text:
Wikijunior:Languages/German

What writing system(s) does German use?
German uses the Latin alphabet just like English, French, and Spanish, with one extra (non-Latin) letter, the eszett, which is pronounced "ss". It also has umlaute, which are not used in English.

When people don't have a German keyboard, or the software required to use extra symbols on your own keyboard, they can write the umlauts by adding the letter "e" after the basic vowel. These umlauts would then look like this: Ae, ae, Oe, oe, Ue, ue. The pronunciation remains the same. The eszett can also be written ss. In Switzerland, the eszett is never used, it is always replaced by ss.

How many people speak German?
There are roughly 110 million people that speak German as a first language; however, there are around 120 million people who speak it as a secondary language.

Where is this language spoken?

German is primarily spoken in the following countries:
 * Germany
 * Austria
 * Switzerland
 * Liechtenstein

German is also spoken by some people in the following countries:
 * Luxembourg
 * France
 * Belgium
 * The Netherlands
 * Namibia
 * Italy
 * Denmark
 * Argentina
 * Brazil
 * Canada
 * United States of America
 * Costa Rica

In small communities all over the world, German and variants (Pennsylfaanisch Deitsch) are spoken as the primary or secondary language. German is also the most widely spoken language in Europe, and the tenth most spoken language in the world.

What is the history of this language?
West Germanic was an ancient language that evolved into many different languages including German, English, Frisian, Low German and Dutch. German evolved from West Germanic between AD 400 and AD 1200 when people in southern and middle regions of Germany started pronouncing several consonants differently. This language is now called Standard German ("Hochdeutsch", literally "High German").

West Germanic dialects were still spoken in the northern and western regions of Germany and evolved into the regional language now called Low German or Low Saxon ("Plattdeutsch"). For many years the people of these regions of Germany struggled to understand one another. It wasn't until the 1800s that a common language was developed, called Standard German, that allowed the people of the highlands and the lowlands to be able to speak to one another.

Who are some famous authors or poets in this language?

Some famous authors and poets in this language include the Grimm brothers, Schiller & Goethe.

Martin Luther (1483 – 1546), the leader of the Protestant Reformation, translated the Bible into German. He used a version of middle German that could be understood by speakers of both North and South Germany, and thus was important in laying the foundations for Standard German. His translation is vigorous and vivid, he tried to incorporate the ways in which people of his time really talked. It was admired by many writers and poets, and it is the source of many idioms of German even as it is spoken today.

The Brothers Grimm (Jacob, 1785 – 1863; Wilhelm, 1786 – 1859) were Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, German professors who were best known for publishing collections of authentic folk tales and fairy tales. Their fairy tales are very famous, mostly because Disney made animated movies based on three of them: Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, and Snow White. Many of the other fairy tales are very famous, and untouched by Disney. These include Hansel and Gretel, Little Red Riding Hood, Rumpelstiltskin, and Rapunzel.

Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller (November 10, 1759 – May 9, 1805) was a German poet, philosopher, historian, and dramatist. His childhood and youth were spent in relative poverty, although he attended both village and Latin schools. He eventually studied medicine. At school, he wrote his first play, The Robbers, about a group of naïve revolutionaries and their tragic failure. In 1780, he obtained a post as regimental doctor in Stuttgart. Following the performance of Die Räuber (The Robbers) in Mannheim, in 1781 he was arrested and forbidden to publish any further works. He fled Stuttgart in 1783, coming via Leipzig and Dresden to Weimar in 1787. In 1789, he was appointed professor of History and Philosophy in Jena, where he wrote only historical works. He returned to Weimar in 1799, where Goethe convinced him to return to playwriting. He and Goethe founded the Weimar Theater which became the leading theater in Germany, leading to a dramatic renaissance. He remained in Weimar, Saxe-Weimar until his death at 45 from tuberculosis.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German polymath: he was a painter, novelist, dramatist, poet, humanist, scientist, philosopher, and for ten years chief minister of state at Weimar. Goethe was one of the paramount figures of German literature and the movement of German classicism in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. This movement coincides with Enlightenment, Sturm und Drang, Sensibility ("Empfindsamkeit"), and Romanticism, in all of which he participated to varying degrees. As the author of Faust and Theory of Colours, Goethe's influence spread across Europe, and for the next century, his works were a primary source of inspiration in music, drama, poetry, and even philosophy.

German is also the language of classical music, as it was the language of Mozart, Beethoven, and Bach just to name a few. Read on for more detail on these artists...

Johann Sebastian Bach (21 March 1685 – 28 July 1750) was a prolific German composer and organist whose sacred and secular works for choir, orchestra and solo instruments drew together almost all of the strands of the Baroque style and brought it to its ultimate maturity. Although he introduced no new musical forms, he enriched the prevailing German style with a robust and dazzling contrapuntal technique, a seemingly effortless control of harmonic and motivic organization from the smallest to the largest scales, and the adaptation of rhythms and textures from abroad, particularly Italy and France.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (January 27, 1756 – December 5, 1791) is among the most significant and enduringly popular composers of European classical music. His enormous output includes works that are widely acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music. Many of his works are part of the standard concert repertory and are widely recognized as masterpieces of the classical style.

Ludwig van Beethoven (December 17, 1770 – March 26, 1827) was a German composer of classical music, who lived predominantly in Vienna, Austria. Beethoven is widely regarded as one of history's supreme composers, and he produced notable works even after losing his hearing. He was one of the greatest figures in the transitional period between the Classical and Romantic eras in music. His reputation has inspired — and in many cases intimidated — composers, musicians, and audiences who were to come after him.

Franz Schubert (1797-1828), prolific composer of music in about every form, including a vast number of songs, almost all in German.

Richard Wagner (1813-1883), composer of a large array of frequently-performed German operas, including his monumental four-opera series known as the Ring of the Nibelung.

Gustav Mahler (1860-1911), although from what is now the Czech Republic, was a native speaker of German and did most of his composing in Vienna. He wrote several song cycles and the symphonic cantata Das Lied von der Erde (the Song of the Earth) and nine completed (one unfinished) symphonies, four of which incorporate German text.

What is a simple song/poem/story that I can learn in this language?
At Christmas time, you might like to sing Christmas carols about your tree. The Germans do, too. They have a song called "O Tannenbaum" which has also been translated into English. The song was first written by Ernst Anschütz in 1824.

Here is the original German song, O Tannenbaum:

It is known as "O Christmas Tree" in English and is a very famous song. Here is the English version of the song:

title: Wikijunior:Languages/German


text:
Wikijunior:Languages/Italian

What writing system(s) does this language use?
Italian is written using the Latin writing system.

The Italian alphabet has the same letters as English, although the letters "J", "K", "W", "X" and "Y" are only used in words of foreign origin.

Some letters may have accents. They are: à, é, è, ì, ò, ù. Notice that the "e" letter may have two kinds of accents.

How many people speak this language?
Seventy million people speak Italian as a native language.

Where is this language spoken?
Italian is spoken in Italy (click here to learn about Italy). There are also Italian-speaking communities in the nations neighboring Italy (France (click here to learn about France), Austria (click here to learn about Austria), Croatia (click here to learn about Croatia), Slovenia (click here to learn about Slovenia)), and it is widespread in the Ticino and Grigioni cantons of southern Switzerland (click here to learn about Switzerland). The language is classed as an official language in parts of Slovenia and Croatia and one of 4 national languages of Switzerland. It is one of the four federal official languages of Switzerland along with German, French, and Romansh. It is the most commonly used language in the Vatican City (although the official language is Latin, which is used for celebrations and documents). It is also used in San Marino (a microstate embedded in the north-east of Italy).

It's one of the many official languages of the European Union (click here to learn about the European Union), and also preserved by many Italian immigrant communities in the USA, Canada, Argentina, Brazil, Australia, Belgium, France, and Germany.

As Italy once held colonies in Albania, Somalia, Libya, and Eritrea, a small number of older people in these countries still speak Italian as a second language.

The high number of migrants coming to Italy from Third World countries since the 1990s are showing usage of Italian as a lingua franca. So it wouldn't be bad if you learn to speak Italian!

What is the history of this language?
Italian is derived from one of the many regional vernaculars of Latin. All these languages split from Latin long ago. The first documents written in what can be recognized as Italian rather than vernacular Latin date from about 1000 years ago. During the late Middle Ages and the renaissance, poets and writers in several Italian city states wrote in various dialects of Italian. The great wealth of Florence in Tuscany and of Venice led to the dialects of these two regions becoming dominant.

The roots of modern Italian are in the 13th century in Sicily, where some people at the court of Frederick II enjoyed writing love poems for their women. Then, those poems were translated into the language of Tuscany and they became an inspiration for other writers, who kept writing poems about several subjects, but the main theme was love. Love poetry remained very common in Italian literature for centuries and the love poems of the 13th century remained a model that most of the later Italian writers looked at; that is why Italians often call their own language the language of love. The language of Tuscany kept on having a leading role about literature over the other Italian languages.

Until the 1860s Italy had a history of being divided into many small city states or of being controlled by foreign powers. The countries' many dialects continued to develop separately until very recently. To an extent, people thought of 'Italy' as a geographical term rather than as a country. When Garibaldi attempted to raise an army to fight for "l'Italia" in Sicily in the 1860s on the behalf of King Vittorio Emmanuele II of Piedmont, many Sicilians believed that "l'Italia" was actually the name of the king's wife! Italian was only spoken by a small minority, whilst most people were native speakers of the various regional languages (also known as dialects of Italy) which had developed separately from Italian. These are very distinct from Italian, and from each other, and often belong to separate language sub-families. Piedmontese, spoken in the north-west of Italy, has many similarities with French; Sicilian, spoken in the south, shows signs of the region's long occupation by the Arabs, the Normans, and the Spanish, and is so different from Italian that when a film in Sicilian, "La Terra Trema" directed by Visconti, was released in the 1940s, it was necessary to add subtitles so that audiences in the rest of Italy could understand it.

