LANGUAGE AND CULTURE

1
LANGUAGE AND CULTURE
2
CULTURE integrated human knowledge, belief and
behaviour, which depends on the capacity of
symbolic thought and social learning (pan-human
or shared by different groups). LANGUAGE is a
system of (verbal) signs embedded in social and
cultural reality of language users. The
structures of language reflect (and shape?)
COGNITIVE STRUCTURES. CULTURE MIND LANGUAG
E
3
LANGUAGE UNIVERSALS All languages share the
same universal matrix of syntactic patterns and
generative-transformational rules. LINGUISTIC
RELATIVITY 1. Languages, especially those
genetically unrelated, differ significantly. 2.
The structure and the lexicon of a language
reflect and affect the cognitive processes and
conceptualization of reality.
4

LANGUAGE DIVERSITY 6.000-7.000 languages in the
world Languages by the number of speakers
Mandarine Chines e 847,000.000 Hindi 366,000.0
00 English 341,000.000 Spanish 330.000,000 Ben
gali Arabic Portuguese Russian Japanese German
. 2000 languages less than 1000 speakers
5
Distribution/concentration of languages English
official language in 52 countries 900
languages on Papua New Guinea (5-10 million
people) high density also in Caucasus, (Native)
California ½ of languages no longer used by
children 1/3 of languages less than 1000
speakers English 615.000 non-technical words
(over 2,000.000, if slang and techical words
added) (imported from more than 240
languages) average use in daily speech 800-1000
words college graduates 10.000-20.000
6
Where does all this diversity come from? Franz
Boas (1858-1942), anthropologist Since
the total range of personal experience which
language serves to express is infinitely varied,
and its whole scope must be expressed by a
limited number of phonetic groups, it is obvious
that an extended classification of experience
must underline all articulate speech.
7
Where does all this diversity come
from? Different languages different implicit
classification of experience Inuit aput
snow on the ground qana falling
snow piqsirpoq drifting snow qimuqsuq snow
drift Linguistic classifications reflect, not
dictate thought.
8
Edward Sapir (1884-1939), anthropologist-linguist
formal completeness of each language as a
symbolic system
9
The outstanding fact about any language is its
formal completeness ... We may say that a
language is so constructed that no matter what
any speaker of it may desire to communicate ...
the language is prepared to do his work. The
Hopi language is capable of accounting for and
describing correctly...all observable phenomena
of the universe... Just as it is possible to have
any number of geometries other than the
Euclidean. Linguistic classifications channel
thought Language is guide to social reality
... Human beings do not live in the objective
world alone ... but are very much at the mercy
of the particular language which has become the
medium of expression for their society ... No
two languages are ever sufficiently similar to be
considered as representing the same social
reality...
10
Benjamin Lee Whorf (1897-1941) known for his
descriptions of Nahuatl, Hopi, Mayan and other
native American languages the need for
calibration objective non-linguistic
evaluation (physical sciences?) The very
natural tendency to use terms derived from
traditional grammar, like verb, noun, adjective,
passive voice, in describing languages outside of
Indo-European is fraught with grave possibilities
of misunderstanding
11
We cut nature up, organize it into concepts, and
ascribe significances as we do, largely because
we are parties to an agreement to organize it in
this way an agreement that holds throughout our
speech community and is codified in the patterns
of our language. The agreement is, of course, and
implicit and unstated one, but its terms are
absolutely obligatory Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis
the structure of a language affects the way in
which its speakers conceptualize the World.
12
Categorization of the World comparison of
things (phenomena) that are not alike but similar
in (at least) one important way conceptual
metaphor source domain (more concrete gt target
domain (more abstract) metaphor mapping a
systematic set of correspondences that exist
between constituent elements of the source and
the target domain To know a conceptual
metaphor is to know the set of mappings that
applies to a given source-target pairing. Time
is a path. I fear the days ahead. Time is money.
Dont waste my time.
13
Lakoff, George Mark Johnson (1980) Metaphors
We Live By. Chicago University of Chicago Press
How does ones conceptualization
(categorization) of the world become
culture? (integrated human knowledge, belief and
behaviour, which depends on the capacity of
symbolic thought and social learning (pan-human
or shared by different groups). memetic theory
culture and language united by memes meme gt
Greek mimema something imitated Richard
Dawkings, The Selfish Gene (1976) Culture is an
aggregate of many different meme sets or
memeplexes shared by the majority of population.
Language created by memes and for memes is
also the principal medium used for spreading
memes.
14

• Cultural schemas/frames
• Did you hear that the guy who the police were
  looking fors red Cortina got stolen?
• Will they deny that a nun who your shopkeeper was
  chatting ups large settee got replicated?
• c) No head injury is too trivial to ignore.

