首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
外语
Language Families There are over【1】languages that are used throughout the world today. Almost all of these languages belong t
Language Families There are over【1】languages that are used throughout the world today. Almost all of these languages belong t
admin
2011-01-02
63
问题
Language Families
There are over【1】languages that are 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, sounds of related languages, the way of thinking and the style of talking among related languages are【2】.
Even though there are so many languages used today, there are only about 20 or 30 major language families.
Ⅰ. The【3】family. It includes most of the languages that are spoken throughout Europe, for example【4】.
Ⅱ. The【5】family. It includes most languages in the area of North Africa and the Middle East.
Ⅲ. The Bantu family. It includes most of the languages spoken in central and southern【6】.
Ⅳ. The【7】family. It includes all dialects of Chinese, the languages of southeast Asia. Of course, not all the languages of east Asia belong to this family, for example,【8】.
Ⅴ. The Polynesian family. The Polynesian languages are【9】. They are spoken on the islands around Indonesia, islands eastward all the way to Hawaii, islands west all the way to Madagascar, off the east coast of Africa. Example of Polynesian languages:【10】.
These five language groups or language families are only a few of the major language families from around the world. There are many more.
【2】
Language Families
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]
OK, there are more than 3,000 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 3,000 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 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 language 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 travelers 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
similar
解析
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/PmeO777K
0
专业英语八级
相关试题推荐
1 Betweenabout1910and1930,newartisticmovementsinEuropeanartweremakingthemselvesfeltintheUnitedStates.America
ThepoemAPsalmofLifewaswrittenby______.
CultureTherearesomanythingsaboutourlivesthatbelongtothecontentofculturethatitisimpossibletocoverthemal
IwasborninFeb.12,1809,inHardinCounty,Kentucky.MyparentswerebothborninVirginia,ofundistinguishedfamilies--sec
Crimehasitsowncycles,amagazinere-portedsomeyearsbefore.Policerecordsthat【M1】______werestudied
一切都是虚荣,人人皆爱虚荣,女人极其虚荣,男人也不甘落后——如果可能,他们则变本加厉。孩子也不例外,尤其是女孩子。其中一个正敲着我的腿,她想知道我对她的新鞋有何看法。坦白地说,这两只鞋并不怎么样,它们既不对称也没有曲线美,看上去有种无法形容的臃肿(同时我也
TheEclipseofFreudSigmundFreudisrightlyregardedasthefatherofmodernphychiatry.Henotonlydevelopedthemostpro
A、earthquakeB、hurricaneC、fireD、terroristattackB
A、sufferedseverecasualtiesB、wereontherecentlyissuedlistofterroristsC、foughtwithSaudipoliceforcesD、werethoughtt
TheHistoryofAmericanIndiansWhenEuropeansdiscoveredthewesternhemisphere,theydiscoveredaraceofpeoplethatColu
随机试题
A、氯丙嗪B、水杨酸钠C、卡那霉素D、巴比妥E、胍乙啶与体内血浆蛋白极少结合的药物是()
患者,女,52岁。诊断为2型糖尿病。与该患者临床特征相符的表现是
注册商标有效期满,需要继续使用的,应当在期满前______内申请续展注册;在此期间未能提出申请的,可以给予______的宽展期。宽展期满仍未提出申请的,注销其注册商标。()
中央银行降低再贴现率,将使货币供应量减少。()
属于我国政府收入中的非税收入项目是()。
下列法律事实中,属于法律事件的是( )。
当代社会,提高自我修养的正确途径有()。
某餐厅设有可坐12人和可坐10人两种规格的餐桌共28张,最多可容纳332人同时就餐,问该餐厅有几张10人桌?
Thevalueof______mid-sizedcarsthatgetgoodmileagehassoaredalongsidetherisingpriceofgasoline.
A、 B、 C、 C提问价格(Howmuch),因此提到“询问一下”的选项(C)为正确答案。如果只听到问题中的chairs就选择(A)“请坐”为答案,是不正确的,另外不要把问题中的doyouthink和答案中的I
最新回复
(
0
)