Deck 7: The Geography of Language

Question 1

The widest spoken lingua franca in the world is

A)Russian.
B)English.
C)Chinese.
D)Swahili.

Answer 1

B

Question 2

In India, Hindi is

A)a local language.
B)the only language.
C)the language used in business.
D)a lingua franca for most of the country.

Answer 2

D

Question 3

Gullah, spoken on the coastal islands of South Carolina and Georgia

A)is an Indo-European language based on Slovak.
B)is a Native American language of the Amerind family.
C)is of the Niger-Congo family of African descent.
D)is basically a pidgin English with many African loan words.

Answer 3

D

Question 4

The origins of runes are unclear but they were probably developed by

A)the Goths (Germanic subfamily of Indo-European).
B)the Picts (Celtic subfamily of Indo-European).
C)the Greeks (Hellenic subfamily of Indo-European).
D)the Albanians (Illyrian subfamily of Indo-European).

Question 5

Regarding English spoken in the British Isles

A)RP is the only dialect.
B)there are three main varieties in England, Scotland, and Ireland.
C)there are many dialects spread throughout the isles.
D)the English dialect is basically similar in sounds to American English.

Question 6

In northwest Canada and Alaska there is a language family called Na-Dene.On the map of language families this area is mistakenly labeled as

A)Amerind.
B)Japanese/Korean.
C)Dravidian.
D)Sino-Tibetan.

Question 7

The map of dialect migrations in the United States portrays

A)one main large dialect region of English speech.
B)two main large dialect regions of English with French mixed in.
C)five main regions based on migration from eastern ports historically.
D)eight very complex regions based on three main language families.

Question 8

Grimm's law discusses

A)predictable sound shifts in different but related languages.
B)the importance of related vocabulary in related languages.
C)language as related to the gravity model of development.
D)how language families are related more broadly.

Question 9

A basic fact of language is that it is

A)constantly changing in structure and content.
B)rarely changes.
C)alphabets come naturally to both primitive and developed peoples.
D)OK to think someone's accent is 'bad'.

Question 10

Abstract cuneiform symbols probably came from

A)southeast Asia.
B)earlier pictographic forms of writing.
C)the Basques who speak a language like no other in the world.
D)languages which had few phonemes.

Question 11

Examining the Indo-European family pattern on the map of language families shows

A)a 'ribbon' of the family (Russian) extending eastward through north Asia.
B)a divided Europe and South Asia pattern showing two different original migration paths.
C)much colonial European influence throughout the world.
D)all of the above. Scrambling: Locked

Question 12

On the language families map, Arabic

A)is also shown to be broadly spoken in Europe.
B)is also spoken widely in the Middle East/Arabian peninsula.
C)extends into southern Africa where it is a main family.
D)has also spread to south and southeast Asia where Islam is also a main religion.

Question 13

When a pidgin language is adopted as the main language of communication for a people it is called

A)a dialect.
B)a language family.
C)advanced pidgin.
D)a creole.

Question 14

To say that Rotokas, a language in New Guinea, has only 11 phonemes is saying that

A)people who speak the language probably cannot communicate very efficiently with each other.
B)the language is similar to English or Spanish.
C)this is how many active sounds are used in the language.
D)this language's vocabulary is not very developed.

Question 15

Interestingly, the populated region of northern Utah according to the map of dialect migration regions in the United States is

A)mainly Northern in speech dialect like from Massachusetts and upstate New York.
B)mainly Coastal southern as Mormons migrated mainly from the Carolinas.
C)mainly Upland Southern with folk from Virginia and Kentucky.
D)mainly mainstream Midland of Ohio and Indiana peoples.

Question 16

Though most linguists recognize Uralic and Altaic as two separate language families, on the map of language families they are shown as

A)one language family.
B)two separate language families.
C)in one contiguous 'creole' region.
D)all of the above. Scrambling: Locked

Question 17

A collection of languages in one family will be related and descended from a

A)series of dialects that may or may not be related.
B)common ancestor known as a proto-language.
C)grouping of creoles (from pidgins).
D)language isolate like Basque.

Question 18

A simplified language spoken by different peoples for common communication and generally not a native language of anyone using it is called

A)a dialect.
B)a language family.
C)a pidgin.
D)a creole.

Question 19

The Indo-European language family

A)includes English.
B)includes Kurdish.
C)has two main branches eastward and westward.
D)all of the above. Scrambling: Locked

Question 20

The map of language families shows that Madagascar is unique in language family because

A)it belongs to the Niger-Congo family, an African family.
B)it belongs to Dravidian, an Indian family.
C)it belongs to Indo-European from colonial times.
D)it belongs to Malayo-Polynesian far eastward.

Question 21

We know that Latin no longer exists, rather, changed over time into something new.Which of the following best depicts this change?

A)Spanish.
B)Serbo-Croatian.
C)High German.
D)the different branches of Celtic.

Question 22

Though Japanese is a language isolate, Ainu

A)was the native language of Korea that gave rise to early Japanese.
B)is also a language isolate in northern Japan spoken by native peoples of the islands.
C)has been eradicated completely and is no longer spoken.
D)has diffused far greater distances than Japanese ever did.

