Posted on: March 14th, 2014 by asapbademko No Comments
The Latvian language (or latviešu valoda, pronounced [‘latvijaʃu ‘valuoda] in Latvian), sometimes referred to as Lettish, is a Baltic language of the Indo-European group. It is one of two living Baltic languages with an official status (the other being Lithuanian). The first Latvian text to appear in Western print was the reproduction of the Lord’s Prayer in Cosmographia Universalis, in 1544. The nearly extinct Livonian language as well as some dialects like Latgalian are protected by the Latvian law as a cultural and historical heritage.
Writing system: Latin (Latvian alphabet)
Official language in: Latvia, European Union
Posted on: March 14th, 2014 by asapbademko No Comments
Lao or Laotian (ພາສາລາວ, phasa lao, pronounced [‘phaːsaː ‘láːo]) is a tonal language of the Tai–Kadai language family. It is the official language of Laos, and also spoken in the northeast of Thailand, where it is usually referred to as Isan language. The Lao script was slowly standardised in the Mekong River valley after the various Tai principalities of the region were merged under the rule of the Kingdom of Lan Xang in the 14th century. It is an abugida script (where only the consonants have signs and the vowels are “implied”), traditionally written from left to right
Writing system: Lao in Laos, Thai in Thailand
Official language in: Laos
Kyrgyz language (natively Кыргыз тили, قىرعىز تىلى, pronounced as [‘kəɪr’gəɪs tɪ’lɪ]) is a Turkic language, member of the Kazakh-Nogai subgroup of the Kypchak languages. Kyrgyz was originally written in the Turkic runes, gradually replaced by an Arabic alphabet. Between 1928 and 1940, the Latin-based Uniform Turkic Alphabet was used and in 1940, due to general Soviet policy, a Cyrillic alphabet eventually became common, remaining so to this day, though some Kyrgyz still use the Arabic alphabet.
Writing system: Kyrgyz alphabets (Cyrillic script, Perso-Arabic script, formerly Latin)
Official language in: Kyrgyzstan
Korean (or 한국어, pronounced [‘hʌngʊ’gɔ:] in Korean) is the official language of South Korea and North Korea as well as one of the two official languages in China’s Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture. For over a millennium, Korean was written with adapted Chinese characters called Hanja, when King Sejong created the Korean Hangul alphabet, which features syllabic blocks and shapes which remind the shape of the mouth, lips and tongue while forming the given sound.
Writing system: Hangul (primary), Hanja (mixed script), Cyrillic (Koryo-mar)
Official language in: South Korea, North Korea, Yanbian, People’s Republic of China
Khmer ( ភាសាខ្មែរ, pronounced as [‘pʰiːə’saː ‘kʰmaːe] in Khmer) also known as Cambodian is the second most widely spoken Austroasiatic language (after Vietnamese). Khmer has been considerably influenced by Sanskrit and Pali, especially in the royal and religious registers, through the vehicles of Hinduism and Buddhism. It is also the earliest recorded and earliest written language of the Mon–Khmer family. The Khmer language is written with an abugida (vowel-consonant pairs), from left to right, with multiple levels of character stacking possible
Writing system: Khmer script (abugida)
Official language in: Cambodia
Kazakh (or قازاق ٴتىلى, Қазақ тілі, pronounced [kɑˈzɑk ti:’lɪ]) is a Turkic language belonging to the Kipchak (or Northwestern Turkic) branch, closely related to Nogai, and especially Karakalpak. In Kazakhstan and Moldova it is written both in Cyrillic and Latin alphabets, while the more than one million Kazakh-speakers in China use an Arabic-derived alphabet similar to that used to write Uyghur. The ethnonym “Kazakh” is derived from an ancient Turkic word meaning “independent; a free spirit”
Writing system: Kazakh alphabets (Cyrillic, Latin, Perso-Arabic)
Official language in: Kazakhstan, Russia: Altai Republic
Japanese (or 日本語, pronounced [ni’hõŋɡo]) is an East Asian language, member of the Japonic (or Japanese-Ryukyuan) language family. The modern Japanese writing system uses a combination of Kanji (adopted Chinese characters) and Kana (two syllabic scripts named hiragana and katakana). Several thousand Kanji characters are in regular use, while each character has an intrinsic meaning (or range of meanings), and most have more than one pronunciation, the choice of which depends on context. The characters are traditionally written in columns going from top to bottom, with columns ordered from right to left.
Writing system: Chinese characters, Kana
Official language in: Japan
Posted on: March 14th, 2014 by asapbademko No Comments
The Italian language (or lingua italiana, pronounced [‘lingua itali’ana] in Italian) is the official language of Italy where 93% of population are native Italian speakers. The standard Italian has a poetic and literary origin in the twelfth century but it has been used long before that – the earliest surviving Italuan texts are legal formulae from the Province of Benevento that can be traced back to 960–963. Each Italian region has its own distinctive dialect due to the former independency of the Italian city-states.
Writing system: Latin (Italian alphabet)
Official language in: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, European Union
Posted on: March 14th, 2014 by asapbademko No Comments
Irish (Gaelic or Irish Gaelic) is a Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family, originating in Ireland and historically spoken by the Irish people. In An Caighdeán Oifigiúil, i.e. the official written standard, the name of the language is Gaeilge, pronounced [ˈɡælgə]. Irish is now spoken natively by a small minority of the Irish population but also plays an important symbolic role in the life of the Irish state. In pronunciation, Irish most closely resembles its nearest relatives, Scottish Gaelic and Manx.
Writing system: Latin
Official language in: Ireland, European Union
Indonesian (оr Bahasa Indonesia, pronounced [baˈhasa indo’næsia]) is a standardized register of Malay, an Austronesian language spoken in the Indonesian archipelago for centuries. Most Indonesians, aside from speaking the national language, are often fluent in another regional variety (examples include Javanese, Sundanese and Madurese). Standard and formal Indonesian is used in books and newspapers and on television/radio news broadcasts; however, few native Indonesian speakers use it in their daily conversations.
Writing system: Latin (Indonesian alphabet)
Official language in: Indonesia
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