August 27, 2018

It was said that Harald Blåtand, a Danish ruler who lived in the A.D. 900’s, possessed great skill in bringing people together through words and communication. He united the Danes, helped to spread Christianity among them, and became the first king of a united Denmark. He also brought part of Norway under his rule.

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Scandinavia includes the countries of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. Credit: WORLD BOOK map

About 1,000 years later, in the 1990’s, a man who had recently read about Harald in a book on Scandinavian history was part of a group trying to develop a uniform standard for the short-range wireless communication technology that enables computers and other devices to work together. The group needed a name for their project. Since Harald had united people and they were trying to unite technologies, the man suggested temporarily naming it after Harald. The name stuck. The English translation of the old Scandinavian word blåtand, and the name of the modern wireless technology standard, is Bluetooth. The Bluetooth logo combines medieval Scandinavian runes (alphabet letters) for H and B.

The flag of Denmark flies over millions of speakers of Danish, a Scandinavian language. Credit: © Loveshop/Shutterstock

Danish is one of several closely related languages known as Scandinavian languages. Scandinavia is a large geographic region in northern Europe. It includes the countries of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. These three countries have interwoven histories and cultures. Each of their languages—Danish, Swedish, and two forms of Norwegian—has its own vocabulary and forms of pronunciation. However, the languages are similar enough so that Danes, Norwegians, and Swedes can often communicate without translating into each other’s languages.

The flag of Norway flies over speakers of Norwegian, a Scandinavian language related to Danish and Swedish. Credit: © Loveshop/Shutterstock

The Scandinavian languages make up the north Germanic branch of the large Indo-European language family. Their closest language cousins are the west Germanic languages of that family. The west Germanic languages include Dutch, English, and German. A large Swedish-speaking minority lives in Finland, which lies just east of Sweden, and Sweden has a large Finnish-speaking minority. The Finnish and Swedish cultures have much in common. However, the distinctive Finnish language belongs to the entirely different Uralic family, and it is not considered part of the Scandinavian language group. The Uralic family also includes the languages of the Sami—also known as Lapps—who live in far northern Norway, Sweden, Finland, and northeastern Russia.

The flag of Sweden resembles those of its fellow Scandinavian countries Denmark and Norway. The Swedish language is closely related to Danish and Norwegian. Credit: © T. Lesia, Shutterstock

Around 1,000 years ago, Scandinavian languages spread to a number of regions beyond Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. At that time, Scandinavians were the best shipbuilders in Europe. From the late 700’s through the late 1000’s, skilled Scandinavian sailors traveled up and down the rivers of Europe and across the rough waters of the North Atlantic Ocean. Other Europeans called the sailors Norsemen, and later Vikings. Some Vikings were raiders. Some were explorers, traders, or settlers. Norsemen who settled in the British Isles introduced a number of words, including sky and they, into the English language.

During the 800’s, Scandinavians sailing east across the North Atlantic reached and settled the Faroe Islands and Iceland. Modern Faroese and Icelandic are both Scandinavian languages. Of all the modern Scandinavian languages, Icelandic is the closest to the speech of the Viking era. Present-day Icelanders usually can read medieval Icelandic literature and historical records without too much difficulty. Iceland experienced a golden age of literature in the 1100’s and 1200’s. Poets wrote down legends about the ancient northern European gods, such as Odin and Thor. They also wrote heroic sagas about people from Icelandic and Scandinavian history. Snorri Sturluson, a poet and historian who lived from 1179 to 1240, is the most famous medieval Icelandic writer. His Heimskringla (Circle of the World) describes the history of the kings of Norway from their origins until his own day. One of the royal rulers that he wrote about was the Danish king Harald Bluetooth.

August 20, 2018

Dutch is the official language of the Netherlands in northwestern Europe. The Netherlands is often called Holland, but this name officially refers only to the western part of the country. Dutch is also the official language of Flanders, the northern region of neighboring Belgium, and Suriname, a small country on the northeast coast of South America. The Netherlands ruled Suriname during most of the period from 1667 until 1975. Additionally, Dutch is an official language on several Caribbean islands that have long been part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands—Aruba, Bonaire, Curaçao, Saba, Saint Eustatius, and the southern part of Saint Martin. Worldwide, some 23 million people speak Dutch as their native tongue. Dutch is one of the 24 official and working languages of the European Union (EU).

