Historic Development of Languages (The Monster)

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Historic Development of Languages(The Monster)

• By Alan D. DeSantis

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Geographic Distribution of Living Languages,
1996 Area of World of Languages of World
Languages The Americas 1,000
15 Africa 2,011 30 Europe 225 3 Asia
2,165 32 The Pacific 1,302 19
TOTAL 6,703
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The population figures in this table refer to
first language speakers in all countries(
U.N. Languages)

• 11 JAVANESE
• Indonesia, Java, Bali 75,500,800
• 12 KOREAN
• Korea, S. 75,000,000
• 13 FRENCH
• France 72,000,000
• 14 VIETNAMESE
• Viet Nam 67,662,000
• 15 TELUGU
• India 66,350,000
• 16 CHINESE, YUE
• China 66,000,000
• 17 MARATHI
• India 64,783,000
• 18 TAMIL
• India 63,075,000
• 19 TURKISH
• Turkey 59,000,000
• 20 URDU

• 1 CHINESE, MANDARIN
• China 885,000,000
• 2 SPANISH
• Spain 332,000,000
• 3 ENGLISH
• UK 322,000,000
• 4 BENGALI
• Bangladesh 189,000,000
• 5 HINDI
• India 182,000,000
• 6 PORTUGUESE
• Portugal 170,000,000
• 7 RUSSIAN
• Russia 170,000,000
• 8 JAPANESE
• Japan 125,000,000
• 9 GERMAN, STANDARD
• Germany 98,000,000

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Introduction to World Languages

• There are over 6,000 languages currently spoken
  in the world
• English is the most spoken language
• Most use it as their second (2 Billion)
• Many are unstudied languages
• New Guinea has 3 million people and 900
  languages, many in remote communities
• Most of these emerged out of four common parents!!

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The Worlds 4 Major Language Families
Aus-tro-ne-sian Af-ro-as-i-at-ic
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Example of Comparative Reconstruction in the
Romance Languages
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The Big Problem

• Language reconstruction is not an exact science
• Truth emerges by consensus
• Consensus is harder and harder to reach as we go
  back further and further
• Many of these families are debated/contested
• It is argued that every 10,000 years, the
  continuous cycle of change completes itself
• Nothing exists from the initial (first
  generation) language

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I. Indo-European Languages

• Proto Indo-European spoken 5,000 BC
• This is the group we are most influenced by
• English, French, Spanish, Italian, German
• Of the 12 languages with more than 100 million
  speakers, 8 of them are I-E
• The widespread use of I-E languages is due to
  colonization, imperialism, and missionaries
• But of the thousands of languages in the world,
  only about 150 are I-E

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Major Indo-European Language Family(First and
Second Generation)
more
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Minor Indo-European Language Family(First,
Second, Third Generations)
more
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Ia. Germanic Languages(Second, Third, Fourth
Generations)
-Afrikaans is a derivative of Dutch -Gothic,
spoken in central Europe, disappeared in 8th
century
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Ib. Italic Languages(Second, Third, Fourth
Generations)
-Latin Derivatives are known as Romantic
Languages -Fathered by vulgar Latin (language
of Roman Empire) not formal Latin. -Provencal
is spoken in the South of France -Catalan is
spoken in northern Spain -Rumanian is the most
different -Oscan and Umbrian were languages of
southern Italy
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Ic. Slavonic Languages(Second, Third, Fourth
Generations)
-All Slavonic languages are remarkably
similar -Russian is the most widely spoken
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Id. Indo-Iranian Languages(Second, Third,
Fourth Generations)
-Persian, also called Farsi, is spoken in
Iran -Pashto is spoken in Afghanistan and
northern Pakistan -All the other languages are
spoken in different parts of India by its 1
billion people
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II. Sino-Tibetan Family

• 300 East Asian Languages
• Many of which remain unexplored
• There are Two Major Divisions
• 1) Sinitic/Chinese (1 Billion Speakers)
• 5 Major Dialects
• 2) Tibeto-Burman
• Many different languages, very few speakers
• Burmese (20 mill) and Tibetan (3 mill) are the
  only members with more than million speakers

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II. Sino-Tibetan Family
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III. Austronesian Family

• 1,000 Different Languages
• Two Major Sub-Divisions
• 1) Formosan
• 3 Ancient Languages
• Spoken only in the hills of Taiwan
• 2) Malayo-Polynesian
• West Malayo Polynesian
• Indonesia, Malaysia, Madagascar, Philippines
• Recently Thai (40 mil) and Lao (10 mil) have been
  added
• East Oceanic
• Papua New Guinea, Fijian, Islands of Pacific