15
Grammar is thick with cultural meaning. Encoded
in the semantics of grammar we find cultural
values and ideas, we find clues about the social
structures. N. J. Enfield Ethnosyntax.
Explorations in Grammar and Culture. OUP 2002
16
LANGUAGE FAMILIES AND LANGUAGE TYPOLOGY
17
EUROPE
18
EUROPE
Indo-European Uralic (Ugro-Finnic) Altaic Basque S
emitic
19
INDO-EUROPEAN LANGUAGES from the Indo-Eropean
Parent language, spoken about 5000-3000 AD in
south-eastern Russia patriarchal society gt
kinship terms, masculine pantheon social
stratification slave lt warrior, man wulf,
birch, beech, bear cow, dog, plough, seed
20
inflectional language(s) nouns 3 numbers
collective (?) drevje drevesa 3 genders 8 or
9 cases nominative, vocative, accusative,
genitive, dative, ablative, locative, directive
(?) instrumental verbs tense/aspect present,
imperfect, aorist, perfect, pluperfect,
future mood indicative, imperative, subjunctive,
optative voice active, middle persons 3
21
Indo-Iranian languages Indic Vedic, Sanskrit,
Hindi, Bengali, Urdu, Romany chakra, ashram,
guru, karma, caste IranianAvestan, Iranian,
Pashto, Kurdic, Ossetic, Tadjik Balkan
(upper house), Bagdad (given by God),
balcony, caravan, candy, dervish, mag(ic),
paradise
22

Armenian attested from 5th c. AD Bible
translation by St Mesrob Grabar classical
Armenian Armenian Apostolic Church Christianity
as national religion (301) language strong
Iranian influence, convergeance with Caucasic
languages glottalized consonants (ejectives)
23

Albanian descended from Illyrian?
Thracian? Ptolomy (150 AD) Illyrian tribe
Albani Middle Ages Arbër, Arbëresh 16th c. -
Shqipëria land of eagles(?) shqip understand
each other Arnaut Turkish name
24

1190 independent state Gheg since 16th c.
(north) Tosk official Albanian (south)
25
Baltic languages Latvian, Lithuanian, Old
Prussian (extinct)

26
Anyone wishing to hear how Indo-Europeans spoke
should come and listen to a Lithuanian peasant.
(Antoine Meillet) pitch accent, free accent two
grammatical genders (masculine and feminine)
27
Slavic (Slavonic) languages Eastern
branch Russian, Ukranian, Belarusian West
ern branch Polish, Czech, Slovakian,
Sorbian Southern branch Old Church Slavonic
(extinct), Bulgarian, Macedonian,
Serbian, Croatian, Slovenian

28
GREEK LANGUAGE(S) Minoan civilization on Crete
(settled 128.000 BC, signs of agriculture 5000
BC) named by Arthur Evans Linear A Minoan
eruption (Thera, Santorinin) - 2nd millenium BC,
tsunami
29
(No Transcript)
30
Minoan eruption Thera (Santorini) ashes,
tsunami, deforestation Mycenaean conquest


31
Mycenean Greek Linear B Ancient Greek
Aeolic Ionic (Asia Minor, Attic)
Doric Greek alphabet lt Phoenician
syllabary Katharevousa Hellenist
ic Koine gt modern Greek
Demotic (official in Greece, Cyprus)
32
CELTS AND CELTIC LANGUAGES
core territory 6th century BC
maximal expansion by 275 BC
33

• CELTIC LANGUAGES
• (insular Celtic)
• Brythonic
• Welsh (Cymric)
• Cornish
• Breton
• Gaelic
• Irish Gaelic
• Scottish Gaelic
• Manx

34
Brehon Law the early Celtic law womens rights
to property, the kings position and duties,
status grading of clerics, lay men and poets,
payment for injury, sick maintenance.
35

• linguistic typology of Celtic languages
• V-S-O order
• consonant mutation
• vigesimal numeric system

