Tuesday, March 16, 2010

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).

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