Classification of Language

Question 1

What’s the difference between a language and a dialect?

Answer 1

-“A language is a dialect with an army”, so they have mutual intelligibility but there is a strong difference socio-politically.

Question 2

How many languages are there in the world?

Answer 2

-There are between 3000-8000 languages in the world, the textbook puts it at 7000

Question 3

Why do languages disappear?

Answer 3

1) The speakers die or are killed
2) Languages aren’t protected
3) A different language is favoured for social or economic reasons, so it is not taught to subsequent generations

Question 4

What are the 3 types of classification and how do they classify languages?

Answer 4

Genetic: Their historical relatedness
Linguistic: Their shared features
Areal: Shared features due to inter-language contact

Question 5

What are language universals?

Answer 5

These are features shared by all languages

Question 6

What are language implications?

Answer 6

If _____ then ____

They do not work both directions… only the one way written

Question 7

What are salient features?

Answer 7

These are “marked” features that change can be seen from

Question 8

What are marked features?

Answer 8

These are features that are relatively rare

ie more than 9 vowels, or less than 5

Question 9

What are marked features

Answer 9

These are features that are commonly found throughout languages

Question 10

What is the average number of vowels, what are they and why?

Answer 10

The average number of vowels is 5 (but the normal range is between 5-9)
/i/ /e/ /a/ /u/ and /o/
These are the most common because they are the most spread apart and therefore are the most distinctive from each other.

Question 11

What is the most common vowel?

Answer 11

/a/

Question 12

What are 2 vowel tendencies?

Answer 12

1) Front vowels and low vowels tend to be unrounded (french is an exception)
2) Back vowels tend to be rounded

Question 13

What are 2 vowel implications?

Answer 13

1) If you have nasals you will have orals

2) If you contrast long vowels, you’ll contrast short ones

Question 14

What are the 3 most common consonants and what is the most common one?

Answer 14

1) /p/ /t/ and /k/

2) /t/ is the most common consonant

Question 15

What are some general characteristics of consonants?

Answer 15

1) Nasal consonants are common, with /n/ being the most common
2) Languages without liquids are rare
3) Voiceless consonants are more common

Question 16

What are the most common fricatives?

Answer 16

/s/ and /f/

Question 17

Having fricatives implies having ________

Answer 17

stops

Question 18

Voiced obstruents implies having _____ ones.

Answer 18

voiceless

Question 19

What are sonorants?

Answer 19

These are any phonemes that can be sung…

they are always voiced

Question 20

What is the suprasegmental system?

Answer 20

This is where tones come into play.

Question 21

What are the 2 types of tones?

Answer 21

1) Level: –high __ low

2) contours: ⤴ rising ⤷ falling

Question 22

What is the implication of tones?

Answer 22

Contour tones imply level ones

Question 23

What is a tonal tendency?

Answer 23

There is usually just 2 levels, but never more than 4.

Question 24

What is the most common syllable structure?

Answer 24

CV or V, they are found in all languages

Question 25

What is an implication concerning clusters?

Answer 25

If a language allowed clusters in the onset/code, they will allow single consonants in the onset/coda.

Question 26

What does English allow in coda clusters?

Answer 26

There can only be nasal + consonant. | Our longest cluster is 3... SPLit.

Question 27

Definition and characteristics: isolating (analytic)

Answer 27

- This used free morphemes for both lexical and grammatical information - Languages that use this have relatively free word order.

Question 28

Definition and characteristics: Agglutinating

Answer 28

- There is an extensive use of affixation - Each morpheme has an identifiable function or interpretation - there is a 1-to-1 ratio for morphemes

Question 29

Definition and characteristics: Fusional (inflectional)

Answer 29

- One affix performs 2 or more functions | e. g gender, number and function

Question 30

Definition and characteristics: Polysynthetic

Answer 30

-There is no way to see an inflected word from a clause. -There is more than 1 root in a string -

Question 31

Definition and characteristics: Mixed Types

Answer 31

-This is when languages draw on more than one process at a time

Question 32

The presence of ____ affixes implies _____ ones

Answer 32

1) inflectional | 2) derivational

Question 33

If a language only has suffixes, it will have ______

Answer 33

postpositions

Question 34

Regarding affixes, ____ are more common than ____

Answer 34

1) Suffixes | 2) Prefixes

Question 35

What occurs closer to the root? Inflectional or derivational affixes?

