Language Families

Why is English related to Other Languages?

English = Indo-European language family

A language family- a collection of langs related thru a common ancestor that existed long before recorded history.

Indo-European is the language family with the most speakers (~3 bil).

Indo-European Branches

W/in lang families are language branches A subfamily/language branch- a collection of

langs related thru a common ancestor that existed thousands of years ago. differences are not as extensive/old as with lang.

families archaeological evidence can confirm that the

branches derived from the same family

Indo-European is divided into 8 branches: Germanic, Romance, Balto-Slavic, Indo-Iranian, Greek, Albanian, Celtic, and Armenian

Germanic Branch

English = Germanic Language Branch West Germanic Group

A language group is a collection of langs w/in a branch that share a common origin in the relatively recent past, & display relatively few differences in grammar and vocab

West Germanic Group

Includes the languages of German & English, Afrikaans, and Dutch High Sub-Group:

German is spoken mainly in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland

Low Sub-Group: English is spoken on every continent (key places: Great

Britain, United States, Canada, India, Japan, and Australia)

Dutch in the Netherlands, Flemish in Belgium Afrikaans in South Africa & Namibia (like Dutch)

North Germanic Group

Sometimes called Nordic North Germanic

languages of Swedish, Norwegian, Icelandic, and Danish Derived from Old Norse

English word Icelandic wordSpoken comparison

apple epli  listen (help·info)

book bók  listen (help·info)

high/hair hár  listen (help·info)

house hús  listen (help·info)

mother móðir  listen (help·info)

night nótt  listen (help·info)

stone steinn  listen (help·info)

that það  listen (help·info)

word orð

Romance Branch

The Romance Branch evolved from the Latin lang. spoken by Romans 2,000 years ago

The four most common Romance languages are Spanish, Portuguese, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and ItalianFrench, and ItalianFrench and Spanish are two of the six

official UN languages

Romance Branch

RomanianRomanian in Romania and MoldovaOnly one spatially separated

Others include RomanshRomansh (one of Switzerland’s 4 official languages), and CatalanCatalan (spoken in Spain, and the official language of Andorra)4 more in Europe

Haiti: French Creole is ex. of Rom. language spoken outside Eur.

Creole

creolized language = mix of a colonial language and an indigenous langForms when a colonized grp adopts the

lang of the dominant grp, but makes some Δs (usually vocab or grammar from native lang)

• Begins as pidgin lang once a gen. is raised w/ it as native = creolized

History of the Romance Languages

Latin was spread by the soldiers of the Roman EmpireWhen they conquered a group of people,

they taught them LatinThe ppl spoke a different form of Latin

called Vulgar Latin, or Latin of the People.Ex: The Latin word for horse is equus, but the

Vulgar Latin word for horse was caballus. Italian: cavallor, Spanish: caballo, Portuguese: cavalo, and French: cheval

Spanish and Portuguese

Both of these langs are impt around the world due to Spanish and Portuguese imperialismSpanish = official language in 18 Latin

American countriesLingua franca of region

Portuguese = official language of Brazil

Balto-Slavic Branch

Roots are more AsianDue to isolation of diff grps when they

arrived in E. Europe, diff langs emergedEast*, West, South Slavic and Baltic

GROUPLanguages include: UkrainianUkrainian, , RussianRussian,

Czech, Slovak, Polish, Serbo-Croatian, Bulgarian, and the Baltic langs

Balto-Slavic Branch

Russian is most widely spoken lang, and is spoken by 80% of the RussiansRussian is one of the 6 official languages of

the UNRussification post-WWII

Ukrainian and Belarusian next in # for East Slavic.

The Eastern Baltic languages include Latvian and Lithuanian.

Balto-Slavic Branch

Main W Slavic langs are Polish (Poland), Czech and Slovak (former Czechoslovakia) Speakers of Czech and Slovak can understand

each other

S Slavic- Slovene in Slovenia, Macedonian in Macedonia, and Serbo-Croatian is spoken by rest of Yugo. w/ conflicts, similarities are NOT being preserved Montenegrans & Serbs use Cyrillic alphabet

Indo-Iranian Branch

The Indo-Iranian branch has the most speakers.

It has over 100 langs w/ over 1 billion native speakers

The branch includes the languages of Persian (Farsi), Bengali, Hindi, Urdu, and Punjabi

The Indic (eastern) Group

1/3 of Indians use HindiHindiSpoken many different ways, but there is 1

common written form of the language called Devanagari

India’s constitution recognizes 18 official languages4 diff lang. families present

The Indic (Eastern) Group

Pakistan’s principal language is Urdu, and the written form is Arabic alphabet

Bangladesh’s main language is Bengali

English not official. Only 1% speak itBut often common language,

de facto lang.

The Iranian (Western) Group

Indo-Iranian languages are spoken in Iran and neighboring countriesPersian, or Farsi, is main lang in Iran.Other languages include Kurdish and Pashto

(Pathan/Pashtun)

All of these are written w/ Arabic alphabet.

Other Languages

Greek, Albanian, Celtic, and Armenian are in the Indo-European family, but stand on their own

Greek: 12 million native speakers. Armenian: 6 million native speakers. Albanian: 7.3 million native speakers Celtic: in UK (some France), 1.4 million

Ex: S/I Gaelic, Welsh, Cornish

Gimbutas: war

Renfrew: agriculture

Now get out paper for notes on other delightful things

Language Diversity

How many languages exist in the world?