The spread of free state education and the influence of radio and television in the twentieth century led to most Italians being able to understand the Italian language, which was based on Tuscan but admitted a number of words from other dialects. As recently as the 1960s, government surveys in Italy found that the majority of people speak standard Italian at school or at work, but still speak their own regional vernacular at home.

Increasingly, Italians are moving around the country to find work and are marrying people from other regions. This and the ever-growing influence of the media have led to a decline in regional vernaculars, especially among young people.

Who are some famous authors or poets in this language?
Since the main models for Italian writers were poets, most of the best works in Italian literature are poems about several subjects. The three writers who are considered the fathers of the Italian language, often called the three crowns, lived during the late Middle Ages. They are:

 * Dante Alighieri, who is considered the greatest Italian writer. His minor works are mainly about love and politics.  His best work "The Divine Comedy" (in archaic Italian), is considered the best Italian poem and one of the best poems of the history of literature in any language. It is composed in three parts: Hell, Purgatory. and Paradise.  It tells of the poet's travels through the three realms of the dead; while travelling the poet meets a lot of people and he talks with them about several different subjects, that is why the book is about several topics.  It can be a bit of a scary book, so get your parents or teachers to read it first.

 * Petrarch, who wrote the Canzoniere, a collection of poems about several topics, but the main theme is his love for Laura.

 * Giovanni Boccaccio, whose main work is the Decamerone, a collection of a hundred novels. They are stories taken from the popular traditions, some of them are very funny.

Those writers have been a model of style for all the following Italian writers:

 * Niccolò Machiavelli lived during the Renaissance. His main work is the Prince, a collection of suggestions about how to get and keep power. It was addressed to somebody willing to conquer all the Italian small countries to unify them, freeing them from foreign power, but his considerations are so general that they can still be used nowadays in both politics and company management. Machiavelli was ranked #79 on Michael H. Hart's list of the most influential figures in history.

 * Alessandro Manzoni is considered the father of the modern Italian. He wrote The Betrothed, a story of a couple in love facing all the problems of the spreading of the plague. It took about 20 years to finish his book: he worked taking care of every detail. That book is considered the model for style and grammar of the modern Italian.

 * Carlo Collodi (original name Carlo Lorenzini, "Collodi" is just the name of his mother's birthplace) who wrote Pinocchio.

What are some basic words in this language that I can learn?
Greetings:
 * ciao - hello
 * buon giorno - good morning (in the morning), good afternoon (after midday)
 * buona sera - good evening
 * buona notte - good night
 * buon Natale - happy Christmas
 * buona Pasqua - happy Easter
 * buon compleanno - happy birthday
 * buon appetito - have a good meal
 * come stai? - how are you?
 * bene grazie, e tu? - fine thanks, and you?
 * non molto bene - not so good
 * sono triste - I'm sad
 * sono felice - I'm happy
 * non ti preoccupare - don't worry
 * stai tranquillo - be quiet
 * posso aiutarti? - can I help you?
 * mi piace come balli - I like the way you dance
 * mi fai diventare matto - you drive me crazy
 * sbrigati! - hurry up!
 * non penso proprio - I don't think so
 * non mi rompere - don't bother me
 * che succede? - what's up?
 * mi sto bruciando il cervello - my mind is becoming dry
 * andiamo a fare una passeggiata - let's go for a walk
 * non prendermi in giro - don't fool me / don't take me for a ride
 * arrivederci - goodbye
 * a presto - see you soon
 * grazie - thank you
 * grazie infinite / grazie mille - thank you very much
 * prego - you're welcome
 * mi dispiace - I'm sorry
 * mi dispiace terribilmente - I'm terribly sorry, I'm really sorry
 * chiedo perdono - I beg your pardon, I apologize
 * piove a dirotto, piove a catinelle - it's raining cats and dogs
 * questa è la goccia che fa traboccare il vaso - it's the last straw that broke the camel's back
 * mai dire mai - never say die
 * bella - beautiful (feminine form)
 * madre- mother
 * padre - father
 * zio(a) - uncle/aunt
 * nonno - grandfather
 * nonna - grandmother
 * fratello - brother
 * sorella - sister
 * cugino/a - cousin (male/female)

Definite and indefinite articles
In Italian there are some definite and indefinite articles: There's other definite article, "L' ", which is used before words which begin with a vowel. For example: The friend - L'amico (male) / L' amica (female)
 * The - Il/Lo (Masculine singular) I/Gli (Masculine plural)  La (Feminine singular)  Le (Feminine plural)
 * A/An - Un/Uno (Masculine) Una (Feminine)

An aria from the Turandot opera
Italian: Nessun dorma! Nessun dorma! Tu pure, o Principessa, nella tua fredda stanza, guardi le stelle che tremano d'amore, e di speranza!

English: None shall sleep! None shall sleep! Even you, Princess, in your cold bedroom, watch the stars that tremble with love and with hope

Italian: Ma il mio mistero è chiuso in me; il nome mio nessun saprà! No, No! Sulla tua bocca lo dirò quando la luce splenderà!

English: But my secret is hidden within me; none will know my name! No, no! On your mouth I will say it when the light shines!

Italian: Ed il mio bacio scioglierà il silenzio che ti fa mia!

English: And my kiss will dissolve the silence that makes you mine!

Italian: Il nome suo nessun saprà... E noi dovrem, ahimè, morir, morir!

English: No one will know his name... and we will have to, alas, die, die!

Italian: Dilegua, o notte! Tramontate, stelle! Tramontate, stelle! All'alba vincerò! Vincerò! Vincerò!

English: Vanish, night! Set, stars! Set, stars! At dawn I shall win! I shall win! I shall win!

An aria from the Rigoletto opera
Italian: La donna è mobile qual piuma al vento,

English: Woman is flighty like a feather in the wind,

Italian: Muta d'accento — e di pensiero.

English: She changes her voice — and her mind.

Italian: Sempre un amabile, leggiadro viso,

English: Always sweet, pretty face,

Italian: In pianto o in riso, — è menzognero.

English: In tears or in laughter, — it is always lying.

Italian: La donna è mobile qual piuma al vento

English: Woman is flighty like a feather in the wind,

Italian: Muta d'accento e di pensier!

English: She changes the tone of her voice and her mind,

Italian: e di pensier! e di pensier!

English: And her mind! And her mind!

Italian: È sempre misero chi a lei s'affida,

English: Always miserable is he who trusts her,

Italian: Chi le confida — mal cauto il cuore!

English: He who confides in her — his unwary heart!

Italian: Pur mai non sentesi felice appieno

English: Yet one never feels fully happy

Italian: Chi su quel seno — non liba amore!

English: Who on that bosom — does not drink love!

Italian: La donna è mobile qual piuma al vento,

English: Woman is flighty like a feather in the wind,

Italian: Muta d'accento e di pensier!

English: She changes the tone of her voice and her mind,

Italian: e di pensier! e di pensier!

English: And her mind! And her mind!

Wikijunior Sprachen/ Italienisch Wikijunior_lingue/Italiano pl:Wikijunior:Języki/Włoski

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Wikijunior:Languages/Italian


text:
Wikijunior:Languages/Japanese

What writing system(s) does this language use?
Japanese uses three different writing systems, known as hiragana, katakana, and kanji. In some cases, Japanese people will also use the letters of the English alphabet; this is called rōmaji (literally, "Roman characters").

Hiragana and katakana are called "syllabaries" because each symbol represents a specific one-syllable sound. Although they function somewhat like an alphabet, since they can be used to "spell out" Japanese words phonetically, most of the symbols in hiragana and katakana represent a consonant-vowel pair, like "ka" or "so". Hiragana is used for native Japanese words, while katakana is used for foreign words that have been integrated into the language, like the English words "rodeo" (from Spanish) and "shampoo" (from Hindi).

Kanji are associated with particular meanings, like full words in English. Unlike the hiragana and katakana symbols, each kanji can be "read" (that is, spoken) in more than one way. In fact, most kanji have two different pronunciations: one based on spoken Japanese and one based on spoken Chinese, because the kanji characters were originally brought to Japan by Chinese monks starting in the 5th century.

Many Japanese kanji look the same as, or very similar to, the Chinese characters for the same concepts. However, some kanji have changed their appearance over time, as the Japanese and Chinese languages developed separately.

The Japanese government has designated more than 2,100 kanji for standard use; high school students in Japan must know all of the standard characters before they graduate.

 * kanji examples: 大 (big), 女 (woman) , 男 (man) , 雪 (snow) , 馬 (horse) , 赤 (red)

Romaji is the system used to write Japanese words using the Roman alphabet, like the words on this page (hiragana, katakana, kanji, romaji), and is used to help English-speaking Japanese learners learn how to read and pronounce Japanese.

How many people speak this language?
The Japanese language has 127 million native speakers, plus 1 million other speakers that learned Japanese as a second language.

Where is this language spoken?
Japanese is primarily spoken in Japan, but is also spoken in Hawaii, Guam, and other parts of the United States, mostly along the Pacific Ocean; in South America, mainly in Peru and Brazil; and on many Pacific islands.

What is the history of this language?
At first glance, it would be easy to think that Japanese is closely related to Chinese. The kanji characters were all adopted from Chinese, and the kana (hiragana and katakana) were developed from the kanji. However, Japanese is actually a very different language from Chinese. Before the 5th century, Japanese had no written form, but because of contact with China, Japan adapted the writing system of Chinese to the Japanese language.

The origins of the Japanese language itself are lost to history. Some people believe that it's related to Korean, but this is uncertain. Perhaps one day more information on the history of this language will be discovered.

Who are some famous authors or poets in this language?
Murasaki Shikibu (c.973–c.1014), authored The Tale of Genji, one of the earliest novels in the world.

Miyamoto Musashi (c.1584–1645), a samurai who wrote The Book of Five Rings.

Matsuo Bashō (c.1644–1694), a master of the poetry form of haiku.

Kyokutei Bakin (1767–1848), the author of Nansō satomi hakkenden or The Legend of the Eight Dog Warriors.

