AP Human Geography Mr.

Cox
Name

_____________________

Unit Three: Language

Chapter 5: Language (page 137)

1. Compare language and literary tradition? Language is a system of spoken
communication, where as_ literary tradition is a system of written
communication.________________________________________
2. Define official language The language used by the government for laws,
reports, and public objects, such as road signs, money, and stamps.
____________________________________________________
3. Why are some languages (e.g. English) distributed throughout the
world? The people of England___ migrated with their language when they
established colonies during the past four centuries.__________

Key Issue 1: Where Are English-Language

Speakers Distributed? (page 137)
4. Contrast the distribution of Mandarin with the distribution of English.:
Mandarin is spoken by more_ people than any other language in the world, but
English is spoken in more countries than any other___ language in the
world.___________________________________________________________________
5. List three regions of the world where English is an official language or is
widely spoken (see map on page 138):
5.a. United States_______________________
Kingdom_________________________

5.b. United

5.c. Canada____________________________
6. Define the following:
6.a._ dialect Regional variation of a language distinguished by distinctive
vocabulary, spelling, and_____
pronunciation.______________________________________________________________________
___

6.b._ standard language A dialect that is well-established and widely recognized

as the most acceptable for government, business, education, and mass
communication._________________________________
6.c._ British Received Pronunciation The dialect of English spoken by upperclass Londoners, and British politicians, broadcasters, and actors and recognized as
the standard form of British speech by most of__ the
world._____________________________________________________________________________
6.d. _isogloss A boundary that separates regions in which different language
usages predominate._____

Key Issue 2: Why is English Related to Other

Languages? (page 144)
7. Define each of the following and use English as an example for each
one:
7.a._ Language Family A collection of languages related through a common
ancestor that existed long__ before recorded history (e.g. Indo
European).________________________________________________
7.b._ Language Branch A collection of languages related through a common
ancestor that existed_____ several thousand years ago (e.g.
Germanic)._________________________________________________
7.c._ Language Group A collection of languages within a Branch that share a
common origin in the_____ relatively recent past (e.g. West
Germanic).__________________________________________________
8. What are the two most widely spoken languages of the Indo-Iranian
Branch of the Indo-European Language Family? Where are they spoken?
8.a. Hindi, spoken in
India._______________________________________________________________
8.b. Urdu, spoken in
Pakistan._____________________________________________________________
9. What is the most widely spoken language of the Balto-Slavic Branch?
Where is it spoken?
Russian, spoken in
Russia.________________________________________________________________

10. What are the four most widely used languages of the Romance Branch
of the Indo-European Language Family?
10.a
Spanish___________________________________________________________________________
10.b.
French___________________________________________________________________________
10.c.
Italian___________________________________________________________________________
10.d.
Portuguese_______________________________________________________________________
11. From where did the Romance languages originate? Latin, which was
spoken by the Romans over___ 2000 years
ago.________________________________________________________________________
12. How and to where did these languages diffuse? They spread to places
under the control of the____ Roman Empire during its
expansion.________________________________________________________
13. Define creole (creolized language): A language that results from the mixing
of a colonizers language with an indigenous
language._____________________________________________________________
14. Where did the Indo-European language family originate? From a single
ancestor called Proto-Indo-_ European, whose existence cannot be proven because
it was spoken before recorded history, but seems evident from similarities in the
physical attributes of words among the various Indo-European_________
languages.__________________________________________________________________________
__
15. Explain the two theories on how the Indo-European language diffused:
15.a. _Kurgan theory: The language diffused through military conquest from the
Kurgan hearth north of the Caspian
Sea.________________________________________________________________________
15.b. _Anatolian theory: The language diffused through the spread of agricultural
innovations from the Anatolian Hearth in present day
Turkey.____________________________________________________

Key Issue 3: Where Are Other Language Families

Distributed ? (page 152) *Note: The entire reading is
about the language tree on pages 154 & 155 .

16. Below is the worlds two major language Families. What percentage of
the world speaks a language of this family and where are these speakers
primarily located?
16.a._ Indo European Family 50%. North and South America, Europe, Russia,
Australia, and parts of the Middle
East.___________________________________________________________________________
16.b._ Sino-Tibetan Family 20%_East Asia (mostly
China).______________________________________
17. Give an example language and where it is spoken for each of the
following branches of the Sino-Tibetan Family.
17.a. _Sinitic Mandarin, spoken in
China.____________________________________________________
17.b. _Austro-Thai Thai and Lao, spoken in Thailand, Laos, and parts of
Vietnam.___________________
17.c. _Tibeto Burman Burmese, spoken in Myanmar
(Burma).___________________________________
18. Define ideogram and point out two languages that use them. A written
character that represents a sound, idea, or
concept._________________________________________________________________
18.a.
Chinese__________________________________________________________________________
18.b.
Japanese_________________________________________________________________________

Key Issue 4: Why Do People Preserve Local

Languages? (page 159)

19. Give two examples of extinct languages:

19.a.
Gothic___________________________________________________________________________
19.b.
Hebrew__________________________________________________________________________
20. Define isolated languages: Languages that are unrelated to any other and
therefore not attached to any language
family.____________________________________________________________________

21. Give one example of an isolated language and where it is spoken:

21.a. Basque, spoken in the Pyrenees Mountains between Spain and
France._______________________
22. Define the following:
22.a. _lingua franca A language of International
communication.________________________________
22.b. _pidgin languages Languages that mix words from indigenous languages
with a lingua franca.____
22.c. _franglais A combination of French and English and the introduction of
English words into the____ French
language._______________________________________________________________________
23. Why are some people in France upset by the widespread use of
English? Because it is seen as a___ threat to the French language, pride, and
identity.____________________________________________
24. Define spanglish The diffusion of English into the Spanish language that
involves modifying English__ words to fit into Spanish
forms.___________________________________________________________