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African Languages

Topography of Africa

Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km² (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area and 20% of its land area.

North American Languages

Map of North America - click on a coloured region to access its detailed page.

North America includes six main regions: Canada, Caribbean, Central America, Greenland, Mexico and United States of America. The main majority languages of this continent are English (mainly USA and Canada), Spanish (Mexico, most of Central America and some of Caribbean) and French (Canada, especially Quebec, Haiti, Guadeloupe).

Before colonization from European nations, North America was inhabited by several Aboriginal nations speaking a wide variety of languages from several different language families, most of them being long forgotten now, but a lot are still known by a few and are currently in danger of extinction. In fact, only a small number of those Aboriginal languages are not considered endangered.

Canada

See detailed page: Canada

Distribution of language families, language isolates and unclassified languages in Canada and United States (and Greenland) before European contact - click a shaded region!
Click here to enlarge!

Canada has two official languages: English and French. French is the official language in the province of Quebec. The province of New Brunswick has both French and English as official languages. All other provinces have English as official language, but French has some legal recognition in Ontario and Manitoba.

Knowing the exact number of Aboriginal languages across Canada is almost impossible especially since many Natives speak English or French as a mother tongue and most of them have only a limited passive knowledge of their ancestral languages. The task is even more difficult since the majority of languages has many dialects. Ethnologue lists 63 languages for Canada. There are 74 different indigenous languages with their own ISO 639-3 code that have alive speakers in Canada. There are only three indigenous languages of Canada that are not considered threatened or endangered: Cree, Inuktitut and Ojibwe.

Caribbean

See detailed page: Caribbean

Central America

See detailed page: Central America

Greenland

See detailed page: Greenland

Mexico

See detailed page: Mexico

United States of America

See detailed page: United States of America

References

Algic

Distribution of Algic languages in North America pre-contact with the Europeans

Algic languages are a family of indigenous languages of North America. The Algic family includes the Algonquian languages family as well as the Wiyot and Yurok languages.

All Algic languages still spoken are endangered or vulnerable.

There are 41 living Algic languages, with a total of about 138,000 speakers.

Family

Algic

• Algonquian (40)
  • Blackfoot [bla] (A language of Canada)
  • Cheyenne [chy] (A language of United States)
  • Menominee [mez] (A language of United States)
  • Miami [mia] (A language of United States)
  • Shawnee [sjw] (A language of United States)
    • Arapaho (2)
      • Arapaho [arp] (A language of United States)
      • Gros Ventre [ats] (A language of United States)
    • Cree-Montagnais (9)
      • Atikamekw [atj] (A language of Canada)
      • Cree, Moose [crm] (A language of Canada)
      • Cree, Northern East [crl] (A language of Canada)
      • Cree, Plains [crk] (A language of Canada)
      • Cree, Southern East [crj] (A language of Canada)
      • Cree, Swampy [csw] (A language of Canada)
      • Cree, Woods [cwd] (A language of Canada)
      • Montagnais [moe] (A language of Canada)
      • Naskapi [nsk] (A language of Canada)
    • Eastern Algonquian (12)
      • Malecite-Passamaquoddy [pqm] (A language of Canada)
      • Micmac [mic] (A language of Canada)
      • Mohegan-Pequot [xpq] (A language of United States)
      • Narragansett [xnt] (A language of United States)
      • Powhatan [pim] (A language of United States)
      • Wampanoag [wam] (A language of United States)
        • Abenaki (2)
          • Abenaki, Eastern [aaq] (A language of United States)
          • Abenaki, Western [abe] (A language of Canada)
        • Delaware (2)
          • Munsee [umu] (A language of Canada)
          • Unami [unm] (A language of United States)
        • Nanticoke-Conoy (2)
          • Nanticoke [nnt] (A language of United States)
          • Piscataway [psy] (A language of United States)
    • Fox (2)
      • Kickapoo [kic] (A language of United States)
      • Meskwaki [sac] (A language of United States)
    • Ojibwa-Potawatomi (9)
      • Algonquin [alq] (A language of Canada)
      • Chippewa [ciw] (A language of United States)
      • Ojibwa, Central [ojc] (A language of Canada)
      • Ojibwa, Eastern [ojg] (A language of Canada)
      • Ojibwa, Northwestern [ojb] (A language of Canada)
      • Ojibwa, Severn [ojs] (A language of Canada)
      • jibwa, Western [ojw] (A language of Canada)
      • Ottawa [otw] (A language of Canada)
      • Potawatomi [pot] (A language of United States)
    • Unclassified (1)
      • Lumbee [lmz] (A language of United States)
  • Ritwan (2)
    • Wiyot [wiy] (A language of United States)
    • Yurok [yur] (A language of United States)

See also

• WikiLang/North America

External resources

• [1]

Sources

Algonquian

Distribution of Algonquian languages in North America pre-contact with the Europeans

Algonquian languages are a family of indigenous languages of North America that are part of the Algic languages family. The Algonquian family is divided into three main geographic groups: Plains, Central and Eastern. However, only Eastern Algonquian is a true genetic subgroup, the others being only geographical divisions (i.e. the languages were spoken in the same area, they are not more related to each another than languages from another groups). The Algonquian family includes around 30 languages.