The Netherlands flag flies over millions of Dutch speakers in northwestern Europe. Credit: © Loveshop/Shutterstock

Dutch belongs to the Indo-European language family—that is, a group of languages descended from a common proto-, or parent, language. Within the Indo-European family, Dutch is categorized as a West Germanic language, along with English and German. Afrikaans, a language of South Africa, is another West Germanic language related to Dutch.

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Netherlands. Credit: WORLD BOOK map

Dutch is one of the easier foreign languages for English speakers to learn. The two languages share the same alphabet, as well as similarities in grammar and vocabulary. However, Dutch can be difficult for English speakers to pronounce. For example, it uses many guttural sounds that come from the back of the throat. And Dutch words can have quite a few consonants. The Dutch word verschrikkelijk, for example, means terrible; the compound word slechtstschrijvend describes the worst-writing of an author; angstschreeuw is a cry of distress. Despite such tongue-tripping obstacles, people have been speaking Dutch for centuries.

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Dutch is spoken in Belgium’s northern region of Flanders. French is spoken in most other parts of the country. Credit: WORLD BOOK map

Scholars refer to the language as it existed before about 1200 as Old Dutch. Little is known about Old Dutch, because written materials from that time in the Low Countries (Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands) tend to be in Latin, the language of the Christian church. Middle Dutch describes the language from about 1200 to 1500. Materials written in Dutch from that period are more plentiful. Such documents as business correspondence and contracts show that many local dialects (varieties) of the language were in use.

The printing press in the 1440′s by Johannes Gutenberg of Germany contributed to the spread of a more uniform Dutch language. By the early 1600’s, the Netherlands had declared independence from Spain and shifted away from Roman Catholicism toward Protestantism. The need for a Bible in Dutch rather than Latin led to the creation of the States Bible (Statenbijbel) in 1637. The publication of the States Bible also contributed to standardizing the Dutch language. The publication of Dutch spelling and grammar books and dictionaries further developed standardized modern Dutch. The Dutch Language Union (Nederlandse Taalunie), created in 1980 by the Netherlands and Belgium, serves to regulate the language today. Suriname joined the union in 2004.

August 13, 2018

Russian is one of the most widely spoken languages in the world. It is the official language of the Russian Federation, the world’s largest country in area. Russian is also spoken in countries of the former Soviet Union, which existed from 1922 to 1991. These countries include Armenia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Ukraine. Russian is one of the five official languages of the United Nations. It is also an important language in countries with large Russian immigrant populations, such as Canada, Israel, and the United States.

The Russian flag flies over more than 140 million Russian speakers. Credit: © Maximumvector/Shutterstock

Russian is one of the world’s great literary languages. The country has produced many famous poets, novelists, and playwrights, including Anna Akhmatova, Anton Chekhov, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Nikolai Gogol, Alexander Pushkin, Leo Tolstoy, and Yevgeny Yevtushenko. The Nobel Prize for literature has been awarded to the Russian writers Ivan Bunin (1933), Boris Pasternak (1958), Mikhail Sholokhov (1965), and Alexander Solzhenitsyn (1970). In 1987, the prize was awarded to the Russian-born poet Joseph Brodsky, who came to the United States in 1972 and was appointed poet laureate of the United States for 1991-1992.

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Russia. Credit: WORLD BOOK map

The Russian alphabet has 33 characters. Russian grammar has many prefixes, suffixes, endings, and vowel forms. Most words change with their function, gender, and number. The stress can be placed on any syllable. Because there are no set rules for stress, the accent of each word has to be learned separately. Russian verbs possess a characteristic called aspect. The imperfect aspect indicates a continuing action. The perfect aspect indicates an action already completed or to be completed in the future.

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The Russian alphabet has 33 letters. The alphabet is also called Cyrillic and is based on the Greek alphabet. Credit: WORLD BOOK illustration

Russian is a member of the Slavic group of languages. All Slavic languages probably developed from the ancient Common Slavic language. In the 800’s, the Greek missionaries Cyril and Methodius translated the Bible into the language later known as Old Church Slavonic. In their translation, they invented the Cyrillic alphabet based on Greek characters. In its final form, the Cyrillic alphabet is an important part of the alphabet of modern Russian.

