Linguistic Anthropologic Research

¿What is Linguistic anthropologic? It is the interdisciplinary study of the role of languages in the social lives of individuals and communities. A closely related field of study is anthropological linguistics, which investigates the relationship between language and culture. Another definition could be that Linguistic anthropologic assumes that the human language faculty is a cognitive and a social achievement that provides the intellectual tools for thinking and acting in the world. Its study must be done by detailed documentation of what speakers say as they engage in daily social activities. Also Linguistic anthropologists teach us that people use a wide variety of languages and their dialects to express their ideas. Some languages, nevertheless, have developed an accurate vocabulary to talk about things important to their culture. People who speak English, for example, have begun to use words related to computers in their everyday speech. We "down-load", "boot", "e-mail" and "surf the world wide web" (and sometimes some of us even "hack"), things we never did even a decade ago. By comparing cultures and languages, linguistic anthropologists can understand the major concerns, interests and even physical environments of various groups of people. Inuktitut, the language of the Inuit people who live in the Canadian north, has about 15 words for snow. Those of us who live in southern Canada and speak English can probably come up with almost as many words for snow--powder, slush, sleet, corn snow, packing snow, freezing rain, blizzard, severe winter storm, wet snow, dry snow, blowing snow--distinctions that make sense for English Canadians who think about snow primarily in the context of driving cars, shoveling sidewalks and skiing. English speakers living in Barbados may never have seen snow and have only one word to talk about the cold, white stuff. Historical research can also tell us how languages are related. By comparing languages, linguistic anthropologists can determine how long ago they split apart and where their speakers migrated. In fact, some linguistic anthropologists think that by comparing all of the world's languages, they can construct the original human language. Linguistic anthropologists also study the history of languages. Language is not static; it changes rapidly over time as anyone who tries to use the "hip" speech of a previous decade knows. Furthermore, when people move, their language goes with them and it changes as they meet people who speak other languages or have experiences which their own language does not allow them to express. The word "toboggan," for instance, comes from a Míkmaq word for a sled used in the snow. When European colonists first came to Canada they had to learn how to travel and move things around in the Canadian winter. They adopted Míkmaq -style sleds and the word to describe them. Finally, Linguistic anthropologists are not only interested in written or spoken languages; they study all forms of communication.