Questions and Answers
What is the number of languages spoken today?
6909
How many languages are spoken by at least 100 million people?
11
How many languages are spoken by at least 3 million people?
153
What is a language?
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What is a literary tradition?
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How many people speak English as their first language?
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How many people speak English fluently?
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How many countries have English as their official language?
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How many people live in a country with English as the official language, even if they cannot speak it?
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Which groups influenced the English language?
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What is a dialect?
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What is an isogloss?
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What is a standard language?
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What is British Received Pronunciation?
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Angle Germanic evolved into which language?
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Jute Germanic evolved into which language?
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Saxon Germanic evolved into which varieties?
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What is Old English?
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What is Middle English?
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Southwestern English was the basis for which dialect?
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BRP became predominant because of which cities?
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Why is vocabulary in America different?
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What were the two goals of Noah Webster's Dictionary?
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The pronunciation of English underwent less change in ________________ than it did in _____________.
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The dialect of English that developed in New England is a result of?
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The dialect of English that developed in the South is a result of?
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The dialect of English that developed in the Mid-Atlantic region is a result of?
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Who divided the Eastern US into three dialect regions?
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The regional ________________ in the US are more differentiated than the _______________.
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What is a language family?
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What are the four major language branches of the Indo-European language family?
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What are the four minor language branches of the Indo-European language family?
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What is a language group?
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What are the two subgroups of the West Germanic group?
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Which subgroup does Modern Standard German fit into?
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Which subgroup does English fit into?
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Which language branch of Indo-Iranian has the most speakers?
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How many individual languages are there in the Indo-Iranian language branch?
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What are the two subgroups of the Indo-Iranian language branch?
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What does English provide for the people of India?
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How many languages in the Indic subgroup are spoken by 1 million+ people?
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How many ways are there to write Hindi?
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What is the Devangari script?
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Where is the language of Farsi/Persian spoken?
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Where is the language of Pashto spoken?
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Where is the language of Kurdish spoken?
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What three languages are part of the Iranian subgroup of the Indo-Iranian language branch?
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What is the Balto-Slavic language branch?
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What are the official languages of the UN?
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What are the three subgroups of the Balto-Slavic language branch?
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What is the most widely used language in the East subgroup of the Balto-Slavic language branch?
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What percentage of Russians speak Russian?
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What are the second most widely spoken languages in the East subgroup of the Balto-Slavic language branch?
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What is the most widely used language of the West subgroup of the Balto-Slavic language branch?
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What are the second most widely spoken languages in the West subgroup of the Balto-Slavic language branch?
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What alphabet do Bosnians and Croats use?
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What alphabet do Montenegrins and Serbs use?
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What are the four most widely used languages in the Romance language branch?
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What is Vulgar Latin/Latin Vulgate?
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What is Francien?
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What is Castilian?
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What percentage of Spanish and Portuguese speakers do not live in Europe?
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What is the most commonly used colonial language?
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What is the Spanish Royal Academy?
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What does Creole/Creolized (language) mean?
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What does Creole literally mean?
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What is a proto language?
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Common __________ in all languages in a language family indicates a common __________.
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What did all of the languages in the Indo-European language family originally have words for?
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What did none of the languages in the Indo-European language family originally have words for?
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Where do most linguists think the Proto-Indo-European language originated?
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What is the diffusion method of the Nomadic Warrior Thesis?
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What is the diffusion method of the Sedentary Farmer Thesis?
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Where did the Kurgan people live?
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When does the earliest evidence of the Kurgans date back to?
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Why did the Kurgans migrate?
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Why were the Kurgans able to conquer much of Europe and South America?
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Where did the original speakers of the Sedentary Farmer Thesis live?
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When does evidence for the Sedentary Farmer Thesis date back to?
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Who proposed the Nomadic Warrior Thesis?
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Who proposed the Sedentary Farmer Thesis?
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What does the Sedentary Farmer Thesis state?
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According to the Sedentary Farmer Thesis, why were there more speakers of the Proto-Indo-European language?
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What percentage of the world's population speaks a language in the Indo-European Language Family?
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What percentage of the world's population speaks a language in the Sino-Tibetan Language Family?
