World Book Blog

Swaziland 50

2018-09-06T12:41:00-05:00

Today, the small southern African nation of Swaziland celebrates its golden jubilee, the 50th anniversary of Swazi independence on Sept. 6, 1968. Swaziland, nestled between Mozambique and the Republic of South Africa, was formerly a British protectorate. It became independent in 1968 as the Kingdom of Swaziland, and the nation remains a monarchy. Today in Mbabane, the Swazi capital, anniversary celebrations were muted amid an ongoing economic crisis in the country.

Despite the crisis, Swaziland’s King Mswati III began celebrating the nation’s 50th anniversary with his own 50th birthday party on April 19, 2018. Mswati’s “50/50 Celebrations” showcased Swazi culture and traditions, as well as the king’s own immense personal wealth. During the party, he suggested renaming the kingdom eSwatini, the nation’s original name before it was anglicized to Swaziland. The name eSwatini means land of the Swazis in the local siSwati language.

Protests and criticism of the king’s lavish lifestyle led him to cancel expensive anniversary celebrations planned for September. Most Swazi people are poor, surviving almost entirely on what they can grow or raise through subsistence agriculture.

The vast majority of Swaziland’s people belong to the Swazi ethnic group. According to the legends of the Swazi, their ancestors once lived near what is now Maputo, Mozambique. In the late 1700's, the Swazi chief Ngwane II led a small band of people over the mountains to what is now southeastern Swaziland. There the Swazi found other African peoples. Ngwane II and the chiefs who ruled after him united several of these peoples with the Swazi.

British traders and Boers (chiefly Dutch farmers from South Africa) first came to Swaziland in the 1830's. In the 1880's, the settlers discovered gold. Hundreds of prospectors rushed into the region. They asked the Swazi chief and his advisers to sign documents granting them rights to mine minerals and to use land for farming and grazing. The Swazi leaders could not read and did not realize that they were giving up control of the land.

In 1894, the British and Boers agreed that the South African Republic, a Boer state, would govern Swaziland. But in 1902, the Boers lost a war with the British, and the United Kingdom took control of Swaziland. The United Kingdom ruled Swaziland until the mid-1960's. In 1967, Swaziland gained control over its internal matters. It received full independence on Sept. 6, 1968. On Sept. 24, 1968, Swaziland became a member of the United Nations.

Image 1: Swaziland’s flag has five horizontal stripes. The top and bottom stripes are blue (for peace). The wide center stripe is red (for past battles) with a black and white shield, spears, and staff. Between the blue and red stripes are yellow stripes (for natural resources). Credit: © Loveshop/Shutterstock

Image 2: Swaziland. Credit: WORLD BOOK map

Image 3: Mbabane, the administrative capital of Swaziland, lies in the country’s western highlands. Most of the people of Swaziland live in rural areas. Credit: SuperStock

Those We Honor On Labor Day

2018-08-29T10:13:00-05:00

Many people clock out of work on the Friday afternoon before Labor Day looking forward to holiday-weekend cookouts, parades, or a final end-of-summer outing to the beach. We might head home with plans to rest, relax, and socialize with family and friends. We also might take such work holidays, or even our eight-hour workdays, for granted. But historically, it was not very long ago when laborers struggled for such “basics” as safe working conditions and a standard number of work hours. The Labor Day holiday, as well as the related May Day (May 1) or International Workers’ Day celebrations in Europe, grew out of the United States labor movement of the late 1800’s.

The American labor movement first began in the early 1800’s, with the establishment of citywide, and later nationwide, labor organizations to further workers’ interests. By the 1860’s, a campaign for an eight-hour workday had emerged in the United States. At that time, many laborers worked 10 or more hours daily. On May 1, 1886, tens of thousands of workers in Chicago went on strike to support the eight-hour cause. Days later, a labor protest in Haymarket Square erupted in deadly violence, an ensuing riot, and the controversial conviction and execution of several anarchists. In 1889, an international congress of Socialist parties held in Paris voted to support American workers’ demands for an eight-hour day. It chose May 1, 1890, as a day of demonstrations to commemorate the events of May 1886. May 1 then became a workers’ holiday in many nations. It was not until 1938, when the United States passed the Fair Labor Standards Act, that a standard workweek was set, at 44 hours. It later was reduced to 40 hours.

In 1882, the Central Labor Union in New York City organized a “monster labor festival” that now is considered the first Labor Day celebration. The event, held on September 5, featured a parade of labor unions in which some 10,000 people marched, followed by an even larger picnic in a city park. In 1887, Oregon became the first state to pass legislation recognizing a Labor Day holiday. By 1894, more than 20 additional states officially had adopted the holiday. Finally, on June 28 of that year, the U.S. government created a national Labor Day holiday to be observed on the first Monday of every September. The legal creation of a national Labor Day coincided with the Pullman Strike, a major railroad strike that lasted from May through July of 1894.

This Labor Day weekend, as you relax by the pool or enjoy free time with friends, consider pausing to remember those who secured the workplace rights and dignities that we have come to consider the norm. You also might give a nod of appreciation to those workers in your community who continue working even on holidays, such as police officers, firefighters, doctors, and nurses, and encourage your children or students to do the same.

Language Monday: Scandinavia

2018-08-27T10:12:00-05:00

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

Image 1: Scandinavia includes the countries of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. Credit: WORLD BOOK map

Image 2: The flag of Denmark flies over millions of speakers of Danish, a Scandinavian language. Credit: © Loveshop/Shutterstock

Image 3: The flag of Norway flies over speakers of Norwegian, a Scandinavian language related to Danish and Swedish. Credit: © Loveshop/Shutterstock

Image 4: 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

National Aviation Day

2018-08-16T10:24:00-05:00

National Aviation Day is an American observation that occurs on August 19th each year. The holiday was created in 1939, when President Franklin D. Roosevelt proclaimed that the United States should recognize the advancements made in aviation. Aviation a term that includes all the activities involved in building and flying aircraft, especially airplanes.

