Zaparoan
(Also Sáparoan, Záparo, Zaparoano, Zaparoana) is a endangered language family of Peru and Ecuador with less than 700 speakers.
Zapotec
The Zapotec are an indigenous people of Mexico. Their language group, also called Zapotec, consists of more than fifteen languages.
Zazaki
Is a language spoken by Zazas in eastern Anatolia (Turkey). Is a part of the northwestern group of the Iranian section of the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European family. The US State Department "Background Note" lists Zaza as one of the major languages of Turkey, along with Turkish (official), Kurdish, Armenian, Greek, and Arabic.
Zhuang
Is used by the Zhuang people in the People's Republic of China. Most of them live in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. Zhuang, which belongs to the Tai language group, is an official language in that region. However, use of the language is rapidly declining as the Zhuang assimilate to the Han Chinese. Standardized Zhuang is based on the dialect of Wuming County.
Zulu
Is a language of the Zulu people with about 10 million speakers, the vast majority (over 95%) of whom live in South Africa. Zulu is the most widely spoken home language in South Africa (24% of the population) as well as being understood by over 50% of the population. It became one of South Africa's 11 official languages in 1994 at the end of apartheid.
Zuni
(Also Zuñi or Shiwi) is spoken by over 10,000 people in New Mexico and much smaller numbers in parts of Arizona. Its speakers are known as the Zuni.
Zay
Is one of the Ethiopic languages. It is spoken by about 4,880 members of the Zay people on the islands and shores of Lake Zway in southern Ethiopia. It is also known as Zway, or Lak'i/Laqi in the neighboring language Oromo.
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Y
Yaeyama
(Yaeyama: yaimamunii) is a language spoken by around 44,650 people in the Yaeyama Islands, south of the Miyako area of the Ryukyus. It is a Ryukyuan language, most closely related to Miyako. It can be separated into several dialect groupings, named after the islands they are found on: Ishigaki, Iriomote and Taketomi.
Yakut
Is a Turkic language with around 363,000 speakers that is spoken in the Sakha Republic in the Russian Federation. Its speakers are known as the Sakha or the Yakuts.
Yankunytjatjara
(Also Yankuntatjara, Jangkundjara, Kulpantja) is an Australian Aboriginal language. It is one of the Wati languages of the large South-West branch of the Pama-Nyungan family. It is one of the varieties of the Western Desert Language.
Yanomami
The name generally refers to a people who live in an area that spans parts of the northwest Amazon Rainforest and southern Orinoco, share the culture, and who speak Yanomaman languages, which include Yanomamö and Sanima. Traditionally, a Yanomami village is a relatively temporary wood and thatch house called a shabono. The shabono is circular in shape and surrounds a central open space. Each family has their own area within the shabono. The Yanomami are known as hunters, fishers, and horticulturists, cultivating as their main crops plantains and cassava in "gardens," areas of the forest cleared for cultivation. They do not have fully agricultural lands as some other tribes do, however.
Yanyuwa
(Also Yanyula, Anyula) language is spoken by the Yanyuwa people around the settlement of Borroloola (Yanyuwa burrulula) in the Northern Territory, Australia. Yanyuwa, like many Australian Aboriginal languages, is a complex agglutinative language whose grammar is pervaded by a set of sixteen noun classes, whose agreements are complicated and numerous. Yanyuwa is ergative. Yanyuwa is critically endangered, with just four native speakers remaining.
Yapese
Is a language spoken by 6,600 people on the island of Yap (Federated States of Micronesia). It belongs to the Austronesian languages, more specifically to the Oceanic languages. It has been suggested that Yapese may be one of the Admiralty Island languages. Written Yapese uses Latin script. The glottal stop used to be marked with an apostrophe, but that has been replaced with the letter 'q'. This explains the enormous quantity of q's in Yapese place names.
Yaqui
(Yoem Noki), or Yoeme, is a Native American language of the Uto-Aztecan family. It is spoken by about 15,000 people, mostly of the border Yaqui tribe, in the region around the Mexican state of Sonora, and by about 350 people in Arizona in the United States.
Yauma
Is spoken in Angola and Zambia in the Kwando River area.
Yavapai
Is a Native American language quite similar to Havasupai and Walapai. It is spoken by the eponymous tribe in Arizona.
Yemenite Hebrew language
Is a descendant of Biblical Hebrew traditionally used by Yemenite Jews. It is believed by some scholars that its phonology was heavily influenced by Yemeni-spoken Arabic. Yet, according to other scholars as well as Yemenite Jewish Rabbis such as Rabbi Yosef Qafah the Temani Hebrew dialect was not influenced by Yemenite Arabic, as this type of Arabic was also spoken by Yemenite Jews and is distinct from the liturgical Hebrew and the coversational Hebrew of the communities.
Yeni
Is an extinct language of Cameroon, formerly spoken around Djeni Mountain in the Nyalang area. All that remains of the language, apparently, is a song remembered by some Sandani-speakers. However, according to Bruce Connell (the first linguist to report its existence, in 1995), comparison of the song's words to neighboring languages suggests that "it was closely related to Cambap, Njerep, and Kasabe.
Yevanic
Otherwise known as Romaniote and Judeo-Greek, was the dialect of the Romaniotes, the group of Greek Jews whose existence in Greece is documented since the Hellenistic period. Its linguistic lineage stems from the Hellenistic Koine and includes Hebrew elements as well. It was mutually intelligible with Greek of the Christian population. The Romaniotes used their version of the Hebrew alphabet to write Greek and Yevanic texts.
There are no longer any native speakers of Yevanic, for the following reasons: the assimilation of the tiny Romaniote communities by the larger Ladino-speaking Sephardi Jews, the adoption of Greek, Turkish and Bulgarian through assimilation; the emigration of many of the Romaniotes to Israel and the United States; the ideology of Zionism, which favored Hebrew as the one language for all Jews.
Yi
(Also Moso, Lolo, Noso, etc.) is a family of closely related Tibeto-Burman languages spoken by the Yi people. Although linguists still use the term Lolo or Loloish, the Yi people themselves regard it as pejorative.
Yiddish
Is a Germanic language spoken by about three million people throughout the world, predominantly Ashkenazi Jews. The name Yiddish itself is Yiddish for "Jewish" (compare German jüdisch) and is likely an abbreviated rendition of yidish-taytsh (compare German jüdisch-deutsch) or "Jewish German". Its earliest historical phase (13th-14th centuries), was formerly referred to as Judeo-German. This designation was rejected by Max Weinreich who pointed out that it overlooked the fact that Yiddish from its inception was an autonomous system analogous to other Jewish languages.
Yokutsan
(Also Yokuts) is an endangered language family spoken in the interior of southern California in and around the San Joaquin valley by the Yokut tribe. The speakers of Yokutsan languages were severely affected by disease, missionaries, and the Gold Rush: most are now extinct.
Yonaguni
Is a language spoken by around 1800 people on the island of Yonaguni, in Japan, just east of Taiwan. It is a Ryukyuan language, most closely related to Yaeyama.
Yoruba
Is a dialect continuum of West Africa with over 22 million speakers. The native tongue of the Yoruba people, it is spoken, among other languages, in Nigeria, Benin, and Togo and traces of it are found among communities in Brazil and Cuba (where it is called Nago). Yoruba is an isolating, tonal language with SVO syntax. Apart from referring to the aggregate of dialects and their speakers, the term Yoruba is used for the standard, written form of the language. Yoruba is classified as a Niger-Congo language of the Yoruboid branch of Defoid, Benue-Congo.
Yucatec Maya
Is a Mayan language spoken in the Yucatán Peninsula, northern Belize and parts of Guatemala. To native speakers, it is known only as Maya - Yucatec is a tag linguists use to distinguish it from other Mayan languages (such as the Quiché language and the Lacandon language). Yucatec is an agglutinative language and so because of this many words in Yucatec can end up being very long. There are a great number of root words, prefixes, suffixes and affixes utilised in Yucatec Mayan.
Yucatec Maya Sign Language
Is used in the Yucatán region in Mexico by both hearing and deaf members of a number of traditional Mayan communities with unusually high numbers of deaf inhabitants. It is a natural complex language, which is not related to Mexican Sign Language, but may have similarities with sign languages found in nearby Guatemala. As the hearing villagers are competent in the sign language, the deaf inhabitants seem to be well integrated in the community - in contrast to the marginalisation of deaf people in the wider community. The spoken language of the community is Yucatec Maya language.
Yuchi
Is the language of the Yuchi people living in the southeastern United States, including eastern Tennessee, western Carolinas, northern Georgia and Alabama, in the period of early European colonization. However, speakers of the Yuchi language were forcibly relocated to Oklahoma in the early 1800s. Due to assimilation into Muscogee and English-speaking culture, only a few elderly speakers of the Yuchi language remain.
Yukaghir
Are a family of related languages spoken in Russia by the Yukaghir, a Mongoloid people in Siberia, living in the basin of the Kolyma River. The only two extant members are:
- Northern Yukaghir (also known as Jukagir, Odul, Tundra, Tundre, Yukagir) and
- Southern Yukaghir (also known as Jukagir, Kolym, Kolyma, Odul, Southern Yukagir, Yukagir)
Yupik
The Yupik people speak five distinct languages, depending on their location. The languages differ enough from one another that speakers of different ones cannot understand each other, although they may understand the general idea of a conversation of speakers of another of the languages. The Yupik languages are in the family of Eskimo-Aleut languages. The Aleut and Eskimo languages diverged about 2000 B.C., and the Yupik languages diverged from each other and from Inuktitut about 1000 A.D.
Yurats
Is a Samoyedic language formerly spoken in the Siberian tundra west of the Yenisei River.
Yurok
(Also Weitspekan) is a moribund Algic language. It is the traditional language of the Yurok tribe of northwestern California, USA, most of whom now speak English. The standard reference on the Yurok language is the grammar by Robins (1958).
(Yaeyama: yaimamunii) is a language spoken by around 44,650 people in the Yaeyama Islands, south of the Miyako area of the Ryukyus. It is a Ryukyuan language, most closely related to Miyako. It can be separated into several dialect groupings, named after the islands they are found on: Ishigaki, Iriomote and Taketomi.
Yakut
Is a Turkic language with around 363,000 speakers that is spoken in the Sakha Republic in the Russian Federation. Its speakers are known as the Sakha or the Yakuts.