20 as the base number French
(quatre-vingts) Resian dialect of Slovene
(trikart dwesti nu deset) English (score)
36
counting base no base (Melanisia thumb,
wrist, elbow, shoulder) quarternary (Maori,
Papua New Guinea, other Austronesian
languages) quinary sub-base of vigesimal
systems octal American languages vigesimal
Mayan, Nahualt, Celtic. decimal, duodecimal
37
GERMANIC LANGUAGES (expansion of the territory
from 750 BC and 200 A)
38
Western Northern German Danish Yiddish
Faroese Plattdeutsch (Low German) Islandic Swiss
German (Alemannic) Norwegian (Nynorsk,
Bokmal) Dutch Swedish Afrikaans Flemish Frisian
English Scots Eastern Gothic Vandalic .
39
GOTHS migration from the Baltic to the Black
Sea Wulfila (4th c. AD) Crimean Gothic
40
Ostrogothic and Visigothic attacks on the Roman
Empire
Visigoths in Iberia (till 711) Ostrogoths In
Italy (493-553)
41
Gothic art
42
Noth Germanic languagaes Old Norse gt eastern
(Swedish, Danish) western (Norwegian gt Faroese,
Icelandic) Dansk-Norsk, Riksmal,
Bokmal Landnorsk, Nynorsk
43
West Germanic languages Bavarian Alemanic High
German High Franconian Frankish Low
Franconian Dutch North Sea (Ingvaeonic) Frisian
English Saxon (Low German,
Plattdeutsch)
44
ROMANCE LANGUGES
45
Italic languages first attested in 7th c. BC in
old Italic script on the basis of
Etruscan/Greek alphabet
46

• Oscan , Umbrian, Latin
• Archaic Latin (7th-2nd c. BC) scattered
  inscriptions, Plautus, Terence, Cato the Elder
• Classical Latin (Golden and Silver Age) Cicero,
  Caesar, Horace,
• Vergil, Ovid, Seneca
• Vulgar Latin (spoken Latin, from 3rd c.) gt
  Romance languages
• Gallo-Romance languages
• French (attested since 9th c.) langue doïl,
  langue doc
• Central French, Norman French (Anglo-Norman),
  Walloon
• Occitan gt Provençal
• Corsican?

47
Ibero-Romance languages Spanish Castilian
(standard Spanish), attested since 11th
c. Catalan (official language in Andorra,
co-official in Catalonia, Balearic Islands and
Valencia, spoken also in Alghero on
Sardinia) Portuguese Ladino (Judaeo-Spanish) Ita
lian (since 10th c. dialects of
Tuscany) Sardinian? Rhaeto-Romance
languages Ladin Friulian Romansch Istriot? Roman
ian
48
ETRUSCAN
Tusci, Etrusci (Latin) Tyrrennioi
(Greek) Rassena, Rasna (Etruscan) since 8th c.
BC 3rd c. BC
49
BASQUE LANGUAGE EUSKARA Basque country
Euskal Herria Spanish-French border 700.000
speakers, most bilingual, the first printed book
in 1545 Basque language unrelated to any other
known language DNA shows close relations to
other Europeans
50
ergative-absolutive language complex agreement
system the auxiliary agrees with the subject,
direct and indirect object very complex nominal
paradigm, (9 cases, 2 numbers, postpositioned
article)
51
ergative-absolutive languages
It rains
PREDICATEverb
He kicked the ball
He sleeps
He gave her a flower
VALENCY - THE NUMBER OF ARGUMENTS/ACTANTS/COPMPL
EMENTS CONTROLLED BY THE PREDICATE
52
impersonal no argument It rains
verb
intransitive one argument He sleeps
transitive two arguments He kicked the ball
He gave her a flower ditransitive three
arguments
53
ARGUMENTS HAVE SEMANTIC ROLES agent, patient,
recipient, beneficiary, means/instrument.
impersonal no argument It rains
verb
intransitive one argument He sleeps AGENT
transitive two arguments He kicked the
ball AGENT, PATIENT
He gave her a flower ditransitive three
arguments AGENT, RECIPIENT, PATIENT
54
semantic roles grammatical (syntactic)
function agent, doer
subject instrument subject recepient indirec
t object benefactor patient direct
object . ROLE ASSIGNEMENT SYNTACTIC OR
MORPHOLOGICAL
55
ROLE ALIGNMENT ergative - absolutive
nominative accusative intransitive
agent/subject intransitive agent/subject transiti
ve patient/object transitive agent/subject ABSOLU
TIVE CASE NOMINATIVE CASE transitive
agent/subject transitive patient/object ERGATIVE
CASE ACCUSATIVE CASE Basque Gizona etorri
da.      Gizonak mutila ikusi
du. man-ABS arrived-AUX man-ERG boy-ABS
saw-AUX Japanese Otoko ga tsuita. Otoko ga
kodomo o mita man-NOM arrived man-NOM
child-ACC saw
56
ergative languages Basque Caucasian
(KartvelianGeorgian) Tibetan Native American
(Chinook, Eskimo-Aleut, Mayan) Australian
57
URALIC LANGUAGES
58

