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AP Human Geography: Language Flashcards

Language

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10203874870AccentA distinctive mode of pronunciation of a language, especially one associated with a particular nation, locality, or social class.0
10203874871DialectA regional variation of a language distinguished by vocabulary, spelling, and pronunciation, particular to a specific region or social group.1
10203874872Extinct LanguageA language that no longer has any speakers, or that is no longer in current use.2
10203874873IdeogramA written character symbolizing the idea of a thing without indicating the sounds used to say it. Used in Mandarin (Chinese)3
10203874874IsoglossA geographic boundary line delimiting the area in which a given linguistic feature occurs.4
10203874875Isolated LanguageA natural language with no demonstrable genealogical (or "genetic") relationship with other languages or language families; that is, one that has not been demonstrated to descend from an ancestor common with any other language. i.e A language family with only one language. (Basque)5
10203874876Language BranchA Subsection of a Language Family. Differences are not as extensive or old as with language families. i.e The Romance "-------" of the Indo-European language family.6
10203874877LanguageThe method of human communication, either spoken or written, consisting of the use of words in a structured and conventional way.7
10203874878Language GroupA 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. An individual language, including all dialects (I.e. Italian, German, English)8
10203874879Language FamilyA collection of languages related to each other through a common ancestor long before recorded history. The trunk of the language tree, from which language branches come from.9
10203874880Indo European language familyLargest language family that includes English and most other languages in the Western Hemisphere. Also used in South and Southwest Asia. Includes the Germanic branch, Indo-Iranian branch, Balto-Slavic branch, and Romance branch.10
10203874881Sino-Tibetan Language Family2nd largest language family. Includes Madarin, Thai, Cantonese and Burmese11
10203874882Lingua FrancaA Language mutually understood and commonly used in trade by people who have different native languages (currently English worldwide).12
10203874883Literary TraditionA Language that is written as well as spoken.13
10203874884Monolingual StateA country in which only one language is spoken (i.e. Japan, Korea)14
10203874885BilingualThe ability to speak two languages.15
10203874886Multilingual StateA country in which more than one language is in use (India, Nigeria, Belgium, Switzerland)16
10203874887Official LanguageThe language adopted for use by the government for the conduct of business and publication of documents, a language that is given special legal status.17
10203874888OrthographyThe conventional spelling system of a language.18
10203874889Pidgin LanguageA Form of speech that adopts a simplified grammar and limited vocabulary of a lingua franca, used for communications among speakers of two different languages.19
10203874890Standard LanguageThe specific form of a language used for official government business, education, and mass communications.20
10203874891ToponymThe name of a place, often reflecting that place's history and culture.21
10203874892VernacularUsing a language or dialect native to a region or country rather than a literary, cultured, or foreign language. It is usually the language of the common people.22
10203874893CreoleA language that results from the mixing of a colonizer's language with the indigenous language of the people being dominated. Developed out of an earlier pidgin stage.23
10203874894DenglishThe term is used in all German-speaking countries to refer to the increasingly strong influx of English or pseudo-English vocabulary into German.24
10203874895FranglaisA form of French using many words and idioms borrowed from English.25
10203874896EbonicsA dialect of English spoken by some African Americans.26
10203874897SpanglishA hybrid language combining words and idioms from both Spanish and English, especially Spanish speech that uses many English words and expressions.27
10203874898FrancophonePlaces and countries where French is spoken around the world. (Quebec in Canada, Vietnam, Haiti, Sub-Saharan Africa, Belgium, Switzerland, France).28
10203874899HankulThe system of writing Korean is written in. In this system, each letter represents a sound.29
10203874900Romance BranchA language branch of the Indo-European Language Family. This branch includes languages that evolved from Latin (the language of the Romans). The 5 main languages include: Spanish, Portuguese, French, Italian, and Romanian.30
10203874901Germanic BranchA language branch of the Indo-European Language Family. This branch is divided into North and West Germanic. North Germanic includes Scandinavian languages (Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Icelandic), which all came from Old Norse. West Germanic is further divided into High Germanic and Low Germanic subgroups. High German includes the standard German language. Low German includes English, Dutch, Flemish (Dialect of Dutch), Afrikaaans, and Frisian.31
