Wednesday, September 15th, 2010
With over 6000 languages worldwide, it is estimated that between 500 and 1000 languages are spoken by only a handful of people around the world and that every year the world loses 25 mother tongues. With over 250 languages being lost worldwide academics have come together this week to hold a conference in Wales to discuss rare and indigenous languages of Ireland, China, Australia and Spain.
The United Kingdom is not only home to the English language, but around half a million people speak Welsh, a few thousand Gaelic, about 400 Cornish and a truly endangered language – Manx only a handful at around 100 people. (more…)
Tags: Cornish, English, Gaelic, Language, Lost Languages, Manx, Rare Languages, Welsh
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Wednesday, July 28th, 2010
Have you ever wondered how many languages the European Union recognises as official spoken languages of Europe? Well the answer to that would be 23! There are 23 Official Languages in the European Union, these are made up of languages spoken the most in each member state.
There are more member states in the EU than there are official languages. This is because some member states share national languages such as Dutch in the Netherlands and Belgium, French in France, Belgium and Luxembourg.
The Official 23 languages of the EU are:
- Bulgarian (BG)
- Czech (CS)
- Danish (DA)
- German (DE)
- Greek (EL)
- English (EN)
- Spanish ES)
- Estonian (ET)
- Finnish (FI)
- French (FR)
- Irish (GA)
- Hungarian (HU)
- Italian (IT) (more…)
Tags: Bulgarian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Estonian, EU, Europe, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Irish, Italian, Language, Latvian, Lithuanian, Maltese, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Slovak, Slovene, Spanish, Swedish
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Wednesday, July 21st, 2010
Clay tablets containing strange dots and wedge type characters of the ancient Ugaritic language have baffled Translators and Archaeologists for several decades since they were discovered in the 1920’s in the port city of Ugarit.
The Ugaritic language was used in Ancient Israelite and neighbouring cultures of the time and has been extremely important in clarifying Biblical Hebrew texts. The ‘Lost Language’ was re-discovered in 1928 by French Archaeologists who found strange clay tablets containing dots and wedge shaped stylus signs, the language is thought to have been last used in 1200BC in Syria. (more…)
Tags: Lost Languages, Rare Languages, Technology, Translation, Translation Software
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Thursday, July 8th, 2010
Being able to express simple gratitude such as a simple “Thank You” in another language is an easy way to overcome cross-cultural barriers and show your polite intentions to your hosts.
Whether at a business meeting or dinner party you will probably at some point need to say Thank You, so here is a list of some common(and uncommon) languages and how to say thank you.
How to say Thank You in…
- Chamorro: Si yuus maasi
- Croatian: Hvala
- Danish (Denmark, Greenland): Tak
- Dutch (Netherlands, Belgium): Dank je
- Dutch (Netherlands): Bedankt
- Egyptian: Dua Netjer en ek
- Esperanto: Dankon
- Estonian: Tänan
- French : Merci beaucoup
- German: Danke schön
- Greek: Sas efharisto
- Hebrew: Toda
- Icelandic: Takk fyrir
- Indonesian: Terima Kasih
- Italian: Grazie
- Japanese: Arigato
- Korean: Komapsumnida
- Lao: Khwap jai (more…)
Tags: How to Say..., Language, Polish
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