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Geo ch.5
Languages
Term | Definition |
---|---|
language | a system of communication through speech, movement, sounds, or symbols that a group of people understands to have the same meaning |
institutional language | used in work, education, mass media, and government |
vigorous language | in daily use by people of all ages, but it lacks a literary tradition |
developing language | in daily use by people of all ages |
threatened language | used for face-to-face communication, but it is losing users |
dying language | used by older people, but it is not being transmitted to children |
language family | a collection of languages related through a common ancestral language that existed long before recorded history |
language branch | a collection of languages within a family related through a common ancestral language |
language group | a collection of languages within a branch that share a common origin in the relatively recent past |
lingua franca | a language of international communication (ex. English) |
official language | used by the government to enact legislation, publish documents, and conduct other public business |
working language | designated by an international organization or corporation as its primary means of communication for daily correspondence and conversation |
pidgin language | created by learning a few grammar rules and words of a lingua franca and mixing in elements of a different language - has no native speakers |
dialect | a regional variation of a language distinguished by distinctive vocabulary, spelling, and pronounciation |
standard language | the dialect considered the most acceptable |
isogloss | a word-use boundary with a degree of geographic extent |
north dialect | originated in East Anglia and developed in New England |
south dialect | originated in Southeastern England and represented a diversity of social class backgrounds |
midland dialect | originated in northern England and developed in Pennsylvania |
creole/creolized language | a language that results from the mixing of a colonizer's language with the indigenous language of the people being dominated |
endangered language | a language that children are no longer learning, and its remaining speakers use it less frequently |
isolated language | a language unrelated to any other and therefore not attached to any language family (ex. Basque) |
extinct language | a language once used by people in daily activities but is no longer in use (ex. Liv and Clallam) |