1. AP HUMAN GEOGRAPHY CHAPTER 9 CLASS NOTES
THE DIFFUSION
OF LANGUAGES

2. Origins of Languages Search goes back 1,000s of years
DEEP RECONSTRUCTION – ???
working backwards to reconstruct extinct language

3. Language Diffusion KEYS TO DIFFUSION???
Writing, technology, & political organization
Indo-European languages spread during colonial period

4. Language Diversification
Charted through SOUND SHIFTS – how a word changes form language to language
MILK = lacte in Latin latta in Italian leche in Spanish lait in French

5. THE LANGUAGE TREE INDO EUROPEAN gives us: Latin, Greek, Sanskirt
ROMANCE – Spanish, Italian, French
SLAVONIC – Russian, Ukranian, Polish, Czech, Slovak
GERMANIC – English, German, Dutch, Norwegian

7. Language DIVERGENCE Split Apart – basic process of language formation
Differentiation over time & space
Languages > Dialects + Isolation & Time = New Discrete Languages
Spanish & Portuguese

8. Language CONVERGENCE When long isolated languages make contact
Human mobility complicates things for linguists (expansion diffusion)
Maltese and English into Malta
Malta between Sicily and North Africa- British conquest caused language convergence

9. Relocation Diffusion (CH 2) – population physically moves.
How / Why Change Language???
Go far – language likely will change somehow (rhythm, cadence, accent)
Cause of language convergence

10. Language REPLACEMENT
Languages of smaller, traditional, tech. less advanced people modified / overtaken by larger, tech. advanced invaders.
Assimilation!!
War/Disease

11. THEORIES OF LANGUAGE DIFFUSION
Spreading of Proto-Indo-European language
Competing archeological evidence puts source areas in different places

12. 1. Conquest Theory In Ukraine Region N. of Black Sea
Spread W. on horseback conquering tribes
theory of the diffusion of the Proto-Indo-European language into Europe through the speakers’ overpowering of earlier inhabitants through warfare and technology (e.g., fighting on horseback).  Its hearth is around modern day Ukraine (Kurgan Hypothesis - Marija Gimbutas).

13. 2. Agriculture Theory 7,000 – 9,000 years ago
Agriculture, not Conquest that diffused the Indo European family
Source in Anatolia (Turkey)
theory of the diffusion of the Proto-Indo-European language into Europe through the innovation of agriculture (being more efficient than hunting and gathering).  Its hearth is around modern day Anatolia (in Turkey; Renfrew Hypothesis - Colin Renfrew).

14. Conquest / Agriculture Theory in Book, p. 128

15. Colin Renfrew Model
3 separate source agricultural areas gave rise to 3 separate language families
Anatolia-Indo European
W. Fertile Crescent-Afro-Asiatic Languages
E. Fertile Crescent- Uralo-Altaic
Uralo Altaic- Includes mongolian, japanese, korean, turkic

17. Greenberg Hypothesis 3 families of indigenous languages in Americas
Amerind, Eskimo–Aleut, Na-Dene