Shusaku Endo (1923–1996) was a writer whose inspiration and motivation came from being a Japanese Catholic.

Koji Suzuki (b. 1957) is a writer of horror novels and short stories. Many of these have been translated into other languages, including his most famous work, Ring. Many of his books have been made into films in many languages, including English, Japanese and Korean.

What are some basic words in this language that I can learn?
Basic Greetings:
 * おはようございます! - Ohayō gozaimasu! - "Good morning!"
 * こんにちは! - Konnichiwa! - "Good afternoon!" or "Hello!"
 * さようなら! - Sayōnara! - "Good bye!"
 * また明日! - Mata ashita! - "See you tomorrow!"

Simple Words:
 * はい - hai - "yes"
 * いいえ - iie - "no"
 * 猫 - neko - "cat"
 * 犬 - inu - "dog"
 * 日本 - Nihon - "Japan"
 * 日本語 - Nihongo - "Japanese language"
 * 月 - tsuki - "moon"
 * 絵 - e - "picture"
 * 愛　- ai - "love"

Numbers:
 * 1) 一 - ichi
 * 2) 二 - ni
 * 3) 三 - san
 * 4) 四 - yon (shi)
 * 5) 五 - go
 * 6) 六 - roku
 * 7) 七 - nana (shichi)
 * 8) 八 - hachi
 * 9) 九 - kyū
 * 10) 十 - jū

Courtesies:
 * すみません - Sumimasen - "Excuse me."
 * ありがとうございます - Arigatō gozaimasu - "Thank you."
 * ごめんなさい - Gomen nasai - "I'm sorry."
 * 大丈夫ですか? - Daijōbu desu ka - "Are you okay?"

title: Wikijunior:Languages/Japanese


text:
Wikijunior:Languages/Korean

What writing system(s) does this language use?
One thing unique about the Korean language is the Hangeul ("han-guhl") alphabet. While Chinese uses a complex character for each word, and Japanese mixes two syllabaries (each character of the alphabet representing a syllable rather than a single sound) with complex Chinese characters, the Hangeul alphabet uses actual letters, each one with its own sound. Hangeul letters are arranged to make syllables in Korean words.

Hangeul is the only purposely invented alphabet in popular daily use. The alphabet was invented in 1444 during the reign of King Sejong (1418 – 1450). King Sejong was the fourth king of the Joseon Dynasty and is one of the most highly regarded. He originally named the Hangeul alphabet Hunmin Jeongeum, which means "the correct sounds for the instruction of the people".

How many people speak this language?
There are between 67 and 78 million Korean speakers around the world. It is one of the top 20 most spoken languages in the world.

Where is this language spoken?
Korean is spoken primarily in North and South Korea, in the northeastern parts of China, Japan, and the western part of the US. However, there are large Korean speaking communities in many major cities around the world.

What is the history of this language?
Korean is a very old language. Unfortunately, researchers are still not sure of how it evolved. Some researchers think that it shared a common history with Turkic, Mongolic, and Tungusic languages. Other researchers think that it may have evolved with Japanese from Austronesian (Australian and South East Asian) languages. One thing is sure though—it is not a variation of Chinese.

Who are some famous authors or poets in this language?
One famous author is Soon-Won Hwang. He was born in 1915 in Pyoungannam-do, and graduated from Waseda University with a degree in English Literature in 1939. He taught at Seoul Middle High School and also in the College of Liberal Arts and Science of Kyung-Hee University. He was a member and senior member of the Art Institute.

His works include the poems "Singing Loudly" and "Antique"; short stories such as "Swamp", "Dog of Neck Cross Village", "Crane", "Lost People", "Time Only For You and Me", and "Mask"; and the novels "Descendant of Cain", "Grafting of Human", "Trees, Standing on the Slope", "The Sun and the Moon", and "The Die of Gods". 12 volumes of "The Complete Works of Soon Won Hwang" were published in 1985.

Basic Korean
Language Structure:

There are 14 primitive consonants and 10 vowels in Korean.

 * 14 consonants: ㄱ (g), ㄴ (n) , ㄷ (d) , ㄹ (r) , ㅁ (m) , ㅂ (b) , ㅅ (s) , ㅇ (ng) , ㅈ (j) , ㅊ (ch) , ㅋ (k) , ㅌ (t) , ㅍ (p) , ㅎ (h)

 * 10 vowels: ㅏ (a), ㅑ (ya) , ㅓ (eo) , ㅕ (yeo) , ㅗ (o) , ㅛ (yo) , ㅜ (u) , ㅠ (yu) , ㅡ (eu) , ㅣ (i)

Numerals

 * 1 일 (il)
 * 2 이 (i, like "ee")
 * 3 삼 (sam)
 * 4 사 (sa)
 * 5 오 (o)
 * 6 육 (yuk)
 * 7 칠 (chil)
 * 8 팔 (pal)
 * 9 구 (gu)
 * 10 십 (ship)
 * 11 십 일 (ship il)
 * 20 이 십 (i ("ee") ship)
 * 30 삼 십 (sam ship)
 * 40 사 십 (sa ship)
 * 50 오 십 (o ship)
 * 60 육 십 (yuk ship)
 * 70 칠 십 (chil ship)
 * 80 팔 십 (pal ship)
 * 90 구 십 (gu ship)
 * 100 백 (baek)
 * 1000 천 (cheon)
 * 10000 만 (man)
 * 100000 십만 (ship man)
 * 1000000 백만 (baek man)
 * 10000000 천만 (cheon man)
 * 100000000 일억 (il eok)

Basic Expressions

 * 안녕하세요? (annyeong-haseyo?, or to a close friend: 안녕? annyeong?) - "Hello?"
 * 안녕히 가세요. (annyeong-hi ("hee") gaseyo, or to a close friend: 안녕, annyeong) - "Good bye"
 * 잘 가세요. (jal gaseyo, or to a close friend 잘 가, jal ga) - "Good bye)
 * 고맙습니다 (go-map-seumnida, or to a close friend: 고마워 go ma wor) - "Thank you"
 * 천만에요 (cheonmaneyo, or 괜찮습니다, gwaenchan-seumnida) - "You are welcome"
 * 미안합니다 (mi-an-hamnida, or to a close friend: 미안해, mi-an-hae) - "I am sorry"
 * 괜찮습니다 (gwaenchan-seumnida, or to a close friend: 괜찮아, gwaenchan-a) - "That is all right."
 * 안녕히 주무셨어요? [honorific form] (annyeong-hi ("hee") jumusheosseoyo?, or to a close friend, 잘 자 서, jal ja sir) - "Good evening" or "Good night"
 * 잘 잤어요? [formal] (jal jass-eoyo?) - "Good morning" or "Did you sleep well?"
 * 사랑해요 (sarang-haeyo, or to a close friend, 사랑해, sarang-hae) - "I love you"

Common words

 * 사람 (sa-ram) - person
 * 남자 (nam-ja) - man
 * 소년 (so-nyeon) - boy
 * 여자 (yeo-ja) - woman
 * 소녀 (so-nyeo) - girl
 * 사과 (sa-gwa) - apple
 * 닭 (dak) - chicken
 * 말 (mal) - horse
 * 감자 (gam-ja) - potato

Adjectives

 * 좋아요 (joh-a-yo) - good
 * 나빠요 (nappa-yo) - bad

What is a simple song/poem/story that I can learn in this language?
Aegugka (The national anthem of South Korea)

title: Wikijunior:Languages/Korean


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Wikijunior:Languages/Russian

What writing system(s) does this language use?
The Russian alphabet is based on the Cyrillic writing system. Legend says that two Byzantine brothers, Cyril and Methodius, created it using letters of the Greek and Hebrew alphabets in the 9th century. Cyrillic script has changed much with time, even more than the Latin script we use. In fact, modern Russians are not able to read a three-hundred-year-old book in Russian. This is not only because the language has changed, but also because they are not able to recognize many letters. The last big change of Russian script happened in 1918, and the alphabet has remained the same since.

There are a total of thirty-three letters in the modern Russian alphabet. Two of these letters do not have an actual sound; they simply change the sound of other letters in words. The Cyrillic alphabet goes as follows:

How many people speak this language?
Russian is the native language for about 145 million people. There are also about 110 million who speak it as a secondary language.

Where is this language spoken?
Russian is, of course, spoken in Russia (click here or here to learn about Russia). It is widely spoken in Belarus (click here to learn about Belarus) and eastern Ukraine. For many years Russia was a part of a larger association called the Soviet Union. In 1991 the Soviet Union separated into several separate countries. Many of these countries, such as Latvia and Estonia, still use Russian for communication between people who speak different languages (like English in other parts of the world). There are also permanent Russian-speaking settlements in the Norwegian territory of Svalbard (Spitsbergen), which was acquired from Russia. Russian is known as what is called Lingua Franca in the countries where it remains in use regardless of whether or not a large ethnic Russian population resides there.

Russian is also spoken by the communities of Russian emigrants in the U.S.A., Israel, Germany, and many other countries.

What is the history of this language?
The Russian language belongs to the group of languages that are called Slavic. These languages have many commonalities, some of which are similar word roots and similar grammar. It is for this reason why scientists think that all Slavic languages originated from one Protoslavic language, that people spoke a long time ago (before 1000 A.D.). As time passed, the language spread, and people in different countries began to speak it differently. It is considered that Russian became a separate language in 14th – 15th centuries.

As Russia changed with time, so did the language. Major events in Russian history brought new features to language and literature. Aleksandr Sergeevich Pushkin is considered the "father" of modern literary language. He chose to write books using the way that people spoke instead of using old fashioned grammar and vocabulary like the other authors of his time. Though the Russian language is very flexible and ever-changing, Pushkin’s language stays the base and the standard of classic style.

Who are some famous authors or poets in this language?
Russian literature is well known in the West. Possibly you've heard the names of Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Nabokov, Brodsky. But not many people know that there are lots of wonderful children’s books in Russia.

