AP Human Geography - Chapter 5 Key Issue 2

Vocabulary and Main Ideas

Vocabulary
Language family A collection of languages related through a common ancestor that existed long before
recorded history
Language branch A collection of languages through a common ancestor that existed several thousand
years ago
Language group A collection of languages within a branch that share a common origin in relatively
recent past and display relatively few differences in grammar and vocabulary
Vulgar Latin The form of Latin that people in provinces learned was not the standard literary form, but a
spoken form
Creole A language that results from the mixing of the colonizers language with the indigenous language
of the people being dominated
Main Ideas
What language is spoken by approximately one-third of the people in India?
Approximately one third of people in India speak the Indic language called Hindi.
What language do most Pakistanis speak?
Pakistans principal language is Urdu, a language based off of Hindi and Arabic.
Why did it become important to speak Russian in Eastern European countries during the Soviet era?
Soviet officials forced native speakers of other languages to learn Russian as a way of fostering cultural
unity among the countrys diverse peoples. In Eastern Europe countries that were dominated politically
and economically by the Soviet Union, Russia was taught as the second language.
How did Czech and Slovak sports announcers deal with broadcasting for two languages?
They swapped announcers/languages at the half mark, so half would be in Czech and the other half in
Slovak. These balancing measures were effective in promoting national unity during the Communist era.
What are the four most widely used contemporary Romance languages?
The Romance Languages are Spanish, Portuguese, French, and Italian.
Why did major language differences develop in the countries formerly occupied by the Roman Empire?
Some people had decided to retain Latin, but other people went to their former language. Other people
adopted German and Slovak, and communication between the countries declined for them to develop
their own languages.
Why have the Spanish and Portuguese languages achieved worldwide importance?
Spanish and Portuguese have achieved world importance because of the colonial activities of their
European speakers. Approximately 90 percent of the speakers of these two languages live outside
Europe, mainly in Central and South America. Spanish is the official language of 18 Latin American states,
whereas Portuguese is spoken in Brazil, which has as many people as all the other South American
countries combined and 17 times more than Portugal itself.