1. Diffusion of Languages

2. Diffusion
Sound Shifts – charting of the diversification of languages over time; e.g. octo (Latin), otto (Ita), ocho (Spa), …
Deep Reconstruction – find vocabulary of an extinct language and go backward; Proto-Indo European
William Jones (>200 yrs. ago) – Sanskrit similar to Greek and Latin
Jacob Grimm – related languages have similar, but not identical consonants; e.g. vater (Ger) … vader (Dut), father (Eng) – softening over time
4 Tasks: Reconstruct the ancient language, find the hearth, routes of diffusion, and peoples’ ways of life

3. 8% 2/25 in empire .5% of the world

4. (Indo-European branch is highlighted)
The Language Tree – “Mother Tongue”
(Indo-European branch is highlighted)

5. Divergence – differentiation over time and space; languages branch into dialects, become isolated, then new languages—Quebec and Potuguese
Convergence – linked to human mobility (relocation diffusion); complicates rules of reconstruction—800, 1066
Replacement – modification of a language by stronger cultures (acculturation); e.g. Hungarian surrounded by Ind-Eur, Basque?
Clues: Linguists look for environmental vocabulary (landforms, vegetation,…)

6. Conquest Theory: Hearth is Ukraine (>5,000 yrs
Conquest Theory: Hearth is Ukraine (>5,000 yrs. ago); people used horses, wheel, and trade, spread language westward (sound shifts)2/25
Agriculture Theory: Hearth is Anatolia (Turkey - >10,000 yrs. ago); Ukraine relied on pastoralism, not farming
Farming people of Anatolia moved N & W
Distance decay from source area; some non-farming people held out (Basque in Spain)
Drawbacks: Anatolia not ideal for farming, some evidence states Proto-Indo-European language spread eastward first
Mountains, trees, monkeys… all present in that area—7,00-9,000 years ago
Renfrew Model – 3 hearths: Anatolia - Eur, Fertile Crescent (West) – N. Afr. & Arabia, Fert. Cres. (East) – Iran through India

7. 3 Maps Illustrating Possible Routes of Language Diffusion as Stated by the Agriculture Theory

8. Nostratic – Pre-Proto-Indo-European, speakers were hunters-gatherers, source of many other language families
Pacific Diffusion – Austronesian starts in China to Taiwan (>6,000 yrs. ago) then SE to New Zealand
American Diffusion – Joseph Greenberg’s Hypothesis: Amerind – oldest, largest, Na-Dene, then Eskimo-Aleut
Modern Language Mosaics – influenced by literacy, technology (printing press), and political organization (rise of nation-states)

9. Spread of Pacific Languages

10. Greenberg Hypothesis

11. Modern Language Mosaics

12. Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch – “longest place name in the world”

13. US is changing – Hispanics are the largest minority (“Hispanicization”)
> ½ are functionally illiterate in English (many early US immigrants were as well)
English as a second language

14. English – becoming a lingua franca of the world (commerce and science)
One Global Language?
Esperanto Experiment
occurred in early 1900s
based on Latin & other Eur. languages
failed – not a global tongue (Indo-Eur.), lacked practical utility
English – becoming a lingua franca of the world (commerce and science)
Latin—French—German—English

15. Lingua Franca
Ancient Mediterranean - “Frankish language”
Today - “common language”, second language
Pidgin – a lingua franca that has been simplified and modified through contact w/ other languages
Creole
Caribbean – mixing during slavery & colonizing
Today – pidgin later adopted as mother tongue
Creolization – lingua franca – becomes a pidgin – then becomes a creole language

16. Three African Lingua Franca

17. Multilingual states – all others
Language & Culture
Monolingual states – Japan, Venezuela, Iceland, Portugal, Poland Lesotho, …
Multilingual states – all others
Belgium – Dutch vs. French (Brussels officially bilingual)
Canada – Quebec (French by law), English everywhere else

18. Languages in Belgium

19. Quebec vs. Canada

20. Official Language – often selected by the educated and politically elite to promote national cohesion; commonly language of colonial power
Angola – Portuguese; Nigeria – English; French – Côte d’Ivoire
**Allows people w/ different languages to communicate & keep their own language
Toponymy – systematic study of place-names (can elicit strong passions)
Leningrad – St. Petersburg; Bombay – Mumbai; Zaire – Dem. Rep. of the Congo