5.2 Why Do People Preserve Local Languages?

Deaton APHG

Basic Facts

Creole – a language that results from the mixing of the colonizer’s and that of those being dominated.

Most languages including English fall under the Indo-European branch.

The rest in this branch include:• Romantic, Germanic, Balto-Slavic, Indo-Iranian

• Albanian, Armenian, Greek, and Celtic.

Basic Facts and Exercise

The most widely spoken language in the world is Mandarin.

The Chinese language consists of ideograms instead of letters.

They represent ideas rather than sounds.

Right now create five ideograms for everyday things for you.

Preserving Language Diversity

Extinct languages- once in use but no longer spoken or read in daily activities.

Many languages die due to several reasons.What could they be?

Hebrew: Reviving Extinct Lang.

Hebrew was the language of the Bible which was used daily until the 4th century (Jewish afterwards)

However, in 1948 when Israel was recognized as an independent country it was 1 of 2 official languages.

Hebrew: Reviving Extinct Lang.

The task was difficult:Many new words had to be made.

New inventions that did not exist in biblical times.

Nearly 4,000 new words were created in a dictionary.

Multilingual States

Typically small countries that are at a crossroads of larger countries.

Ex: Belgium and Switzerland

Belgium: has two, and it has flipped due to political instablity.

Switzerland: Four, due to decentralized government.

Isolated Language

Isolated language- language unrelated to any other and therefore not attached to any language family.

What would be examples?

Global Dominance of English

Lingua Franca- A language of international communication. One everyone gets.

Refers to Language of the Franks. First coined by the Arabs during the middle ages to communicate with Europeans.

A group that learns the LF learn a simplified form called pidgin language.