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
19
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] 【9】
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
island
解析
转载请注明原文地址:https://tihaiku.com/zcyy/3282405.html
相关试题推荐
Iffamiliesaretoworkwithschoolsaspartnersineducation
Whatisnottheelementindefininglanguage?A、systemicB、arbitraryC、symbolD、v
The3rdgenerationofprogramminglanguagesharesallthefollowingcharacterist
The3rdgenerationofprogramminglanguagesharesallthefollowingcharacterist
【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
Thechangesinlanguagewillcontinueforever,butnooneknowssure
Mandarin,orPutonghua,isthestandardservicesectorlanguageinourcount
Lunarsight-seeingtripsandorbitingspacehotelsarewithinreach,moonwal
Lunarsight-seeingtripsandorbitingspacehotelsarewithinreach,moonwal
Lunarsight-seeingtripsandorbitingspacehotelsarewithinreach,moonwal
随机试题
ObesityratesforAmericanadultshavestabilized【C1】______therateofchild
TheValueofWritingWell[A]It’sthattimeofyearagain
MarkRamirez,aseniorexecutiveatAOL,couldworkinthemostcomfortable
[originaltext]M:Doyoufeellikegoingtothecinema,Liz?W:Ohyes,let’sdo
In1915EinsteinmadeatriptoGottingentogivesomelecturesattheinvit
消防控制室应能显示自动喷水灭火系统的()等设备的正常监视状态和动作状态。A.
30m跨的预应力混凝土屋架,采用后张法施工,预应力筋为钢筋束,应选用哪种锚具?
关于早期绒毛活检,下列哪项不恰当A.绒毛可用于分析胎儿的遗传特征 B.绒毛活检
站用交流电源系统可研初设审查验收,站用交流不间断电源系统配置:提供交流不间断电源
差异化战略的适用范围为()。A:企业实行大批量生产 B:企业经营实力较弱,不足
最新回复
(
0
)