CONTEMPORARY
HUMAN GEOGRAPHY
CULTURE, GLOBALIZATION, LANDSCAPE
MONA DOMOSH
RODERICK P. NEUMANN
PATRICIA L. PRICE
C. 2015 W.H. FREEMAN & CO.
THE GEOGRAPHY OF
LANGUAGE
BUILDING THE SPOKEN WORD
WHAT IS LANGUAGE?
Language:
A mutually agreed-on system of symbolic
communication that has a spoken and usually a
written expression.
• It provides the single most common variable by
which different cultural groups are identified and by
which groups assert their unique identity.
• Language facilitates the cultural diffusion of
innovations and shapes the way we think about,
perceive, and name our environment.
4.1 REGION
LANGUAGES AND DIALECTS
• Separate languages are those that cannot be
mutually understood.
• Dialects, by contrast, are variant forms of a
language where mutual comprehension is possible.
• About 7000 languages and many more dialects are
spoken in the world today.
FIGURE 4.2 The major linguistic formal culture regions of the world. Although
there are thousands of languages and dialects in the world, they can be
grouped into a few linguistic families. The Indo-European language family
represents about half of the world’s population. It spread throughout the
world, in part, through Europe’s empire-building efforts.
PIDGINS AND CREOLES
• When different linguistic groups come into contact, a
pidgin language (very small vocabulary derived from
the languages of the groups in contact) often results.
• When pidgin languages acquire fuller vocabularies and
become native languages of their speakers, they are
called creole languages.
Lingua franca:
An existing, well-established language of communication
and commerce used widely where it is not a mother
tongue (e.g., Swahili in much of East Africa).
LANGUAGE FAMILIES:
THE INDO-EUROPEAN FAMILY
Language family:
A group of related languages derived from a
common ancestor.
• The largest and most widespread language family is
the Indo-European – spoken on all the continents.
• English is a Germanic Indo-European language.
• Six Indo-European tongues are among the 10 most
spoken languages in the world (by number of
native speakers).
FIGURE 4.3 Linguistic family tree. Shown here is a detailed image of one
branch of the linguistic family tree. (Source: Adapted from Ford.)
THE SINO-TIBETAN FAMILY
• The Sino-Tibetan family is second only to IndoEuropean in numbers of native speakers.
• “Sino” refers to China and in this context indicates
the various languages spoken by more than 1.3
billion people in China.
THE AFRO-ASIATIC FAMILY
• Consists of two major divisions: Semitic and Hamitic.
• Arabic is the most widespread Semitic language
and has the greatest number of native speakers.
• Hebrew is another Semitic tongue – official national
language of Israel.
Polyglot:
A mixture of different languages.
FIGURE 4.4 Sign in Arab quarter of Nazareth. Many of Israel’s cities are home
to diverse populations. This sign at a child-care center reflects Israel’s polyglot
population, with its English, Arabic, and Hebrew wording. (Courtesy of
Patricia L. Price.)
OTHER MAJOR LANGUAGE FAMILIES
• Most of the rest of the world’s population speak
languages belonging to one of six remaining major
families:
❖ Niger-Congo
❖ Altaic
❖ Uralic
❖ Austronesian
❖ Austro-Asiatic
❖ Japanese and Korean
4.2 MOBILITY
HOW DID INDO-EUROPEAN
LANGUAGES DIFFUSE?
• Relocation diffusion has been extremely important
because languages spread when groups, in whole or
in part, migrate from one area to another.
Anatolian hypothesis:
The movement of Indo-European languages from the
area in contemporary Turkey (Anatolia) followed the
spread of plant domestication technologies.
Kurgan hypothesis:
The spread of Indo-European languages originated
with animal domestication in the central Asian steppes
and grew more aggressively and swiftly than
proponents of the Anatolian hypothesis maintain.
INDO-EUROPEAN DIFFUSION:
WHAT WE KNOW FOR SURE
• In later millennia, the diffusion of certain Indo-European
languages (e.g., Latin, English, and Russian) occurred
with the territorial spread of great political empires.
• Relocation diffusion occurred as a small number of
conquering elites came to rule an area …
• The language of the conqueror often gained wider
acceptance through expansion diffusion …
• Typically, the conqueror’s language spread
hierarchically; adopted first by the more important and
influential persons and by city dwellers.
FIGURE 4.6 The spread of Indo-European language. This map depicts the socalled Kurgan hypothesis, named after the burial mounds (kurgan)
characteristic of the warrior pastoralists who inhabited the area north of the
Black and Caspian seas. Around 6000 B.C.E., they began to spread outward,
conquering and imposing their language across Europe, Central Asia, India,
the Balkans, and Anatolia (modern-day Turkey).
MIGRATION AND THE
SURVIVAL OF LANGUAGE
• Conquest can lead to the imposition of a new
language and the abandonment or suppression of
native tongues …
• However, these threatened languages may
reappear and thrive in new places, as their
speakers migrate for reasons of economic or
cultural survival.
• New York City is home to as many as 800
languages, making it the most linguistically dense
place in the world.