The earliest formal Russian literature was written chiefly in Old Church Slavonic, the language of the Russian Orthodox Church. By the 900’s, three Slavic dialects had emerged—northern, central, and western. By the 1000’s, a distinct Russian language existed, used primarily for legal and business documents. Until the mid-1700’s, Old Church Slavonic was the written language of Russia. In the mid-1800’s, Standard Russian, based on the central dialect used in Moscow, became the official national language.

Several Russian words have found their way into English, including balaclava (similar to a ski mask), beluga (whale), blini (a small pancake), commissar, cosmonaut (Russian astronaut), czar, gulag, sable, samovar (a type of teapot), troika, and vodka.

July 30, 2018

Portuguese, the official language of Portugal in western Europe, ranks among the most spoken languages in the world. Some 220 million people speak Portuguese as their native tongue. Interestingly, a large majority of lusófonos (Lusophones)—that is, speakers of Portuguese—live outside the language’s country of origin, which has a population of about 9.75 million. The largest number of Portuguese speakers, some 209 million of them, are found in the South American nation of Brazil.

The Portuguese flag once flew over a vast empire. The legacy of the empire lives on in the millions of Portuguese speakers around the world. Credit: © Mehmet Buma, Shutterstock

In addition to Portugal and Brazil, other countries where Portuguese has official-language status include Angola, Cabo Verde, East Timor, Equatorial Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, and São Tomé and Príncipe. Portuguese also is a co-official language of Macau, an administrative region of China. Portuguese speakers can be found in many other countries as well, including hundreds of thousands in Canada and the United States.

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Portugal. Credit: WORLD BOOK map

Like French, Italian, and Spanish, Portuguese is a Romance language. Such languages developed from the Latin spoken by the ancient Romans. The Romans conquered many lands, including the Iberian Peninsula that is home to Portugal and Spain. The Romans called the Portuguese portion of Iberia Lusitania, which is why Portuguese speakers are called Lusophones. The Spanish language, a sort of older sibling to Portuguese, developed from Latin first. Portuguese then evolved from the Galician-Portuguese dialect of Spanish in the 1100’s and became a separate tongue.

The Brazilian flag flies over more than 200 million Portuguese speakers. The white band stretching across the circle bears the motto Order and Progress in Portuguese, Brazil’s official language. Credit: © Lukasz Stefanski, Shutterstock

Portuguese explorers and colonizers carried their language to other parts of the world beginning in the 1400’s. Portugal’s empire extended into Africa, Asia, and South America. In Brazil, a possession of Portugal from 1500 to 1822, Portuguese absorbed words from the languages of the indigenous people and African slaves. Today, Brazilian Portuguese has as similar relation to European Portuguese as American English has to British English. The two forms are very similar but vary in pronunciation and have some differences in grammar, spelling, and vocabulary.

Like other Romance languages and English, Portuguese is written using a Roman alphabet. The Portuguese alphabet has 26 letters. Small marks called diacritics show how to pronounce certain letters and which syllables to stress.

More than a collection of 26 symbols, the Portuguese language is part of a rich musical and literary culture. Popular music forms from Lusophone countries include Brazilian samba and bossa nova, and Portuguese fado, which is characterized by melancholy lyrics and guitar accompaniment. Two styles of Portuguese music—fado and cante alentejano—are on UNESCO’s Lists of Intangible Cultural Heritage. Cante alentejano, named after the Alentejo region of southern Portugal, is a traditional style of unaccompanied singing. Important Portuguese authors since the 1400’s include the poets Luís de Camões and Fernando Pessoa, as well as the novelists José Maria de Eça de Queirós and José Saramago. Saramago in 1998 won the Nobel Prize for literature. The Instituto Camões in Lisbon, Portugal, and the International Institute of the Portuguese Language in Praia, Cabo Verde, promote Portuguese language and culture.

July 23, 2018

Polish is the official language of the central European country of Poland. It is also one of 24 official and working languages of the European Union (EU). Some 40 to 50 million people speak Polish. Most of them live in Poland, but large communities of Polish speakers also live in nearby European countries as well as in Australia and in North and South America.