Yankunytjatjara
(Also Yankuntatjara, Jangkundjara, Kulpantja) is an Australian Aboriginal language. It is one of the Wati languages of the large South-West branch of the Pama-Nyungan family. It is one of the varieties of the Western Desert Language.
Yanomami
The name generally refers to a people who live in an area that spans parts of the northwest Amazon Rainforest and southern Orinoco, share the culture, and who speak Yanomaman languages, which include Yanomamö and Sanima. Traditionally, a Yanomami village is a relatively temporary wood and thatch house called a shabono. The shabono is circular in shape and surrounds a central open space. Each family has their own area within the shabono. The Yanomami are known as hunters, fishers, and horticulturists, cultivating as their main crops plantains and cassava in "gardens," areas of the forest cleared for cultivation. They do not have fully agricultural lands as some other tribes do, however.
Yanyuwa
(Also Yanyula, Anyula) language is spoken by the Yanyuwa people around the settlement of Borroloola (Yanyuwa burrulula) in the Northern Territory, Australia. Yanyuwa, like many Australian Aboriginal languages, is a complex agglutinative language whose grammar is pervaded by a set of sixteen noun classes, whose agreements are complicated and numerous. Yanyuwa is ergative. Yanyuwa is critically endangered, with just four native speakers remaining.
Yapese
Is a language spoken by 6,600 people on the island of Yap (Federated States of Micronesia). It belongs to the Austronesian languages, more specifically to the Oceanic languages. It has been suggested that Yapese may be one of the Admiralty Island languages. Written Yapese uses Latin script. The glottal stop used to be marked with an apostrophe, but that has been replaced with the letter 'q'. This explains the enormous quantity of q's in Yapese place names.
Yaqui
(Yoem Noki), or Yoeme, is a Native American language of the Uto-Aztecan family. It is spoken by about 15,000 people, mostly of the border Yaqui tribe, in the region around the Mexican state of Sonora, and by about 350 people in Arizona in the United States.
Yauma
Is spoken in Angola and Zambia in the Kwando River area.
Yavapai
Is a Native American language quite similar to Havasupai and Walapai. It is spoken by the eponymous tribe in Arizona.
Yemenite Hebrew language
Is a descendant of Biblical Hebrew traditionally used by Yemenite Jews. It is believed by some scholars that its phonology was heavily influenced by Yemeni-spoken Arabic. Yet, according to other scholars as well as Yemenite Jewish Rabbis such as Rabbi Yosef Qafah the Temani Hebrew dialect was not influenced by Yemenite Arabic, as this type of Arabic was also spoken by Yemenite Jews and is distinct from the liturgical Hebrew and the coversational Hebrew of the communities.
Yeni
Is an extinct language of Cameroon, formerly spoken around Djeni Mountain in the Nyalang area. All that remains of the language, apparently, is a song remembered by some Sandani-speakers. However, according to Bruce Connell (the first linguist to report its existence, in 1995), comparison of the song's words to neighboring languages suggests that "it was closely related to Cambap, Njerep, and Kasabe.
Yevanic
Otherwise known as Romaniote and Judeo-Greek, was the dialect of the Romaniotes, the group of Greek Jews whose existence in Greece is documented since the Hellenistic period. Its linguistic lineage stems from the Hellenistic Koine and includes Hebrew elements as well. It was mutually intelligible with Greek of the Christian population. The Romaniotes used their version of the Hebrew alphabet to write Greek and Yevanic texts.
There are no longer any native speakers of Yevanic, for the following reasons: the assimilation of the tiny Romaniote communities by the larger Ladino-speaking Sephardi Jews, the adoption of Greek, Turkish and Bulgarian through assimilation; the emigration of many of the Romaniotes to Israel and the United States; the ideology of Zionism, which favored Hebrew as the one language for all Jews.
Yi
(Also Moso, Lolo, Noso, etc.) is a family of closely related Tibeto-Burman languages spoken by the Yi people. Although linguists still use the term Lolo or Loloish, the Yi people themselves regard it as pejorative.
Yiddish
Is a Germanic language spoken by about three million people throughout the world, predominantly Ashkenazi Jews. The name Yiddish itself is Yiddish for "Jewish" (compare German jüdisch) and is likely an abbreviated rendition of yidish-taytsh (compare German jüdisch-deutsch) or "Jewish German". Its earliest historical phase (13th-14th centuries), was formerly referred to as Judeo-German. This designation was rejected by Max Weinreich who pointed out that it overlooked the fact that Yiddish from its inception was an autonomous system analogous to other Jewish languages.
Yokutsan
(Also Yokuts) is an endangered language family spoken in the interior of southern California in and around the San Joaquin valley by the Yokut tribe. The speakers of Yokutsan languages were severely affected by disease, missionaries, and the Gold Rush: most are now extinct.
Yonaguni
Is a language spoken by around 1800 people on the island of Yonaguni, in Japan, just east of Taiwan. It is a Ryukyuan language, most closely related to Yaeyama.
Yoruba
Is a dialect continuum of West Africa with over 22 million speakers. The native tongue of the Yoruba people, it is spoken, among other languages, in Nigeria, Benin, and Togo and traces of it are found among communities in Brazil and Cuba (where it is called Nago). Yoruba is an isolating, tonal language with SVO syntax. Apart from referring to the aggregate of dialects and their speakers, the term Yoruba is used for the standard, written form of the language. Yoruba is classified as a Niger-Congo language of the Yoruboid branch of Defoid, Benue-Congo.
Yucatec Maya
Is a Mayan language spoken in the Yucatán Peninsula, northern Belize and parts of Guatemala. To native speakers, it is known only as Maya - Yucatec is a tag linguists use to distinguish it from other Mayan languages (such as the Quiché language and the Lacandon language). Yucatec is an agglutinative language and so because of this many words in Yucatec can end up being very long. There are a great number of root words, prefixes, suffixes and affixes utilised in Yucatec Mayan.
Yucatec Maya Sign Language
Is used in the Yucatán region in Mexico by both hearing and deaf members of a number of traditional Mayan communities with unusually high numbers of deaf inhabitants. It is a natural complex language, which is not related to Mexican Sign Language, but may have similarities with sign languages found in nearby Guatemala. As the hearing villagers are competent in the sign language, the deaf inhabitants seem to be well integrated in the community - in contrast to the marginalisation of deaf people in the wider community. The spoken language of the community is Yucatec Maya language.
Yuchi
Is the language of the Yuchi people living in the southeastern United States, including eastern Tennessee, western Carolinas, northern Georgia and Alabama, in the period of early European colonization. However, speakers of the Yuchi language were forcibly relocated to Oklahoma in the early 1800s. Due to assimilation into Muscogee and English-speaking culture, only a few elderly speakers of the Yuchi language remain.
Yukaghir
Are a family of related languages spoken in Russia by the Yukaghir, a Mongoloid people in Siberia, living in the basin of the Kolyma River. The only two extant members are:
- Northern Yukaghir (also known as Jukagir, Odul, Tundra, Tundre, Yukagir) and
- Southern Yukaghir (also known as Jukagir, Kolym, Kolyma, Odul, Southern Yukagir, Yukagir)
Yupik
The Yupik people speak five distinct languages, depending on their location. The languages differ enough from one another that speakers of different ones cannot understand each other, although they may understand the general idea of a conversation of speakers of another of the languages. The Yupik languages are in the family of Eskimo-Aleut languages. The Aleut and Eskimo languages diverged about 2000 B.C., and the Yupik languages diverged from each other and from Inuktitut about 1000 A.D.
Yurats
Is a Samoyedic language formerly spoken in the Siberian tundra west of the Yenisei River.
Yurok
(Also Weitspekan) is a moribund Algic language. It is the traditional language of the Yurok tribe of northwestern California, USA, most of whom now speak English. The standard reference on the Yurok language is the grammar by Robins (1958).
X
|Xam
Is an extinct Khoisan language of South Africa, part of the !Kwi language group. It was closely related to the N/u language, which still has a few speakers. The bar symbol in the name "|Xam" represents a click like the English interjection tsk! tsk! used to express pity or shame. The "x" represents the ch sound of Scottish loch, German Bach, or Hebrew Chanukkah. Run tsk! Chanukkah together into a single word, and you're very close to the sound of |Xam.
Xhosa
Is one of the official languages of South Africa. It is spoken by approximately 7.9 million people, about 18% of the South African population. Click consonants feature prominently in the sounds of this language. Even the name, "Xhosa", begins with a click.
Xiang
Also Hunan, Hunanese, or Hsiang, is a subdivision of spoken Chinese. Xiang is spoken by over 36 million people in China, primarily in Hunan province, and also in over 20 counties in Sichuan, and parts of Guangxi and Guangdong provinces.
!Xóõ
Is a Khoisan language with a very large number of phonemes, the most of any known language. These include many clicks and vowel phonations. !Xóõ is spoken in Botswana (mainly) and Namibia by about 4,200 people as of 2002.
Xu
May refer to any one of several southern African Khoisan languages: !Kung language or Kxoe language. !Kung or !’O!Kung is a group of northern dialects of the Ju dialect continuum, which is generally classified as part of the Khoisan language family. !Kung is spoken in northern Namibia and southern Angola by perhaps 15,000 Saan, though this number is uncertain due to the possibility of double counting populations that go by more than one name. Kxoe is a Khoisan dialect continuum of Namibia, Angola, Botswana, South Africa, and a few in Zambia, with some 11,000 speakers. It is learned locally as a second language in Namibia. There is currently a dictionary of the Kxoe language.
Is an extinct Khoisan language of South Africa, part of the !Kwi language group. It was closely related to the N/u language, which still has a few speakers. The bar symbol in the name "|Xam" represents a click like the English interjection tsk! tsk! used to express pity or shame. The "x" represents the ch sound of Scottish loch, German Bach, or Hebrew Chanukkah. Run tsk! Chanukkah together into a single word, and you're very close to the sound of |Xam.
Xhosa
Is one of the official languages of South Africa. It is spoken by approximately 7.9 million people, about 18% of the South African population. Click consonants feature prominently in the sounds of this language. Even the name, "Xhosa", begins with a click.
Xiang
Also Hunan, Hunanese, or Hsiang, is a subdivision of spoken Chinese. Xiang is spoken by over 36 million people in China, primarily in Hunan province, and also in over 20 counties in Sichuan, and parts of Guangxi and Guangdong provinces.
