World Language Region

Submitted To_ Md. Abdul MalakCourses Teacher of World Regional Geography Dept. of Geography and Environment Jagannath University, Dhaka.

Submitted By_ Group ‘C’ID- 110602039- 1106020553rd Year, 1st SemesterDept. of Geography and EnvironmentJagannath University, Dhaka.

Presentation On_

Introduction┧ Language is, in fact, the foundation of every culture. It is an abstract system of the

world meaning and symbols for all aspects of culture. It includes speech, written characters, numerals, symbols and expressions of nonverbal communication.

┧ It is the human ability to acquire and use complex systems of communication, and a language is any specific example of such a system.

┧ Language promotes the transmission of ideas and functioning of political, economic, social and religious systems.

┧ Although the language is studied by linguists, but the spatial (regional) and ecological aspects are studied primarily by geographers. Where the various languages located? How did those spatial distribution develop? How are linguistic variations related to other aspects of human geography such as settlement patterns and national boundaries? And, how do languages reflect human interaction with the physical environment?

┧ All these questions are answered by the Geograpers through Reogional Geography of Language.

What is Language and Region? Language is more than just communication, is the primary method by which we do

things together. It is the accumulation of shared meaning- of common ground. It the method of human communication, either spoken or written, consisting of the

use of words in a structured and conventional way. Is the system or processes of communication that exchange massage and create

meaning used by a particular community or country. Thus the definition of language indicate a location(region) of a group of users. Where

the term ‘Region’ means_ "an area on the earth's surface marked by certain properties“ Any particular area on the earth’s surface of similler language user is called a

language region.

Origin of Language It is an intriguing question, to which we may never have a complete answer:  How did we

get from animal vocalization (barks, howls, calls...) to human language? Animals often make use of signs, which point to what they represent, but they don’t

use symbols, which are arbitrary and conventional.  Examples of signs include sniffles as a sign of an on-coming cold, clouds as a sign of rain, or a scent as a sign of territory.  Symbols include things like the words we use.  Dog, Hund, chien, cane, perro -- these are symbols that refer to the creature so named, yet each one contains nothing in it that in anyway indicates that creature.

Bees returning from their first flight out of the hive know perfectly how to perform their complex nectar dances. With humans, the precise form of language must be acquired through exposure to a speech community.  Words are definitely not inborn, but the capacity to acquire and language and use it creatively seems to be inborn.

Concerning the origin of the first language there are many theories. Many of these have traditional amusing names (invented by Max Müller and George Romanes a century ago). Neither can be proven or disproved given present knowledge.

List of therories or hypothesises of the origin of language_

I. The mama theoryII. The ta-ta theoryIII. The bow-wow theoryIV. The pooh-pooh theoryV. The ding-dong theoryVI. The yo-he-ho theoryVII.The sing-song theory

VIII. The hey you! TheoryIX. The hocus pocus theoryX. The eureka! TheoryXI. Candelabra theoryXII. Mother Tongue TheoryXIII. Out of Africa theory

Language and Geography Language and geography are completely related to each other when language is

described. It should be pointed out that the discipline Language geography is the branch of Human geography that studies the geographic distribution of language or its constituent elements.

There are two principal fields of study within the geography of language: the "geography of languages", which deals with the distribution through history and space of languages, and "linguistic geography", which deals with regional linguistic variations within languages. The branch of linguistics that involves the study of regional variations of speech forms. Also called dialect geography.

Study of language called linguistic geography and geolinguistics by geographers. As early mentioned that but the spatial (regional) and ecological aspects are studied primarily by geographers.

Where the various languages located? How did those spatial distribution develop? How are linguistic variations related to other aspects of human geography such as settlement patterns and national boundaries? And, how do languages reflect human interaction with the physical environment? All these questions are answered by the Geograpers and that’s why geographers study language.

Language Family The geographical distribution of language through the time can be described by the

major language groups and major language families in different geographical regions. The study of the origins of languages and their classification into families is traditionally

known as ‘philology’. A language family is a group of related languages that developed from a common

historic ancestor, referred to as protolanguage (proto- means ‘early’ in Greek). The ancestral language is usually not known directly, but it is possible to discover many of its features by applying the comparative method that can demonstrate the family status of many languages. Sometimes a protolanguage can be identified with a historically known language.

For various reasons it is not possible to be precise about the number of languages in the world, but most philologists agree that there are between 6,000 - 7,000 living languages.

These languages are divided into about 100 language families;The major language families can be further divided into groups of languages that are also called families.

