カテゴリー: Languages
Paleographer, historian and expert on ancient Chinese writingQiu Xigui, who has died aged 89, first made his mark as a paleographer, a scholar of ancient writing, through researching Chinese “oracle bones”. These are divinations inscribed on animal sca…
With half of all languages predicted to die out in decades, activists are turning to online tools to preserve themEvery year, the world loses some of its 7,000 languages. Parents stop speaking them to their children, words are forgotten and communities…
Prof Rawinia Higgins tells the Guardian that te reo Māori is under threat from the rightwing coalition despite long-running efforts to revive itNew Zealand’s Māori language commissioner has described government policies to limit the use of the Indigeno…
Many from Ukraine, Belarus and other ex-Soviet states mostly get by in Russian – but its prevalence is starting to cause a problemFor Russian citizens, it is extremely difficult to get into Poland these days. Even those with visas for the Schengen zone…
Alamat are aiming to bring their music to the world – by singing in their local languagesVocal coach Zebedee Zuñiga twists his hand in the air, and the melody of a tender, haunting lullaby, Ili Ili Tulog Anay, begins. “Little one, little one, sleep now…
Linguists concerned as regional languages dwindle amid push to strengthen uniform national identityTwo years ago, Qi Jiayao visited his mother’s hometown of Shaoxing in eastern China. When he tried to speak to his cousin’s children in the local dialect…
New additions highlight Korean culture wave as interest in the country’s food, fashion and entertainment spreads The Korean culture wave has swept through the editorial offices of the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), which has added more than 20 new wo…
My grandfather Ziauddin Shakeb, who has died aged 87 of pulmonary oedema, was a historian of Indo-Persian relations and a world-renowned expert on Persian and Arabic manuscripts, working as a consultant at Christie’s auction house in London for 30 year…