Eastern Algonquian

See detailed page: Eastern Algonquian

Eastern Algonquian languages are indigenous to the Atlantic coast of Canada and United States and the regions immediately inland from it. Prior to European contact it included at least 17 languages. On those, Mi'kmaq and Malecite-Passamaquoddy languages are the only two with a relatively appreciable number of speakers today. Some others still have a few speakers, but most Eastern Algonquian languages are extinct.

See the detailed page for the list of Eastern Algonquian languages.

Central Algonquian

Central Algonquian languages include:

• Cree languages
  • Atikamekw
  • East Cree
    • Northern East Cree
    • Southern East Cree
  • Innu
  • Moose Cree
  • Naskapi
  • Plains Cree
  • Swampy Cree
  • Woods Cree
• Fox
• Kickapoo
• Mascouten (extinct and unattested)
• Menominee
• Miami-Illinois
• Ojibwe languages
  • Algonquin
  • Chippewa
  • Central Ojibwe
  • Eastern Ojibwe
  • Northern Ojibwe
  • Oji-Cree
  • Ottawa
  • Western Ojibwe
• Potawatomi
• Sauk
• Shawnee

Plains Algonquian

Plains Algonquian languages are indigenous to the Great Plains of Northern United States and Southern Canada. Within the Algonquian languages family, Plains Algonquian languages are the ones that diverged the most from the common ancestor, Proto-Algonquian.

Plains Algonquian languages include:

• Arapahoan languages
  • Arapho
  • Besawunena (extinct)
  • Gros Ventre
  • Ha'anahawunena (extinct)
  • Nawathinehena (extinct)
• Blackfoot
• Cheyenne

Revitalization projects

Wampanoag language

See also

• WikiLang/Algic
• WikiLang/North America

Eastern Algonquian

Eastern Algonquian languages are a subgroup of the Algonquian languages family, itself a part of the Algic languages family indigenous to the East coast of Canada and United States and the region immediately inland from it. At the time of contact with Europeans there were at least 17 languages part of the Eastern Algonquian subgroup. Today, most of them are extinct.

List of languages

• Abenaki languages
  • Eastern Abenaki (nearly extinct, part of revival programs)
  • Western Abenaki (extinct in 1993)
• Carolina Algonquian (extinct)
• Delaware languages
  • Munsee
  • Unami (extinct)
• Etchemin (extinct)
• Loup A (extinct)
• Loup B (extinct)
• Lumbee (extinct)
• Mahican (extinct)
• Malecite-Passamaquoddy
• Massachusett (revived in 1993)
• Mi'kmaq
• Mohegan-Pequot (extinct)
• Nanticoke (extinct)
• Narragansett (extinct)
• Pamlico (extinct)
• Powhatan (extinct)
• Quiripi (extinct)

Revitalization projects

...

See also

• Algonquian
• North America

Blackfoot

This article is part of the vocabulary section of the Blackfoot language. It lists a sample of animal names in Blackfoot with their English translation.

English	Blackfoot
dog	omitaa
horse	ponokáómitaa
buffalo	iiníí
elk	Ponok
wolf	ómahkapi'si
bear	kiááyo
lynx	natáyo
fox	máóhkataatoyi
deer	áwatoyi
porcupine	kai'skááhpa
hare	ááattsistaa
mouse	kaanaisskiinaa
bird	pi'ksíí
eagle	ksikkihkíni
bustard	áápsspini
owl	sipistoo
snake	pitsííksiinaa
fish	mamíí
turtle	sspopíi
bee	naamóó

Portal

• WikiLang/Blackfoot/Portal

Blackfoot language uses a decimal numeral system and uses the arab numbers as numeric symbols, the same way English do.

#	Blackfoot word
1	ni't
2	náátsi
3	nioókska
4	niisó
5	niisito
6	naa
7	ihkitsik
8	náániso
9	piihkssó
10	kiipó

Portal

• WikiLang/Blackfoot/Portal

Originally, the Blackfoot language used a syllabary, but, nowadays the Latin alphabet is more and more used. It had its own syllabary developed in the 1880s, but it also later used the Plains Cree syllabary.

Blackfoot syllabary

The Blackfoot syllabary had been developed by John Williams Tims, an Anglican missionary, between 1883 and 1895. It was based on the Ojibwe syllabary developed by James Evans.

Unlike letters of an alphabet, each character in a syllabary represents a syllable. For example, the syllable "pa" written in Latin alphabet uses two letters, "p" and "a", while in the Blackfoot syllabary this syllable is represented by only one character.

...

Plains Cree syllabary

See Plains Cree Writing systems for more details.

...

Latin alphabet

...

Portal

• WikiLang/Blackfoot/Portal

Atikamekw

Atikamekw is a language spoken by the Aboriginal nation of the same name in Quebec, Canada. The language status is "developing" with approximately 6,000 speakers. The majority language in Atikamekw communities is French, but Atikamekw is the mother language of 95% of the members of the nation's communities and some communities have even 100% members that have Atikamekw as a mother tongue. Some people, mostly elders, are monolingual Atikamekw. It is one of the most vibrant of the Native American languages in Canada today. The average age of Atikamekw speakers is 21 years, the lowest in Canada. However French is used for the education starting at the second cycle of elementary school. French is also used for "modern activities" such as television and Internet. Many Atikamekw speakers use French at work and some also speak English. There is an "Institut linguistique atikamekw" (ILA) that is responsible to standardize and promote the language.