The particular date to celebrate National Aviation Day was chosen because it is the birthday of Orville Wright, who along with his brother Wilbur, invented and built the first successful airplane in 1903.

Airplanes are one of the most important inventions in history! Today, airplanes affect the lives of people almost everywhere in the world. Giant airliners carry passengers and cargo between the world's major cities in a matter of hours.

Wilbur Wright was born April 16, 1867, on a farm near New Castle, Indiana. His brother Orville was born Aug. 19, 1871, in Dayton, Ohio. They ran a successful business making bicycles, but they took an interest in flying in 1899. They soon became familiar with all the scientific knowledge of aeronautics then available. On Dec. 17, 1903, they made the world's first controlled flight in a machine that was piloted, power driven, and heavier than air. They flew this airplane near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. With Orville at the controls, the plane flew 120 feet (37 meters) on the first flight. By 1905, they had created a practical flying machine that could travel dozens of miles. Every modern airplane is based on the Wright brothers’ invention and the principles of flight they discovered.

Here are a few popular ways to observe National Aviation Day:

Visit an Aviation Museum: Many airport and airfields have museums of aviation. One of the biggest aviation museums is the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. It is part of the Smithsonian Institution. This large museum features hundreds of exhibits on aviation and space flight.

National Aviation Day is a also great day to build a model airplane just for fun. Model airplanes range from simple toys made of wood and paper to scale models that can be flown.

Check out an aviation-themed book. Whether fact or fiction, a book about aviation is a thrilling read. You may want to read about aviation pioneers like the Wright brothers or American test pilot Chuck Yeager, the first person to fly an aircraft faster than the speed of sound. Or, you may want to read about how new airplanes are designed and built.

Learn more fascinating facts about aviation and other important inventions from World Book’s A Dream Takes Flight series on The First True Fliers.

Japan’s Obon Festival

2018-08-15T10:17:00-05:00

From August 13 through today, August 15, people celebrate the annual Obon festival in Japan and in Japanese communities around the world. Also called the Bon, Bon Odori, or Urabon festival, Obon is a Buddhist event that marks the spiritual return of dead ancestors to the living world on Earth. Because lanterns are hung to guide the souls of the dead, Obon is sometimes called the Festival of Lanterns. In some parts of Japan, the festival takes place in July.

According to the Buddhist sutra (scripture) Urabon-kyo, Buddha’s disciple Maudgalyayana found his deceased mother in the Realm of Hungry Ghosts, where spirits suffer from eternal hunger and thirst. Maudgalyayana tried to give her a bowl of rice, but it burst into flames. He went to the Buddha for help, and was instructed to offer food and drink to monks on the 15th day of the seventh moon, the traditional end of Japan’s rainy season. The act of gratitude and respect freed Maudgalyayana’s mother from her torment, and he danced with joy. By repeating the disciple’s offerings—and his dance—each year, Buddhists honor the dead and celebrate the relief of their suffering.

The three-day Obon begins with mukaebi, the lighting of fires and lanterns to guide spirits home. Many families build two altars of fruit, incense, and flowers called shoryo-dana. One altar is for ancestors, and the other is for any spirits who have not attained peace. Other common rituals include ohakamairi, the cleaning and decoration of ancestral tombs; prayer services at temples; and the preparation of special foods. Bon Odori, a Buddhist folk dance, is performed during the festival. Dancers in elaborate costumes form a circle around musicians and taiko drummers. (Taikos are large ceremonial drums.) Obon ends with okuribi, when fires and lanterns are again lit to bid spirits farewell. Some communities celebrate Obon with carnivals and other outdoor events.

The celebration of Obon in Japan dates back to the 1100's. Similar Buddhist festivals take place in China, India, Malaysia, Vietnam, and other countries. The timing of the festival—in July or August—depends on the traditional use of a solar or lunar calendar.

Image: Lanterns illuminate the night and guide the spirits of the dead during the Obon festival in Japan. Credit: Yoichiro Akiyama (licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0)

The End of the Spanish Armada

2018-08-08T11:54:00-05:00

On Aug. 8, 1588, 430 years ago today, the British Navy defeated the Spanish Armada in the Battle of Gravelines off the coast of France. The Spanish Armada was a powerful fleet of armed ships and transports that tried to invade England. The defeat at Gravelines ended Spain’s hopes of invasion. The failure of the Armada was a great blow to the prestige of Spain, then the world’s most powerful country. Spain remained a major power after the battle, but English merchants and sailors challenged the Spaniards with greater confidence throughout the world.

Bad feeling between Spain and England had existed since the 1560's. Spain was taking gold and silver from lands it had claimed in the Americas, and England wanted some of this wealth. Queen Elizabeth I encouraged Francis Drake and other English seamen to raid Spanish ships and towns, even though the countries were not at war.

Religious differences also caused conflict between the two nations. Spain was a Roman Catholic country, and most of England was Protestant. In the 1560's, the English began to aid Dutch Protestants rebelling against Spanish rule in the Netherlands. In the early 1580's, King Philip II of Spain started planning to send a fleet and army to invade England. He hoped to negate English help for the Dutch, end the English raids on Spanish shipping, and make England a Catholic country.

Philip began to assemble the Armada in January 1586. Spain built many new warships and armed its existing ones more heavily. It also rented many foreign ships. In 1587, the British raided the important Spanish harbor of Cadiz and destroyed about 30 ships. Work continued on the Armada however, and the fleet was brought together in May 1588 at the Portuguese port of Lisbon, which at that time was ruled by Spain. The fleet had about 130 ships and more than 29,000 men, most of them soldiers. Some of the ships lacked guns and experienced gunners; others carried no weapons at all, serving only as troop and supply transports. Philip named the Duke of Medina Sidonia to command the Spanish Armada. The duke was an experienced military planner but an inexperienced seaman.

As Spain planned for invasion, England prepared to defeat the Armada at sea. The British Navy armed many merchant vessels and added them to its fleet of warships. They gathered some 200 ships and nearly 16,000 men, most of them sailors rather than soldiers. Admiral Lord Howard of Effingham commanded the fleet, and his squadron leaders included the notable sailors Drake, John Hawkins, and Martin Frobisher.

