1. LANGUAGE

2. Language Introduction
Language is critical because it’s the means by which other cultural values are communicated
United Nations 6 official languages:
Russian Spanish
French English
Chinese Arabic

3. Language Families
All language belong to a family – collection of many languages which come from same original tongue, long ago, before written history but have since evolved with different characteristics (i.e. have same ancestor)

4. Indo-European Family
I-E family = largest family…spoken by over 50% of world
Families divided into smaller branches and groups
I-E as 8 branches, 4 BIG ones
Germanic Branch: dominant in N and W Europe (Swedish, Dutch, Danish, English, Norwegian)

5. Indo-European Family – cont’d
Indo-Iranian Branch: branch w/ most speakers (over 100 lang spoken by over 1 bill people)
Indic (Eastern) Group: India, Pakistan, Bangladesh (Hindi, Urdu)
Iranian (Western) Group: Iran, Afghanistan (Persian, Kurdish, Pathan)

6. Indo-European Family – cont’d
Balto Slavic Branch – Russian, Ukrainian, Polish, Czech, Slovak, Bulgarian
Romance Branch evolved from Latin spoken by Romans 2,000 yrs ago. Conquering Romans diffused their lang through the empire. After fall of empire, regions were isolated and lang developed distinctly

7. Indo-Euro Lang Family Tree

8. Indo-Euro Family – most widely diffused language

9. Pidgins and Creole Languages
When 2 groups meet with different languages, a new language with new characteristics of both emerges.
Pidgin: simplified form of lingua Franca (usually forms as a simple trade language); no native speakers; used for communication among speakers of 2 diff. languages (i.e. hodge podge combination - ex. African slaves)
Creole: language combined between colonizers and colonized/indigenous peoples - blended
Ex: French Creole in Haiti

10. Indo-European Ancestor?
Called Proto-Indo-European – difficult to prove because existed thousands of yrs before written history. 2 theories….
Kurgan Hearth: Russia/Kazakhstan, N. of Black Sea, spread by nomadic herders
Anatolian Hearth: present day Turkey – spread by farmers

11. Other Lang Families Indo-European – 50%
Sino Tibetan – 20% (Chinese, Cantonese, Thai)
Afro-Asiatic 5% - Middle East – Arabic, Hebrew
Niger-Congo 5% - Africa (Africa – most diverse languages…unknown #. Over 1,000 distinct lang and several thousand dialects. Nigeria alone has over 200 distinct lang.
Austroneasean – 5% SE Asia
Dravidian 5% - parts of India

12. Language Preservation
Distribution of a language is a measure of the fate of an ethnic group. Language displays the 2 competing geographic trends:
GLOBALIZATION
Versus
LOCAL DIVERSITY

13. Language Extinction No longer in use by any living people
Thousands have become extinct over history but process has accelerated in recent past
Colonialism in 18th and 19th C and globalization of 20th C driven many lang to extinction
Ex: when Spanish arrive in Amazon found over 500 lang. Today 57 survive, half of which will die in next few yrs as elderly speakers pass away

14. Language Extinction – cont’d
Pressures of econ and social acculturation responsible for today’s extinction (i.e. adoption of cultural traits like lang by one group under the influence of another)
Lang extinction can lead to cultural extinction: an entire culture obliterated by war, disease, acculturation. When a culture and its language disappear it takes w/ it a tremendous amount of history

15. Language Extinction
“To lose my mother tongue would be like being forced into language exile. I would lose my family’s history and culture.”
James Jansen – director of “In Language We Live” – documentary on extinct languages

16. Language Extinction

17. Language Revival Movements to revive near extinct language
Parts of Scotland, Ireland, Wales – revive Celtic
Hebrew revived after WW II when Israel became a state. Hebrew made one of two official languages (with Arabic). Due to the fact that Hebrew was used primarily for religious services and was not commonly spoken.
(Official language: all government business occurs in this language – schools, documents, road signs, etc.)

18. Official Languages….
Language given a unique status in the constitution of countries
Government makes a declarative statement
Typically language used in nation’s legislative bodies
Over half the countries in the world have official languages
Some have one; others have more than one
USA doesn’t have an official language….should we?

19. Official Languages

20. Multi Lingual States
Have multiple official languages – can cause difficulty
Belgium- Walloons in S speak French, Flemings in N speak Flemish. Language boundary sharply divides country. Each region has own elected assembly that runs their region and often antagonism between the two.

21. Multi Lingual States
CANADA – French and English. Quebec has had separatist movement in past. Separation only voted down by slim majority

22. Multi Lingual States
Basques – Pyrenees mountains in N. Spain, ETA – separatist movement – engaged in terrorist attacks