Different Languages
Posted: Tue Dec 09, 2008 8:45 pm1. Use the Internet to find out more about languages. Choose one of these unusual languages and find out as much as you can about it: Yiddish, Maori, Navajo, Afrikaans, Tamil.
Māori or te reo Māori, also commonly shortened to te reo (literally the language), is one of the official languages of New Zealand. An Eastern Polynesian language, it is closely related to Cook Islands Māori, Tuamotuan and Tahitian; somewhat less closely to Hawaiian and Marquesan; and more distantly to the languages of Western Polynesia, including Samoan, Tokelauan, Niuean and Ton.
This language has three major dialect-divisions for the Māori language: Western North Island, Eastern North Island and South Island.
History
During the 19th and early 20th century Māori language was the main language of communication. However, the establishment of schools saw Māori children being taught almost entirely in English. An English language only policy was often strictly enforced through physical punishment.
During the 1940s-1970s Māori migrated from rural communities to urban centres. English language was seen by many Māori as the key to wealth, increased social standing and better standards of living.
Many Māori parents stopped speaking Māori to their children. This, together with policies which favoured English as the dominant language, resulted in a massive language shift within the Māori population from Māori to English.
By the 1970s, it was predicted that Māori would soon be a language without native speakers. This caused grave concern among Māori, resulting in initiatives to revitalise the language including Te Ātaarangi (a language learning system), kōhanga reo (Māori language pre-schools), kura kaupapa Māori (Māori language schools) and Māori broadcasting.
In 1987, the Māori Language Act declared Māori to be an official language of New Zealand and established the Māori Language Commission - Te Taura Whiri i te Reo Māori to promote the growth of Māori language.
Recent research into the number of Māori speakers indicates that there are fewer highly fluent Māori speakers – estimated at only 9% (approximately 29,000) of the Māori population.
2. Borrowed words in English.
a) What languages does English borrow words from? What languages are most words borrowed from?
Afrikaans: apartheid, commando, slim, trek...
French: ambulance, diplomat, parachute, sauce...
Spanish: canyon, guitar, patio, tornado...
Dutch: boss, cookie, lottery, yacht...
Deutch: blitz, dollar, muffin, quartz...
b) What languages are fewest words borrowed from? French, Norman (28,3%), Latin (28,2) and Germanic Languages.(25%)
c) Use the Internet to design some quiz questions about different languages. See the example about English in VOCABULARY exercise 3.
- Spanish come from the Romanic Languages: true or false
- Spanish has about fifty conjugated forms per verb: true or false
- French has one grammatical gender: true or false
- In Italian, feminine nouns are usually shown by the final vowel : -a feminine singular, e- feminine plural: true or false
- Dutch vocabulary is predominantly English in origin, considerably more so than Germanic: true or false
Māori or te reo Māori, also commonly shortened to te reo (literally the language), is one of the official languages of New Zealand. An Eastern Polynesian language, it is closely related to Cook Islands Māori, Tuamotuan and Tahitian; somewhat less closely to Hawaiian and Marquesan; and more distantly to the languages of Western Polynesia, including Samoan, Tokelauan, Niuean and Ton.
This language has three major dialect-divisions for the Māori language: Western North Island, Eastern North Island and South Island.
History
During the 19th and early 20th century Māori language was the main language of communication. However, the establishment of schools saw Māori children being taught almost entirely in English. An English language only policy was often strictly enforced through physical punishment.
During the 1940s-1970s Māori migrated from rural communities to urban centres. English language was seen by many Māori as the key to wealth, increased social standing and better standards of living.
Many Māori parents stopped speaking Māori to their children. This, together with policies which favoured English as the dominant language, resulted in a massive language shift within the Māori population from Māori to English.
By the 1970s, it was predicted that Māori would soon be a language without native speakers. This caused grave concern among Māori, resulting in initiatives to revitalise the language including Te Ātaarangi (a language learning system), kōhanga reo (Māori language pre-schools), kura kaupapa Māori (Māori language schools) and Māori broadcasting.
In 1987, the Māori Language Act declared Māori to be an official language of New Zealand and established the Māori Language Commission - Te Taura Whiri i te Reo Māori to promote the growth of Māori language.
Recent research into the number of Māori speakers indicates that there are fewer highly fluent Māori speakers – estimated at only 9% (approximately 29,000) of the Māori population.
2. Borrowed words in English.
a) What languages does English borrow words from? What languages are most words borrowed from?
Afrikaans: apartheid, commando, slim, trek...
French: ambulance, diplomat, parachute, sauce...
Spanish: canyon, guitar, patio, tornado...
Dutch: boss, cookie, lottery, yacht...
Deutch: blitz, dollar, muffin, quartz...
b) What languages are fewest words borrowed from? French, Norman (28,3%), Latin (28,2) and Germanic Languages.(25%)
c) Use the Internet to design some quiz questions about different languages. See the example about English in VOCABULARY exercise 3.
- Spanish come from the Romanic Languages: true or false
- Spanish has about fifty conjugated forms per verb: true or false
- French has one grammatical gender: true or false
- In Italian, feminine nouns are usually shown by the final vowel : -a feminine singular, e- feminine plural: true or false
- Dutch vocabulary is predominantly English in origin, considerably more so than Germanic: true or false