Deck 6: Language

Question 1

In 2000,which States had several countries where 60% or more of the people five years and older spoke a language other than English?

A) Texas and California
B) Texas and New Mexico
C) New York and California
D) New York and Alabama

Answer 1

B

Question 2

Latin octo (eight)became Italian otto,Spanish ocho,and French huit. This is an example of ____________ over time in a language family.

A) deterioration
B) sound shift
C) dialect development
D) isogloss shift

Answer 2

B

Question 3

The crucial element in language is

A) vocabulary.
B) grammar.
C) alphabet.
D) vocalization.

Answer 3

D

Question 4

From 1960 to 1980,the changing ethnic composition of South Central Los Angeles is best described as:

A) less diverse.
B) more diverse.
C) Asian dominated.
D) Hispanic dominated.

Question 5

Standard Italian is the version of the language spoken in

A) Florence and Tuscany.
B) Italy north of Venice.
C) Sicily.
D) Rome.

Question 6

A geographic boundary within which a particular linguistic feature occurs is called a/an

A) isogloss.
B) sound shift.
C) international border.
D) cultural boundary.

Question 7

The predominant languages spoken on Madagascar are not of an African language family,but belong to

A) Indo-European family.
B) Sino-Tibetan family.
C) Dravidian family.
D) Austronesian family.

Question 8

Belgium is a ___________ speaking country.

A) Belgae (a Celtic language)
B) Flemish (a Germanic language)
C) French (a Romance language)
D) both B and C

Question 9

Dialects are most often marked by actual differences in

A) accents.
B) pronunciation.
C) vocabulary.
D) syntax.

Question 10

____ of internet content is in English.

A) 12%
B) 20%
C) 68%
D) 82%

Question 11

In Illinois,people who want a soft drink with their hamburger are likely to order a

A) soda.
B) pop.
C) Coke.
D) Pepsi.

Question 12

Which is not true of Quebec?

A) Peoples of the north speak Algonquin and Inuit languages.
B) The P.Q. passed laws banning or controlling the use non-French languages in advertising.
C) Quebec contains areas dominated by non-French speaking minorities.
D) It is almost 100% French speaking.

Question 13

The most widely used Indo-European language today is

A) English.
B) German.
C) Spanish.
D) Chinese.

Question 14

Which of the following European countries has a rather sharp division between Flemish speakers in the north and Walloon speakers in the south?

A) the Netherlands
B) Belgium
C) Denmark
D) Andorra

Question 15

The French government has _________ to protect French language and culture.

A) banned foreign words in advertising and on radio and television
B) established the Académie Française to standardize the language
C) passed a law levying fines on those using foreign terms
D) all of the above

Question 16

In technically advanced societies there is likely to be

A) a standard language.
B) many basic languages.
C) limited expansion of language.
D) standard pronunciation.

Question 17

There are ___ principal language families of the world.

A) 10
B) 15
C) 20
D) 25

Question 18

The language most widely used as a second language by hundreds of millions of people in India,Africa and elsewhere is

A) Spanish.
B) French.
C) Arabic.
D) English.

Question 19

Which of the following pairs of languages are not mutually intelligible?

A) Urdu and Hindi
B) Danish and Norwegian
C) Serbian and Croatian
D) German and Dutch

Question 20

Hawaii and Louisiana are examples of states with

A) no linguistic variation.
B) official "English only" policies.
C) official bilingual policies.
D) no official language policies.

Question 21

The Proto-Indo-European language homeland lies somewhere north of the

A) Mediterranean Sea.
B) Baltic Sea.
C) Black Sea.
D) Sea of Okhotsk.

Question 22

Countries in which more than one language are in use are called

A) multilingual.
B) monolingual.
C) unilingual.
D) non-lingual.

Question 23

A language that is the product of a process of convergence which allows speakers of two or more languages to communicate is

A) a standardized language.
B) a common language.
C) a lingua franca.
D) a lingua germanica.

Question 24

Official languages such as Spanish and Quechuan in Peru or English and Pilipino in the Philippines reflect

A) linguist divergence.
B) the country's history.
C) creolization.
D) linguas franca.

Question 25

The two theories of the Proto-Indo-European language dispersal are the conquest theory and

A) the spread of agriculture.
B) massive migration.
C) extensive trade routes.
D) missionary activity.

Question 26

Two Russian scholars have established the core of what they believe is a pre-Proto-Indo-European language named

A) Nostratic.
B) Anatolian.
C) Etruscan.
D) Austronesian.

Question 27

In an attempt to deal with linguistic as well as cultural diversity,many former African colonies have taken as their official language

A) the most widely-spoken indigenous language.
B) an Austronesian and therefore neutral language.
C) the language of the former colonial power.
D) an invented language with no historical connections.

Question 28

Brittany in western France shows the persistence of Breton in the _____ subfamily.

A) Romance
B) Germanic
C) Celtic
D) Slavic

Question 29

The language tree diagram of language divergence has some branches with dead ends. These represent

A) standardized or non-changing languages.
B) language subfamilies.
C) isolated languages.
D) extinct languages.

Question 30

Convergence processes yielding a synthesis of several languages produce a pidgin language. When this language becomes the first language of a population it is referred to as a

A) dialect.
B) creole language.
C) language subfamily.
D) lingua franca.

