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A system of communication through the use of speech and possibly writing, a collection of sounds understood by a group of people to have the same meaning.

Literary Tradition

A language that is written as well as spoken.

Official Language

The language adopted for use by the government for the conduct of business and publication of documents. The language often predominates in all public spheres of the country.


A regional variety of a language distinguished by vocabulary, spelling, and pronunciation.


A boundary that separates regions in which different language or dialect usages predominate.

Standard Language

The form of a language used for official government business, education, and mass communications.

British Received Pronunciation (BRP)

The dialect of English associated With upper-class Britons living in the London area and now considered standard in the United Kingdom.

Language Family

A collection of languages related to each other through a common ancestor long before recorded history and a common geographic origin.

Language Branch

A collection of languages related through a common ancestor that existed several thousand years ago. Differences are not as extensive or old as with language families, and archaeological evidence can confirm that these derived from the same family.

Language Group

A collection of languages within a branch that share a common origin in the relatively recent past and display relatively few differences in grammar and vocabulary.

Vulgar Latin


Creole Language

A new and stable language that results from the mixing of a colonizer's language with the indigenous language of the people being dominated. Haitian creole comes of rom French and African languages.


The system of writing used in China and other East Asian countries in which each symbol represents an idea or concept rather than a specific sound, as is the case with letters in English.

Extinct Language

A language that was once used by people in their daily activities but is no longer used.

Isolated Language

A language that is unrelated to any other languages and therefore not attached to any language family.

Pidgin Language

A form of speech that adopts a simplified grammar and limited vocabulary of a lingua franca, used for communications among speakers of two different languages. Results from the interaction of two or more cultures. As a pidgin evolves and is spoken by more people, developing grammar, it becomes a creole.


Dialect spoken by some African Americans.


A term used by the French for English words that have entered the French language, a combination of franfais and anglai." the French words for "French" and "English," respectively.


Combination of Spanish and English, spoken by Hispanic-Americans.


A combination of German and English.

Monolingual Culture

A cultural group who speaks one predominate language.

Multilingual Culture

A culture, or people, in which more than one language is spoken.

Indo-European Language Family

The largest language family spoken by 48% of the world's population. It grew out of Europe and Asia and comprises hundreds of modern languages and dialects. It's eight main branches include Albanian, Armenian, Balto-Slavic, Celtic, Germanic (English), Greek, Indo-Iranian, and Romance.

Lingua Franca

A language mutually understood and commonly used in trade by people who have different native languages. Examples include English, Chinese, and Swahili.

Trade Languages

Language created by people who speak different languages. Instead of learning each other's language, they develop a new language to conduct trade and participate in other interactions.

Romance Languages

Languages that descend from Latin, the language spoken throughout the Roman Empire two millennia ago. Latin blended with many other languages throughout the empire and birthed new languages that make up this group including Italian, Spanish, French, Romanian, and Portuguese.

Linguistic Refuge Area

An area protected by isolation or inhospitable environmental conditions in which a language or dialect has survived.


The name given to a portion of Earth's' surface; place names given to certain features on the land such as settlements, terrain features, and streams.

Mutual Intelligibility

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


An ancient language from which other languages of a given family or group are descended.

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