1. 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?

2. 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

3. 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

4. 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

5. 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

6. 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

7. 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

8. 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

9. 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

10. 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