Aleksandr Sergeevich Pushkin (1799 – 1837) is one of the greatest Russian poets. He wrote books both for grown ups and for children. When he was a child, his nanny, Arina Rodionovna, told him many beautiful folk fairy tales. When he grew up, he wrote down these fairy tales in poem form. The plot of The Tale of the Dead Princess and the Seven Knights is a lot like the Snow White story. In The Tale of Tsar Saltan, when the tsar chooses one of three sisters to be his queen, the others get jealous and tell lies about her. The queen and her son are sent to a faraway island, where a fairy princess helps the young prince to reunite with his father. These books became classics of Russian Children’s literature, and every child in Russia knows them by heart, just like you know Mother Goose rhymes.

Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy (1828 – 1910), the author of War and Peace, is probably the most well-known Russian writer in the West. He wrote books for children too. He was very compassionate towards peasant people, and tried to help them as much as he could. He opened a school for peasant children and wrote the textbooks for it himself. He also wrote three very beautiful books about his own young years: Childhood, Boyhood, and Youth.

A lot of interesting children’s books were written in Russian in the 20th century. Korney Ivanovich Chukovsky wrote fairy tales about Bad Robber Barmaley and Kind Doctor Aibolit, Moidodyr who makes all kids wash up in the morning, and evil Tarakanishe (the Huge Roach) that terrorizes all the animals in the forest. Samuil Yakovlevich Marshak wrote Tale of a Silly Mouseling and Cat’s house. Nikolai Nosov wrote a series of books about the adventures of Neznaika (Dontknow) and his friends, living in the happy Flower city.

What are some basic words in this language that I can learn?
Here are several everyday phrases with their pronunciations between / /:

 * Привет /priviyet/ — Hello (informal)
 * Здравствуйте /zdrastvuyte/ — Hello (formal)
 * Как дела? /kak dela/ — How are you?
 * Меня зовут... /menya zovut/ — My name is...
 * До свидания! /do svidaniya/ — Goodbye!
 * Я тебя люблю! /ya tebiya lyublyu/ — I love you!
 * Спасибо! /spasibo/ — Thank you!
 * Пожалуйста! /pozhaluista/ — Please; you are welcome!

What is a simple song/poem/story that I can learn in this language?
Try to learn this little poem by Agnia Barto:

 Уронили мишку на пол, Оторвали мишке лапу. Всё равно его не брошу — Потому что он хороший.

It sounds like this:  Ooronili mishkoo na pol, Otorvali mishke lapoo, Vsyo ravno evo nye broshoo — Pahtomoo shto on horoshiy.

And that means:  Teddy bear was dropped on the floor, Teddy bear's paw got torn off. But I will never leave him — Because he is good.

title: Wikijunior:Languages/Russian


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Wikijunior:Languages/Spanish

What writing system(s) does this language use?
Spanish is written using the Latin alphabet, with the addition of Ñ (enye). CH (che) and LL (eye) also used to have their own places in the alphabet (a, b, c, ch, d, …, l, ll, m, n, ñ, …) as well as RR (erre, the double r indicating a rolled r). Since 1994, however, words containing the letters CH and LL have been alphabetized as though spelled with the separate letters c - h and l - l.

Spanish doesn't use letter W except in foreign words. Letter K is used very little and is mainly found in foreign words.

How many people speak this language?
There are more than 400 million people across the globe who speak Spanish as their first language. When you include non-native speakers (people who learned another language before they learned Spanish), the total increases to about 500 million.

Where is this language spoken?
This language is spoken in Central and South America (except Brazil, Guyana, French Guyana, and Suriname), Mexico, and Spain. Large numbers of Spanish-speaking peoples live in the United States as well. Spanish is also spoken in several Caribbean islands including the Dominican Republic, Cuba and Puerto Rico. Some Jews living in Israel speak a dialect called Sefardi, also called Ladino. The biggest Spanish-speaking countries are Mexico, Colombia, Spain, Argentina and the United States.

What is the history of this language?
Spanish is a member of the Romance branch of Indo-European languages, descended largely from Latin. Spanish has also been influenced by many other languages it has been in contact with, including Basque, Germanic, Arabic, several Native American languages, and other Romance languages such as French and Italian, so there are some Spanish words that do not come from Latin.

Who are some famous authors or poets in this language?

 * Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra was a Spanish novelist, poet and playwright. He is best known for his novel Don Quixote de la Mancha, which is considered by many to be the first modern novel, one of the greatest works in Western literature, and the greatest of the Spanish language.
 * Gabriel José García Márquez is a Colombian novelist, widely credited with introducing the global public to magical realism. He wrote Crónicas de una Muerte Anunciada (Chronicle of a Death Foretold), Amor en los Tiempos de Cólera (Love in the Time of Cholera), Cien Años de Soledad (One Hundred Years of Solitude), and others.
 * Jorge Luis Borges was an Argentine writer who is considered one of the foremost literary figures of the 20th century. He is best known in the English speaking world for his short stories.  Many of his most popular stories concern the nature of time, infinity, mirrors, labyrinths, reality, and identity.
 * Ernesto Sabato is an Argentine writer best known for his existentialist novels El Túnel, On heroes and tombs, and The angel of darkness.
 * Julio Cortázar was an Argentine intellectual and author of several experimental novels and many short stories. Cortázar is highly regarded as a master of short stories of a fantastic bent, with the collections Bestiario (1951) and Final de Juego (1956) containing many of his best examples in the genre, including the famous "Continuidad de los Parques."
 * Pablo Neruda (July 12, 1904 – September 23, 1973) was the penname and, later, legal name of the Chilean writer and communist politician Neftalí Ricardo Reyes Basoalto. His works have been translated into dozens of languages, and he is considered one of the greatest and most influential poets of the 20th century.  He was accomplished in a wide variety of styles, including erotically charged love poems (such as "White Hills"), surrealist poems, historical epics, and overtly political manifestos.  Some of Neruda's most beloved poems are his "Odes to Broken Things," collected in several volumes.  Colombian novelist Gabriel García Márquez has called him "the greatest poet of the 20th century in any language".  In 1971, Neruda won the Nobel Prize for Literature, a controversial award because of his political activism.

title: Wikijunior:Languages/Spanish


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User:UKPhoenix79~enwikibooks

Go to my Wikipedia account to find out more about me.

title: User:UKPhoenix79~enwikibooks


text:
Wikijunior:Languages/Glossary

Wikijunior Sprachen/ Glossar

title: Wikijunior:Languages/Glossary


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Wikijunior:Languages/Print version

=Contents=
 * Introduction
 * 1) Arabic
 * 2) Assamese
 * 3) Bengali
 * 4) Bikol
 * 5) Cantonese
 * 6) Catalan
 * 7) Dutch
 * 8) English
 * 9) Esperanto
 * 10) Estonian
 * 11) French
 * 12) German
 * 13) Hebrew
 * 14) Hindi
 * 15) Japanese
 * 16) Korean
 * 17) Latin
 * 18) Mandarin Chinese
 * 19) Marathi
 * 20) Nahuatl
 * 21) Norwegian
 * 22) Polish
 * 23) Portuguese
 * 24) Quenya
 * 25) Russian
 * 26) Sanskrit
 * 27) Serbian
 * 28) Spanish
 * 29) Swahili
 * 30) Tagalog
 * 31) Tamil
 * 32) Turkish
 * 33) Urdu
 * Glossary
 * Authors
 * Legal Stuff - The Small Print

=Introduction=

=Arabic=

=Assamese=

=Bengali=

=Bikol=

=Cantonese=

=Catalan=

=Dutch=

=English=

=Esperanto=

=Estonian=

=French=

=German=

=Hebrew=

=Hindi=

=Japanese=

=Korean=

=Latin=

=Mandarin Chinese=

=Marathi=

=Nahuatl=

=Norwegian=

=Polish=

=Portuguese=

=Quenya=

=Russian=

=Sanskrit=

=Serbian=

=Spanish=

=Swahili=

=Tagalog=

=Tamil=

=Turkish=

=Urdu=

=Glossary=

=Authors=

=Legal Stuff - The Small Print=

title: Wikijunior:Languages/Print version


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Wikijunior:Languages/Authors

If you have made contributions to this Wikibook and would like to have formal credit for being an author, please add your name to the list below:
 * Robert Horning - began the book;
 * Ishan Kashyap Hazarika - Created the page on Assamese language;
 * Ryan Cunningham - idioma inglais/English language; editing; spelling; accuracy.
 * Michael Ayoub - Polish language;
 * George D. Božović - Serbian and Quenya languages;
 * Bronwyn Gannan - literature and history corners;
 * Girish - Hindi, Marathi, and Sanskrit languages;
 * Jesse Hannah - Japanese language;
 * Benjamin Aaron Horowitz - Arabic language;
 * ImageObserver - Russian language;
 * David Johncock - English, Chinese, French, Spanish, Italian, and Esperanto languages;
 * Markus Koljonen – Finnish language;
 * Limetom - Irish, Latin, and Persian languages;
 * Michistraße - Afrikaans language;
 * Miso - Japanese language;
 * Rahul "Sabretooth" Shirke - Marathi, Sanskrit, and Hindi languages.
 * Randy Wilson - Organization, proofing, editing.
 * Justin Silvestre - Tagalog language.
 * Karl Basallote - Created Bikol.
 * Xania - Manx Gaelic and Slovenian languages
 * Mayur Polepalli - Telegu language
 * Onur - Turkish language.
 * Robert Doyle - Added to the Irish language.
 * Laleena - Irish and Latin mostly.
 * Mouse is back - Created Norwegian.
 * Rmawhorter - Editing, proofing, continuity between articles, Swahili, refining various articles.
 * John Pagunsan - Contributed, Edited and Finished Tagalog
 * I-20 did Lojban.
 * Jonathan Crum - Created Armenian.
 * Tayyab Saeed - Bit of work on Urdu.
 * ꠢꠣꠍꠘ ꠞꠣꠎꠣ - Sylheti language.

title: Wikijunior:Languages/Authors


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Wikijunior:Languages/Introduction

Just what is a language?
A language is an organised, ordered way of speaking and listening. Reading and writing are a way of representing language in a permanent format, but many languages have no written form. Language is one form of communication. It can be spoken, visual, or signed. We can say that language is a code of symbols used to communicate.