Atikamekw is a language part of the macrolanguage Cree, but is different from other Cree languages and dialects in that it has a lot of borrowed words from Ojibwe. Another important difference is that Atikamekw is the only Alonguian language to use the letter "r" of the latin alphabet.

Technical info

• Language family: Algic languages/Algonquian languages/Cree languages
• Regions: Quebec, Canada
• Number of speakers: approx. 5,900
• Script(s): Latin alphabet (LTR)
• Majority language(s): French

Writing systems

Although Atikemekw is part of the Cree language family, it doesn't use the Canadian Unified Syllabics. It uses the latin alphabet. Atikamekw has 11 consonants and 4 vowels.

Atikamekw alphabet

Letter	IPA	Letter	IPA	Letter	IPA	Letter	IPA	Letter	IPA	Letter	IPA	Letter	IPA	Letter	IPA	Letter	IPA	Letter	IPA	Letter	IPA
Consonants
c	[ʃ]	h	[h]	k	[k]	m	[m]	n	[n]	p	[p]	r	[r]	s	[s]	t	[t]	w	[w]	tc	[tʃ]
Vowels
a	[a]	â	[a:]	ê	[e:]	i	[i]	î	[iː]	o	[o]	ô	[o:]

Vowels with an accent represents the long vowels. However in the written language accents are usually not used in Atikamekw. Vowels a, i, o can be either short or long while the vowel e is always long.

Some words in Atikamekw

Atikamekw	English
mikwam	house
nipi	water
atimw	dog
atikw	horse
amiskw	beaver
mahikan	wolf
maskwa	black bear
mikisiw	eagle
mos	moose
kiskinohamatokamokw	school
takapikenikan	phone
kinokepitcikan	computer
pa mikicikwe pitcikan	Internet
otapanaskw	sled
ickote otapan	train
ka mactatanawkiparik	car
ka miremakak	plane

See also

Other articles

• Algonquian languages
• Canada

Portal

• Atikamekw Portal

Other projects

• Wikipedia in Atikamekw
• Atikamekw language's article on English Wikipedia
• Atikamekw language's article on French Wikipedia

References

Language in Canada

Distribution of language families, language isolates and unclassified languages in Canada and United States (and Greenland) before European contact - click a shaded region!
Click here to enlarge!

The majority languages in Canada are English and French, they are also the two official languages of the country. English is the official language de jure or de facto of most provinces, while French is the official language in Quebec, and New Brunswick has both languages as official languages (Manitoba also has some official reconnaissance of French).

The English spoken in Canada follow the rules of the British English, but is orally closer to the American English while having its own distinct particularities. On the other side, French in Canada is very different from the French spoken elsewhere in the world. There are two main distinctive categories of French in Canada: Quebec French and Acadian French, respectively spoken in Quebec and in the Atlantic provinces. Both have their own particularities and have kept many aspects of the French that was spoken at the time of colonization during the 17th and 18th centuries that have been abandoned in Europe. The "chiac" is a mix of Acadian French and English spoken in New Brunswick. There is also several communities of French speakers in Ontario called Franco-ontariens that speak a French influenced by English at different levels from a community to another. Some French minority communities also exist throughout the rest of Canada.

However, prior to European colonization of the North American continent, the vast lands of Canada were the territories of many Amerindians and Inuits nations. It also saw the development of the Métis nation, a nation from French and Cree descendants that speak Michif, a mix of Cree and French. Western Canada also saw the Bungi language, a creole of Scottish English influenced by Scottish Gaelic, Cree and Ojibwe, but it is most likely extinct today.

Knowing the exact number of Aboriginal languages across Canada is almost impossible especially since many Natives speak English or French as a mother tongue and most of them have only a limited passive knowledge of their ancestral languages. The task is even more difficult since the majority of languages has many dialects. Ethnologue lists 63 languages for Canada. There are only three indigenous languages of Canada that are not threatened or endangered: Cree, Inuktitut and Ojibwe. Below is the most exhaustive list of indigenous languages of Canada that are not considered dead.

Languages of Canada with a language community on Wikilang

• Atikamekw
• Blackfoot
• Mi'kmaq

List of indigenous languages of Canada

Note: This list only includes languages that are still existing today (i.e. languages with living speakers) that are indigenous to Canada (although some are also present in the United States).

