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Human Geo Chapter 5 Study Guide

This document summarizes key concepts from a unit on language geography: 1. It defines important linguistic terms like official language, dialect, standard language, and language families/branches. 2. It discusses the global distribution of major languages like English, Mandarin, and the Romance languages. English is spoken more widely globally while Mandarin has more native speakers. 3. It traces the evolution and diffusion of major language families, especially Indo-European languages like English that derive from a common ancestral language. 4. It also addresses reasons why some groups seek to preserve local languages and identities in the face of influences from dominant global languages like English.

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418 views

Human Geo Chapter 5 Study Guide

This document summarizes key concepts from a unit on language geography: 1. It defines important linguistic terms like official language, dialect, standard language, and language families/branches. 2. It discusses the global distribution of major languages like English, Mandarin, and the Romance languages. English is spoken more widely globally while Mandarin has more native speakers. 3. It traces the evolution and diffusion of major language families, especially Indo-European languages like English that derive from a common ancestral language. 4. It also addresses reasons why some groups seek to preserve local languages and identities in the face of influences from dominant global languages like English.

Uploaded by

James Smith
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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AP Human Geography Mr.

Cox
Name

_____________________

Unit Three: Language

Chapter 5: Language (page 137)


1. Compare language and literary tradition? Language is a system of spoken
communication, where as_ literary tradition is a system of written
communication.________________________________________
2. Define official language The language used by the government for laws,
reports, and public objects, such as road signs, money, and stamps.
____________________________________________________
3. Why are some languages (e.g. English) distributed throughout the
world? The people of England___ migrated with their language when they
established colonies during the past four centuries.__________

Key Issue 1: Where Are English-Language


Speakers Distributed? (page 137)
4. Contrast the distribution of Mandarin with the distribution of English.:
Mandarin is spoken by more_ people than any other language in the world, but
English is spoken in more countries than any other___ language in the
world.___________________________________________________________________
5. List three regions of the world where English is an official language or is
widely spoken (see map on page 138):
5.a. United States_______________________
Kingdom_________________________

5.b. United

5.c. Canada____________________________
6. Define the following:
6.a._ dialect Regional variation of a language distinguished by distinctive
vocabulary, spelling, and_____
pronunciation.______________________________________________________________________
___

6.b._ standard language A dialect that is well-established and widely recognized


as the most acceptable for government, business, education, and mass
communication._________________________________
6.c._ British Received Pronunciation The dialect of English spoken by upperclass Londoners, and British politicians, broadcasters, and actors and recognized as
the standard form of British speech by most of__ the
world._____________________________________________________________________________
6.d. _isogloss A boundary that separates regions in which different language
usages predominate._____

Key Issue 2: Why is English Related to Other


Languages? (page 144)
7. Define each of the following and use English as an example for each
one:
7.a._ Language Family A collection of languages related through a common
ancestor that existed long__ before recorded history (e.g. Indo
European).________________________________________________
7.b._ Language Branch A collection of languages related through a common
ancestor that existed_____ several thousand years ago (e.g.
Germanic)._________________________________________________
7.c._ Language Group A collection of languages within a Branch that share a
common origin in the_____ relatively recent past (e.g. West
Germanic).__________________________________________________
8. What are the two most widely spoken languages of the Indo-Iranian
Branch of the Indo-European Language Family? Where are they spoken?
8.a. Hindi, spoken in
India._______________________________________________________________
8.b. Urdu, spoken in
Pakistan._____________________________________________________________
9. What is the most widely spoken language of the Balto-Slavic Branch?
Where is it spoken?
Russian, spoken in
Russia.________________________________________________________________

10. What are the four most widely used languages of the Romance Branch
of the Indo-European Language Family?
10.a
Spanish___________________________________________________________________________
10.b.
French___________________________________________________________________________
10.c.
Italian___________________________________________________________________________
10.d.
Portuguese_______________________________________________________________________
11. From where did the Romance languages originate? Latin, which was
spoken by the Romans over___ 2000 years
ago.________________________________________________________________________
12. How and to where did these languages diffuse? They spread to places
under the control of the____ Roman Empire during its
expansion.________________________________________________________
13. Define creole (creolized language): A language that results from the mixing
of a colonizers language with an indigenous
language._____________________________________________________________
14. Where did the Indo-European language family originate? From a single
ancestor called Proto-Indo-_ European, whose existence cannot be proven because
it was spoken before recorded history, but seems evident from similarities in the
physical attributes of words among the various Indo-European_________
languages.__________________________________________________________________________
__
15. Explain the two theories on how the Indo-European language diffused:
15.a. _Kurgan theory: The language diffused through military conquest from the
Kurgan hearth north of the Caspian
Sea.________________________________________________________________________
15.b. _Anatolian theory: The language diffused through the spread of agricultural
innovations from the Anatolian Hearth in present day
Turkey.____________________________________________________

Key Issue 3: Where Are Other Language Families


Distributed ? (page 152) *Note: The entire reading is
about the language tree on pages 154 & 155 .

16. Below is the worlds two major language Families. What percentage of
the world speaks a language of this family and where are these speakers
primarily located?
16.a._ Indo European Family 50%. North and South America, Europe, Russia,
Australia, and parts of the Middle
East.___________________________________________________________________________
16.b._ Sino-Tibetan Family 20%_East Asia (mostly
China).______________________________________
17. Give an example language and where it is spoken for each of the
following branches of the Sino-Tibetan Family.
17.a. _Sinitic Mandarin, spoken in
China.____________________________________________________
17.b. _Austro-Thai Thai and Lao, spoken in Thailand, Laos, and parts of
Vietnam.___________________
17.c. _Tibeto Burman Burmese, spoken in Myanmar
(Burma).___________________________________
18. Define ideogram and point out two languages that use them. A written
character that represents a sound, idea, or
concept._________________________________________________________________
18.a.
Chinese__________________________________________________________________________
18.b.
Japanese_________________________________________________________________________

Key Issue 4: Why Do People Preserve Local


Languages? (page 159)

19. Give two examples of extinct languages:


19.a.
Gothic___________________________________________________________________________
19.b.
Hebrew__________________________________________________________________________
20. Define isolated languages: Languages that are unrelated to any other and
therefore not attached to any language
family.____________________________________________________________________

21. Give one example of an isolated language and where it is spoken:


21.a. Basque, spoken in the Pyrenees Mountains between Spain and
France._______________________
22. Define the following:
22.a. _lingua franca A language of International
communication.________________________________
22.b. _pidgin languages Languages that mix words from indigenous languages
with a lingua franca.____
22.c. _franglais A combination of French and English and the introduction of
English words into the____ French
language._______________________________________________________________________
23. Why are some people in France upset by the widespread use of
English? Because it is seen as a___ threat to the French language, pride, and
identity.____________________________________________
24. Define spanglish The diffusion of English into the Spanish language that
involves modifying English__ words to fit into Spanish
forms.___________________________________________________________

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