The Armada left Lisbon on May 30, 1588. It entered the English Channel on July 30 and fought long-range gun duels with English warships during the next few days. On August 6, the Armada anchored at Calais, France. Medina Sidonia had planned to meet barges carrying Spanish troops from nearby Dunkerque, a port then in the Netherlands. But Dutch gunboats prevented the barges from meeting the Armada. This act doomed the Armada to failure.

In the early hours of August 8, the English sent eight fire ships (vessels filled with gunpowder and set on fire) toward the Armada. The Spanish ships sailed out to sea to escape the flames. Later that morning, about 60 English ships attacked an equal number of Spanish ships off the French port of Gravelines. The English sank several Spanish ships and damaged others.

The crippled Armada fled to the North Sea. It returned to Spain by sailing north around the islands of Great Britain and Ireland. High winds wrecked many ships off Ireland’s coast, and only about two-thirds of the fleet safely returned to Spain.

Image: British warships defeated the Spanish Armada in the Battle of Gravelines 430 years ago on Aug. 8, 1588. Credit: Defeat of the Spanish Armada, 8 August 1588 (1796), oil on canvas by Philip James de Loutherbourg; National Maritime Museum

Bogotá 480

2018-08-07T11:50:00-05:00

Yesterday, on August 6, Bogotá, Colombia’s capital and largest city, celebrated the 480th anniversary of its founding in 1538. One of the oldest cities founded by Europeans in South America, Bogotá is also one of the biggest. Some 8 million people call the city home. Bogotá hosts a birthday carnival every year on August 5 and 6, a raucous celebration of the city’s—and the nation’s—cultural and musical diversity.

Bogotá’s birthday carnival centers on the city’s Simón Bolívar Park, and parades teeming with dancers and musicians in vibrant costumes spiral into the nearby streets. Aromas of ajiaco—the city’s traditional chicken and potato soup—compete with stuffed arepas and empanadas for revelers’ culinary attentions. The Bogotá Philharmonic Orchestra plays a more subdued free concert in the city’s main square, the Plaza de Bolívar, and individual parties take place in every barrio (neighborhood). At sunset, fireworks erupt from atop the 643-foot- (196-meter-) high Torre Colpatria, Colombia’s tallest completed building. The south tower of the nearby BD Bacatá complex (scheduled to open later this year) looks down on the Colpatria by about 210 feet (64 meters). Bacatá is the Muisca Indian word for the region that gave Bogotá its name.

Bogotá was founded as Santa Fe de Bogotá in 1538 by Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada, a Spanish military leader who conquered the area’s Muisca and Chibcha Indians. In the early 1700's, the city became the capital of the Viceroyalty of New Granada. The viceroyalty consisted of what are now Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, and Panama. In 1830, Bogotá became the capital of independent New Granada, later renamed Colombia.

Bogotá lies on a plateau about 8,660 feet (2,640 meters) above sea level, in the Andes Mountains in central Colombia. The steep mountains that surround much of Bogotá give the city a dramatic physical setting. One peak is crowned with a figure of Jesus Christ, another with a cross, and a third with a shining white convent. Cable cars travel between the city and the top of Monserrate, a mountain that is a popular observation point. A mansion at the foot of the mountain once belonged to the South American general Simón Bolívar. It is now a museum that displays items relating to Bolívar and South America’s struggle for independence.

At the center of Bogotá is the Plaza de Bolívar. It is surrounded by historic buildings, including the Cathedral; the Archbishop’s Palace; Liévano Palace, which houses the mayor’s office; and the Capitol. Nearby, mansions from the Spanish colonial era, which lasted from the 1500's to the early 1800's, line the narrow streets. The Gold Museum has a collection of about 35,000 gold works of art crafted by Indians before the Spaniards arrived.

Image 1: Bogotá sits high in the Andes Mountains of central Colombia. The city was founded 480 years ago on Aug. 6, 1538. Credit: © Stone from Getty Images

Image 2: The Santamaría bullring, shown here, is one of Bogotá’s key points of interest. The Park Towers, designed by Colombian architect Rogelio Salmona, rise beside the bullring. Credit: © Jess Kraft, Shutterstock

Language Monday: Quechua

2018-08-06T10:08:00-05:00

About 8 million people in Andean South America speak one of the many dialects of the Native American language Quechua. Quechua, or Runa Simi as it is called by its speakers, is commonly heard in Peru and in parts of Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, and Ecuador. Spanish is the official language of these nations, but Quechua has equal status in Peru. Quechua descends from the dominant tribal groups of the Inca empire. More than a quarter of Peru’s population speaks Quechua. In Bolivia, there are more people who speak Quechua than speak Spanish.

Quechua originated as the language spoken by the Inca. The Inca were a native South American people who ruled one of the largest and richest empires in the Americas. The Inca empire emerged in the early A.D. 1400’s and occupied a vast region centered around the capital of Cusco, in modern-day southern Peru. The empire extended over 2,500 miles (4,020 kilometers) along the Andes Mountains. Different peoples within the empire spoke Quechua and a variety of other native languages. A second important language in the empire was Aymara, which is still heard in Bolivia and other nations.

The Inca did not have an alphabet. They did have quipu, however, a cord with knotted strings of various lengths, colors, weaves, and designs that served as a system of record keeping. Special officials throughout the empire read the quipu and maintained the knotted strings. Archaeologists have discovered how the Inca recorded numbers and dates using quipu, but they are still trying to understand what other information might be encoded in the knotted strings.

Without an alphabet or written language, information was passed along the Inca empire’s system of royal roads by messengers called chaski. Messages were passed by word of mouth or by quipu. Chaski were stationed every few miles, and messages would be passed from one messenger to the next so information would flow quickly throughout the empire.

