Of the Uralic language family, Hungarian is also known as Magyar. Its grammar and vocabulary are completely different from other European languages. Hungarian is directly derived from the language that was spoken by the Huns. Finnish and Estonian are the only related languages to Hungarian. Hungary’s old traditions and its unique language are still the same as in the past times, although the country is more than 1,000 years old and many things have changed in its long history. There are a total of 16 million speakers and one third live outside Hungary. One distinctive writing form in Hungarian is that the family name is followed by the given name. It became an official European Union language in...
The word “Hmong” means “Free People” and the Hmong people are thought to have migrated from Siberia and Southeast Asia to other countries. Therefore this minority ethnic group can be found in several Asian and Western countries such as the United States, South-western China, Thailand, Laos and more. Hmong is also the common name for a group of dialects of the Hmong-Mien/Miao-Yao language family. The total number of speakers worldwide has been estimated to be more than 4 million. “Pahawh”, the unique alphabet of Hmong, was created using 81 symbols in 1959. Since the end of the 19th century, more than 20 Hmong writing systems have been created that are influenced by Chinese, Lao, Russian, Thai, and...
The Hindi language, from the Indo-European family, is one of the oldest and most spoken languages in the world. About 550 million people speak Hindi in India and 16 other countries, and the total number of people who understand the language may be as high as 800 million. On January 26, 1965, Hindi became the official language of India, although English and 21 other languages are recognized as official languages by the Constitution of India. Believe it or not, 11 more languages are spoken besides the 22 official languages and it is said that 2000 dialects have been identified in India. One of the most important dialects is Khariboli, which is used by the government and taught in schools. This dialect is a variation of the Urdu/Hindi language. Nowadays, Hindi’s popularity has been helped by Bollywood, the Hindi film industry. These movies have an international appeal and have now broken into western markets as...
A Semitic language, Hebrew is one of the oldest languages in the world. Hebrew is known as the language of the Bible. It is spoken in Israel, where it is an official language along with Arabic with 9 million speakers and a further 8 million speak the language in other countries. It was the language of the early Jews, but it was replaced by Aramaic from 586 BC. By 70 AD, Hebrew was extinct as a daily language, but it was continuingly used for literary and religious purposes and also used as a lingua franca by Jewish people in different countries. Hebrew has two dialects: the Jewish dialect and the Samaritan...
Haitian Creole is a Creole language spoken mainly in Haiti with 8.5 million speakers and another 3.5 million speakers in a number of other countries. Haitian Creole is based largely on French and is also influenced by various West African languages. Some speakers are bilingual in Haitian Creole and French. Since Haiti claimed independence in 1804, French had been used as the official language in Haiti. However, Haitian Creole was accepted as the official language along with French in 1961. Only a small minority of Haitians can speak French fluently. Haitian Creole has three main dialects: Northern, Center, and...
Gujarati (also known as Gojarati or Gujerati) is the official language of the State of Gujarat, India and one of the 22 official languages recognized by the Government of India with about 46 million speakers worldwide. The roots of Gujarati can be found in the Indo-Aryan language family. It is well known as the first language of Mohandas K. Gandhi, the “Father of India”, Mohammad Ali Jinnah, the “father of Pakistan” and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, the “Iron Man of India”. The history of Gujarati can be distinguished in 3 historical periods: the Old, Middle, and Modern. Regional dialects in India differ every 50 kilometres or...
