Language is one of the most important cultural traits to geographers. Languages make specific regions of the world distinctive. One of the cultural traits that sets much of South America apart from the rest of the world (except Spain) is the widespread use of Spanish; however, in one country, Brazil, the people speak Portuguese. This language difference sets Brazil apart from the rest of South America.

The use of a different dialect also sets one area apart from another. A dialect is a regional variety of a language; Australian English and American English are two different dialects of the same language. People who speak different dialects of the same language can understand each other, but their pronunciation is different and they use distinctive words. Even within the US there are different dialects that are associated with particular regions. For example, people from the southeastern states speak differently than people from the northeastern states.

Over time, dialects can develop into completely different languages. The thousands of languages spoken in the world today stem from several main language families. Check out Figure 8.2.1 above. The map shows the main language families used in each area of the world. As you know, many languages are used in Europe, including French, German, Spanish, Italian, and numerous others. Notice that almost all of Europe speaks languages from the Indo-European language family. The most notable exception to that is Finland. As the map shows, the Finnish language is part of the same language family that is found in northwest Russia. The arrangement of languages gives us a basic idea of migration and settlement patterns. The languages of North and South America are from the same language family as those found in Europe. This same language family can be found spread across parts of Asia as well as in Africa and Australia. On the other hand, the Sino-Tibetan language family, which is used by billions of people and includes Chinese, is limited to the southeastern portion of Asia.