The sons of rulers throughout the empire were sent to Cusco, where they were instructed in Inca language, history, and religion. They were also taught about the quipu and Inca fighting techniques by teachers called amauta. These teachers also recorded stories and legends in poems and songs that they retold at gatherings.

In the 1500’s, during the Spanish conquest, missionaries used Quechua to teach the Inca about Christianity. The missionaries were the first to record Quechua in written form. An official orthography—method of representing the sounds of a language by written or printed symbols—was drafted in 1939 and adopted in 1946 for the main Peruvian dialect of Quechua.

Image 1: Quechua is an ancient dialect of the Inca empire. Many people speak the language in Peru, where Inca religious ceremonies—here, the Festival of the Sun—still take place. Credit: © M. Timothy O’Keefe, Alamy Images

Image 2: The Peruvian flag flies over millions of Quechua speakers. Credit: © Gil C, Shutterstock

Image 3: The map at left shows the location of the Inca empire along the Andes Mountains of South America. The empire’s capital, Cusco, is in modern day Peru. Credit: WORLD BOOK map

Language Monday: Portuguese

2018-07-30T10:04:00-05:00

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.

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.

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.

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.

Image 1: 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

Image 2: Portugal. Credit: WORLD BOOK map

Image 3: 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

Language Monday: Polish

2018-07-23T11:54:00-05:00

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.

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.

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 l, 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.

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); author Isaac Bashevis Singer (1978); and the poets Czeslaw Milosz (1980) and Wislawa Szymborska (1996).

Image 1: The flag of Poland flies over nearly 40 million Polish speakers. Credit: © Loveshop/Shutterstock

Image 2: Poland Credit: WORLD BOOK map

Image 3: Polish belongs to the large Indo-European language family. Credit: WORLD BOOK diagram

Roman Emperor Hadrian

2018-07-10T09:53:00-05:00

On July 10, A.D. 138, 1,880 years ago today, the ancient Roman emperor Hadrian died at his villa in the city of Baiae near modern-day Naples, Italy. Hadrian, most famous for the great stone wall that bears his name in northern England, paid great personal attention to the provinces of the Roman Empire, nearly all of which he visited as emperor. He also began the process of organizing Roman law into a uniform code. Hadrian died at age 62, most likely of heart failure.

Hadrian undertook many building projects. The Pantheon, completed during his reign, still stands in Rome. Hadrian fortified parts of the frontier and built a number of Roman walls where no natural territorial boundaries existed. He founded two new cities—Antinoopolis in Egypt and Hadrianople in Thrace (now Edirne, Turkey). He also completed the huge temple of Zeus in Athens, which had been begun in the 500's B.C.

Hadrian’s given name was Publius Aelius Hadrianus. He was born on Jan. 24, A.D. 76. He came from Italica near modern-day Seville, Spain. Hadrian’s father died during his youth, and Trajan, Hadrian’s cousin, became his guardian. After Trajan became Roman emperor in 98, Hadrian held military and senatorial posts and traveled to the northern and eastern frontiers of the empire. He became emperor after Trajan’s death in 117.

Hadrian was a poet, an amateur architect, and a student of Greek culture. His reign was generally peaceful. He rejected Trajan’s aggressive policies, ending a war with Parthia, a land beyond Rome’s eastern frontiers. To avoid further wars, he returned Parthian territory that Rome had won. The only major conflict occurred in 132, when Jews in Palestine revolted. Hadrian crushed the revolt in 135. He made Jerusalem a Roman colony and forbade Jews to worship there. In 138, Hadrian picked Titus Aurelius Antoninus (Antoninus Pius) to succeed him as emperor.

Image 1: Bust of Hadrian. Credit: Carole Raddato (licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0)

Image 2: Hadrian’s Wall, built by the Romans in the A.D. 120's, protected England from northern raiders. It extended from Solway Firth to the North Sea. Parts of the wall, such as that shown in this photograph, still stand. Credit: © Thinkstock

Language Monday: Nigeria

2018-07-09T10:56:00-05:00

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.

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.

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.

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.

Image 1: The flag of Nigeria flies over a nation of nearly 200 million people who collectively speak more than 500 different languages. Credit: © Loveshop/Shutterstock

Image 2: Nigeria. Credit: WORLD BOOK map

Image 3: 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

Ice Cream in July

2018-07-06T16:50:00-05:00

Who wants ice cream? That question is usually answered by a unified chorus of “I do!” Well, now—the month of July—is the official time to indulge. Since 1984, the typically hot month has been National Ice Cream Month in the United States. To narrow it further, the third Sunday of the month is National Ice Cream Day. In 2018, that delicious day falls on July 15. So ready the bowls, spoons, and cones, and prepare to dig in.

Ice cream consists chiefly of cream, milk, sugar, and water. (It takes 12 pounds [5.4 kilograms] of milk to make 1 gallon [3.8 liters] of ice cream!) The ingredients are blended together and then rapidly heated and cooled to destroy harmful bacteria. Next, the mixture is further mixed to break up particles of fat and smoothen the product. The mixture is then cooled and stored to allow it to solidify. After chocolate, nuts, strawberries, or other tasty additions, the mixture is frozen and packaged as ice cream.

No one knows when ice cream was first made. In 1295, the Venetian trader Marco Polo returned to Europe from China and may have brought recipes for water ices. During the 1600's, Europeans used a combination of ice, snow, and a mineral called saltpeter to freeze mixtures of cream, fruit, and spices.

British colonists probably brought recipes for ice cream to America in the early 1700's. Ice cream became a popular luxury food, but almost all of it was made at home until 1851. That year, Jacob Fussell, a Baltimore, Maryland, milk dealer, established the first ice cream plant. Ice cream became a national favorite during the early 1900's after soda fountains introduced sodas, sundaes, and other new ways of serving it. Ice cream cones were first served at the 1904 world’s fair in St. Louis, Missouri. Ice cream bars appeared in 1921. Ice cream production increased greatly in the late 1940's. During the first decade of the 2000's, the United States produced about 1.4 billion gallons (5.3 billion liters) of ice cream yearly.

