Font size
WorksheetsAP Human Geography Language
Total questions: 92
Worksheet time: 3600secs
What is the BEST definition of “language”?
a combination of German + English
a system of communication through speech, a collection of sounds that a group of people understands to have the same meaning
the most authoritative sources of language
is spoken in daily use by people of all ages, but it lacks a literary tradition
language family that include the languages Wu, Yue, Min, Jinyu, etc.
Language is like...
a boat. It is big, loud, and obnoxious. Whoever created it was a big ole dumb dumb.
a cheetah eating a turtle. If you are the language speaker that talks fast, you will eat away at the conversation and leave no time for the turtle.
Luggage. No matter where someone is, they always keep their original language.
nothing. It is pointless and I don’t think we need a source of communication... right?
food. I love it.
What is the authoritive source of languages?
Ethnologue
Wikipedia
Dictionary.com
Thesaurus
Webbster’s Dictionary
True or False: An institutional language is spoken in daily use by people of all ages, from children to elderly individuals.
True
False. That would mean it is a developing language.
False. That would mean it is a vigorous language.
False. That would mean it is an institutional language.
There is not enough evidence to tell either way.
What language type is used by governments for laws, reports, and public objects, such as road signs, money, and stamps?
vigourous language
developing language
literary tradition
official language
institutional language
Organize the world’s languages from biggest classification, to smallest.
language group, language, language family, dialect
language branch, language group, language, language family, dialect
language family, language branch, language group, language, dialect
language
language family, language branch, language group, dialect, language
Which are the two language FAMILIES with the largest amount of speakers?
Sino - Tibetan + Dravidian
Austroasiatic + Austronesian
Japanese + Indo - European
Altaic + Uralic
Indo - European + Sino - Tibetan
What percent of the world’s people speak languages in the Austronesian Family?
6%
1%
27%
15%
34%
What is the written system for the Korean language known as?
Tai - Kadai
Hankul
Ural
Tanzania
Swahili
What is the most widely used language form of lingua franca?
Spanish
Portuguese
Italian
Latin
English
What country could you find most of the Sino - Tibetan family?
Vietnam
Afghanistan
Russia
China
United States
What alphabet is similiar to the Romans?
Austro - Asiatic
Korean
Dravidian
Tai - Kadai
Uralic
What language family was once classified as a branch of the Sino - Tibetan family?
Chinese
Korean
Japanese
Javanese
Tai - Kadai
What three major language families are in Africa?
Indo - European, Sino - Tibetan, + Japanese
Tai - Kadai, Japanese, + Korean
Altaic, Dravidian, + Austronesian
Nilo - Saharan, Niger - Congo, + Altaic
Afro - Asiatic, Niger - Congo, + Nilo - Saharan
What language family is traceable back to a common language, first used 7,000 yrs ago by people living in the Ural Mountains of present - day Russia?
Japanese
Dravidian
Uralic
Altaic
Korean
What Altaic (language family) language has by far the most speakers?
Turkish
Finnish
English
Spanish
Afghanistanian
How many branches is the Indo - European divided into?
4
5
6
7
8
What two groups divide the Germanic language branch? What main languages are in each group? (Note: Even if the answer choice doesn’t apply to this question, it is a true fact. It would help to look over the info.)
1 Indo - Iranian + 2 Balto - Slavic. 1 = Persian, Pashto, and Kurdish. 2 = Polish, Czech, and Slovak
1 West Germanic Group + 2 North Germanic Group. 1 = English, Dutch, and German. 2 Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, and Icelandic.
Which language is NOT a CONTEMPORARY Romance language?
Spanish
Italian
Portuguese
French
Latin
What is the branch of the Indo - European language family with the most speakers?
Germanic
Indo - Iranian
Balto - Slavic
Romance
There is not enough information to determine that.
True or False: Polish is the most spoken West Slavic language.
True.
False. It is English.
False. It is Spanish.
False. It is Italian.
All answers are incorrect.
What language did Romance languages originate from?
English
French
Spanish
Italian
Latin
What tribes invaded the Bristish Isles? Where were they from?
(Select all that applies).
