Human Geo Chapter 5 Vocab Flashcards
Language
A system of communication through speech, movement, sounds, or symbols that a group of people understands to have the same meaning. An estimated 1 million Americans and 466 million people worldwide with disabling hearing loss communicate through sign language. Only 20% of US students learn a foreign language in school, compared with 92% of European students.
Centripetal force
A cultural value that tends to unify people (like sharing a common language). The Soviet union forced native speakers of other languages to learn Russian as a centripetal force to foster cultural unity among the country’s diverse peoples.
Centrifugal force
A cultural value that tends to pull people apart (like the conflict between 2 groups of people living in the same place but using different languages).
Institutional language
Used in education, work, mass media, and government. There are 576 institutional languages, including English.
Developing language
In daily use by people of all ages, from children to elderly individuals. There are 1,601 developing languages (like Sama, spoken by around 260,000 people dispersed across Southeast Asia).
Vigorous language
In daily use by people of all ages, but it lacks a literary tradition. There are 2,455 vigorous languages (like Tagin, a language spoken by around 38,000 people in India).
Threatened language
Used for face-to-face communication, but is losing users. There are 1,547 threatened languages (like Bolinao, spoken by around 56,000 people in the Philippines).
Dying language
Still used by older people, but is not being transmitted to children. There are 920 dying languages. Some of the threatened and dying languages are being saved.
Literary tradition
A language that is written as well as spoken. A lack of written records is one reason it is difficult to document the total number of languages or their distribution. The system of written communications includes a method of writing and rules of grammar. Languages with literary traditions make use of more than one alphabet (like Hindi, spoken in many different ways, but only one official way to write it. Urdu, a similar language, is written with the Arabic alphabet).
Language family
A collection of languages related to each other through a common ancestor long before recorded history. The language family with the most users is Indo-European, which includes English.
Language branch
A collection of languages related through a common ancestor that can be confirmed through archaeological evidence. The differences aren’t as extensive or as old as between families, and evidence can confirm that the branches derived from the same family. English is in the Germanic branch of the Indo-European language family.
Language group
A collection of languages within a branch that share a common origin in the relatively recent past and display relatively few differences in grammar and vocabulary. English is in the West Germanic group within the Germanic branch of the Indo-European language family.
Vulgar Latin
A form of Latin used in daily conversation by ancient Romans, as opposed to the standard dialect, which was used for official documents.
As the Roman Empire grew, the Latin used in each province was based on that spoken by the Roman army at the time of occupation AND also integrated words from the language formerly spoken there.
Lingua Franca
A language mutually understood and commonly used in trade by people who have different native languages. The term means “languages of the Franks,” and was originally applied by Arab traders during the Middle Ages to the language they used to communicate with Europeans (who they called Franks).
Logogram
A symbol that represents a word rather than a sound. Most logograms are compounds; words related to bodies of water, for example, include a symbol that represents a river, plus additional strokes that alter the river in some way.