!Xóõ
Is a Khoisan language with a very large number of phonemes, the most of any known language. These include many clicks and vowel phonations. !Xóõ is spoken in Botswana (mainly) and Namibia by about 4,200 people as of 2002.
Xu
May refer to any one of several southern African Khoisan languages: !Kung language or Kxoe language. !Kung or !’O!Kung is a group of northern dialects of the Ju dialect continuum, which is generally classified as part of the Khoisan language family. !Kung is spoken in northern Namibia and southern Angola by perhaps 15,000 Saan, though this number is uncertain due to the possibility of double counting populations that go by more than one name. Kxoe is a Khoisan dialect continuum of Namibia, Angola, Botswana, South Africa, and a few in Zambia, with some 11,000 speakers. It is learned locally as a second language in Namibia. There is currently a dictionary of the Kxoe language.
W
Waima
(Sometimes known as Roro, though this is strictly the name of one dialect of Waima) is a Nuclear West Central Papuan language of the Oceanic group of Malayo-Polynesian languages, spoken in Papua New Guinea by 15,000 people.
Wakhi Tajiki
Is an Iranian language in the subbranch of Southeastern Iranian languages (see Pamir languages). Wakhi Tajiks are also known as Pamiri Tajiks or Mountain Tajiks. The origin of this language is Wakhan in the extreme northeast of Afghanistan. A very rough estimate of the population of Wakhi Tajiks is 50,000 worldwide. Wakhi people live in four different countries. In the northern areas of Pakistan the Wakhi people mainly live in Gojal, Ishkoman, Darkut, and Broghol. They also live in many parts of Tajikistan, Afghanistan, and China. The religion of the Wakhi Tajiks is Shia Ismaili Islam; they are followers of Prince Karim Aga Khan.
Walloon
Is a regional Romance language spoken as a second language by some in Wallonie (Belgium). It belongs to the langue d'oïl language family, whose most prominent member is the French language, and is sometimes considered a French dialect. Walloon should not be confused with Belgian French, which differs from the French of France only in some minor points of vocabulary and pronunciation.
Wáray-Wáray
(Commonly spelled as Waray-Waray; also referred to as Winaray or L(in) eyte-Samarnon) is a language spoken in the provinces of Samar, Northern Samar, Eastern Samar, Leyte (eastern portion), and Biliran in the Philippines. It belongs to the Visayan language family and is related to Cebuano and more closely to Hiligaynon.
Washo
(Also "Washoe") is an endangered Native American language isolate spoken by the Washoe on the California-Nevada border in the drainages of Truckee and Carson rivers, especially around Lake Tahoe. While there are very few speakers of Washo today (only 10), there are Washo language programs aimed at increasing the number of proficient speakers. Washo belongs to the Great Basin culture area and is the only non-Numic group of that area. The language has borrowed from the neighboring Uto-Aztecan, Maiduan, Miwokan languages and is connected to both the Great Basin and California Sprachbunds.
Welsh
Is a member of the Brythonic branch of Celtic spoken natively in Wales (Cymru), England by some along the Welsh border, and in the Chubut Valley, a Welsh immigrant colony in the Patagonia region of Argentina. There are also speakers of Welsh throughout the world, most notably in the rest of Great Britain, the United States and Australia.
Western Neo-Aramaic
Is a Modern Aramaic language. Today, it is spoken in three villages in the Anti-Lebanon mountains of western Syria. Western Neo-Aramaic is the only living language drawn from the western dialect of Aramaic. All other Neo-Aramaic languages are of the eastern dialect region. Western Neo-Aramaic probably is the surviving remnant of a Western Middle Aramaic dialect which was spoken throughout the Orontes Valley area and into the Anti-Lebanon in the 6th century.
Weyto
Is believed to be an extinct language formerly spoken in the Lake Tana region of Ethiopia by a small group of hippopotamus hunters who now speak Amharic.
Wolof
Is a language spoken in Senegal, the Gambia, and Mauritania, and it is the native language of the ethnic group of the Wolof people. It belongs to the Atlantic branch of the Niger-Congo language family. Wolof is the most widely-spoken language in Senegal, spoken not only by members of the Wolof ethnic group (approximately 40% of the population) but also by most other Senegalese. Wolof dialects may vary between countries (Senegal and the Gambia) and the rural and urban areas. "Dakar-Wolof", for instance, is an urban mixture of Wolof, French, Arabic and English spoken in Dakar, the capital of Senegal.
Wu
Is one of the major divisions of the Chinese language. It is spoken in most of Zhejiang province, the municipality of Shanghai, southern Jiangsu province, as well as smaller parts of Anhui, Jiangxi, and Fujian provinces. Major Wu dialects include those of Shanghai, Suzhou, Wenzhou, Hangzhou, Yongkang and Shaoxing. As of 1991, there are 87 million speakers of Wu Chinese, making it the second largest form of Chinese after Mandarin Chinese (which has 800 million speakers).
(Sometimes known as Roro, though this is strictly the name of one dialect of Waima) is a Nuclear West Central Papuan language of the Oceanic group of Malayo-Polynesian languages, spoken in Papua New Guinea by 15,000 people.
Wakhi Tajiki
Is an Iranian language in the subbranch of Southeastern Iranian languages (see Pamir languages). Wakhi Tajiks are also known as Pamiri Tajiks or Mountain Tajiks. The origin of this language is Wakhan in the extreme northeast of Afghanistan. A very rough estimate of the population of Wakhi Tajiks is 50,000 worldwide. Wakhi people live in four different countries. In the northern areas of Pakistan the Wakhi people mainly live in Gojal, Ishkoman, Darkut, and Broghol. They also live in many parts of Tajikistan, Afghanistan, and China. The religion of the Wakhi Tajiks is Shia Ismaili Islam; they are followers of Prince Karim Aga Khan.
Walloon
Is a regional Romance language spoken as a second language by some in Wallonie (Belgium). It belongs to the langue d'oïl language family, whose most prominent member is the French language, and is sometimes considered a French dialect. Walloon should not be confused with Belgian French, which differs from the French of France only in some minor points of vocabulary and pronunciation.
Wáray-Wáray
(Commonly spelled as Waray-Waray; also referred to as Winaray or L(in) eyte-Samarnon) is a language spoken in the provinces of Samar, Northern Samar, Eastern Samar, Leyte (eastern portion), and Biliran in the Philippines. It belongs to the Visayan language family and is related to Cebuano and more closely to Hiligaynon.
Washo
(Also "Washoe") is an endangered Native American language isolate spoken by the Washoe on the California-Nevada border in the drainages of Truckee and Carson rivers, especially around Lake Tahoe. While there are very few speakers of Washo today (only 10), there are Washo language programs aimed at increasing the number of proficient speakers. Washo belongs to the Great Basin culture area and is the only non-Numic group of that area. The language has borrowed from the neighboring Uto-Aztecan, Maiduan, Miwokan languages and is connected to both the Great Basin and California Sprachbunds.
Welsh
Is a member of the Brythonic branch of Celtic spoken natively in Wales (Cymru), England by some along the Welsh border, and in the Chubut Valley, a Welsh immigrant colony in the Patagonia region of Argentina. There are also speakers of Welsh throughout the world, most notably in the rest of Great Britain, the United States and Australia.
Western Neo-Aramaic
Is a Modern Aramaic language. Today, it is spoken in three villages in the Anti-Lebanon mountains of western Syria. Western Neo-Aramaic is the only living language drawn from the western dialect of Aramaic. All other Neo-Aramaic languages are of the eastern dialect region. Western Neo-Aramaic probably is the surviving remnant of a Western Middle Aramaic dialect which was spoken throughout the Orontes Valley area and into the Anti-Lebanon in the 6th century.
Weyto
Is believed to be an extinct language formerly spoken in the Lake Tana region of Ethiopia by a small group of hippopotamus hunters who now speak Amharic.
Wolof
Is a language spoken in Senegal, the Gambia, and Mauritania, and it is the native language of the ethnic group of the Wolof people. It belongs to the Atlantic branch of the Niger-Congo language family. Wolof is the most widely-spoken language in Senegal, spoken not only by members of the Wolof ethnic group (approximately 40% of the population) but also by most other Senegalese. Wolof dialects may vary between countries (Senegal and the Gambia) and the rural and urban areas. "Dakar-Wolof", for instance, is an urban mixture of Wolof, French, Arabic and English spoken in Dakar, the capital of Senegal.
Wu
Is one of the major divisions of the Chinese language. It is spoken in most of Zhejiang province, the municipality of Shanghai, southern Jiangsu province, as well as smaller parts of Anhui, Jiangxi, and Fujian provinces. Major Wu dialects include those of Shanghai, Suzhou, Wenzhou, Hangzhou, Yongkang and Shaoxing. As of 1991, there are 87 million speakers of Wu Chinese, making it the second largest form of Chinese after Mandarin Chinese (which has 800 million speakers).
V
Vafsi
Is an Iranian language spoken in the Vafs village and surrounding area in the Markazi province of Iran. Vafsi belongs to a branch of Iranian languages called the Central Dialects. Vafsi forms a passage from the Central Dialects to the north-western Iranian languages.
Valencian Sign Language
(LSCV or LSPV)
Is a sign language used by people with hearing impairments in Valencia. Some linguists consider LSCV a variant of Spanish Sign Language (LSE), while others believe it is a dialect of the latter. The vocabulary of LSCV is only 72% similar to that of LSE, so some linguists maintain that the former is unique enough to have its own grammar, as is the case with Catalan Sign Language (LSC).
Venda
Also known as Tshivenda or Chivenda, is a Bantu language. The majority of Venda speakers live in South Africa (where Venda is an official language), but there are also speakers in Zimbabwe. Before South Africa became a democratic country, the bantustan of Venda was set up to cover the Venda speakers of South Africa.
Veps
Spoken by the Vepses, belongs to the Baltic-Finnic group of the Finno-Ugric languages. According to the location of the people, the language is divided into three main dialects: Northern Veps (at Lake Onega to the south of Petrozavodsk, to the north of river Syväri, including the Veps Autonomous Rural district), Central Veps (in the Saint Petersburg region), and Southern Veps (in the Vologda Oblast). The Northern dialect is somewhat more distinct than the others, but it is nevertheless possible for the members of the different dialect groups to understand each other. The speakers of the Northern dialect call themselves Ludi, or Ludilainen. Their speech is sometimes classified as a dialect of Karelian.
