Tag: native language

Western Abenaki Language and the Saint Lol River

Western Abenaki Language and the Saint Lol River

[ 0 ] December 16, 2013 |

A “people of the dawnlands” (where the sun rises), who speak something called Abenaki, shave distinct portions of their heads, resort to fishing and were confronted with European colonialism resembles a culture from feudal Japan. Instead, they are an Indian tribe native to southern Quebec, Maine, and Vermont around the Saint Laurence river. Historically they […]

Read More

Endangered Nez Perce, a Native American Language

Endangered Nez Perce, a Native American Language

[ 0 ] December 14, 2013 |

If anyone has seen a documentary or Animal Planet episode about grizzlies bears, they can imagine the backdrop. The Ursus arctos comes to feed at crystal-clear rapids surrounded by tall and densely standing pines. The bears reach their claws into the water for fresh salmon and tear their prey apart on the boulders skewed around […]

Read More

Japan’s Endangered Ainu Language

Japan’s Endangered Ainu Language

[ 0 ] November 15, 2013 |

Archipelagos reserve interesting anthropological surprises. One such surprise is the existence of a distinct minority group living in Japan, a society known for its hegemony. They are called Ainu, number around 15,000 and occupy, for the most part, Hokkaido, a northern island whose luminous plains cut by volcanic mountains becomes a shadowed white wilderness when […]

Read More

The Endangered Language of the Bororo in Brazil

The Endangered Language of the Bororo in Brazil

[ 0 ] October 31, 2013 |

Traveling in Brazil along the 15th parallel is no easy business. From the coastline, the country’s capital, Brasilia, is a whole 24 hours in bus. Add another 10 hours and the bus may reach the rude landscape surrounding the bustling Rondonópolis in Brazil’s Mato Grosso region. This is a backwoods more laden with yellowing grasses […]

Read More

Speaking the Spanish of Uruguay

Speaking the Spanish of Uruguay

[ 0 ] September 9, 2013 |

Montevideo isn’t a densely populated city despite being the capital and the only major metropolis in Uruguay. The population of “panaderías” (bread shop), pubs, and restaurants  is however quite dense lining the rustic streets of Montevideo’s midsection. Spanish, Italian, and French immigrants in the last century may be the reason Uruguay exhibits this “bread” and […]

Read More

Peru’s indigenous language: Quechua

Peru’s indigenous language: Quechua

The vast mountainous region in central Peru is distinctly calm except for the bustling city of Huaraz (3100 meters).  Foreigners swarm to the city for its proximity to the Cordillera Blanca, the world’s highest tropical region mountain range that offers amazing vistas alongside beautiful pristine lakes. Before leaving to explore, the tourists pick up maps, […]

Read More

Africa: at the Boundaries of Babel

Africa: at the Boundaries of Babel

The African territory is characterized by the widest variety of spoken languages in the world. Due to the overlapping and the coexistence of so many idioms any classification may appear somehow absurd; nonetheless, linguists, forcing limits of nature, have elaborated a broad categorization and have divided African Languages in three main branches: the first is […]

Read More

A Look At Language Families

A Look At Language Families

March 23, 2011 |

There are approximately 6,912 living languages in the world today. Most languages belong to larger language groups or families, which is a group of similar or related languages that developed from a common ancestor, referred to as protolanguage (“proto” means “early” in Greek). Let’s take a look at a few major language groups, including an […]

Read More

Skip to content