Thursday, July 30, 2015

Challenge 52 in 52: Cornish


Cornish (Kernewek) is a Southwestern Brittonic language of the Celtic language family. It is a revived language that became extinct as a first language in Cornwall in the late 18th century. A revival began in the early 20th century. Some have expressed the opinion that the language is an important part of Cornish identity, culture and heritage. Cornish is currently recognised under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. It has a growing number of second language speakers. A few parents are inspired to create new first language speakers, by teaching their children the language from birth.

Along with Welsh and Breton, Cornish is descended directly from the Common Brittonic language spoken throughout much of Great Britain before the English language came to dominate. It was the main language of Cornwall for centuries until it was pushed westwards by English, maintaining close links with its sister language Breton, with which it was mutually intelligible until well into the Middle Ages. Cornish continued to function as a common community language in parts of Cornwall until the mid 18th century. There is some evidence of knowledge of the language persisting into the 19th century, possibly almost overlapping the beginning of revival efforts.

A process to revive the language was begun in the early 20th century, with a number of orthographical systems still in use, although an attempt was made to impose a Standard Written Form in 2008. In 2010, UNESCO announced that its former classification of the language as "extinct" was "no longer accurate". Since the revival of the language, some Cornish textbooks and works of literature have been published, and an increasing number of people are studying the language. Recent developments include Cornish music, independent films and children's books. A small number of people in Cornwall have been brought up to be bilingual native speakers, and the language is taught in schools. The first Cornish language day care opened in 2010.

Cornish at Omniglot

Tuesday, July 28, 2015

I am Autistic

I suffer from selective mutism - or involuntary mutism, or situationational mutism, as it's also called, because "selective" makes people think I choose to not speak, and that's not it at all. I am physically incapable of speaking in specific situations.

My husband and I have been discussing about the option of sign language.

So, here's some words and sentences I think would be helpful for me in those situations :-)







puhua








nyt














auttaa apu












Tarvita




 saanko?




 paperi




kynä


 

Monday, July 27, 2015

Sign language - teckenspråk - viittomakieli


American Sign Language alphabet




Swedish Sign Language alphabet




Finnish Sign Language alphabet



French sign language alphabet


Isn't it interesting that they don't have even an agreed alphabet in all the countries?
This alone is enough to tell one that if you know a sign language, you know one sign language,
and need to update your signs for all the other languages.
Such a pity they didn't think about that before they started creating these different languages.

From Wikipedia:
Sign languages are typically transcribed word-for-word by means of a gloss written in the predominant oral language in all capitals; for example, American Sign Language and Auslan would be written in English. Prosody is often glossed as superscript words, with its scope indicated by brackets.

    [I LIKE]NEGATIVE [WHAT?]RHETORICAL, GARLIC.
    "I don't like garlic."

Pure fingerspelling is usually indicated by hyphenation. Fingerspelled words that have been lexicalized (that is, fingerspelling sequences that have entered the sign language as linguistic units and that often have slight modifications) are indicated with a hash. For example, W-I-K-I indicates a simple fingerspelled word, but #JOB indicates a lexicalized unit, produced like J-O-B, but faster, with a barely perceptible O and turning the "B" hand palm side in, unlike a regularly fingerspelled "B".

Thursday, July 23, 2015

Challenge 52 in 52: Welsh

Welsh at Omniglot


Welsh (Cymraeg) is a Brittonic language of the Celtic language family. It is spoken natively in Wales, by some in England, and in Y Wladfa (the Welsh colony in Chubut Province, Argentina). Historically, it has also been known in English as "British", "Cambrian", "Cambric" and "Cymric".


Some resources to help you learn:
Duolingo
Learn Welsh (some 20 hours of material)
BBC Welsh courses etc.
Croeso!
Learn Welsh
Welsh language resource list
taster courses







Thursday, July 16, 2015

Challenge 52 in 52: Breton

Breton (brezhoneg) is a Southwestern Brittonic language of the Celtic language family, spoken in Brittany.

Breton was brought from Great Britain to Armorica by migrating Britons during the Early Middle Ages, making it an Insular Celtic language. It is closely related to the Continental Celtic Gaulish language, which was spoken in pre-Roman Gaul. Breton is most closely related to Cornish, another Southwestern Brittonic language. Welsh and the extinct Cumbric, both Western Brittonic languages, are more distantly related.

Having declined from more than 1 million speakers around 1950 to about 200,000 in the first decade of the 21st century, Breton is classified as "severely endangered" by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger. However, the number of children attending bilingual classes has risen 33% between 2006 and 2012 to 14,709.



At Omniglot


Thursday, July 9, 2015

Challenge 52 in 52: Ukrainian


Ukrainian is an East Slavic language. It is the official state language of Ukraine and one of the three official languages in the unrecognized state of Transnistria, the other two being Romanian and Russian. Written Ukrainian uses a variant of the Cyrillic script (see Ukrainian alphabet).

Historical linguists trace the origin of the Ukrainian language to the Old East Slavic of the early medieval state of Kievan Rus'. After the fall of the Kievan Rus' as well as the Kingdom of Galicia–Volhynia, the language developed into a form called the Ruthenian language. The Modern Ukrainian language has been in common use since the late 17th century, associated with the establishment of the Cossack Hetmanate. From 1804 until the Russian Revolution, the Ukrainian language was banned from schools in the Russian Empire, of which the biggest part of Ukraine (Central, Eastern and Southern) was a part at the time. It has always maintained a sufficient base in Western Ukraine, where the language was never banned, in its folklore songs, itinerant musicians, and prominent authors.

The standard Ukrainian language is regulated by the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (NANU), particularly by its Institute for the Ukrainian Language, Ukrainian language-information fund, and Potebnya Institute of Language Studies. The Ukrainian language retains a degree of mutual intelligibility with Belarusian and Russian.

Thursday, July 2, 2015

Challenge 52 in 52: Russian


Когда не повезло,
И нервом бьётся боль,
И во всех ты видишь зло,
И шаг не в такт.
Узнать своё лицо,
Взгляд разъедает соль.
Мир твой хрупок как стекло,
Ну как же так?
Голоса во мне, кошмары во сне!
Манит меня на край, в бездну, в бездну толкают...
Я знаю этот план, мне в руки мяч дан,
Я биться буду сам, я знаю, как я сыграю.
Крутится земля...
И нет мне места, как мне жить без тебя не знаю.
Всё равно, мне на дно, рано знайте
Удачи, близок миг, но давит горло КРИК!
Я дождусь, я пробьюсь, это мой мир
Мечту почти достиг, но режет горло КРИК!
В глухие стены бьюсь, разрушить их стремлюсь.
Бой с самим собой, мой выдох, дальше и больше.
Свой поймать успех, но не ради всех,
Хочу стать собою, только, только собою
Выбрать, знать давно...
Выбрать свою