Geography of

Language
Where are languages distributed?
How do languages diffuse?
Why is English related to other languages?
Why do individual languages vary among places?
Why do people preserve local languages?
Book of Genesis
Tower of Babel
How much do you know?

What are the three most spoken

languages in the world?
Mandarin (955 million)
Spanish (405 million)
English (360 million)
 How Much Do You Know?
Which one is Dutch and
which one is German?
Dutch Ik ben een student.
German Ich bin ein Student.
How Much Do You Know?
Which one is Chinese and
which one is Japanese?

我的氣墊船滿是鱔魚。

私のホバークラフトは鰻でいっぱいです
How Much Do You Know?
What are the official languages
of Belgium and Switzerland?
Belgium:
Dutch, French and German
Switzerland:
French, German, Italian and
Rumantsch
How Much Do You Know?
Do you recognize these scripts?

Я говорю по-английски

나는 영어로 말한다.

‫أنا أتحدث اإلنجليزية‬

ฉันพูดภาษาอังกฤษ
Where are the “clicking”
languages” spoken?
• Southeast Asia?
• Southern Africa?
• Northern Africa?
• Peruvian Andes?

• Clicking tongue twister –

wow
https://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=KZlp-croVYw
• Trevor Noah click singing
https://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=baEiWB2aM9Y
 How Much Do You
Know?
Is Farsi the same as Persian?
Russia

Yes, they are the same:

The Persian language is known as Farsi

in Iran.
Dari or Afghan Persian is used in
Afghanistan.
Tajik Persian is used in Tajikistan,
Uzbekistan and Russia.
How Much Do You Know?
Are Hindi and Urdu
the same language?
Basically. They were once considered the same
language, but after Partition when Pakistan and India
splitting up, the languages were modified.
The two languages have very different scripts. ... Most
speakers of both languages can understand the other
without much difficulty. "Pure" Hindi leans towards
Sanskrit whereas "pure" Urdu tends towards Persian.
Hindi is predominant in India whereas Urdu is
widespread in Pakistan.
 Geography of Language
• Language is the heart of culture, and culture is the glue
of society; without language, culture could not be
transmitted from one generation to another
• People / groups are often very proud and protective of
their language.

Language Stats
• Number of living languages: 6,000-9,000
• Country with the most languages spoken: Papua New Guinea (820)
• Language with the most words: English (approx. 250,000)
• Language with the largest alphabet: Khmer (Cambodia) = 74 letters.
• Language with the shortest alphabet: Rotokas (Papua New Guinea) = 12 letters
 Distribution of
World Language Families

Indo-European An interrupted Goode-Homolosine projection:

Sino-Tibetan preserves the position of the continents.
 Distribution of
World Language Families

Indo-European
Sino-Tibetan
 Major Language Families
Percentage of World Population
 * illustrates
the concept
of language
divergence

Indo-European Branches
of the Language Tree
 The vocabulary of a
Mandarin ancient language can
reveal its cultural
Cantonese
hearth.

August
Schleicher
(1821-1868)
• German linguist.
• First to compare
the world’s
language families
Sino-Caucasian
to the branches of
a tree.
 Sound Shifts
Linguists can find linkages among languages by examining sound shifts – a
slight change in a word across languages over time.

Latin for eight is octo

Spanish is ocho
French is huit

German vater
Dutch vader
English father

Latin for milk is lacte

Italian is latta
Spanish is leche
French is lait
 How do Languages
Diffuse?
• Human interaction
• Print distribution (1452 movable type printing press)
• Migration
• Trade
• Rise of Nation-states
• Colonialism
 Diffusion of
Indo-European Language 1

Turkey
 Diffusion of
Indo-European Language 2
 Why is English related to other languages?

Approximate
timing of the
westward
dispersal
Indo-European
Languages
 Greek
French
Italian

High
Dutch German
Yiddish Swedish
English
Indo-European is the largest and
most widespread language family.
Celtic Baltic
Germanic Albanian
Romance Greek
Slavic
Languages
of Europe
There is a high
correlation
between
languages and
political
organization.
Romance Branch
of Indo-European
Germanic Branch
of Indo-European
 Languages of China
• Chinese is spoken by the most people of any
language and by the greatest contiguous population.
• One of the world’s oldest languages
• Southern China has the most variety and dialects,
most are mutually unintelligible.
• Some scholars argue that for this reason that it is not
one language, but several.

