Which country has the largest number of languages spoken?
At first, you might think of the country with the largest population, but surprisingly, the answer is not China, India or any other big country.
It is Papua New Guinea. It’s a country of only 462,840 square kilometers with a population of just over seven million. Despite its small size, this country has an incredible linguistic diversity with 820 languages spoken.
https://www.star-ts.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/hands-600497_1920.jpg12811920Star Translationhttps://www.star-ts.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/STAR-logo-orig.pngStar Translation2018-05-24 14:34:112018-05-24 14:34:11Top 10 Countries that speak the most languages
European parliament hemicycle in Strasbourg / Image credit: Wikipedia
English not official language, MEP warns
According to a senior MEP, English will not be an official EU language after Brexit.
English could lose its status as an official language as apparently no other EU country has English listed as an official language.
Onced Britain leaves the EU, English will be stripped of its status warned Danuta Hübner. Hübner, an economist, is head of the European Parliament’s Constitutional Affairs Committee (AFCO).
There are 24 official languages in the EU; the UK identified English as it own official language while Ireland notified Irish and Malta notified Maltese. Both countries also list English as their second official language. However, when Ireland and Malta joined the EU English was already an official language. Therefore both nations opted to list their other official languages instead.
We have a regulation … where every EU country has the right to notify one official language. The Irish have notified Gaelic, and the Maltese have notified Maltese, so you have only the UK notifying English.
Even though English may be removed as an official language, “English is one of the working languages in the European institutions, Hübner commented, adding: “it’s actually the dominating language.” It’s one of the most frequently used by EU civil servants.
If they want to keep English as an official language, the remaining countries would have vote to keep its status unanimously, Hübner noted.
EU Regulations
However, an EU source explained that the regulations governing official languages are themselves subject to more than one translation.
A regulation from 1958 regarding the official languages of the EU, was originally written in French and does not clearly state whether a member country, i.e. Ireland or Malta, can have more than one official language.
Interpretations of the French wording of this body of text concludes that this might be possible, whereas the English version says otherwise.
The regulation states that “if a member state has more than one official language, the language to be used shall, at the request of such state, be governed by the general rules of its law.”
According to reports from the Wall Street Journal, ‘the Commission has already started using French and German more often in its external communications’, after the UK voted to leave the EU last Thursday.
https://www.star-ts.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/european-parliament.jpg322600Graham O'Mahonyhttps://www.star-ts.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/STAR-logo-orig.pngGraham O'Mahony2016-06-28 10:21:302016-07-01 10:42:39English not an official language after Brexit
An Ghaeltacht sign in the region / Image credit: TCD
Gaeltacht community anger over names in English
In a 2015 annual report by the Irish Language Commissioner, the highest number of complaints under the new Eircode postal system related to the translation of place names in the Gaeltacht region.
Rónán Ó Domhnaill, head of the office of An Coimisnéir Teanga expressed that he was not surprised at the level of anger in the Gaeltacht communities. More than 70 complaints were noted in the report. All complaints related to the English translation of Irish names and addresses without any Irish version.
Conradh na Gaeilge, the Irish language group, stated that up to 50,000 household in the Gaeltacht area are affected by the new system and called on the department to amend it.
Rónán Ó Domhnaill also reported that the Department of Communications had ‘breached a statutory language obligation during the rollout of the postcodes – Eircode’.
Irish Proficiency
As of today’s report, there is a reluctance on behalf of certain government departments to identify jobs requiring a proficiency in the Irish language. Mr Ó Domhnaill stated on the ‘serious questions that arise on the State’s willingness to provide services of the same standard in both languages’.
Transit NXT Service Pack 9 ushers new languages to its arsenal
New Languages Supported in SP9
The new Transit NXT Service Pack 9 ushered in loads of new features.
As the localization industry grows, we grow along with it and enhance Transit NXT each time to suit the requirements of the industry.
One of the most important aspects of translation is being able to translate projects to and from one’s language; not just for the translator but the project manager too. SP9 packs loads of new languages in which you can now work. Gone are the days that you no longer have to depend on variants if your language was not supported; start working in one of the new languages now supported by Transit.
Eight Additional Languages
Transit supports eight additional languages and language variants. Furthermore, both Transit NXT and TermStar support more than 200 languages and cover all relevant markets in the target languages.
Asian languages: Tajik, Pashto and Dari (Persian); Maori (New Zealand); Spanish (USA) and International Spanish variants; and two other European languages are all the latest additions to Transit NXT SP9.
Screenshot of the source language [selection] drop-down menu in Transit.
New Asian Languages in SP9
Tajik (تاجیکی)
Tajik or Tajiki, also called Tajiki Persian is a variety of Persian spoken in Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
Pashto (پښتو)
Pashto belongs to the south-eastern Iranian branch of Indo-Iranian languages spoken in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran.
Dari (دری)
Dari (Persian) is the variety of the Persian language spoken in Afghanistan.
New European Languages in SP9
Breton
Breton (Breton: Breizh; French: Bretagne) is a Celtic language spoken in Brittany, France.
