How languages and customs spread

Grade 9 Social Studies Worksheet - Building Confidence

Circle the best answer.

1. Read this first

   Use this

   Card A. World languages. List 1, language families (Ethnologue estimates, 2019): Indo-European, about 3.2 to 3.4 billion speakers (sources differ), in Europe, much of South and Western Asia, and the Americas; Sino-Tibetan, about 1.4 billion, in East Asia; Atlantic–Congo, about 500 million, in Africa south of the Sahara; Afroasiatic, about 500 million, in North Africa and Western Asia; Austronesian, about 330 million, on islands of Southeast Asia and the Pacific; Dravidian, about 250 million, in southern India. List 2, largest languages (Ethnologue, 2026), total speakers with first-language speakers in brackets: English 1,493 million (372 million); Mandarin Chinese 1,183 million (988 million); Hindi 611 million (347 million); Spanish 561 million (487 million). Note: a language family is a group of languages that come from one common ancestor language. Total speakers means first-language plus second-language speakers. Glottolog (2024) counts 1,410 Atlantic–Congo languages and 586 Indo-European ones.

2. 1.

   Luz ranks the four largest languages on List 2 of Card A two ways. Which statement about the rankings is supported?

   • Spanish is smallest on both counts, since 561 million is the lowest total of the four and so its first-language count is too
   • English leads on both counts, since the language with the most speakers in total has the most first-language speakers
   • Hindi is third on both counts, since 611 million is the third-largest total and 347 million the third-largest first-language count
   • By total speakers English is first, but by first-language speakers Mandarin leads and Spanish ranks second
3. 2.

   Tala compares Indo-European and Atlantic–Congo on Card A. Which statement about speakers and languages is supported?

   • Indo-European has over six times Atlantic–Congo's speakers but fewer than half as many languages
   • The family with more speakers has more languages, so Indo-European has more languages than Atlantic–Congo has
   • Atlantic–Congo's languages have more speakers each than Indo-European's, since the family has more languages in it
   • The two families cannot be compared, because Indo-European's speaker count is a range and Atlantic–Congo's is a single figure
4. 3.

   Jun notes that sources differ on Indo-European: 3.2 to 3.4 billion speakers. Which statement about the range is sound?

   • The 3.4 billion figure is the right one, because Ethnologue's counts run higher than other sources' counts
   • The 0.2 billion difference could change the order, since it is nearly as large as the Dravidian family's 250 million
   • The 0.2 billion spread is small beside the gap to Sino-Tibetan (about 1.4 billion), so Indo-European leads either way
   • No family can be named the largest until the sources agree, since the Indo-European count could be wrong by 0.2 billion

5. Use this

   Card B (made up for practice). Two languages. Tavian: 40 million first-language speakers and 160 million second-language speakers; official in six countries. Mirrish: 120 million first-language speakers and 10 million second-language speakers; official in one country.

6. 4.

   Pia compares Tavian and Mirrish on Card B. Which statement is fair?

   • Tavian has more speakers in total (200 million against 130 million), but Mirrish has more first-language speakers
   • Tavian has more speakers by both counts, because 200 million in total is more than Mirrish's 130 million
   • Mirrish is the bigger language overall, because its 120 million first-language speakers is more than Tavian's 40 million
   • They cannot be compared, because Tavian is official in six countries and Mirrish in one

7. Use this

   Card A. World languages. List 1, language families (Ethnologue estimates, 2019): Indo-European, about 3.2 to 3.4 billion speakers (sources differ), in Europe, much of South and Western Asia, and the Americas; Sino-Tibetan, about 1.4 billion, in East Asia; Atlantic–Congo, about 500 million, in Africa south of the Sahara; Afroasiatic, about 500 million, in North Africa and Western Asia; Austronesian, about 330 million, on islands of Southeast Asia and the Pacific; Dravidian, about 250 million, in southern India. List 2, largest languages (Ethnologue, 2026), total speakers with first-language speakers in brackets: English 1,493 million (372 million); Mandarin Chinese 1,183 million (988 million); Hindi 611 million (347 million); Spanish 561 million (487 million). Note: a language family is a group of languages that come from one common ancestor language. Total speakers means first-language plus second-language speakers. Glottolog (2024) counts 1,410 Atlantic–Congo languages and 586 Indo-European ones. Card B (made up for practice). Two languages. Tavian: 40 million first-language speakers and 160 million second-language speakers; official in six countries. Mirrish: 120 million first-language speakers and 10 million second-language speakers; official in one country.

8. 5.

   Bo sets Card B's languages beside Card A's. Which pairing by how people speak them is right?

