Chapter 5 LanguageEQ- How do geographers organize languages?
80. Chapter 5 Work Packet81. Language Cornell Notes82. Using Language Trees83. Diffusion Notes84. Dialects and Isogloss85. Language Questions
Homework:1. Complete the
Isogloss Survey (due Monday)
2. Complete the Chapter 5 Language Questions (due Friday with Chapter 5 Packet)
What is language?Language is a set of symbols that allow people to communicate with one another.
List the first ten languages you can think of on page 81 in your notebook.Why is language important?• NO other cultural trait more commonly binds
people together.• Language allows for cultural transmission- the
process of passing down culture from one generation to another
How diverse is language?
• Almost 7,000 different languages in the world• Words, symbols, sounds, mechanisms vary
with each language– Westerners read from left to right– West Asia reads from right to left– East Asia reads from top to bottom
• 11 different languages are spoken by at least 100 million people
How are languages organized?• Step 1- Language Families- a group of languages
with a shared, but very distant origin (before recorded history)
• Step 2- Language Branch- a group of languages with a more recent shared history (within a few thousand years)
• Step 3- Language Group- a group of languages with a relatively recent past and few differences in grammar and vocab
• Step 4- Language- a language!
Family
Branch
Group
Language
Complete the Using Maps sheet now!
Diffusion of the English Language
Name five countries where English is an official language. Why do you think English is spoken
here?
British v American Slang
Diffusion Notes• Diffusion- the spread of a trait something
outward from a hearth (ex: Language)• Dialect- a difference within the same language in
vocabulary, sentence structure and pronunciation
• At a national level- we often call these regional variants
• Isogloss- a boundary map of word usage, used by geographers to identify dialect boundaries
Dialects in the United States
Listen to the sound of each speaker as they read the same passage. For each,
label which region: Northern, Southern, or
Middle American,you think the speaker is from.
• http://accent.gmu.edu/searchsaa.php?function=detail&speakerid=79• http://accent.gmu.edu/searchsaa.php?function=detail&speakerid=83• http://accent.gmu.edu/searchsaa.php?function=detail&speakerid=146• http://accent.gmu.edu/browse_language.php?function=detail&speakerid
=62• http://accent.gmu.edu/searchsaa.php?function=detail&speakerid=133
Record your answers on the first half of page 84
What is your dialect?
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2013/12/20/sunday-review/dialect-quiz-map.html?_r=0
Take the survey and record your answers on the first half of page 84.
Isogloss Survey• Record your answers on the 2nd half of page 84.
Survey 25 people and ask them one of these questions:– What do you call a sweetened carbonated beverage?
(soda, pop, coke, soft drink, etc.)– How do you refer to a group of two or more people?
(you guys, yous guys, y’all, you, etc.)• You must also record where they are from and
where their parents are from. (state is enough)