Vietnamese
Formerly known under the French colonization as Annamese (see Annam) is the national and official language of Vietnam. It is the mother tongue of Vietnamese people, who constitute 86% of Vietnam's population and of about three million overseas Vietnamese, the bulk of which are Vietnamese Americans. It is also spoken as a second language by some ethnic minorities of Vietnam. It is part of the Austroasiatic language family, of which it has the most speakers by a significant margin (several times larger than the other Austroasiatic languages put together). Much vocabulary has been borrowed from Chinese and was originally written using the Chinese writing system. The Vietnamese writing system in use today is an adapted version of the Latin alphabet, with additional diacritics for tones.
Visayan
The Visayan languages of the Philippines, along with Tagalog and Bikol, are part of the Central Philippine language family. Most Visayan languages are spoken in the Visayas region but they are also spoken in the Bicol Region (particularly in Sorsogon and Masbate), islands south of Luzon such as those that make up Romblon, the northern and western areas of Mindanao, and the province of Sulu located southwest of Mindanao. There are over at least thirty languages that constitute the Visayan language family. The Visayan language with the most speakers is Cebuano, spoken by 20 million people as a native language in Central Visayas, northern and eastern parts of Mindanao. Two other well-known Visayan languages are Hiligaynon, spoken by 7 million in western Visayas and Waray-Waray spoken by 3 million in eastern Visayas.
Votic
Or Votian is the language spoken by the Votes of Ingria. It is closely related to Estonian, it is in the Balto-Finnic subgroup of Finno-Ugric languages. Votic is spoken only in Krakolye and Luzhitsy, two villages in the Kingisepp district, and is close to extinction. In 1989 there were 62 speakers left, the youngest born in 1930. In its 24 December 2005 issue, The Economist wrote that there are only approximately 20 speakers left.
Võro
Is a language belonging to the Finnic branch of the Finno-Ugric languages. It is often considered a dialect of South Estonian or Estonian, but has its own literary language and is in search of official recognition as an autochthonous regional language of Estonia. Võro language has about 70,000 speakers (Võros) mostly in south-eastern Estonia, in the eight parishes of historical Võru County (Võromaa): Karula, Harglõ, Urvastõ, Rõugõ, Kanepi, Põlva, Räpinä, and Vahtsõliina. These parishes are currently centered (due to redistricting) in Võru and Põlva Counties with parts extending into Valga and Tartu counties. Speakers can also be found in the towns of Tallinn, Tartu and the rest of Estonia.
Is an Iranian language spoken in the Vafs village and surrounding area in the Markazi province of Iran. Vafsi belongs to a branch of Iranian languages called the Central Dialects. Vafsi forms a passage from the Central Dialects to the north-western Iranian languages.
Valencian Sign Language
(LSCV or LSPV)
Is a sign language used by people with hearing impairments in Valencia. Some linguists consider LSCV a variant of Spanish Sign Language (LSE), while others believe it is a dialect of the latter. The vocabulary of LSCV is only 72% similar to that of LSE, so some linguists maintain that the former is unique enough to have its own grammar, as is the case with Catalan Sign Language (LSC).
Venda
Also known as Tshivenda or Chivenda, is a Bantu language. The majority of Venda speakers live in South Africa (where Venda is an official language), but there are also speakers in Zimbabwe. Before South Africa became a democratic country, the bantustan of Venda was set up to cover the Venda speakers of South Africa.
Veps
Spoken by the Vepses, belongs to the Baltic-Finnic group of the Finno-Ugric languages. According to the location of the people, the language is divided into three main dialects: Northern Veps (at Lake Onega to the south of Petrozavodsk, to the north of river Syväri, including the Veps Autonomous Rural district), Central Veps (in the Saint Petersburg region), and Southern Veps (in the Vologda Oblast). The Northern dialect is somewhat more distinct than the others, but it is nevertheless possible for the members of the different dialect groups to understand each other. The speakers of the Northern dialect call themselves Ludi, or Ludilainen. Their speech is sometimes classified as a dialect of Karelian.
Vietnamese
Formerly known under the French colonization as Annamese (see Annam) is the national and official language of Vietnam. It is the mother tongue of Vietnamese people, who constitute 86% of Vietnam's population and of about three million overseas Vietnamese, the bulk of which are Vietnamese Americans. It is also spoken as a second language by some ethnic minorities of Vietnam. It is part of the Austroasiatic language family, of which it has the most speakers by a significant margin (several times larger than the other Austroasiatic languages put together). Much vocabulary has been borrowed from Chinese and was originally written using the Chinese writing system. The Vietnamese writing system in use today is an adapted version of the Latin alphabet, with additional diacritics for tones.
Visayan
The Visayan languages of the Philippines, along with Tagalog and Bikol, are part of the Central Philippine language family. Most Visayan languages are spoken in the Visayas region but they are also spoken in the Bicol Region (particularly in Sorsogon and Masbate), islands south of Luzon such as those that make up Romblon, the northern and western areas of Mindanao, and the province of Sulu located southwest of Mindanao. There are over at least thirty languages that constitute the Visayan language family. The Visayan language with the most speakers is Cebuano, spoken by 20 million people as a native language in Central Visayas, northern and eastern parts of Mindanao. Two other well-known Visayan languages are Hiligaynon, spoken by 7 million in western Visayas and Waray-Waray spoken by 3 million in eastern Visayas.
Votic
Or Votian is the language spoken by the Votes of Ingria. It is closely related to Estonian, it is in the Balto-Finnic subgroup of Finno-Ugric languages. Votic is spoken only in Krakolye and Luzhitsy, two villages in the Kingisepp district, and is close to extinction. In 1989 there were 62 speakers left, the youngest born in 1930. In its 24 December 2005 issue, The Economist wrote that there are only approximately 20 speakers left.
Võro
Is a language belonging to the Finnic branch of the Finno-Ugric languages. It is often considered a dialect of South Estonian or Estonian, but has its own literary language and is in search of official recognition as an autochthonous regional language of Estonia. Võro language has about 70,000 speakers (Võros) mostly in south-eastern Estonia, in the eight parishes of historical Võru County (Võromaa): Karula, Harglõ, Urvastõ, Rõugõ, Kanepi, Põlva, Räpinä, and Vahtsõliina. These parishes are currently centered (due to redistricting) in Võru and Põlva Counties with parts extending into Valga and Tartu counties. Speakers can also be found in the towns of Tallinn, Tartu and the rest of Estonia.
U
Ubykh
Or Ubyx is a language of the Northwestern Caucasian group, spoken by the Ubykh people up until the early 1990s.
Udmurt
Is a Finno-Ugric language spoken by the Udmurts, native of the Russian constituent republic of Udmurtia, where it is co-official with the Russian language. It is written with a Cyrillic script. It is linguistically closest to Komi and Komi-Permyak.
Ugaritic
Is only known in the form of writings found in the lost city of Ugarit in Syria since its discovery by French archaeologists in 1928. It has been extremely important for scholars of the Old Testament in clarifying Hebrew texts and has revealed more of how Judaism used common phrases, literary idioms, and expressions employed by surrounding pagan cultures.
Ukrainian
Is a language of the East Slavic subgroup of the Slavic languages. It is the official state language of Ukraine. Ukrainian uses a Cyrillic alphabet. It shares some vocabulary with the languages of the neighboring Slavic nations, most notably with Belarusian, Polish, Russian and Slovak. Ukrainian traces its origins to the Old East Slavic language of the ancient state of Kievan Rus'. The language has persisted despite the two bans by Imperial Russia and political persecution during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Ukrainian has survived mainly due to its broad base among the people of Ukraine, its folklore songs, kobzars, prominent poets like Taras Shevchenko and Lesya Ukrainka.
Unserdeutsch
("Our German"), or Rabaul Creol German, is a German-based creole language spoken primarily in Papua New Guinea and the northeast of Australia. It was formed among the New Guinean children residing in a German-run orphanage. Fewer than 100 native speakers exist today; 15 in New Britain.
Upper Sorbian
Is a minority language of Germany spoken in the historical province of Upper Lusatia, today part of Saxony.
Urdu
Is an Indo-European language of the Indo-Aryan family that developed under Persian, Turkish, Hindi, and Arabic influence in South Asia during the Delhi Sultanate and Mughal Empire (1200-1800). Taken by itself, Urdu is approximately the twentieth most populous natively spoken language in the world, and is the national language of Pakistan as well as one of the 24 national languages of India.
Uripiv
Is a language spoken on Vanuatu. Uripiv is spoken today by about 6,000 people. Literacy rate of Uripiv speakers in their own language is about 10-30%. The language forms a dialect chain with other nearby languages, namely Wala-Rano and Atchin. Uripiv is the most northerly of these languages. Despite the dialect chain, Uripiv still has 85% of its words in common with Atchin, at the opposite (southern) end. Uripiv is classified as an Austronesian language, part of the Malayo-Polynesian bulk of this language group. It falls into the Central Eastern branch of the Malayo-Polynesian languages and the Eastern Malayo-Polynesian subbranch of Central Eastern, which includes Uripiv and other Oceanic languages. It is one of the few well-documented languages that uses the rare bilabial trill.
Urum
Is a Turkic language spoken by several thousand people who inhabit a few villages in the Southeastern Ukraine and in Georgia. The name Urum is derived from the medieval Greek word for Rome designating Constantinople and Greece in general. The Ottoman empire used it to describe non-Muslims within the empire. The initial vowel in Urum is prosthetic: originally Turkic languages did not have r- in word-initial position, and in borrowed words used to add a vowel before it.
Uyghur
Is a Turkic language spoken by the Uyghur people in Xinjiang (also called East Turkestan or Uyghuristan), formerly also “Sinkiang” and “Chinese Turkestan,” a Central Asian region administered by China. In English, the name of the ethnicity and its language is spelled variously as Uyghur, Uighur, Uygur and Uigur.
Uzbek
Is an Eastern Turkic language and the official language of Uzbekistan. It has about 21.5 million native speakers, and it is spoken by the Uzbeks in Uzbekistan and elsewhere in Central Asia. Uzbek belongs to the Qarluq family of Turkic languages, and consequently its lexicon and grammar are most closely linked to the Uighur language, while other influences rose from Persian, Arabic and Russian.
Or Ubyx is a language of the Northwestern Caucasian group, spoken by the Ubykh people up until the early 1990s.
