Tuesday, March 16, 2010

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.

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