Language

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Language
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Key Issue 1 Where Are English-Language Speakers
Distributed?

• English is spoken fluently by a total of one half
  billion people
• This is more than any other language except
  Mandarin
• It is very widely distributed throughout the
  world, and is the official language in 50
  countries

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Why is English so widely distributed?

• The people of England first migrated with their
  language when they established colonies
• The United States is also responsible for
  diffusing English to many different places (ex -
  Philippines

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Where did English first originate?

• The British Isles is the official origin of the
  English language
• Tribes from the mainland of Europe invaded the
  British by pushing the Celts into the remote
  northern and western parts of Britain

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• These tribes included the Angles, Jutes, and
  Saxons
• Anglo-Saxons originated in England, and the name
  England comes from the Angles land
• Modern English evolved primarily from the
  language spoken by the Angles, Jutes, and Saxons

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How is English related to other languages?

• Because England was conquered by the Normans, it
  is different from German
• Many straightforward words come from Germanic
  roots
• Fancy and more elegant words are often French

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Dialect

• Dialect is a regional variation of a language,
  distinguished by distinctive vocabulary,
  spelling, and pronunciation
• Because of the large number of speakers and its
  wide distribution around the world, English has a
  large number of dialects

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How do the dialects differ?

• The United States and England have completely
  different dialects even though they share the
  same language, English
• Isolation is a key reason for the differences in
  vocabulary and spelling in these two countries
• Within the United States, dialects can be
  distinguished between the eastern and northern US

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Key Issue 2 Why is English Related to Other
Languages?

• English is part of the Indo-European Language
  Family, and more specifically the Germanic branch
• This is because it was spoken by the Germanic
  tribes that invade England 1500 years ago
• This is then divided into 8 branches
• 4 main branches Indo-Iranian, Romance, Germanic,
  and Balto-Slavic
• 4 less common branches Albanian, Armenian,
  Greek, and Celtic

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Indo-Iranian Branch

• Divided into 2 groups - Eastern Group (Indic) and
  Western Group (Iranian)
• Iranian Group
• Major Iranian group languages include Persian,
  Pashto, and Kurdish
• Indic Group
• The widely used language in India is in the Indic
  group
• 1/3 of Indians use Hindi
• The principal language of Pakistan is Urdu
• In 1947 Hindu became the official language for
  India

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Balto-Slavic Branch

• Divided into East, West, and South Slavic groups
• The most widely used Slavic languages are
  primarily Eastern, Ex Russia
• Polish - most commonly spoken Western Slavic
  language Czech and Slovak also popular

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Romance Language Branch

• Evolved from the Latin language
• 4 most widely used Romance languages Spanish,
  Portuguese, French, and Italian
• Spanish and French are 2 of the 6 total official
  languages of the United Nations
• The dialect of the Ile-de France region became
  the standard form of French
• Spanish is the official language in 18 Latin
  American states

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Romance Language Branch
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Key Issue 3

• 8 main language branches
• Indo European (lime green) spoken by 48 of the
  world, Ex English
• Sino Tibetan (red) spoken by 26 of the world,
  Ex Chinese
• Afro Asiatic (yellow) spoken by 6 of the world,
  Ex Arabic
• Austronesian (pink) spoken by 5 of the world,
  Ex Southeast Asia
• Dravidian (light green) spoken by 4 of the
  world, Ex India
• Altaic (dark green) spoken by 3 of the world,
  Ex mostly in Asia
• Niger-Congo (orange) spoken by 3 of the world
• Japanese spoken by 2 of the world

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Extinct Languages

• An extinct language is a language once spoken and
  also used fairly recently, but not used anymore
• Examples Celtic, Hebrew
• Because Judaism is still in practice and is a
  religion, Hebrew is technically not dead but
  still has come to not be a common language

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• Multilingual States
• A multilingual state is a state that uses
  multiple languages
• Example Belgium (French, Dutch, and German)
• Isolate Languages
• A language unrelated to any other language, and
  therefore not attached to any language family
• Examples The Bosque in the Bosque region of
  France near the Spain border

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Other Terms to Know

• Language Family a collection of languages
  related through a common ancestral language that
  existed long before recorded history.
  (Indo-European largest)
• Language Branch a collection of languages
  related through a common ancestral language that
  existed several thousand years ago. Differences
  are not extensive or as old as with language
  families.
• Language Group a collection of languages within
  a branch that share a common origin in the
  relatively recent past and display relatively few
  differences in grammar and vocabulary.
• Lingua Franca an international language of
  communication, Ex English
• Pidgin language learning a simplified lingua
  franca
• Ebonics An African American dialect of English
• Franglais French and English
• Spanglish Spanish and English
• Denglish German and English

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Photo Sources

• http//www.thw.coventry.sch.uk/MFL/MFL.htm
• http//www.schooljotter.com/imagefolders/lansbury/
  British_Isles.jpg
• http//cd7.e2bn.net/e2bn/leas/c99/schools/cd7/webs
  ite/images/anglo-saxon-Map.jpg
• http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_language_infl
  uences_in_English
• http//robertspage.com/diausa.gif
• http//www.personal.psu.edu/ejp10/blogs/thinking/c
  ognition/
• http//ninitalk.wordpress.com/2009/04/27/348/
• http//dnghu.org/indoeuropean/indoeuropean_archivo
  s/image029.png
• http//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/85
  /Romance_languages_and_Romanian.png
• http//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/8/8c/Huma
  n_Language_Families_Map_28Wikipedia_Colors_.PNG
• http//s2.ned.univie.ac.at/Publicaties/taalgeschie
  denis/en/belgie.gif