• URALIC LANGUAGES
• proto-Uralic (the Ural Mountains)
• UGRO-FINNIC
• Finnic Finnish, Estonian, Sami (Lappish)
• Ugric Hungarian
• SAMOYEDIC

59
FINNISH (SUOMI) official language in
Finland Finland settled at least 8500 BC Swedish
rule from 12th century 1249 Swedish the
dominant language of higher classes 17th century
Sweden and Russia fought over Finland 1809
Finland becomes an autonomous Great Duchy of
Russia Finnish language gains recognition Kalevala
1835 (Elias Lönnrot) independence delared on
December 6, 1917
60
FINNISH (SUOMI) official language in
Finland Finland settled at least 8500 BC Swedish
rule from 12th century 1249 Swedish the
dominant language of higher classes 17th century
Sweden and Russia fought over Finland 1809
Finland becomes an autonomous Great Duchy of
Russia Finnish language gains recognition Kalevala
1835 (Elias Lönnrot) independence delared on
December 6, 1917
61
SAMI
Sapmi area settlements since 10.000
BC fishermen, raindeer hunters, since 1500
raindeer herders 19th, 20th century pressure
to wipe out Sami culture (Norwegian names,
language, sterilization of Sami women in
Sweden logging, mineral mining, military
activitities, Chernobyl 9 varieties of Sami
language
Northern Sami (15000), the rest 3500 (400-600)
62

• HUNGARIAN Ugric language
• Pannonia (9th BC end of 4th AD) Roman
  province
• Huns, Ostrogoths, Lombards, Gepids, Avars and
  Slaves
• Magyars led by Arpad since 895 federation of
  tribes
• Saint Stephan I Hungary integrated into feudal
  Christian Europe
• Latin official language until 19th c.
• 1200 funeral oration
• 1430s Bible translation
• 1533 first printed book (letters of St. Paul)
• agglutinative language, up to 18 cases
• 2 conjugations definite for transitive,
  indefinite for intransitive verbs
• four levels of politeness
• kinship terms depend on the relative age
  (younger/older)
• separate prefixes for up to eleventh ancestors
  and tenth descendants

63
SAMOYEDIC (30.000 70.000) Nenets
64
17th vs 20th c.
65
TYPOLOGY OF URALIC LANGUAGES nominative-accusativ
e alignment elaborate case systems agglutination
no grammatical gender dual in Samoyedic and
Sami languages vowel harmony
66

• FINNISH NOUN CASES
• nominative talo house
• genitive talon of the house
• accusative talo (object, complete)
• partitive taloa (object, part, incomplete)
• translative taloksi into (change) a house
• instructive taloin with, using the house
• abessive talotta without a house
• essive talona as a house
• comitative taloineen together with the house
• LOCATIVE internal
• inessive talossa in the house
• elative talostani from inside of the house
• illative taloonsa into the house
• LOCATIVE external
• adessive talolla at the house
• ablative talolta from the house
• allative talolle to the house

67
ALTAIC LANGUAGES
68

• ALTAIC LANGUAGES
• TURKIC
• Turkish (83 millions), Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Uzbek,
  Azerbaijani, Turkmen, Uigur, Chuvash (Bulgarian),
  Yakut (360.000)
• MONGOLIAN
• Mongolian (Khalka), Kalmyk, Buryat
• TUNGISIC
• Evenki, Manchu