What is not a language?
There are some things that work like language. For example, when you see a red traffic light, it is just the same as if somebody said to you "You should not cross the street now". The traffic signs work in the same way: drivers know when they have to turn left or right or to go slower. So they are a kind of communication system. Can we speak about "Traffic signs language"? Not really. Traffic signs work very well for some signals, but you can not say "I've eaten pizza today" by using traffic signs. The number of thoughts that you can express with them is very limited. This is not the case for real languages. Using English, or Russian, or Japanese, you can express a wide variety of different thoughts. You can also express brand new thoughts, create brand new sentences, and still be understood by your listeners.

Who came up with the languages?
People didn't just decide one day to start speaking. Languages developed over time. In fact, the English spoken only six hundred years ago would be almost unrecognizable to us today!

Anthropologists (experts on humanity) have many different theories about how human language developed. Some animals have a wide range of calls which they make instinctively when they see food, potential threats, rivals or mates. It is possible that human language began as a refinement of these instinctive calls. It is also possible that early humans made sounds that imitated things that they heard in the natural world around them.

Studies of the fossils of early humans suggest that the shape of the vocal tract — the part of the throat where sounds are made — may have changed about 70,000 years ago in such a way as to enable early humans to make a much wider range of sounds. By the same time, humans had developed brains which were as large as modern humans. These developments would have allowed humans to think complex thoughts and communicate them. Archaeologists note that signs of early human culture such as cave paintings and burial rituals appeared very quickly, suggesting that complex language and culture emerged together over a short period of time. There is no way of knowing exactly what early human language was like as it emerged long before written records.

What is grammar? Why is it important?
Grammar is a set of rules on how you should use words so that everybody will understand what you really mean. If words are bricks, then grammar is a manual that explains how to make a house with them.

When you think about a language, you'll probably think about its words in the first place. It is logical: you hear words, you can "feel" them, while you don't feel grammar directly. But grammar is at least as important as the words are. You cannot have a language with words only but no grammar. Not convinced yet? Try the following example:

You have the following words: I, mom, my, love. Having only these words but no grammar, you can make a lot of combinations of them, like "I my mom love" or "My love I mom", but nobody will understand what you really mean. If you want everybody to understand exactly what you mean, you have to make the next sentence: "I love my mom". Thus the words have to stand in exact sequence.

Another example from English might be "Susan helped Tony." We can easily see how word order is important if we rearrange it to say "Tony helped Susan." This expresses a quite different idea, but uses the same words. So word order is important in English grammar.

This is not true of every language, though. Russian, for example, has a free word order. Changing the order of the words does not change the meaning of the sentence. How is this possible? Russian relies on markers on the words to show which word is the subject and which is the object.

There are two ways grammar can work: by putting words in a certain sequence, and by changing words. The above examples use only word order. Here's an example that involves changing the words. If you wanted to say that your dad feels about you the same way you just said (in the earlier example) that you feel about him, you couldn't say that just by rearranging the words to "My dad love I" — but by changing "love" to "loves", and "I" to "me", you get a perfectly good sentence that means what you want: "My dad loves me".

Why not just use one language?
It may seem obvious to just create one language for everybody to use. Luckily, several linguists felt the same way. They made up what we call constructed languages. But, languages are a big part of a people's culture and identity and most of them have long interesting histories. People aren't willing to give them up. It is also very hard to become fluent in a language. It may seem natural to you to speak English, but it is actually very hard for many adults to learn.

Many linguists believe that there was originally only one language. However, when people are isolated from each other for thousands of years, the language that they speak evolves. Over time, slight changes in how people spoke built up until different tribes could no longer understand each other.

My friends and I would like to have a secret language
A lot of "secret languages" are actually not real languages, just your usual language with a couple of changes that make it harder to understand. For example, Pig Latin is not a real language and it is not even related to Latin, it's just English with the last letter moved and the added ending -ay. Verlan, the language common among French youths, just inverts the syllables of a word (for example, the English word "teacher" would become "chertea" by its rules). Since there is just one underlying concept in these "languages", they are quite easy to learn and it will only take a little practice until you can have fluent conversations in them. However, because of that, it's quite easy for adults or non-group-members to understand what you're saying, once they figured out the concept.

A method that will protect your secrets better is to use a secret alphabet. Write things down as you would usually, but don't use Latin letters (the letters used by English for example). Use a different alphabet, either one that you invented (be careful not to make letters too similar to Latin letters then, so that they can't easily be guessed) or an existing one — there's a big collection at http://www.omniglot.com/writing/alphabets.htm. Note: learning a new alphabet will probably take you a little more time than learning to speak in Pig Latin for example, but it can still be done in a few hours if you have a good course. Try this course for the Korean alphabet, for example. More than 99% of Americans or Europeans can only read the Latin alphabet, so your secrets will be quite safe even if you use an existing alphabet. However, be aware that it is possible to decipher an English text written in a secret alphabet, given enough study. For some people it's a fun enigma, just like crosswords. The key may be to make the text look like it isn't English at all, so that people don't even try to decipher it — that's why I liked to use Korean.

Secret alphabets have one big disadvantage: they can only be used when you're writing down the message. What about the times when you want to quickly communicate something to your friends during break or when playing outside, or when you want to call somebody names without him being aware of it? In those cases you will still need a secret language that you can speak in. Have you had the idea of learning a foreign language like, for example, Spanish for that purpose? I'm afraid that this is not a very good option because it will take you years until you can speak that language well enough to communicate with your friends. And Latin, French, Chinese, or the like aren't better suited either. The only really easy language that you might succeed learning quickly enough is Esperanto or Ido — but it will still require more effort than learning, for example, Pig Latin or a new alphabet.

Constructed languages
Constructed languages are special languages. They aren't developed "naturally", but are created by people. People had various reasons to create new languages. Some thought an international language would help people from different countries to understand each other better and to have less conflicts. Esperanto is the best known example of this kind of language, and is the only constructed language to achieve a large number of speakers. Some estimates for the number of speakers of Esperanto are as high as 2 million.

Some constructed languages are a part of imaginary world, like Klingon, which was created specially for the science fiction series Star Trek. Fictional languages for different races in the Lord of the Rings trilogy have also been developed. There are even languages that were created without any purpose beyond being just for fun. Toki Pona is such a language.

Unusual languages
Some languages do not have any tenses. This means that there is only one way to say a verb. Imagine saying I go to school yesterday. In these languages, words like yesterday and tomorrow are used to say when you did something. Some languages measure the tone of your voice; imagine saying the word “apple” in the wrong tone, and your mom buys you a cat! Other languages even use pictures for writing!

Wikijunior Sprachen/ Einleitung

title: Wikijunior:Languages/Introduction


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User:Nuha~enwikibooks

halloooooooooha

we are here today showing we are alive full of energy and enthusiasm....

--Nuha 07:18, 2 April 2006 (UTC)Nuha

title: User:Nuha~enwikibooks


text:
Talk:Modern Physics/The Doppler Effect

The Doppler effect for sound is depending on the relative speeds of source and observer to the air(propagating media). The Doppler effect for light or electromagnetic waves depends only to the relative radial speed of the source and observer. In these cases, source and observer have symmetrical role. Tor these reason, relative Doppler effect presented on the module is only valid for electromagnetic fields. --LALANNE 08:27, 2 April 2006 (UTC)

title: Talk:Modern Physics/The Doppler Effect


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Wikijunior:Languages/English

What writing system(s) does this language use?
English uses the Roman alphabet, which was originally used to write Latin. Today, this alphabet is used in almost all European languages. English uses 26 letters and is written left to right.

How many people speak this language?
For about 380 million people English is a native language, because they learned it when they were young children. However, possibly a billion people have learned the language as adults. Overall, only Mandarin Chinese is spoken by more people as a native language. English is widely considered the lingua franca of the diplomatic, business and scientific worlds.

Where is this language spoken?

English is spoken as a first language in the United Kingdom (click here to learn about the United Kingdom), Ireland (click here to learn about Ireland), the USA, Canada, South Africa (along with many other languages) Australia, New Zealand and many other countries.

What is the history of this language?
1500 years ago, the English language as we know it today did not exist. Tribes of warriors living in what is now Northern Germany spoke a language called Anglo-Saxon. This language is related to German. While many words in this language are similar to words in modern English, it is not possible to understand the language without intensive study.

After the Romans left Britain in 400 AD, these German warriors crossed the North Sea to pillage the cities that the Romans had abandoned. Finding the country to their liking, they stayed and settled down as farmers. Around 600 AD, the Anglo-Saxons were converted to Christianity. As a result, they adopted many Latin words into their language because Latin was the language used by the Church. Words like ‘bishop’, ‘mass’ and ‘angel’ all entered the language at this time.

Between 800 AD and 1000 AD, England was invaded by the Vikings several times. The Vikings were tradesmen and warriors who came to England on long-ships. They spoke Norse, a language which is closely related to Danish and Norwegian. As the Vikings settled in the north and east of England, they soon began living peacefully with the English rather than fighting with them. Thus the English learnt many Norse words. Many everyday words in English, such as ‘cake’, ‘sister’, ‘skin’, ‘horse’ and ‘knife’ were actually borrowed from the Vikings.

In 1066, England was invaded by William the Conqueror, who came from Normandy and spoke Norman French. William became the King of England but could not speak English. Soon, government and trade in England were being conducted in Norman French. Words such as ‘merchant’, ‘money’ and ‘price’ — which were all borrowed from Norman French — show how much the invaders controlled business; words such as ‘castle’, ‘law’, ‘royal’, ‘prince’, and ‘government’ show how much authority the French speakers had.

In the 15th Century, the printing press was invented. At the same time, people across Europe became more and more interested in the discoveries of ancient philosophers and scientists, and learned Latin and Greek in order to be able to read what these people had written. Soon people were showing off their education by mixing Latin and Greek into their English speech, so that Latin words like ‘manuscript’ and ‘circumference’ were being used, as were Greek words like ‘encyclopedia’ and ‘philosophical’.