Udmurt
Is a Finno-Ugric language spoken by the Udmurts, native of the Russian constituent republic of Udmurtia, where it is co-official with the Russian language. It is written with a Cyrillic script. It is linguistically closest to Komi and Komi-Permyak.
Ugaritic
Is only known in the form of writings found in the lost city of Ugarit in Syria since its discovery by French archaeologists in 1928. It has been extremely important for scholars of the Old Testament in clarifying Hebrew texts and has revealed more of how Judaism used common phrases, literary idioms, and expressions employed by surrounding pagan cultures.
Ukrainian
Is a language of the East Slavic subgroup of the Slavic languages. It is the official state language of Ukraine. Ukrainian uses a Cyrillic alphabet. It shares some vocabulary with the languages of the neighboring Slavic nations, most notably with Belarusian, Polish, Russian and Slovak. Ukrainian traces its origins to the Old East Slavic language of the ancient state of Kievan Rus'. The language has persisted despite the two bans by Imperial Russia and political persecution during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Ukrainian has survived mainly due to its broad base among the people of Ukraine, its folklore songs, kobzars, prominent poets like Taras Shevchenko and Lesya Ukrainka.
Unserdeutsch
("Our German"), or Rabaul Creol German, is a German-based creole language spoken primarily in Papua New Guinea and the northeast of Australia. It was formed among the New Guinean children residing in a German-run orphanage. Fewer than 100 native speakers exist today; 15 in New Britain.
Upper Sorbian
Is a minority language of Germany spoken in the historical province of Upper Lusatia, today part of Saxony.
Urdu
Is an Indo-European language of the Indo-Aryan family that developed under Persian, Turkish, Hindi, and Arabic influence in South Asia during the Delhi Sultanate and Mughal Empire (1200-1800). Taken by itself, Urdu is approximately the twentieth most populous natively spoken language in the world, and is the national language of Pakistan as well as one of the 24 national languages of India.
Uripiv
Is a language spoken on Vanuatu. Uripiv is spoken today by about 6,000 people. Literacy rate of Uripiv speakers in their own language is about 10-30%. The language forms a dialect chain with other nearby languages, namely Wala-Rano and Atchin. Uripiv is the most northerly of these languages. Despite the dialect chain, Uripiv still has 85% of its words in common with Atchin, at the opposite (southern) end. Uripiv is classified as an Austronesian language, part of the Malayo-Polynesian bulk of this language group. It falls into the Central Eastern branch of the Malayo-Polynesian languages and the Eastern Malayo-Polynesian subbranch of Central Eastern, which includes Uripiv and other Oceanic languages. It is one of the few well-documented languages that uses the rare bilabial trill.
Urum
Is a Turkic language spoken by several thousand people who inhabit a few villages in the Southeastern Ukraine and in Georgia. The name Urum is derived from the medieval Greek word for Rome designating Constantinople and Greece in general. The Ottoman empire used it to describe non-Muslims within the empire. The initial vowel in Urum is prosthetic: originally Turkic languages did not have r- in word-initial position, and in borrowed words used to add a vowel before it.
Uyghur
Is a Turkic language spoken by the Uyghur people in Xinjiang (also called East Turkestan or Uyghuristan), formerly also “Sinkiang” and “Chinese Turkestan,” a Central Asian region administered by China. In English, the name of the ethnicity and its language is spelled variously as Uyghur, Uighur, Uygur and Uigur.
Uzbek
Is an Eastern Turkic language and the official language of Uzbekistan. It has about 21.5 million native speakers, and it is spoken by the Uzbeks in Uzbekistan and elsewhere in Central Asia. Uzbek belongs to the Qarluq family of Turkic languages, and consequently its lexicon and grammar are most closely linked to the Uighur language, while other influences rose from Persian, Arabic and Russian.
T
Tabasaran
Is a member of the Lezgian subfamily of the Northeast Caucasian languages. It is spoken in the southern parts of the Russian Caucasus republic of Dagestan. Tabasaran speakers live in the basin of Upper Rubas-chai and Upper Chirakh-chai. There are two main dialects: North (Khanag) and South Tabasaran. It has a literary language based on the Southern dialect, one of six in the Dagestan Republic.
Tashelhiyt
Is the largest Berber language of Morocco both by number of speakers (between 8 and 10 million) and by the extent of its area. Tashelhiyt is spoken in Southern Morocco an area ranging from the northern slopes of the High-Atlas to the southern slopes of the Anti-Atlas, bounded to the west by the Atlantic Ocean. The eastern limit of the Tashelhiyt area is difficult to pinpoint because of a smooth transition into Southern Middle Atlas Berber (Tamazight).
Tagalog
Is one of the major languages of the Republic of the Philippines. It is the largest of the Philippine languages in terms of the number of speakers. Being a Malayo-Polynesian language of the larger Austronesian language family, it is related to Indonesian, Malay, Fijian, Maori (of New Zealand), Hawaiian, Malagasy (of Madagascar), Samoan, Tahitian, Chamorro (of Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands), Tetum (of East Timor), and Paiwan (of Taiwan).
Tahitian
A Tahitic language, is one of the two official languages of French Polynesia (along with French). It is an Eastern Polynesian language closely related to Rarotongan, New Zealand Maori, and Hawaiian.
Taiwanese Sign Language (TSL)
Is the sign language most commonly used in Taiwan. It is the native language of some 50,000 people in the nation. Serious linguistic research on TSL began in the 1970s and is continuing at present. The first International Symposium on Taiwan Sign Language Linguistics was held on March 1-2, 2003, at Chung Cheng University in Minhsiung, Chiayi Co., Taiwan.
Tajik
Is a descendant of the Persian language spoken in Central Asia. It is an Indo-European language, more specifically part of the Iranian language group. Speakers of Tajik live mostly in Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, and western Pakistan (the "Tajik" language spoken by approximately 30,000 people near the Tajikistan border in China is in fact a quite different Pamir language also called Sarikoli). Tajik is the official language of Tajikistan. Tajik is an offspring of the Persian language, and belongs - along with Afghanistan's Dari - to the Eastern dialects of Persian. Historically, it was considered the local dialect of Persian spoken by the Tajik ethnic group in Central Asia. The language has diverged somewhat from Persian as spoken in Afghanistan and Iran, because of political borders and the influence of Russian. The standard language is based on the north-western dialects of Tajik, which have been influenced by the neighbouring Uzbek language as a result of geographical proximity.
Talossan
Talossan is a Gallo-Romance language, inspired by French, Provençal and Occitan, and very naturalistic (with quite a few irregularities). In an effort to create a kind of "national mythology" for his micronation, Madison discovered in 1985 that one of the Berber sub-tribes of Morocco was called the Talesinnt, and decided that Talossans were inexplicably and inextricably connected somehow to Berbers. This resulted in the Talossan language being inspired by Berber languages.
Talysh
Is a language spoken in the northern regions of the Iranian provinces of Gilan and Ardabil and the southern parts of the Republic of Azerbaijan. It is classified as an Iranian language Talysh has two major mutually intelligible dialects — Northern (in Azerbaijan and Iran), and Southern (in Iran). Northern Talysh (the part in the Republic of Azerbaijan) was historically known as Talish-i Gushtasbi.
Tamil
Is a classical language and one of the major languages of the Dravidian language family. Spoken predominantly by Tamils in India, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, and Singapore, it has smaller communities of speakers in many other countries. As of 1996, it was the eighteenth most spoken language, with over 74 million speakers worldwide. It is one of the official languages of India, Singapore and Sri Lanka.
Tanacross
Is an endangered Athabaskan language spoken by fewer than 60 persons in eastern Interior Alaska.
Tangut
Also known as the Western Xia were a Qiangic-Tibetan people who moved to the highlands of western Sichuan sometime before the 10th century AD. They spoke the Tangut language, a now-extinct Qiangic language (Tibeto-Burman).
Tarifit
Is a Northern Berber language of the Zenati subgroup, spoken mainly in the Moroccan Rif by about 2 million people. Tarifit is a Berber language, belonging to the Zenati subgroup of Northern Berber, and possibly the Rif subgroup of Zenati.
Tat
Is an Iranian language spoken by the Tat ethnic group in Azerbaijan and Russia. There is also a Jewish language called Judeo-Tat that is derived from the Tat language.
Tatar
Is a Turkic language belonging to the Altaic branch of the Ural-Altaic family of languages. It is spoken by the Tatars.
Tausug
Is a Visayan language spoken in Sulu province in the Philippines. It is also spoken in Malaysia and Indonesia.
Telugu
Belongs to the Dravidian language family but with ample influence from the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European family and is the official language of the state of Andhra Pradesh, India. It is the Dravidian language with the greatest number of speakers (including non-native speakers), the second largest spoken language in India after Hindi and one of the 22 official national languages of India.
Tetum
Is an Austronesian language, the basis of the national language of East Timor, Tetun Prasa. This is a creole with many words from Portuguese, with which it has equal status as an official language, as well as Malay or Indonesian.
Thai
Is the national and official language of Thailand and the mother tongue of the Thai people, Thailand's dominant ethnic group. Thai is a member of the Tai group of the Tai-Kadai language family. The Tai-Kadai languages are thought to have originated in what is now southern China, and some linguists have proposed links to the Austroasiatic, Austronesian, or Sino-Tibetan language families. It is a tonal and analytic language. The combination of tonality, a complex orthography, relational markers and a distinctive phonology can make Thai difficult to learn for those who do not already speak a related language.
Tharu
Tharu are indigenious people living in the Terai plains of South Nepal and India. According to Nepal’s 2001 census, there are 1,533,879 ethnic Tharu (6.75% of Nepal's total population) of which 1,331,546 speak one of the seven Tharu dialects as a mother tongue.
Thracian
Was the Indo-European language spoken in ancient times by the Thracians in South-Eastern Europe.
Tibetan
Is spoken by Tibetan people across a wide area of eastern Central Asia. Its classical written form is a major regional literary language, particulary in its use as in Buddhist writings. Tibetan is typically classified as a Tibeto-Burman language which in turn is, according to the most widespread theory, a branch of the Sino-Tibetan language family. Spoken Tibetan includes numerous regional varieties which, in many cases, are not mutually intelligible. Moreover, the boundaries between Tibetan and certain other Himalayan languages are sometimes unclear. In general, the dialects of central Tibet (including Lhasa), Kham, Amdo, and some smaller nearby areas are considered Tibetan dialects, while other forms, particularly Dzongkha, Sikkimese, Sherpa, and Ladakhi, are considered closely-related but separate languages. By this definition, Tibetan is spoken by approximately 6 million people across the Tibetan Plateau as well as by approximately 150,000 exile speakers in India and other countries.