Language (English name)	Speakers	Location	ISO 639 (Wikipedia link if existing)	Status
Abenaki	20	Quebec	abe	Critically endangered
Algonquin	2,275	Quebec and Ontario	alq	Severely endangered
Assiniboine	200	Saskatchewan	asb	Critically endangered
Atikamekw	3,995	Quebec	atj (cr)	Vulnerable
Babine	1,600	British Columbia	bcr	Severely endangered
Beaver	300	Alberta and British Columbia	bea	Definitely endangered
Bella Coola	200	British Columbia	blc	Critically endangered
Blackfoot	4,745	Alberta	bla	Definitely endangered
Carrier	2,000	British Columbia	crx, caf	Severely endangered
Cayuga	360	Ontario	cay	Critically endangered
Chilcotin	705	British Columbia	clc	Definitely endangered
Chinook Wawa	83	British Columbia	chn
Chipewyan (Dene)	4,000	Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Northwest Territories	chp	Vulnerable
Comox	400	British Columbia	coo	Critically endangered
Moose Cree	4,500	Ontario	crm (cr)	Vulnerable
Northeastern Cree	5,308	Quebec	crl (cr)	Vulnerable
Plains Cree	34,000	Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba	crk (cr)	Vulnerable
Southeastern Cree	7,306	Quebec	crj (cr)	Vulnerable
Swampy Cree	4,500	Ontario	csw (cr)	Vulnerable
Woods Cree	4,500	Ontario	cwd (cr)	Vulnerable
Dakota (Sioux)	2,085	Manitoba and Saskatchewan	dak	Definitely endangered
Dogrib	2,085	Northwest Territories	dgr	Vulnerable
Northern Haida	30	British Columbia	hdn (hai)	Critically endangered
Southern Haida	10	British Columbia	hax (hai)	Critically endangered
Haisla	25	British Columbia	has	Critically endangered
Halkomelem	200	British Columbia	hur	Severely endangered
Han	7	Yukon	haa	Critically endangered
Heiltsuk	300	British Columbia	hei	Critically endangered
Eastern Inuktitut	14,000	Quebec and Labrador	ike (iu)	Vulnerable
Western Inuktitut (Inuinnaqtun)	4,000	Nunavut	ikt (iu)	Definitely endangered
Kaska	400	British Columbia	kkz	Severely endangered
Kutenai	120	British Columbia	kut	Severely endangered
Kwakiutl (Kwak'wala)	250	British Columbia	kwk	Critically endangered
Lillooet	400	British Columbia	lil	Severely endangered
Gitxsan	1,330	British Columbia	git	Severely endangered
Gwich'in (Loucheux)	430	Northwest Territories	gwi	Severely endangered
Malecite-Passamaquoddy	655	Quebec and New Brunswick	pqm	Definitely endangered
Michif	840	Manitoba	crg	Critically endangered
Micmac (Mi'kmaq)	7,310	Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland	mic	Vulnerable
Mohawk	350	Ontario and Quebec	moh	Definitely endangered
Montagnais (Innu)	8,483	Quebec and Labrador	moe (cr)	Vulnerable
Munsee	7	Ontario	umu	Critically endangered
Naskapi	1,177	Quebec and Labrador	nsk (cr)	Vulnerable
Niska (Nisga'a)	2,000	British Columbia	ncg	Severely endangered
Nootka (nuu-chah-nulth)	590	British Columbia	noo	Severely endangered
Northern Ojibway (Oji-Cree)	8,000	Manitoba and Ontario	ojb (oji)	Vulnerable
Ojibway (Saulteux)	35,000	British Columbia and Saskatchewan	ojc, ojg, ojs, ojw (oji)	Vulnerable, definitely and severely endangered
Okanagan (N'syilxcen)	500	British Columbia	oka	Definitely endangered
Oneida	200	Ontario	one	Critically endangered
Onondaga	100	Ontario	ono	Critically endangered
Ottawa (Odawa, Nishnaabemwin)	7,100	Ontario	otw	Severely endangered
Potawatomi	1,250	Ontario	pot	Critically endangered
Salish Straits	30	British Columbia	str	Severely endangered
Sarsi (Tsuu T'ina)	50	Alberta	srs	Critically endangered
Sechelt (Shíshálh)	40	British Columbia	sec	Critically endangered
Sekani	500	British Columbia	sek	Critically endangered
Seneca	25	Ontario	see	Critically endangered
Shuswap (Secwepemc)	745	British Columbia	shs	Definitely endangered
North Slavey	290	Northwest Territories	scs (den)	Definitely endangered
South Slavey	2,620	Northwest Territories	xsl (den)	Definetely endangered
Squamish	20	British Columbia	squ	Critically endangered
Stoney (Nakota)	1,500	Alberta	sto	Vulnerable
Tagish	2	British Columbia	tgx	Critically endangered
Tahltan	40	Yukon	tht	Critically endangered
Tanana	10	Yukon	tau	Critically endangered
Thompson	595	British Columbia	thp	Severely endangered
Tlingit	145	British Columbia and Yukon	tli	Critically endangered
Tuscarora	8	Ontario	tus	Critically endangered
Tsimshian	432	British Columbia	tsi	Critically endangered
Northern Tutchone	800	Yukon	ttm	Definitely endangered
Southern Tutchone	1,000	Yukon	tce	Critically endangered

Revitalization projects

...

Other projects

• English Wikipedia:
  • Languages of Canada
  • List of endangered languages in Canada
  • Indigenous languages of the Americas

See also

• WikiLang/North America

Antarctica

There are no languages native to Antarctica.

Other projects

• Antarctica article on English Wikipedia

Portal

• Back to Main page

Asia

Map of Asia

Asia includes six main regions: Central Asia (blue on map), East Asia (yellow/orange), Middle East (brown), Russia and the Caucasus (purple), South Asia (green) and Southeast Asia (red). The main majority languages of this continent

East Asia

South Korea

• Jeju language
• ... (table)

Southeast Asia

Indonesia

• There are 10 countries in SE Asia, with Indonesia as the most linguistically-diverse country (see Language in Southeast Asia). There are more than 700 languages in this region alone, and many of them does not have their languages documented.

Philippines

• There are some 130 to 195 languages spoken in the Philippines, depending on the method of classification. Almost all are Malayo-Polynesian languages native to the archipelago (see Languages of the Philippines). A number of Spanish-influenced creole varieties generally called Chavacano along with some local varieties of Chinese are also spoken in certain communities. The 1987 constitution designates Filipino, a standardized version of Tagalog, as the national language and an official language along with English. Filipino is regulated by Commission on the Filipino Language and serves as a lingua franca used by Filipinos of various ethnolinguistic backgrounds.