Figure 01 : Principal language families of the world (and in some cases geographic groups of families).

Here is a list of the 10 major language families (in terms of the number of speakers of those languages worldwide and/or the number of sub-families/languages they contain.)

In each case, the language family is followed by one of its sub-families, followed by an example of a language from that sub-family.

I. Afro-Asiatic Language family: Semitic - ArabicII. Altaic Language family: Turkic - TurkishIII. Austro-Asiatic Language family: Mon-Khmer - KhmerIV. Austronesian Language family: Malayo-Polynesian - TagalogV. Dravidian Language family: Tamil - KannadaVI. Indo-European Language family: Germanic - EnglishVII.Niger-Congo Language family: Volta-Congo - DogonVIII.Sino-Tibetan Language family: Chinese - MandarinIX. Uralic Language family: Finno-Ugric - Hungarian

As early mentioned that each Language family contains a number of sub families and Laguages through the world. Here is a list of major language families, the number of languages it(family) contains and Where the languages are spoken_

Language families

Number of languages Where the languages are spoken

Niger-Congo 1,532

Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Congo, Cote d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Africa, Sudan, Swaziland, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe

Austronesian 1,257

Brunei, Cambodia, China, Cook Islands, East Timor, Fiji, French Polynesia, Guam, Indonesia, Kiribati, Madagascar, Malaysia, Marshall Islands, Mayotte, Micronesia, Myanmar, Nauru, New Caledonia, New Zealand, Niue, Northern Mariana Islands, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Suriname, Taiwan, Thailand, Tokelau, Tonga, Tuvalu, USA, Vanuatu, Viet Nam, Wallis and Futuna

Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, India, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Thailand, Viet Nam

Sino-Tibetan  449

Afro-Asiatic  374

Afghanistan, Algeria, Bahrain, Cameroon, Chad, Cyprus, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Georgia, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kenya, Libya, Mali, Malta, Mauritania, Morocco, Niger, Nigeria, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Tanzania, Tunisia, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan, Yemen

Australian 264 AustralianDravidian 85 India, Nepal, Pakistan

Altaic  66

Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, China, Georgia, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Lithuania, Moldova, Mongolia, Russia, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan

Uralic  37 Estonia, Finland, Hungary, Latvia, Norway, Russia, Sweden

Indo-European 439

Afghanistan, Albania, Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Belarus, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Canada, China, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Fiji, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Iceland, India, Iran, Iraq, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Maldives, Nepal, Netherlands, Norway, Oman, Pakistan, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Serbia and Montenegro, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Suriname, Sweden, Switzerland, Tajikistan, Turkey, USA, Ukraine, United Kingdom, Venezuela

Altaic  66

Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, China, Georgia, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Lithuania, Moldova, Mongolia, Russia, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan

Geographical Distribution of Major Language Families.....

Indo-European Language family_ The Indo-European languages are a family of several hundred related languages and

dialects. It is spoken on all continents. Seven Indo-European tonguas are among the top 10

languages spoken in the world. There are about 439 languages and dialects, according to the 2009 Ethnologue estimate,

about half (221) belonging to the Indo-Aryan sub-branch. It includes most major current languages of Europe, the Middle East, and the Indian

Subcontinent, and was also predominant in ancient Anatolia. With written attestations appearing since the Bronze Age in the form of the Anatolian languages and Mycenaean Greek, the Indo-European family is significant to the field of historical linguistics as possessing the second-longest recorded history, after the Afro-Asiatic family.

Indo-European languages are spoken by almost 3 billion native speakers, the largest number by far for any recognised language family. Of the 20 languages with the largest numbers of native speakers according to SIL Ethnologue, 12 are Indo-European: Spanish, English, Hindi, Portuguese, Bengali, Russian, German, Sindhi, Punjabi, Marathi, French, Urdu, and Italian, accounting for over 1.7 billion native speakers. Several disputed proposals link Indo-European to other major language families.

Figure02: Countries of Indo- European language family( deep color majority in user and another is minority.

Indo-European Language tree_The Indo-European proto-languages themselves evolved, each giving rise to its own family of languages. Each family is identified with the proto-language from which it sprung; these families are conventionally listed in order, roughly from west to east with respect to the homelands their speakers came to occupy.

Afro-Asiatic languages family Afro-Asiatic languages, also called Afrasian languages, formerly Hamito-Semitic, Semito-

Hamitic, or Erythraean languages,  languages of common origin found in the northern part of Africa, the Arabian Peninsula, and some islands and adjacent areas in Western Asia.

