Language - Answers A system of cummunication based on symbols that have agreed upon meaning
Dialect - Answers A particular variety of a language characterized by distinct vocabulary, grammar,
and/or pronunciation
Language family - Answers A collection of languages that share a common but distant ancestor
Hearth - Answers A place or region where an innovation, idea, belief, or cultural practice begins
Linguistic dominance - Answers A situation in which one language becomes comparatively more
powerful than another language
Official language - Answers A language that a country formally designates for use in its political, legal,
and administrative affairs
Loanword - Answers A word that originates in one language and is incorporated into the vocabulary or
another language
Pidgin language - Answers A language that combines vocabulary and/or grammatical practices from two
or more languages that have come in contact
Lingua Franca - Answers A language that is used to facilitate trade or business between people who
speak different languages
Creole language - Answers A language that develops from a pidgin language and is taught as a first
language
Linguistic diversity - Answers The assortment of languages in a particular area
Endangered language - Answers A language that is no longer taught to children by their parents and is
not used for everyday conversation
Extinct language - Answers A language that has no living speakers; also called a dead language
Linguistic diversity index (LDI) - Answers A measure that expresses the likelihood that two randomly
selected individuals in a country speak different first languages
Accent - Answers Differences in pronunciation among speakers of a language
Dialect geography - Answers The study of the spatial patterns of dialect usage
Isogloss - Answers A line that marks a boundary of word usage
The great migration - Answers When more than 6 million African Americans moved from the south to
such northern and Midwestern cities as New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, and Detroit