Ice cream is served in many parts of the world, but Americans eat more of it than do the people of any other country. Americans eat an average of about 23 quarts (21.8 liters) of ice cream annually.

Image 1: July is National Ice cream Month in the United States. Credit: © Elena Veselova, Shutterstock

Image 2: The ice cream process. Credit: WORLD BOOK diagram

Language Monday: Navajo

2018-07-02T11:04:00-05:00

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.

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 Yidla´ 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.

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.

Image 1: 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

Image 2: 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

Language Monday: Maori

2018-06-25T11:32:00-05:00

The Maori are the indigenous (native) people of New Zealand. New Zealand is also known by the traditional Maori name Aotearoa. Te Reo, the Maori 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 Maori first settled New Zealand around A.D. 1200. According to Maori tradition, however, they began arriving more than 1,800 years ago. They arrived in huge, double-hulled seafaring canoes.

The Maori 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 Maori 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.

Maori gatherings often begin with a ritual greeting called powhiri. This ceremonial greeting usually starts outside the marae, the open meeting ground at the center of a Maori 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 Maori 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 Maori language was increasingly confined to Maori communities. Over time, the Maori language was suppressed in schools, either formally or informally, in an attempt to ensure Maori children would assimilate with the wider European community in New Zealand. By the mid-1900’s, linguists were concerned that the Maori language was at risk of disappearing.

Beginning in the early 1970’s, a number of Maori student organizations initiated a revival of their traditional language. On Sept. 14, 1972, the organizations petitioned Parliament to request that Maori language classes be offered in schools. Beginning in 1975, this event has been recognized and celebrated during Te Wiki o Te Reo Maori (Maori language week). In 1978, New Zealand’s first bilingual school opened at Ruatoki. The first Maori-owned Maori-language radio station hit the airwaves in 1983. Today, about 125,000 people of Maori 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.

Image 1: Maori flag. © Julinzy/Shutterstock

Image 2: New Zealand. Credit: WORLD BOOK map

Language Monday: Malay

2018-06-18T10:38:00-05:00

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 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.

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.

Image 1: The flag of Malaysia flies over some 13.5 million Malay speakers. Credit: © PhotoRoman/Shutterstock

Image 2: Malaysia. Credit: WORLD BOOK map

Philippines Independence Day

2018-06-12T10:18:00-05:00

Today, June 12, is Independence Day in the Philippines. On June 12, 1898, 120 years ago today, Filipino leaders declared independence from Spain, which had ruled the Pacific Island nation since the 1500's. Philippines Independence Day is celebrated throughout the Philippine Islands as well in Filipino communities around the world. For several years, the celebration was held on July 4—the day the Republic of the Philippines actually gained independence in 1946. In 1962, however, the Philippines government recognized the date of the 1898 declaration as Independence Day, and changed July 4 to Republic Day.

In the Philippines, government offices and many businesses are closed for Independence Day, and people enjoy the holiday by gathering with family and friends and attending concerts, fireworks shows, and parades. The Philippines flag is prominently displayed throughout the nation, and in Manila and other cities there are official readings of the 1898 document declaring Philippine independence. Readings are given both in the document’s original Spanish and in Tagalog, the primary language of the Philippines.

In the United States and Canada, countries that are home to millions of people of Filipino heritage, Philippines Independence Day is marked by celebrations and parades in such cities as Boston, Chicago, New York, San Francisco, Toronto, and Vancouver.

The story of Philippine independence is a complicated one. The 1898 declaration came at a chaotic period in Filipino history, a time when foreign powers—Spain and the United States—were fighting for control of the Philippine Islands. Philippines independence was not won in 1898, as the United States, which gained control of the islands from Spain, refused to recognize it.

Filipino rebels fought against U.S. rule in the Philippine-American War from 1899 to 1902, but American influence remained in the Philippines for many years. In 1935, the Philippines became an American commonwealth with its own elected government and constitution. The United States retained authority in such areas as foreign affairs and defense. After Filipinos and U.S. soldiers fought together against the Japanese during World War II (1939-1945), the Philippines at last gained complete independence on July 4, 1946—a date chosen to coincide with Independence Day in the United States.

Image 1: The flag of the Philippines dates back to the nation’s struggle for independence in the 1890’s. Credit: © Loveshop/Shutterstock

Image 2: In Tagalog, the primary language of the Philippines, Independence Day is known as Araw ng Kalayaan, or Day of Freedom. Credit: Republic of the Philippines

Image 3: Philippines
Credit: WORLD BOOK map

Language Monday: Japanese

2018-05-21T10:26:00-05:00

Japanese is the native language of Japan and the neighboring Ryukyu and Bonin islands. In Japanese, the language is called Nihongo (???). Hyojungo is the name of the standard form of the language and the dialect of the Japanese capital, Tokyo. Hyojungo is generally understood despite widely varying regional dialects. There are 127 million native speakers of Japanese. More than 100,000 people speak it as a second language. There are also large Japanese-speaking communities in such countries as Australia, Brazil, and the United States.

The oldest written account of Japanese, the Kojiki (Record of Ancient Matters), dates from A.D. 712, and it is written using Chinese characters called kanji. The dialect of the Kojiki originated with the aristocracy in western Honshu, Japan’s central and largest island. The dialect was spoken in the imperial capital of Kyoto, and it transferred to Tokyo when that city became Japan’s capital in 1868.

Japanese is traditionally written vertically and from right to left. It is now also written horizontally. The complex writing system uses the established kanji characters plus syllable characters called hiragana and katakana and a Romanized script called romaji. Grammatically, Japanese follows a subject-object-verb order. There are 5 vowels and 16 consonants. Japanese nouns have no gender or number. Nouns are followed by postpositionals, which indicate the grammatical function of the noun.

Japanese has many onomatopoeic words (words that sound like what they describe) and words that imitate motion. Repeating a word indicates a repetition or continuation of the action. For example, pyon means with a hop, and pyon-pyon means hop-hop.

