1. Languages of the world:
Language typology and classification
Genetic classification. Language families

2. 1.LINGUISTICS.
2.LANGUAGE.
2.1 What is human language?
2.2. Some characteristics of human
language.
2.3. Functions of language.
2.4.Origins of language.
3. HOW IS LANGUAGE ACQUIRED?

3. 4.WHY STUDY LANGUAGE?
5. LANGUAGES OF THE WORD.
5.1. Genetic classification.Language
families.
5.2. Typological classification.
5.2.1. Morphological typology.
5.2.2. Syntactic typology.
5.3. Geographical classification.
6. WRITING SYSTEMS. TYPES AND HISTORY.

4. 2.1. WHAT IS HUMAN LANGUAGE ?
A language is a system used to
communicate.
 There are similarities and differences
between human and animal
communication.
 Language seems to be as old as your
species.
 Nothing in the animal Kingdom even
approximates to human language.

5.  Not limited in time or space.
 Each language is both arbitrary and
systematic.
 There are no primitive or inferior
languages.
 Human language at all levels is rule
governed.
 Even the formal structures of language
are similar.
 The ability to speak depends on the
human l-shaped vocal tract, with the
lowered larynx.

6. Who… Why…
EMOTIVE “emotion” Addresser
CONATIVE “commands” Addresse
REFERENTIAL “information” Context
METALINGUAL “code Code
analysis”
PHATIC “contact” Contact
POETIC “play, Message
pleasure”

7. Intriguing Questions:
WHEN WHERE HOW
50.000 África Theories
primitive
speculations
Bible
Otto Jespersen THEORY
“Bow-Bow” “Pooh-Pooh” “Ding-Dong” “Yo-He-Ho” “La-La”
Natural Sounds- Rhythmic Long –musical
Interjections
sounds meanings chants sounds
Oh
Close
Open

8.  Thetheory of blank slates versus the
innate biological endowment.
 Fora long time it was believed that
language was simply learnt. The
presumption was that our minds at
birth were blank slates on to which the
rules of our native languages were
written. Children learn by repetition,
language is learnt behaviour.

9.  Thecentral question of linguistics is the
nature of the innate biological
endowment (Universal Grammar)
which enables humans to acquire a
language so rapidly and efficiently in
the first year of life.
 “Children seemed to be programmed
to learn language, just as they seemed
to be programmed to walk. To a baby
no language is easier or more difficult
than any other”

10.  Children do not merely repeat what they
hear.
 Language teaching has never adopted a
methodology based strictly on
Chomsky’swork. However, this idea of
creativity, has informed many teaching
techniques.
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xfpZF
X2hAJQ

11.  In this view the study of language is
ultimately the study of the human mind.
 One reason for studying language is that
it is tempting to regard language, in the
traditional phrase, as "a mirror of mind." By
studying language we may discover
abstract principles that govern its
structure and use, principles that are
universal by biological necessity and not
mere historical accident, that derive from
mental characteristics of the species.

12. Languages of the World

13.  Isvery difficult say how many languages
there are in the world .
 And is very difficult too, say two speech
varieties are, different languages or
different dialects of the same language.
 It estimated that there are about 6.000
languages in the world.

15. Genetic
Classification
Classification
of Language
Typological
Classification

16. Based on
Linguistics similarities
Words and grammatical
forms in common

17. Language
family
Broader Narrower
sense sense
It refers to the largest spectrum of
It refers to languages which
language for which a genetic
are more closely related
relationship can be demonstrated

18.  Language family is a group of related
languages that descend from a common
ancestor called proto-language or
primordial language.

20. Ancestral Proto-Language
If it´s not
If it is Known
Known
Comparative Method:
Comparing the Only with inscriptions
languages of a family

21. A language can´t be reconstructed.
 The more ancient proto-language is the
less we can know about it.
 Commonly we only know a part of the
language structure and vocabulary.

