CHAPTER FOUR
Speaking about Places: The Geography of Language
Introduction:
Difference between a Language and a Dialect?
What is a Pidgin Language? A Lingua Franca?
Are you Monolingual, Bilingual, or Polyglot?
I) Linguistic Culture Regions
A. Language Families
1) Indo-European Language Family
Slavic, Germanic, Romance, Iranic, Indic, Celtic, etc.
Mother (English)
Mutter (German)
Madre (Spanish)
Meter (Greek)
Madar (Iran)
Matka (Polish)
Mava (Sinhalese of Sri Lanka)
Global Significance of Indo-European Languages
2) Afro-Asiatic Family
a) Semitic (Arabic, Hebrew, Amharic)
b) Hamitic (Berbers, Tuaregs, Cushites)
3) Other Language Families
a) Altaic (Turkic, Mongolic)
b) Niger-Congo (south of Sahara Desert; Swahili)
c) Austronesian (Polynesian; Malay-Indonesian)
d) Uralic Family (Finnish, Hungarian)
e) Sino-Tibetan (Chinese, Burmese, Tibetan)
f) Austro-Asiatic (Vietnamese and Cambodian)
g) Other Families (Khoisan of the Kalahari; Dravidian of S-India; Native American tongues; Basque; etc.)
B) English Dialects in the United States
- the use of “isoglosses” in geolinguistics
- three major dialects in the United States:
1) Northern Dialect
2) Midland Dialect
3) Southern Dialect
Is it soda, pop, or coke?
Turnpike, parkway, interstate, or freeway?
Buggies? Draws? Skeeter? Tater? Britches?
Are you perhaps fixin' to do something?
Is Ebonics a pidgin language or a dialect?
II) Linguistic Diffusion
- 10,000 BP about 15,000 languages
- today less than 6,000 languages
- in the year 2100 perhaps 300 languages left?
- importance of relocation diffusion!
A. Indo-European Diffusion
- 9,000 BP in SE-Turkey
- importance of agriculture in the diffusion
- later dispersal of Latin, English, and Russian
B. Austronesian Diffusion
- 5,000 BP in SE-Asia
- from New Zealand to Madagascar (!)
- Polynesian and the study of Ward, Webb, and Levison
C. Searching for the Primordial Tongue
(NOVA: “In Search of the Primordial Tongue”)
- Nostratic in the Middle East about 12,000 to
20,000 BP (Indo-European, Uralic, Altaic, etc.)
- Dene-Caucasian (Sino-Tibetan)
- Na-Dene (American-Indian)
- What is the Primordial Tongue of all these?
D. Linguistic Globalization?
Will globalization create one dominating language in the future? Perhaps some form of English?
III) Linguistic Ecology
A. Habitat and Vocabulary
- Inuit (arctic climate)
- Spanish / Scottish Gaelic (rough terrain)
- English (wet coastal plain)
B. Habitat Provides Refuge
- linguistics refuge areas (e.g. Native Americans)
- linguistic shatter belts (e.g. Caucasus Mountains)
C. Habitat Guides Migration
- Diffusion of Indo-European Language
- Stable vs. Unstable Language Borders
- importance of natural infrastructure (e.g. rivers, coastlines)
IV. Culturo-Linguistic Interaction
A. Technology and Linguistic Dominance
- role of agricultural revolution
- writing/alphabet (~ 6 millenium BP in Egypt, Sumeria)
- Transportation (e.g. Trans-Siberian Railroad)
- Cyberspace
B. Language and Empire
- Imperial Expansions and their result
C. Social Moral Model
- Charles Withers's study of conquered people - Example of Native Americans
- low social status
- losing pride in one's culture and language
- Bilingual People in the United States
- compare situation in 1910 (~25%) with today (< 14%)
D. Economic Development Model
- example of Wales in the United Kingdom - clearance model & changeover model
E. Language and Religion
- Islam and Arabic
- Latin and Roman Catholicism
- Protestant Reformation and the Standardization
of the German language
V. Linguistic Landscapes
A. Messages
- "hostile" vs. "friendly" landscape
- the big yellow M
B. Toponyms (Place names)
- Huntsville (specific & generic part)
- generic toponyms of the United S
- Northern:
- Randolph CENTER, Orange SOUTH
- Midland:
- PittsBURGH, HarrisBURGH, etc –
- Southern:
- Cypress BAYOU, Gum GULLY, etc
C. Toponyms and Cultures of the Past
- Arabic place names on Iberian Peninsula
- Guadalquivir
- Native American place names in the U.S.
- Spanish place names in the U.S.
D. Toponyms and Environmental Modifications
- Neuroth & Bayreuth
- What about Frankfurt?