Corsican
Spoken in the islands of Corsica (France) and northern Sardinia (Italy), Corsican is a Romance language of the Italo-Dalmatian subfamily.
Introducing Maori for SP9
Maori
An Eastern Polynesian language spoken by the Māori people – the indigenous population of New Zealand – Māori is one of the official languages of New Zealand since 1987.
Spanish Worldwide
Spanish (USA)
One of the most widely spoken language has a number of variants – Spanish (USA) being one.
International Spanish
Use Spanish (International) for standardizing particular Spanish language projects.
The STAR Team
https://www.star-ts.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/star-translation-logo_630x630.png630630Graham O'Mahonyhttps://www.star-ts.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/STAR-logo-orig.pngGraham O'Mahony2016-06-17 13:45:372016-06-17 15:04:28New Languages Supported in Transit NXT Service Pack 9
Test your knowledge of world languages. Answer these twelve, tricky language-related questions and let us know your score in the comments.
Question
Your answer:
Correct answer:
You got {{SCORE_CORRECT}} out of {{SCORE_TOTAL}}
Your Answers
The STAR Team
https://www.star-ts.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/ultimate-language-quiz.png200500Graham O'Mahonyhttps://www.star-ts.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/STAR-logo-orig.pngGraham O'Mahony2016-06-16 15:26:572016-06-16 15:44:32Take the Ultimate Language Quiz
Pikachu toys line the shelves – its worldwide success expands from video games to other merchandise
Pokémon Pikachu rename leads to protests
The release of two new Pokémon games by Japanese game-maker Nintendo has angered Hong Kong.
As it is around the world, Hong Kongers are very familiar with the tiny, chubby, yellow-furred electric mouse known to them as Bei-Ka-Ciu. But a move to unify the names of 151 Pokémon characters to Mandarin Chinese has upset fans and “localists” alike.
Pikachu’s new Cantonese pronunciation sounds like Bei-ka-jau – nothing like its original.
Regional Pride
The name change, which may seems trivial to some, is part of a bigger problem in Hong Kong as locals see it as the “mainlandization” in the current climate.
Nintendo’s decision to translate all game characters “ignores Hong Kong’s culture,” a spokesman from a Facebook group known as Petition to keep Regional Chinese Translations of Pokémon said. “There’s no respect for it.”
“We are aware of the reasons behind Nintendo’s translation, presumably to make it easier for purposes such as publicity, but the move ignores a lot of players. We hope the Hong Kong market can be taken seriously and treated sincerely.” Locals, fans and activists took to the streets at the Japanese consulate to protest because they believe Cantonese — along with culture and tradition in Hong Kong — is being supplanted by Mandarin.
Regional Language
Cantonese is spoken in Hong Kong, while Mandarin Chinese is the official tongue of Mainland China. The Chinese government sees Cantonese as one of the many dialects used throughout China; however, those protesting believe Cantonese is a proper language and on par with Mandarin.
A Cultural Icon
“Pikachu has been in Hong Kong for more than 20 years,” said Sing Leung, one of those who took part in the demonstration. “It is not simply a game or comic book, it is the collective memory of a generation.”
https://www.star-ts.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/pikachu-hong-kong.jpg354630Graham O'Mahonyhttps://www.star-ts.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/STAR-logo-orig.pngGraham O'Mahony2016-06-01 11:42:202016-07-07 10:30:47Pikachu rename angers Hong Kong
The Irish language is beautiful, but it also finds itself playing catch up with the modern world. So much so that it becomes blatantly obvious with some of these Irish language translations.
We found nine particularly unimaginative translations making their rounds on the Internet. These are too good to miss.
https://www.star-ts.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/coleslaw-dips.jpg450600Graham O'Mahonyhttps://www.star-ts.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/STAR-logo-orig.pngGraham O'Mahony2016-03-22 14:12:542016-07-21 16:38:239 Irish Language Translations, so bad they're good
Irish Registry Domain to make Web Addresses showing Fadas a reality
Organizations and businesses in Ireland will very soon be able to register Irish Web addresses with fadas. This will change will enable Irish businesses using the .ie domain to also include any fadas contained in their names. Effectively, we will see Irish websites’ URLs with the fada included. That is, if their domain is an Irish name or word.
The fada is the acute accent or diacritic above all Irish vowels: á, é, í, ó and ú.
Recently, the IE Domain Registry, responsible for the administration of Ireland’s official Internet address .ie, has begun a consultation process to allow users to share their views about how the system should operate.
The registry will launch details of how people can register the fada domain names after the 21st of March.
We will be on the lookout for any domains using their fadas.
Mount Elbrus, Europe’s highest mountain in the Caucasus region between Europe and Asia. A region known for its linguistic diversity / Wikipedia
10 Oldest Languages in Use Today
It is almost impossible to judge how old one language is from another. The evolution of language is virtually similar to biological evolution; like evolution, changes to a language happen minutely over the course of generations. However, there is no clearly discernible difference between one language and the next language, from which a language derived.
