Department of Geography

B.Sc. (II Semester)

Human Geography (Unit – II)
Topic: Distribution and Characteristics of Language

For geographers, language is a major means by which cultural diffusion, both spatial and
temporal, takes place. Therefore, geographers often use language as an identification mark for
different cultures. Because language is essential to communication, it strongly influences the sort
of political, social and economic institutions we create. As a result economic and religious
systems frequently follow patterns of language distribution, and political borders quite often
parallel linguistic boundaries. In short, human linguistic patterns make a highly varied mosaic
whose design both affect and are affected by many elements of culture and the physical
environment. Language evolves through ages. Social, cultural, political and other aspects of life
do contribute in need and essence of origin of language.

Definitions:
1. Language, a system of conventional spoken, manual (signed), or written symbols by
means of which human beings, as members of a social group and participants in
its culture, express themselves. The functions of language include communication, the
expression of identity, play, imaginative expression, and emotional release.
2. The method of human communication, either spoken or written, consisting of the use of
words in a structured and conventional way.
3. The words, their pronunciation, and the methods of combining them used and
understood by a community.
4. A system of communication used by a particular country or community.

Dialect: A dialect is a particular form of a language which is unique to a specific region or social
group. It is different from a standard variety of language. Dialects have variations in grammar,
vocabulary or pronunciation. Dialects are especially a way of speaking that differs from the
standard variety of the language. For example, American English, Indian English, and Australian
English, etc. are some examples of English dialects. Moreover, there are also sub-dialects within
these dialects. Furthermore, it is also possible to derive some information about a person’s
geographical location, education or social background from his or her dialect. There are two

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categories of dialects as standard and non-standard dialects. A standard dialect is a dialect that is
approved and supported by institutions, and non-standard dialects are those that are not
supported by institutions.
Linguistic Classification: Major Language Families

(1) The Indo-European Family

 The Indo-European family of languages is most dominant in the world. It includes several
sub-families like. Indian, Iranian, Armenian, Germanic, Italic, Hellenic, Albanian, Balto-
Slavic and Celtic languages.
 The Indo-European family is derived from a single original dialect (proto-language)
spoken by the Kurgans whose homeland was the Eurasian steppes around 4,300 B.C.
With their migration and conquest in different parts of Europe, Asia, Anglo-America,
Latin America, Australia and Africa.
 They spread over a vast territory, so did their language which became differentiated into
several sub-families due to geographical and cultural isolation.
 They all share words whose generic origin can be traced to a common linguistic root. The
Indian sub-family includes Sanskrit, Hindi, Punjabi, Bengali and other modem Indian
Languages.
 Due to closer affinity between Indian and Iranian languages they are included in the Indo-
Aryan or Indo-Iranian sub-family (Persian-Iran, Urdu-Pakistan, Hindi-India and Bengali-
Bangladesh).
 The Germanic sub-family which is most prominent includes German, English, Dutch,
Danish and Norwegian language.

(2) The Latin Family

 The main languages of the Latin family are French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian
and Romanian: they are all called the Romance languages as they were spread by the
Roman Empire.
 French and Spanish languages are the official languages of the UNO like English.
Spanish Portuguese languages have wider distribution because of their colonial rule in
Latin America (South America and Central America).

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  French is the national language of France, Switzerland, Canada and several countries of
Africa.
 The Italian language has predominance in Italy, Sicily, Switzerland and some Islands of
the Mediterranean Sea.
(3) The Balto-Slavic Family
 The Balto-Slavic also belongs to the Indo-European family and is most preponderant in
Eastern Europe and the Baltic States.
 The most important Slavic language is Russian, an official language of the UNO. The
other important languages of this family are Ukranian, Byelorussian, Polish, Czech and
Slavic.
(4) The Sino-Tibetan Family
 The Sino-Tibetan Family includes Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Thai, Malay, Vietnamese,
Burmese, etc. Chinese (Mandarin) is the largest spoken language of the world. It has
main branches as Mandarin (spoken by 75 per cent Chinese), Cantonese, Min, Wu, Yue,
and Hakka.
 Mandarin Chinese originally spoken in north-eastern China is the official language of the
UNO and is also the national language of China, Taiwan and Singapore. Min is spoken in
China, Taiwan and Malaysia. Japanese and Korean Languages are limited to Japan,
Korea and the Pacific Islands.
(5) The Semito-Hamitic Family
 The Semito-Hamitic family is completely unrelated to the Indo-European family. In fact
they originated before recorded time and were closely linked with monotheism as
practiced by Judaism, Christianity and Islam.
 It includes Arabic, Hebrew and a number of other languages spoken in North Africa and
Middle East.
 Arabic and Hebrew enjoy special status as they are the languages of the Holy Quran and
the Bible.
 Arabic is the seventh largest language spoken by 200 million people and is the official
language of 20 countries including Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Kuwait, Jordan, Syria, UAE,
Yemen, Egypt, Morocco and other countries of North Africa.
 Hebrew is the national language of Israel where English and Arabic are also spoken.

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(7) The African Family
 It is estimated that there are 1,000 odd languages and dialects spoken in different
countries of Africa.
 The linguistic pattern of North Africa is well defined where Arabic is the dominant
language among the Berber racial groups.
 The dominant Negro-Congo group includes six languages viz. Mande, Gur, Kwa,
Adamawa and Benue-Congo.
 The Nilo Saharan group is quite common in North Central Africa while Khoisan
language group dominates South-Western Africa.
 The Swahili is the official language of Tanzania and East African countries like Kenya
and has a well-developed literature.
 The Zulu is spoken in Southern Africa and the Bantu began in tropical Africa and spread
South and East.
 Nigeria, the most populous country of Africa has as many as 200 languages with English
(official language), Hansa, Yoruba and Ibo. Eritrea (Horn of Africa) has as many as 9
languages: Actor, Bilen, Kunama, Nara; Arabic, Tobedawi, Saaho, Tigra and Tigrinia. It
amply illustrates the pattern of linguistic diversity in Africa.
(8) Malayo-Polynesian Family
 It is also called the Austronesian family. It is widely spread from Madagascar to Hawaii
through Indonesian and the Pacific Islands.
 It was carried by the navigators from island to island. The linguistic diversity ascribed to
this cultural realm owes to racial diversity as well as linguistic diffusion and blend. There
are several minor variations in the structure of individual languages and dialects and they
are written in different ways.
 Arabic characters were often used in Muslim areas though Roman script has now been
opted, whereas adaptations of Indian languages are used in Myanmar, Thailand, Laos and
Kampuchea (Cambodia). Vietnamese was once written with ideographs similar to those
of Chinese, but is now written in Roman script.

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 Native Speakers in million
Language Language Family Group
(2010 Census)
Mandarin (entire branch) 955 Sino - Tibetan
Spanish 405 Indo-European
English 360 Indo-European
Hindi 310 Indo-European
Arabic 295 Semito-Hamitic
Portuguese 215 Indo-European
Bengali 205 Indo-European
Russian 155 Indo-European
Japanese 125 Sino - Tibetan
Punjabi 100 Indo-European

Major Langauge
Native Speaker (in Million)
1200

1000 955
Native Speaker (in million)

800

600
405
400 360
310 295
215 205
200 155 125 100

Language