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***Historical linguistics
– The study of language change using formal
methods that compare shifts over time and
across space in aspects of language, such as
phonetics, syntax and semantics.
- Historical linguists help track these basic
changes in language and syntax but they will
also follow the
Language family
– A group of languages descended from a
parent language.
Writing Systems
• Earliest evidence for written language comes
from-- Mesopotamia, Egypt and China.
• The oldest written language comes from 4th
millennium BCE, in ancient Sumer. The ancient
written form of the Sumerian language is
known as, Cuneiform.
• Complex Writing systems have been
associated with the rise of the state.
Archaeologists have asserted that ancient
writing systems developed out of a need to–
– Keep historical records, inventories, and ledgers.
– Political histories, propaganda war events, and
royal ascension
– Religious ceremonies, rites of passage, myths,
legends, calendars and astronomical events.
• ***Khipu
– Cords of knotted string used during the Inca empire for keeping
accounts and recording events.
• Scholars are not sure how the khipu system worked but it is
believed that the Inca had a highly complex system of
deciphering each knot, color/combination, and length of
knotted cords.
• Although the khipu system is not technically a written
language scholars believe that much of the empire’s events
were recorded on khipus and only decipherable by trained
record keepers. The Inca empire was the largest empire
during the 14th century
*** Logograph
– A symbol that conveys meaning through a form of
picture resembling that to which it refers.
• Languages that have utilized logographic symbols or
logo-syllabic symbols include-- Ancient and
Contemporary Chinese, Ancient Egyptian and Ancient
Mayan.
Globalization and Colonialism
• **Creole
– A language directly descended from a pidgin but
possessing its own native speakers and involving linguistic
expansion and elaboration.
• **Pidgin
– A contact language that blends elements of at least two
languages and that emerges when people with different
languages need to communicate.
• **Global language
– A Language spoken widely throughout the world and in
diverse cultural contexts, often replacing indigenous
languages.
Loan Words in North American English
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Alcohol
Avocado
Banana
Bogus
Candy
Caucus
Chimpanzee
Chocolate
Gong
Hammock
Hip/hep
Hurricane
Lime
Moose
Panda
Savannah
Shampoo
Sugar
Tepee
Thug
Tobacco
Tomato
Tundra
Typhoon
Zombie
Arabic, Middle East
Nahuatl, Mexico/C.A.
Mandingo, W. Africa
Hausa, W. Africa
Arabic, Middle East
Algonquin, Virginia/Delaware
Bantu, W. Africa
Aztec Nahuatl
Malaysia, SE Asia
Arawakan, South America
Wolof, W. Africa
Taino, Caribbean
Inca Quechua
Algonquin
Nepali, South Asia
Taino, Caribbean
Hindi
Sanskrit, S. Asia
Sioux
Hindi
Arawak, S. America
Nahuatl
Saami, Lapland, Northern Europe
Mandarin Chinese
Congo, Angola W. Africa
Endangered Languages and
Revitalization
• Linguistic anthropology was prompted by a need to
document disappearing indigenous languages and
the stages that led to that decline.
• Languages and peoples that have been encroached
upon by other people can react to this encroachment
in two main ways
– Adopt the language of the main or conquering group.
– Rebel against the language of the main group and continue
to speak their native language in subversive circles.
4 Phases of Language decline and loss
1. Language shift, or decay. A category of language
decline when speakers have a limited vocabulary in
their native language and more often use a new
language in which they may be semi-fluent or fluent.
2. Language endangerment, exists when a language
has fewer than 10,000 speakers.
3. Near-Extinction, is a situation in which only a few
elderly speakers are still living.
4. Language extinction, occurs when the language
has no competent speakers.
New English: The rise of
transnationalism in the USA
• English being one of the most widely spoken
languages on earth spread its roots through
colonialism and merchant/trade routes (17th
century CE).
• It is through colonialism that English proper
subdivided into a variety of regional dialects. So
many English dialects exist that Linguists are
thinking of adding an English language family.
This family would include- spanglish, japlish,
textese and Tex-Mex.