APHG

a set of sounds, combos of sounds, and symbols that are used for communication.

the sum total of knowledge, attitudes, and habitual behavior patterns shared and transmitted by the members of a soceity; This is anthropologist Ralph Linton's definition; hundreds of others exist.

the variant of a language that a country's political and intellectual elite seek to promote as the norm for use in schools, government, the media, and other aspects of public life.

local or regional char. of a language. While accent refers to the pronounciation differences of a standard language, a dialect, in addition to pronounciation variation, has distinctive grammar and vocabulary.

a geogaphic boundry within which a particular linguistic feature occurs.

the ability of two people to understand each other when speaking.

a set of contiguous dialects in which the dialects nearest to each other at any place in the chain are most closely related.

group of languages with a shared but fairly distant origin.

divisions within a family where the commonalities are more definite and the origin is more recent.

slight change in a word across languages within a sunfamily or through a language family from the present backward toward its origin.

linguistic hypothesis proposing the existence of an ancestral Indo-European language that is the hearth of the ancient Latin, Greek, and Sanskrit languages which hearth would link modern languages from Scandinavia to North Africa and from North American through parts of Asia to Australia.

the tracking of sound shifts and hardening of consonants "backward" toward the original language.

language without any native speakers.

technique using the vocabulary of an extinct language to re-create the language that proceeded the extinct language.

language believed to be the ancestral language not only of Proto-Indo-European, but also of the Kartvelian languages of the southern Caucasus region, the Uralic-Altaic languages(including Hungarian, Finnish, Turkish, and Mongolian), the Dravadian languages of India, and the Afro-Asiatic language family.

the opposite of language convergence; a process suggested by German linguist August Shleicher whereby new languages are formed when a language breaks into dialects due to a lack of spatial interaction among speakers of the language and continued isolation eventually causes the division of the language into discrete new languages.

the collapsing of two languages into one resulting from the consistent spatial interaction of peoples with different languages; the opposite of language divergence.

Hypothesis developed by British scholar Colin Renfrew wherein he proposed that three areas in and near the first agricultural hearth, the Fertila Crescent, gave rise to three language families: Europe's Indo-European languages(from Anatolia(present day Turkey)); North African and Arabian languages(from the western arc of the Fertile Crescent); and the languages in present day Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India (from the eastern arc of the Fertile Crescent)

one major theory of how Proto-Indo-European diffused into Europe which holds that the early speakers of Proto-Indo-European spread westward on horseback, overpowering earlier inhabitants and beginning the diffusion and differentiation of Indo-European tounges.

hypothesis which holds that the Indo-European languages that arose from Proto Indo European were first carried eastward into Southwest Asia, next around the Caspian Sea, and the across the Russian-Ukranian plains and on into the Balkans.

languages(French, Spanish, Italian, Romanian, and Portuguese) that lie in the areas that were once controlled by the Roman Empire but were not subsequently overwhelmed.

languages (English, German, Danish, Norwegian, and Sedish) that reflect the expansion of peoples out of Northern Europe to the west and south.

languages(Russian, Polish, Csech, Slovak, Ukranian, Slovenian, Serbo-Croatian, and Bulgarian_) that developed as Slavic people migrated from a base in present-day Ukraine close to 2000 years ago.

a term deriving from "Frankish language" and applying to a tounge spoken in ancient Mediterranean ports that consisted of a mixture of Italian, French, Greek, Spanish, and even some Arabic. Today it refers to a "common language", a language used among speakers of different languages for the purposes of trade and commerce.

when parts of 2 or more languages are combined in a simplified structure and vocabulary.

a language that began as a pidgin language but was later adopted as the mother tounge by a people in place of the mother tounge.

countries in which only one language is spoken.

countries in which more than one language is spoken.

in multilingual countries the language selected, often by the educated and politically powerful elite, to promote internal cohesion; usually the language of the courts and government.

the language used most commonly aoround the world; defined on the basis of either the number of speakers of the language, or prevalence of use in commerce and trade.

uniqueness of a location.

place name.

