Answers to Thinking Geographically Questions

Figure 4.1: Most areas of “other families” are mountainous, cold, or desert lands.

Figure 4.2: A tree and its branches show divergence as people became separated over time. However, languages continue to influence each other despite being on separate branches, especially under conditions of modern mass communications.

Figure 4.3: More and more stores are erecting signage in English and Spanish. In some neighborhoods and regions, other languages are also used—for example, French near the border of Québec and Vietnamese in neighborhoods with residents who immigrated from there. International airports often use signage in multiple languages, supplemented by pictographs.

Figure 4.4: The Niger-Congo family extends from the west coast of Africa to the southern tip of the continent, with the exception of the area dominated by Germanic languages as a result of colonization. Khoisan is a preexisting language now confined to a part of Namibia and Botswana.

Figure 4.5: Tú is the form used in Mexico, the closest Spanish-speaking country to the United States. The dialect for Spanish education in the United States is Mexican, although the pronunciation taught is Castilian, from Spain.

Figure 4.6: Both are related to migration of Upland Southerners into nearby areas of the Midwest, seeking farmland and, later, jobs.

Figure 4.7: Both language and agriculture are culture traits. People learning farming would be instructed through speech, so they would learn the language as well as the methods. Languages of peoples without agriculture would not contain the words needed to explain the process, so those words would be learned from the people teaching the concept.

Figure 4.8: Navigated voyages would entail somewhat more determination and planning, which would tend to promote specific memories and traditions of the voyage as opposed to the more random contact by simply drifting in the currents.

Figure 4.9: Among the most common words are cordillera, loma, mesa, montaña, and sierra.

Figure 4.10: Many political boundaries do not follow the pattern of linguistic groups, which are also usually ethnic and sometimes religious groups. Note, for example, the exclave of Armenian in Azerbaijan.

Figure 4.11: The extension in the north shows the Portuguese speakers following the Amazon River into the interior. In the south, Portuguese speakers moved inland seeking mineral wealth and ranchland. In neither case did the Spanish regard those lands as worth contesting. Their interests lay in the mountains with their highly civilized (and thus suitable for labor) Inca and rich silver mines.

Figure 4.12: Because French is much more widely spoken in the world, residents of Bora Bora would be better able to conduct foreign trade, diplomacy, and business if they knew French.

Figure 4.13: English-speaking people had access to the Internet years before the Chinese did. They were in the forefront of development of computer technology and the Internet, so their language became the standard. English is also spoken over a much broader geographic area than Chinese, most of whose speakers live in China.

Figure 4.14: In almost all of Europe, languages spoken by a very small number of people have already been replaced by national, standard, and regional tongues spoken by a sizable population. In other words, the kinds of languages that are nearly extinct in the Americas, Africa, Asia, and the Pacific have already died out in Europe.

Figure 4.15: Some indigenous peoples already speak national or world languages and have already lost their original languages.

Figure 4.16: The pictograph indicating “no smoking” is international. It would convey its message to anyone; no one would have an excuse not to understand its meaning.

Figure 4.17: Because languages develop among communities that communicate, there is a feeling of a shared communication and meaning among those who use the script. However, communicating with those who do not know the script becomes even more difficult as transliteration as well as translation is necessary.

Figure 4.18: In both cases, the script reinforces the community that developed it and can read it, while creating barriers to diffusion against users of other scripts.

Figure 4.19: Western New York State and northeastern Ohio show the greatest concentration outside New England. New England styles of houses (upright-and-wing, New England large, and Cape Cod) would be common, along with towns laid out around a green.

Figure 4.20: Answers will depend on where you live, but two examples would be Appalachian Mountains and Susquehanna River, which are Native American names.

Figure 4.21: Many countries and cities in Africa changed names. For example, Southern Rhodesia became Zimbabwe and its capital of Salisbury was changed to Harare.

Figure 4.22: The east coast, the far south, and the western part (modern Portugal) show the greatest density of Moorish names and consequently were probably areas of longest-lasting rule and power.