Tigre
Is a Semitic language of the North Ethiopic branch, descended from Ge'ez and closely related to Tigrinya. It is spoken by approximately one million people in Eritrea, with a few speakers in Sudan. Tigre is also the name for the people. The Tigre language, speakers and area should not be confused with the Tigray-Tigrinya people who live in the Tigray region of Ethiopia and in Eritrea and who speak Tigrinya.
Tigrinya
Is a Semitic language spoken by the Tigray-Tigrinya people in central Eritrea, where it is one of the main working languages (Eritrea does not have official languages), and in the Tigray Region of Ethiopia, where it also has official status, and among groups of emigrants from these regions, including some of the Beta Israel now living in Israel. Tigrinya should not be confused with the related Tigre language, which is spoken in a region in Eritrea to the west of the region where Tigrinya is spoken.
Tiv
Is spoken by over 6 million people in Nigeria, with a few speakers in Cameroon. Most of the Language's Nigerian speakers are found in Benue State of Nigeria. The language is also widely spoken in the Nigerian States of Plateau, Taraba, Nasarawa as well as the FCT Abuja. It is part of the Southern Bantoid Tivoid family, a branch of Benue-Congo and ultimately of the Niger-Congo phylum.
Tlingit
Is the language of the Tlingit people of Southeast Alaska and Western Canada. It is considered to be a branch of the Na-Dené language family. Tlingit is very endangered, with about 500 native speakers still living, essentially all of whom are bilingual or near-bilingual in English. Extensive effort is being put into revitalization programs in Southeast Alaska to revive and preserve the Tlingit language and its culture.
Tobian
Also Tobi is, with English and the Sonsorolese language the language spoken on the Palau islands of Tobi (or Hatobohei), Pulo Anna, Merir, Fana, Helen Reef and Sonsoral (or Sonsorol). It has about 100 speakers over the world.
Tocharian
Is one of the most obscure branches of the group of Indo-European languages. It consisted of two languages, Tocharian A (Turfanian, Arsi, or East Tocharian) and Tocharian B (Kuchean or West Tocharian). These languages were spoken roughly from the 6th to 8th centuries; before they became extinct, their speakers were absorbed into the expanding Uyghur tribes. Both languages were once spoken in the Tarim Basin in Central Asia, now the Xinjiang province of China.
Toda
Is a Dravidian language well known for its many fricatives and trills. It is spoken by the Toda people, a population of about one thousand who live in the Nilgiri Hills of southern India.
Tok Pisin
Is the creole spoken in northern mainland Papua New Guinea (PNG), the National Capital District, and the New Guinea Islands. It is one of the official languages of PNG and the most widely used language in that country, spoken by about 4 million people as a second language and over a hundred thousand as a first language. Tok Pisin is also—perhaps more commonly in English—called New Guinea Pidgin and, largely in academic contexts, Melanesian Pidgin English or Neo-Melanesian.
Tokelauan
Is an Austronesian language spoken by about 1,700 people on the atolls of Tokelau. It is a member of the Samoic family of Polynesian languages. It is, alongside English, the official language of Tokelau. In addition to the population of Tokelau, it is spoken by approximately 2,900 Tokelauan expatriates in New Zealand.
Tonga
Is a Bantu Language primarily spoken by the Tonga tribe of the South, Southern and Western provinces of Zambia and Northern Zimbabwe (although also spoken by the Toka and Leya, as well as many bilingual Zambians and Zimbabweans.) It is one of the major lingua francas in Zambia, after Bemba and Nyanja.
Tongan
Is an Austronesian language spoken in Tonga. It has 100,000 speakers and is a national language of Tonga. It is a VSO (Verb-Subject-Object) language.
Tongva
(Also known as the Gabrielino language) is an Uto-Aztecan language spoken by the Tongva, a Native American people who live in and around Los Angeles, California. Tongva is closely related to several other indigenous languages of the area, including the Cahuilla language and the Serrano language. Modern Southern Californian place-names from Tongva include: Pacoima, Tujunga, Topanga, Azusa, the Cahuenga in Cahuenga Pass and the Cucamonga in Rancho Cucamonga.
Trasianka
Is a Belarusian–Russian patois or a kind of interlanguage (from the linguistic point of view). It is often labeled "pidgin" or even "creole", which is not correct by any widespread definition of pidgin or creole language. The motivation for labelling trasianka as "pidgin" or a "creolized (language form)" (cf. Cychun, 2000) relies probably in the fact that the words "pidgin" and "creole" have pejorative, derogatory connotations (among non-experts, but also among a part of linguists in Belarus) as well as the word "trasianka" itself.
Tregami
Or Trigami is a language spoken in the villages of Gambir and Katar in the Nurestan Province of Afghanistan. Tregami belongs to the Indo-European language family, and is on the Nuristani group of the Indo-Iranian branch. Ethnologue estimates its speakers at 1,000 (1994). It's speakers are overwhelmingly Muslim, and literacy rates are low: below 1% for people who have it as a first language, and between 5% to 15% for people who have it as a second language. It has a lexical similarity of approximately 76% to 80% with the Waigali language.
Tsat
(Also known as Utsat, Utset, Huihui, Hui, or Hainan Cham) is a language spoken on Hainan Island in China by the Utsuls. Tsat is a member of the Malayo-Polynesian group within the Austronesian language family, and is related to the Cham languages, originally from the coast of present-day Vietnam. Unusually for a Malayo-Polynesian language, Tsat has developed into a solidly tonal language, probably as a result of areal linguistic effects and contact with Chinese, Hlai/Li, and the other tonal languages of Hainan.
Tsez
Is a Northeast Caucasian language with about 7000 speakers spoken by the Tsez, a muslimic people in the mountainous Tsunta district of southern and western Dagestan, Russia. The name derives from the Tsez word for eagle.
Tshiluba
(Also called Luba-Kasai and Luba-Lulua) is a Bantu language spoken in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where it is a national language.
Tshivenda
Is a Bantu language. The majority of Venda speakers live in South Africa (where Venda is an official language), but there are also speakers in Zimbabwe. Before South Africa became a democratic country, the bantustan of Venda was set up to cover the Venda speakers of South Africa.
Tsimshian
(Pronounced Sim-SHE-an), translated as "People Inside the Skeena River," are a Native American and First Nation people who live around Terrace, Prince Rupert, and Kitimat, on the north coast of British Columbia and the southernmost corner of Alaska on Annette Island. Currently there are about 10,000 Tsimshians, of which about 1,300 live in Alaska. Canadian Tsimshian live along the Skeena and Nass rivers, as well as the many inlets and islands on the coast. The Tsimshian obtained food through fishing (halibut and salmon) and hunting (seals, sea lions and sea otters).
Tsonga
Or Xitsonga language is spoken in southern Africa by the Tsonga people, also known as the Shangaan. Tsonga belongs to the Bantu branch of the Niger-Congo languages. Tsonga is spoken by about 1,646,000 people in South Africa's Limpopo province, as well as 1.5 million people in Mozambique, and 19,000 people in Swaziland. There are also 5 000 speakers in Zimbabwe.
Tswana
Also known as Setswana, is a Bantu language. Tswana is the national and majority language of Botswana, whose people are the Batswana (singular Motswana). The majority of Tswana speakers are in South Africa (where it is an official language), but there are also speakers in Zimbabwe and Namibia. Internationally there are about 4 million speakers. Before South Africa became a multi-racial democracy, the bantustan of Bophuthatswana was set up to cover the Tswana speakers of South Africa. Setswana is a Bantu language, belonging to the Niger-Congo language family. It is most closely related to two other languages in the Sotho language group, Sesotho (Southern Sotho) and Northern Sotho (Sesotho sa Leboa). It has also been known as Beetjuans, Chuana (hence Bechuanaland), Coana, Cuana, and Sechuana.
Tu
The Tu language (also known as Mongour, Monguor, and Mongor) is closely related to Mongolian. It is not a written language. It is spoken by the Tu people.
Tuareg
Or Tamasheq/Tamajaq/Tamahaq is a Berber language or family of closely related languages spoken by the Tuareg, in parts of Mali, Niger, Algeria, Libya and Burkina Faso (with a few speakers, the Kinnin, even in Chad.) They are quite mutually comprehensible, and are commonly regarded as a single language (as for instance by Karl Prasse); they are distinguished mainly by a few sound shifts (notably affecting the pronunciation of original z and h.) They are unusually conservative in some respects; they retain two short vowels where northern Berber languages have one or none, and have a much lower proportion of Arabic loanwords than most Berber languages. They are traditionally written in the indigenous Tifinagh alphabet; however, the Arabic alphabet is commonly used in some areas (and has been since medieval times), while the Latin alphabet is official in Mali and Niger.
Tulu
Is an Dravidian language of India with fewer than two million speakers. Most of its speakers are in the districts of Dakshina Kannada and Udupi in the west of the state of Karnataka. Its also spoken in most part of Kasargod district of Kerala. The original written script of the language, similar to Malayalam script, is rarely used today. It is normally written in the Kannada script.
Tumbuka
Is a Bantu language which is spoken in parts of Malawi, Zambia, and Tanzania. The language of the Tumbuka is called chiTumbuka - the 'chi' in front of Tumbuka meaning 'the language of', similar to 'ki' in kiSwahili or 'se' in seTswana. The World Almanac (1998) estimates approximately 2,000,000 Tumbuka speakers exist in the aforementioned three countries.
Old Tupi
Is an extinct Tupian language which was spoken by the native people from Brazil, mostly those who lived close to the sea. The language belongs to the Tupi-Guarani language subfamily. It enjoyed a brief period of literacy, in the 16th, 17th and early 18th centuries but was later suppressed to extinction, leaving only one modern descendant: Nheengatu.
Tupinikin
Is a language which is spoken by 800 Indian tribesmen in Espirito Santo and Bahia, Brazil. The language belongs to Tupi-Guarani language subfamily.
Turkish
Is a Turkic language spoken natively in Turkey, Cyprus, Bulgaria, Greece and other countries of the former Ottoman Empire, as well as by several million emigrants in the European Union. The number of native speakers is uncertain, primarily due to a lack of minority language data from Turkey. The figure of 60 million used here assumes that Turkish is the mother tongue of 80% of the Turkish population, with Kurdish making up most of the remainder. However, the vast majority of the linguistic minorities in Turkey are bilingual, speaking Turkish as a second language.