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What percentage of the world's population speaks a language in the Afro-Asiatic, Austronesian, and Niger-Congo language families?
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What percentage of the world's population speaks a language in the Dravidian language family?
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What percentage of the world's population speaks a language in the Altaic, Austro-Asiatic, and Japanese language families?
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What percentage of the world's population speaks a language that belongs to one of 100 small language families?
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What is the Sino-Tibetan Language Family?
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Chinese is part of which language branch?
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What is the most common, everyday form of Mandarin?
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What percentage of the population of China speaks Mandarin Chinese?
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What is the official language of China and Taiwan?
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What language helped unify China?
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How many one-syllable sounds are there in Mandarin Chinese?
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Listeners must infer the meaning of words in Mandarin based on ___________ and ___________.
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What are the two types of characters in Mandarin?
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What percentage of the Chinese people are illiterate?
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Study Notes
Language Overview
- Approximately 6,909 languages are spoken worldwide today.
- Only 11 languages have more than 100 million speakers.
- A total of 153 languages are spoken by at least 3 million people.
Definitions and Concepts
- Language: A system of verbal communication understood by a group.
- Literary tradition: Represents systems of written communication.
- Dialect: Distinct regional variations of a language.
- Isogloss: A geographic boundary marking variations in word usage or pronunciation.
- Standard Language: The dialect most widely accepted for formal communication.
English Language Statistics
- English has approximately 23 million native speakers but is spoken fluently by around 500 million people globally.
- It serves as the official language in 57 countries and is the primary language for about 2 billion people, including non-speakers.
- Influenced by several groups: Celts, Angles, Saxons, Jutes, Vikings, and Normans.
English Dialects and Variations
- British Received Pronunciation (BRP): Spoken by the upper class, associated with politicians and broadcasters.
- Dialects developed in the U.S. stem from regional influences, including settlers and enslaved groups.
- Vocabulary in America differs due to the introduction of new species, Native American words, inventions, and other immigrant languages.
Language Families and Branches
- The Indo-European language family includes four major branches:
- Indo-Iranian
- Romance
- Germanic
- Balto-Slavic
- Minor branches include Albanian, Armenian, Greek, and Celtic.
- Language Group: A collection of languages within a branch that share a common origin.
Indo-Iranian Language Branch
- The Indo-Iranian language branch is the most populous, containing over 100 languages, with Indic and Iranian as its two subgroups.
- Hindi uses the Devangari script and has one standardized form.
Balto-Slavic Language Family
- This branch was originally unified but became diverse due to migration patterns.
- Russian is the most widely spoken language in the East subgroup, accounting for 80% of speakers in Russia.
Romance Language Branch
- Prominent languages include French, Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian, with variations in usage across different regions.
- Vulgar Latin refers to the colloquialism that evolved from Classical Latin.
Proto-Language and Historical Linguistics
- A proto-language is the ancient ancestor from which several families derive.
- Common vocabulary across related languages suggests a shared origin.
Linguistic Diffusion Theories
- Nomadic Warrior Thesis: Proposes that language spread through war and conquest, associated with the Kurgan people from Kazakhstan.
- Sedentary Farmer Thesis: Suggests that language diffusion occurred via peaceful agricultural practices, proposed by Colin Renfrew, originating from Eastern Anatolia.
Global Language Families
- Indo-European comprises 46% of the world population; the Sino-Tibetan family includes 21%.
- Other families include Afro-Asiatic, Austronesian, Niger-Congo, Dravidian, and smaller families accounting for 5%.
Mandarin Chinese
- Mandarin is the official language of China and Taiwan, spoken by 75% of the population.
- It features 420 one-syllable sounds, with meaning often inferred through context and intonation.
- Mandarin Chinese employs phonetic and ideographic characters.
Literacy and Language Use
- Approximately 16% of Chinese people are illiterate, indicating varying education levels across regions.
Studying That Suits You
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Description
Test your knowledge on the various aspects of languages as discussed in Chapter 5 of AP Human Geography. This quiz focuses on the number of languages spoken today, their prevalence, and definitions related to language. Challenge yourself with flashcards designed to enhance your understanding of linguistic diversity.