It comprises about 300 or so living languages and dialects, according to the 2009 Ethnologue estimate. It includes languages spoken predominantly in the Middle East, North Africa, the Horn of Africa, and parts of the Sahel. The Afro-Asiatic family is significant to the field of historical linguistics as possessing the longest recorded history of any language family.

The most widely spoken Afroasiatic language, Arabic (including literary Arabic and the spoken colloquial varieties), has about 200 to 230 million native speakers, living mostly in the Middle East and in parts of North Africa. Berber (including all its varieties) is spoken in Morocco, Algeria, Libya, Tunisia, northern Mali, and northern Niger by about 25 to 35 million people. Other widely spoken Afroasiatic languages include:

Hausa, the dominant language of northern Nigeria and southern Niger, spoken as a first language by 25 million people and used as a lingua franca by another 20 million across West Africa and the Sahel.

Oromo of Ethiopia and Kenya, with about 33 million speakers total. Amharic of Ethiopia, with over 25 million native speakers, not including the millions of other

Ethiopians speaking it as a second language. Somali, spoken by 15.5 million people in Greater Somalia.

Figure 03: Distribution of the Afro-Asiatic languages.

Niger–Congo languages Family

Niger-Congo languages, a family of languages of Africa, which in terms of the number of languages spoken, their geographic extent, and the number of speakers is by far the largest language family in Africa.

The area in which these languages are spoken stretches from Dakar, Senegal, at the westernmost tip of the continent, east to Mombasa in Kenya and south to Cape Town, South Africa. Excluding northern Africa (Mauritania to Egypt and The Sudan) and the Horn of Africa (Ethiopia to Somalia), some 85 percent of the population of Africa—at least 600 million people—speak a Niger-Congo language.

In two countries, Niger and Chad, Niger-Congo languages are spoken by a minority. In northern Nigeria, northern Uganda, and Kenya there are substantial populations speaking other languages, but even in these countries the majority of the population speaks a Niger-Congo language.

Figure 04: Distribution of the Niger-Congo languages.

Austronesian Language FamilyAustronesian languages, formerly called Malayo-Polynesian languages,  family of languages spoken in most of the Indonesian archipelago; all of the Philippines, Madagascar, and the island groups of the Central and South Pacific (except for Australia and much of New Guinea); much of Malaysia; and scattered areas of Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, and Taiwan. In terms of the number of its languages and of their geographic spread, the Austronesian language family is among the world’s largest.

The key to the Austronesian homeland problem is the Formosan languages. This grouping includes some 20 languages aboriginal to Taiwan (formerly called Formosa), such as Kavalan, Paiwan and Thao. However, the degree of diversity among these languages is so great that many researchers treat the Formosan grouping as a number of distinct branches of Austronesian, on a par with the Malayo-Polynesian branch.

It should also be pointed out that as a group Formosan languages have nearly been replaced by Chinese: while prior to 1600s all of Taiwan was Austronesian-speaking, now Formosan languages are found mostly in the eastern, rugged part of the island. Sadly, most individual Formosan languages are endangered.

Figure 05: Major divisions of the Austronesian languages.

Austroasiatic languages Family Austroasiatic languages, also spelled Austro-Asiatic,  stock of some 150

languages spoken by more than 65 million people scattered throughout Southeast Asia and eastern India. Most of these languages have numerous dialects. Khmer, Mon, and Vietnamese are culturally the most important and have the longest recorded history.

Austroasiatic languages have a disjunct distribution across India, Bangladesh and Southeast Asia, separated by regions where other languages are spoken. They appear to be the autochthonous languages of Southeast Asia, with the neighboring Indic, Tai, Dravidian, Austronesian, and Tibeto-Burman languages being the result of later migrations (Sidwell & Blench, 2011).

The rest are languages of nonurban minority groups written, if at all, only recently. The stock is of great importance as a linguistic substratum for all Southeast Asian languages.

Figure 06: Distribution of Austroasiatic languages Family.

Major languages of the WorldHalf of the world's population natively speak the 13 most populous languages. The following table lists the most commonly spoken languages of the world with the largest number of native speakers as estimated by the Swedish Nationalencyklopedin (2007, 2010).Since the distinction of language and dialect is often arbitrary, some mutually intelligible idioms with separate national standards or self-identification have been unified, including Indonesian and Malay; Croatian, Bosnian, and Serbian; etc., but not Standard Hindi and Urdu.The following table contains the top 10 languages by estimated number of speakers in the 2007 edition of Nationalencyklopedin. As census methods in different countries vary to a considerable extent, and some countries do not record language in their censuses, any list of languages by native speakers, or total speakers, is based on estimates. Updated estimates from 2010 are also provided.