Mandarin - dominate language of the North

- 700 million including Beijing.
Wu - 100 million speakers in Shanghai area.
Yue or Cantonese - 70 million speakers in the SE
Chinese Ideograms
 Chinese/ English

Japanese/ English

Problematic
Translations
 Languages of India
• 4 language families,
largest is Indo-European
• 15 major languages with
all but 4 are Indo-
European.
• Over 1,600 lesser
languages.
• Largest Indo-European
language is Hindi
• Largest Dravidian tongue
is Telugu.
• Official Language = Hindi
South Asian Languages
Languages
of Africa
• 1,000 spoken languages
• Many are unwritten.
4 major indigenous
language families:
• Afro-Asiatic of N. Africa
• Nilo-Saharan
• Niger-Congo
• Khosian
Largest ethnic groups are
associated with a
language.
Nigeria

More than
400
different
languages
 Language & Migration
• Quebecois French is more similar to European
French from the 17th century than it is to modern
French because that is when they split off from
France and migrated to the New World

• Brazilian Portuguese is very different from European

Portuguese – it has a lot of influence from African
languages due to their history in the slave trade.
 Language Extinction
• Language extinction has occurred throughout
time
• The process has been accelerated greatly
through:
o colonialism in the 18th and 19th centuries
o the economic globalization in 20th century
• Languages such as English or French have
replaced dozens of native tongues all over the
world.
• The Whistling Language
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0CIRCjoICA
 Language Terms
• Standard Language
• Dialect
• Isogloss
• Lingua Franca
• Language Isolate
• Pidgin
• Creole
Standard Language
Language that is published, widely distributed and
purposefully taught.
Official language sustained by the state in the form of state
examination for teachers, civil servants and others.

Dialect
Regional variation of a standard language
Distinctive vocabulary, spelling and pronunciation
Speakers of one dialect can understand speakers in
another dialect
Accents can reveal the regional home of a person
 Isogloss
• a line on a dialect map marking the boundary between
linguistic features.
 Isogloss
Geographic boundary within
which a particular linguistic
feature is found
• The North dialect on the
map extends north into
Canada
• Rosemary Clooney and
Gene Puerling ``Let`s call
the whole thing off``
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=
ya8-ZKcOhiY
 Can We Guess What Region You're From
Based On Your Vocabulary?
You can run from your regional lingo, but you can't hide.
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4HLYe31MBrg
Quizzes:
http://www.playbuzz.com/baileyhouston10/a-can-we-guess-what-region-your-from-based-on-your-vocabulary or
http://distractify.com/old-school/2015/05/29/my-ant-mary-warshed-the-dishes-1197926692
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2013/12/20/sunday-review/dialect-quiz-map.html
Pop, Soda or Coke?
 Dialects in Canada

Allan Hawco On How To Speak Like A Newfoundlander

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHB32ll7Ce8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=10MSgbnYGjk
 What do you call someone who
studies "too much" and tries very hard
to impress the teacher?
Percent
Value SC 1 Middle class 2 Working class
Count
20.9% 18.9% 24.6%
4. teacher's pet
115 68 47
12% 9.5% 16.8%
(No response)
66 34 32
8.7% 8.4% 9.4%
7. nerd
48 30 18
8.2% 9.2% 6.3%
2. brown noser
45 33 12
4.7% 4.5% 5.2%
suck up
26 16 10
3.6% 4.5% 2.1%
3. brown nose
20 16 4
2% 1.1% 3.7%
book worm
11 4 7
1.8% 2.5% 0.5%
suck Dialect Topography
10 9 1
class.UToronto.ca
1.3% 1.9% 0%
keener Orientation
7 7 0
1.3% 1.4% 1%
good student
7 5 2
 Lingua Franca
• A language of communication and commerce used by
speakers of different languages across a wide area
where it is not the mother tongue
• During Islamic expansion = Arabic
• Globally = English
• Eastern Africa = Swahili
lingua franca first coined
in 17th century by the Italians

• The language of trade.

• Bridge language
• Means “Frankish
language”, as “Frank” was
a common designation for
all western Europeans
since approximately the
12th century.
English and Its Undeserved Good Luck

Countries where English is an official or de facto

official language
Jay Walker: The world's English mania
• Why two billion people around the world are trying to
learn English. 4 mins. Video 2009
http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/jay_walker_on_the
_world_s_english_mania.html
What is the minimum number languages that one could
speak and still be able to travel most of the globe?

Arabic
Chinese
English
French
Portuguese
Russian
Spanish
Official Languages at the
United Nations
 English
 French
 Spanish
 Russian
 Arabic
 Chinese
 Language Isolate
• A natural language with no
real relationship with other
languages
Example:
Basque in northern Spain
o Little is known of its origins
o The Romans neglected the
western Pyrenees
mountains allowing the
language to survive while
others in the area died out
 Pidgin Creole
• Composite language • Fuller vocabulary than
consisting of a small pidgin language
vocabulary borrowed • Mix of colonizer`s
from the linguistic group language with indigenous
involved in commerce language
• Basic level of • Becomes the native
communication language of their speakers

