Chapter 5 Language: GO FIGURE

Chapter 5 – Language: GO FIGURE!

1.  What are the languages on the “No Fishing” sign in Israel? (p. 141)

2.  How do Americans feel about second languages?

3.  What is the language of Madagascar? Of what is this evidence? What seems strange about this?

KEY ISSUE #1 – “Where Are Languages Distributed?”

4.  What are the three “most important” (most widely spoken) languages in the world?

5.  According to the language family tree, what are the two largest language families (trunks)?

6.  According to the language family tree, what are the four main branches of the Indo-European language family? Which one is the largest?

7.  According to the language family tree, what is the most spoken native language in the world?

8.  Why aren’t all 6,909 of the languages in the world included on the language family tree?

9.  According to the language family tree, what do the “roots” below the ground level represent?

10.  What percentage of the world population speaks a language in either the Sino-Tibetan or Indo-European language family?

11.  According to the map in Figure 5-5, what is the most significant difference between the distribution of the Indo-European language family and the Sino-Tibetan language family?

12.  According to the map in Figure 5-5, in what language family is the Arabic language, and where is it distributed?

13.  What are the characters (“letters”) in the Chinese written language called? How many of these characters does a reader of Chinese languages need to know (text, p. 146)?

14.  How did Kemal Ataturk, the leader of Turkey, change Turkey’s language in 1928? Why?

15.  How many distinct languages have been identified on the continent of Africa? Why are there so many?

16.  What are the two most widely diffused language families in Africa?

17.  What is unique about the language of Madagascar?

18.  What is unique about the Khoisan language, and what did European settlers in southern Africa derisively call it? (text, p. 149)

Chapter 5 – Language: GO FIGURE!

KEY ISSSUE #2 – “Why Is English Related To Other Languages?”

19.  What are the three most important branches of the Indo-European language in Europe, and in what general area is each found?

20.  What is the 4th and largest branch of the Indo-European language family? How many people speak it? In what countries is it primarily spoken (at least 5)?

21.  What is the only area in Western Europe that has a non-Indo-European language?

22.  What are the North Germanic languages?

23.  What are the West Germanic languages?

24.  What are the 4 language families found in South Asia?

25.  What is India’s principal official language? How many official “scheduled” languages does India have?

26.  How languages are spoken in India, and how many of them are spoken by more than 1 million people? (text, p.151)

27.  In what language family is the Russian language, and what kind of alphabet does it use? (Google it)

28.  When and why did the importance of the Russian language increase? (text, p.152)

29.  What are the four most widely spoken languages of the Romance branch? Where do they predominate?

30.  Where is the Catalan language spoken, and what is the political impact of its distribution? (text, p.153)

31.  The first speakers of the language that became known as English came from where?

32.  From where does the name England come?

33.  Who were the last successful invaders of England? When?

34.  What impact did the Norman Conquest of England have on the English language? (text, p.154)

35.  What accounts for the contemporary distribution of English speakers around the world? (text, p.155)

36.  To what country has the Portuguese language most notably diffused?

37.  What is a protolanguage, and what is the protolanguage for Indo-European? (text, p. 156)

38.  Identify and describe the location of the two different theories on the origin of Proto-Indo-European?

1. ______
2. ______

39.  How are the two theories on the origin of Proto-Indo-European different?

Key Issue #3 – “Why Do Individual Languages Vary Among Places?”

40.  What is a dialect? (text, p. 158)

41.  What is a boundary between dialectic regions called? (text, p.158)

42.  What are the three major dialect regions in the eastern United States?

43.  Where are the most common places linguists look to study the diversity of dialects?

44.  In what Dialect Region AND Sub-Area is Charlotte, NC?

45.  How are the dialect regions of the eastern US similar to the house types of the same area? (Figure 4-25, p.124)

46.  How is Figure 5-21 different than Figure 5-20?

47.  What are the most common generic names for soft-drinks and what are their regional associations?

48.  What generic name do you use for soft drinks?

49.  What does Eliza Doolittle in the musical My Fair Lady illustrate about the English language?

50.  What is causing the isoglosses between the major regional English dialects to continue to change? (text, p. 160)

51.  Why are there so many differences between British English and American English for such objects as a car? (Figure 5-24 and text, p.161)

52.  Why did someone paint graffiti on the sign in Figure 5-25?

53.  What is a creole language, and how is Haiti and example of one? (text,p.163)

Key Issue #4 – “Why Do People Preserve Local Languages?”

54.  Describe what multilingualism looks like in Belgium.

55.  How has Belgium addressed its multilingualism and what could still potentially happen? (text, p. 164)

56.  What do businesses in Belgium do to accommodate multilingualism?

57.  What are the 4 official languages in Switzerland, and which one is the most extreme minority?

58.  What has Switzerland done to successfully accommodate the cultural diversity of having 4 official languages? (text, p 165)

59.  What impact has the language makeup of Nigeria had on Nigerian politics?

60.  Describe how extreme Nigeria’s population diversity is. (text, p.165)

61.  What is unique about the language of the Basque people, and what do the Basque protesters in the picture in Figure 5-31 want? (Figure and text, p. 166)

62.  What language has changed less than any other branch I the Germanic language branch? (Figure 5-32, text, p. 166)

63.  What do most of the extinct languages in the Americas have in common (Figure 5-33, text, p. 167)

64.  Why was the task of reviving the Hebrew language such a formidable task? (text, p. 167)

65.  What have the Welsh people done to preserve their language?

66.  Where is the Breton language spoken, and what language threatened its survival?

67.  If the Maori place name in New Zealand is the 2nd longest place name in the world, where is the 1st longest? (Google it)

68.  For what are the people in Beaucaire, France protesting?

69.  In how many countries is English the official language?

70.  What is the status of the English language in the United Kingdom, Untied States, and Australia? (map Figure 5-42)

71.  What is a lingua franca? What evidence is there that English is a global lingua franca? (text, p.172)

72.  What are some examples of regional lingua Franca in the world other than English? (text, p.173)

73.  What is AAVE, and why is it controversial? (text, p. 174)

74.  Define and give an example of each of the following:

1. Franglais –

1. Spanglish –

1. Denglish –

75.  Where is the highest concentration of Spanish speakers in the United States found? Why?

76.  What is unique about people living in Quebec, Canada, as opposed to the rest of the people living in Canada?

77.  What have the Quebecois done to try to preserve their French-speaking heritage? (text, p.177)