   • Tavian is like English, mostly second-language (80% and about 75%), and Mirrish like Mandarin, mostly first-language
   • Mirrish is like English, because both have a small number of second-language speakers beside their large totals
   • Mirrish is like Spanish and Tavian like Hindi, since the first two are smaller and the second two are larger
   • Tavian is like Mandarin, because both have more total speakers than first-language speakers

9. Use this

   Card B (made up for practice). Two languages. Tavian: 40 million first-language speakers and 160 million second-language speakers; official in six countries. Mirrish: 120 million first-language speakers and 10 million second-language speakers; official in one country.

10. 6.

    Milo says Tavian is official in six countries, so it must have more first-language speakers than Mirrish. What does Card B show?

    • Tavian does, since its total of 200 million is above Mirrish's total of 130 million
    • Tavian does, because a language that is official in more countries has more first-language speakers
    • Mirrish has three times Tavian's first-language speakers (120 million against 40 million), though official in one country
    • They have the same, because Tavian's 160 million second-language speakers make up for its smaller first-language group

11. Use this

    Card C (made up for practice). Lantern-making on the island of Lumen. Year 1: found only in Port Ash on the south coast. Year 20: found in Port Ash and in the five villages along the coast road, each village learning it from the one before. Year 40: also found in two inland towns, where workshop owners who left Port Ash have set up; Port Ash is still making lanterns. Note: in relocation diffusion people carry a trait to a new place as they move. In expansion diffusion a trait spreads outward while staying strong where it began.

12. 7.

    Kira types the lantern-making spread on Card C. How did it reach the two inland towns by year 40?

    • By expansion, since the trade reached the villages first and then the towns, each learning from a nearer one
    • By expansion, because Port Ash stayed strong in lantern-making while the trade appeared in the inland towns
    • By relocation: owners who left Port Ash carried the trade inland as they moved
    • By neither, because lantern-making spreads by relocation or expansion along a road
13. 8.

    Ren types the coast road spread on Card C. How did lantern-making reach the five villages by year 20?

    • By relocation, because lantern-making moved from the south coast to places along the coast road
    • By relocation, because people carried the trade to each village and a trade needs people to carry it
    • By expansion: it spread outward, each village learning from the one before, while Port Ash stayed strong
    • By expansion, which shows that Port Ash trained the lantern-makers in the five villages itself
14. 9.

    Esme compares year 1, year 20 and year 40 on Card C. Which statement fits the three dates?

    • Both stages were expansion, because Port Ash kept making lanterns at each date
    • The coast road and the inland towns got lantern-making by two different kinds of diffusion
    • Both stages were relocation, because lantern-making moved to new places at both dates
    • The coast road came after the inland towns, because inland places are the first to be reached by travelers

15. Use this

    Card C (made up for practice). Lantern-making on the island of Lumen. Year 1: found only in Port Ash on the south coast. Year 20: found in Port Ash and in the five villages along the coast road, each village learning it from the one before. Year 40: also found in two inland towns, where workshop owners who left Port Ash have set up; Port Ash is still making lanterns. Note: in relocation diffusion people carry a trait to a new place as they move. In expansion diffusion a trait spreads outward while staying strong where it began. Card A. World languages. List 1, language families (Ethnologue estimates, 2019): Indo-European, about 3.2 to 3.4 billion speakers (sources differ), in Europe, much of South and Western Asia, and the Americas; Sino-Tibetan, about 1.4 billion, in East Asia; Atlantic–Congo, about 500 million, in Africa south of the Sahara; Afroasiatic, about 500 million, in North Africa and Western Asia; Austronesian, about 330 million, on islands of Southeast Asia and the Pacific; Dravidian, about 250 million, in southern India. List 2, largest languages (Ethnologue, 2026), total speakers with first-language speakers in brackets: English 1,493 million (372 million); Mandarin Chinese 1,183 million (988 million); Hindi 611 million (347 million); Spanish 561 million (487 million). Note: a language family is a group of languages that come from one common ancestor language. Total speakers means first-language plus second-language speakers. Glottolog (2024) counts 1,410 Atlantic–Congo languages and 586 Indo-European ones.

16. 10.

    Noah says English spread "like a trade carried by people who left home". What does Card A support, and does Card C's relocation fit?

    • Card A gives only counts of speakers, so it cannot tell whether English spread by relocation or by expansion
    • Yes, since a language is carried by people, relocation is the right label when it spreads
    • No, because relocation is for crops and trades, and a language can spread by expansion
    • Yes, because English has 1,121 million second-language speakers, who must have moved there from the home of English