Distribution and Characteri s of Language For geographers, language is a major means by which cultural diffusion, both spatial and temporal, takes place. Therefore, geographers often use language as an identification mark for different cultures. Because language is essential to communication, it strongly influences the sort of political, social and economic institutions we create. As a result, economic and religious systems frequently follow pattems of language distribution, and political borders quite often parallel linguistic boundaries, In short, human linguistic patterns make a highly varied mosaic whose design both affect and are affected by many clements of culture and the physical environment. Language evolves through ages. Social, cultural, political and other aspects of life do contribute in need and essence of origin of language. Definitions: 1. Language, a system of conventional spoken, manual (signed), or written symbols by means of which human beings, as members of a social group and participants in its culture, express themselves. The functions of language include communication, the expression of identity, play, imaginative expression, and emotional release. 2, The method of human communication, either spoken or written, consisting of the use of words in a structured and conventional way. 3. The words, their pronunciation, and the methods of combining them used and understood by a community. 4, A system of communication used by a particular country or community. Dialect: A dialect is a particular form ofa language which is unique to a specific region or social group. It is different from a standard variety of language. Dialects have variations in grammar, vocabulary or pronunciation, Dialects are especially a way of speaking that differs from the standard variety of the language. For example, American English, Indian English, and Australian English, ete. are some examples of English dialects. Moreover, there are also sub- dialects within these dialects. Furthermore, it is also possible to derive some information about a person’s geographical location, education or social background from his or her dialect, There are twocategories of dialects as standard and non-standard dialects. A standard dialect is a dialect that is approved and supported by institutions, and non-standard dialects are those that are not supported by institutions inguistic Classification: Major Language Families (1) The Indo-European Family The Indo-European family of languages is most dominant in the world, It includes several sub-families like. Indian, Iranian, Armenian, Germanic, Italic, Hellenic, Albanian, Balto- Slavie and Celtic languages. The Indo-European family is derived from a single original dialect (proto-language) spoken by the Kurgans whose homeland was the Eurasian steppes around 4,300 B.C. With their migration and conquest in different parts of Europe, Asia, Anglo-America, Latin America, Australia and Africa. They spread over a vast territory, so did their language which became differentiated into several sub-families due to geographical and cultural isolation, They all share words whose generic origin can be traced to a common linguistic root. The Indian sub-family includes Sanskrit, Hindi, Punjabi, Bengali and other modem Indian Languages. Due to closer affinity between Indian and Iranian languages they are included in the Indo- Aryan or Indo-Iranian sub-family (Persian-Iran, Urdu-Pakistan, Hindi-India and Bengali- Bangladesh). ‘The Germanic sub-family which is most prominent includes German, English, Dutch, Danish and Norwegian language. (2) The Latin Family ‘The main languages of the Latin family are French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian and Romanian: they are all called the Romance languages as they were spread by the Roman Empire. French and Spanish languages are the official languages of the UNO like English. Spanish Portuguese languages have wider distribution because of their colonial rule in Latin America (South America and Central America).French is the national language of France, Switzerland, Canada and several countries of Africa. The Italian language has predominance in Italy, Sicily, Switzerland and some Islands of the Mediterranean S: (3) The Balto-Slavic Family ‘The Balto-Slavic also belongs to the Indo-European family and is most preponderant in Eastern Europe and the Baltic States. The most important Slavic language is Russian, an official language of the UNO. The other important languages of this family are Ukranian, Byelorussian, Polish, Czech and Slavie. (4) The Sino-Tibetan Family The Sino-Tibetan Family includes Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Thai, Malay, Vietnamese, Burmese, ete. Chinese (Mandarin) is the largest spoken language of the world. It has main branches as Mandarin (spoken by 75 per cent Chinese), Cantonese, Min, Wu, Yue, and Hakka. Mandarin Chinese originally spoken in north-eastern China is the official language of the UNO and is also the national language of China, Taiwan and Singapore. Min is spoken in China, Taiwan and Malaysia, Japanese and Korean Languages are limited to Japan, Korea and the Pacific Islands. (5) The Semito-Hamitic Family The Semito-Hamitic family is completely unrelated to the Indo-European family. In fact they originated before recorded time and were closely linked with monotheism as practiced by Judaism, Christianity and Islam, It includes Arabic, Hebrew and a number of other languages spoken in North Africa and Middle East. Arabic and Hebrew enjoy special status as they are the languages of the Holy Quran and the Bible. Arabic is the seventh largest language spoken by 200 million people and is the official language of 20 countries including Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Kuwait, Jordan, Syria, UAE, ‘Yemen, Egypt, Morocco and other countries of North Arica, Hebrew is the national language of Israel where English and Arabic are also spoken. 3(7) The African Family It is estimated that there ate 1,000 odd languages and dialects spoken in different countries of Africa. ‘The linguistic pattem of North Africa is well defined where Arabic is the dominant language among the Berber racial groups. ‘The dominant Negro-Congo group includes six languages viz. Mande, Gur, Kwa, Adamawa and Benue-Congo. The Nilo Saharan group is quite common in North Central Africa while Khoisan language group dominates South-Westem Africa. The Swahili is the official language of Tanzania and East African countries like Kenya and has a well-developed literature The Zulu is spoken in Southern Africa and the Bantu began in tropical Africa and spread South and East. Nigeria, the most populous country of Africa has as many as 200 languages with English (official language), Hansa, Yoruba and Ibo. Eritrea (Horn of Africa) has as many as 9 languages: Actor, Bilen, Kunama, Nara; Arabic, Tobedawi, Saaho, Tigra and Tigrinia. It amply illustrates the pattern of linguistic diversity in Africa. (8) Malayo-Polynesian Family It is also called the Austronesian family. It is widely spread from Madagascar to Hawaii through Indonesian and the Pacific Islands. It.was carried by the navigators from island to island. The linguistic diversity ascribed to this cultural realm owes to racial diversity as well as linguistic diffusion and blend. There are several minor variations in the structure of individual languages and dialects and they are written in different ways. Arabic aracters were often used in Muslim areas though Roman script has now been opted, whereas adaptations of Indian languages are used in Myanmar, Thailand, Laos and Kampuchea (Cambodia). Vietnamese was once written with ideographs similar to thos of Chinese, but is now written in Roman script.Language Native Speakers in million Languags (2010 Census) Language Family Group Mandarin (entire branch) 955 Sino - Tibetan Spanish 405 Indo-European English 360) Indo-European Hindi 310 juropean Arabic 295 ‘Semito-Hamitic Portuguese 215 Indo-European Bengali 205 juropean Russian 155 Indo-European Japanese 125 Sino - Tibetan Punjabi 100 Indo-Furopean Major Langauge Native Speaker (in Million) 1200 1000 800 600 400 5 2 Language