Answer 35

Derivational

Question 36

What is an ergative language?

Answer 36

- This is a language that treats the subjects of intransitive verbs like objects - It does so by morphological processes

Question 37

What are the 3 most common WO patterns?

Answer 37

SVO SOV VSO

Question 38

What is a grammatical hierarchy?

Answer 38

Subject > Direct Object > Indirect object | This means that some functions/positions are more likely to undergo certain process than others.

Question 39

If the order is VO, it most likely has __positions | If the order is OV, it most likely have __positions

Answer 39

1) prepositions | 2) postpositions

Question 40

Northern Germanic language

Answer 40

Scandinavian

Question 41

Western Germanic language

Answer 41

German and English

Question 42

Eastern Germanic language

Answer 42

Gothic (all extinct)

Question 43

Insular

Answer 43

Brythonic (Welsh) and Goidelic (Irish/Scottish Gaelic)

Question 44

The celtic family is composed of what 2 branches?

Answer 44

Insular and Continental (now extinct)

Question 45

Italic languages are derived from what form of latin?

Answer 45

Vulgar

Question 46

What are the 4 main branches of Italic

Answer 46

1) Ibero 2) Gallo 3) Italo 4) Balkano

Question 47

Many many branches are a part of the Indo-European family?

Answer 47

9

Question 48

Spanish and Portuguese are a part of what large category?

Answer 48

Ibero

Question 49

Gallo (Italic) includes what languages?

Answer 49

French, Catalan and Romanch

Question 50

What baltic language is is part of Italic branch?

Answer 50

Romanian

Question 51

What larger branch is Greek part of?

Answer 51

Hellenic

Question 52

What two languages are part of the Baltic branch?

Answer 52

Latvian and Lithuanian

Question 53

What's the difference between Hindu and Urdu?

Answer 53

There is no different linguistically ... Just socially and culturally. Urdu uses sand script Hindu is spoken by hindus

Question 54

What are the branches and languages on the main Slavic branch?

Answer 54

East: Russian and Ukrainian West: Czech, Slovac and Polish South: Bulgarian and Serbo-Croatian

Question 55

What is a language Phyla?

Answer 55

It's an attempt to group language families into even larger groups

Question 56

What are the political groups of Aboriginal Languages?

Answer 56

- Metis - Inuit - First Nations

Question 57

How many aboriginal families and isolates are there?

Answer 57

11

Question 58

Algonquian

Answer 58

- 80K speakers (most widely spoken language) - Spoken all across Canada - Cree is the most well known

Question 59

Eskimo-Aluet

Answer 59

- 25K speakers - Know as Inuktitut - Found in Northern Canada, Alaska and Greenland

Question 60

Athabascan

Answer 60

- Spoken in Northern BC, AB and SK - Dene is the most widely spoken (Chipewyan) - Has the greatest amount of internal variation

Question 61

Siouan-Catawban

Answer 61

- 17k speakers, mostly in the USA with about 1500 in Canada - The Canadian dialect is called Stoney - Stoney is found in southern AB and Assiniboine is spoken in saskatchewan.

Question 62

Salish

Answer 62

- 10 Languages - Fewer than 2000 speakers - Spoken in BC e.g Okanagan

Question 63

Tsimishianic

Answer 63

- 2 Languages - Fewer than 2000 speakers - Spoken in North west BC

Question 64

Iroquian

Answer 64

- 4K speakers - Spoken in Quebec and Southern Ontario - Main language is Mohawk

Question 65

Wakashan

Answer 65

- 5 distinct languages - 900 speakers in total - Spoken on Vancouver Island

Question 66

What are the two isolates

Answer 66

- Haida | - Koutenay-Kinbasket

Question 67

Haida

Answer 67

- 40 speakers | - Only found on Haida Gwaii

Question 68

Koutenay-Kinbasket

Answer 68

- 12 Speakers | - BC side of the rockies

Question 69

What is an example of a Contact Language?

Answer 69

- Michif is a mix between Cree (VP) and French (NP) | - There are currently no more than 1000 speakers

Question 70

What is the difference between apparent time studies and real time studies.

Answer 70

Real time: You study the change in real life. They are expensive and take a long time Apparent: You look at generational differences in order to see the differences