Turkmen
Is the name of the national language of Turkmenistan. It is spoken by approximately 3,430,000 people in Turkmenistan, and by an additional approximately 3,000,000 people in other countries, including Iran (2,000,000), Afghanistan (500,000), and Turkey (1,000). Up to 50% of speakers in Turkmenistan also claim a good knowledge of Russian.
Turoyo
Is a Modern West Syriac language, a dialect of Aramaic. It is traditionally spoken in eastern Turkey and north-eastern Syria by members of the Syriac Orthodox Church. From the word turo, meaning 'mountain', turoyo is the mountain tongue of the Tur Abdin in southeastern Turkey. A far older name for the language is Surayt, and it is used by a number of speakers of the language in preference to Turoyo. The etymology of this name is difficult, but is probably linked to the word 'Syriac'.
Tuvaluan
Is a Nuclear Polynesian language of the Ellicean group spoken in Tuvalu. It is more or less distantly related to all other Polynesian languages, such as Hawai'ian, Maori, Tahitian, Samoan, and Tongan, and most closely related to the languages spoken on the Polynesian Outliers in Northern and Central Melanesia. Tuvaluan has borrowed considerably from Samoan, the language of Christian missionaries in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. There are about 11000 Tuvaluan speakers worldwide.
Tuvan
Also known as Tuvinian, Tyvan, or Tuvin, is one of the Turkic languages. It is spoken by around 200,000 people in the Republic of Tuva in south-central Siberia. The language borrows a great number of roots from the Mongolian language and more recently from the Russian language. There are small diaspora groups of Tuvans that speak distinct dialects of Tuvan in the People's Republic of China and in Mongolia.
Is a member of the Lezgian subfamily of the Northeast Caucasian languages. It is spoken in the southern parts of the Russian Caucasus republic of Dagestan. Tabasaran speakers live in the basin of Upper Rubas-chai and Upper Chirakh-chai. There are two main dialects: North (Khanag) and South Tabasaran. It has a literary language based on the Southern dialect, one of six in the Dagestan Republic.
Tashelhiyt
Is the largest Berber language of Morocco both by number of speakers (between 8 and 10 million) and by the extent of its area. Tashelhiyt is spoken in Southern Morocco an area ranging from the northern slopes of the High-Atlas to the southern slopes of the Anti-Atlas, bounded to the west by the Atlantic Ocean. The eastern limit of the Tashelhiyt area is difficult to pinpoint because of a smooth transition into Southern Middle Atlas Berber (Tamazight).
Tagalog
Is one of the major languages of the Republic of the Philippines. It is the largest of the Philippine languages in terms of the number of speakers. Being a Malayo-Polynesian language of the larger Austronesian language family, it is related to Indonesian, Malay, Fijian, Maori (of New Zealand), Hawaiian, Malagasy (of Madagascar), Samoan, Tahitian, Chamorro (of Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands), Tetum (of East Timor), and Paiwan (of Taiwan).
Tahitian
A Tahitic language, is one of the two official languages of French Polynesia (along with French). It is an Eastern Polynesian language closely related to Rarotongan, New Zealand Maori, and Hawaiian.
Taiwanese Sign Language (TSL)
Is the sign language most commonly used in Taiwan. It is the native language of some 50,000 people in the nation. Serious linguistic research on TSL began in the 1970s and is continuing at present. The first International Symposium on Taiwan Sign Language Linguistics was held on March 1-2, 2003, at Chung Cheng University in Minhsiung, Chiayi Co., Taiwan.
Tajik
Is a descendant of the Persian language spoken in Central Asia. It is an Indo-European language, more specifically part of the Iranian language group. Speakers of Tajik live mostly in Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, and western Pakistan (the "Tajik" language spoken by approximately 30,000 people near the Tajikistan border in China is in fact a quite different Pamir language also called Sarikoli). Tajik is the official language of Tajikistan. Tajik is an offspring of the Persian language, and belongs - along with Afghanistan's Dari - to the Eastern dialects of Persian. Historically, it was considered the local dialect of Persian spoken by the Tajik ethnic group in Central Asia. The language has diverged somewhat from Persian as spoken in Afghanistan and Iran, because of political borders and the influence of Russian. The standard language is based on the north-western dialects of Tajik, which have been influenced by the neighbouring Uzbek language as a result of geographical proximity.
Talossan
Talossan is a Gallo-Romance language, inspired by French, Provençal and Occitan, and very naturalistic (with quite a few irregularities). In an effort to create a kind of "national mythology" for his micronation, Madison discovered in 1985 that one of the Berber sub-tribes of Morocco was called the Talesinnt, and decided that Talossans were inexplicably and inextricably connected somehow to Berbers. This resulted in the Talossan language being inspired by Berber languages.
Talysh
Is a language spoken in the northern regions of the Iranian provinces of Gilan and Ardabil and the southern parts of the Republic of Azerbaijan. It is classified as an Iranian language Talysh has two major mutually intelligible dialects — Northern (in Azerbaijan and Iran), and Southern (in Iran). Northern Talysh (the part in the Republic of Azerbaijan) was historically known as Talish-i Gushtasbi.
Tamil
Is a classical language and one of the major languages of the Dravidian language family. Spoken predominantly by Tamils in India, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, and Singapore, it has smaller communities of speakers in many other countries. As of 1996, it was the eighteenth most spoken language, with over 74 million speakers worldwide. It is one of the official languages of India, Singapore and Sri Lanka.
Tanacross
Is an endangered Athabaskan language spoken by fewer than 60 persons in eastern Interior Alaska.
Tangut
Also known as the Western Xia were a Qiangic-Tibetan people who moved to the highlands of western Sichuan sometime before the 10th century AD. They spoke the Tangut language, a now-extinct Qiangic language (Tibeto-Burman).
Tarifit
Is a Northern Berber language of the Zenati subgroup, spoken mainly in the Moroccan Rif by about 2 million people. Tarifit is a Berber language, belonging to the Zenati subgroup of Northern Berber, and possibly the Rif subgroup of Zenati.
Tat
Is an Iranian language spoken by the Tat ethnic group in Azerbaijan and Russia. There is also a Jewish language called Judeo-Tat that is derived from the Tat language.
Tatar
Is a Turkic language belonging to the Altaic branch of the Ural-Altaic family of languages. It is spoken by the Tatars.
Tausug
Is a Visayan language spoken in Sulu province in the Philippines. It is also spoken in Malaysia and Indonesia.
Telugu
Belongs to the Dravidian language family but with ample influence from the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European family and is the official language of the state of Andhra Pradesh, India. It is the Dravidian language with the greatest number of speakers (including non-native speakers), the second largest spoken language in India after Hindi and one of the 22 official national languages of India.
Tetum
Is an Austronesian language, the basis of the national language of East Timor, Tetun Prasa. This is a creole with many words from Portuguese, with which it has equal status as an official language, as well as Malay or Indonesian.
Thai
Is the national and official language of Thailand and the mother tongue of the Thai people, Thailand's dominant ethnic group. Thai is a member of the Tai group of the Tai-Kadai language family. The Tai-Kadai languages are thought to have originated in what is now southern China, and some linguists have proposed links to the Austroasiatic, Austronesian, or Sino-Tibetan language families. It is a tonal and analytic language. The combination of tonality, a complex orthography, relational markers and a distinctive phonology can make Thai difficult to learn for those who do not already speak a related language.
Tharu
Tharu are indigenious people living in the Terai plains of South Nepal and India. According to Nepal’s 2001 census, there are 1,533,879 ethnic Tharu (6.75% of Nepal's total population) of which 1,331,546 speak one of the seven Tharu dialects as a mother tongue.
Thracian
Was the Indo-European language spoken in ancient times by the Thracians in South-Eastern Europe.
Tibetan
Is spoken by Tibetan people across a wide area of eastern Central Asia. Its classical written form is a major regional literary language, particulary in its use as in Buddhist writings. Tibetan is typically classified as a Tibeto-Burman language which in turn is, according to the most widespread theory, a branch of the Sino-Tibetan language family. Spoken Tibetan includes numerous regional varieties which, in many cases, are not mutually intelligible. Moreover, the boundaries between Tibetan and certain other Himalayan languages are sometimes unclear. In general, the dialects of central Tibet (including Lhasa), Kham, Amdo, and some smaller nearby areas are considered Tibetan dialects, while other forms, particularly Dzongkha, Sikkimese, Sherpa, and Ladakhi, are considered closely-related but separate languages. By this definition, Tibetan is spoken by approximately 6 million people across the Tibetan Plateau as well as by approximately 150,000 exile speakers in India and other countries.
Tigre
Is a Semitic language of the North Ethiopic branch, descended from Ge'ez and closely related to Tigrinya. It is spoken by approximately one million people in Eritrea, with a few speakers in Sudan. Tigre is also the name for the people. The Tigre language, speakers and area should not be confused with the Tigray-Tigrinya people who live in the Tigray region of Ethiopia and in Eritrea and who speak Tigrinya.
Tigrinya
Is a Semitic language spoken by the Tigray-Tigrinya people in central Eritrea, where it is one of the main working languages (Eritrea does not have official languages), and in the Tigray Region of Ethiopia, where it also has official status, and among groups of emigrants from these regions, including some of the Beta Israel now living in Israel. Tigrinya should not be confused with the related Tigre language, which is spoken in a region in Eritrea to the west of the region where Tigrinya is spoken.
Tiv
Is spoken by over 6 million people in Nigeria, with a few speakers in Cameroon. Most of the Language's Nigerian speakers are found in Benue State of Nigeria. The language is also widely spoken in the Nigerian States of Plateau, Taraba, Nasarawa as well as the FCT Abuja. It is part of the Southern Bantoid Tivoid family, a branch of Benue-Congo and ultimately of the Niger-Congo phylum.
Tlingit
Is the language of the Tlingit people of Southeast Alaska and Western Canada. It is considered to be a branch of the Na-Dené language family. Tlingit is very endangered, with about 500 native speakers still living, essentially all of whom are bilingual or near-bilingual in English. Extensive effort is being put into revitalization programs in Southeast Alaska to revive and preserve the Tlingit language and its culture.