RELIGION AND LINGUISTIC MOBILITY
• Cultural interaction creates situations in which
language is linked to a particular religious faith or
denomination … greatly heightens cultural identity.
• Arabic spread from a core area on the Arabian
Peninsula with the expansion of Islam.
• Latin survived mainly as the ceremonial language of
the Roman Catholic Church and Vatican City.
• Martin Luther’s translation of the Bible led to the
standardization of the German language.
LANGUAGE’S SHIFTING BOUNDARIES
Isogloss:
The border of usage of an individual word or
pronunciation.
• Languages and dialects shift over time.
• At least three major dialects had developed in the
eastern United States by the American Revolution: the
Northern, Midland, and Southern dialects.
• With westward expansion, dialects spread and
fragmented, but retained much of their basic character
– have unusually stable boundaries.
FIGURE 4.8 Major dialects of North American English, with a few selected
subdialects. These dialects had developed by the time of the American
Revolution and have remained remarkably stable over time.
SLANG
Slang:
Words and phrases that are not part of a standard,
recognized vocabulary for a given language but that
are nonetheless used and understood by some of its
speakers.
• Subcultures often have their own slang.
• Slang words tend to be used for a period of time
and then are discarded as newer terms replace
them.
AFRICAN AMERICAN
VERNACULAR ENGLISH (AAVE)
• Shares characteristics with the Southern dialect and
also displays considerable African influence in pitch,
rhythm, and tone.
• Shares many characteristics with other English
creole languages worldwide.
• Today, it is considered a dialect, or variation, of
Standard American English.
• It is also considered an ethnolect, a dialect spoken
by an ethnic group.
4.3 GLOBALIZATION
GLOBALIZATION AND LANGUAGE
• Only 1% of all languages have as many as 500,000
speakers.
• It has been estimated that the world loses a
language on average every two weeks.
• Some experts believe that all but 300 languages will
be extinct or dying by the year 2100.
• Globalization has worked to favor some languages
and eliminate others.
TECHNOLOGY, LANGUAGE,
AND EMPIRE
• Technological innovations have, in the past,
facilitated the spread and proliferation of multiple
languages.
• More recently, they have encouraged the
tendency of only a few languages—especially
English, but also Chinese and Spanish—to dominate
all others.
• The technology of the “agricultural revolution”
aided the early diffusion of the Indo-European
language family.
WRITING AND LANGUAGE
DOMINANCE
• Writing developed as early as 5300 years ago in several hearth areas
(Egypt, modern-day Iraq [Sumerians], and China).
• Writing helped civilizations develop and spread, giving written
languages a major advantage over those that remained spoken only.
• Written languages:
❖ can be published and distributed widely.
❖ carry the status of standard, official, and legal communication.
❖ facilitate record keeping.
❖ tend to spread with imperial expansion.
LANGUAGE AND COLONIALISM
• Even though most imperial nations have given up
their colonial empires, the languages they
transplanted overseas survive.
• English still has a foothold in much of Africa, South
Asia, the Philippines, and the Pacific islands.
• French persists in former French and Belgian
colonies, especially in northern, western, and
central Africa; Madagascar; and Polynesia.
TRANSPORTATION AND THE
DIFFUSION OF LANGUAGE
• Ships, railroads, and highways all serve to spread
the languages of the culture groups that build
them.
• This sometimes spells doom for the speech of less
technologically advanced peoples whose lands
are suddenly opened to outside contacts.
• Examples include the Trans-Siberian Highway, the
Alaskan Highway, and the Amazonian interior.
LANGUAGE AND THE INTERNET
• English is currently the dominant language of the
Internet, but …
• From 2000 to 2010, there was a 1277% growth in the
number of Chinese speakers on the Internet.
• If this trend continues, and when the 71% of Chinese
speakers who do not now use the Internet begin to log
on, Chinese will surpass English as the most popular
language on the Internet.
• Arabic-speaking Internet users grew 2501% from 2000 to
2010, while speakers of Russian grew 1826% over the
same period.
FIGURE 4.11 The 10 most prevalent languages on the Internet, measured as a
percentage of total users. English is the second most widely spoken
language on Earth, after Mandarin Chinese. And, English is the most widely
spoken second language in the world. It dominates the Internet as well.
(Source: Adapted from http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats7.htm.)
TEXTING AND
LANGUAGE MODIFICATION
• The English language that is spread via electronic
correspondence is subject to significant
modification.
• Electronic media users often use abbreviations and
symbols to shorten the number of keystrokes used,
to add emotional punctuation to their
correspondence, and to make electronic
communication difficult to monitor by those who
don’t understand the language.
LANGUAGE PROLIFERATION:
ONE OR MANY?
• If one language became 15,000 and the 7000 or so
that remain will dwindle to 300 within a century,
then why not end up with one again?
• Are the forces of modernization working to
produce, through cultural diffusion, a single world
language?
• Probably not. More likely, the world will ultimately be
divided largely among 5 to 10 major languages.