Angles = Southern Denmark
Cherokee = Georgia
Jutes = Northern Denmark
Saxons = Northwestern Germany
Seminoles = Florida
What are the new languages that are being created through mixing English with other languages? (Select all that apply).
Portlish = Portuguese + English
Franglais = French + English
Spanglish = Spanish + English
Denglish = German + English
Brenglish = British English + English
How did English first DIFFUSE to the Western Hemisphere? HINT: Key word, diffuse. Not the origin.
Norman Invasion who came from present - day Norway to France
German Invasion... three tribes invaded the British Isles
Nomadic Warrior Theory
Sedentary Farmer Theory
England to the US through early colonization in Jamestown.
How many years might the Indo - European family have been in present day Turkey before the Kurgans?
2,000
1,000
100
1,500
156
Define lingua franca.
symbols that represent words or meaningful parts of words
a simplified form of lingua franca that is used to trade
a language of international communication, such as English
language used in education, work, mass media, and government
that the language is written as well as spoken
What are the arguments to support making English the official US language? (Select all that apply).
Providing services to non-English speakers is expensive
Requiring use of English is a symbol of national unity
The government should not interfere with people’s language rights
A law is unnecessary because English is already the primary language of the US
58 countries and 28 US states already make English official
Define dialect and subdialect. HINT: There are two answers.
in the case of England, the standard language
in a language with multiple dialects, one dialect may be recognized as it
a subdivision of a dialect
a regional variation of a language distinguished by distinctive vocabulary, spelling, and pronunciation
There is only one answer choice above that correlates with either of the two words.
What term do geographers use to refer to place names?
Accultutation
Assimilation
Toponyms
Isogloss
Symbols
Creole Languages are most likely to be spoken in which city?
Buffalo, New York
St. Paul, Minnesota
Charlotte, North Carolina
Portland, Oregon
New Orleans, Louisiana
What statements BEST describes what will happen to the global diversity of languages within the next century?
An increase in the number of languages due to incidents of devolution.
The maintenance of the current number of languages due to mostly stable political situations around the world.
A significance decrease in the number of languages due to globalization.
A slight increase in the number of languages as result of global population growth.
A slight decrease in the number of languages due to a few incidents of convergence.
Which of the following language families is the largest in terms of the total number of speakers.
Sino-Tibetan
Indo-European
Niger-Congo
Afro-Asiatic
Dravidian
The image above is a map of the Indo-European language family region. The individual colored regions show the location of the different branches of the Indo-European family.
Name the language branch covered by the DARK GREEN region.
Romance
Germanic
Slavic
Celtic
Indo-Iranian
According to the Indo-European language tree map, which languages are most similar?
Galindan and Selonian
Latvian and Lithuanian
Slovene and Serbo-Croatan
Polish and Old Polish
Russian and Bulgarian
Which is the most common lingua Franca within the Niger-Congo language family?
Zulu
Yoruba
Nyanja
Igbo
Swahili
_____________ is the term for a common languages for the purpose of trade and commerce.
Creole language
Porto language
Standard language
Official language
Lingua Franca
What language theory explains the spread of language from the south of the Caucasus around the southern Caspian Sea into Iran and India and into Europe?
Conquest Theory
Agriculture Theory
Renfrew’s theory
Greenberg’s Hypothesis
Organic Theory
Which of the following language concepts is depicted on the map above.
Language families of the U.S.
Language branches in the U.S.
Language groups in the U.S.
English accents in the U.S.
English dialects in the U.S.
Which of the following languages is considered a revived language?
Hebrew
Latin
Urdu
Farsi
Gaelic
Which language and language family are NOT paired correctly?
Turkish/Uralic
Arabic/Afro-Asiatic
Hindi/Indo-European
Burmese/Sino-Tibetan
Tamil/Dravidian
At its peak, the Roman Empire spanned 1,062,000 miles over parts of Europe, the Middle East and North Africa. As a result, people from modern day Portugal to Saudi Arabia began speaking Latin.
After the Roman Empire collapsed, which of the following happened?
Latin continued as a Lingua France despite the collages especially of the empire.
Pidgin languages become creole languages, know as the Romance languages.
Language divergence, as a result of isolation, created the Romance languages
Without Latin as a standard language, the Romance languages re-emerged.
Without Latin as an official language, the Romance languages emerged.
