Unit 4: Culture & Language

A repetitive act that a particular individual performs (Ex: Wearing jeans to class every day)

A repetitive act of a group, performed to the extent that it becomes characteristic of the group (when multiple begin to use the same custom)

Traditionally practiced primarily by small, homogeneous groups living in isolated rural areas

• Diffuses usually through relocation diffusion

• Preservation of family recipes/uniqueness 

• Anonymous & multiple hearths

• Music in folk culture has meaning (moral/life cycle stories)

• Hearths for sports that have since then diffused into a Leisure activity

• Clothing is dependent on cultural and environmental factors

Found in large, heterogeneous societies that share certain habits despite differences in other personal characteristics

• Diffusion through Contagious & hierarchical diffusion with the help of advanced technology

• Trends/culture could be traced back to a hearth

• Fast food brands popping up everywhere

• Songs now are being produced to please the crowd and to mass-sell

• Diffusion of sports has been turned into a competitive setting & leisure activity 

• Clothing is now based on the amount of income or occupation that person is in (Suits for lawyers or business professionals, as well as fashion trends

Restriction on behavior imposed by religious law or social custom 

Not being connected to any particular place; losing its uniqueness

• Uniform Landscape is spatial expression of a popular custom in one location will be similar to another 

The contribution of location’s distinctive physical features to the way food tastes

A system of communication through speech, a collection of sounds that a group of people understands to have the same meaning

A regional variety of language distinguished by vocabulary, spelling, and pronunciation

The language adopted for use by a government for the conduct of business and publication of documents

• “ Official” Government use (i.e. laws)

Dialect from a language that is well-established and widely recognized as the most acceptable

• Think NoRedInk

When two people speaking different languages use a third one as a bridge of communications

• Used for economics, commerce, trade, etc.

When a Pidgin language is taught to a generation of offspring as their first language; the result of mixing the colonizer’s language with an indigenous one

• New language “Official”

• Has native speakers

When a Lingua Franca is combined with one’s native language to form a new one

• Spoken in addition to native language

A boundary that separates regions in which different language usages dominate

A symbol that represents a word rather than a sound (Ex: Mandarin scripture)

A dialect spoken by some African Americans; a combination of ebony and phonics

A language that is unrelated to any other and therefore not attached to any language family

• Emerges from limited interaction with speakers of other language

• Becomes vigorous if spoken fully within the community and taught to future generations

A language that was once used by people in daily activities but is no longer in use