1. CHAPTER 5
KEY ISSUE 4

2. KEY
Blue = Vocabulary Terms
Underlined = PR RF
Italics = Important Terms

3. WHY DO PEOPLE PRESERVE LOCAL
LANGUAGES?
 Language displays the two competing geographic
trends of globalization and local diversity
 Thousands of languages are extinct languages
 Extinct language: a language that was once used
by people in daily activities but is no longer used
 Example: Gothic spoken in Northern Europe,
extinct because the descendants converted to other
languages through integration

4. HEBREW: REVIVING EXTINCT
LANGUAGES
 Hebrew is a rare example of a once extinct
language that has been revived
 It was used to write the Old Testament of the Bible
 After the fourth century B.C. it was only used for
Jewish religious services
 It became one of Israel’s official languages in 1948
 Because Israel was home to many refugees of
different countries who spoke many languages and
Hebrew was still used for Jewish prayers, no other
language could unify the country

5. CELTIC: PRESERVING ENDANGERED
LANGUAGES
 Was spoken in Germany, France, Northern Italy,
and British Isles
 Major language in the British Isles before the
Germanic Angles invaded
 The Celtic Branch is divided into Gaelic and
Brythonic
 Most Celtic languages declined whenever they lost
their territory to speakers of other languages
 Irish Gaelic and Scottish Gaelic are still spoken
today
 People are preserving the Celtic language through
bands and being offered as courses in school

6. CELTIC LANGUAGE ON ROAD SIGNS
 See figure on page 173
 Road signs written in both English and Gaelic

7. MULTILINGUAL STATES
 Multilingual: able to speak/ understand several
languages, expressed in many languages
 Monolingual: able to speak/ understand one
language, expressed in only one language
 Multilingual States can cause conflict
 Difficulties usually arise at the boundary of the two
languages

8. BELGIUM DIVIDED
 See figure 5-16 on page 174
 Belgium is divided into the Flemings in the North
that speak Flemish, and the Walloons in the South
that speak French
 Belgium had difficulty making a precise boundary
between the two
 A mayor of town in Flanders refused to speak
Flemish, which is required by national law
 After refusing to be tested on Dutch, he was
removed from the office

9. PEACEFUL SWITZERLAND
 See figure 5-17 on page 17
 Switzerland peacefully exists with multiple
languages
 Four official national languages, including German,
French, Italian, Romansh
 The key is a very decentralized government, in
which local authorities hold most of the power

10. ISOLATED LANGUAGES
 Isolated language: a language unrelated to any
other and therefore not attached to any language
family
 Isolation usually results in the differentiation of
language into two
 Similarities and differences between language are
a measure of the degree of interaction among
groups of people
 Results in a lack of linguistic diversity
 Linguistic diversity: consisting of many different
languages

11. BASQUE
 The best example of an isolated language in
Europe is Basque
 Basque is spoken by one million people in the
Pyrenees Mountains of northern Spain and
southwestern France
 Their lack of connection to other language reflects
on how isolated the people are in their
mountainous region

12. ICELANDIC
 Unlike Basque, Icelandic is related to other
languages in the Germanic branch
 Icelandic has changed less than any other in the
Germanic branch due to its relative isolation from
other places
 When people migrate, they take along their
language
 The isolated people of Iceland had no interaction
with immigrants
 They have less opportunity to learn new words and
had no reason to make changes to their language

13. GLOBAL DOMINANCE OF ENGLISH
 English is an example of a lingua franca
 Lingua franca: a language of international
communication such as English mutually understood
by people with different native languages
 Trade language: to facilitate trade, speakers of two
different languages mix elements of languages to
form a common one
 Pidgin language: a form of speech that adopts a
simplified grammar and limited vocab of a lingua
franca used for communications among speakers of
different languages

14. IMPORTANCE OF ENGLISH
 The rapid growth in the importance of English is
reflected in how many students learn English as a
second language
 70% of Europeans aged 18-24 speak English
 Japan is considering adding English as an official
language
 Students around the world want to learn in English
because they believe it to be the most effective way
to work in a global economy/ participate in a global
culture

15. EXPANSION DIFFUSION OF ENGLISH
 Expansion diffusion has occurred in two ways with
English
 #1: English is changing through diffusion of new
vocabulary, #2: English words are fusing into other
languages
 Recent changes in English result from common
usage and ethnic dialects
 In the twentieth century, many African Americans
migrated from the south to the north
 They preserved their distinctive dialect, coined
Ebonics
 Ebonics: a combination of ebony and phonics

16. DIFFUSION TO OTHER LANGUAGES
 See Figure 5-18 on page 179
 English words have become increasingly integrated
into other languages through elements of pop culture
 Many French people are upset that English words
have diffused into French because it ruins the
language’s purity
 Franglais: a combination of French and English
 English is diffusing into the Spanish language by 28
million Hispanics in the US
 Spanglish: a combination of Spanish and English

17. REVIEW QUESTIONS
 What is the difference between and extinct
language and an isolated language?
 Why has Icelandic changed less than any other in
the Germanic branch?
 Do multilingual states always cause conflict? Why/
why not?
 Why do so many students in foreign countries want
to learn English?
 How has English been diffused?