In which country has language played the most devastatingly centrifugal role on national unity?
China
U.S.
India
Kenya
Germany
Which of the following is NOT considered a dialect of Chinese?
Mandarin
Jiangxinese/Gan
Cantonese
Hmong
Hui
Where is the Austronesian language most spoken?
Vietnam and Cambodia
China and Mongolia
Iraq and Morocco
Quebec and Zimbabwe
Uganda and Kenya
The Chinese language is broken into several dialects spoken around the country. What is the primary reason linguists would be especially interested in Chinese dialects?
The different dialects of China a re spoken too far apart from each other to be consider a dialect.
The dialects use ideographs as their primary form of writing.
The Chinese language is primarily oral
The nasalized tone of the languages make it particularly difficult for Westerners to master.
The different dialects cannot understand each other, making them different languages instead of dialects.
One distinctive feature of the Indo-European family is that it
Has a smaller spatial distribution than other language families
Is the only language family with just one major lingua franca
Includes most of the world’s oldest languages
Is spoken by nearly half the world’s population
Is the only one that is spoken in Europe today
Some countries have several official languages because they want to
Make internatiional diplomacy easier
Foster political cooperation with neighboring countries
Make government operate more efficiently
Prepare students to participate in the global economy
Give recognittion to different groups within the country
Which statement best describes the most common reason groups wish to preserve their traditional languages.
Language is used to religious services, so preserving a language is primarily a religious obligation.
Language is central to cultural identity, so preserving a language helps preserve a culture
Language is used for trade, so preserving language is one way to keep a group economically prosperous
Language change is a politically disruptive force, so preserving a language is the only way to record history accurately.
Language preservation passes on a group’s history, so preserving a language is the only way to record history accurately.
The Arabic language spread from its hearth and became one of the major global languages mainly through
Increased use of communication technology in Arab nations
Spread of Middle Eastern multinational oil corporation
Worldwide colonization beginning around 600 CE
Conquest and its use as a standard religious language
Resisting colonization by European nations and the United States.
Which phrase does NOT help explain the language distribution shown on the map?
The ease of trade between Great Brittian and the US
The widespread use of the Internet
The differences between American and British English
The impact of British colonialization in Africa and Asia
The increase in the power of US based corporations
Which resulted from the mixing of two languages to create a new one so that people who spoke different languages could trade more easily?
Indo-European
Amerindian
American English
Arabic
Swahili
Which is the best example of the diffusion of a language?
The decline in use of the Navajo language
The spread of English via the internet
The creation of a new language in Haiti
The designation of one official language for a country
The use of bilingual signs in a county with two official languages
How many languages exist in the world today?
4,206
7,102
2,479
1,598
789
What is the most commonly used Sino-Tibetan language?
Han
Tibetan
Mandarin
Thai
Laotian
Where are the world’s third and fourth largest language families?
Latin America
Europe
Asia
Australia
Africa
What is the spatial distribution of the Romance Branch of Indo-European?
Northwestern Europe
Southwestern Europe
Eastern Europe
Only in Italy
Southwestern Asia
One theory regarding the origins of the Indo-European language is
Italy
Kurgan Hearth in Southern Russia
Angleland
Indonesia
Southern Europa
Which of the following did not contribute to the formation of “old English” between the fifth and ninth centuries?
French
Saxons
Jutes
Angles
None of the above
Which language is the global lingua Franca of technology and the Internet?
Swahili
Mandarin
French
Hindi
English
What is the official language of the U.S.?
French and English
English and Spanish
English only
There is no official language
English, French, Spanish and German
Which language family does English belong to?
SinoTibetian
Sino-European
Indo-European
Indo-Caucasian
Niger-Congo
Which is not an Indo-European branch?
Romance
Germanic
Ballot-Slavic
Khoisan
Indo-Iranian
An example of a dialect becoming a distingushed language is
Catalan
Canadian
Breton
Creole
Pidgin
Which region has the largest number of dying languages?
South Pacific
Canada
Central Europe
Eastern Russia
Southern China
Indo-European language family has its distant origins in the area around the
Baltic Sea
Iberian Penninsula
Black Sea
Italian Penninsula
Arabian Penninsula
A condition in which many languages are spoken, each by a relatively small number of people, is called
Sycretism
Linguistic relativism
Bilingualism
Diaspora
Linguistic fragmentation
Which of the following is a dialect?
