Exam 4: The Geography of Language: Locating the Spoken Word

Speakers of Austronesian languages are now clustered in the Americas.

Although Canada's official policy is bilingualism, Québec's official language is French.

-Note the table's "Main Areas Where Spoken" column. Spanish diffused to South America, English diffused to South Africa, and Portuguese diffused to Brazil primarily as a result of:

Which language was carried to Native Americans via the Alaska Highway?

-Following Indo-European, which language family is spoken by the MOST people?

When pidgin languages acquire fuller vocabularies and become the native languages of their speakers, they become:

-Comparing the _____ of various Indo-European tongues reveals their kinship.

Which country long suppressed the Kurdish language but has been easing these restrictions as part of its efforts to join the European Union?

The native languages of Hungary and Finland are linguistically related.

-This figure illustrates shifts in place-names in India as a result of:

A synonym for place-name is:

_____ percent of all languages have as many as 500,000 speakers.

_____ are the new product of different linguistic groups that come into contact with one another, and are characterized by having a small vocabulary derived from the blending of diverse tongues that converge spatially.

-The origin of the Sino-Tibetan language family is thought to be:

Over which area did China NOT exert control during the Tang dynasty (C.E. 618-907)?

-Based on the map, which statement is likely true?

Into what type of language can a pidgin language evolve as it acquires more words and speakers?

Which language survived mainly as the ceremonial language of the Roman Catholic Church and Vatican City?

-Which two languages shown on the family tree do NOT share a common ancestor?

In which countries are Hamitic languages spoken today?