LAR - The Components of Language Lesson

The Components of Language

Map of Languages in North America

Language is simply a collection of sounds and symbols with meaning for communication

The sounds create an oral tradition and written communication creates a literary tradition (requires literacy or the ability to read and write)

In modern history language has become so important that nations name an official language for laws and public announcements

Nations with only one official language are monolingual, but some nations are multilingual (Belgium & Switzerland)

When a language is needed to communicate between two or more diverse languages a lingua franca is chosen (English is becoming the most obvious example). A lingua franca is a common language selected because of its common use or familiarity to a large group of people.

English is spoken by over one billion people worldwide and is the most commonly spoken language internationally (it is not the largest native language - Mandarin Chinese, Hindi and Spanish all have larger native speaker populations).
The language spread to North America through British colonization, starting with Jamestown in 1607 and Plymouth in 1620
The language also spread to other British colonies (Ireland, South Asia, South Pacific, Africa)
English began on the British Isles with Germanic tribes who brought their language from Denmark and German states

Most British people can trace their ancestry to the Angles and Saxons (thus Anglo-Saxon)

Isogloss of German Dialects High and Low German Isogloss German Dialects by Rex Germanus

A dialect (regional change in language) can be seen in vocabulary, spelling and pronunciation - the base language is the same, but certain aspects differ
- In some cases, but not as often, there can also be differences in syntax (grammatical order) between dialects
- When a language has several dialects, one dialect is selected as the standard language (for English is the upper-class British pronunciation)

The original differences in dialect can be traced back to the origin of the colonists

New England from southeast England
Middle Atlantic from England ,Scotland, Ireland, Germany, Netherlands and Sweden
Southeast from southeast England, but from diverse social classes

The words and pronunciations associated with different dialects establish boundaries, this dividing line is perceptual and known as an isogloss

For example, the use of the word sneakers in the Northeast, but tennis shoes in the South

Select 'Turn' to see the hidden portion of the flash card. Select the arrows to move through the flashcard set.

IMAGES CREATED BY GAVS (Images are available in the Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons; Creative Commons License Attribution)