Language
-Christina Garcia-
Where Are Languages Distributed?
The two largest language families are Indo-European and Sino-Tibetan. They are located in different parts of world. Indo-European is predominant in Europe, Latin America, South Asia, South Pacific, and North America. But Sino-Tibetan is distributed in East Asia.
Indo-European Distribution
Sino-Tibetan Distribution
Why Is English Related To Other Languages?
The distribution of the Germanic and Indo-Iranian branches are mainly clustered in a couple of places. The Germanic languages are mostly located in Northern Europe and North America. The Indo-Iranian languages are in South Asia and Central Asia.
Other Indo-European branches are Balto-Slavic and Romance. The distribution of the Balto-Slavic languages mainly focuses on Eastern Europe. The Romance languages are located mostly in Southern Europe and Latin America.
English is a language that comes from the Germanic branch. Its origin is in England, but it's a Germanic language because 1,500 years ago, German-speaking tribes invaded England. As it developed, words from Romance languages entered the English language. This happened after French-speaking Normans invaded England 1,000 years ago. It then diffused through British conquests.
Balto-Slavic Branch Distribution
Romance Branch Distribution
Why Do Individual Languages Vary Among Places?
There are dialects inside of a single language. An example of a language with dialects would be English. The main dialects in the US are the General Northern, General Southern, Midland, and Western. These differences can be traced to patterns of migration to the American colonies from various parts of England.
It's sometimes difficult to distinguish a language and a dialect. The distinction, though, is often based on political decisions rather than the actual characteristics of the languages and dialects. Language is a system of communication using sounds, gestures, marks, and signs. But dialects refer to grammer and vocabulary differences and accents.
Main Dialects In The US
Main Dialects In The US
Why Do People Preserve Local Languages?
There are counries that peacefully embrace more than one language. Examples of these counties would be Switzerland and Belgium. Switzerland's official languages are German, French, Italian, and Romansch. Its multilingualism is maintained by the cultural interactions among the population. Belgium also tries to embrace two official languages which are French and Flemish.
A lingua franca is a language that is mutually understood and is commonly used by people who have different native languages. It's also used during international trading. The world's most widely used lingua franca today is English.
The number of Celtic speakers has declined. This language has been suffering since medieval times. Even though the most widely spoken Celtic language is Welsh with 508,000 speakers, the vast majority of them also speak English. But advocacy groups and government agencies are showing an effort to preserve the Celtic languages by teaching it in schools and encouraging people who are interested in learning about their roots to learn these languages.
English has diffused to other languages. It combined with other languages, such as French and Spanish, through relocation diffusion. Also, other languages, such as Japanese, are using English loan words. Spanish and French have a role in the language in North America. Canada actually made French one of its official languages because it is widely used there and Spanish is widely used in the US.
Spanish & French In North America