Rank Language

Native speakers (millions)

 % of world population

Mainly spoken in Notes

1 Mandarin官話 /官话 955* 14.4% China, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia Part of Chinese

language family

2SpanishEspañol/Castellano

470[2][3] 6.15%

Spain, Mexico, Parts of the United States, Argentina, Bolivia, Chile,Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Puerto Rico, Uruguay, Venezuela, Equatorial Guinea, Western Sahara. See List of countries where Spanish is an official language

Partially mutually intelligible with Portuguese.

3 English 360* 5.43%

United Kingdom, United States of America, Canada, Australia, Ireland, New Zealand and Commonwealth of Nations. See List of countries where English is an official language

4 Hindiहि�न्दी 310* 4.70% India, Nepal

Part of Hindi languages family. Hindi languages Mutually intelligible with Urdu.

5 Arabicالعربية 295* 4.43%

Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Algeria, Bahrain, Chad, Comoros, Djibouti, Eritrea, Iraq, Palestine, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, Somalia, Western Sahara, Somaliland, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, Yemen. See List of countries where Arabic is an official language

Arabic also is a liturgical language of 1.6 billion Muslims. The Arabic language contains many different dialects.

6PortuguesePortuguês

215* 3.27%

Portugal, Brazil, Angola, Cape Verde, Mozambique, São Tomé and Príncipe, Guinea-Bissau, Timor-Leste, Macao. See List of countries where Portuguese is an official language

Partially mutually intelligible with Spanish

7 Bengaliবাংলা 205* 3.11% Bangladesh, India (West

Bengal, Tripura, Assam)

8 RussianРусский 155* 2.33% Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Israel and

Commonwealth of Independent States.Intelligible with Ukrainian and Belarusian.

9 Japanese日本語 125* 1.90% Japan

10Punjabiਪੰਜਾਬੀپنجابى

102* 1.44% Pakistan, India (Punjab region), United Kingdom, Canada, United States

Figure 07: Geographical distribution of major language of the world.

Language of Bangladesh The official language of Bangladesh is Modern Standard Bengali (Literary Bengali). It

serves as the lingua franca of the nation, with 98% of Bangladeshis fluent in Standard Bengali or Bengali dialects as their first language. English, though not having official status, is prevalent across government, law, business, media and education, and can be regarded as the de facto co-official language of Bangladesh.

Bangladesh accounts for the majority of speakers of Bengali and as the 2001 census seems to underestimate the total population of the country we have relied on several estimates that are more or less coincidental: US State Department (144 millions in 2007), World Bank (160 million in 2008), CIA World Fact Book (156 million in 2010), Word Population Reference (164 million in 2010). Based on them, we estimate that the population of Bangladesh is 171 million of which 98 % speak Bengali yielding 168 million to which the 97 million speakers of Bengali living in India must be added.

The indigenous people of northern and southeastern Bangladesh speak a variety of native languages, notably Chakma and Shantali. Urdu is commonly spoken among Muslim migrants from India and Pakistan.

Figure 08: Language of Bangladesh.

Conclusion Language is one of the cornerstones of culture; it shapes our very thoughts. We can

use vast vocabularies to describe new experiences, ideas, and feelings, or we can create new words that represent these things.

Who we are as a culture, as a people, is reinforced and redefi ned moment by moment through shared language.

Language refl ects where a culture has been, what a culture values, even how people in a culture think, describe, and experience events.

Perhaps the easiest way to understand the role of language in culture is to examine people who have experienced the loss of language under pressure from others.

References1. Majid Hussain, Human Geography, Rawat Publications, New Delhi. 3rd Edition, 1994.2. Richard T. Schaefer, Sociology, McGraw-Hill Higher Education, 8th Edition3. Erin H. Fouberg, Alexander B. Murphy and H. J. de Blij, Human Geography, 10th Edition.

4. Websites_

http://www.languagesgulper.com/eng/largest.htmlhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Languages_of_Bangladeshhttp://www.ethnologue.com/statistics/familyhttp://www.mapsofworld.com/pages/world-trivia/major-world-languages/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_languages_by_number_of_native_speakershttp://my.ilstu.edu/~jrbaldw/370/Culture&Language.htmhttp://www.krysstal.com/langfams.htmlhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Languages_of_Africa

http://www.krysstal.com/langfams.html http://www.britannica.com/