Japanese is spoken differently based on the social situation. Intimate Japanese is for everyday conversation with family, friends, and co-workers. Polite is for well-educated company and strangers. Honorific is to show honor and respect to elders and superiors. Impersonal is for speeches and writing.

Japanese has been a literary language for many centuries. Women wrote many medieval poetry and prose pieces, including a classic of Japanese literature, The Tale of Genji by Lady Murasaki Shikibu.

Chinese loanwords, called kango, make up about half the Japanese vocabulary. Gairaigo (foreign words) come mostly from European languages. From Dutch, Japanese gets the words kohi (coffee), biiru (beer), and penki (paint). Since the mid-1800's, most loanwords have come from English, including teburu (table), wapuro (word processor), and rampu (lamp).

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Image 1: The common name for the flag of Japan is Hinomaru, which means sun disc in Japanese. Credit: © T. Lesia, Shutterstock

Image 2: Japan.
Credit: WORLD BOOK map

Image 3: Japanese characters on this print recount an episode of the 47 Ronin, a group of Japanese warriors in the early 1700's. Credit: Wood-block print by Utagawa Kuniyoshi (1847); Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (DeAgostini/SuperStock)

Language Monday: Irish

2018-05-07T11:27:00-05:00

In Ireland, you’ll hear sláinte <<SLAHN cha>> in nearly all your daily activities. Sláinte means health in Irish, the national language of the Republic of Ireland, and the word is used much as cheers is used in English. Irish is the country’s first official language, but more people in Ireland speak English, the second official language. In the Irish language, Irish is called Gaeilge (Gaelic).

Irish belongs to the Celtic branch of the Indo-European family of languages. About 40 percent of the Irish population claim they speak Irish, though few people practice the language in everyday life. Areas of Ireland collectively called the Gaeltacht speak Irish as their first language.

Irish uses letters of the Roman alphabet. But the alphabet uses j, q, x, and z only in foreign and technical words. The letters k, w, and y are not usually used in modern Irish. Nouns are either masculine or feminine. Most verbs are regular. Irish has only 11 irregular verbs (English has more than 80). In simple sentences, the word order is verb, subject, object. For example, “I bought a book” in English would be “Bought I a book” in Irish.

By the start of the Christian era, Irish was spoken throughout Ireland and had spread into Scotland, the west coast of Britain, and the Isle of Man. The Christian missionary Saint Patrick introduced the Roman alphabet to Ireland in the A.D. 400’s.

Norman conquerors from France began to settle in Ireland near the end of the 1100’s. Gradually, they began to speak Irish along with the native population. Classical Modern Irish began to develop in the 1200’s and lasted through the 1600’s. During that time, literary standards for Irish were set that persisted until the 1900’s. English also gained ground in Ireland during that time and was increasingly used for official and legal business in the cities. Irish was the dominant language in most rural areas.

By the early 1700’s, colonists and landowners from England and Scotland largely replaced the old Irish-speaking ruling class. The native gentry who remained adopted English as their everyday language. Irish lived on as the language of the peasant class.

In the 1830’s, the British government established national schools in which English was the official language. During the Great Famine of the 1840’s, about 2.5 million people, many of them Irish speakers, died or left the country. According to the census of 1891, there were fewer than 700,000 speakers of Irish, compared with 1.5 million in the 1861 census.

In 1893, the Gaelic League was founded to revive the use of Irish and to encourage the study of Irish literature. The organization has remained through the years and is a major force today in protecting and promoting the Irish language.

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Image 2: Indo-European is the most widespread language family today. Credit: WORLD BOOK diagram

Image 3: Irish is the first official language of Ireland.
Credit: WORLD BOOK map

Language Monday: Hungarian

2018-04-30T15:45:00-05:00

Hungarian, the language of Hungary, is unlike most other languages of Europe. English, French, German, Italian, and Spanish, for example, all belong to the Indo-European language family. Hungarian, however, is a member of the Finno-Ugric group of languages, which is part of the Uralic language family. Hungarian is related to Estonian and Finnish.

An estimated 13 million people speak Hungarian, most of them in Hungary, where it is the official language. Ethnic Hungarians also make up substantial parts of the populations of such countries as Romania and Slovakia, where they tend to speak Hungarian among themselves. The Hungarian language, also known as Magyar, traces its roots back to the Magyar people, who originally lived between the Volga River and the Ural Mountains in what is now Russia. The Magyars started pushing west in the A.D. 500’s, and they eventually settled in the area that makes up modern Hungary. During the their westward migration, the Magyars came into contact with a number of other peoples whose languages influenced their own.

Through the years, Hungarian has adopted and adapted words from a number of other languages. Some scholars have suggested that the history of Hungary and the Magyars can be traced, in part, by the words it has borrowed from other languages. During the early migration of the Magyars to what is now Hungary, for example, they came into contact with groups of people who spoke Turkic and Iranian languages. Among the loan words from the Turkic languages are the words for apple (alma), wine (bor), and ankle (boka). Iranian borrowings include the words for bazaar or fair (vásár), cow (tehén), and milk (tej). The Hungarian words for cross (kërëszt) and cat (macska) were taken from the languages of neighboring Slavic peoples.

Stephen I, Hungary’s first king, ruled from about 1000 until 1038. As a result of Stephen’s rule, Hungary became closely identified with the culture and politics of western Europe. Stephen established the Roman Catholic Church as Hungary’s official religion. The language of the church was Latin, and numerous loan words from Latin made their way into the Hungarian language. Among them were the words for angel (angyal), ink (tinta), and school (iskola). The Hungarian language also uses the Roman (Latin) alphabet.

Over time, Hungarian picked up words from a number of other languages. From trading with Venice and other Italian cities from the 1200’s to the 1400’s, for example, Hungary borrowed and adapted many Italian words. For centuries, while Hungary was part of the Austrian Empire and the country of Austria-Hungary, many German words made their way into the Hungarian language.

