USC History/Facts
Historical Language
Sociolinguistics
Guess the language +100 for meaning
Etymology
100
They are the current president of USC.
Who is Carol Folt?
100
English is a _____ language. (the language family)
What is Germanic?
100
The regional, social, or contextual differences in the way language is used.
What is linguistic variation?
100
Geübt /gɪ.ypt/
What is German? (practiced)
100
Ōkeanos became this word.
What is Ocean?
200
USC was founded in this year.
What is 1880?
200
Онѳиме or Onfim was a young boy who wrote down his homework ~800 years ago on preserved bark in Novgorod, present-day Russia. To which family did this language (it was not Russian) belong? (+200 points if you know the exact language).
What is Slavic? (Onfim wrote and spoke Old-Novgorodian). Onfim is also known for his doodles which can be seen on the outer edges of the previous image. He often depicted himself as a knight.
200
Bilingual individuals switch from one language to another in the same discourse.
What is Code-Switching?
200
Legal /lɪ.ɡao/
What is Portuguese? (Nice)
200
This animal, a Vacca, from Latin, led to the word Vaccine in English.
What is a cow?
300
Watt Hall houses this USC school.
What is the school of Architecture?
300
S.P.Q.R is a well known example of abbreviation in this language. (+50 for providing the full transcription and translation)
What is Latin? Senatus Populus Que Romanus - Senate and the People of Rome.
300
The phenomenon in which two languages or dialects coexist in one community with strict rules regarding when, where, and how they may be used.
What is diglossia?
300
Tarvitsen /t̪ɑr.vit.sen/
What is Finnish? (I need)
300
Safari derives from this language.
What is Arabic?
400
USC employs this many faculty rounded to the nearest thousand.
What is 5000?
400
This inscription is written in the only translated language of the Mycenean civilization. It utilized a similar writing system to modern Chinese/Japanese where each symbol represents a sequence of phonemes (sounds) of a set length (syllables). What is the name of this type of writing system? (+100 if you can name the language).
What is a syllabary? (Linear B)
400
The pidgin language which combines spanish and hebrew.
What is Ladino? (Judeo-Spanish would also be acceptable)
400
ভাষা /bʱa.ʃa/
What is Bengali? (language)
400
This word, originally derived from the word for Beard in Basque, passed through Spanish and French before finally becoming ____ in English. (completely unrelated to facial hair)
What is Bizarre?
Bizarra -> Bizarro -> Bizarre -> Bizarre
500
This building houses a library which is named ____.
What is the Hoose Library of Philosophy?
500
km.t is the transliterated form of Kemet meaning "the black land" which was the word used by the inhabitants of this civilization to refer to themselves.
What is Ancient Egypt?
500
Creole languages arrise from the interaction of a ____ language with a ______ language.
What is superstrate and substrate languages?
500
ბედნიერება /b̥ednieɾeba/
What is Georgian? (Happiness)
500
The word "Bamboo" came to English through Dutch "bamboes" which comes from this language where it was "mambu".
What is Malay?
600
USC had a religious affiliation with the methodist church until this decade.
What is the 1950s?
600
The oldest known name of an individual human which dates from approximately 3500 BCE was written in this language. (Bonus points (100) if you know the name.)
What is Sumerian? (Kushim/ 𒆪𒋆)
600
The two models of linguistic diffusion are the wave model and the ____ model.
What is the gravity model?
600
ደስታ /desta/
What is Amharic? (Joy)
600
The name "Daniel" is composed of two Hebrew roots. One is a verb and one is a proper noun.
What is "din" (to judge) and "el" (god)?