Chapter Five

Question 1

Language

Answer 1

A system of communication through speech, movement, sounds, or symbols that a group of people understands to have the same meaning.

Question 2

Centripetal Force

Answer 2

A force that tends to unify people.

Question 3

Centrifugal Force

Answer 3

A force that tends to pull people apart.

Question 4

Institutional Language

Answer 4

A language used in education, work, mass media, and government.

Question 5

Developing Language

Answer 5

A language in daily use by people of all ages, from children to elderly individuals.

Question 6

Vigorous Language

Answer 6

A language in daily use by people of all ages, but it lacks a literary tradition.

Question 7

Threatened Language

Answer 7

A language used for face-to-face communication, but is losing users.

Question 8

Dying Language

Answer 8

A language still used by older people, but is not being transmitted to children.

Question 9

Literary Tradition

Answer 9

A language that is written as well as spoken.

Question 10

Language Family

Answer 10

A collection of languages related through a common ancestral language that existed long before recorded history.

Question 11

Language Branch

Answer 11

A collection of languages within a family related through a common ancestral language that existed several thousand years ago; differences are not as extensive or as old as between language families, and archaeological evidence can confirm that the branches derived from the same family.

Question 12

Language Group

Answer 12

A collection of languages within a branch that share a common origin in the relatively recent past and display many similarities in grammar and vocabulary.

Question 13

Vulgar Latin

Answer 13

A form of Latin used in daily conversation by ancient Romans, as opposed to the standard dialect, which was used for official documents.

Question 14

Lingua Franca

Answer 14

A language mutually understood and commonly used in trade by people who have different native languages.

Question 15

Logograms

Answer 15

Symbols that represent words or meaningful parts of words.

Question 16

Official Language

Answer 16

Language used by the government to enact legislation, publish documents, and conduct other public business. In some cases, the official language is the only one that is used in public schools.

Question 17

Working Language

Answer 17

Designated by an international organization or corporation as its primary means of communication for daily correspondence and conversation.

Question 18

Franglais

Answer 18

The mix of French and English.

Question 19

Spanglish

Answer 19

The mix of Spanish and English.

Question 20

Pidgin Language

Answer 20

A form of language that adopts a simplified grammar and limited vocabulary of a lingua franca; used for communications among speakers of two different languages.

Question 21

Dialect

Answer 21

A regional variation of a language distinguished by distinctive vocabulary, spelling, and pronunciation.

Question 22

Subdialect

Answer 22

A subdivision of a dialect.

Question 23

Received Pronunciation

Answer 23

The dialect of English commonly used by politicians broadcasters and actors in the UK.

Question 24

Isogloss

Answer 24

A boundary that separates regions in which different language usages predominate.

Question 25

African American Vernacular English

Answer 25

A dialect used by some African Americans.

Question 26

Creole, or creolized language

Answer 26

A language that results from the mixing of a colonizer’s language with the indigenous language of the people being dominated.

Question 27

Mutual Intelligibility

Answer 27

Refers to the ability of people speaking in two ways to readily understand each other without prior familiarity or special effort.

Question 28

Endangered Language

Answer 28

A language that children are no longer learning, and its remaining speakers use it less frequently.

Question 29

Isolated Language

Answer 29

Language that is unrelated to any other and therefore not attached to any language family.