Today, Hungarian continues to be a living, growing language. Among the relatively recent additions to the language, for example, are words related to technology, such as internet, cell phone (mobiltelefon), and computer (számítógép); terms from popular culture, such as superstar (szupersztár), action movie (akciófilm), and blockbuster (kasszasiker); and terms relating to medicine and the human body, such as medical genetics (orvosi genetika), gene therapy (génterápia), and arthroscopic surgery (artroszkópos sebészet).

By the way, in case you are wondering, the Hungarian word for Monday is hétfo.

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Image 2: Hungary. Credit: WORLD BOOK map

Image 3: Hungarian belongs to the Uralic language family of far northern Europe and Asia. Credit: WORLD BOOK map

Language Monday: Armenian

2018-04-23T09:39:00-05:00

Armenia is a rugged country of about 3 million people in the Caucasus Mountain region of southwestern Asia. Present-day Armenia and what is now eastern Turkey make up historic Armenia, the original homeland of the Armenian people. About 7 million people speak the Armenian language worldwide. Armenian has its own alphabet, and it shares few similarities with other modern languages. But like most of the languages of Europe, western Asia, and India, Armenian belongs to the Indo-European language family. Today’s Armenian language also shares some words with Greek, old dialects of Aramaic, and the Iranian language family.

The Armenian language was first spoken more than 3,000 years ago. Armenians call their language Hayeren or Haieren, and they refer to themselves as Hay. The first evidence of written Armenian dates to about A.D. 405, when the scribe Mesrop Mashtots created an alphabet to translate the Christian Bible into the Armenian language. The alphabet that Mashtots created borrows some characters from Greek and Syriac—a dialect of the Aramaic language. The Classical Armenian alphabet contained 36 phonemes (distinct sounds) represented by 28 consonants and 8 vowels. Two additional letters later joined the alphabet to accommodate sounds that had not been part of the language as it was first written. The alphabet’s punctuation marks also differ from other languages.

In the early A.D. 300's, Armenia became the first nation to adopt Christianity as its state religion. Armenians later spent centuries under the control of the Persian and Ottoman (Turkish) empires, and the Armenian language borrowed words from these occupiers. Modern Armenian began taking its present form between the 1400’s and 1600’s. By the mid-1800’s, the language had two main dialects—Eastern and Western Armenian. The dialects had differences in pronunciation and grammar, but many speakers could understand both. Classical Armenian, called Grabar, remained the primary language used for writing into the 1800’s. But modern Armenian, known as Ashkharhabar in the Eastern dialect and Ashkharhapar in Western, soon became standard for both speaking and writing.

By 1915, the Ottoman Empire had driven most Armenians out of western Armenia, which became eastern Turkey. In an event called the Armenian Genocide, more than one million Armenians were killed or died from starvation or lack of water. Eastern Armenia later became part of the Soviet Union. Armenia remained under Soviet control until 1991, when the people voted to become an independent nation. Today, Eastern Armenian is Armenia’s official language, and it is also spoken by people of Armenian descent who live in nearby Iran, Azerbaijan, and Georgia. Many scholars consider Western Armenian an endangered language. It is spoken mainly by Armenians who remain in Turkey.

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Image 1: The flag of Armenia, seen here, flies over roughly 3 million Armenian speakers. Credit: © T. Lesia, Shutterstock

Image 2: Armenia. Credit: WORLD BOOK map

Image 3: Armenian belongs to the widespread Indo-European language family. Credit: WORLD BOOK diagram

Language Monday: Hindi

2018-04-16T09:59:00-05:00

Hindi <<HIHN dee,>>, also called Modern Standard Hindi, is spoken by more than 500 million people. It is the principal official language of India. More than two-fifths of India’s people speak one or more of the dialects (language variations) of Hindi. There are many regional and local dialects in India, and each state has its own official language. Hindi is the official language of the capital, Delhi, and seven states. Hindi speakers live mostly in northern India, but Hindi is commonly heard in other parts of the country. Hindi speakers are also found in Nepal, Singapore, South Africa, the United Kingdom, the United States, and many other countries.

Urdu is a sister language of Hindi. The languages are similar in grammar and pronunciation. When written, however, they use different alphabets and scripts. Cultural differences further separate the languages. Indian Hindus, people who practice Hinduism, often speak Hindi. Indian Muslims, people who practice Islam, often speak Urdu. Urdu is also spoken in Pakistan and Kashmir. Scholars sometimes speak of the two languages collectively as Hindi-Urdu. The spoken form is sometimes called Hindustani. Hindi-Urdu is the main language used in Indian films (Bollywood) and in much Indian popular music.

Hindi is an Indo-Aryan language of the Indo-European family. It is part of the New Indo-Aryan (NIA) group. Hindi uses the Devanagari alphabet, which has roots in Sanskrit, the oldest formal written language of India. Devanagari is a phonetic alphabet, so each letter represents a sound. It has 44 letters, with 33 consonants and 11 vowels. Smaller marks called matras represent vowels preceded by a consonant. Matras are written on the symbol of the preceding consonant. The letters are formed by markings that hang down from a horizontal line (see the red script in the movie poster above).

Hindi nouns have gender, number, and case. They can be masculine or feminine, singular or plural, and direct or oblique. Most adjectives agree with the gender, number, and case of the nouns they modify. Hindi has four simple tenses and three aspects. Word order for the Hindi language is subject-object-verb. Hindi is written from left to right, and Urdu is written from right to left. Urdu uses the Persian-Arabic alphabet. English words with Hindi origins include bungalow, shampoo, bandana, and jungle.

Hindi and Urdu are based of the spoken dialect of Delhi, Khari Boli, which means standard speech. The modern literary language is based on Khari Boli, which was written in the Devanagari alphabet. Written Hindi can be traced back to poetry of the 1300's. Hindi prose became prominent in the early 1900’s.