Indo-European
Romance
southern United States
Latin
Dravidian
Which of the following is NOT a place name in the U.S. that reflects geographical origins?
New York
New Jersey
Germantown, Pennsylvania
Pottstown
New Hampshire
Which language has the highest percentage of first language speakers?
Spanish
English
Hindi
Arabic
Mandarin
Linguistic geographers use isoglosses to mark
The creation of pidgins
The extent to which a lingua Franca is used in a particular area
The limits for an area in which particular words are used
The area in which an official language is used
The area in which an extinct language is used
All of the following modern lingua Franca languages spread as a result of the era of colonialism EXCEPT for
Portuguese
English
Spanish
French
Arabic
Russian, Czech and Polish come from which language branch
Romance
West Germanic
Balto-Slavic
Indo Iranian
Sino Tibetan
English and Dutch come from which language branch?
Indo Iranian
Sino Tibetan
Romance
Balto Slavic
West Germanic
Which language is recognized as an official language of more countries than any other?
Spanish
Mandarin Chinese
French
English
Arabic
India is a linguistically diverse state. The majority of the languages spoken in the southern tip of the state come from what language family?
Hindi
Indo-European
Austro-Asiatic
Dravidian
Sino-Tibetan
Geographic place names are of cultural and social importance because the names
Make up part of linguistic and local identity
Represent globalization
Are part of the the concept of time-space compression
Are the main method of transmitting culture
Identify the importance of the geographical location
Both Arabic and Hebrew evolved from the same language branch known as
Semitic
Balto Slavic
West Germanic
Sino Tibetan
Indo Iranian
Which of the following represents the most widely diffused language in the world?
Mandarin Chinese
French
German
Spanish
English
What US state and Canadian province are similar due to religion, language and code of laws?
Colorado and Manitoba
Louisiana and Quebec
Washington and British Columbia
Georgia and Newfoundland
New York and Alberta
The majority of the countries and people of the North and Northwestern parts of Europe speak a language from which of the following language branches.
Indo Iranian
Germanic
Romance
Balto-Slavic
Semetic
The similarity of place names in the US, Uganda, Canada or Australia is an example of
Political agenda of the East India Company
Hierarchical diffusion of language
Impacts of British place name laws of the time period
Diffusion of culture through colonialization
Toponym policies of the British Empire
Which of the following languages exists because of its isolation as a linguistic refuge area?
Swahili
Hindi
Hebrew
Arabic
Basque
If the original population moves/is displaced and the original language is replaced it is known as
Relocation diffusion
Stimulus diffusion
Migrant diffusion
Contagious diffusion
Hierarchical diffusion
Which of the following is the most important medium for transmitting culture?
Language
Legislation
Religion
Imitation
Immigration
This Ohio city was once given the name of Porkopolis due to pork production being one of its leading industries
Cleveland
Dayton
Cincinnati
Akron
Columbus
Stadiums and areana taking names of businesses like “Staples Center” in Los Angeles is an example of
Commemorative toponyms
Associative toponyms
Manufactured toponyms
Urban morphology
Commodification of toponymns
Hakka and Burmese languages are most closely associated with this language family?
Sino-Tibetan
Indo-European
Austronesian
Niger-Congo
Afro-Asiatic
Which of the following countries is one most likely to find speakers whose native language belongs to the Uralic language family?
Guyana
Estonia
Libya
Haiti
Sri Lanka
New Hampshire and New Jersey put familiar names on strange new lands for pilgrims. The spread of these toponymns is what type of diffusion
Contagious diffusion
Stimulus diffusion
Chain diffusion
Relocation diffusion
Hierarchical diffusion
Where would lone find the highest concentration of a non-Indo European language spoken in South Asia?
Approximately the southern one-third of India
Pakistan
Kashmir and areas north of Bangladesh
The Deccan Plateau on the border with Pakistan
Among the peoples
A language that cannot be traced back to other languages and language families through backwards reconstruction (often found in remote areas of the world).
Isolated language
German
Latin
Isogloss
Extinct Language
