language
set of sounds, combinations of sounds, and symbols that are used for communication
standard language
one that is published, widely distributed, and purposefully taught
dialects
variants of a standard language along regional or ethnic lines
isogloss
geographic boundary within which a particular linguistic feature occurs, but such a boundary is a rarely simple line
mutual intelligibility
means that two people can understand each other when speaking
dialect chains
linguists think of them as distributed across space
language families
closely related languages; at a global scale they can be clasified as...
subfamilies
divisions within a language family
sound shift
Slight change in a word across languages within a subfamily or through a language family from the present backward toward its origin.
proto-indo-european
from jones's notions and grimm's ideas came the first major linguistic hypothesis, proposing the existence of an ancestral indo-european language called...
bakward reconstruction
Linguistics use this technique to track sound shifts and hardening of consonants "backward" toward the original language
extinct language
language without any native speakers
deep reconstruction
technique using the vocubulary of extinct language to re-create the language that proceeded the extinct language
nostratic
proto-indo-european language ancient ancestor
language divergence
whena lack of spatial interaction among speakers of a language breaks the new language
language convergence
when people with different languages have consistent spatial interaction and their languages collapse into one
conquest theory
One major theory of how proto-indo-europena diffused into europe; holds that early speakers of Proto-indo-european spread westward on horseback
dispersal hypothesis
Hypothesis which holds that the Indo-European languages that arose from Proto-Indo-European were first carried eastward into Southwest Asia, next around the Caspian Sea, and then across the Russian-Ukrainian plains and onto the Balkans.
romance language
lie in the areas that were once controlled by the Roman Empire but were not subsequently overwhelmed
germanic language
reflect the exppansion of peoples out of northern europe to the west and south
slavic language
developed as slavic people migrated froma base in present- day Ukraine close to 2000 years ago
lingua franca
a languageused among speakers of different languages for the purposes of trade and commerse
pidgin language
language created when people combine parts of their language into a simplified structure
creole language
a pidgin language that has developed a more complex structure and vocabulary and has become the native language of a group of people
monolingual states
countries in which only one language is spoken
multilingual states
countries in which more than one language is spoken
official language
The language adopted for use by the government for the conduct of business and publication of documents.
global language
a common language of trade and commerce used aound the world
place
uniqness of a location
typonyms
place name