The flag of Poland flies over nearly 40 million Polish speakers. Credit: © Loveshop/Shutterstock

Polish belongs to the Indo-European language family—that is, a group of languages descended from a common parent language. Within the Indo-European family, Polish is further categorized as a Slavic language. It is a close relative of the Czech and Slovak languages, as well as the Sorbian language spoken by the Wend people of eastern Germany. Belarusian, Bulgarian, Croatian, Macedonian, Russian, Serbian, Slovenian, and Ukrainian are also Slavic languages.

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Poland Credit: WORLD BOOK map

Unlike other Slavic languages written in the Cyrillic script, Polish is written using a modified Latin, or Roman, alphabet. This fact reflects the dominance of the Roman Catholic faith in the region since the A.D. 900’s, around the time the language began to take shape. The Polish alphabet has 32 letters, which includes all the letters of the English alphabet, plus some unique characters. For example, Polish uses the letter ł, which is pronounced like an English w. Polish also uses many clusters of consonants, and diacritical marks—that is, signs used with letters to indicate pronunciation or meaning.

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Polish belongs to the large Indo-European language family. Credit: WORLD BOOK diagram

Polish is considered a difficult language to learn. It has a complicated grammar, including a complex system of gender. There are no articles, such as a or the in English. Polish has seven cases, a feature of nouns and pronouns that helps show their relation to other parts of speech in a sentence. In comparison, English has only two cases: common and possessive.

Besides the homogenized (uniform) Polish that is Poland’s official language, there are a number of Polish dialects with roots in the region’s tribal days, before a unified Polish state existed. These include the Great/Greater Polish, Little/Lesser Polish, Mazovian, Silesian, and Kashubian dialects.

In the 1500′s, the poets Mikolaj Rej and Jan Kochanowski were among the first writers to use the Polish language for their works. Outstanding Polish writers of the 1800′s included the poet Adam Mickiewicz, the playwright Stanislaw Wyspianski, and the novelist Henryk Sienkiewicz. Several Polish writers have won the Nobel Prize for literature: Sienkiewicz, who won the prize in 1905; the novelist Wladyslaw Reymont (1924); and the poets Czeslaw Milosz (1980) and Wislawa Szymborska (1996).

July 16, 2018

Persian, the official language of Iran, is called Farsi by its native Iranian speakers. The word Persian is often used by people outside of Iran to refer to this language. Accordingly, the word Persia itself comes from an outsider’s name (the Greek word Persis) for the historical Iranian region. The Persian language is written in a slightly modified Arabic script. The word Farsi looks like this: فارسی.

The Iranian flag flies over more than 80 million Farsi speakers. The inscription God Is Greatest appears in stylized Arabic 11 times on both the green stripe and the red stripe of the flag. The white stripe bears the coat of arms, which is the word Allah. Credit: © Grebeshkov Maxim, Shutterstock

Ancient Persia was centered in part of what is now the countries of Iran and Afghanistan. Thousands of years ago, the Persian Empire came to rule most of southwestern Asia and parts of Europe and Africa. The ancient Persians spoke a language they called Aryan (now usually called Old Persian). Aryan is also the name of Iran’s dominant ethnic group. Indeed, the name Iran means Land of the Aryans. About 2,500 years ago, Old Persian was first written in the Cuneiform script. By about A.D. 250, Persian scribes were using an Aramaic script. By A.D. 400, the people spoke Middle Persian, or Pahlavi. Scholars developed an advanced alphabet of 48 letters, each representing a different sound. In the mid-600’s, however, Muslim Arabs conquered what is now Iran and imposed their religion and form of writing.

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Iran. Credit: WORLD BOOK map

Modern Persian belongs to the extensive Indo-European family of languages, to which belong nearly all the languages of Europe and many of the languages of southern and southwestern Asia. The commonalities of such languages become apparent in the origins of a number of words. For example, the English word mother is madre in Spanish and madder in Persian. Many similarities also exist between Old Persian and Sanskrit, the mother tongue of many modern languages of India. Persian shares much vocabulary with Arabic. Many modern and technical Persian terms are taken from English, French, and German.

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Persian, or Farsi, is one of many Indo-European languages. Credit: WORLD BOOK diagram

The modern Persian alphabet has 32 letters, including 4 symbols that represent sounds not heard in Arabic. Like Arabic, Hebrew, and Urdu, Persian is written from right to left. Sentences are formed with a subject-object-verb structure. Verbs frequently appear as the last word in a sentence.