6,909(according to Ethnologue -

www.ethnologue.com)

10spoken by at least 100 million people

6,500spoken by fewer than 1 million people each!

New York tweets, by language

Catalogue containing stats for almost 7,000 languagesEach year # of languages changes as some

die Extinct language: no longer spoken or

read by anyone516 nearly extinctGothic was last of East Germanic

EBLUL created to preserve 60 minority lanugages of EU

Extinct language that was revivedUsed only for Jewish ceremonies after 300

BCE Really dead, not extinct?

Aramaic replaced by Arabic 1948- estab. of Israel, Hebrew became

official language Had to create new words for modern

items (Eliezer Ben-Yehuda)

A street in Jerusalem was re-named New York after Sept. 11, 2001. The street name is shown in Hebrew, Arabic, and English

Major language prior to Germanic invasion of British IslesSpoken in Northern Europe and Italy as well

Gaelic (Goidelic) Irish vs. Scottish

Brythonic (Britannic, Cymric)Wales (Welsh), Brittany (Breton), Cornwall

(Cornish)

Celts lost battles and rights to other languages

Forced to learn English to get jobs

What has been done in Wales to increase number of Welsh speakers?Welsh Lang. Society, Britain’s Education

Act: taught in schools, BBC channel What has been done in Ireland to

increase number of Gaelic speakers?Rock groups, TV station, road signs

Cornish went extinct in 1777 what about now?Revival began in 1920s, taught in schoolBattle of spellings

Road signs in Ireland are written in both English and Gaelic (Goidelic).

Romance vs GermanicBelgium: Walloons (French) vs Flemings

(Flemish/Dutch)Estab. 2 official regions (Flanders &

Wallonia)Brussels is bilingual

Switzerland: German, French, Italian, RomanshPeaceful b/c of decentralized govn’t

Fig. 5-16: There has been much tension in Belgium between Flemings, who live in the north and speak Flemish, a Dutch dialect, and Walloons, who live in the south and speak French.

The name of the bookstore is printed in both French (top) and Flemish (bottom).

Fig. 5-17: Switzerland remains peaceful with four official languages and a decentralized government structure.

Isolated Language: unrelated to any other, most often not part of a family Indo-European not only had common ancestor,

but spread thru intense interaxn with conquests

Isolated results from inverse relation to interaxn

Basque- last of isolated in Europe Northern Spain, SW France Which

mountains? Icelandic-

Is related to North Germanic (Norwegian) Norwegian changed, not Icelandic

English- language of international communication

Pidgin language: result of two languages (one lingua franca) and simplifying it Not a native language, just in addition

Main ones: English, Swahili, Hindustani(?), Indonesian,

Russian, Arabic, Spanish

English often mandatory to learn as 2nd language

http://www.uhh.hawaii.edu/~ronald/230/creoles.htm

Fig. 5-1.1: English is still the largest language on the internet, but there has been rapid growth in many others, especially Chinese.

Fig 5-1.2: English and English-speaking countries still dominate e-commerce, but other languages are growing rapidly.

Franglais French Academy promotes replacing English

words since 1635 1994- banning franglais illegal Where is the preservation of French most

severe? Quebec

Spanglish (Cubonics) Invents new words, modifies spelling, using

both in one phrase Denglish

Institute for German Language protests use of Denglish

Fig. 5-18: Although Canada is bilingual, French speakers are concentrated in the province of Quebec, where 80% of the population speaks French.

What well-known Indo-European language is now extinct?Gothic

What group did it belong to?East Germanic

What Afro-Asiatic language was once deemed extinct/dead and is now revived?Hebrew

What year was Israel created?1948

What Indo-European branch has been endangered since the British Isles were first invaded?Celtic

Name 3 Celtic languages Irish Gaelic, Scottish Gaelic, Welsh, Breton,

Cornish How were Celts treated in Irish schools

for speaking Celtic languages?Tally Sticks

What country is almost split evenly between speakers of two language branches? Belgium

What are the names of people and what language do they speak? Flemings Flemish (Dutch, Germanic) Walloons French (Romance)

What country has 4 official languages? Switzerland

What are they? French, German, Italian, Romansh

What group created a dialect in order to communicate in code?African American slaves

Many of these dialectical differences turned into what English dialect?Ebonics

What are the two theories of the origin of the Indo-European language family?Kurgan: War, cattle herders from steppes of

Russia/Kazakhstan GimbutasAnatolian: diffusion of agriculture

Renfrew Most spoken language?

Mandarin Largest language families?

Indo-European, Sino-Tibetan

Largest language family in Sub-Saharan Africa?Niger-Congo

Largest language family in North Africa?Afro-Asiatic

Term for division lines between “coke”, “pop”, and “soda” Isogloss

A collection of languages related through a common ancestral language that existed several thousand years ago Language branch

A collection of languages within a branch that share a common origin in the relatively recent past and display relatively few differences in grammar and vocab. Language group

A collection of languages related through a common ancestral language that existed long before recorded history. Language family

A regional variation of a language distinguished by distinctive vocab, spelling, and pronunciation. Dialect