Unit 5 Test
NAME_______________________________________HOUR_____________
1. Pidgin and creole languages are distinguished from each other by the fact that a pidgin
a. may be based on any European language; a creole is always a French dialect.
b. is always a second language for all its speakers; a Creole has become a distinctive first language of a society.
c. is a simplified European language taught to native populations; a Creole is a simplified native language.
d. is any invented language of Asia and the Pacific; a Creole is based on French and found in the Caribbean.
Answer:
2. The Indo-European language family
a. is made up of separate languages collectively spoken by about one-half of the world’s population.
b. is spatially confined to the area extending from southeastern Europe eastward to northern India.
c. despite dialect differences has retained an essentially common vocabulary shared by all.
d. was strongly affected during its formative period by English colonization and the defeat of the Spanish armada.
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3. The spread of English as a worldwide language was the result of
a. the success of England and the United States in World Wars I and II.
b. international agreement upon a common language to avoid the confusion of multiple European tongues.
c. the connection between the use of English and the receipt of foreign aid by
developing countries.
d. the establishment of overseas colonies and former English dominance in world trade.
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4. The principal concentration of French-speaking North Americans is in
a. Maine.
b. Louisiana.
c. Quebec.
d. Manitoba.
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5. The movement to make English the official language of the United States
a. formalizes the “original intent” of the framers of the Constitution.
b. is endorsed by most immigrant groups as a sure device to assimilate newcomers speedily into American mainstream society.
c. is seen by its opponents as discriminatory and harmful to the education of ethnic minority children.
d. has been rejected by the voters in the majority of states where “official English” has been proposed.
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6. The most important medium for transmitting culture is
a. language.
b. imitation.
c. legislation.
d. religion.
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7. Religions are important keys to human geographic understanding because
a. with their emphasis upon charity and the afterlife, religions
play a universal pacifying role.
b. they are one of the very few aspects of human culture totally
divorced from the environments they occupy.
c. each major world religion is identified with a specific parent language.
d. religious beliefs affect all facets of a culture.
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8. Language family relationships can be recognized through similarities in
a. dialect and sentence structure.
b. vocabulary and grammar.
c. isoglosses and isophones.
d. toponyms and gerundives.
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9. It is believed that the Indo-European protolanguage originated about 5000 years ago in
a. the Ganges Valley of northern India.
b. the ancient hearth region of Mesopotamia.
c. eastern Europe or the Ukrainian steppes
d. southern France or northern Iberia.
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10. A language may be defined as
a. a literary tradition developed in a specific geographic area.
b. a cultural constant of the sociological subsystem.
c. the necessary basis of national identity.
d. an organized system of speech communication.
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11. Which of the following is NOT an Indo-European language?
a. Hindi
b. English
c. Arabic
d. Celtic
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12. The classification of languages by origin and historical relationship is called
a. symbiotic classification.
b. organic classification.
c. syncretic classification.
d. genetic classification.
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13. The use of English as the official language of Nigeria demonstrates the
a. degree to which a colonial power can completely eliminate the native language of a conquered territory.
b. concept of lingua franca.
c. precondition of Nigerian participation in the British-dominated Commonwealth of Nations.
d. strong union of language and religion in the work of Christian missionaries.
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14. The study of place names as evidence of past cultural presence and change is called
a. topography.
b. topology.
c. toponymy.
d. loconumology.
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15. The world’s oldest major religion is
a. Buddhism.
b. Shintoism.
c. Judaism.
d. Hinduism.
Answer: D
16. The spread of languages may reflect
a. expansion diffusion assisted by acculturation.
b. hierarchical diffusion assisted by lingualism.
c. relocation diffusion, but rarely expansion diffusion.
d. expansion diffusion, but rarely hierarchical diffusion.
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17. Which of the following religions has remained dominant in its area of origin?
a. Christianity
b. Islam
c. Buddhism
d. Nihilism
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18. Buddhism, Islam, and Christianity have been called “universalizing” religions because each
a. is widely distributed with many adherents on all continents.
b. proclaims the divine origin of the universe.
c. claims universal applicability and seeks converts.
d. promises a universally accessible afterlife for all humanity.
