Introduction John A. Goldsmith September 26, 2011 () September 26, 2011 1 / 42 Aspects of language explored by linguistics Individual Social Synchronic (at a moment in time) Diachronic (change over time) Formal Phonology Morphology Syntax Semantics Relations to biology (species; individual development) () September 26, 2011 2 / 42 Some basic language literacy Language in the world today: How many? Ethnologue currently lists 6,909. Dialects Language families () September 26, 2011 3 / 42 Ethnologue “language criteria”: not just a linguistic matter 1 Two related varieties are normally considered varieties of the same language [dialects] if speakers of each variety have inherent understanding of the other variety at a functional level (that is, can understand based on knowledge of their own variety without needing to learn the other variety). Ex: British/American/Australian etc. English 2 Where spoken intelligibility between varieties is marginal, the existence of a common literature or of a common ethnolinguistic identity with a central variety that both understand can be a strong indicator that they should nevertheless be considered varieties of the same language. Ex: Arabic 3 Where there is enough intelligibility between varieties to enable communication, the existence of well-established distinct ethnolinguistic identities can be a strong indicator that they should nevertheless be considered to be different languages. Ex: Norwegian/Swedish/Danish, Bosnian/Serbian/Croatian... () September 26, 2011 4 / 42 World language families () September 26, 2011 5 / 42 Indo-European () September 26, 2011 6 / 42 Indo-European () September 26, 2011 7 / 42 Indo-European () September 26, 2011 8 / 42 Indo-European () September 26, 2011 9 / 42 Indo-European () September 26, 2011 10 / 42 Indo-Iranian () September 26, 2011 11 / 42 Languages of Afghanistan () September 26, 2011 12 / 42 Languages of the Indian subcontinent () September 26, 2011 13 / 42 Dravidian languages () September 26, 2011 14 / 42 Uralic languages () September 26, 2011 15 / 42 Altaic languages () September 26, 2011 16 / 42 Turkic languages () September 26, 2011 17 / 42 Languages of the Caucausus () September 26, 2011 18 / 42 Languages of Africa () September 26, 2011 19 / 42 Afro-Asiatic languages () September 26, 2011 20 / 42 Sino-Tibetan languages () September 26, 2011 21 / 42 Austroasiatic languages () September 26, 2011 22 / 42 Austronesian languages () September 26, 2011 23 / 42 Languages of Australia () September 26, 2011 24 / 42 Papuan languages That which is not Austronesian or Australian The most linguistically diverse region in the world?? 800+ languages in 20+ families () September 26, 2011 25 / 42 Papuan languages – East & West New Britian () September 26, 2011 26 / 42 Pre-contact languages of North America () September 26, 2011 27 / 42 Pre-contact languages of North America () September 26, 2011 28 / 42 Indigenous languages of Mexico () September 26, 2011 29 / 42 Post-contact languages of South America () September 26, 2011 30 / 42 Pre-contact languages of South America () September 26, 2011 31 / 42 Languages of Amazonia () September 26, 2011 32 / 42 Some famous language isolates Basque (Spain, France) Burushaski (Pakistan) Ainu (Hokkaido, Sakhalin, Kuril Islands) () September 26, 2011 33 / 42 Other language type often not on these maps Pidgins and creoles Signed languages (ASL [American Sign Language], BSL, LSQ, etc.) () September 26, 2011 34 / 42 Top 20 most-spoken languages, in millions of native speakers 1 Mandarin 845 German 90 11 2 Spanish 329 Javanese 85 12 3 English 328 Wu (Shanghaiese) 77 13 4 Hindi-Urdu 240 Telugu 70 14 5 Arabic 206 French 68 15 6 Bengali 181 Vietnamese 69 16 7 Portuguese 178 Korean 66 17 8 Russian 144 Tamil 66 18 9 Japanese 122 Italian 62 19 10 Punjabi 109 Yue (Cantonese) 56 20 () September 26, 2011 35 / 42 Languages of the World, again () September 26, 2011 36 / 42 The end () September 26, 2011 37 / 42 Distribution of major word order types S, V, O: S(ubject), O(bject), V(erb) How many ways might subject, object, and verb combine? 1 Sam likes raisins. (SVO) 2 Sam raisins likes. (SOV) 3 Likes Sam raisins. (VSO) 4 Likes raisins Sam. (VOS) 5 Raisins Sam likes. (OSV) 6 Raisins likes Sam. (OVS) How often is each type attested? All maps and data from World Atlas of Language Structures database online. () September 26, 2011 38 / 42 Distribution of major word order types () September 26, 2011 39 / 42 Distribution of major word order types () September 26, 2011 40 / 42 Distribution of major word order types () September 26, 2011 41 / 42 Distribution of major word order types () September 26, 2011 42 / 42.