"a system of beliefs and practices that attempts to order life in terms of culturally perceived ultimate priorities"

the idea that ethical and moral standards should be formulated and adhered to for life on Earth, not to accomodate the prescriptions of a deity and promises of a comfortable afterlife. A secular state is the opposite of a theocracy.

belief system in which one supreme being is revered as creator and arbiter of all that exists in the universe.

belief system in which multiple deities are revered as creators and arbiters of all that exists in the universe.

the belief that inanmate objects, such as hills, trees, rocks, rivers, and other elements of the natural landscape, possess souls and can help or hinder human efforts on Earth.

a belief system that espouses the idea that there is one true religion that is universaal in scope.Adherents often believe that their religion represents universal truths, and in some cases great effort is undertaken in evangelism and missionary work.

a religion that is particular to one, cultural distinct, group of people. Do no actively seek converts.

one of the oldest religions in the modern worls, dating back over 4000 years, and originating in the Indus River Valley of what is today part of Pakistan. Hinduism is unique among the world's religions in that it does not have a single founder, a single theology, or agreement on its origins.

the strict social segregation of people-specifically in India's Hindu society-on the basis of ancestry and occupation.

founded in the sixth century BCE and char. by the belief that enlightenment would come through knowledge, especially self-knowledge; elimination of greed, craving, and desire,; complete honesty; and never hurting another person or animal. It splintered from Hinduism as a reation to the strict social hieracrchy maintained by Hinduism.

religion located in Japan and related to Buddhism. Shintoism focuses particularly on nature and ancestor worship.

believed to have been founded by Lao-Tsu and based upon his book entitled "Tao-te-ching" or "Book of the Way" Lao-Tsu focused on the proper form of political rule and on the oneness of humanity and nature.

literally "wind water". The chinese art and science of placement and orientation of tombs, dwellings, buildings, and cities. Structures and objs. are positioned in an effort to channel flows of shend-chi,life breath, in favorable ways.

a philosophy of ethics, education, and public service based on the writings of Confucius and traditionally thought of as one of the core elements of Chinese culture.

religion with its roots in the teachings of Abraham(from Ur), who is credited with uniting his people to worship only one god. According to Jewish teaching, Abraham and God have a convenant in which the Jews agree to worship only one God, and God agrees to protect his chosen people, the Jews.

from Greek, to disperse, term describing forceful or voluntary dispersal of a people from their homeland to a new place. Originally denoting the dispersal of Jews, it is increasingly applied to other pop. dispersals, such as the involuntary relocation of Mainland Chine, Taiwan and Hong Kong.

the movement to unite the Jewish people of the diaspora and to establish a national homeland for them in the promised lands.

based on the teachings of Jesus. According to Christian teaching, Jesus is the son of God, placed on Earth to teach people how to live according to God's plan.

one of 3 major branches of Christianity.a second of the three major branches of Christianity.

branch of Christianity.

branch of Christianity. Following the widespread societal changes in Europe starting in the 1300s CE, many adherents to Roman Catholic Church began to question the role of the religion in their lives and opened the door to the Protestant Reformation wherein many have challenged many of the fundamental teachings of the Roman Catholic Church.

youngest of the major world religions, Islam is based on the teachings of Muhammad, born in Mecca in 571 CE. According to Islamic teaching, Muhammad received the truth directly from Allah in a series of revelations during which Muhammad spoke the verses of the Qu'ran (Koran), the Islamic holy book.

adherents to the largest branch of Islam, called the othodoc or traditionalist. They believe in the effectiveness of family and community in the solution of life's problems, and they ddiffer from the Shiites in accepting the tradition(sunna) of Muhammad as authoritative.

adherents to one of the 2 main divisions of Islam. Also known as Shiahs, the Shiites represent the Persian(Iranian) variation of Islam and believe in the infallibility and divine right to authority of the Imams, descendants of Ali.

community faith in traditional societies in which people follow their sham- a religious, teacher, healer, and visionary. At times, an especially strong shaman might attract a regional following. However, most shamans remain local figures.

voluntary travel by an adherent to a sacred site to pay respects or participate in a ritual at the site.

place or space people infuse with religious meaning.

tower attached to a Muslim mosque, having one or more projecting balconies from which a crier calls Muslims to prayer.

the muslim pilgrimage to Mecca, the birthplace of Muhammad.

boundries between the world's major faiths.

boundries within a single major faith.

the systematic killing or extermination of an entire people or nation.

the space within which daily activity occurs.

religious movement whose objs. are to return to the foundations of the faith and to influence state policy.

religious fundamentalism carried to the point of violence.

the system of Islamic law, sometimes called Qu'ranic law. Unlike most Western systems of laws that are based on legal precedence, Sharia is based on varying degress of interpretation of the Qu'ran.

a doctrine within Islam. Commonly translated as "Holy War" Jihad represents either a person or collective struggle on the part of the Muslims to live up to the religious standards set by the Qu'ran.