10203874902Indo-Iranian BranchThe branch of the Indo-European language family with the most speakers. This branch includes more than 100 individual languages divided into an eastern group (Indic), which includes the languages of Hinid and Urdu and a western group (Iranian), which includes Farsi and Kurdish.32
10203874903Balto-Slavic BranchThis branch of the Indo-European language family can be broken down into four groups: East Slavic (Russian, Ukrainian, Belarusian), Baltic (Latvian, Lithuanian), West Slavic (Polish, Czech, and Slovak), and South Slavic (Serbo-Croatian). Russian is the most widely used language in this branch, due to the spread of the Soviet Union.33
10203874904Celtic BranchA language branch of the Indo-European Language Family. This branch includes the languages of the British Isles before the invasion of the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes. This branch is divided into two language groups: Goidelic(Gaelic), which includes Irish Gaelic and Scottish Gaelic, and Brythonic, which includes Welsh, Breton, and Cornish. These languages declined because the Celts lost most of their territory and the English colonizers forbid the use of the Celtic languages.34
10203874905Uralic Language FamilyLanguage Family in Europe that includes the languages of Estonian, Finnish, and Hungarian. Languages in this family originated from the Ural mountains in Russia, spreading through migration.35
10203874906Austronesian Language FamilyLanguage Family spoken mostly in Indonesia. This family includes the languages of Javanese, Indonesian, Malay, and Malagasy. The most spoken language in this family is Javanese, since Java is the populous island of Indonesia. The Indonesian language is used as a lingua franca in Indonesia, due to so many different native languages (739 active languages). Malay is spoken in Malaysia, Malagasy is spoken in Madagascar.36
10203874907Afro-Asiatic Language FamilyThis language family is found in northern Africa and southwestern Asia (Middle East), where Islam is the dominant religion. This family includes the languages of Arabic and Hebrew. Hebrew is spoken in Israel, a Jewish state, and Arabic is spoken throughout the region since it is the language of the Koran, the Islamic holy book.37
10203874908Niger-Congo Language FamilyMore than 95% of people in Sub-Saharan Africa speak languages from this family. This family includes Swahili, the lingua franca in Africa, used by many to communicate as a second language, due to so many different native languages.38
10203874909Prehistoric SubgroupA language that predates the current language family, before the written record. Ex: Proto-Indo-European39
10203874910Altaic Language FamilyA language family spoken across central Asia named after the Altai Mountains. The most spoken language in this family is Turkish. The family also includes the languages spoken in the Caucasus Region and across Central Asia, previously controlled by the Soviet Union. With the collapse of the Soviet Union, newly independent countries in these regions reverted to their native languages in this family, including the countries of Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Mongolia and Georgia.40
10203874911Kurgan TheoryProposed by Marija Gimbutas, this theory argues the Proto-Indo-European language diffused by military conquest as nomadic herders on horseback (Kurgans) invaded west from the Asian Steppe ( border between Russia and Kazakhstan) around 4300 B.C in search of grasslands.41
10203874912Renfrew (Anatolian) TheoryProposed by Colin renfrew, this theory argues the Proto-Indo-European language diffused by way of agriculktural practices from Anatolia (Turkey) in 6300 BC.42
10203874913British Received Pronunciation (BRP)The dialect of English associated with upper class Britons living in the London area now considered the standard form of British speech.43
10203874914Language DivergenceWhen a lack of spatial interaction (isolation) among speakers of a language breaks the language into dialects and then new languages.44
10203874915Language ConvergenceWhen peoples with different languages have consistent spatial interaction and their languages collapse into one (i.e. pidgin and creole).45
10203874916Backward ReconstructionWhen linguists track sound shifts and the hardening of consonants backward to reveal an "original" language.46
10203874917Sound ShiftSlight word change in language within the subfamilies and language family from present time, backward to its origin (i.e: lacte in Latin, latta in Italian).47
10203874918Treaty of TordesillasPope Alexander VI's 1493 decision that officially split the New World into two empires, with Spain getting the West and Portugal the East.48
10203874919HindiApproximately one-third of Indians, mostly in the north, use this Indic language. This language can be spoken in many different ways, but there is only one official way to write the language, using a script called Devanagari. It serves as the lingua franca in India and is used by the government, growing into a national language in the nineteenth century when the British encouraged its use in government. It is part of the Indo-Iranian branch.49
10203874920SwahiliThe lingua franca in Africa, used by many to communicate as a second language, due to so many different native languages. This language was developed between African and Arab traders and is one for the few African languages with extensive literature. It is part of the Niger-Congo language family.50
