Language Diversity
Language Diversity
The diversity of languages is a fact of life There are about 6,500 different, mutually unintelligible languages, which belong to 250 large families. There is immense diversity in terms of contrastive sounds (phonemes) from a dozen to 100; in word order - Subject-Predicate, or Topic-Comment; some use inflections while others use particles. Linguistic diversity is related to the diversity of life—humans, animals, plants, and microbes. Every being communicates through some medium, whether sounds, gestures, or vibrations. No being exists without tools of communication. So, there are as many languages/idiolects as there are beings.
Diverse Perceptions of Language Diversity
Diversity of life can be immense as …show more content…
The first type of diversity is simply the number of different languages in a given geographical area. The second type of diversity is of the language families; for example, India has 340 languages but only 4 language families. On the other hand, Tropical South America, though not high in language diversity, contains dozens of language families. The third and final type of diversity is structural diversity (Nettle 1999: …show more content…
The very nature of a human being is dialogical. He/she needs to talk to somebody. The very nature of language is such that it includes and it excludes. This simultaneous inclusion/exclusion function is reflected in the Marathi pronoun ‘āpaṇ’ meaning ‘us’ or simply ‘you.’ Indian boys in the U.S., though English monolinguals, occasionally interject a Hindi word into their speech (kyā be? kyo re?). In this case, language, even when minimally shared, points to a common basis/for identification. There is a particular quality in the nature of language: those who share the language (i.e., those who understand) are included in the relationship which is called “community,” and those who do not are excluded. The U.S.A consists of various linguistic communities and has been making efforts to preserve languages immigrants brought. Immigrants feel the need to maintain cultural heritage for and through their children. These diverse linguistic communities want to maintain cultural identity, and languages are the means of communicating cultures. Diasporic children become somewhat confused between two cultural heritages—American and the other of their parents. So, American children of two cultures constantly make efforts to define themselves. Of course, self-definitions are matters which go far beyond linguistic
Language Diversity
The diversity of languages is a fact of life There are about 6,500 different, mutually unintelligible languages, which belong to 250 large families. There is immense diversity in terms of contrastive sounds (phonemes) from a dozen to 100; in word order - Subject-Predicate, or Topic-Comment; some use inflections while others use particles. Linguistic diversity is related to the diversity of life—humans, animals, plants, and microbes. Every being communicates through some medium, whether sounds, gestures, or vibrations. No being exists without tools of communication. So, there are as many languages/idiolects as there are beings.
Diverse Perceptions of Language Diversity
Diversity of life can be immense as …show more content…
The first type of diversity is simply the number of different languages in a given geographical area. The second type of diversity is of the language families; for example, India has 340 languages but only 4 language families. On the other hand, Tropical South America, though not high in language diversity, contains dozens of language families. The third and final type of diversity is structural diversity (Nettle 1999: …show more content…
The very nature of a human being is dialogical. He/she needs to talk to somebody. The very nature of language is such that it includes and it excludes. This simultaneous inclusion/exclusion function is reflected in the Marathi pronoun ‘āpaṇ’ meaning ‘us’ or simply ‘you.’ Indian boys in the U.S., though English monolinguals, occasionally interject a Hindi word into their speech (kyā be? kyo re?). In this case, language, even when minimally shared, points to a common basis/for identification. There is a particular quality in the nature of language: those who share the language (i.e., those who understand) are included in the relationship which is called “community,” and those who do not are excluded. The U.S.A consists of various linguistic communities and has been making efforts to preserve languages immigrants brought. Immigrants feel the need to maintain cultural heritage for and through their children. These diverse linguistic communities want to maintain cultural identity, and languages are the means of communicating cultures. Diasporic children become somewhat confused between two cultural heritages—American and the other of their parents. So, American children of two cultures constantly make efforts to define themselves. Of course, self-definitions are matters which go far beyond linguistic