Portal

• Back to Main page

European Languages

In ancient history, there were presumably a variety of language families spoken in Europe. However, today, the vast majority are Indo-European. Sub-families of Indo-European spoken in Europe are: Germanic, Balto-Slavonic, Italic, Greek, Celtic, and others. In addition to the Indo-European languages there are also the non-Indo-European language family Finno-Urgic and the Basque language.

Living languages

These are all living languages spoken in Europe.

Eastern Europe

Languages currently spoken in Eastern Europe are:

• Belarussian (in Belarus)
• Czech (in the Czech Republic)
• Estonian (in Estonia)
• Hungarian (in Hungary and Romania)
• Latvian (in Latvia)
  • Latgalian
• Lithuanian (in Lithuania)
  • Aukštaitian (Highland)
  • Samogitian (Lowland)
• Polish (in Poland)
  • Greater Polish
  • Lesser Polish
  • Masovian
  • Silesian
• Romanian (in Romania)
• Russian (in Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus)
• Sami (in Finland and Russia, also Norway and Sweden)
  • many dialects/languages
• Slovak (in Slovakia)
• Ukrainian (in Ukraine)

Northern Europe

• Danish (in Denmark and the Faroe Islands)
• Faroese (in the Faroe Islands)
• Finnish (in Finland)
• Icelandic (in Iceland)
• Norwegian (in Norway)
• Sami (in Finland, Norway, and Sweden)
• Swedish (in Sweden and Finland)

Southern Europe

Languages currently spoken in Southern Europe are:

• Armenian (in Armenia)
• Basque (in Spain)
• Catalan (in Spain)
• Croation (in Croatia)
• German (in Italy)
• Italian (in Italy)
• Greek (in Greece)
• Lombard (in Italy)
• Maltese (in Malta)
• Portuguese (in Portugal)
• Serbian (in Serbia)
• Sicilian (in Italy)
• Spanish (in Spain)

Western Europe

Languages currently spoken in Western Europe are:

• Basque (in France and Spain)
• Breton (in France)
• Dutch (in the Netherlands and Belgium)
• Catalan (in France)
• Cornish (in England)
• English (in England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales)
• French (in France, Belgium, Luxembourg, and Switzerland)
• Franco-Provençal languages/dialects (in France, Italy, and Switzerland)
• Frisian languages (in the Netherlands and Germany)
• German (in Germany, Belgium, Switzerland, Austria, and Luxembourg)
• High German languages/dialects (in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland)
• Irish Gaelic (in Ireland)
• Italian (in Switzerland)
• Low German languages/dialects (in Germany and the Netherlands)
• Manx Gaelic (on the Isle of Man)
• Romansh (in Switzerland)
• Scots (in Scotland)
• Scottish Gaelic (in Scotland)
• Walloon (in Belgium)
• Welsh (in Wales)

Not area-specific

• Yiddish (many countries)

Dead languages

These are documented languages that were once spoken in Europe. There are certainly many other now-dead languages once spoken in Europe that were not documented. Languages that died without transitioning into another language, are marked (d) for "dead"; languages that died by or after transitioning into another stage, are marked (t) for "transitioned" or "transformed". The approximate date of death is given where possible, and broad language family groups that the languages belong to.

• Andalusian Arabic (d) (1600AD) (Semitic)
• Classical Greek (t) (300BC) (Greek)
• Classical Latin (t) (200AD) (Italic)
• Crimean Gothic (d) (1900AD) (Germanic)
• Gothic (t) (700AD-800AD?) (Germanic)
• Koine Greek (t) (300AD) (Greek)
• Late Latin (t) (500AD) (Italic)
• Marsi (150BC) (Italic)
• Middle English (t) (1400AD) (Germanic)
• Old Church Slavonic (t) (1000AD) (Balto-Slavic)
• Old English (t) (1100AD) (Germanic)
• Old Irish (t) (900AD) (Celtic)
• Old Welsh (t) (1100) (Celtic)
• Oscan (d) (100BC) (Italic)
• South Picene (d) (400BC) (Italic)
• Umbrian (d) (100BC) (Italic)
• Volscian (300BC?) (Italic)

Germanic Languages

The Germanic languages are an Indo-European family of languages spoken by the Germanic peoples. The common ancestor of all Germanic languages is Proto-Germanic, although there may never have been any one Proto-Germanic language, spoken about mid-1st millennium BC in northern Europe. All Germanic languages are characterized by some unique features, including the consonant shift called Grimm's law. Germanic languages are first mentioned in history after some Germanic tribes moved south to north-central Europe and came into contact with the Roman Empire.

The most widely spoken Germanic languages today are English and German, with English having possibly over or near 400 million native speakers, and German over 100 million. Also, English is an important international trade language and the most used language of the internet, with many millions of second-language speakers. They belong to the West Germanic branch, which also includes the next most spoken Germanic language after German, Dutch, with 23 million speakers, and then Afrikaans, with 7 million speakers.

Living North Germanic languages are Norwegian, Danish, Swedish, Icelandic, and Faroese, which together have about 20 million speakers. There are no known living East Germanic languages, although one ancient one is attested - Gothic. There are also many other living, less spoken Germanic languages, including Frisian, Low German, and Scots.