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19. The doctrine instructing Hindus and Buddhists to refrain from harming any living being is called
a. ahimsa.
b. pancasila.
c. karma.
d. sharia.
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20. A primary basis for the partition of the Indian subcontinent following British rule was to
a. reduce tension and conflict between speakers of Indo-European Hindi and Dravidian Tamil tongues.
b. recognize the existence of distinctive regional religious animosities.
c. adhere to a demand voiced by Mohandas Gandhi.
d. recognize the territorial rights of Buddhist Bangladesh.
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21. Nearly three-quarters of the world’s population adhere to tribal and ethnic religions.
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22. The establishment of the state of Israel represented a return of a dispersed religion to its hearth region.
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23. Both language and religion are indispensable attributes of all cultures.
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24. Hindi and Urdu are essentially the same language written in different scripts.
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25. The acceptance of Christianity as the state religion of the Roman Empire initiated its hierarchical diffusion in Europe.
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26. The spread of Islam to Indonesia and the Americas is an example of expansion diffusion.
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27. All the universalizing religions had their origin hearths in the Near East.
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28. Standard French is based on the dialect of the Paris region.
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29. “Dialectical materialism” is the term that describes the emergence of a single dialect as the standard language of a social group.
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30. Vernacular speech is the nonstandard language or dialect of a locality.
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31. The linguistic geography of the present-day United States may be traced to three 18th century dialect regions of the Atlantic Seaboard.
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32. Value systems that are nonreligious in nature tend not to be binding on the societies that hold them.
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33. Language is rather more important than religion in shaping a culture’s economic, social, and political institutions.
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34. Bantu languages are commonly found in Southeast Asia.
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35. Language spread displays all diffusion processes except hierarchical diffusion.
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36. The outer limit of occurrence of a dialect feature is called an isophene.
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37. Between the 11th and 14th centuries the language of the nobility and the government of England was French.
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38. English is the world’s most commonly spoken native language.
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39. People who speak a common language are said to be members of a linguistic commune.
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40. Most instances of language spread reflect voluntary adoption rather than the forced imposition of a new tongue.
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41. The roots of modern English may be traced back to various northern European proto-Germanic dialects.
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42. Linguistic uniformity imposed by the use of Standard American English in education, business, government, radio, and television has all but eliminated regional and social dialects in the United States.
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43. The separation of the Roman Empire into western and eastern halves also served to divide the Christian religion.
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44. The mosque is much less important as a focal point of Islamic communal life than is the stupa in Buddhism.
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45. Although a number of different languages were spoken by Native Americans before European colonization, all North and Meso-American tongues belonged to a single language family.
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46. Although in prehistory humans only spoke between 10,000 and 15,000 tongues, the number of languages in the modern world has greatly increased with population growth and the increase in the number of separate countries.
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47. Discuss the ways in which religion may affect other cultural traits of a society. As part of your response, select a world religion and relate it to other characteristics of the specific culture of which it is a part.
Answer: Effects of religion are found in the (1) technological subsystem: foods produced, work ethic, acceptance of innovation; (2) ideological subsystem: dietary rules, religious observances and behavioral rules, some voting behaviors; (3) sociological subsystem: education, church hierarchies. Specifics depend on the religion and area selected.
48. Discuss the ways in which a language may reveal its area of origin and the content of the culture that speaks it.
Answer: Words traceable to their protolanguage suggest features of origin locales; other common acquired words indicate paths of diffusion.
49. Using a single language or religion as your example, discuss differing processes of diffusion and their resulting spatial outcomes.
Answer: Response will depend on example chosen: Christianity shows relocation, expansion, contagious, and hierarchical diffusion; Islam shows primarily expansion and relocation diffusion; Hinduism shows principally contagious diffusion. Similar lists can be compiled for spread of major languages.
50. Compare and contrast major world religions from the standpoint of their impact on the landscape.
Answer: Christianity: churches, cathedrals, cemeteries; Islam: mosques, cemeteries; Hinduism: innumerable temples, shrines, sacred animals, specially garbed holy persons; Buddhism: sculpted and painted images, stupas, temples, and monasteries, sacred fig trees.