Term
|
Definition
| communication by voice in the distinctively human manner, using arbitrary sounds in conventional ways with conventional meanings; speech. ex: English |
|
|
Term
|
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
|
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
|
Definition
| a variety of a language that is characteristic of a particular group of the language's speakers. Ex: South London dialect |
|
|
Term
|
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
|
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
|
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
|
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
|
Definition
| Families at a smaller scale. Ex: Balkan family |
|
|
Term
|
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
|
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
|
Definition
| When a language is reproduced starting with what came later in the development of the language. Ex: Reproducing PIE |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| When a language is no longer spoken by anyone as a first language. Ex: The Coptic Language |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| When a language is reproduced from its beginnings. Ex: Old English |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| a proposed language family that includes many of the indigenous language families of Europe, Asia, Africa, and North America. Ex: Indo-European |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
Linguistic speciation, or linguistic divergence
* isolation
* group membership
* time
* conquest
* migration
* technological discovery
* contact
* translation of ancient texts
Ex: Russian and Ukrainian |
|
|
Term
|
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
|
Definition
| proposes that the dispersal (discontinuity) of Proto-Indo-Europeans originated in Neolithic Anatolia. Ex: Proto-Indo-European language from Anatolia |
|
|
Term
|
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
|
Definition
| The Spread of languages linked with agriculture. Ex: Egyptian |
|
|
Term
|
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
|
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
|
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
|
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
|
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
|
Definition
| a stable language that originated from a mixture of various languages. Ex: English |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Nations that have only one official language. Ex: New Zealand |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Nations that have more than one official language. Ex: Cameroon |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| a language that is given a special legal status in a particular country, state, or other territory. Ex: English, the US. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| a language spoken internationally, which is learned by many people as a second language. Ex: English |
|
|
Term
|
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
|
Definition
| the scientific study of place names (toponyms), their origins, meanings, use and typology. Ex: Place Name |
|
|