Though the Persian language uses Arabic script, there is no p sound in Arabic. The influence of Arabic rendered Persian p’s as f’s. Accordingly, the southwestern Iranian province of Pars—historically a center of Persian culture and learning—became rendered as Fars. The Iranian language was named for its origins in Pars, and the name Parsi was Arabicized as Farsi.

Today, Persian has a number of dialects—that is, distinct forms of the language spoken by certain population groups. Farsi—the official language of Iran—is the most widely spoken dialect. Persian dialects are also spoken in Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and parts of other southwestern Asian countries. Persian is also spoken in the United States, where Los Angeles in particular is a hub for Persian speakers. The Dari language in Afghanistan is quite similar to Persian and is understood in Iran. In Tajikistan, the people speak a variety of Persian called Tajik or Tajiki.

Linguists consider Persian not terribly difficult to learn. For instance, it has no articles (such as a, an, or the in English), and its nouns have no gender. However, it can take lots of practice to master the language’s frequent use of guttural (throat-formed) sounds, such as gh and kh. Speakers of Persian consider their language to be a sweet-sounding one that lends itself to song and recitations of poetry.

A number of Persian or Persian-influenced words are part of an English speaker’s everyday vocabulary, particularly when it comes to food. These words include candy, lemon, pistachio, saffron, soup, and spinach. New students of the Persian language may chuckle upon learning that barf falls from the sky in the mountains above Tehran! But the word simply means snow.

July 9, 2018

More than 500 languages are spoken in the African nation of Nigeria—one of the highest instances of language diversity in any country on Earth! By comparison, the continent of Europe has only about 300 languages. English is the official language of Nigeria, and it is taught in schools throughout the country. English, however, is not the country’s most commonly used language. The distinct languages of Nigeria’s three largest ethnic groups—Hausa, Igbo, and Yoruba—are heard more often throughout the diverse country.

The flag of Nigeria flies over a nation of nearly 200 million people who collectively speak more than 500 different languages. Credit: © Loveshop/Shutterstock

Yoruba is spoken mostly in southwestern Nigeria in the region that once made up much of the kingdom of Benin. Yoruba is part of the huge Niger-Congo language family. Almost 30 million people speak Yoruba, a tonal language with three tones. In tonal languages, varying from higher to lower pitches when speaking can change the meaning or intention of words and sentences. Yoruba is also pluricentric, meaning there are many regional versions of the language. The three standard versions are Central Yoruba, Northwest Yoruba, and Southeast Yoruba.

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Nigeria. Credit: WORLD BOOK map

Many people of southeastern Nigeria speak Igbo, a language that is also part of the Niger-Congo family. There are about 24 million Igbo speakers, most of whom belong to the Igbo ethnic group. A Latin script is used to write Igbo. This script was developed during the period of British colonization in the 1800′s.

Hausa has the most speakers in Nigeria, with around 35 million native speakers and 15 million speakers who have learned it as a second language. Hausa is part of the Afro-Asiatic language family. Native speakers of the language are largely part of the Hausa ethnic group found in northern Nigeria, Niger, and Chad. These nations occupy the area of the former Songhai Empire that peaked during the 1400′s and 1500′s. Since the Songhai era, Hausa has been a common trade language throughout western Africa. It is spoken by many people beyond Nigeria, unlike Igbo or Yoruba.

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The population of Nigeria consists of more than 250 ethnic groups. The three largest are the Hausa, the Igbo, and the Yoruba. Credit: WORLD BOOK map

The great diversity of languages in Nigeria is due in part to the way the nation came to be. Prior to early European contact in the late 1400’s and the consequent colonization, what is now Nigeria was a diverse collection of smaller kingdoms and states, many with their own languages and dialects. The region was also a crossroads and trading hub for all western Africa, which meant many far-flung languages were also spoken there. Later, neighboring kingdoms invaded, further diversifying the area’s languages and cultures.