German Language

The German language (German: Deutsch) is a West Germanic Language. It is the official language(s) of Germany, Austria, Belgium, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg. There are at least 78,245,280 speakers of that language.

Monophthongs of standard German on a vowel chart.

External links

This article is part of the vocabulary section of the German language. It lists a sample of animal names in German with their English translation.

English	German
dog	hund
cat	katze
horse	pferd
bird	vogel
deer	hirsch
bear	bär
mouse	maus
fish	fisch
lion	löwe
elephant	elefant
rabbit	kaninchen
lizard	eidechse
snake	schlange
turtle	schildkröte
raccoon	waschbär
eagle	adler
pig	schwein
parrot	papagei
bee	biene
goat	ziege
sheep	schaf
frog	frosch

Portal

• WikiLang/German/Portal

German language uses a decimal numeral system and uses the Arab numbers as numeric symbols, the same way English do.

#	German word
1	ein
2	zwei
3	drei
4	vier
5	fünf
6	sechs
7	sieben
8	acht
9	neun
10	zehn
11	elf
12	zwölf
20	zwanzig
100	hundert
1,000	tausend
1,000,000	million
1,000,000,000	milliarde

Two-digit numbers ending with 0 will end in -zig (e.g., achtzig would translate into eighty.) For a trillion (1,000,000,000,000), a quadrillion, and a quintillion, these words would translate to billion, billiarde, and trillion respectively. German numbers are sometimes one word, not more than one word. For example, zweihundertfünfzig is used as the number 250 in German, but the single word can be split in three parts, like the English word form of that number.

Portal

• WikiLang/German/Portal

Old English

Old English or Anglo-Saxon was the West Germanic language spoken in England from about 500 AD, after the arrival of several Germanic tribes (mostly the Angles, the Saxons, and the Jutes) to southern Great Britain, until about 1100 AD, shortly after the Norman Conquest. It died by evolving into Middle English, which had a simpler declension and conjugation system and somewhat Frenchified orthography, and which also borrowed a significant number of Norman-French words due to Norman-French being the language of the aristocracy.

Technical Info

• Language family: Indo-European languages/Germanic languages/West-Germanic languages
• Region: Was spoken in southern Britain, approximately modern-day England (but also the south of modern-day Scotland, and probably not in the entirety of modern-day Cornwall)
• Number of speakers: Currently probably thousands of (mostly?) academics with some knowledge; much fewer with any kind of fluency; no known native speakers
• Scripts: Insular Latin alphabet (with the addition of ash, thorn, eth, and wynn to fill some gaps); small amount written in Anglo-Saxon Fuþorc runes
• Majority language: Itself (languages of neighbouring nations included Old Welsh, Old Gaelic, Old Norse, and amongst scholars Latin)

Writing system

The vast majority of Old English manuscripts were written in a modified version of the Insular Latin script, with the additional letters ash (Æ, æ), eth (Ð, ð), thorn (Þ, þ), and wynn (Ƿ, ƿ) (the last two were borrowed from the fuþorc). Unlike most modern written Old English, most Old English texts did not have long vowels explicitly marked. There are a few examples of long vowels in Old English being represented with doubled letters and possibly also by having an acute-accent-like mark above the vowel (though the latter method was not clearly definitely used to mark long vowels). In modern editions of Old English texts, double-u is usually used instead of wynn, and long vowels are usually marked with macrons. Also, palatalization is sometimes marked (see paragraph below).

It is most likely that the Anglo-Saxons wrote very phonologically (as did most European languages that had a writing system at the time), which does help in attempts to reconstruct the language's phonology. However, their writing system seems to largely represent a pre-palatalization pronunciation, while we know that the palatalization phenomenon in Old English was already complete by the time Middle English came around (because they explicitly recognized palatalization in Middle English orthography). In other words, in the latter Old English stage at least, the writing did not necessarily recognize all significant features of the phonology (possibly because writing standards tend to lag behind spoken speech); but there is certainly some evidence in latter Old English writing that palatalization had already taken place or was taking place. But there are other, etymological reasons to believe that at least a "germ" of the palatalization phenomenon was present in Old English from the time of the first written records – perhaps the palatalized forms earlier on did not sound different enough to the Old English ear to be recognized as separate in writing.

Borrowed words

Before their arrival to Britain, various Germanic tribes had contact with the Roman empire, and borrowed a small few words into their own language or languages. After arrival, to Britain, they borrowed and adapted many Celtic place-names, but borrowed very few everyday words from the Celtic languages apart from that. After the Christianization of the Anglo-Saxons, quite a few (possibly several hundred) words were borrowed from Greco-Latin, especially for church-related areas.

Some Anglo-Saxon writers seem to show a tendency to calque words. For example, the word efenniht from "equinox" – "equal night". A few seemed to be particularly creative in translating foreign words with totally new neologisms, for example "Sundorhālgan" ("separate holy people") for "Pharisee". In Anglo-Saxon poetic tradition, as in other ancient Germanic languages, poets would regularly make up neologisms (called today "kennings") "on-the-fly" to help fit a particular idea into their poetic meter.

See also

• Old English's article on the English Wikipedia

Oceania

Regions of Oceania

Oceania is divided in six main regions: Australia (orange on the map), Melanesia (green), Micronesia (pink), New Zealand (blue), Papua New Guinea (dark blue) and Polynesia (purple). The majority language in Oceania is English.

