What factors affect the distribution of languages in the world?

(A) the relationship between language and politics

Among various factors, politics has the greatest influence on language. In the past, language communication was closely related to the rise and fall of empires and the development of colonies. With the development of the Roman Empire, Latin was widely spread, including Europe, Asia and Africa around the Mediterranean. After the collapse of the Roman Empire, Latin declined, although it played a great role in the development of Latin language system, the spread of Christianity, and even the development of science education in Europe after the Renaissance. But now Latin has become the language of death. Arabic, originally used for the establishment of the Arab dynasty, later spread throughout West Asia and North Africa and became the common language of today's Arab countries. Spanish is in Latin America; Brazil and some African countries speak Portuguese; Some countries in Central Africa and West Africa use French; English spread to the United States and Canada, Australia, New Zealand and other countries because of the colonization of these countries. After World War II, German completely disappeared in the Czech Republic and East Prussia due to the failure of Germany and the shrinking of its territory. Japan was defeated in World War II, South Korea became independent, and Taiwan Province Province returned to the motherland, which made the Japanese completely disappear outside its territory, which also showed the complete failure of Japanese militarism in forcing Japanese education in these places.

The influence of politics is also reflected in the language problems that African countries are currently facing. 18 and 19 centuries, some western countries carved up Africa in order to compete for colonies on the African continent. Therefore, the borders of many African countries are the products imposed by imperialism, which makes language a serious domestic problem as well as an inter-country problem.

Within countries, some countries have several languages, while others have only one language. For example, India, Nigeria and Switzerland are all multilingual countries. In fact, multilingual phenomenon is more common than we thought, such as Indonesia, Sudan, Zaire and Guatemala. As for the number of people who use minority languages in China, what is a multilingual country? It's hard to be sure. Take Brazil as an example. Many people think that Brazil is a monolingual country (Portuguese), with 99% Portuguese speakers. But there are dozens of native Indian languages in the Amazon basin. Therefore, Brazil is a multilingual country in terms of the number of languages it has, but it is actually a monolingual country.

When these ethnic minorities have little political influence, this multilingual phenomenon is often ignored. In South Africa, a few whites monopolize politics, but only a few people speak English in language, and English is not monopolized. In Guatemala, it only reflects the status of Spanish speakers. Although more than half of them speak Hindi, they don't have much say in state affairs.

(2) Multilingual countries

In multilingual countries, people are very sensitive to the status and rights of languages and often resist the implementation of a certain language as a national language. They are afraid that their language will eventually be replaced and disappear. The Indian government wants Hindi to be synonymous with * * * *, but the work of language unification has been resisted, and even violent resistance has appeared in some areas. In Africa, the mixing of multiple languages has brought great difficulties to the management of the country. Especially when many languages coexist and there is no dominant language, choosing one language as the official language is easy to cause ethnic and racial disputes; In addition, some ethnic groups have practical difficulties in learning another national language. Getting rid of the language of the former suzerain country will weaken the economic and cultural ties with these developed countries and even affect the ties with other countries in the world. However, preserving the language of the original suzerain country will make it difficult for many people to learn a language far away, at the same time, it will also affect the development of national culture and even make people psychologically exist, and the history of colonial rule in the past will continue. This dilemma is often intertwined with many problems, which makes decision-making more difficult.

(3) monolingual countries

Monolingual countries include Sweden, Denmark and Poland in Europe, Korea, Kuwait and Japan in Asia, Egypt in Africa and Cuba and Uruguay in Latin America. In fact, it is difficult for a country to use a single language. For example, there are a few Lapps in Sweden, a very small number of Ainu speakers in Japan, and few German speakers in Denmark. Because the language is unified, such a country will not have various disputes caused by language problems in multilingual countries. At the same time, the ideological centripetal force brought by the important cultural feature of language consistency is a potential force for national unity and development.

(D) the relationship between immigration and language

The influence of immigration on language distribution, in addition to the scope of language distribution, will also have some other effects due to various human factors. When the number of immigrants is small, or the number of immigrants does not continue to expand, immigrants will live in a language environment different from their language. However, if people who speak this language form a strong cohesion because they live together with a certain number of people, as a result, in the language "refuge" formed in this social environment, the language island of this language group can not only exist for a long time, but more importantly, it rarely keeps in touch because it is separated from its original mother tongue area. When the original mother tongue continues to develop, it remains unchanged and is in a state of stagnation, forming a "fossil" language. A prominent example is the English spoken by Ausak people in the southern Appalachian Mountains in the United States, which is closer to Elizabethan English than what BBC announcers said. Today, the search for Polish and Ukrainian in the19th century is not in Poland and Ukraine, but can only be found in the communities of Polish immigrants in Texas and Ukrainian immigrants in Saskatchewan, Canada in the19th century. In China, Manchu is basically no longer used, so in order to learn Manchu, we need to find a living spoken language in Xibo language in Yili, Xinjiang, which is thousands of miles away from the birthplace of Manchu. This is because the language used by Xibe people belongs to a branch of Manchu-Tungusic language in Altai area, which is very close to Manchu. Xibo nationality was included in the Eight Banners in the northeast very early. 1764 10 16 people came to the frontier of Xinjiang with about 2000 family members and settled in the Ili river basin. Because of this, language is preserved there and distributed as an island.