The enigmatic Nok civilization flourished in what is now central Nigeria from about 500 B.C. to A.D. 200. In the following centuries, the region was ruled by the Islamic Kanem and Bornu kingdoms, and the mighty Songhai Empire flourished there beginning in the 1400’s. The Yoruba culture has dominated what is now southern Nigeria since the 900’s. The magnificent kingdom of Benin rose to prominence in the early 1400′s. It developed in the fertile lands between Lagos and the Niger River Delta and grew into a prosperous trade center. By the early 1800′s, the Fulani ruler Uthman Dan Fodio had conquered most of the Hausa states of what is now northern Nigeria and established an empire.

Throughout history, Africa rulers usually allowed people to maintain their indigenous languages rather than enforce their own language on minority or conquered populations. Some languages were especially important as a lingua franca (language of trade) so the diverse communities could communicate with one another and keep the prosperous trading going. Such languages remain important in Nigeria today, and most Nigerians speak at least one language in addition to their native tongue.

During the late 1800′s, the United Kingdom established protectorates in parts of southern Nigeria and made English the language of education and government. A British trading firm called the Royal Niger Company ruled most of northern Nigeria until 1900. In 1914, the United Kingdom joined the northern and southern regions into one unit—the Colony and Protectorate of Nigeria. On Oct. 1, 1960, what had been a loose collection of linguistically diverse kingdoms and empires became the unified nation of Nigeria.

July 2, 2018

With around 150,000 speakers, Navajo is the most widely spoken Native American language in the United States. Navajo, known to its speakers as Diné Bizaad, belongs to the Apachean language complex, a group that includes Chiricahua, Jicarilla, Mescalero, and other languages of the American southwest. Apachean languages are part of the Athabascan family, a language group that includes languages spoken by the indigenous (native) people of Alaska, British Columbia, and other parts of North America.

A Navajo woman teaches her daughter how to spin thread for weaving. Many parts of Navajo culture—including the language known as Diné Bizaad—have been passed along from one generation to the next. Credit: © Thinkstock

Navajo is a verb-centered language. The verb conjugation is very complex. This allows a Navajo verb to give lots of information without the help of additional words. For example, to say it is very far in English requires one verb (is) and three additional words. Translated into Navajo, the sentence has just two words: Ayóó (very) ánizáád (it is far). The verb ánizáád provides most of the information, and it requires just one additional word to convey the full message. A single Navajo verb can sometimes serve as a rough equivalent of an entire English sentence. For example, the Navajo word Yidlą́ means he is drinking it.

During the 1800′s and early 1900′s, Navajo children were required by law to leave their families and live in government-run boarding schools. The purpose of “Indian schools” was to erase the traditional Navajo way of life, including the language, and to educate the children and instill in them the values of mainstream American culture. While living at these schools, children were only allowed to speak English. Speaking Navajo would often result in harsh punishment. In this way, a great many Navajo lost the knowledge of their native tongue. Luckily, many Navajo were still able to pass the language down to their children, and Diné Bizaad survives.

This photograph shows young Navajo code talkers operating a radio during World War II (1939-1945). The Navajo language was unknown to the Japanese and proved impossible for them to decipher. Credit: NARA

During World War II (1939-1945), the U.S. Marine Corps recruited more than 400 Navajo to serve as “code talkers” against Japanese forces. The code talkers sent vital messages to each other between front lines and command posts. The Navajo language was chosen as the basis for the code because of the complex structure, difficult pronunciation, and singsong qualities that made it nearly impossible to decipher.

Code talkers used familiar words to represent military terms. When referring to a fighter plane, they used the Navajo word for hummingbird. A destroyer warship became a shark, and bombs were eggs. Code talkers also developed an alphabet based on English words to spell names. One or more Navajo words could stand for each letter. For example, the Navajo word for ant indicated the letter a, bear signaled b, cat was c, and so on. The Japanese never broke the Navajo code.

June 25, 2018

The Māori are the indigenous (native) people of New Zealand. New Zealand is also known by the traditional Māori name Aotearoa. Te Reo, the Māori language, is a Polynesian language that evolved in isolation in New Zealand over hundreds of years. The language is most closely related to the languages of the Society and Cook Islands more than 2,000 miles (3,200 kilometers) to the northeast in the Pacific Ocean. Most scholars believe Māori first settled New Zealand around A.D. 1200. According to Māori tradition, however, they began arriving more than 1,800 years ago. They arrived in huge, double-hulled seafaring canoes.