Around 1600, William Shakespeare was writing his plays. This was a time when many new words entered the language. Shakespeare alone was the first person to write ‘obscene’, ‘accommodation’, and ‘leap-frog’. He also invented many other words.

In the 1600s and 1700s, England developed an overseas empire. The English language spread to America and Canada in the 17th century when English settlers traveled there to set up farms, and to Australia in the 18th and 19th centuries when English prisoners were sent there. In the 19th century, the language also arrived in New Zealand and began to be used in British colonies and territories in the West Indies, Africa, India and the Far East – including Hong Kong. As well as spreading overseas, the English language found itself being enriched by its contacts with other cultures at this time, borrowing many words from other languages such as ‘wigwam’, ‘racoon’, and ‘skunk’ from American Indians, ‘curry’, ‘bungalow’, and ‘pyjamas’, ‘juggernaut’, ‘bandicoot’ from India, and even ‘rickshaw’ and the expression ‘long time no see’ from Cantonese.

With the global dominance of American culture in the 20th century, the influence of English continued to expand and the English vocabulary continued to grow. Words like ‘movie’, ‘hamburger’ and ‘TV dinner’ all reflect the global influence of American popular culture. More recently, the appearance of words like ‘blog’ and ‘cyberspace’, ‘text’ used as a verb, and ‘mobile’ used as a noun shows how technology is influencing the development of the language at the beginning of the 21st century.

The oldest form of English is called Old English, or Anglo-Saxon. Old English sounds and looks very different from the English spoken today and for the most part is not understandable by speakers of Modern English. Here is an example of Old English from "Beowulf":

Old English later became Middle English which is much more like Modern English. Here's an example of the Middle English spoken during the 1300s, from Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales:

In the 1500s, William Shakespeare played a large part in the creation of modern English. Both Shakespeare and Chaucer wrote in the English vernacular. Before them, most important works were written in Latin, or sometimes French. Latin was considered a professional language that scholars used. Chaucer and Shakespeare were some of the first to write important stories in English.

Some famous authors or poets who speak this language

William Shakespeare, who wrote in verse, is the author of dozens of plays and over a hundred sonnets. Many popular English prose authors, such as Mary Shelley, the author of Frankenstein, Jane Austen, the author of Pride and Prejudice, and Charles Dickens, the author of A Tale of Two Cities, come from the Romantic and Victorian eras, which were during the 1800s.

One of the most popular writers of English fiction for children was Enid Blyton. She is noted for series of books based on recurring characters. Her most widely known character is thought to be Noddy. Her books have enjoyed popular success in many parts of the world, and have exceeded sales of 400 million. In 2006, Blyton was the fifth most popular author in the world. There have been more than 3300 translations of her works.

title: Wikijunior:Languages/English


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Wikijunior talk:Languages

Constructed and unique languages
I mentioned constructed and unique languages in the introduction, but I think they each warrant sections of their own. Any objections? --Hagindaz 12:43, 2 April 2006 (UTC)

 * No problem. I am very impressed with the quality of what is here after day one.  There was some criticism over potential "sock puppet" votes, but in this case I think there was some very genuine support for trying to get this developed. --Rob Horning 13:53, 2 April 2006 (UTC)

Displays of script samples
This is a general question about formatting and what to use for non-Latin characters when preparing this content. If somebody has Unicode-enabled web browsers and a good font, most of these characters can be displayed. The problem is that many people from "western countries" (a very broad over generalization here) may not have this multi-lingual support in their operating system. The question I'm posing here is if we ought to create PNG samples of the text in this situation or simply rely on Unicode placement of the characters and leave it as meaningless gibberish if somebody comes here without the Unicode support?

I don't think making the PNG samples of the text is going to be too difficult of a process, but it is going to be something to think about. If you need a good Unicode font that covers many languages (especially the CJK scripts), you might want to check out the Code 2000 page for a shareware font that only costs $5 try before you pay license. I'm not advocating any product specifically here, but I've dug through the 'net and this is about the only significant Han font that you can use without paying serious $$$ or signing draconian licenses (aka Microsoft) just to be able to download the font, if it is even available. For non-Latin European fonts, Everson Mono is a reasonable alternative but much more limited. For southern Asian fonts (Thai, Burmese, Sanscrit, ect.) you may have to dig around a bit more, and please note anything that you might have found. --Rob Horning 13:53, 2 April 2006 (UTC)
 * I agree images would probably be better. For ex Hindi, if you don't use a newer Linux or Windows version and for Windows enable the complex text support, the script will not show up right. So most people coming here will not see it correctly, and that is not the halmark of a good text. Is there a better way to create png's with the script than taking a screenshot? - Taxman 22:48, 2 April 2006 (UTC)

Language coverage
To avoid total European bias, we should probably focus on covering languages with the most number of speakers. Wikipedia's list is a decent place to start. I added Hindi here because it is either #2 or #4 depending on how you count, and I know enough of it to write an entry. The languages with the greatest number of speakers that are now missing are Bengali and Portuguese, though there are a bunch of languages with more speakers than Italian. Any objections to adding those two? Or should we wait on those and some of the languages already on the list with lower numbers of speakers until someone can finish the article? In any case, great progress has been made so far in a couple of days. - Taxman 22:05, 2 April 2006 (UTC)

 * The languages I threw up were just some initial ones that I knew were covered by existing Wikimedia projects, or more importantly, by Wikijunior users and contributors. If you look at the "other langauges" links on the main Wikijunior page, the major Wikijunior sites right now are in Chinese, Japanese, French, German, and Italian.  Indeed the Italian Wikijunior is perhaps the most developed Wikijunior site besides English, although the French Wikijunior really did get started with a huge splash fairly recently.  There is no Hindi Wikijunior that I'm aware of, so I wasn't initially encouraged to add it.

 * Still, adding any other major language that has more than 10 million native speakers should be a general goal of this project. This number is something just off the top of my head, but a reasonable number to offer some sort of limit.  At some point in the future it would be nice to have something on all written languages, but that will number in the hundreds of dialects and dive into politics that I'm not ready for yet on Wikijunior.  Another yardstick that perhaps could be used it to have at least every language that is currently covered by an active Wikipedia.  That is a targetable number and something that perhaps would get some initial input from those Wikimedia users that are working on establishing a Wikipedia in their native language.  --Rob Horning 22:52, 2 April 2006 (UTC)
 * Ah, that makes sense. Though also the guideline page limit for a Wikijunior book is about 48 pages right? So that places some limit on what we should cover. I've made a few requests for some entries to help round out the coverage. I'm going to be bold and go ahead and add a link for Portuguese as I'm sure we can get someone to add an entry for that. - Taxman 01:29, 3 April 2006 (UTC)
 * I wouldn't worry too much about the page limit issue here. That has been debated and discussed so much with absolutely no results that I don't know what is fact or fiction any more.  There was a suggestion from back when Wikijunior was started that perhaps a series of books could be put together with a regular publication schedule where kids could get copies of Wikijunior content on a subscription basis.  With the content being developed by volunteers, I have a very hard time seeing that happening here, as pressure to meet deadlines was totally unrealistic and forced some things to happen that caused a few key contributors to Wikijunior project to "burn out".  If you feel inclined to contribute huge amounts of time and content, please do so.  The 48 pages was based on key size (the printer's term) for a professional printing house, and I have my doubts on that limitation as any reasonable attempt to make a print version of the current Wikijunior books has almost always been at least double that number.  It has also been used as an excuse to cull content on some pages that seemed to get too long for the topic.  If we get this book close to a major proofreading stage, this issue can be debated all over again.  --Rob Horning 09:40, 3 April 2006 (UTC)

Songs and stories in different languages
The only German songs I really know are the ones the Beatles sang in Hamburg. These may be copyrighted (indeed, I am almost certain they are!). Can anyone think of something that might substitute? Does the Crazy Frog song count? --EuropracBHIT 23:54, 2 April 2006 (UTC).
 * Folk songs and childrens songs or stories would probably be the best bet. Those are typically well known and liked and in the public domain if they are old stories. I'm searching for some in Hindi to add. - Taxman 01:29, 3 April 2006 (UTC)

Can you send me one of the stories Chiamamanda (discuss • contribs) 19:40, 1 December 2019 (UTC)

Keeping phrases and references age appropriate
I am really enjoying exploring this book as it develops. I have always been fascinated by language.

Looking through, however, I think there needs to be reminder that this book is geared toward 8-12 year-olds. I found one phrase on the Spanish page, that while I as an adult find it handy (I want a beer), it is not appropriate or useful for 8-12yos. I changed it to milk.

Some of the references to authors are also great for adults, or even teenagers, but will be beyond the scope of the target age group. For example, War and Peace, is obviously an important literary work, but the target age group will not only have no clue what is being referenced, but is likely to be turned off from reading anymore of the wikibook. Expanding their horizons is an awesome endeavor, but it must be balanced with maintaining a good level of interest.

Every culture has their folk and fairy tales. A retelling of one of those stories in English, especially if contains phrases in the language of the culture, would give a much better picture to the readers. I suggest this as a replacement for the author and poet section, or at least as an addition that will make the information more friendly to kids. --Starchildmom 05:50, 5 April 2006 (UTC)

Being overloaded with languages
I worried right now that perhaps we have too much too quickly here. I don't mind if somebody lists another language because they want to write a new section in this book, but listing languages just because they exist somewhere is going to overwhelm this Wikibook.