The local language pattern has been basically stereotyped. However, if the number of immigrants is small and the new immigrants and local aborigines live together, it is difficult to preserve the immigrant language for a long time, and it is often replaced by the local language after a period of time. For example, immigrants in the middle and late period of the United States, although many people's mother tongue is not English, these people quickly accepted English. The religious connection with the primitive people is not just a language connection. For China immigrants to the United States, although many people live in Chinatown in the Chinese community, the first generation of immigrants often use Chinese as the main language, while the second generation mostly uses mixed Chinese and English. By the third generation, Chinese has been relegated to a secondary position, and it is even impossible to talk in Chinese. This is very different from the situation of Chinese in Southeast Asia. Chinese in Southeast Asia have lived there for a long time, with a large number, forming their own community and having a certain social status, so their language can continue to be maintained.

(5) The relationship between nationality, society and language.

Linguistically, the use of the same language is different due to ethnic and social reasons. More than 10% of the American population is black. These blacks are descendants of slaves who were sold there by colonists in the past. Although slaves in the south were liberated after the civil war, they were still discriminated against to varying degrees in society. In cities, blacks mostly live together and have less education. In addition, their occupations are not wide and they become relatively independent social groups. In terms of language, due to the long-term low social status, less educational opportunities and narrow scope of activities, a special language called Black English has been formed. This language is ignored by some linguists as a non-standard language. In fact, this is a mixture of American English southern dialect and an African language variety. This special language seems to have developed from the pidgin special English used by slaves engaged in labor in early plantations. Black people who speak this kind of English may account for 80% of black people in America now. This kind of English can only be heard in the ghetto and understood by them. For example:

He is a lovely little girl. He is the third person pronoun in black English.

Can I help you? In this sentence, there is no difference between the nominative and objective cases of personal pronouns;

Sister Lei, she got a new doll. The possessive case of nouns in this sentence does not conform to English grammar.

It can be seen that its grammar is obviously different from English. This situation, in American schools, is often regarded as a wrong example, not as an independent language group, nor as a contribution of blacks to the development of American English.

In Japan, due to the profound influence of social class, people's behavior and language use are very important. Every occasion has certain language usage rules. For example, there are as many as 45 Japanese first person singular words I use. Many of them are only used in regional dialects, and the word "I" used in standard conversation exceeds 10, which is taught in classroom education and formally used in broadcasting. The usage of these words varies from occasion to occasion. For example:

Qin, only the Japanese emperor used it on formal occasions;

Baku and ore, only open to men;

Watashi, only for women with high status;

Atahi, only used by women with low status, and so on.

The changes of these words in speech reflect and confirm the speaker's position and identity in society.

(6) lingua franca

Language is a tool for people to exchange ideas, but it is difficult for people who speak different languages to talk. When languages are complex and need to talk to each other, it is difficult for people to learn multiple languages. However, there is a mixed language in history. In the Middle Ages, Arabs were forced to leave the Iberian Peninsula, and Europeans broke the monopoly of Arabs on eastern trade, which made the business activities in the Mediterranean prosper rapidly. Businessmen in southern Europe (businessmen in southern France and nearby Italy) found good conditions for their trade development. Therefore, French (Frankish) businessmen restored the commercial vitality of the eastern Mediterranean cities along the Crusade route, where mixed languages including French, Italian, Greek, Spanish and local Arabic were used. This is the Frankish language used by French businessmen. Although this era has passed, there are still traces of mixed languages at that time, and this term (lingua Fra-nca) is still in use. There are still some mixed languages in the world today.

In West Africa, a mixed language of English and West African languages is being developed for use in coastal ports from Freetown to Halcott. Some people call this language Weskos. Of course, it is part of the Guinean language family. Swahili is a common language spoken in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and northern Mozambique in East Africa. Swahili is Bantu, but it is deeply influenced by Arabic brought by Arab businessmen in East Africa. Hausa is a lingua franca popular in West Africa and located in sub-Saharan Africa. In the Caribbean, English-based lingua franca is very popular in the surrounding non-English-speaking areas. Chinese in Southeast Asia and Bazaar Malay in South Asia also played the role of lingua franca.