69

• TYPOLOGY
• vowel harmony
• agglutination
• SOV word order

Vowel harmony result of distant assimilation of
vowels in neighbouring syllables adjustment of
the vowels in the bound morpheme to the vowel in
the stem Turkish ev house - ev-ler
houses kadin woman - kadin-lar women
Agglutination ev N. Sg. ev-i D. sg. ev-ler
N. pl. ev-ler-i D. pl.
70
SINO-TIBETAN LANGUAGES CHINESE
LANGUAGES TIBETO-BURMAN LANGUAGES
71
CHINESE CHARACTERS (hànzi)
72
PHONO-SEMANTIC COMPOUNDS radical phonetic
clue mother woman sounds like horse
73
(No Transcript)
74
CHINESE LANGUAGES Han languages -
Hànyu Wén-yán 1500 BC logographic writing
system Báihuà 1917 reformed languages
(written) Simplified Chinese since 1956 (2.238
characters simplified) Putonguà common
language -1949 spoken standardized language
based on Mandarin (official in China and Taiwan,
Singapore and UN) Mandarin (850) Cantonese (Yue)
(70) Guangong, Hong Kong, Macau, overseas Wu
(90) - Shanghai Min (50) Taiwan (Taiwanese),
Southeast Asia Hakka - southern China, Xiang
Hunan (central China).
75
(No Transcript)
76
Typology of Chinese languages isolating
languages SVO tonal languages classifiers
In isolating languages free morphemes prevail.
Words are mostly monomorphemic. khi tôi dên
nhà ban tôi, chúng tôi bát dâu làm
bài. when I come house friend I plural I
begin do lesson article
77
Tonal languages have tonemes, i. e. phonemes
which differe only in the register (pitch) and/or
its contour (shift). Tonal languages Chinese,
Thai, Vietnamese, sub-Saharan African languages,
Native American languages
??????????????? IPA /mai mài mâi mái/ "Does new
silk burn? (Thai tong-twister)
????????/???????? Pinyin mama mà ma de má
ma? "Is mom scolding the horse's hemp? (Mandarin)
78
Classifers are morphemes which refer to some
innate semantic feature of the content word they
are used with. They can be used with different
word classes.
Classifier languages Chinese, Thai, Australian
languages, Mayan
Murrinhpatha (Australian) Nanti kamarl
Cgeneric eye eye Kura kamarl Cwater
eye pond Mi kamarl Cnon-meat food eye
seed
Nominal (Yidini) bama waguja Chuman
man Numerical (Thai) luuk saam khon child
three-Chuman Verbal (Waris) sa ka-m
put-ra-ho-o coconut me Ckokos meni
Cround give .
79
Chinese classifers (measure words) between
numerals/demonstratives and nouns

?wufive ?tóuCL ?niúcattle
general classifer, books, flat objects, animals,
large buildings and mountains, domestic animals,
long and flexible animals, horses
80
JAPANESE many typological characteristic of
Altaic languages (agglutination, SOV word order)
Chinese influence lexicon, writing
system Chinese characters kanji (lt hanzi)
(several thousands) 2 syllabaries kana scripts
katakana, hiragana (46 basic characters
each) Latin script romaji
81
JAPANESE many typological characteristic of
Altaic languages (agglutination, SOV word order)
Chinese influence lexicon, writing
system Chinese characters kanji 2
syllabaries kana script katakana,
hiragana Latin script romaji Watashi-wa
kissaten-de koohi-o nam-da.
? ??
???
????
82
JAPANESE many typological characteristic of
Altaic languages (agglutination, SOV word order)
Chinese influence lexicon, writing
system Chinese characters kanji 2
syllabaries kana script katakana,
hiragana Latin script romaji WATASHI wa
KISSATEN de koohi o NAM da
83

• HONORIFICS
• grammatical or morphosyntactic encoding of the
  relative social status of
• the addressee
• the referent
• the bystander
• the circumstances
• Examples
• T-V distinction in many Indo-European languages
• 3 different linguistic styles in Japanese, 4
  in Javanese and Nahuatl, 6 in Korean
• avoidance speech Australian, Austranesian,
  American, Cushitic and Bantu languages (e.g.
  different words used in the presence of opposite
  sex parents-in-law, children-in-law,
  cross-cousins in Dyrbal)

84
Honorifics in English Mr,, Mrs., Ms,. Miss,
Doctor, Captain, Coach, Officer, Reverend,
Father, Professor Sir, Madam, Your Honour,
Your Majesty, Your Highness (below royalty) Your
Excellency (heads of state, ambassadors,
governors, bishops) Your Eminence (cardinals)
85

