Asia/India ⑥Altaic (3%) – Central Asia ⑦Niger-Congo (3%) – Sub-Saharan Africa ⑧Japanese (2%) ⑨100 smaller families (3%) – includes Uralic, Korean, Austro-Asiatic, Nilo-Saharan, Khoisan families

Key Issue #3: Where Are Other Language Families Distributed? Distribution of Language Families o Sino-Tibetan Family (China & SE Asia) Sinitic Branch (Chinese) o Mandarin – spoken by ¾ of China (language of emperors & Beijing) o Mandarin has most speakers in the world (China, Taiwan) o Mandarin is a source of cultural unity & pride (but 16% illiterate) o Written consistently but spoken differently (thousands of characters/ideograms, 420 one-syllable words that can be combined) o Southern & eastern Chinese languages: Wu, Min, Yue (Cantonese), Jinyo, Xiang Austro-Thai & Tibeto-Burman Branches o Austro-Thai – Thai/Siamese (Thailand/Siam, Laos, parts of Vietnam) o Tibeto-Burman – Burmese (Burma/Myanmar) o Other East & SE Asian Languages Asian languages very different but seem similar to westerners Japanese – some Chinese diffusion (writing style); isolation Korean – peninsula isolation, perhaps related to Altaic or Japanese, no ideograms, one letter represents a sound (hangul/hankul/onmun), use some Chinese & Japanese words Austro-Asiatic (2% of world) in SE Asia – Vietnamese, Khmer (Cambodia) o Vietnamese uses Roman alphabet – brought by Catholic missionaries (French)

Key Issue #3: Where Are Other Language Families Distributed? Distribution of Language Families o Afro-Asiatic Family Arabic, Hebrew, and smaller N. African & Middle Eastern languages Used in Jewish Torah/Tanakh & Islamic Qu’ran/Koran Arabic official in 24 countries (spread with Islam) o Altaic & Uralic Families Once thought to be related (similar word formation/grammar endings) but now thought separate b/c of different geographic origin Altaic – origin in steppes between Tibet & China near Himalayas Uralic – origin in Ural Mts. north of Kurgan hearth Altaic – Turkish (Turkey) – now uses Roman alphabet, Azerbaijani, Uzbek, Kazakh, Uyghur, Tatar, Bashkir, & Turkmen – others use Arabic alphabet & were suppressed during USSR o Boundary problems – not all Altaic languages have own country or follow country borders Uralic – Estonia & Finland (Finnish) and Hungary (Magyar) o Migrated from Urals and carved out homelands surrounded by Slavic & Germanic peoples

Key Issue #3: Where Are Other Language Families Distributed? Distribution of Language Families o African Language Families Over 1,000 languages in Africa & several thousand dialects Isolation – highlands, jungles, deserts Most lack written tradition & only 8 are spoken by over 10 million people European missionaries & colonists began recording languages and brought Roman alphabet (Arabic alphabet spread by Muslim traders) Northern Africa – Arabic; northern Nigeria – Hausa; Horn of Africa – Amharic, Oromo, Somali; Sub-Saharan – complex Niger-Congo Family o 95% of Sub-Saharan Africa o Bantu migrations o Zulu in South Africa o 6 Branches – largest is Benue-Congo (Yoruba, Igbo, Shona, Swahili) o Swahili mixed b/t African & Arabic – Arabic traders brought writing Nilo-Saharan Family (north-central to East Africa) o 6 branches, each with very few speakers & many subgroups Khoisan Family – SW Africa, use clicking noises (called Hottentot)

Key Issue #3: Where Are Other Language Families Distributed? Distribution of Language Families o African Language Families Nigeria: Conflict Among Speakers of Different Languages o Most populous country in Africa o 493 distinct languages (diversity leads to conflict) o Hausa in north (Afro-Asiatic family) – 15% & mostly Muslim o Yoruba in SW (Niger-Congo) – 15% o Igbo in south (Niger-Congo) – 15% o 55% speak other 490 languages o Different regions with different languages have tried to secede or claimed discrimination o Capital moved from Lagos in south (Yoruba) on coast to Abuja in center to reduce tensions o Austronesian Family (mostly in Indonesia) Isolation on islands lead to numerous languages (739) & dialects Javanese (75 mil) on Java & city of Jakarta Indonesian – 2 nd language to 140 million to facilitate communication Malay – Malaysia (similar to Indonesia) Malagsy – Madagascar (1,900 miles from SE Asia), borrows words from African languages, closest to Ma’anyan on island of Borneo, sea migration