1. KBAT 5
Items not specifically
covered in class

2. Literary Tradition
 This is simply a culture’s system of written
communication. Not all spoken
languages have a literary tradition, or
written language.

3. Official Language
A language designated by a government
or constitution as the official language of
the country. For instance, although
English is the language used in the United
States, the constitution has NOT
designated it as The Official Language.
No one is required by law to learn it here.
Many countries DO have one or more
designated official languages.

4. Orthography
 Simply stated, it’s spelling. We could get
complicated and say that it’s the aspect of
language study concerned with letters and
their sequences in words. Or the relationship
between phonemes and graphemes in a
language. But spelling will do, although
sometimes included in orthography, besides
spelling, is hyphenation, capitalization and
punctuation.

5. Trade Language
A language—often lingua franca or
pidgin—used by speakers of different
native languages for communication in
commercial trade.

6. Vernacular
 Non-standard language or dialect native
to the locale or social group.

7. Slang
 Wordsand expressions that aren’t
considered standard in a speaker’s
language or dialect, but are considered
acceptable when used socially. An
informal way to communicate with peers.

8. Accent
 Dialect. The way you pronounce a word.

9. Describe the following
characteristics of English—its
spatial variation
 The spacing of English speaking countries
across the earth. If you looked at a map
of English speaking countries, how are
they spaced? Where are they? How
about if you add in places where English is
a second language? And then toss in
places where English is somewhat
understood. What would the map look
like?

10. Explain how toponyms are
derived
 Derived means to trace from a source or
origin. In other words, how do we come
up with toponyms, or place names?

11. From Historical Culture
 Old English towns often use the word
“chester,” from the Latin “camp.”
Winchester. Manchester.
 Anglo Saxons used “ing” meaning
“family.”
 Anglo Saxons also used “ham” from
hamlet, or little town or village.
Birmingham, Nottingham

12. Meanings in Other Languages
 Arab names:
 Cairo means “victorious”
 Sudan means “land of the blacks”
 Sahara means “wasteland”

13. Remembering your Homeland
 New England
 New York
 New Amsterdam
 New Jersey
 New Mexico
 New Hampshire

14. To Honor Kings and Queens
 Virginia—thevirgin Queen Elizabeth
 Carolina—King Charles II (Latin for Charles
is Carolus)
 Georgia—King George II
 Louisiana—King Louis XIV

15. Heros
 Washington
 Jackson, Mississippi
 Austin, Texas
 Lincoln, Nebraska

16. Previous Inhabitants
 Brukelyn
(Brooklyn)
 Haarlem (Harlem)
 (The
Dutch were in New York—called New
Amsterdam—before the English were.)

17. Fads
 After our Revolutionary War we had a fad
of classical revival and named towns
things like:
 Troy
 Athens
 Rome
 Sparta

18. Others
 Spanish names
 Native American names
 Religious names

19. Classifying Toponyms
 There are two parts to classifications—generic
and specific. The generic classifies the place
to be named and the specific modifies it. For
instance—
 Rio Grand (River Big—or big river)
 Sierra Nevada (Mountain Range Snowy—or
snowy mountains)
 In English we flip the order of classification
and modify first—Hudson River, Long
Island, Rocky Mountains, Utah Lake, Antelope
Island