• HONORIFIC SPEECH - KEIGO
• polite language TEI NEIGO
• desu at the end of the sentence, masu at the end
  of the verb, prefixes o- or go- for nouns
• used by television presenters, the safest form
  to be learned by non-native speakers
• respectful language SON KEIGO
• special forms or words used, lengthy polite
  expressions, e.g
• taberu eat, nomu drink gt meshiagaru
• hito person gt kata ? gt ?
• when talking about/to superiors and customers
• not used when referring to oneself.
• in business, professional capacity
• humble language KEN YOOGO
• similar to respectful language but used when
  referring to oneself

86
HONORIFIC WORDS/particles, added to nouns or
names chan children, pets, close friends
little girls kun people of lower social status,
boys san the most common marker of respect
(Mr. Mrs, also for family members) sama
esteemed sensei master, teacher
87

• LANGUAGES IN SOUTH AND SOUTH-EASTERN ASIA
• INDIA
• Indo-European languages (Hindi, Urdu, Bengali)
• Dravidian languages

88

• LANGUAGES IN SOUTH AND SOUTH-EASTERN ASIA
• INDIA
• Indo-European languages (Hindi, Urdu, Bengali)
• Dravidian languages
• INDOCHINA
• Sino-Tibetan languages (gt Tibeto-Burmese gt
  Burmese)
• Tai languages (Thai, Lao/Laotian)
• Austro-Asiatic languages (Khmer, Mon,
  Vietnamese?)

89

• LANGUAGES IN AUSTRALIA AND OCEANIA
• AUSTRALIA
• Indo-European languages (English)
• Australian Aboriginal languages Tasmanian
  languages

90
27 language families 150 languages many
ergative mother-in-law (avoidance)
languages skin system taboo against naming the
dead (a year or more) sign languages
91
LANGUAGES IN AUSTRALIA AND OCEANIA INDIAN OCEAN,
INDONESIA, MALESIA, PACIFIC OCEAN Austronesian
languages Formosan, Malagasy, Indonesian,
Malay, Javanese, Filipino (Tagalog), Maori,
Samoan, Tahitian, Hawaiian, Tongic . Papuan
languages 800 languages, 60 families, only a few
more than 100.000 speakers polysynthetic some are
tonal PIDGIN AND CREOLE LANGUAGES
92
PIDGIN AND CREOLE LANGUAGES SOCIO-LINGUISTIC
DEFINITION pidgin auxiliary language, emerging
where more than two languages in contact, no
native speakers, the use restricted to certain
fields of life (e.g. trade) creole first
language of communication GEOGRAPHIC
DISTRIBUTION Pacific and Indian Ocean,
Australia, West Africa, Caribean islands, South
America
93
LINGUISTIC CHARACTERISTICS lexifier language,
common grammatical features pidgin the number
of grammatical categories reduced, the encodement
transparent, poor morphology creole reassertion
of grammatical categories, grammaticalization of
lexemes, basic morphology Tok Pisin balus
bird kaikai eat bubu
great parent/child lotu church rokrok
frog tambu in-laws (lt taboo) pikinini
child kantiri sisters child, uncle
94
belo kaikai belhat manki gras bilong fes gras no
gut maus gras sit haus, liklik haus haus moni
manmeri solwara gat bel hevi
95
Papa bilong mipela, Yu stap long heven. Nem
bilong yu i mas i stap holi. Kingdom bilong yu i
mas i kam. Strongim mipela long bihainim laik
bilong yu long graun, olsem ol i bihainim long
heven. Givim mipela kaikai inap long
tude. Pogivim rong bilong mipela, olsem mipela i
pogivim ol arapela i mekim rong long
mipela. Sambai long mipela long taim bilong
traim. Na rausim olgeta samting nogut long
mipela. Kingdom na strong na glori, em i bilong
yu tasol oltaim oltaim.Tru.
96
decreolisation basilect mezolect acrolect
97
LANGUAGES IN AFRICA
98
AFRO-ASIATIC languages (Hamito-Semitic
languages) Semitic, Berber, Cushitic, Chadic,
Omotic, Egyptian
99
8th BC Aramaic becomes the common language of
communication in the Middle East gt after 3rd BC,
also the spoken language of Jews Hebrew remains
the literary and liturgical language of Jews 19th
c. Eliezer ben Yehuda 4000 new words, 1959
dictionary of modern Hebrew Ivrit Arabic
until 7th c. on the Arabian penninsula with
expansion of Islam 8th c. gt northern Africa,
Spain, India 610 Muhammad recieved
revelations by Gabriel (Jibril) Koran (Quran)
classical Arabic gt modern literary
Arabic algebra, alcohol, alchemy, zenith, nadir,
zero, cipher
100
(No Transcript)
101
Amharic Ethiopia, (from Geez)
102