LANGUAGE AND CULTURAL SURVIVAL
• Language is the primary way of expressing culture … if a
language dies out, there is a good chance that the culture
of its speakers will, too.
• Endangered languages – Languages not being taught to
children by their parents and not being used actively in
everyday matters.
• More than half of the world’s roughly 7000 languages are
endangered.
• The Americas and the Pacific regions account for more
than three-quarters of the world’s nearly extinct languages.
LANGUAGE HOTSPOTS
Language hotspots:
Those places on Earth that are home to the most
unique, misunderstood, or endangered languages.
• Three of the world’s most vulnerable hotspot regions
are located in the United States.
• Languages can be used to keep cultural traditions
alive by speaking them repeatedly.
FIGURE 4.14 Global “language hotspots.” The Enduring Voices Project and
National Geographic Society have teamed up to document endangered
languages and thereby attempt to prevent language extinction. (Source:
http:// travel.nationalgeographic.com/travel/enduring-voices/.)
4.4 NATURE–CULTURE
HOW DO LANGUAGES
AND ENVIRONMENT INTERACT?
• Language interacts with the environment in two
basic ways:
❖The specific physical habitats in which languages
evolve help shape their vocabularies.
❖The environment can guide the migrations of
linguistic groups or provide refuges for languages
in retreat.
HABITAT AND VOCABULARY
• Humankind’s relationship to the land played a
strong role in the emergence of linguistic
differences – language serves an adaptive strategy.
• Spanish: Especially rich in words describing rough
terrain.
• Celtic languages: Rich in words to describe different
types of topography.
• English: Abounds with words describing flowing
streams and wetlands.
THE HABITAT AS LANGUAGE REFUGE
• Environmental barriers and natural routes have
often guided linguistic groups onto certain paths.
• Because such physical barriers can discourage
groups from migrating from one area to another,
they often serve as linguistic borders.
• Inhospitable areas provide protection and isolation,
and often provide minority linguistic groups refuge
from aggressive neighbors – linguistic refuge areas.
FIGURE 4.16 The
environment provides a
linguistic refuge in the
Caucasus Mountains. The
rugged mountainous region
between the Black and
Caspian seas—including
parts of Armenia, Russia,
Georgia, and Azerbaijan—is
peopled by a great variety
of linguistic groups,
representing three major
language families.
Mountain areas are often
linguistic mosaics because
the rough terrain provides
refuge and isolation.
THE DECREASING PROTECTION
OF LINGUISTIC REFUGE AREAS
• Fewer and fewer places are so isolated that they
remain little touched by outside influences.
• Today, the development of coastal islands off the
southeast coast of the United States for tourism and
housing for wealthy nonlocals, as well as outmigration of Gullah youth, threatens the survival of
the Gullah culture and language.
• The reality of the world is no longer isolation, but
contact.
4.5 CULTURAL LANDSCAPE
MESSAGES ON THE LANDSCAPE
• Linguistic landscapes send messages, both friendly
and hostile.
• Often these messages have a political content and
deal with power, domination, subjugation, or
freedom (e.g., the Canadian province of Québec
has tried to eliminate English-language signs).
• Other types of writing, such as gang-related graffiti,
can denote ownership of territory or send messages
to others that they are not welcome.
TOPONYMS: PLACE-NAMES
Toponym:
A place-name usually consisting of two parts: the
generic and the specific.
Generic toponym:
The descriptive part of many place-names, often
repeated throughout a culture area.
• Particularly valuable both in tracing the spread of a
culture and in reconstructing culture regions of the
past.
TOPONYMS AND CULTURES
OF THE PAST
• Place-names often survive long after the culture
that produced them vanishes from an area,
thereby preserving traces of the past.
• No toponyms are more permanently established
than those identifying physical geographical
features.
• Aboriginal place-names in Australia, Native
American place-names in the United States, Arabic
place-names in Spain and Portugal.
FIGURE 4.21 India’s postcolonial toponym shift. More than 50 years after the
English colonizers “quit” India, their colonial place-names are being swept
from the map, too. (Source: Adapted from Sappenfield, 2006.)
THE POLITICAL ECONOMY
OF TOPONYMS
• Places often bear the names of wealthy and
influential individuals, politicians, or corporate
sponsors (e.g., sports stadiums, skyscrapers,
museums, college campus buildings).
• People are paid to allow companies to use their
cars as mobile billboards.
• Items of clothing and accessories prominently bear
the names of their designers.
Figure 4.22 University of Louisville sports stadium. The home of the Cardinals is
named after a pizza chain and supported by other corporate sponsors
noted on the sign. Many universities are turning to corporate sponsorship to
build sports facilities such as this one. (Andy Lyons/Getty Images.)
THE FLUIDITY OF LANGUAGE
• Languages are fluid – altered and reinvented as needs
and experiences of their users change.
• The primary language of the United States is English –
but not “the Queen’s English.”
• British colonies developed their own distinctive dialects.
• In some U.S. cities, Hispanics constitute more than half
the population … Spanish and English have combined
to produce a hybrid language called Spanglish.
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