Tobian
Also Tobi is, with English and the Sonsorolese language the language spoken on the Palau islands of Tobi (or Hatobohei), Pulo Anna, Merir, Fana, Helen Reef and Sonsoral (or Sonsorol). It has about 100 speakers over the world.
Tocharian
Is one of the most obscure branches of the group of Indo-European languages. It consisted of two languages, Tocharian A (Turfanian, Arsi, or East Tocharian) and Tocharian B (Kuchean or West Tocharian). These languages were spoken roughly from the 6th to 8th centuries; before they became extinct, their speakers were absorbed into the expanding Uyghur tribes. Both languages were once spoken in the Tarim Basin in Central Asia, now the Xinjiang province of China.
Toda
Is a Dravidian language well known for its many fricatives and trills. It is spoken by the Toda people, a population of about one thousand who live in the Nilgiri Hills of southern India.
Tok Pisin
Is the creole spoken in northern mainland Papua New Guinea (PNG), the National Capital District, and the New Guinea Islands. It is one of the official languages of PNG and the most widely used language in that country, spoken by about 4 million people as a second language and over a hundred thousand as a first language. Tok Pisin is also—perhaps more commonly in English—called New Guinea Pidgin and, largely in academic contexts, Melanesian Pidgin English or Neo-Melanesian.
Tokelauan
Is an Austronesian language spoken by about 1,700 people on the atolls of Tokelau. It is a member of the Samoic family of Polynesian languages. It is, alongside English, the official language of Tokelau. In addition to the population of Tokelau, it is spoken by approximately 2,900 Tokelauan expatriates in New Zealand.
Tonga
Is a Bantu Language primarily spoken by the Tonga tribe of the South, Southern and Western provinces of Zambia and Northern Zimbabwe (although also spoken by the Toka and Leya, as well as many bilingual Zambians and Zimbabweans.) It is one of the major lingua francas in Zambia, after Bemba and Nyanja.
Tongan
Is an Austronesian language spoken in Tonga. It has 100,000 speakers and is a national language of Tonga. It is a VSO (Verb-Subject-Object) language.
Tongva
(Also known as the Gabrielino language) is an Uto-Aztecan language spoken by the Tongva, a Native American people who live in and around Los Angeles, California. Tongva is closely related to several other indigenous languages of the area, including the Cahuilla language and the Serrano language. Modern Southern Californian place-names from Tongva include: Pacoima, Tujunga, Topanga, Azusa, the Cahuenga in Cahuenga Pass and the Cucamonga in Rancho Cucamonga.
Trasianka
Is a Belarusian–Russian patois or a kind of interlanguage (from the linguistic point of view). It is often labeled "pidgin" or even "creole", which is not correct by any widespread definition of pidgin or creole language. The motivation for labelling trasianka as "pidgin" or a "creolized (language form)" (cf. Cychun, 2000) relies probably in the fact that the words "pidgin" and "creole" have pejorative, derogatory connotations (among non-experts, but also among a part of linguists in Belarus) as well as the word "trasianka" itself.
Tregami
Or Trigami is a language spoken in the villages of Gambir and Katar in the Nurestan Province of Afghanistan. Tregami belongs to the Indo-European language family, and is on the Nuristani group of the Indo-Iranian branch. Ethnologue estimates its speakers at 1,000 (1994). It's speakers are overwhelmingly Muslim, and literacy rates are low: below 1% for people who have it as a first language, and between 5% to 15% for people who have it as a second language. It has a lexical similarity of approximately 76% to 80% with the Waigali language.
Tsat
(Also known as Utsat, Utset, Huihui, Hui, or Hainan Cham) is a language spoken on Hainan Island in China by the Utsuls. Tsat is a member of the Malayo-Polynesian group within the Austronesian language family, and is related to the Cham languages, originally from the coast of present-day Vietnam. Unusually for a Malayo-Polynesian language, Tsat has developed into a solidly tonal language, probably as a result of areal linguistic effects and contact with Chinese, Hlai/Li, and the other tonal languages of Hainan.
Tsez
Is a Northeast Caucasian language with about 7000 speakers spoken by the Tsez, a muslimic people in the mountainous Tsunta district of southern and western Dagestan, Russia. The name derives from the Tsez word for eagle.
Tshiluba
(Also called Luba-Kasai and Luba-Lulua) is a Bantu language spoken in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where it is a national language.
Tshivenda
Is a Bantu language. The majority of Venda speakers live in South Africa (where Venda is an official language), but there are also speakers in Zimbabwe. Before South Africa became a democratic country, the bantustan of Venda was set up to cover the Venda speakers of South Africa.
Tsimshian
(Pronounced Sim-SHE-an), translated as "People Inside the Skeena River," are a Native American and First Nation people who live around Terrace, Prince Rupert, and Kitimat, on the north coast of British Columbia and the southernmost corner of Alaska on Annette Island. Currently there are about 10,000 Tsimshians, of which about 1,300 live in Alaska. Canadian Tsimshian live along the Skeena and Nass rivers, as well as the many inlets and islands on the coast. The Tsimshian obtained food through fishing (halibut and salmon) and hunting (seals, sea lions and sea otters).
Tsonga
Or Xitsonga language is spoken in southern Africa by the Tsonga people, also known as the Shangaan. Tsonga belongs to the Bantu branch of the Niger-Congo languages. Tsonga is spoken by about 1,646,000 people in South Africa's Limpopo province, as well as 1.5 million people in Mozambique, and 19,000 people in Swaziland. There are also 5 000 speakers in Zimbabwe.
Tswana
Also known as Setswana, is a Bantu language. Tswana is the national and majority language of Botswana, whose people are the Batswana (singular Motswana). The majority of Tswana speakers are in South Africa (where it is an official language), but there are also speakers in Zimbabwe and Namibia. Internationally there are about 4 million speakers. Before South Africa became a multi-racial democracy, the bantustan of Bophuthatswana was set up to cover the Tswana speakers of South Africa. Setswana is a Bantu language, belonging to the Niger-Congo language family. It is most closely related to two other languages in the Sotho language group, Sesotho (Southern Sotho) and Northern Sotho (Sesotho sa Leboa). It has also been known as Beetjuans, Chuana (hence Bechuanaland), Coana, Cuana, and Sechuana.
Tu
The Tu language (also known as Mongour, Monguor, and Mongor) is closely related to Mongolian. It is not a written language. It is spoken by the Tu people.
Tuareg
Or Tamasheq/Tamajaq/Tamahaq is a Berber language or family of closely related languages spoken by the Tuareg, in parts of Mali, Niger, Algeria, Libya and Burkina Faso (with a few speakers, the Kinnin, even in Chad.) They are quite mutually comprehensible, and are commonly regarded as a single language (as for instance by Karl Prasse); they are distinguished mainly by a few sound shifts (notably affecting the pronunciation of original z and h.) They are unusually conservative in some respects; they retain two short vowels where northern Berber languages have one or none, and have a much lower proportion of Arabic loanwords than most Berber languages. They are traditionally written in the indigenous Tifinagh alphabet; however, the Arabic alphabet is commonly used in some areas (and has been since medieval times), while the Latin alphabet is official in Mali and Niger.
Tulu
Is an Dravidian language of India with fewer than two million speakers. Most of its speakers are in the districts of Dakshina Kannada and Udupi in the west of the state of Karnataka. Its also spoken in most part of Kasargod district of Kerala. The original written script of the language, similar to Malayalam script, is rarely used today. It is normally written in the Kannada script.
Tumbuka
Is a Bantu language which is spoken in parts of Malawi, Zambia, and Tanzania. The language of the Tumbuka is called chiTumbuka - the 'chi' in front of Tumbuka meaning 'the language of', similar to 'ki' in kiSwahili or 'se' in seTswana. The World Almanac (1998) estimates approximately 2,000,000 Tumbuka speakers exist in the aforementioned three countries.
Old Tupi
Is an extinct Tupian language which was spoken by the native people from Brazil, mostly those who lived close to the sea. The language belongs to the Tupi-Guarani language subfamily. It enjoyed a brief period of literacy, in the 16th, 17th and early 18th centuries but was later suppressed to extinction, leaving only one modern descendant: Nheengatu.
Tupinikin
Is a language which is spoken by 800 Indian tribesmen in Espirito Santo and Bahia, Brazil. The language belongs to Tupi-Guarani language subfamily.
Turkish
Is a Turkic language spoken natively in Turkey, Cyprus, Bulgaria, Greece and other countries of the former Ottoman Empire, as well as by several million emigrants in the European Union. The number of native speakers is uncertain, primarily due to a lack of minority language data from Turkey. The figure of 60 million used here assumes that Turkish is the mother tongue of 80% of the Turkish population, with Kurdish making up most of the remainder. However, the vast majority of the linguistic minorities in Turkey are bilingual, speaking Turkish as a second language.
Turkmen
Is the name of the national language of Turkmenistan. It is spoken by approximately 3,430,000 people in Turkmenistan, and by an additional approximately 3,000,000 people in other countries, including Iran (2,000,000), Afghanistan (500,000), and Turkey (1,000). Up to 50% of speakers in Turkmenistan also claim a good knowledge of Russian.
Turoyo
Is a Modern West Syriac language, a dialect of Aramaic. It is traditionally spoken in eastern Turkey and north-eastern Syria by members of the Syriac Orthodox Church. From the word turo, meaning 'mountain', turoyo is the mountain tongue of the Tur Abdin in southeastern Turkey. A far older name for the language is Surayt, and it is used by a number of speakers of the language in preference to Turoyo. The etymology of this name is difficult, but is probably linked to the word 'Syriac'.
Tuvaluan
Is a Nuclear Polynesian language of the Ellicean group spoken in Tuvalu. It is more or less distantly related to all other Polynesian languages, such as Hawai'ian, Maori, Tahitian, Samoan, and Tongan, and most closely related to the languages spoken on the Polynesian Outliers in Northern and Central Melanesia. Tuvaluan has borrowed considerably from Samoan, the language of Christian missionaries in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. There are about 11000 Tuvaluan speakers worldwide.
Tuvan
Also known as Tuvinian, Tyvan, or Tuvin, is one of the Turkic languages. It is spoken by around 200,000 people in the Republic of Tuva in south-central Siberia. The language borrows a great number of roots from the Mongolian language and more recently from the Russian language. There are small diaspora groups of Tuvans that speak distinct dialects of Tuvan in the People's Republic of China and in Mongolia.
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