Oriya

Jul 15, 2011 | Blog

Oriya is an Indian language mainly spoken in the Indian state of Orissa. It is one of the 22 languages officially recognized in India. In total, there are approximately 31 million Oriya speakers. The dialects of Oriya can be divided into seven major groups. One of the dialects, Mughalbandi Oriya, is considered as proper or standard Oriya due to literary...

Norwegian – Norsk

Jul 15, 2011 | Blog

A North Germanic language, Norwegian derived from the Indo-European language family. Swedish and Danish have similar historical background with Norwegian as Danish was the official language of Norway from the 16th to the 19th centuries. There are about 5 million Norwegian speakers in the world. Norwegian can be categorized into 5 main dialects which are quite different from each other, especially in the two official writing forms regulated by the Norwegian Language Council. Even some native speakers sometimes find it difficult to read Nynorsk “new Norwegian” and Bokmal “book...

Nepali – नेपाली

Jul 15, 2011 | Blog

Nepali is a language in the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European language family. It is the official language not only of the country of Nepal, but is also one of the 22 official languages of India. It is also widely spoken in Bhutan and Burma. There are around 15 million native Nepali speakers but also as many as 126 listed languages /dialects spoken in Nepal. Nepali is categorized into three main dialects: Eastern, Central, and Western. However, differences are relatively unclear because there is little historical separation or development as in other...

Mongolian – монгол

Jul 15, 2011 | Blog

Mongolian is spoken mainly in Mongolia. It belongs to the Altaic language family and is most closely related to Turkish. In fact, many people in the western part of Mongolia speak a dialect of Turkish. The total number of speakers in the world is estimated at 5 million. The most recognised dialect is Khalkha, which is spoken in the capital city of Mongolia, Ulaanbaatar and other parts of Mongolia. There are estimated to be over 2 million words in Mongolian, and eight different writing systems have been used throughout its history. In the early 20th century, both Latin and Cyrillic alphabets were adopted. The classic writing style which is written vertically was used until the Mongolian government decided to abolish it in 1940. However, since 1994 efforts have been made to bring it back. In fact, it is taught in some schools and used for decorative purposes by artists and...

Moldavian – лимба молдовеняскэ

Jul 15, 2011 | Blog

The official language of Moldova is Moldavian, spoken by about 2.6 million people. However, Ukrainian, Russian and Gagauz are also widely spoken there. It is closely related to Romanian but on the other hand, it is said that Moldavian is a dialect of Romanian because the spoken language is closer to the dialects of Romanian spoken in north-eastern Romania. Therefore there is much debate about whether Moldavian is a dialect of Romanian, or a separate language. According to linguistic studies, it is considered the same language as Romanian. However, the constitution of Moldova has indentified Moldavian as the official language of the country rather than Romanian. Also, Moldovan people have long alleged their linguistic identity from Romania. Many scholars have been researching this interesting language...

Marathi – मराठी

Jul 15, 2011 | Blog

Marathi is an Indo-Aryan language spoken mainly in the Indian state of Maharashtra and neighbouring states. It is the official language of the state of Maharashtra as well as in the neighbouring state of Goa. An estimated 70 million native Marathi speakers can be found in the world today, with approximately 20 million additional second-language Marathi speakers, bringing the total number to about 90 million. It is believed to be 1300 years old and evolved from Sanskrit through Prakrit and Apabhramsha. Like many Indian languages, Marathi has many dialects. The standard Marathi is based on the Pune region dialect which is used in academia and print media. This standardized dialect is also considered a posh language in the...