Chapter Five Language and Religion: Mosaics of Culture

they are mentifacts - component of the ideological subsystem of culture , serving as expressions of culture and as vehicles of its transmittal to succeeding generations.

Definition of Languages

Language definition : an organized system of spoken words by which

people communicate with each other with mutual comprehension. Like Chinese -Mandarin, Cantonese, Shanghainese, Hakka, and others with different pronunciation but same written works.(Figure 5.3 – Chinese characters)

Communication of sound (vocalization) is the crucial part of this definition

Non-human languages- elephants, dolphins, chimpanzees - basic and static unlikely evolving into complex languages.

Languages are not static but change continuously Modern English - computer expands the vocabulary of commonly

used words.

Extinction Fear for languages 6,800 world languages, nearly

1,700 languages are either endangered, critically endangered or vulnerable (report from Nature)

27% of world languages are endangered.

Countries with the most endangered and extinct languages also have more endangered and extinct birds

here are 357 languages with fewer than 50 speakers each.

TOP 10 LANGUAGES(percent of world speakers in parentheses)1. Mandarin/Chinese (16%)

2. English (8%)

3. Spanish (5%)

4. Arabic (4%)

5. (tie) Hindi, Portuguese, Bengali, Russian (3% each)

9. (tie) Japanese, French (2% each)Source: U.N. Environment Program

Reference:http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/science/05/22/extinct.language/index.html

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Endangered Languages

http://www.intersolinc.com/newsletters/newsletter_21.htm

Trace proto languages Ancestral language

The predecessor of Latin, Greek, and Sanskrit Link Romance language and other languages together

To prove its existence:

1) reconstruction

2) Locate the hearths

3) Diffusion routes must be traced

4) knowledge of the ways of life

Genetic classification: classification of languages by origin and historical relationship

Language Family

proto-Indo-European languages (Fig 5.3) - originally hunters/fishers later became pastoralists and learnt to grow crops (in eastern Europe) 5000 bp.

Table 5.1

World Pattern of Languages Language Spread - by migration,

conquests, colonization. (fig 5.5) Fig 5.6 - Amerindian language

families three waves of migration:

Amerind, Na-Dene, and Eskimo-Aleut.

Innumerable indigenous languages - extinguished.

Patterns

Colonization and conquest - 1000 to 2000 Amerindian languages disappeared

16th century - Slavic expansion caused the lost of Paleo-Asiatic languages

Australian languages from English speakers Austro-Asiatic speakers reduced by

conquest/absorption (Sino-Tibetan) Arabic/Bantu expansion

Spread Latin replaced Celtic (abandonment of former languages) Adoption (expansion diffusion, acculturation) - major cause of

language spread. Indo-European languages was dispersed to other areas.

Arabic to N Africa,W Asia through conquest/religious conversion and superiority of culture

Relocation Diffusion - massive migration Hierarchical Diffusion - adoption of new languages from

administrator-schooling-daily contact-business.. proficiency of new languages symbolizing the culture and education, social status (in Uganda, English instead of Swahili being used to display the prestige..)

Cultural Barriers - (Greek/Turkish.. Cyprus, Breton/Caelic..) Physical barriers - Pamirs/Hindu Kush mountains..obstacle for

Indo-European), Euskara (in Basques)