Oceania has many indigenous languages, though many have been replaced by English and other European languages. Melanesia and Australia is home to over 5,000 languages alone, with one of the greatest linguistic diversity in the world.

In comparison, Polynesia lacks great diversity, because they are all descendants of a migrant community from southern China (the proto-Austronesians) and have the same language family.

New Zealand

Historically native languages to New Zealand are:

• Maori (with various dialects)
• Moriori (closely related to Maori)

Official languages of New Zealand are:

• New Zealand English
• Maori
• New Zealand Sign Language

Papua New Guinea

With over 850 languages, Papua New Guinea holds a tenth of the world's 20,000 languages, despite its small population. Most are undocumented, especially as many of its users have not had contact with non-Papuan peoples. Papua New Guinea has 3 official languages: English, Hiri Motu and Tok Pisin. Tok Pisin language is the most spoken in the country and is used as the local lingua franca, it is an English-based creole.

Polynesia

Historically native languages to Polynesia are:

• Cook Islands Maori
• Niuean
• Picairn
• Samoan
• Tongan

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South American Languages

Map of South America

South America includes 12 countries and two non-sovereign entities: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Falkland Islands (United Kingdom), French Guiana (France), Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Uruguay and Venezuela. Spanish is the official language in all South American countries except Brazil, Guyana, Suriname French Guiana and the Falkland Islands, and is spoken even in country that are not historically Spanish. Portugese is the official language in Brazil. Official languages in Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana are respectively English, Dutch and French. English is also spoken in the Falkland Islands.

Before colonization from European nations, South America was inhabited by several Aboriginal nations speaking a wide variety of languages from different language families, most of them being long forgotten now, but a lot are still known by few and are currently in danger of extinction. At the time of European contact, it is estimated that 1,500 languages were spoken in South America; only 350 of those languages are still spoken today. Quechua is the native language family with the most speakers.

The classification and studies of indigenous languages in South America is not very advanced compared to the classification of North American indigenous languages. As such, it is difficult to determine what languages are related to each other to develop proper language families.

List of indigenous languages

Extensive language families (more than 5 languages) of South America; dark spots are language isolates or quasi-isolates and grey spots are unclassified languages; Queucha, the language family with the most speakers, is not shown

This list only includes languages with living speakers.

• Akawaio (Brazil, Guyana, Venezuela)
• Arawak (French Guiana, Guyana, Suriname, Venezuela)
• Arutani (Brazil, Venezuela)
• Baniwa (Brazil, Venezuela)
• Baré (Venezuela)
• Barí (Colombia, Venezuela)
• Carib (French Guinea, Guyana, Suriname, Venezuela)
• Chaima (Venezuela)
• Cuiba (Colombia, Venezuela)
• Cumanagoto (Venezuela)
• Curripaco (Brazil, Colombia, Venezuela)
• E’ñapa Woromaipu (Venezuela)
• To be completed...

Other languages

• German, Colonia Tovar (Venezuela)
• To be completed...

Extinct languages

• Baniva
• To be completed...

Quechua Languages

The Quechua languages are a native South American language family spoken mostly around the Andes, all from a common proto-language. Together, they are sometimes considered as one language, and under such a definition they are the most spoken language of the indigenous peoples of the Americas, with probably between 8 and 10 million speakers. It well known as the language of the Incas, and Quechua variants have official status in Bolivia and Peru. The most spoken variant of Quechua is Southern Quechua, which includes Bolivian Quechua and Cuzco Quechua. Northern Quechua is spoken in northern Peru, Colombia, and Ecuador, where it has a significant number of speakers.

Although Quechua was spread further in the Incan Empire, it had already spread far before that. It was also thrived after the Spanish conquest of the 16th century as a kind of general language for communication between the Spanish and the indigenous population, including being used by the Catholic Church for evangelization efforts. However, use by the church ended in the 18th century when it was banned from public use in Peru in response to the Tupac Amaru II rebellion. Today it is mostly spoken in rural areas.

The oldest written records of the language are the writings of Fray Domingo de Santo Tomás, who arrived in Peru in 1538 and learned the language from 1540, and published his book Grammatica o arte de la lengua general de los indios de los reynos del Perú in 1560.

Today, even though it is a co-official language with Spanish in Peru and Bolivia, there is relatively little written material, meaning that it is mostly an oral language. Recently, Quechua has been introduced as part of intercultural bilingual education in Bolivia, Ecuador, and Peru, which is only reaching parts of the Quechua-speaking population. Quechua continues to decline in usage, being replaced by Spanish for the purpose of social advancement.

Influences

In the time of the Empire of the Incas, Southern Quechua's grammar, vocabulary, and possibly phobology were heavily influenced by Aymara.

Quechua has borrowed several hundred, at least, words from Spanish, even borrowing some grammatically important common words. Spanish, in turn, has also borrowed a notable number of words from Quechua, some of which have found their way into English, for example "llama" and "viscacha".

Many native American languages have been significantly influenced by Quechua

See also

• WikiLang/Southern Quechua Sprachausbau

External resources

• Southern Quechua Wikipedia
• Freelang Dictionary
• [2]
• [3]

Computer-related words used by Microsoft Windows 8 Quechua translation

Microsoft Windows has a Quechua translation. This is probably quite groundbreaking in terms of computer terminology in Quechua because it is perhaps the only desktop operating system with a GUI translated into Quechua (at least, Ubuntu and Mac OS X do not have Quechua translations as of May 2013). As such, it is appropriate to document the precedents set by it.