Still, listing all of the languages here is a sign of how large of a project this really can become. I'm just suggesting that some sort of rationale be used before adding too many new langauges. --Rob Horning 12:53, 7 April 2006 (UTC)

 * I agree that it is very overloaded now. Maybe restrict it to the 12 most spoken languages, and then have a chapter on "Other languages". The twelve would be (in order, using "mother tongue" as the criterion): Mandarin, English, Hindi, Spanish, Arabic, Russian, Portuguese, Bengali, Malay/Indonesian, French, Japanese and German. Jguk 13:55, 7 April 2006 (UTC)

Even though it is overloaded, I support that. Every language is important, and should be showcased. It is just development, and it is happening in this book, and anything that happens too fast can be "overwhelming". I say we keep all the language for awhile and see how the whole book develops. --German Men92 00:48, 9 April 2006 (UTC)
 * I obviously support Jguk's proposal as per my above post. There is some value in editorial decisions and balancing the book by the number of speakers and not just by every language someone feels like writing up. Moving the language requests out to another section was a good idea too. - Taxman 12:36, 10 April 2006 (UTC)

 * Well, if someone actually feels like writing a language article, there's no reason not to include it. It's free content and I don't think that a subproject of a minor Wikimedia site will have people lining up to work on it. --Hagindaz 13:55, 10 April 2006 (UTC)

 * See below for more thoughts. If you really want to work on it, fine.  I'm just suggesting that if you start it, make it more than just a bunch of topic headings in an otherwise blank article.  It doesn't have to be a full-blown write-up, but there should be some "meat" in the section if you are going to justify why it is included.  --Rob Horning 13:45, 14 April 2006 (UTC)

Standards for Constructed Languages
A new page to this book was added at Wikijunior Languages/Galactic Basic. I've marked it as a speedy deletion candidate because I feel it really doesn't belong within this book for a number of reasons. I love the word conlang, as in it implies that these languages are spoken almost exclusively at Science Fiction conventions or Cons as well as being some sort of artificial language.

 * Then they have their pros and cons! :-) Seahen 04:00, 27 May 2006 (UTC)

If these sort of languages are to be included in this book, I think some hard standards should be enforced before they are added, if they are to be added at all. Certainly some languages like Esperanto and Interlingua (both have Wikipedias that are active) should be strong candidates eventually. Klingon (which also had a Wikipedia until it was unceremoniously killed) might be a borderline case. In the case of Galactic Basic, there isn't even an ISO code. These codes have been added even for conlangs, provided they can show a body of literature and document some substantial number of actual speakers.

There will be other political disputes, such as UK vs. US English, Brazilian vs. European Portuguese, Creole languages, and other similar issues including Chinese dialects that are all largely different languages except they have a similar writing style that has the same meaning in most Chinese languages but huge pronounciation and grammatical differences.

Restricting new pages to some sort of standard will go a long way to maintaining the integrety of this project, and allow this book to be taken seriously by educators. I would propose that at least for now as a minimum that you must demonstrate some sort of ISO code for the language before it can be added, or demonstrate that it has a Wikipedia in that language. Either or both standards have merit. --Rob Horning 15:01, 12 April 2006 (UTC)
 * Agreed. For starters Galactic Basic is nowhere near any reasonable inclusion threshold. But before we include any conlangs after Esperanto we should have all important languages covered such as those with 10 million or so speakers. - Taxman 22:44, 12 April 2006 (UTC)
 * I bet you could find 10 million or so Klingon speakers if you looked hard enough. A survey at my high school (in Toronto) found that, even excluding the obviously spurious answers, about 3% of Grade 11 and 12 students say they speak Klingon. Seahen 04:00, 27 May 2006 (UTC)
 * One of the reasons cited for the closure of the Klingon language Wikipedia was the lack of speakers who use if fluently. I've seen numbers cited as low as about 100 people altogether, and suggestions is may be even lower than that.  I will admit that you might find some people (like myself) that speak a few words of Klingon and have actually read the Klingon dictionary written by Michael Okrand, but that does not imply fluency.  In this case, however, Klingon does have an ISO code and a basis to call it a recognized language.  Galactic Basic did not meet even that most loose of requirements.  This is not to say that unpopular languages (languages spoken only by a few people) can't be included in this guide, but let's be realistic and try to include and complete the entries on languages like Chinese and Hindi first before trying to take on something so esoteric as Klingon.  --Rob Horning 14:14, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

On that note, why is Quenya included? I reallize LOTR fans really enjoy promoting the language but that doesn't necessarily warrant inclusion. An article on constructed languages in general with a few examples would be much more valuable. Quenya is not even complete from what I've read. Further the article in places fails to distinguish the fact from the fiction. - Taxman 21:08, 28 August 2006 (UTC)

 * I will note that Quenya has been assigned an international ISO language code, as there is at least a body of independent literature written in this language and from some perspective it is about as popular as Klingon (perhaps with even more fanatical speaker base). While Tolkein didn't "finish" the language, there have been extensions to the language to fill in the gaps to make this body of literature.  There is an everlasting request to create a Quenya Wikipedia, for instance, and a modest amount of support with hard detractors who are against a conlang being created for any edition of Wikipedia.  If I had to draw a line, I would absolutely put it here and no more, where Quenya is the very bare minimum acceptable language.  Certainly more widely spoken languages like Cornish and Truk should be written about first before Quenya is given a priority.  --Rob Horning 17:04, 1 November 2006 (UTC)

Here are my thoughts on inclusion of constructed languages (in 2010, long after the preceding comments). Because conlangs are by nature less prominent in general society that natural languages, it seems hard to justify including more than one conlang of a particular type. We should have --Pi zero (talk) 16:27, 12 February 2010 (UTC)
 * one IAL — Esperanto, hands down.
 * one artistic language — Quenya by a spectacular margin.
 * maybe one fictional language (i.e., created for a story world, rather than having a story world created for it as is the case for Quenya). If we have one of these, Klingon is the choice right now, because it's got a very well established community around it; maybe in five or ten years Na'vi will have a similarly robust community, but it's too early to tell.
 * maybe one engineered language. I'm not sure any of these are prominent enough to justify inclusion; the only two anywhere near are probably Lojban and Toki Pona.  I think Lojban is too abstract in concept for a kids' book, and I have doubts about both the prominence and the, well, gravitas of Toki Pona.  So I'm inclined to omit this type of conlang.

New icon
I've made an SVG version of the Globe of Letters. Although I had originally intended to copy the PNG version, it took off in its own direction. In any case, I think the light green continents are more recognizable, and the coloured letters should better appeal to the target age range. I used the same letters as the old version, I think. (Only the left half of the Chinese letter was visible, and I found dozens with that same left half.) What does everyone think? Seahen 22:29, 28 May 2006 (UTC)

 * I like it. Much friendlier for children. --hagindaz 22:35, 28 May 2006 (UTC)

 * I'm happy it's being used. However, it appears rasterized in the PDF version. Since the new logo is SVG, this is no longer necessary. Could someone put it in the PDF in vector form? 72.56.167.210 12:41, 9 June 2006 (UTC)

Removing Pig Latin article
Even though it is a cute idea, I would object to a section of this book talking about Pig Latin as it would seriously detract from any acceptance of this book in a formal educational environment. We have a good thing here, and destroying the book with something like Pig Latin would wreck the momentum that has started with what we have here.

If things like Pig Latin, Ubby Dubby, or other nonsense psuedo languages are to be talked about, perhaps it should be a seperate section about "fun kids languages" or something that marks a distinction between things like this and serious languages with actual distinct cultures and native speakers that don't speak any other language.

At least it wasn't listed as a "publishable article". --Rob Horning 14:24, 25 June 2006 (UTC)

Some help wanted?
Wikjunior is translated into other languages e.g. German. On occasion of translation Wikijunior is often accomplished. Therefore you might find valuable informations, e.g. more about Hebrew such as famous writers in  Hebrew or  Sanskrit and so on. Have a look even if you don't speak German: German Wikijunior/Languages. Hjnie 14:17, 31 July 2006 (UTC)

Could Polish be added to the Publishable section?
The text is fairly well-developed, and I have done some work to flesh out the article further. Could we now consider moving the article into the "Publishable articles" section? --Brisvegas 09:02, 28 August 2006 (UTC)

Order of topics
I believe that the final order of languages, as seen in the full versions, should be something other than alphabetical. Perhaps it could be ordered by number of native speakers or geographical region, but alphabetical order seems silly for a book that doesn't need to be restricted like a dictionary or an encyclopedia. This doesn't apply to the template with links, on which ABC order may actually be useful. MiltonT 02:06, 16 October 2006 (UTC)
 * I don't know... Alphabetical order is always the most neutral one. If we sorted languages geographically, some people would probably argue whether should Asia or Europe or America come first, etc. And if we sort them by number of native speakers, more endless debates might occur: why should English come before Greek just because there are more people who speak it - Greek is older than English; why should Japanese come before Russian - there are more people who study Russian, and Russia is a bigger country; and so on... --George D. Bozovic talk 20:01, 17 October 2006 (UTC)

Goidelic Languages
Before my edit, Gaelic, Irish Gaelic, and Welsh were listed. For clarity and accuracy, I removed "Gaelic", changed "Irish Gaelic" to simply "Irish", added "Scottish Gaelic", and left "Welsh" as is. Just letting everybody know. --Limetom 03:59, 19 October 2006 (UTC)

Other languages
In a previous comment (on pig latin) a "fun kids languages" section was suggested. Would any one object to me creating an article with suggestions on existing cryptolects and conlangs and very basic ideas on how to create your own. Lots of kids first develop a love of language by these kinds of language games. I remember making up my own alphabets and all manner of other play. Playing with language is one of the best ways to understand language. Also anyone got suggestions for a better name for the section? The bellman 04:51, 1 November 2006 (UTC)

 * Make sure this stays as a "supplimental section" or an appendix to this book, but yeah, I think it is a good idea. Often professional vocabulary seems to drift into this area, where for example computer professionals will be using exacting terminology to such a degree that non-professionals have no idea what they are talking about when listening to a conversation between geeks.  Lawyers have this problem as well, which is one reason why you should (usually) not represent yourself in court as you would likely miss stuff where opposing counsel talks to the judge and completely smokes you out of the arguments with more exacting terminology.
 * As far as orienting this more for kids, making up a new language is certainly something very fun to do. Even alphabets similar to Latin like Runic are fun to modify slightly and add new symbols, or to try and use Hieroglyphics but with English words (BTW, there is even a hieroglyphic word generator tool on Wikibooks that could come in handy here).  The main thing here is to keep it fun and challenging for a kid, but not get into the gory details that only a PhD in Linguistics would enjoy.  --Rob Horning 17:37, 1 November 2006 (UTC)

