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Category: Other Languages
What is the historical significance of the International Phonetic Alphabet?
In the 19th and early 20th century, there were several phonetic alphabets and spelling reform proposals in circulation; Romic alphabet was one instance. Linguists working on different languages had their own transliteration conventions in place, for use not only in citing non-Roman languages, but also for dialectal transcription. The International Phonetic Association was initially founded […]
What are some positive stereotypes of Balkan nations about each other?
There’s not a lot to be had in the region of course. From the Greek perspective: Serbs are our “brothers in Orthodoxy”—but I don’t know if that actually amounts to a positive stereotype. I don’t think relations between Greeks and Serbs have actually been close enough to rise to the level of positive stereotype. Albanians […]
How many languages are spoken in New Guinea?
The Ethnologue: Languages of the World guesses 850. On the one hand, the Ethnologue is best placed to know, since it is published by SIL International, and the SIL has the missionary linguists on the ground, who far outnumber academic linguists. On the other hand, the Ethnologue is consistently a splitter not a lumper. 850 […]
Which languages have changed the most drastically in the last 1000 years?
When Bergsland and Vogt (1962) debunked the assumption in Glottochronology that core vocabulary is lost at a constant rate among languages [Bergsland, Knut; & Vogt, Hans. (1962). On the validity of glottochronology. Current Anthropology, 3, 115–153], the lexically conservative language they brought up was Icelandic. The lexically innovative language they brought up was Inuit, which […]
What are some languages/dialects whose speakers call male bus drivers “master”?
Russian: Addressing taxi/bus driver by “шеф”/”командир” – where does it come from? A taxi, and particularly a bus driver, is the “chief” or “commander” of a small mobile unit with a lot of “horsepower.” Such a driver is also responsible for the safety of several passengers. At least in New York City, this person is […]
Why do we learn languages at school that most of us will never remember, be fluent in or use (coming from Australian education background)?
The fact that you are Australian is significant here. Foreign languages are taught in school because foreign languages have been decided to be useful to a country’s citizens. They can be useful practically, or they can be useful culturally. Classical languages were initially taught because they are useful practically as well as culturally. Latin was […]
What is the first language that had order for letters in alphabet, and how did people decide to use this particular order?
See Michael Moszczynski’s answer to How did the alphabet get its order? Who came up with the order of the alphabet? The first such language was Ugaritic, several centuries before Phoenecian. As Michael Moszczynski points out, two alphabetical orderings of Ugaritic survive, one via Phoenecian, and one via Ge’ez into Amharic. He concludes that, while […]
How can I, as an 18-year-old first year college student, help in Kumaoni language conservation?
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kumaoni_language There will be different answers depending on who speaks the language, where, what the community attitudes are to it, and what kinds of resources you have access to. One starting point is Kat Li’s answer to How can modern society preserve dying languages? From Wikipedia, it seems Kumaoni is in the same category as […]
What do Albanian Italians and Greek Italians think of each other?
I don’t know the answer as to what contemporary attitudes are. I do know two things though: The Arbëresh settlements in Italy were nowhere near the Griko settlements: the Arbëresh were much further to the north. There would have been a brief period when they shared church administration, before the Griko switched from Greek rite […]
Which language has the most beautiful name?
Oh, what is one’s standard for aesthetics when it comes to beauty? Tolkien’s? Tolkien’s make me want to slap him. “Ooh! Welsh! Ooh! Finnish! Ooh! Cellar door! Ooh! Arabic is so nassssty, my precious!! I’ll make the orcs speak it.” Pfft. I work on a more meta level. When I was lecturing, my coverall term […]