Note that many of these words are very obvious to use, for example "maskay" - "to search" for searching.

Also, the Windows translation is not 100% complete as of April 2013, and many words were borrowed from Spanish.

Look here for Quechua version of this, with table.

General

• akllana - option
• chaylla yaykuna - shortcut
• chiru - icon
• computadora (borrowed from Spanish) - computer
• hanpara - desptop
• harkasqa - security
• hatun llinpinachiq - theme
• hatunyachiy - to maximize (a window)
• kallpa - power (to turn on, off, restart)
• kipu - file
• kawsachisqa - on (of an option)
• kuchuy - to cut
• kunayachiy - an update
• laqay - to paste
• llamkana - program (literally "tool")
• llika - network
• llinpi - colour
• lista (borrowed from Spanish) - list
• maskay - to search
• mirachiy - to paste
• munasqakuna - favorites (list of favorite locations in file explorer)
• purichiy - to play (music, video)
• reqsichiy - edit (dropdown menu from top bar)
• qawana - display (settings)
• qaway - view (option to change how something is displayed, for example in file explorer)
• qillqa willakuquna - documents (media library)
• qunakuy - to share (content on the web)
• rikchaq - format (for file)
• rikchaykuna - pictures (media library)
• rurana - task
• ruwaq - user
• sayachiy - to cancel
• taki - song, piece of music
• tupachiy - settings (used in the search)
• uchuyachiy - to minimize (a window)
• uraykaychikuna - downloads (folder)
• yapay - add (to a list)
• wañuchisqa - off (of an option)
• waqaychana - folder
• waqaychay - to save
• wichqay - to close (a program)
• willana - notification
• yachay taqikuna - media libraries
• yanapay - help (dropdown menu from top bar)

Windows-specific features and apps

• kamachina qata - control panel
• kaylla ruyru - local disk
• kipukuna maskana - file explorer
• qallariy - "start", start screen
• tupuq - calculator
• uchuy word - wordpad
• warmakuna harkaq - family safety (the setting)
• wasihuñu - homegroup
• willakuykuna qellqana - notepad (the program)

Constructed Languages

Constructed languages are languages that are created artificially by one or more people.

Endangered Languages

Endangered languages are those language where linguists estimate a possible menace to become extinct. Endangered languages mostly struggle to be learned by children or that it is given from one generation to the next one which means that within some generation the language may die. Currently, there are a lot of languages that are considered to be endangered. If one faces the fact that 90% of all languages are just spoken by 10% of the world's population and 10% of the languages are spoken by 90% of the population the dimensions and relations speak for themselves. So, 50-90% of the languages are endangered; some of them are highly endangered as there are only some or sometimes only one speaker(s) remains. If they decease the whole language dies. In opposition to extinct languages an endangered language can be revitalised more easily for there is still a (mostly small) community. This is the point where Wikilang shows up. We offer the possibility for every language community to use this page to build up projects to revitalise, reinforce and/or develop their language. For us the extinction of languages and the decreasing language diversity are a big threat to the world's culture which can be somehow stopped or prevented.

Extinct Languages

Extinct languages have no remaining speakers, native or non-native. However, that doesn't mean those languages cannot be reclaimed and revitalized. Projects have occurred in the past where an extinct language have been revitalized by a community with the help of linguists, using existing documentation and archives.

See also

• The English Wikipedia's article on extinct languages

Sign Languages

Sign languages use visually transmitted patterns to convey meanings, instead of sounds like spoken languages. Signs languages are specifically developed in deaf communities, which also includes interpreters as well as friends and families of deaf people. Hundreds of sign languages are used around the World, some having legal recognition.

Language Revitalization

Language revitalization is exactly what WikiLang is trying to achieve. Endangered languages are likely to become extinct in the near future; language death is, especially for the language community, a great pity. In attempt to stop this from happening, this page offers a variety of possibilities to create and build up projects to help reinforce and revitalize a language. This should lead to the goal of a particular language gaining speakers, being spoken more often, and gaining more prestige. That is what revitalization helps to achieve.

A

Language	Expression
Afrikaans	Hallo
Alabama	Chíkmàa
Albanian	Përshëndetje
Alsatian German	Hallo
Amharic	ሰላም
American Sign Language	Take your right hand to your forehead and salute
Arabic	مرحبا
Aragonese	Ola
Arapaho	Héébee
Armenian	բարև
Arrernte	Werte
Assamese	নমস্কাৰ
Asturian	Hola
Azerbaijani	Salam əleyküm

B

Language	Expression
Basque	Kaixo
Belarusian	Прывітанне
Bengali	হ্যালো
Bhojpuri	प्रणाम
Bosnian	здраво
Breton	Demat
British Sign Language	Wave your hand from above your face into the air, the palm facing the person being greeted
Burmese	မဂႆလာပၝ
Bulgarian	Здравейте

C

Language	Expression
Cantonese	你好
Cape Verdean Creole	Oi
Catalan	Hola
Cayuga	Sga-noh
Chamorro	Håfa ådai
Chavacano	Hola
Chechen	Салам
Cherokee	Салам
Chichewa	Moni
Choctaw	Halito
Cimbrian German	Guuten takh
Cook Islands Maori	Kia orana
Cornish	Dydh da
Corsican	Salute
Cree	Tansi
Croatian	Bok
Czech	Ahoj

D

Language	Expression