 * Cool. i'll give it a go in a week or so when my exams end The bellman 08:25, 6 November 2006 (UTC)

Updating of language progress
I've been recently reviewing the different languages listed as "developing articles" under 25% seem inaccurately marked. Particularly the Dutch, Japanese and even Irish to some extent. Anyway, please review and let me know what you think of them. -Simtropolitan 6:44 (UTC)

 * It seems reasonable to me that if you see a problem with the development status for you to go ahead and adjust it yourself. We're all in this together. Rmawhorter (talk) 05:37, 29 January 2008 (UTC)

Irish image problem
I want to put on the Irish languages page, but its size should be decreased and so on. Should I, and if so, how do I? (sorry it got so big) Laleena (talk) 21:57, 15 December 2007 (UTC)

 * What you need to do is save the image to your computer if it's not already, open it in a good image editing program, choose the scale image option and make it the size that you're interested in and then upload the image. If you don't know how to upload the image you might need to ask over in the tech support room. An image size an be changed in the image tag itself but it's better to upload a small image so that it will load faster for the viewer and take up less space on the server.Rmawhorter (talk) 05:25, 29 January 2008 (UTC)

Which languages should we cover before publishing?
My idea is that we try to cover the top 15, 20 or 25 most spoken languages by ethnic speakers and by total number of speakers. If we're going to aim for this then we need to pick a source for our list. Any extras languages can be a bonus. It might be good to see that we have a native language from each continent as well.Rmawhorter (talk) 05:26, 29 January 2008 (UTC)

Moved Esperanto to "publishable" section
In the past week or two some volunteers and me have worked to vastly improve the Esperanto page. It is still being improved even now, but I think it warrants "publishable" status - all we are doing now is improving it, not actually creating it anymore. I have moved it over there just now (and updated its % complete status). --Indiana (talk) 04:45, 6 February 2010 (UTC)

Standard list of basic words to learn?
In the section "What are some basic words in this language that I can learn?", how about some book-wide standards about what words should be in that list? Both for the sake of consistency, and for the sake of utility. I'll offer some suggestions to show you what I mean.

 * Basic greetings
 * "Hello", "goodbye", "good morning", "good night" and then one or two greetings that reflect the character and culture of the language (like common slang greetings like 「じゃね」 in Japanese).

 * Simple words
 * "Yes", "no", and then a couple words that reflect the character and culture of the language (here's where you could put stuff like "elda" in Quenya).

 * Courtesies
 * "Please", "thank you", "you're welcome", "I'm sorry", "excuse me", and then a couple that reflect the character and culture of the language (like "sláinte" in Irish).

 * Numbers
 * 1-15 (explained below), then maybe a couple others like 0, 100, 1,000 or 1,000,000.

 * Phrases you can try
 * "How are you?", "I am fine/bad.", "What's your name?", "My name is ...", "How old are you?", "I'm ... years old.", "Do you speak ... language/English?", "No, I don't speak ... langauge", "Yes, I speak English", and then a couple that reflect the character and culture of the language (maybe a proverb like "ce qui est fait n'est plus à faire" in French).

My thinking is that with this list, a teacher (or the students, themselves) can have the class try out a basic conversation: "Hello", "How are you", "Fine, thank you", "What is your name", "My name is ...", "How old are you?", "I am ... years old (this is why they need up to 12 at least, 15 to be safe)", "Do you speak ...?", "No I don't speak ...", "Do you speak English?", "Yes, I speak English". Obviously it probably won't be technically perfect for all languages (especially languages where inflections are different based on gender, or where "years" pluralizes different for 10, 11 and 12, etc.), but it would be fun to at least try to speak the language, even if in pidgin form.

So how about selecting a decent sample conversation, then selecting book-wide standards for the basic words to allow the readers to test drive the language? --Indiana (talk) 21:26, 7 February 2010 (UTC)

Cognates: words that are very similar between your language and the language you want to learn
I'd like to add a chapter on "cognates". Herewith an assist. Enjoy, --SvenAERTS (discuss • contribs) 21:36, 20 August 2016 (UTC)

Quick-wins: do you know what cognates are?
Cognates are words that are very similar in different languages, for example your language and the language you would like to learn. Wouldn't it be great if you could help making a card system where you put on one side the word or simple phrase in your language and on the other side the words in the language you want to learn and that are very similar? That way you would make very quickly progress from the start. That sounds encouraging, doesn't it? Example. Imagine your friend speaks french and wants to learn english. The word for "a language" in french is "une langue". Another one: "the temperature", in french is "la temperature". Pretty similar aren't they? If you are a witted kind of person, you can help building such a list of cognates in Project Cognates, or you can have a look if such a list already exist for your language and the language you want to learn.

Length of entries
I think it is difficult to get the balance right between an article that doesn't explain enough and an article that is so long it might put some young people off reading it. I suggest that, within each featured language, some sections should be moved to another page which the young person could then access with a click. One possibility would be to move in this way the sections on famous people who speak the language and on basic words in the language. That way, the young person wouldn't look at the length of a lengthy article and be put off.

On the first of the pages, in place of the moved sections, there could be a picture of somewhere in the relevant country to heighten the young person's interest. On the second page there could be pictures of the famous people. Judith M (discuss • contribs) 19:49, 1 August 2017 (UTC)

On giving this more thought, I can suggest an alternative way of preventing children being put off by lenghty articles. For important languages (such as Latin which has had so much influence) there could be a short version, that didn't go into depth, and a long version, with links from one to the other. Judith M (discuss • contribs) 11:45, 2 August 2017 (UTC)

title: Wikijunior talk:Languages


text:
User talk:Shawnc

Welcome
Hello and welcome to Wikibooks!

Here are some tips to help you get started:
 * You can sign your name on Talk and vote pages using four tildes, like this: ~~~~.
 * Remember to conduct any editing experiments in the sandbox.
 * Check out our help page if you need additional help.
 * Eventually, you might want to read the Manual of Style and Policies and Guidelines.
 * Take a look at Naming policy
 * See list of templates which can save your time
 * Remember to maintain a Neutral point of view.
 * Explore, be bold in editing pages, and have fun!

You will find more resources in Community Portal. If you want to ask a question, visit the Study help desk, the Staff lounge, IRC channel or ask me personally on my talk page.

Good luck! --Derbeth talk 13:07, 2 April 2006 (UTC)

title: User talk:Shawnc


text:
User talk:LALANNE

Welcome
Hello and welcome to Wikibooks!

Here are some tips to help you get started:
 * You can sign your name on Talk and vote pages using four tildes, like this: ~~~~.
 * Remember to conduct any editing experiments in the sandbox.
 * Check out our help page if you need additional help.
 * Eventually, you might want to read the Manual of Style and Policies and Guidelines.
 * Take a look at Naming policy
 * See list of templates which can save your time
 * Remember to maintain a Neutral point of view.
 * Explore, be bold in editing pages, and have fun!

You will find more resources in Community Portal. If you want to ask a question, visit the Study help desk, the Staff lounge, IRC channel or ask me personally on my talk page.

Good luck! --Derbeth talk 13:07, 2 April 2006 (UTC)

title: User talk:LALANNE


text:
Indonesian/Lessons/Bahasa Oke

^ Indonesian ^ | << Lesson 18: Me and You  | Lesson 19: Bahasa Oke

Bahasa Okezone
Unbeknownst even to many native Indonesian speakers these days there is a subset of the Indonesian language derived from a peculiar form of a language game popular in the 1980s and often still used today.

The words you will learn in the following lesson are most definitely encompassed within what is known as Bahasa Prokem (itself a Bahasa Oke word as you will see below) and as such should probably not be used in polite company.

Language games and gibberish in Indonesian
Like English, Indonesian has its own Pig Latins and Ubbi-Dubbis, such as "Bahasa G." Similarly, these language games are used code a message for specific parties in a crowd and are usually rarely used out of the schoolyard. A notable exception is "Bahasa Oke" and the words which have endured are the sorts of words that speakers would not want authority figures to understand.

How it works
To create a Bahasa Oke word the rules are by no means hard and fast, the rules are bent to create words which have more of a ring to them, but in general the following rules are applied. One takes the first syllable of a normal Indonesian word and replaces the vowel with oke, oka or oki. Usually the 'e', 'a' or 'i' is chosen to be the same vowel replaced but that is not always the case.

Now, let's get to the examples.

This is far from a complete list of Bahasa Oke words but should help you on your way to gaining a more sophisticated understanding of the language of contemporary Jakarta.

title: Indonesian/Lessons/Bahasa Oke


text:
User talk:Angelo.romano

I would like to do that, Italian is a big & important language, but the book doesn't show that. Let's create a planning page for Italian, so other Italian speaking people can help. Sound good? --Fitchguy20 15:25, 2 April 2006 (UTC)

title: User talk:Angelo.romano


text:
User:BillFlis

My user page.

title: User:BillFlis


text:
Talk:Nepal Bhasa

Untitled
Dear sir/madam: Please use a more respectful tone, which is possible in Newari. I am no great learner of newari but I think that "Jhhi: ta" can replace "chhanta" and so on. Both mean "you" but the former is better I think. Native speakers will be more impressed with a more respectful tone from foreigners. If anyone is thinking of making a full beginner's working guide to Nepal bhasa, you can let me know of any minor changes and typo. [I can still give suggestions on major ones.] Contact me at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:Kushal_one my e-mail address is. I am not YET registered with Wkibooks.

--202.161.131.69 18:53, 2 April 2006 (UTC)

 * I am not sure if anyone can respond to your comment. No one has worked on this book recently. --Kernigh 20:04, 2 April 2006 (UTC)

title: Talk:Nepal Bhasa