Typology of Semitic languages introflection
(nonconcatanative/discontinuous
morphology) kitab "book" kutub "books" katib
"writer" kuttab "writers" kataba "he
wrote" yaktubu "he writes" VSO word order some
dialects only 3 vowels most dialects 3 numbers 2
genders masculine and feminine
103
Berber, Cushitic, Chadic, Omotic, Egyptian
(formerly Hamitic languages)
104
NIGER-CONGO LANGUAGES
105

• Niger-Congo (1350)
• Yoruba, Fula, Akan
• BANTU languages (535, 250 mutually intelligible)
• Cameroon (proto-Bantu language) 2000-3000 years
  ago eastward and southward
• Swahili
• Xhosa
• Zulu
• Rwanda
• Swazi
• Kongo
• Shona
• Ndebele

106
Class languages
Swahili
class semantics prefix singular translation plural
1, 2 persons m-/mu-, wa- mtu person watu
3, 4 trees, natural forces m-/mu-, mi- mti tree miti
5, 6 groups, AUG Ø/ji-, ma- jicho eye macho
7, 8 artefacts, DIM ki-, vi- kisu knife visu
9, 10 animals, loanwords, other Ø/n-, Ø/n- ndoto dream ndoto
11, 12 extension u-, Ø/n- ua fence, yard nyua
14 abstraction u- utoto childhood

107
AGREEMENT, CONCORD AGGLUTINATION
Mtoto mdogo amekisoma. a small child has read
it Watoto wadogo wamekisoma small children have
read it amekisoma a class marker of the
subject me perfect tense ki class marker of
the object (lt kitabu book) soma root morpheme
read
108
KHOISAN LANGUAGES
109

• Khoi-Khoi first people
• Khoi-Khoi gt many speak Bantu languages
• Nama (Namibia), a.k.a. Hottentot
• San outsiders, Bushmen
• Kalahari, about 75.000 still hunters gatherers
• land conflict with Botswana