Despite this, each of the ten languages listed are considerably ancient yet still spoken today. Each with an intriguing history that differentiates it from a multitude of others.
Those 10 Ancient Languages
Hebrew
The Hebrew language is an interesting case on this list: it fell out of common usage circa 400 CE. Yet it remained preserved as a liturgical language for Jews around the world. The rise of Zionism in the 19th and 20th centuries revived the language until it became the official language of Israel. Hebrew speakers can fully understand the Old Testament in its original writings.
Tamil
Spoken by circa 78 million people, Tamil is officially recognized as a language of India, Sri Lanka and Singapore. This classical language has survived the ages. Dating back to the third century BCE, and still in continuous use today.
Lithuanian
Lithuanian, like most European languages, is Indo-European in origin. This group divided up c.3500 BCE. The most fascinating feature of Lithuanian is that it retained the sounds and grammar of its Proto-Indo-European ancestor, unlike that of its cousins.
Farsi
Mainly spoken in Iran, Afghanistan and Tajikistan, Farsi is actually Persian, a direct descendant of Old Persian. Modern Persian first appeared circa 800 CE. Farsi speakers could quite easily read ancient texts in Persian with relative ease, more fluently than English speakers can read Shakespeare!
Ones you wouldn’t consider ancient
Icelandic
The Scandinavian language Icelandic is an Indo-European language from the North Germanic branch. This ancient language of the Norse peoples developed quite conservatively over the centuries. Amazingly, Icelanders can read their ancient sagas as if they were written yesterday.
Macedonian
This Slavic language belongs to the same family as Russian, Polish, Czech and Croatian. The Slavic language family is relatively young as far as languages are concerned and only split from Proto-Slavic, pre-ninth century CE.
Basque
The Basque language is a linguistic mystery. Spoken in regions that stretch across both France and Spain; it’s also unrelated to the Romance language family. The only explanation to explain it thus far, is that it existed long before the Romans arrived with the Latin they had spoken that subsequently developed into French and Spanish.
Finnish
The Finnish language is a member of the Finno-Ugric family which includes Estonian, Hungarian and several languages in minority groups across Siberia. Written down in the 16th century, its history is long. Interestingly, Finnish has many loanwords still in usage from Old Germanic and Gothic (those two languages do not exist today).
Georgian
Georgian is spoken in Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia, originating from the Caucasus region, the frontier between Europe and Asia. It’s part of the Kartvelian language family and unlike any other in the world. Although its alphabet is thought to be adapted from Aramaic.
Last but not least
Irish Gaelic
A minority of people in Ireland speak Irish (Gaeilge) today, but its history is long and artistic. A member of the Celtic branch of Indo-European languages, it existed long before the Germanic influences of Norse, Anglo-Saxon and Frisian landed on the British Isles. Scottish Gaelic and Manx derived from Irish Gaelic through migration. With the oldest vernacular of any language in Western Europe, the ancient Irish chose to write their manuscripts in Gaelic rather than the common Latin, at that time.
Graham Web Designer and Blogger The STAR Team Follow the conversation on @STARTranslation
https://www.star-ts.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/mount-elbrus_v2.jpg332500Graham O'Mahonyhttps://www.star-ts.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/STAR-logo-orig.pngGraham O'Mahony2016-02-22 15:42:202016-07-21 15:53:1910 Oldest Languages Still Spoken Today
Across Europe, robots are helping young immigrant children learn new language skills necessary for social integration and education. It is tough for anyone to cope with moving to a new country and different culture, which is one of the reasons a team of robotics engineers decided to test out their robot teachers.
The youngsters are learning new language skills to help them enter the school system. Only four cities are taking part in the trial phase: Tilburg and Utrecht in the Netherlands; Bielefeld in Germany; Istanbul in Turkey. Lead by a consortium of roboticists and linguists from universities across Europe, the project is called L2TOR while a French company called Aldebaran Robotics build the new teachers.
A robot called NAO watches over the children and aids them in the lessons while the work on a tablet. Before each lesson begins, NAO explains to the kids what they will learn and then assists each child if they become struck by observing their body language.
“We want to help these children improve their language skills through one-to-one interaction with a robot, to help them catch up,” — Paul Vogt (L2TOR), Tilburg University, The Netherlands.
Other studies have shown that children learn best in a one-on-one environment rather than a classroom setting. But doing this with human teachers is highly prohibitive due to costs. The L2TOR project will not replace teachers rather, they will give each child a tangible three-dimensional presence to learn more effectively along a human teacher.
Infinite Patience
The NAO robots can repeat lessons over and over and take their time with each child; human teachers can become impatient and get bored. These psychological factors that affect humans cannot affect the robots.
“Sometimes the human teacher can get bored or angry by repeating things again and again,” — Amit Kumar Pandey, head of research and development at Aldebaran Robotics
But it’s not just the children that learn. On the tablets is a software system, CoWriter which helps children practice their writing skills. The robot can write on the tablet too, but if the robot makes a mistake the child can step in and teach the robot where it went wrong.
Is this the future of learning at school? Let us know what you think.
Which country has the largest number of languages spoken?
