4.1: Chapter Introduction and Objectives

Chapter Introduction & Objectives

Learning Objectives

• Identify how language spreads from one geographic location to another.

Chapter 4: Part 1: Geographies of Language

The following is remixed from these OER texts with proper OER creative commons licenses: OER (1 of 2): Introduction to Human Geography edited by Dorrell & Henderson, Published by University of North Georgia University Press. https://web.ung.edu/media/university-press/human-geography_v2.pdf?t=1700179494361 Dorrell 5, 6 OER (2of 2): Introduction to human Geography A Disciplinary Approach 3rd Edition by Graves. Published California State University Northridge Department of Geography https://sites.google.com/site/gravesgeography/introduction-to-human-geography GP 5, 6

The Geography of Language

This section is remixed from Dorrell & Henderson Chapter 5, original author: Arnulfo G. Ra CC-BY.

Section Learning Outcomes:

By the end of this section, the student will be able to: 1. Understand: the diffusion and extinction of languages 2. Explain: the relationship between language, identity and power 3. Describe: the distributions of world languages 4. Connect: cultures with their linguistic components

4: Part 1: Introduction to Language

Language is central to daily human existence. It is the principal means by which we conduct our social lives at home, neighborhood, school, workplace and recreation area. It is the tool we use to plan our lives, remember our past, and express our cultural identity. We create meaning when we talk on the cell phone, send an e-mail message, read a newspaper and interpret a graph or chart. Many persons conduct their social lives using only one language. Many others, however, rely on two languages in order to participate effectively in the community, get a job, obtain a college degree and enjoy loving relation- ships. We live in a discourse world that incorporates ways of speaking, reading and writing, but also integrates ways of behaving, interacting, thinking and valuing. Language is embedded in cultural practices and, at the same time, symbolizes cultural reality itself.

The language we use is perhaps the most important element of our culture. Language, dialect, and even accents are extraordinarily powerful markers of identity. Language shapes our worldview, both constraining and liberating what we can know and feel. Language is often embedded in the landscape, where it can be read, interpreted and its power over us analyzed.

What we speak and how we speak are powerful indicators of who we are. Language marks us as individuals, but it is perhaps the primary marker of our group identity as well. Language both limits and liberates our thoughts and feelings, in turn creating a battlefield where various interests compete to control the chains of meaning attached to words and phrases. Power is exercised through language. Consider the phrase, “Make America Great Again”. Stripped of context, those four words seem reasonably benign, but the way the phrase was used by Ronald Reagan’s campaign in 1980, and since the presidential campaign of 2016, has changed the meaning of those words. “MAGA” has become laden with many overlapping, often competing, layer of meaning that are complex and continue to evolve. The pen, or the turn of phrase, is indeed mightier than the sword.

A language is a system of communication that persons within a community use to convey ideas and emotions. Linguistics is the study of language. Geolinguistics is a subfield in both geography and linguistics where the interests of geographers and linguists intersect. Most of the time, people who speak (or sign) the same language find themselves able to communicate with each other. People who communicate easily with each other typically are using a similar version of a common language, known as a dialect. On the other hand, dialects within a single language can become so different from one other that people using different dialects find it nearly impossible to understand one another. When that happens, mutual intelligibility, which is the ability for two or more people to understand each other, degrades. When mutual intelligibility fails completely, then people are said to be communicating with different languages.

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Voting Rights - Stacking, Cracking and Packing YouTube Video – Watch and listen to a couple on a Scottish television program. Their dialect is so different from American English that one can argue that they speak a different language.

A breakdown of mutual intelligibility may qualify the Scottish dialect of English as a separate language called Scottish English. Certainly, many speakers of American English find some Scottish people very difficult to understand, especially if the Scottish people are from the working class or from rural districts. Part of the problem is the difference in accent or the way Scottish people pronounce common English words. For example, the Scottish “roll” their tongues when they pronounce words with the letter R. Americans do not“roll their R’s". Americans also pronounce the word “to” as“tū” and the Scottish pronounce it “tae”. The Scottish dialect is certainly characterized by a unique accent, but it also features a lot of terms and phrases unused by Americans. So, for example, a Scotsman might use the phrase “wee bairn” to describe a small child, where Americans might say “little kid” instead.

There are other forms and uses of language as well. In places where two or more languages are spoken, a pidgin language may develop. A pidgin language is a simplified version of a language, sometimes with elements of another language, that is used by people especially in matters of trade or business. Lots of pidgin languages have formed around the world, especially in border areas and in places where colonial empires were built. It’s easy to hear pidgin English spoken in the US among immigrants just learning to speak English, especially when the immigrants come from different linguistic backgrounds. Some Hawaiians also speak pidgin English. Sometimes a pidgin will evolve, becoming more complex over the years until it becomes a language in its own right. Linguists call these formalized pidgins creole languages. Most creole languages remain unofficial, but a few, like Haitian Creole, a blend of French and West African languages, have become official languages with rules about spelling and syntax, used by schools and governments.

The above paragraph is copied and pasted from graves