Critical Thinking

• What’s the official language of the United States?

Language and Cultural History

How language can teach us about the history and culture of a people

Language

• Language– Method of mutually-understandable

communication– Set of sounds, combination of sounds and

symbols – Language is an essential part of culture

• Why do people feel so strongly about bilingual v. English-only education?

Language

• Standard Language– Widely published and distributed– Purposefully taught

• Lexicon (Vocabulary)

• Syntax (Structure)

• Phonetics (Sounds)

• Orthography (Writing system)

Dialects

• Dialects– Variants on standard language by region– Isogloss

• Contour line representing area where language feature is present

• Where is the line between dialect and language?

The English Language?

• Alcohol

• Amok (to “run amok”)

• Boondocks

• Chasm

• Embargo

• Finger

• Geyser

• Juggernaut

• Schmalz

• Typhoon

• Umbrella

• Yogurt

Origins of Words

• Alcohol

• Amok

• Boondocks

• Chasm

• Arabic

• Malay

• Tagalog

• Greek

Origins of Words

• Embargo

• Finger

• Geyser

• Juggernaut

• Spanish

• German

• Icelandic

• Hindi

Origins of Words

• Schmalz

• Typhoon

• Umbrella

• Yogurt

• Yiddish

• Chinese

• Italian

• Turkish

Gypsies

The Roma

Where did they come from?

• “Gypsy”

–Egypt?

Where?

• The Romani language has many similarities to some modern Indian dialects.

• Linguists concluded that the Roma left from Northwest India in the 12th Century

But Why?

• Languages helps again– Roma words for non-Roma

• Gadjo = “civilian”• Das = “slave; prisoner”

– Roma has a plethora of military words that have their origin in Sanskrit

Therefore

• By using language and historical texts, scholars were able to trace the origin of the Roma to a military group in India

One Theory: Ancient Battles

• Ghaznavid Empire– Moghul

• Rajputs– Kshatriya (warrior caste)– Shudra (servant caste)

• Defeated in battle– Diaspora