Chapter 8

Question 1

Glottochronology is a reliable method of dating absolutely the time at which two or more related languages began to undergo independent development

Answer 1

False

Question 2

The term language family refers to all those languages whose speakers belong to the same culture area, that is, have similar cultures

Answer 2

False

Question 3

Languages change very slowly, so earlier versions of English are still completely intelligible to modern English speakers

Answer 3

False

Question 4

A language isolate is a language that, although related to other languages, is spoken some distance from them

Answer 4

False

Question 5

Dealing with the linguistic phenomena as they exist at a specific point of time, without regard to historical antecedents, is referred to as the synchronic approach

Answer 5

True

Question 6

A protolanguage cannot be reconstructed unless one has good records from the distant past of some of the languages making up that language family

Answer 6

False

Question 7

The English words illegal, immoral, and irresponsible illustrate assimilation

Answer 7

True

Question 8

An exemplary case of reconstruction of the location of the ancestral homeland has been done for prehistoric speakers of which language family?

Answer 8

D. Algonquian

Question 9

The word meaning garlic in language A is mopan, in language B is maban, and in language C is mapo. What would likely be the reconstructed word?

Answer 9

A. Mapan

Question 10

English is a language that belongs to the _ language family

Answer 10

Indo-European

Question 11

What reconstructible Indo-European word indicates that Proto-Indo-Europeans did not live near the equator?

Answer 11

Snow