Question 23

Korean is one language, but because of isolation some scholars argue that

A)Korean is becoming more and more like Japanese because of industrial trade.
B)Korean is becoming overall more distinct with fewer dialects.
C)Korean is becoming more split between north and south dialects or even languages.
D)Korean has always been very similar to Chinese as the two groups are racially similar.

Question 24

According to the map of global English use, South Asia is

A)mostly English native tongue.
B)mostly not English speaking.
C)mostly a mix of official language with second language use.
D)none of the above Scrambling: Locked

Question 25

Nearly 7,000 languages exist

A)and over the next couple of decades at least three thousand more will appear.
B)but many have gone extinct over the last few hundred years.
C)but this number includes dialects as well as languages.
D)none of the above Scrambling: Locked

Question 26

The Ethnologue database originally compiled by a researcher wishing to translate the Bible into all the world's languages finds that

A)most cultures in the world are accepting Basque as a global tongue.
B)Basque is probably going to go extinct because it only has a few hundred speakers.
C)there are more than 400 languages of only a few speakers which are about to go extinct.
D)more Basque is spoken in America than in the Basque country in Europe.

Question 27

Toponymy is important to geographers because

A)it is the study of the flow, shape or surface of the land.
B)it is the abstract study and theory of mathematical surfaces.
C)it has to do with the sounds animals make and their relation to human language.
D)it means the study of place names, their meanings, and origins.

Question 28

Wilbur Zelinsky's map of classical town names suggests

A)the American people have long harked to their old 'Oktoberfest' German origins.
B)the beginning of the American love of old things - antiques and 'Americana'.
C)the diffusion of Viking settlers before the English and other Europeans arrived.
D)the American fascination with Greek and Roman ideals just after the Revolutionary War.

Question 29

After World War II, in Bucharest, Romania, street names

A)were kept with the names of previous kings and leader.
B)were named mostly for dictator Nicolai Ceausescu, his wife, and family members.
C)were changed to reflect communist ideals.
D)were named for local flora and fauna (plants and animals) in an unusual environmental focus.

Question 30

The best example of a recently borrowed 'loan word' in English would be

A)bungalow from Hindi.
B)plaza from Latin.
C)animas from Greek.
D)zazpiak bat from Basque.

Question 31

In the 1800s a Latin language known as Dalmatian existed on the Dalmatian coast that is today mainly Croatia.Today it no longer exists, so which of the following is true?

A)it went through a process of language convergence and blended with Italian.
B)it became a language isolate, since it was not related to other languages.
C)it went through a process of language extinction.
D)it locally is still spoken by a few old ladies.

Question 32

Place names can be

A)both of physical as well as cultural features.
B)found underground and this is a great new area of study.
C)are usually relatively recent and tell us little about early settlement.
D)none of the above Scrambling: Locked

Question 33

According to the map of global English use, Quebec in Canada shows

A)English as a native tongue.
B)English as a not native.
C)English as a second language.
D)English as an official language.

Question 34

Some toponyms such as Independence, Colorado;Liberty, New York;and Freedom, California

A)portray European origins of the settlers.
B)are substrate in influence showing Native American origins.
C)reflect American values and show patriotism on the land.
D)are indicative of agricultural origins of a European grain based system.

Question 35

A main reason you find English spoken broadly throughout the globe was that

A)is was fairly easy to learn.
B)it tends to easily accept borrowed words and grammar from other languages.
C)it was the main language of influential British colonies and has stuck.
D)it was spoken alongside Spanish which reinforced its permanence.

Question 36

Blur your vision and look at the map of language extinction.The pattern you see generally corresponds with

A)where developed countries are located.
B)where third world or less developed countries are located.
C)very cold polar regions where people are dying off.
D)mainly mountainous areas where languages are isolated.

Question 37

Creole languages where two or more languages become fused in permanent usage could be seen as examples of

A)language divergence.
B)language convergence.
C)language isolation.
D)language pluralism.

Question 38

Yonkers, Peekskill, Catskill, the Bronx, and Staten Island are all place names in New York

A)with Basque origins.
B)with English origins.
C)with Swedish origins.
D)with Dutch origins.

Question 39

Modern Australian English today

A)is highly influenced by the Scottish of the original settling families.
B)is a combination of the Irish and Cockney accents of original penal colonists.
C)is mainly English affected by the South African 'Afrikaans' Dutch from South Africa.
D)is more affected by Native American speech than most people realize.

Question 40

Basque is a language of northern Spain and Southern France which has existed there since pre-Roman times.It is non-Indo European.Another term linguists use to describe Basque is that it is

A)a language isolate.
B)a plural society.
C)a mixed culture.
D)a large language family.

Question 41

The solution to the language conflict in the name of the country of Macedonia changing to FYROM (the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia) came about because

A)Yugoslavia still claims the country as a current republic.
B)formerly, Albanians disputed the sovereignty of this territory along with Kosovo.
C)Serbia was still attempting to dominate the region as an autonomous cultural and linguistic region.
D)Greece has long seen Macedonia as its own region, disputing the use of the name.