AP Human Geography - Languages

Which of the following is the best definition of "language"?

• a set of neural patterns that match one's physical, spiritual, and social environments

• an informal collection of non-arbitrary signs that correspond to a person's environment

• the words and phrases recognized by a government that corresponds to a group of people

• a collection of sounds or symbols understood by a group of people to have the same meaning

How did English come to dominate the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand?

• contagious diffusion

• expansion diffusion

• hierarchical diffusion

• stimulus diffusion

A common language can bring people together. For instance, the various German states as seen in the picture, came together based on language. This is an example of:

• mass cultural mobilization

• ethnocentric force

• a centrifugal force

• a centripetal force

What is the most spoken language worldwide as a first language (L1)?

• Arabic

• Spanish

• Mandarin Chinese

• English

Which language is the most common second language (L2) learned in the world?

• English

• Spanish

• German

• French

• Mandarin Chinese

Parts of Cameroon speak English (in red), while the majority speak French. The English-speaking part of the country is fighting an insurgency against the majority French speakers. This is an example of language functioning as a:

• centrifugal force

• centripetal force

• ethnolinguistic vitality

• force maximized linguistic projection

Which of the following countries does NOT have an official language or languages?

• Estonia

• Greece

• United States

• Japan

• Egypt

English is classified as a ____________ language within the Indo-European language family.

• Indo-Iranian

• Slavic

• Celtic

• Germanic

• Romance

Which of the following groups did NOT contribute directly to the development of Old English?

• Angles

• Saxons

• Greeks

• Jutes

English has been influenced significantly by French and Latin. How did this occur?

• Napoleonic Wars

• Norman Conquest of 1066

• Hundred Years War

• British involvement in WWI and WWII