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III. Austronesian Family

• Indonesian-Malay (150 mill) in Indonesian and
  Malaysia
• Javanese (60 mill) in Java and Indonesia
• Pilipino is the official language of Philippines
• Malagasy (9 mill) of Madagascar
• Most others have under 1 mill

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IV. Afroasiatic Family

• Comprises about 250 Languages
• Arabic being the biggie--150 Mill
• From northern Africa and the Middle East
• Iran, Iraq, Chad, Israel, Jordan, Saudi Arabia,
  Lebanon, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Egypt,
  Ethiopia, Somalia, Sudan,
• It is the language of Judaism, Christianity, and
  Islam
• Moses, Jesus, and Mohammed

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IV. Afroasiatic Family
-Hausa is one of Africas major languages spoken
in Chad Nigeria (20 mill) -Akkadian was the
first written language (Semitic) -Jesus spoke
Palestinian Aramaic
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V. Sub-Saharan Africa

• South of the Sahara Desert, there are three other
  language families
• 1) Niger-Congo Family
• Several hundred languages
• From Senegal to Kenya to South Africa
• 2) Nilo-Saharan Family
• 100 languages by 10 million people
• 3) Khoisan (Coisan) Family
• Southern Africa (uses click sounds)
• 50 languages spoken by fewer than 75,000
• Remember, North Africa is Afroasiatic

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VI. Other Families of Asia and Europe

• 1) Altaic Family (many speakers)
• 250 Mil Speakers Total
• Vast area from USSR to China
• Turkic, Mongolian, Manchu
• Recently, Japanese (150 mil) and Korean (50 mil)
  have been added
• 2) Dravidian Family (many speakers)
• Southern India

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VI. Other Families of Asia and Europe

• 3) Austro-Asiatic (many speakers)
• 100 Languages in Southeast Asia
• Found in Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand
• 4) Caucasian Family
• Georgian is best known
• 30 Languages of Soviet Union, Turkey, and Iran
• 5) Uralic Family
• Finland, Hungary, Estonia

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VII. The Americas

• It was assumed that there were 300 Languages
  belonging to 50 families
• Greenburg has found that there are only 3
• Eskimo Aleut
• Upper and most of the Eastern regions of Canada
• Na-Dene
• Western and Central Canada (not touched by E A)
• Also, Navaho and Apache (Texas, OK)
• Amerind
• Everything Else from California to New York to
  Mexico to Brazil to Argentina

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VII. The Americas

• Each year more and more Native American Languages
  are dying out with no speakers left Since 1965 .
  . .
• Tillamook, Wiyot, Algonquian, Huron, Chumash,
  Salinan, Chinook, Natchez, Tonkawa have died.
• Languages with fewer than 50 speakers
• Abnaki-Penobscot, varieties of Apache, Coeur
  dAlene, Squamish, Cupeno, Miwok, Yokuts, Pmo,
  Shasta, Tuscarora

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VIII. Pidgin and Creole

• Pidgin
• Members of the subordinate (colonized) area
  create a simplified variety of the dominant
  language
• Used in very limited situations (work, business)
• Bamboo, China Coast, Cameroon
• Many based on English and French
• Creole
• Today, most pidgins give way to Creole
• Used in many contexts
• More complex and developed over generations
• Louisiana, Jamaican, Caribbean

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And the totals are . . .

• 1. Indo-European--2 Bill (Europe)
• 2. Sino Tibetan--1,040 Bill (Asia)
• 3. Niger-Congo--260 Mill (Africa)
• 4. Altaic--250 Mill (Asia)
• 5. Austonesian--250 Mill (Asian Pacific)
• 6. Afroasiatic--230 Mill (N. Af M. East)
• 7. Dravidian--140 Mill (Asia)
• 8. Austro-Asiatic--60 Mill (Asia)

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Nostratoc Super Family

• Researchers from Russia and US have found a Super
  Family of 10,000 BC
• It gave birth to the Indo-European, Afroasiatic,
  Uralic, Altaic, Dravidian, and Eskimos Aleut
  families
• This being the case, English, Hebrew, Arabic,
  Finnish, Korean, Turkish, and Eskimo would all be
  cousins
• But this is still highly contested