10203874921UrduPakistan's principal language, spoken very much like Hindi but written with the Arabic alphabet, a legacy of the fact that most Pakistanis are Muslims, and their holiest book (the Quran) is written in Arabic. It is part of the Indo-Iranian branch.51
10203874922FarsiThe principle language of Iran, a remnant of the Persian Empire. It is written with the Arabic alphabet since Iran is a Muslim country. This language is part of the Indo-Iranian branch.52
10203874923MandarinThis language is the most spoken language in the world. It is spoken by approximately three-fourths of the Chinese people, and is used by the Chinese government. There is no single Chinese language. Instead of letters, Chinese languages use ideograms (characters) that mostly represent concepts rather than sounds.53
10203874924ArabicThis language serves as a unifying force in the Middle East (Northern Africa and Southwest Asia), typically referred to as the Arab World. This language is the language of Islam (used in the Koran),, which is predominant throughout the region. This language belongs to the Afro-Asiatic language family and is the official language in two dozen countries of North Africa and southwestern Asia, from Morocco to the Arabian Peninsula.54
10203874925HebrewThis language was an extinct language that has been revived. It diminished in use in the fourth century B.C. and was thereafter retained only for Jewish religious services. When Israel was established in 1948, this language became one of the new country's two official languages, along with Arabic. This language was chosen to unify the Jews of Israel and give them a sense of nationalism, since Israel was created by Jewish refugees and migrants who spoke many different languages. Reviving this language required the creation of many new words for the modern world.55
10203874926Irish GaelicThis is one of the two official languages of Ireland, along with English. This language was forbidden under English rule. When Ireland got their independence form England in 1922, this language became an important part of their cultural identity and sense of nationalism and became a compulsory course in all public schools and required for public service jobs.56
10203874927BasqueAlso known as Euskera, this isolated language predates the Indo-European language and is not related to any other language family in Europe. Spoken in the Pyrenees Mountains (between Spain and France), the mountainous homeland created isolation, making the preservation of the language possible.57
10203874928WelshThis is one of the two official languages of Wales, along with English. This language was forbidden under English rule, but has been revived in recent years. This language is a compulsory subject in all schools in Wales and knowledge of the language is now required for many jobs in Wales. Bilingual signs and television and radio programs have also been added to help preserve this language.58
10203874929InuktitutThe language spoken by the Inuits (indigenous tribe) of northern Canada. It is recognized as an official language, along with English and French in Nunavut, the Inuit territory of Canada. Similar to the Celtic languages, it has declined with the forces of globalization and is undergoing a revival since it is an important part of the Inuit culture and is taught in schools and represented on bilingual signs and in the government.59
10203874930GlobalizationThe process by which businesses or other organizations develop international influence and operate on an international scale. Currently, America dominates the world with multinational corporations and media, which has made English the world's current lingua franca (international language of business).60
10203874931QuebecThis province in Canada primarily speaks French, due to its history of colonization. As a result, Canada is officially bilingual, recognizing both English and French as official languages.61
10203874932Vulgar LatinThis language was spoken by the Roman army at the time of occupation and is the basis of the Romance languages, which evolved out of this language overtime due to isolation.62
10203874933Latin AmericaThis region of the Americas primarily speaks Romance Languages, which derived from Latin. Brazil speaks Portuguese, Haiti and French Guiana speak French, while the majority of the other countries speak Spanish, all due to the patterns of colonization.63
10203874934BelgiumThis multilingual state in Europe, which is part of the francophone world, has experienced tensions between its two language groups. The Flemings live in the north province Flanders and speak Flemish, a Dutch dialect. The Walloons live in the south province Wallonia and speak French. Brussels, the capital city if officially bilingual to create a since of unity in the country. Antagonism between the Flemings and Walloons is aggravated by economic and political differences. Historically, the Walloons dominated Belgium's economy and politics and French was the official state language.64
10203874935SwitzerlandThis multilingual state in Europe, which is part of the francophone world, remains peaceful with four official languages (German, French, Italian, and Romanish). This country has institutionalized cultural diversity by creating a form of government that places considerable power in local, small communities (Decenetralization).65

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