Clicks reduplication for plural 3 tones 3
genders, feminine and masculine nouns 3 numbers,
neuter nouns 2 numbers SOV
110
Native American languages 45.000 14.000
BC across the Beringia land bridge one wave,
several waves?
111
Native American languages 45.000 14.000
BC across the Beringia land bridge one wave,
several waves?
macro families (Joseph Greenberg) Eskimo-Aleut Na-
Dene Amerind
112
preColumbian America over 1500 languages, 10
million in North America, 30 million Central
America 50 million South America today North
America 200.000 speakers Central America 6
million speakers South America 12 million
speakers Most populous Navajo, Inuit, Nahuatl,
Mayan, Quechua Aymara, Guarani Mayan 6
million Nahuatl 1,5 million Guarani 5
million Quechua 6-7 million Navajo 170.000
speakers
113
History of Native American European
relations
Columbus They traded with us and gave us
everything they had, with good will..they took
great delight in pleasing us..They are very
gentle and without knowledge of what is evil nor
do they murder or steal..Your highness may
believe that in all the world there can be no
better people ..They love their neighbours as
themselves, and they have the sweetest talk in
the world, and are gentle and always laughing
114
Leyes de Burgos 1512 Leyes nuevas 1542 forbade
maltreatment, endorsed conversion to
Catholicism, pregnant women protected hammock
provided, meat on Sundays, sacred dances
allowed, no physical abuse allowed typhus,
influenza, smallpox, measles
115
Indian Removal Act 1830 (Andrew Jackson) Trail
of Tears http//www.youtube.com/watch?vNfo_LnuDJ
1cfeaturerelated
116
Pine Ridge Reservation, Wounded Knee incident in
1973
117
Indian Self-Determination and Education
Assistance Act of 1975
118
Eskimo-Aleut Inuit, Inuktikut, Kalaallisut
(Greenlandic) Na-Dene Athabascan Navajo,
Apache Amerind Algonquian Cree, Algonquin,
Blackfoot, Ojibwe, Shawnee.. Siouan Sioux
(Dakota, Lakota), Crow Iroquian Iroquois,
Cherokee, Chocktaw Uto-Aztek Nahuatl Mayan
Mayan, Yucatec Arawakan, Caribean Andean
Quechua, Aymara, Guarani
119
http//www.youtube.com/watch?vXFayFUiyv20
implosive, ejective phonemes
120
http//www.youtube.com/watch?vXFayFUiyv20
implosive, ejective phonemes polysynthetic
121
http//www.youtube.com/watch?vXFayFUiyv20
implosive, ejective phonemes polysynthetic ergativ
e
122
http//www.youtube.com/watch?vXFayFUiyv20
implosive, ejective phonemes polysynthetic ergativ
e classifiers
123
http//www.youtube.com/watch?vXFayFUiyv20
implosive, ejective phonemes tonemes polysynthetic
ergative classifiers alienable/inalienable
possession animacy marking many mood, tense and
aspect distinctions
124
http//www.youtube.com/watch?vXFayFUiyv20
from Nahuatl
Nimitztetlamaquiltiz ni-mits-te?-tla-maki-lti?-s'
I-you-someone-something-give-CAUSATIVE-FUTURE "I
shall make somebody give something to you"6
125
ClassifierStem  Label  Explanation Examples
-'a SRO Solid Roundish Object bottle, ball, boot, box, etc.
-yi LPB Load, Pack, Burden backpack, bundle, sack, saddle, etc.
-l-jool NCM Non-Compact Matter bunch of hair or grass, cloud, fog, etc.
-lá SFO Slender Flexible Object rope, mittens, socks, pile of fried onions, etc.
-ta SSO Slender Stiff Object arrow, bracelet, skillet, saw, etc.
-l-tsooz FFO Flat Flexible Object blanket, coat, sack of groceries, etc.
-tléé' MM Mushy Matter ice cream, mud, slumped-over drunken person, etc.
-nil PLO1 Plural Objects 1 eggs, balls, animals, coins, etc.
-jaa' PLO2 Plural Objects 2 marbles, seeds, sugar, bugs, etc.
-ka OC Open Container glass of milk, spoonful of food, handful of flour, etc.
-l-ti ANO Animate Object microbe, person, corpse, doll, etc.
126
Mayan numeral classifiers untek wop jahuacte
tree - tek plant untsit wop a stick from
that tree tsit elongated object
127
Mayan numeral classifiers untek wop jahuacte
tree - tek plant untsit wop a stick from
that tree tsit elongated object
Animacy scale in Navajo humans/lightning ?
infants/big animals ? mid-size animals ? small
animals ? insects ? natural forces ? inanimate
objects/plants ? abstractions
128
Mayan numeral classifiers untek wop jahuacte
tree - tek plant untsit wop a stick from
that tree tsit elongated object contrast
between alienable and inalienable possession
Animacy scale in Navajo humans/lightning ?
infants/big animals ? mid-size animals ? small
animals ? insects ? natural forces ? inanimate
objects/plants ? abstractions
129
wigwam words
hickory, pecan, chipmunk, papoose, moose, squaw,
igloo, kayak , pow-wow, moccasin, racoon,
tomahawk, totem chocolate, tomato, condor, coke,
chili, hammock
130
Native American toponyms Arkansas (Arkans -
tribe), Oklahoma (red people), Arizona (little
springs), Michigan (great water), Chicago
(place of onions), Mississippi (big river),
Missouri (person who has a canoe), Utah
(mountain top dwellers), Wyoming (place of the
big plain), Dakota (another name for Sioux),
Idaho (tribe),
131
Nebraska (flat river), Texas (via Spanish tejas
friends), Iowa (tribe), Kansas (tribe),
Minnesota (cloudy river), Illinois (tribe),
Ohio (fine river), Tennessee (after a Cherokee
village Tanase), Kentucky (meadowland), Alabama
(tribe Alibamon), Wisconsin (gathering of
waters), Connecticut (beside the long tidal
river), Canada (village, community), Manitoba
(great spirit), Ontario (beautiful
lake), Manhattan (island of many hills) etc.