NAME _______________________________________

Cultural Patterns and Processes- Culture and Language [Chapters 4]

Note: The following concepts transcend all units in AP Human Geography; they are central to all geographic thinking and analysis and could even be considered
central to any definition of geography.

Unit 4 - Language
1. Dialect a particular form of a language which is peculiar to a specific region or social group.

2. Isogloss a line on a dialect map marking the boundary between linguistic features.

3. Language the principal method of human communication, consisting of words used in a structured and conventional way and conveyed
by speech, writing, or gesture.

4. Language family A language family is a group of languages related through descent from a common ancestral language or parental language,
called the proto language of that family.

5. Language branch Languages within a family related through a common ancestor existing 7,000 years ago.
Example: Both German and English are part of the Germanic language branch of the Indo-European family and there
are many similarities between the twol.
6. Language group A Collection of languages within a branch that share a common origin in the relatively recent past and display
relatively few differences in grammar and vocabulary.

7. Indo-European languages the language family that includes all European languages (which are widely spoken in Europe, the Americas,
Africa, and Australasia) and Indian and Iranian

8. Romance Languages a group of related languages all derived from Vulgar Latin within historical times and forming a subgroup of
the Italic branch of the Indo-European language family.

9. Standard Language The form of a language used for official government business, education, and mass communications.

10. Extinct Languages A language that was once used by people in daily activities but is no longer used.

11. Language Convergence the collapsing of two languages into one resulting from the consistent spatial interaction of people with
different languages

12. Language Divergence A process whereby new languages are formed when a language breaks into dialects due to a lack of spatial
interaction among speakers of the language and continued isolation.

13. Creole Language formed by the combination of two or more languages

14. Pidgin Language often emerges when two or more languages coexist in a small geographic area.

15. Lingua Franca is a language that combines simple words from multiple languages so that people who need to understand
one another, in order to conduct trade and facilitate business, are able to communicate with one another.