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39 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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Language
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a set of sounds and symbols used for communication
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Mutual intelligibility
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The level of understanding between two different languages
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Dialects
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Regional variants of a language (i.e. Southern english)
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Standard Language
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The dominant language in a country/nation that is spoken by the public
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Dialect chain
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The closer the variants, the more similar the properties will be (distance decay)
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Isogloss
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A geographic boundary separating linguistic features
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Language families
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A group of languages with a shared origin (small scale)
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Language Sub-Families
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Languages that share many things in common (larger scale)
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Proto-Indo European
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The ancestor of many european languages Nostratic is its ancestor (language family)
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Sound shift
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A slight change in a word across languages within the same sub-families (milk)
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Backward Reconstruction
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How linguists track sound shifts and hardening of consonants (finding the origins)
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EXTINCT language
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A language without native speakers and that cannot be spoken by anyone (Bo in Sri Lanka)
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DEAD language
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A language that is not widely used and that doesn't have any native speakers but is still known (Latin)
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Deep Reconstruction
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Taking apart a language in order to find its roots
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Nostratic Language
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The ancestor of the Proto-Indo European languages
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Language Divergence
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When a language is formed by one language splitting into two (dialect turns into pidgin and then turns into a new language)
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Language Convergence
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When two language come together to form one new language (i.e. Beliz)
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Renfrew hypothesis
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From the Fertile Crescent and Anatolia (present day turkey) agriculture diffused Europe's Indo-European languages.
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Conquest Theory
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Spread by horseback through war and conquering (east to west)
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Dispersal Hypothesis
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diffusion by the travel of the language eastward then north around the Caspian sea and then west into Europe going through the trade hearths
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Romance Family
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Part of Indo-European, was part of Roman Empire (French Spanish Romanian and Italian)
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Germanic Family
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Part of Indo-European, Expanded by the move of people out of North Europe towards South and West Europe (English Danish Swedish German and Norwegian)
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Slavic Family
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Part of Proto-Indo-European Dominant in Eastern European states (Russian Polish Czech Slovak and Slovenian)
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Uralic Family
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Not Proto-Indo-European (Finnish Hungarian Estonians)
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Altaic Family
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Not Proto-Indo-European (Turkish)
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Lingua Franca
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A language used by people speaking different languages as a way to communicate (English maybe Spanish)
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Pidgin Language
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Similar to the beginning of Convergence, a language that has basic vocabulary structure
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Creole language
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a advanced pidgin language with more structure and a more complex vocabulary
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Monolingual states
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a state that only one language is spoken (iceland japan)
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Multilingual states
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a state where more then one language is prevalent (Usa South Africa Canada)
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Global Language
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Lingua Franca (English is closest)
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Place
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Unique location
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Toponyms
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the name of a place
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Enigma
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language that isn't in a distinct language family
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Syntax
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arrangement of words and phrases in a sentence or paragraph.
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Cadence
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the speed that people talk
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Vocabulary
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the words that people use (different on for some dialects)
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Pronunciation
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the way a person says a word
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# of languages spoken in nigeria
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500+
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