Examples:
French Creole, Haiti
Portuguese Creole, Cape
Verde
Euphemisms
• Evolution of language
George Carlin (comedian 1937-2008) Video 2012
http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=vuEQixrBKCc&feature=y
outu.be or http://www.mojvideo.com/video-george-carlin-
euphemisms/1647e52375b8d5334996
 Language Politics
• The way language and linguistic
differences between peoples are dealt
with in the political arena. Examples:
o Which language gets to be the official
language?
o Do full citizens have to be completely fluent
in the official language?
o At various times minority languages have
either been promoted or banned in schools
National Identity and
Language
• Languages can promote national identity
• Countries have one or many “official
languages”
• What are strictly dialects of the same
language may be promoted as separate
languages to promote a sense of national
identity
o Examples include Danish and Norwegian,
and Serbian and Croatian
 Académie française
• Official custodians of the French language est. 1635
• Legislation to protect French language
• Anglicisms: unwanted English words that are slipping into
French
• Pollution of language thro spatial diffusion - le corner, le
drugstore
• Working to come up with French equivalents to Anglicisms

English French
networking travail en réseau
email courriel
hotline numéro d’urgence
brainstorming remue-méninges
Street scene in France
Note sign:
BOULANGERIE
PATISSERIE
LUNCH

The French government

has fought very hard to
prevent the infusion of
English or other foreign
words into the French
language.
Language and Cultural Identity
Quebec Language Laws
• Bill 101 -- the legislation aimed at preserving the
French language
• In 2014, a group of major retailers including
Costco, Old Navy, Best Buy and Walmart won a
court battle that granted them a rare exemption
from Quebec’s strict language laws for
businesses.
• The Quebec Board of the French Language
wanted these companies to translate their
names or add a French slogan or description to
their signs and storefronts.
% French
Speakers
 Section 63 of
Quebec's French
Language Charter
states that the name
of a business must
be in French.

Second Cup added les cafes

Cafe Starbucks Coffee
KFC is "PFK"

Displaying the name of Companies spend big bucks on

the company in French designing logos. They don`t
vs
is a show of respect for want to add another element to
the law. that logo just for Quebec.
 Banning a language
Sometimes a government will ban a language
in an attempt to:
o wipe out an entire culture
o assimilate the culture
o punish the culture
o establish a more unified national identity
 Examples of
banned languages
• Aboriginal languages banned in • Russia banning Ukrainian language
residential schools in Canada
• Polish was banned during its Russification period
• Cajun language banned in Louisiana
• Slovakia banned Hungarian
• The Hawaiian language banned in
• Language of the Faroe Islands being banned
schools
by the Danes
• The Spanish Peruvian government
• Eritrean language was banned during Ethiopian
banning Quechua, the language of
rule
the Incas
• Aboriginal Australian languages were banned
• Turkey banning the Kurdish language
• Maori being banned in New Zealand schools
• England and Ireland and the Gaelic
• Any non-Japanese languages being banned,
language
such as the Ryukyuan languages on Okinawa
• Welsh being banned in Great Britain
• Korean was banned during its Japanese
• Catalan banned in Spain
occupation
• Basque banned in Spain
• Punjabi banned in Pakistani schools
• Ukraine contemplating banning
Russian language
 Toponym
• A place name
• Imparts a certain
character on a place
• Reflects the social
processes in a place
• Can give us a
glimpse of the history
of a place
• Toponymy in cartography
https://www.youtube.com/wa
tch?v=BgaXLtFQNZc

Mumbai is the new name for Bombay

Derived from a Hindu god’s name
When people change the toponym of a place, they have
the power to “wipe out the past and call forth the new.”
Yi-Fu Tuan
 Changing Toponyms
Major reasons people change toponyms:
o After decolonization
o After a political revolution
o To memorialize people or events
o To commodify or brand a place
Nelson Mandela Park Public School in Regent Park has kept its
century-old façade and outside walls but redid the interior, added a new library
and created room for ~650 students.
Originally called Park Public School
 Martin Luther King, Jr.
Streets in the U.S.A.
* Where are MLK streets?
* Why are they where they are?
* What controversies surround memorializing MLK with a
street name?

Greenville,
North Carolina
All of the following belong to the Indo-
European language family EXCEPT

A. Hindi
B. Bengali
C.Farsi
D. Mandarin
E. Dutch
D. Mandarin
The predominance of English as the
preferred language spoken at many
international business meetings and
political summits could be cited to support
the claim that English is a popular

A. Creole language
B. Pidgin language
C. Language branch
D. Dialect
E. Lingua franca
E. Lingua franca
Which of the following terms best describes
the geographical boundary of one particular
linguistic features?
A. Language border
B. Toponym
C. Choropleth interval
D. Linguistic hearth
E. Isogloss

E. Isogloss
A highly simplified language developed
between linguistically heterogeneous
groups for the purposes of basic intergroup
communication is known as which of the
following?

A. Creole
B. Pidgin
C. Lingua franca
D. Bilingualism
E. Standard dialect B. Pidgin
 Sources
• The Tower of Babel http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZDfzArL42I
• http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2012/11/18/quebec-language-
rules_n_2153803.html
•
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/france/8820304/France
s-Academie-francaise-battles-to-protect-language-from-English.html
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fs0V0C7Qexo