Māori flag.
© Julinzy/Shutterstock

The Māori language of Te Reo was traditionally only oral. There was no writing system. Stories were passed down through generations via songs, called waiata, which commemorated important events. Other tales and traditions were communicated through carvings, weaving, and tattooing.

By the 1700′s, all New Zealand was populated by different Māori groups. Most lived in small isolated villages, where people fished and hunted and also grew crops. Each group had a traditional territory, and conflict between groups was common. Relationships between groups were established and maintained through large gatherings and elaborate rituals to celebrate various rites of passage.

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New Zealand.
Credit: WORLD BOOK map

Māori gatherings often begin with a ritual greeting called pōwhiri. This ceremonial greeting usually starts outside the marae, the open meeting ground at the center of a Māori village. As visitors arrive, a warrior from the host village will challenge guests, to see whether they are friend or foe. He may be armed with a spear, but he will also lay down a small leafy branch before the visitors. The visitors pick up the token to show that they come in peace. This initial ritual is followed by various calls by the hosts and responses by the visitors as they enter the marae. After everyone is seated, a series of speeches and songs follows, usually from elders of each group. Once the speeches are completed, the visitors present their hosts a gift. The ceremony ends with a hongi—the traditional Māori touching of noses—and food is shared.

In the early 1800’s, Te Reo was the predominant language spoken in New Zealand. As more English speakers arrived in New Zealand, the Māori language was increasingly confined to Māori communities. Over time, the Māori language was suppressed in schools, either formally or informally, in an attempt to ensure Māori children would assimilate with the wider European community in New Zealand. By the mid-1900’s, linguists were concerned that the Māori language was at risk of disappearing.

Beginning in the early 1970’s, a number of Māori student organizations initiated a revival of their traditional language. On Sept. 14, 1972, the organizations petitioned Parliament to request that Māori language classes be offered in schools. Beginning in 1975, this event has been recognized and celebrated during Te Wiki o Te Reo Māori (Māori language week). In 1978, New Zealand’s first bilingual school opened at Rūātoki. The first Māori-owned Māori-language radio station hit the airwaves in 1983. Today, about 125,000 people of Māori ethnicity speak and understand Te Reo. It is also recognized as one of the three official languages of New Zealand, along with English and New Zealand Sign Language.

June 18, 2018

Malay is the language of a large group of people in Southeast Asia. The language is spoken by about 13.5 million in Malaysia, plus millions of other people who live in nearby Brunei, Indonesia, and Singapore. Malay belongs to the Malayo-Polynesian branch of Austronesian, a language family that includes Javanese, Sundanese, and Tagalog.

The flag of Malaysia flies over some 13.5 million Malay speakers. Credit: © PhotoRoman/Shutterstock

The Malay language has numerous dialects. The official language of Malaysia, Bahasa Malaysia, is based largely on the Malay dialect of Johor, a southern state in Peninsular Malaysia. The official language of Indonesia, Bahasa Indonesia, is based on the dialect used in the Riau Islands of Indonesia. Because of the similarities between the language used in Johor and in the nearby Riau Islands, the two forms are sometimes classified together as Johor-Riau Malay. Other dialects include Ambon Malay, Ternate Malay, and Banjar Malay. In most cases, speakers of different dialects can communicate with each other without great difficulty.

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Malaysia. Credit: WORLD BOOK map

The Malay language includes elements of Sanskrit and Arabic. These elements entered the language through contact with the culture and religions of India and the Arab world. Contact with traders from many countries led to the development of Bazaar Malay, which became widely spoken in trading communities.

The oldest known Malay text is a stone inscription from the early years of the Srivijaya Empire, a Malay kingdom that emerged in the late 600′s and lasted until the late 1300′s. The text is written in the Indian Pallava script, and it tells of military expeditions. Later Malay texts were written in Devanagari, an alphabet and script used to write Hindi. Beginning in the late 1300′s, many Malay literary and religious works were written in an Arabic-based script called Jawi or Classical Malay. Beginning in the 1500′s, Dutch and British influence in Malaysia led to the adoption of a Malay writing system using the Roman alphabet.

In the 1970’s, Indonesia and Malaysia adopted a common spelling system for their official languages. Since then, efforts have continued to further standardize the Malay language.