Language and Religion:

1
Chapter 5

• Language and Religion
• Mosaics of Culture

2
Language Religion

• Mentifacts
• the central, enduring elements of a culture
  expressing its values, beliefs, including
  language, religion, folklore, artistic tradition
• components of the ideological subsystem of
  culture that help shape the belief system of a
  society and transmit to succeeding generations
• dynamic, in constant evolution

3
Language

• Is the means of transmission of culture and the
  medium through which its beliefs and standards
  are expressed

4
Language.

• the most important medium to transfer culture
• Can determine perceptions, attitudes,
  understanding, responses of a society
• an organized system of spoken words by which
  people communicate with each other with mutual
  comprehension

5
Language numbers

• Prehistoric times 10,000 to 15,000 tongues
• Cultural divergence
• 7,000 or so remaining 20 to 50, no longer being
  learned/ dead
• 2100 A.D. estimate is 600 approx. current
  languages in existence
• Today greater than ½ worlds population speak
  only 8 languages

6
World distribution of living languages, 2004 - of
perhaps 6800 languages still spoken today
Asia 33 Africa 30 Pacific area 19 Americas
15 Europe 3
Estimated 1-2 languages lost each week
7
Language diversity

• Gradations between languages
• Chinese, Mandarin, Cantonese, Hakka, others
  sound differently, but all use kanji characters
• European languages Spanish, Italian, French,
  Romanian
• Arabic a number of related but distinct tongues
• Sub-Saharan languages 1500 languages language
  variants

8
Languages spoken

• Highest numbers in millions
• Mandarin (China) 1076
• English 551
• Hindi/Urdu (India, Pakistan) 498
• Spanish 427
• Russian 267
• Bengali (Bangladesh, India) 215
• Portuguese 195
• Malay-Indonesian 176
• Japanese132
• French 131
• German 128

9
Language families

• A group of languages descended from a single,
  earlier tongue (classification by sounds)
• Estimated 30 to 100 language families worldwide
• Romance languages
• Latin in the Roman Empire, collapse cultural
  divergence
• Emergence of several different, but related
  languages
• Protolanguage (ancestor)
• For romance languages Latin

10
Indo-European Family

• Largest family
• Spoken by ½ world
• 8700-10,000 years old
• From Agri-Rev. near the Caspian Sea

11
Genetic classification

• Classification of languages by origin
  historical relationship
• Germanic languages
• English
• German
• Dutch
• Scandinavian

12
Language distribution

• Can include a large area, yet only yield a small
  number of speakers
• Example Amerindian
  language families
• 3 families
• Close relationship with
  Asian languages
• Corresponding with
  waves of migration

13
World language families
14
Language spread

• Spatial diffusion process
• 1. Relocation of massive
  population (dispersion
  of speakers)

Bantu of Africa
15
Language spread

• 2. Adoption (acquisition of speakers) results
  from
• 1. Conquest
• 2. Religious conversions
• 3. Superiority of culture
• Adoption becomes a necessity
• Medium of commerce, law, civilization, personal
  prestige

16
Spatial diffusion occurs

• Relocation diffusion (transported by cultural
  dominance)
• The to expansion diffusion acculturation
• Example hierarchical diffusion
• India English prestigious
• Africa English use more impressive than Swahili
• Barriers to diffusion
• Cultural Greeks
• Physical - mountains, Pyrenees Basque

17
Language change

• Separate language formation
• 1. Migration
• 2. Segregation
• 3. Isolation

18
Language change

• Change within a language
• 1. Syntax
• 2. Borrowed
• 3. Discover/colonization/technology

19
Dominance of English

• Indo-European / offspring of proto-Germanic
• 5th 6th centuries
• migration of Danish, North German Frisian, Jutes,
  Angeles, and Saxons
• many dialects, West Saxon dominated (Standard Old
  English)
• 1066 Norman Conquest
• in 11th century French dominated nobility
• 1204 tie with France severed
• Middle English (French enriched)
• 15th 16th centuries Early Modern English

20
Worldwide diffusion
Since 1600s 7 million English speakers increased
to 375 million Today 1.5 billion speakers 375
native 375 second language 750 with reasonable
ability
21
International English
22
Speech communities

• Standard language
• Accepted community norms of
• 1. Syntax
• 2. Vocabulary
• 3. Pronunciation
• Plus dialects dialect of dominance
• Reflecting areal, social, professional differences

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Dialects speech variants

• 1. Vocabulary
• 2. Pronunciation
• 3. Rhythm
• 4. Speed
• Social dialects
• Denote social class/education level
• Usually follows standard language
• Vernacular
• Non-standard language
• Dialect native to locale, or social group

24
Speech regions dialect diffusion in the United
States
25
Pidgin

• An amalgamation of languages
• Pidgin is not a mother tongue of any of its
  speakers
• A creation of essentially a new language
• mixture of dominate languages
• main languages broken down
• baby talk
• Past 400 years 100 new languages

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Creole

• Created when pidgin becomes the first language of
  speakers who lost native tongue
• Examples
• Swahili Bantu dialects
• Afrikaans pidginized Dutch African
• Haitian Creole pidginized French African

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Lingua franca

• Established language used habitually for
  communication by people whose native tongues are
  mutually incomprehensible
• Examples
• Swahili
• English
• Hindi in India
• Mandarin in China

28
Official language

• A designated single language for governments,
  school, universities, courts
• Nigeria 350 different
  languages, English is
  official

