In Japan people think it rude to say "you" -- but in India there are six different ways to address a person. And if you need to find out which countries take tea, and which prefer a cup of cha, the world's first atlas about the composition of languages should be able to help.
In a world where globalization leads to the death of one language every two weeks, it is hoped that the World Atlas of Language Structures will help to revive a wilting interest in linguistics.
German linguists spent five years compiling the book, working with 40 language experts specializing in languages ranging from Chinese to those spoken by only 100 adults.
Roland Kriessling, a linguist specializing in African languages, said: "In Namibia, there are many languages which sound completely bizarre to the Western ear.
"!Xoop, for example, has different clicking sounds, including the tut, the horse's hoof sound and the kiss. The phonetic complexity of !Xoop could put it into the Guinness Book of Records," he said.
The atlas contains details of about 2,600 languages, where they prevail and how they are used. With grammar a hot linguistic topic, it includes a map of sentence structures around the world. Readers can also discover which languages are rich in vocabulary, and which use restricted terminology. In American-Indian, for example, there is no distinction between the arm and the hand.
"If you ask the average man how many languages are in the world, he will probably say a couple of hundred. In fact there are 7,000," said Michael Cysouw, one of the atlas' authors. Despite highlighting the range of languages spoken throughout the world, the atlas does not explain why language evolved in different ways.
"The atlas draws together information about languages, but its purpose is not to draw conclusions," Cysouw said. "It invites people to investigate what lies behind the linguistics."
Former Nicaraguan president Violeta Chamorro, who brought peace to Nicaragua after years of war and was the first woman elected president in the Americas, died on Saturday at the age of 95, her family said. Chamorro, who ruled the poor Central American country from 1990 to 1997, “died in peace, surrounded by the affection and love of her children,” said a statement issued by her four children. As president, Chamorro ended a civil war that had raged for much of the 1980s as US-backed rebels known as the “Contras” fought the leftist Sandinista government. That conflict made Nicaragua one of
COMPETITION: The US and Russia make up about 90 percent of the world stockpile and are adding new versions, while China’s nuclear force is steadily rising, SIPRI said Most of the world’s nuclear-armed states continued to modernize their arsenals last year, setting the stage for a new nuclear arms race, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) said yesterday. Nuclear powers including the US and Russia — which account for about 90 percent of the world’s stockpile — had spent time last year “upgrading existing weapons and adding newer versions,” researchers said. Since the end of the Cold War, old warheads have generally been dismantled quicker than new ones have been deployed, resulting in a decrease in the overall number of warheads. However, SIPRI said that the trend was likely
BOMBARDMENT: Moscow sent more than 440 drones and 32 missiles, Volodymyr Zelenskiy said, in ‘one of the most terrifying strikes’ on the capital in recent months A nighttime Russian missile and drone bombardment of Ukraine killed at least 15 people and injured 116 while they slept in their homes, local officials said yesterday, with the main barrage centering on the capital, Kyiv. Kyiv City Military Administration head Tymur Tkachenko said 14 people were killed and 99 were injured as explosions echoed across the city for hours during the night. The bombardment demolished a nine-story residential building, destroying dozens of apartments. Emergency workers were at the scene to rescue people from under the rubble. Russia flung more than 440 drones and 32 missiles at Ukraine, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy
Indonesia’s Mount Lewotobi Laki-Laki yesterday erupted again with giant ash and smoke plumes after forcing evacuations of villages and flight cancelations, including to and from the resort island of Bali. Several eruptions sent ash up to 5km into the sky on Tuesday evening to yesterday afternoon. An eruption on Tuesday afternoon sent thick, gray clouds 10km into the sky that expanded into a mushroom-shaped ash cloud visible as much as 150km kilometers away. The eruption alert was raised on Tuesday to the highest level and the danger zone where people are recommended to leave was expanded to 8km from the crater. Officers also
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