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Human Geography Ch. 5
Terms for Culture unit
32
Geography
9th Grade
12/15/2009

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Term
Language
Definition
communication by voice in the distinctively human manner, using arbitrary sounds in conventional ways with conventional meanings; speech. ex: English
Term
Culture
Definition
the quality in a person or society that arises from a concern for what is regarded as excellent in arts, letters, manners, scholarly pursuits, etc. Ex: Egyptian Culture
Term
Standard Language
Definition
a particular variety of a language that has been given either legal or quasi-legal status. Ex: Mandarin Chinese, replacing all the smaller forms of Chinese
Term
dialects
Definition
a variety of a language that is characteristic of a particular group of the language's speakers. Ex: South London dialect
Term
isogloss
Definition
the geographical boundary or delineation of a certain linguistic feature (e.g., the pronunciation of a vowel), the meaning of a word, or use of some syntactic feature. Ex: the Benrath line that distinguishes High German from the other West Germanic languages
Term
Mutual Intelligability
Definition
a relationship between languages in which speakers of different but related languages can readily understand each other without intentional study or extraordinary effort. Ex: Different forms of Japanese
Term
Dialect chains
Definition
a range of dialects spoken across a large geographical area, differing only slightly between areas that are geographically close, and gradually decreasing in mutual intelligibility as the distances become greater. Ex: regions such as Kashmir in which local Muslims declare their language Urdu; Sikhs, Punjabi; and Hindus, Hindi.
Term
Language Families
Definition
a group of languages related by descent from a common ancestor, called the proto-language of that family. Ex: what makes Germanic languages "Germanic" is that they share vocabulary and grammatical features which are not believed to have been present in Proto-Indo-European
Term
subfamilies
Definition
Families at a smaller scale. Ex: Balkan family
Term
sound shift
Definition
any processes of language change that affect pronunciation (phonetic change) or sound system structures (phonological change). Ex: the -s in the English plural can be pronounced differently depending on what letter it follows; this is a form of alternation, rather than sound change.
Term
Proto-Indo-European
Definition
the unattested, reconstructed common ancestor of the Indo-European languages, spoken by the Proto-Indo-Europeans. Ex:There are several competing hypotheses about when and where PIE was spoken
Term
Backward reconstruction
Definition
When a language is reproduced starting with what came later in the development of the language. Ex: Reproducing PIE
Term
Extinct Language
Definition
When a language is no longer spoken by anyone as a first language. Ex: The Coptic Language
Term
Deep Reconstruction
Definition
When a language is reproduced from its beginnings. Ex: Old English
Term
Nostratic
Definition
a proposed language family that includes many of the indigenous language families of Europe, Asia, Africa, and North America. Ex: Indo-European
Term
Language Divergence
Definition
Linguistic speciation, or linguistic divergence

* isolation
* group membership
* time
* conquest
* migration
* technological discovery
* contact
* translation of ancient texts
Ex: Russian and Ukrainian
Term
Language Convergence
Definition
a type of contact-induced change whereby languages with many bilingual speakers mutually borrow morphological and syntactic features, making their typology more similar. Ex: Maltese and English
Term
Renfrew Hypothesis
Definition
proposes that the dispersal (discontinuity) of Proto-Indo-Europeans originated in Neolithic Anatolia. Ex: Proto-Indo-European language from Anatolia
Term
Conquest Theory
Definition
When a place is conquered by an invading army, the place is forced into using the language of the conquerors. Ex: Russia and Khazakstan
Term
Dispersal Hypothesis
Definition
The Spread of languages linked with agriculture. Ex: Egyptian
Term
Romance Languages
Definition
a branch of the Indo-European language family comprising all the languages that descend from Latin, the language of ancient Rome. Ex: Occitan
Term
Germanic Languages
Definition
a group of related languages that constitute a branch of the Indo-European (IE) language family. The common ancestor of all the languages in this branch is Proto-Germanic. Ex: English, German
Term
Slavic Languages
Definition
a group of closely related languages of the Slavic peoples and a subgroup of Indo-European languages, have speakers in most of Eastern Europe, in much of the Balkans, in parts of Central Europe, and in the northern part of Asia. Ex: Russian, Ukrainian
Term
Lingua Franca
Definition
a language systematically used to communicate between persons not sharing a mother tongue, in particular when it is a third language, distinct from both persons' mother tongues. Ex: Swahili
Term
Pidgin Language
Definition
a simplified language that develops as a means of communication between two or more groups that do not have a language in common, in situations such as trade, or where both groups speak languages different than the language of the country in which they reside (but there is no common language between the groups). Ex: Chinese Pidgin English
Term
Creole Language
Definition
a stable language that originated from a mixture of various languages. Ex: English
Term
Monolingual States
Definition
Nations that have only one official language. Ex: New Zealand
Term
Multilingual States
Definition
Nations that have more than one official language. Ex: Cameroon
Term
Official Language
Definition
a language that is given a special legal status in a particular country, state, or other territory. Ex: English, the US.
Term
Global Language
Definition
a language spoken internationally, which is learned by many people as a second language. Ex: English
Term
Place
Definition
a place or area with clustered or scattered buildings and a permanent human population (city, settlement, town, or village) referenced with geographic coordinates. Ex: Khazakstan
Term
Toponym
Definition
the scientific study of place names (toponyms), their origins, meanings, use and typology. Ex: Place Name
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