Mesoamerica Language

Question 1

Language family

Answer 1

largest group of relatable languages, though we presume all languages are related, if we go back far enough (40,000-100,000 BP).

-The approximately 7,000 languages spoken today may be grouped into a much smaller number of language families.

-The ancestral language, though extinct, may be partially reconstructed.

Question 2

What are the largest spoken mesoamerican languages?

Answer 2

Otomanguean, Mayan,
Uto-Aztecan, Indo-European)

Question 3

How many languages in Oto-Manguen & what countries speak it?

Answer 3

-Oto-Manguean (174 languages)
-Southern Mexico, includes Mixteco, Zapateco, Triqui.
-The majority of speakers of indigenous languages in the US speak Oto-Manguean languages

Question 4

Prehispanic (Mesoamerica):

Question 5

Colonial Period (New Spain):

Question 6

Indigenous Language/Minority language:

Question 7

Colonial language/Dominant language:

Question 8

Lingua franca:

Question 9

Language (e.g. Zapoteca, Yucatec Mayan, Nahuatl, Spanish):

Question 10

Linguistic isolate (e.g. Tarascan/Purépecha):

Question 11

Evolution of language:

Answer 11

linguistic change is said to typify languages; incomplete learning and invention

Question 12

Protolanguage:

Answer 12

The hypothetical ancestral language is called proto-X, as in proto-Oto-Manguean.

Question 13

Glottochronology:

Answer 13

Language Families are reconstructed by philologists (comparative linguists) through glottochronology (aka lexicostatistics), a method for comparing related languages and estimating their time of divergence based on
similarities and differences in lexicon, syntax, etc.

Question 14

Code-switching:

Answer 14

between dominant and minority languages evident.

Question 15

Creole:

Answer 15

“structurally and functionally complex enough to handle all the descriptive, emotional and expressive needs of the people speaking the
particular language (52). Happens when a “speech community” gives up its native tongue and uses a Pidgin as mother tongue.

Common in plantation economies in the Caribbean islands and mainland.
Haitian: West African, Native Taíno, French & other European

Languages
Curacao (Papiamento): African, Portuguese and Spanish
Honduras (Garifuna) Native Arawakan, French and Spanish

Question 16

Sociolinguistics:

Answer 16

The study of the relationship between language and
culture.

Question 17

Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis
(aka linguistic relativity):

Answer 17

Claims that the language(s) we speak affect how we think, how we interact with one
another, how we perceive reality.

Anthropologist Paul Bohannon appears to accept the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis in these characterizations of language (1966):
Language serves to “imprison the mind within a single mode of perception. Language… is the mold into which perception must be
fitted if it is to be communicated” (34).

The “narrowing and hardening of the mode of perception and communication is a form of… habituation” (38).

Language is a “trap” (42). It is the“breaking up of perception into linguistic chunks for communication.”

Question 18

Evidentials:

Question 19

Syntax (Grammar):

Answer 19

-Human language is also syntactic
-There are rules governing word order (the technical word for grammar is syntax)

Question 20

Register:

Answer 20

A variety of a language spoken in a limited context. May indicate technical content, relative status of speaker and audience,
formality, intimacy, etc. (jargon – technical lexicon). Even if we only speak one language, we all speak many registers.

The ability to switch registers appropriately is a sign of maturity and fluency:

• Prayer
• Formal Speech
• Sporting events
• Household language
• Occupational registers (food services, education, the military)

Example: whistled speed is a register

Question 21

Phone/Phoneme:

Question 22

Morpheme:

Question 23

International Phonetic Alphabet:

Answer 23

Linguists use the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) to represent languages. Unlike other alphabetic and non-alphabetic schemes for representing language, the IPA is unambiguous. There is one symbol per
sound. Infants begin ignoring sounds by 6 months

Question 24

Paralanguage:

Answer 24

is often neglected in discussions of language. It refers to communication that is associated with, or supports, verbal communication.

Question 25

Stigma:

Question 26

Language endangerment:

Answer 26

3,170 total approx. A language becomes endangered when its users begin to pass on a more dominant language to the children in the community. Due to their nature, endangered languages often have few speakers left, and it may be difficult to get information about them. Other times, the last known speaker of a language may die without public records. Pictured here are today’s known endangered languages, each represented as a red pin in its primary country. To see specific language names, just hover over the pins – or click them to view our profile for the language.

Question 28

Language extinction:

Answer 28

on the cusp of extinction

Question 29

Language revitalization:

Question 30

-Be able to comment on the geographic diversity of Mesoamerica and how it affects human settlement and activities.

Question 31

Relative sizes and population of Canada

Question 32

Relative sizes and population of the U.S (48 contiguous States + Washington DC)

Answer 32

Area - sq km: 8,080,464 Population: 329,500,000

Question 33

Relative sizes and population of Mexico

Answer 33

-Area - sq km: 1,900,000 Population: 128,900,000 -Mexico is 1/4th the size of the continental US -Mexico is 3 times the size of Texas -Most of Mesoamerica is within the modern political boundaries of Mexico

Question 34

Relative sizes and population of Guatemala

Answer 34

Area - sq km: 109,000 Population: 18.830,000 -Guatemala is 1/20th the size of Mexico

Question 35

What US States share a border with Mexico? How many miles is the border?

Answer 35

-Mexico shares a 2,000 mi border with the US (California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas)