Thursday, May 28, 2015

Challenge 52 in 52: Czech (Bohemian)

Czech, historically also Bohemian, is a West Slavic language of the Czech–Slovak group. Spoken by over 10 million people, it serves as the official language of the Czech Republic. Czech is closely related to Slovak, to the point of mutual intelligibility to a very high degree. Like other Slavic languages, Czech is a fusional language with a rich system of morphology and relatively flexible word order. Its vocabulary has been extensively influenced by Latin and German.

The Czech–Slovak group developed within West Slavic in the high medieval period, and the standardization of Czech and Slovak within the Czech–Slovak dialect continuum emerged in the early modern period. In the later 18th to mid-19th century, the modern written standard became codified in the context of the Czech National Revival. The main non-standard variety, known as Common Czech, is based on the vernacular of Prague, but is now spoken as an interdialect throughout most of the Czech Republic. The Moravian dialects spoken in the eastern part of the country are also classified as Czech, although some of their eastern variants are closer to Slovak.

Czech has a moderately-sized phoneme inventory, comprising ten monophthongs, three diphthongs and 25 consonants (divided into "hard", "neutral" and "soft" categories). Words may contain complicated consonant clusters or lack vowels altogether. Czech has a raised alveolar trill, which is not known to occur as a phoneme in any other language, represented by the grapheme ř. Czech uses a simple orthography which phonologists have used as a model.


Czech language on Wikipedia
on Omniglot

Friday, May 22, 2015

Lithuanian, day 2



Šiandien šiandien yra diena, kai pasitaukia sutema
Today, today is the day when - what? "dude"? nightfall/dusk/twilight? comes
Visai
All right, totally, fully, wholy
Vėl ant kojų
again on his feet
Ateik ateik ir prilaikyk, dar skauda man bet iš visų jėgų atsistoju
Come, come an hold me, it still hurts but I'll stand with all my might?
Nereik, nereik keršyt tiems kurie tiek degino ir tiems kurie tiek skandino
No need, no need to take revenge? get angry with those who are both burned and drowned?
Tegul, tegul žudys mintis kad šitaip stengiasi, ir mums nė vėlnio, bet mums nė vėlnio
let's let's kill the idea that this is how it's done and we won't be late, but we won't be late?
Ei, nemirtingi, mes einam žemyn, mes einam žemyn, nuo to liūdno kalno
No, immortal, we'll descent, we'll descent that sad mountain
Eina ramios širdys, neriam gilyn, mes neriam gilyn į pasaulio delną pilną deimantų dulkių, deimantų dulkių visiems
There's calm heart, take a deep breath, we'll dig deep into world's palm full of diamond dust, diamond dust for everyone

Tenai, tenai man virš galvos sparnuoti demonai išalkę sielų vėl ratą suka
There, there winged demons, hungry souls circulate over my head
Neleis, neleis tavęs sužeist, auksiniu skydu bus švelnumas tavo ir tavo lupos
Will not let, will not let you be hurt, your tenderness and your lips will be the golden shield

Ei, nemirtingi, mes einam žemyn, mes einam žemyn, nuo to liūdno kalno
Eina ramios širdys, neriam gilyn, mes neriam gilyn į pasaulio delną

Ei, nemirtingi, mes einam žemyn, mes einam žemyn, nuo to liūdno kalno
Eina ramios širdys, neriam gilyn, mes neriam gilyn į pasaulio delną

Lyg pažastų, ragauti dei - man, deimantų dulkių naujų
Like arms, to taste dia-mon, diamond dust new?
***
Šiandien, šiandien yra diena, kai pasitaukia sutema
Visai
Aaaaaaaaa
Šiandien šiandien yra diena, kai pasitaukia sutema
Visai, vėl ant kojų
Ateik, ateik ir prilaikyk dar skauda man, bet iš visų jėgų atsistoju
Iš visų jėgų atsistoju
Iš visų jėgų atsistoju

I really don't get this, but... 

And here's a list of Lithuanian tv series, to pick one to watch

Thursday, May 7, 2015

Challenge 52 in 52: Yiddish

Yiddish is the historical language of the Ashkenazi Jews. It originated during the 9th century in Central Europe, providing the nascent Ashkenazi community with a High German-based vernacular fused with elements taken from Hebrew and Aramaic as well as from Slavic languages and traces of Romance languages. Yiddish is written with a fully vocalized version of the Hebrew alphabet.

The earliest surviving references date from the 12th century and call the language לשון־אַשכּנז‎ (loshn-ashknaz, "language of Ashkenaz") or טײַטש‎ (taytsh), a variant of tiutsch, the contemporary name for Middle High German. Colloquially, the language is sometimes called מאַמע־לשון‎ (mame-loshn, lit. "mother tongue"), distinguishing it from לשון־קודש‎ (loshn koydesh, "holy tongue"), meaning Hebrew and Aramaic. The term "Yiddish", short for Yidish Taitsh ("Jewish German"), did not become the most frequently used designation in the literature until the 18th century. In the late 19th and into the 20th century the language was more commonly called "Jewish", especially in non-Jewish contexts,[clarification needed] but "Yiddish" is again the more common designation today.

Modern Yiddish has two major forms. Eastern Yiddish is far more common today. It includes Southeastern (Ukrainian–Romanian), Mideastern (Polish–Galician–Eastern Hungarian), and Northeastern (Lithuanian–Belarusian) dialects. Eastern Yiddish differs from Western both by its far greater size and by the extensive inclusion of words of Slavic origin. Western Yiddish is divided into Southwestern (Swiss–Alsatian–Southern German), Midwestern (Central German), and Northwestern (Netherlandic–Northern German) dialects. Yiddish is used in a number of Haredi Jewish communities worldwide; it is the first language of the home, school, and in many social settings among many Haredi Jews, and is used in most Hasidic and some Lithuanian yeshivas.

The term "Yiddish" is also used in the adjectival sense, synonymously with "Jewish", to designate attributes of Yiddishkeit ("Ashkenazi culture"; for example, Yiddish cooking and "Yiddish music" - klezmer).

Prior to the Holocaust, there were 11–13 million speakers of Yiddish among 17 million Jews worldwide. 85% of the approximately 6 million Jews who died in the Holocaust were Yiddish speakers, leading to a massive decline in the use of the language. Assimilation following World War II and aliyah, immigration to Israel, further decreased the use of Yiddish both among survivors and among Yiddish-speakers from other countries (such as in the Americas). However, the number of speakers is increasing in Hasidic communities.