Textbook 5.2: Why Do Languages Diffuse?

Romance branch languages have achieved worldwide importance because

• colonial and imperial activity distributed these languages to far reaching territories.

• they are more frequently taught in middle schools today.

• they closely approximate English in grammar and vocabulary.

• they are the languages of governments.

• they alternate being the global lingua franca.

The language spoken by soldiers stationed throughout the Roman Empire was known as

• Official Latin.

• Romance language.

• Standard language.

• Vulgar Latin.

• Catalan Latin.

Tracing the origin and diffusion of languages is complex in part because

• languages and branches developed before recorded history.

• speculation by some experts has been proven wrong.

• the Treaty of Tordesillas banned research into language origins for hundreds of years.

• the origin of language families predates recorded history so can only be speculated about.

• the collapse of the Roman Empire caused communication to decline.

According to Colin Renfrew's research, Indo-European languages diffused across Europe

• entirely by sea.

• by way of the Kurgan homeland.

• with the conquests of warriors on horseback.

• with the diffusion of agriculture.

• following the traders on the silk road.

Colin Renfrew's research is most closely associated with the

• Nomadic Herder Hypothesis.

• Kurgan Farmer Hypothesis.

• Nomadic Warrior Theory.

• Sedentary Farmer Theory.

• Silk Road Trader Theory.

The Kurgans, identified as the first Proto-Indo-European speakers by archaeologist Marija Gimbutas

• conquered much of East Asia several thousand years ago.

• were a Germanic tribe that invaded England.

• were herders from the steppes of today's Russia and Kazakhstan.

• preserved Basque in present-day Spain.

• were the earliest speakers of Sino-Caucasian, which they diffused through conquest.

The Nomadic Warrior Theory and the Sedentary Farmer Theory have been developed to explain the common ancestry of

• the non-Romance branches of Indo-European languages.

• Romance Languages.

• Sino-Tibetan languages.

• Afro-Asiatic languages.

• Austronesian languages.

Unlike the Slavic languages which split into three branches, Romance languages form one branch because

• there was limited migration in this part of Europe.

• there was no literary tradition of the language.

• Romance languages derive from a single root language, Latin.

• Romance languages derive from a single root language, Arabic.

• migration efforts were slowed by intervening obstacles.

The first speakers of the language that evolved into English were tribes that lived in present-day

• France.

• Denmark.

• United States.

• Italy.

• Switzerland.

Both the Angles and the Normans contributed to the development of the English language, because they

• spoke ancient English languages.

• invaded England.

• spoke languages derived from Latin.

• diffused English around the world.

• lived in isolation from other groups.