29
Languages on the landscape

• Toponyms place names
• 1. Historical
• chester (Latin castra) camp Winchester
• ing, ham (Anglo Saxon) family, people, hamlet
  Birmingham
• burg (Latin for town)
• Arabs Cairo victorious, Sudan land of blacks,
  Sahara wasteland

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Toponyms continued

• 2. Borrowed from
• Heroes Columbus, Ohio, Lincoln, Ill
• Previous locations Moscow, Idaho, Dublin, Calif
• Distortions Breukelyn Brooklyn
• Tribal names maha Omaha, kansa Kansas
• 3. Names consisting of 2 parts
• Generic classifying
• Specific modifying or particular
• Twin Falls, Hudson River, Bunker Hill, Long
  Island

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Religion - cultural rally point

• A personal or institutionalized system of worship
  and of faith in the sacred divine

32
Impacts on culture

• Formalized views
• Economic patterns
• Political structures
• Religious landscapes
• Scared places of landscape

33
Religions cultural innovations

• Can be unique to single cultural group
• Can be related to nearby or distant groups

34
How to classify

• Two distinctions
• 1. Monotheism
• 2. Polytheism
• Three categories
• 1. Universalizing
• 2. Ethnic
• 3. Tribal

35
Categories

• Universalizing
• Buddhism
• Christian
• Islam
• Ethnic
• Judaism
• Hindu
• Shinto
• Tribal
• Animism
• Shamanism

World Patterns 1970 2002 Christian 933 m 2.0
b Islam 503 m 1.3 b Hindu 458 m 900
m Buddhism 180 m 360 m Judaism 14 m 14 m
14 m Secular 850 m Measure of
affiliation More than ½ world population adheres
to universalizing religions
36
Principal world religions
37
Innovation areas and diffusion routes of major
world religions
38
Judaism - ethnic

• Monotheistic
• Foundation to Christianity Islam
• 3,000 4,000 years old, Near East cultural
  hearth
• Dispersion - immigration
• Zionism - 1948

39
Variety

• Ashkenazim (conservative liberal)
• 80, mixing of genders, dress, language
• Liberal reformed
• Ultra Orthodox (shepardic)
• Hebrew services, traditional dress, beards, hats,
  kosher food, no pork or shellfish, no mixing of
  genders at church
• Landscape
• Synagogue (group most important 10 men),
  vineyards

40
Jewish dispersions, A.D. 70 - 1500
41
Christianity - universalizing

• Monotheistic
• Parent religion Judaism, Near East
• Rapid expansion throughout Roman Empire to
  underclasses
• Accounts for nearly 1/3 world population
  (Protestant Catholic)

42
Expansion diffusion

• Hierarchical
• first military outposts, cities
• Contagious
• to surrounding populations
• Relocation
• faith to the New World Asia through the
  missionary system

43
Christianity split

• Fall of the Roman Empire
• Catholic
• Italy, Spain, Portugal, France, Poland, Ireland
• Latin America, Philippines, Africa
• Protestant
• West northern Europe (The Netherlands, England,
  Germany)
• Anglo-America, Australia, New Zealand, Oceania,
  South Africa
• Sub-Saharan Africa
• both present traditional
• Ethnic barriers Japan, China India
• Cultural hearth not important today

44
Christian landscape Untied States

• 20 denominations 85 of population
• Catholic
• Florida, New England, Southwest, New Orleans
• Utah Mormon
• South Baptist, the Bible Belt
• Upper Midwest Lutherans

45
Major religious regions of the United States
46
Religious groups

• Roman Catholic
• Largest single church
• Protestant faiths
• Larger proportion of population
• Biggest groups Baptists, Methodists
• Mormon
• 2nd fastest growing church worldwide, 14 m
• American developed religion
• 80 of Utahs population
• Jewish
• 6 m, concentrations NYC, Chicago, Miami

47
Religious landscapes

• Parish church
• formed center of small towns
• village commons (the Puritans)
• Village church
• rural communities
• Central cathedrals
• in plaza, focus of religious / secular life
• Cemetery beside church, or outskirts of town

48
Islam (Muslim) - universalizing

• Monotheistic
• Parent religion Judaism, Near East, 622 A.D.
• Contagious diffusion
• Arabia, Central Asia, No. India, North Africa
• Relocation diffusion
• Indonesia, So.Africa, Western Hemisphere
• Cultural hearth still important location today

49
Islamic regions

• Asia largest absolute number
• Africa highest proportion, 42
• Indonesia highest percentage of any country
• Sub-groups
• Sunni 80 to 85 of total
• Shiites Iran, Iraq, Bahrain, Yemen

50
Spread and extent of Islam
51
Islamic landscape

• Mosque center of worship community life
• Community more important than building

52
Hinduism - ethnic

• Polytheistic
• Worlds oldest religion
• perhaps 4,000 years old
• Web of religious, philosophical, social,
  economic, artistic elements
• 780 million in India, 80 of pop.
• Indus River Valley
• spread by contagious diffusion
• So.East Asia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Cambodia,
  Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Myanmar, Sri Lanka

53
Hindu landscape

• Temples / shrines
• Holy men / sacred animals
• Sacred locations
• Ganges River

54
Buddhism - universalizing

• Polytheistic
• Out growth of Hinduism
• Founded in India, 2,500 years ago
• Spread by contagious diffusion
• India to China, then Japan, Southeast Asia
• Two schools of thought
• Theravada old school
• Mahayana more progressive form

55
Buddhism diffusion

• Contagious
• North to China, then across to Japan
• South to Southeast Asia

56
Buddhist landscape

• Stupa commemorative shrine
• Temple / pagoda enshrining image or relic of
  Buddha
• Monastery
• Bodhi tree

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