this happens, the languages in question incorporate not only vocabulary from neigh-
boring language regions, but over time may actually change some characteristics of
syntax, grammatical rules or structure, or other aspects of usage. This may happen
even in cases where the languages are not closely related. For example, Romanian,
a Romance language, has for centuries been surrounded by Slavic language regions
and over time has incorporated many elements from these tongues. Although still
considered a member of the Romance subfamily, Romanian has unique characteris-
tics that differ significantly from other Romance languages.
Rarely are the characteristics of a language uniform across the region where it is
used. Internal spatial variations in a linguistic region are calleddialects, and lan-
guage geographers study these variations in an effort to distinguish and understand
the geographic qualities of dialect use. Dialects may be marked by changes in pro-
nunciation, a nonstandard use of vocabulary or grammar, or some other set of
characteristics unique to the location under study. In the United States, for exam-
ple, use of the term “fixin’ ” as a verb equivalent in meaning to “preparing”
(“I’m fixin’ to do that.”) is unique to a dialectical region that conforms closely to
the Old South and a few states west of the Mississippi River, such as Texas and
eastern Oklahoma. Speakers of AmericanEnglish in other parts of the country
do not use this construction, and its use marks off the boundaries of a dialect
region. Guy Bailey, a linguist, and Tom Wikle, a cultural geographer, have pub-
lished several recent studies of dialect geography in the United States. Linguistic
geography may also include the examination oftoponymy, the study of the origin
and distribution of place names. Toponyms, or place names, can reveal much
about a cultural landscape, and the people who created it.
Location
Location identifies a place in space. The notion of “location” is a key concept to
geographers, because it provides a context for situating data or phenomena relative
to each other in space and is the basis for analyzing such data, because recognizing
specific location allows spatial patterns to be ascertained. Location is crucial to the
nature of a place and often determines at least some of the characteristics that
make it noteworthy, distinct, or perhaps even unique.Cartography,theartand
science of making themap, uses location as the basis for displaying all spatially
distributed features and without the concept, space would become a meaningless
void, with the discipline of geography losing itsraison d’etre. In general terms,
location can be approached as having either anabsolutequality or arelative
quality. Absolute location refers to a mathematically defined position using some
Location 209