MODERN LANGUAGE MOSAICS

Changing Cultural Composition in the United States

Hispanics population on the rise An “official” second language?

Even divides Hispanic communities Hispanic policy organization report, 1990

Early European immigrants faced language barrier…

Language and Culture

Current debates Language vs. cultural preservation English = international communication standard Some countries have made English (or another

language) their official language Neocolonialism to some Emotional attachment important What is the US’s official language?

Language and Trade The Esperanto experiment: L.L. Zamehof, a Polish Oculist in the 1880s. Based on existing

natural languages to create a second language that would be easily learned. Thousands use it to communicate worldwide.

Elvish: invented by J.R. R. Tolkien. Was invented by Tolkien but not intended as Esperanto. Spoken by Elvish inhabitors of Middle-Earth, pronunciation and script are not easy to learn. There are several dictionaries and language course.

Lingua franca Linguistic convergence of Frankish, Italian, Greek, Spanish, and

Arabic Today’s usage of “lingua franca”

Swahili has become the lingua franca of East Africa In West Africa Hausa is a regional tongue

Language and Trade Creolization

“Pidgin” Sometimes a mother tongue Difficult distinguishing between them & dialects

Gullah or Geechee: 10,000 descendents of African slaves in coastal islands of S.C., GA, and North Florida. Gullah cuisine based on African foodstuffs, okra

Gullah language combination of Elizabethan English and African tongues

The only surviving example of an English-based Creole language in North America.

http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/rough/2008/08/china_kung_fu_e.html

Kung Fu English-the impact of a global lingua franca in China

Multilingualism

Few true monolingual states left Japan, Uruguay, Venezuela, Iceland, Portugal,

Poland, and Lesotho Multilingual states

Linguistic fragmentation can reflect cultural pluralism

Multilingualism

Regional expression Examples:

Switzerland Russia Andean Cultures

Multilingualism

Canada French & English

speaking areas Still divided

MultilingualismBelgium Dutch-speaking and

French-speaking regions

Brussels officially bilingual, but majority speak French

Reflects 19th century efforts to build an integrated state

Linguistic partition in 1920s

For Flemish identity Language regions tend

to foster regionalism

Multilingualism

Nigeria A colonial creation Three major regional

languages 230 established

tongues English as “official”

language Repercussions?

Official languages

Serve different purposes Enhance internal communication and interaction Colonial influence Official language can cause problems

Hindi example US official language? None!

Toponymy: The study of place names

When you study toponymy you learn much about the culture of places.

-Why, AZ -Nothing, AZ -Peru, ME -Bolivia, SC In many instances the toponym could be two part

names: -a specific or given part -generic or classifying part For Example:

Penn’s Forest, Pennsylvania

Place names give evidence of past cultures Dutch in Michigan, French in Lousiana

Toponyms in the United States show the diffusion of people with distinct dialects:

-Northern toponyms: center, corner names of towns, east, west, north, south

Vermont: Randolph Center, South Randolph, East Randolph, North Randolph, Hewetts Corners

(Check out Seattle)

Midland: gap, cove, hollow, knob and burgh. Pittsburgh, Bald Knob, Stillhouse Hollow

Southern: bayou, gully, store

George Stewart: 10 categories descriptive (Rockville, MD)

associative (Great Falls, MT) incident (Harper’s Ferry, MD) possessive (Martha’s Vineyard) commendatory (Providence, R.I.) commemorative (Martin Luther King Jr. Middle

School) folk-etymology (Plains, GA) manufactured (Truth or Consequences, New

Mexico) mistake (Lasker, NC) so-called shift names (Norfolk, VA) Originally a

name in England and used when people moved

Revival of minority languages: Why? Preserve culture

Devolution: Basques

Nationalism: Celtic, Welsh, Hawaiian

Revival of extinct languages: Hebrew

Resources

De Blij, Harm, J. (2007). Human Geography People, Place and Culture. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons Inc.

Domosh, Mona, Neumann, Roderic, Price, Patricia, & Jordan-Bychkov, 2010. The Human Mosaic, A Cultural Approach to Human Geography. New York: W.H. Freeman and Company.

Fellman, Jerome, D., Getis, Arthur, & Getis, Judith, 2008. Human Geography, Landscapes of Human Activities. Boston, MA: McGraw-Hill Higher Education.

Pulsipher, Lydia Mihelic and Alex M. and Pulsipher, 2008. World Regional Geography, Global Patterns, Local Lives. W.H. Freeman and Company New York.  

Rubenstein, James M. (2008). An introduction to human geography The cultural landscape. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall.