首页
登录
职称英语
Language Families All of the languages within a la
Language Families All of the languages within a la
游客
2023-12-17
54
管理
问题
Language Families
All of the languages within a language family are【1】and all of them have a similar history. Let’s take a brief look at some of the largest language families.
English has become a world language because of its establishment as a【2】outside England. The Indo European language family includes most of the languages that are spoken throughout Europe, languages such as English, French, and【3】. The Afro-Asiatic family includes most languages in the area of【4】, such as【5】. Bantu includes most of the languages spoken in【6】Africa. A fourth large group of languages is the Sino-Tibetan Family which includes all【7】of Chinese. Japanese is【8】to the Sino-Tibetan family. The Polynesian languages are【9】languages. They are spread by【10】. [br] 【10】
Good morning everyone. Today I’m going to talk about some large language families. I’ll start my talk with two questions. Do you know how many languages are used throughout the world today? How many major language families are there? (pause and noise)
OK. There are more than 3000 languages used throughout the world today. Almost all of these languages belong to a much smaller number of language families. All of the languages within a language family are related and all of them have a similar history. Therefore the grammar, vocabulary, and sounds of related languages are similar. In addition, the way of thinking and the style of talking among related languages is similar.
Even though there are over 3000 languages that are used today, there are only about 20 to 30 major language families.
Let’s take a brief look at some of the largest language families. Each of these large families includes many individual languages.
The language that we are using now is English. As everybody knows, English has become a world language because of its establishment as a mother tongue outside England. It’s spoken by 320 million people. English is a member of the Indo European language family. This large language family includes most of the languages that are spoken throughout Europe, languages such as English, French, and Greek. Of course, nowadays many Indo European languages are spoken in other parts of the world. For instance, Spanish, which is an Indo European language, is spoken throughout South and Central America, but originally it was spoken only in Europe.
Another large language family is the Afro Asiatic family. I’ll spell it, A-F-R-O, A-S-I-A-T-I-C. The Afro-Asiatic family includes most languages in the area of North Africa. Languages such as Arabic, which is spoken throughout the Middle East, and many of the local languages of the Sahara Desert region such as Hausa are members of the same family.
Another large family is Bantu, B-A-N-T-U. Bantu includes most of the languages spoken in central and southern Africa. Languages such as Swahili, which has millions of speakers, and smaller languages, such as Zulu, which has close to a hundred thousand speakers, belong to the Bantu family. There are over 250 members of this family.
In the past few hundred years, there has been a great deal of change in Africa, and outside languages, such as French, are now spoken in some areas of central Africa and southern Africa.
A fourth large group of languages is the Sino-Tibetan Family. Sino Tibetan includes all dialects of Chinese, which is perhaps the most widely used language in the world. There are nearly 800 million speakers of Chinese dialects. Sino-Tibetan also includes the languages of southeast Asia, languages such as Vietnamese and Thai. Of course, not all the languages of East Asia belong to this family. Some languages such as Japanese seem to be completely unrelated to the Sino-Tibetan family.
Still another major language family is Polynesian. I’ll spell it, P-O-L-Y-N-E-S-I-A-N. The Polynesian languages are island languages. They are spoken on the islands around Indonesia, and on the many islands eastward all the way to Hawaii, and on the islands west all the way to Madagascar, off the east coast of Africa. Hawaiian and Indonesian are examples of Polynesian languages. Apparently, these languages were spread by travellers from island to island, and then each group of islands developed its own individual language.
These five language groups, or language families, that we have mentioned here are only a few of the major language families from around the world. There are many more. You should also note that each major language family has several smaller families within it.
选项
答案
travellers
解析
转载请注明原文地址:http://tihaiku.com/zcyy/3282406.html
相关试题推荐
The3rdgenerationofprogramminglanguagesharesallthefollowingcharacterist
Weallknowthatprogramminglanguageisthesystemofsyntax,grammar,and
EnglishasaNationalForeignLanguageI
【B1】[br]【B10】as∧→a本题考查冠词的用法。在as后加a。language一词当“语言”讲,既可以是可数名词,也可以是不可数名词,在这里特指夏威
【B1】[br]【B5】删除in本题考查固定搭配。将spoke后的in去掉。讲某种语言是speakalanguage,不是speakinalang
Mandarin,orPutonghua,isthestandardservicesectorlanguageinourcount
Lunarsight-seeingtripsandorbitingspacehotelsarewithinreach,moonwal
Lunarsight-seeingtripsandorbitingspacehotelsarewithinreach,moonwal
Lunarsight-seeingtripsandorbitingspacehotelsarewithinreach,moonwal
Lunarsight-seeingtripsandorbitingspacehotelsamwithinroach,moonwalk
随机试题
[originaltext]M:Itdoesn’tmakeanysensetogohomeforspringvacationnow.
[originaltext]M:[5]Lookatalltheequipmenthere.Theymustbeusedforsome
“银发产业”(silverindustry)是一个新名词,是指以老年人为目标客户的产业。Silverindustryisanewtermrefer
心肌梗死后室壁瘤常发生在A.室间隔 B.左房 C.右室 D.心尖部 E.
关于砌筑工程的说法,错误的是( )。A.砌体拆除按招标设计图示尺寸计算的拆除体
转移性骨肿瘤中,下列原发病灶哪种最多见A.乳腺癌 B.前列腺癌 C.肾
王某,70岁,晨练过程中突然昏倒在地,经现场抢救,呼吸、心跳恢复,但意识仍未恢复
开门式灭火器箱的箱门关闭到位后,与四周框面平齐,与箱框之间的间隙均匀平直,不影响
根据DL/T5111-2012《水电水利工程施工监理规范》,监理工程师必须遵守的
男,30岁,右腰部车撞伤2小时入院,诊断为闭合性肾损伤,经保守治疗无效,手术探查
最新回复
(
0
)