Question 31

Bantu migrations marginalized this once widespread African language family which now is found only in dry regions of southwestern Africa.

A) Niger-Congo family
B) Khoisan family
C) Afro-Asiatic family
D) Sudanic Subfamily

Question 32

Nigeria chose __________ as its official language upon independence.

A) northern Hausa
B) southwestern Yoruba
C) southeastern Ibo
D) English

Question 33

Which development helped with the rise of national languages beginning in the fourteenth century?

A) invention of the printing press
B) agricultural revolution
C) Celtic migrations
D) fall of the Roman Empire

Question 34

Subsequent migrations and empire building caused the decline and marginalization of this subfamily which had brought Indo-European languages to Europe 3,000 years ago.

A) Romance
B) Germanic
C) Celtic
D) Turkic

Question 35

The Indo-European language family prevails on the map of Europe. Which country listed below has a language which is not in the Indo-European family?

A) France
B) Italy
C) Iceland
D) Hungary

Question 36

The linguistic map of Nigeria reflects extreme fragmentation with nearly ____ languages spoken.

A) 15
B) 25
C) 200
D) 400

Question 37

The systematic study of the origin and meaning of place names is called

A) deep reconstruction.
B) namology.
C) toponymy.
D) lexicography.

Question 38

English is to lingua franca as _____________ is to pidgin language.

A) French
B) Creole
C) Portuguese
D) Chinese

Question 39

Monolingual countries,in which only one language is spoken,are few in number. Which of the following is not one of these countries?

A) Poland
B) Japan
C) Lesotho
D) Argentina

Question 40

Persian,Pashto and Baluchi are all part of the __________ branch of the language tree.

A) Indic
B) Baltic
C) Iranian
D) Greek

Question 41

Bulgarians speak a Slavic language.

Question 42

Euskera,the Basque language,is not related to any other language in Europe.

Question 43

There are no streets named for Martin Luther King,Jr.,in Montana.

Question 44

The Basquen language,Euskera,is spoken only in Spain.

Question 45

After the breakup of the Soviet Union,Leningrad was renamed

A) Yeltsinburg.
B) Misk.
C) New Leninburg.
D) St. Petersburg.

Question 46

Even if the written form of a statement adheres to a standard language,the accent of a person who reads it will reveal their regional home.

Question 47

The greatest concentration of streets memorializing Martin Luther King are found in:

A) the West
B) the Northeast, particularly Massachusetts
C) the Midwest, especially Illinois
D) the South, especially Georgia

Question 48

When African colonies became independent countries,one of the first acts of many of the new governments was to

A) conduct a census.
B) build a new capital city.
C) change the names of places that had been named after colonial figures.
D) build new road systems.

Question 49

Most Afghans speak languages from the Dravidian family of languages.

Question 50

The predominantly French-speaking capital city of Belgium (Brussels)is located in the Flemish-speaking northern area of the country.

Question 51

Lasker,North Carolina,named for Alaska,is an example of a toponym based upon a mistake.

Question 52

American,Canadian,and Russian governments have all worked to insure the preservation of minority native languages within their borders.

Question 53

The criteria of mutual intelligibility as determinative of the difference between a dialect and a language is accepted by most linguists.

Question 54

Indo-European and Amerindian language families predominate the western hemisphere.

Question 55

Clusters of French toponyms in Louisiana,Dutch toponyms in Michigan and Welsh toponyms in Pennsylvania reflect

A) descriptive toponyms.
B) folk toponyms.
C) commemorative toponyms.
D) the shift of names associated with migration.

Question 56

Linguistic extinction occurs when all the speakers of a language either die or choose to speak another language.

Question 57

Leopoldville,Congo becomes Kinshasa and Salisbury,Zimbabwe becomes Harare.These are examples of

A) colonial toponyms.
B) descriptive toponyms.
C) migration effects.
D) post-colonial toponyms.

Question 58

The naming of sports stadiums and other facilities for corporations (e.g.Petco Park FedEx Field,Coors Field)is an example of

A) hubris.
B) memorial toponyms.
C) commodification.
D) post-modern toponyms.

Question 59

Mandarin,the language in and around the Chinese capital Beijing,was chosen as the standardized form of Chinese for the whole country.

Question 60

Japan is an example of a monolingual state.

Question 61

Consider the map of European languages and explain the existence and distribution of Celtic and Uralic (Hungarian,Finnish)languages.

Question 62

Distinguish between dialect,pidgin language,creole language and a true discrete language. Why is it often difficult to distinguish one from another?

Question 63

Indo-European languages belong to the largest language family in the world. How and where do linguists believe this family originated and how has it evolved? What linguistic techniques and theories have been used to try to arrive at an answer to this question?

Question 64

What is deep reconstruction? What is Nostratic and of which languages is it assumed to be the ancestor?

Question 65

The 1997 revolution in Zaire resulted in the change of the name of the country to Democratic Republic of Congo. This is an example of a post-colonial toponym.

Question 66

Consider some of the place-names (toponyms)in your state or locality. Use the ten types of place-names devised by Prof.George Stewart to classify some of your local place-names. Do his categories overlap in some cases?