22. They must
have “ sprung
from some
Could no be common
chance. source, which
perhaps no
longer exists”.
Proto-Indo –
European:
William Jones Reflecting the
geographical
distribution of the
He was first noted that: speakers of this
language from
India to Europe
Greek, Latin and Sanskrit
were related in a way that:

23. A true historical
relationship, of a
chance overlap in
The similarities sound and meaning
among languages
can be result of…
A borrowing from
one language to
another

25.  Proto-Indo-European had split into twelve
distinct languages (diagram).
 Not all of Proto-Indo- European languages
survived.
 Proto-Indo-European contains words for a
domesticated animals and crops,
indicating that these ancient societies
were agricultural.

26.  Thisclassification is based on the
differences or similarities existing in
languages.
 In
this case we will analyze the
morphological typology and the
syntactic typology:

27.  The morphology is understood, by a
wide range of works, as the study of
the structure of the word, therefore,
focuses on the elements of a word, the
relations between them, and the
properties derived from its articulation
in a result which is the word.

28.  a) Isolating languages: the words in these
languages ​tend to be a single
morpheme.
 b) Inflecting, synthetic or fusion
languages: These languages change
endings and sometimes the internal
structure of words to show grammatical
relationships - tense, aspect, case and so
on

29.  c)Agglutinative or agglutinating
languages: These languages add
suffixes and prefixes (as well as infixes)
to the stem of a word to add to its
meaning or to show grammatical
function.
 d)Polysynthetic or incorporating
languages: languages which words
are composed of many morphemes.

30.  According to the syntactic typology of
languages they are divided into different
types on the basis of the order of the
grammatical elements (subject (S), object
(O) and verb (V)) in a sentence. Apart
from the free word order languages, there
are six possibilities:
• Subject Verb Object (SVO)
• Subject Object Verb (SOV)
• Verb Subject Object (VSO)
• Verb Object Subject (VOS)
• Object Subject Verb (OSV)
• Object Verb Subject (OVS)

31.  We also have to bear in mind that
following one pattern as a norm
doesn´t mean we can´t find a different
one for specific purposes or special
effects.

32.  It
is based on linguistic similarities which
have arisen from cultural contact
between linguistic communities.

33. o Origin of pictographic (objects) West Asia, EastAsia
writing ideographic (ideas) Central America
o Symbols + sounds new writing systems (e.g. syllable)
o Cuneiform Mesopotamia clay
writing 1st written language was Sumerian reed stylus
o In 1600 BC, Chinese writing was developed independently.
o Around 2000 BC, the first written alphabet developed by
semitic workers in egypt.
o In 2600 BC, Sumeiran cuneiform script the earliest with
Egyptian hieroglyps coherent texts
o In 3200 BC, the first recognizable documents appeared in
Uruk.(sumerian sign sumerian word ═ picture of the
object named by the word)
o Ancient Greek alphabet (vowels and consonants as
separate symbols)

34. o Three categories: logographic, syllabic and alphabetic.
They can appear in the same writing system
A) Logographic writing systems
 The first known writing systems based on pictographic and ideographic
elements.
 Logograma(a single written character) represents grammatical word
many logogramas represent language writing
 Disadvantage many logogramas and memorization of their meaning.
 Advantage the meaning is inherent the symbol so many
languages use the same logograms.
Ampersand “and”
 Examples of modern western logograms at sign @
percent sign %
units of currenc,$,€
 Chinese is the most important and the only survisor.

35. A syllabary is a set of written symbols that
represent syllables, which make up words.
A symbol in a syllabary represents a
consonant sound followed by a vowel, or
just a vowel alone.
TYPE EACH EXAMPLE
SYMBOL
REPRESENTS
Syllabic Syllable Cherokee

36. CHEROKEE PRONUNCIATION MEANING
D( FALTA) AMA WATER

37.  An alphabet is a set of letters each of
which represents a phoneme of a spoken
language.
HOMOPHONES
HEAR HERE
KNEW NEW
THERE THEY´RE THEIR
 International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) can
be used to transcribe any language in the
world.
MOON (mu:n)