Language Families and Distributions AP Human Geography Quiz

📚 Quick Study Guide

🌍 Language families are groups of languages with a shared ancestry, classified by similar vocabulary and grammar. 🗺️ The Indo-European family is the most widely spoken, with branches including Germanic, Romance, Slavic, and Indo-Iranian. 🗣️ Language diffusion occurs through migration, trade, conquest, and communication technologies. 📝 Language divergence is the process where languages split into distinct new languages. 🥀 Language extinction happens when a language is no longer spoken. 💬 Language isolates are languages with no known relatives (e.g., Basque). 💡 Key language distributions correlate with historical events, colonial patterns, and geographic barriers.

Practice Quiz

1. Which of the following is NOT a major language family?
   1. Indo-European
   2. Sino-Tibetan
   3. Afro-Asiatic
   4. Austronesian
2. The Romance languages (Spanish, French, Italian, etc.) are derived from which language?
   1. Germanic
   2. Latin
   3. Greek
   4. Slavic
3. What is the term for a language that is not related to any other known language?
   1. Lingua franca
   2. Creole
   3. Language isolate
   4. Pidgin
4. Which process describes how languages evolve and become increasingly different from each other over time?
   1. Language convergence
   2. Language divergence
   3. Language diffusion
   4. Language revitalization
5. Which factor contributes MOST to the spread of a language globally?
   1. Geographic isolation
   2. Limited communication
   3. Globalization and technology
   4. Decreased migration
6. Which of the following is an example of a language family primarily spoken in Asia?
   1. Germanic
   2. Romance
   3. Sino-Tibetan
   4. Afro-Asiatic
7. The spread of English as a global language is primarily attributed to which factor?
   1. Ancient trade routes
   2. Religious conversion
   3. British colonialism and the internet
   4. Geographic proximity