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Image 2: The Indian film industry produces hundreds of motion pictures every year. Most films are in Hindi (or Hindustani), but some are made in regional languages. Credit: WORLD BOOK photo by David R. Frazier

Image 3: Hindi is spoken in Delhi and the northern states of India. Credit: WORLD BOOK map

Arab American National Museum

2018-04-12T09:40:00-05:00

In appreciation of Arab American Heritage Month in April, World Book pays a visit to the Arab American National Museum (AANM) in Dearborn, Michigan. The AANM is the first and only museum in the United States devoted to Arab American history and culture. Arab Americans are Americans who have roots in the Arab world—that is, the areas where people speak the Arabic language and share other cultural traditions. The Arab world includes much of the Middle East, the region that spreads across southwestern Asia and northern Africa. Arab American accomplishments, as well as the traditions of the Arab world, have strongly influenced life and culture in the United States. Americans of Arab descent have made significant contributions to virtually every field and profession.

The Arab American National Museum, which opened in 2005, shares the experiences of Arab Americans through stories of immigration and assimilation and exhibits on Arab American art, culture, and history. Part of the AANM’s goal is to dispel misconceptions and promote cultural understanding between Arab Americans and their fellow citizens. The AANM’s location in Michigan reflects the state’s high percentage of Arab American citizens in the population—1.69 percent, the most of any state in the country. California, Illinois, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and New York also have large numbers of Arab American citizens. The AANM is affiliated with the Smithsonian Institution and is a founding member of the Immigration and Civil Rights Network of the International Coalition of Sites of Conscience, an organization dedicated to human rights around the world.

The AANM collections include art, artifacts, documents, personal papers, and photographs connected to the Arab American experience. Four themed permanent exhibits represent the central core of the museum: Coming to America, Living in America, Making an Impact, and Arab Civilization: Our Heritage. An AANM traveling exhibit, “What We Carried: Fragments & Memories From Iraq & Syria,” is currently touring other U.S. museums. The AANM also sponsors conferences, performance art, film festivals, craft classes, diversity training, and other events and programs. The museum’s Russell J. Ebeid Library and Resource Center keeps the single largest collection of Arab American material in the United States.

Like other immigrants, Arabs came to the United States seeking better opportunities. The first significant number of Arab immigrants arrived between 1880 and 1920. The numbers dropped sharply because of restrictive immigration laws passed after World War I (1914-1918). Those laws were changed in the 1960's, and the Arab American population has increased rapidly since the 1970's.

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Image 1: The Arab American National Museum in Dearborn, Michigan. Credit: Doug Coombe, Arab American National Museum

Image 2: The Coming to America exhibit at the Arab American National Museum. Credit: Arab American National Museum

Language Monday: Hebrew

2018-04-09T11:30:00-05:00

Hebrew is one of the world’s oldest living languages. Hebrew has been the main language of the Jewish people since the beginning of Jewish history. It is also one of the two official languages of the state of Israel, along with Arabic.

Hebrew is a Semitic language of the Afro-Asian family. It comes from the same source as the Arabic and Aramaic languages. The Hebrew alphabet has 22 letters. Most are consonants, but a few can represent either a consonant or a vowel. Vowels are not usually written, but they can be indicated by a system of dots and lines. Like Arabic and Aramaic, Hebrew is written from right to left.

Throughout history, Jewish communities developed their own ways of pronouncing Hebrew words. In the United States, the two most common pronunciation styles are the Ashkenazic and the Sephardic. The Ashkenazic originated in central and eastern Europe; the Sephardic originated in Spain.

For centuries, the Hebrew language was often considered sacred, called lashon ha-kodesh (holy language). Most of the Hebrew Bible, or Old Testament, is written in Hebrew. The compilation of Jewish law called the Mishnah, which dates from A.D. 70 to 200, is also written in Hebrew.

In A.D. 135, Roman armies killed or scattered the Jews of Judea and renamed the area Palestine. By about A.D. 200, a Hebrew-speaking community no longer existed. As a result, Hebrew died out as a spoken language and was used only in religious writing and in scholarly discussions for almost 1,700 years.

In the later 1700’s, a religious cultural movement called the Haskalah emerged among German and Polish Jews. The goal of the movement was to modernize traditional Jewish beliefs and practices. Haskalah is Hebrew for enlightenment. The Haskalah stimulated an interest in the revival of Hebrew for nonreligious uses, leading to the establishment of newspapers and magazines in the language. Jewish writers began to turn to Hebrew as a literary language.

Hebrew became popular among Jewish poets and novelists during the 1900’s and early 2000’s. Leading Hebrew writers include the eastern European poet Chaim Nachman Balik and the Israeli novelists and short story writers Shmuel Yosef Agnon, Aharon Appelfeld, David Grossman, Amos Oz, and A. B. Yehoshua. Agnon shared the 1966 Nobel Prize for literature.

Hebrew underwent a revival as a spoken language beginning in the late 1800’s. At that time, Jews from many lands began to settle in Palestine. Many started speaking Hebrew as their everyday language, passing it on to their children.

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Image 1: Hebrew vowels are indicated by vowel points placed with a consonant. Some vowel points are shown here with the letter Daleth. Credit: WORLD BOOK illustration

Image 2: The Hebrew alphabet has 22 letters, shown here in alphabetical order from right to left, as Hebrew is written. The illustration shows 26 letters, because 4 letters have two forms—with or without a dot—that stand for different pronunciations. Credit: WORLD BOOK illustration

Language Monday: German

2018-03-26T10:03:00-05:00

Heute ist Montag—that is to say, Today is Monday.

On this Montag, World Book takes a look at a language closely related to English—German. In fact, English is a Germanic language, so it is not surprising that the German and English words for Monday resemble each other.

In German, the language is known as Deutsch, and Germany is called Deutschland. German is the official language of Germany, of course, as well as Austria and Liechtenstein. It is also one of the official languages of Luxembourg and Switzerland. There are an estimated 100 million to 120 million German speakers worldwide. German is one of the most widely used European languages.

German and English both belong to the Indo-European family of languages. The earliest source of the English language was a prehistoric language that modern scholars call Proto-Indo-European (PIE). PIE was probably spoken about 5,000 years ago by people who lived in the region north of the Black Sea, in southeastern Europe. These people migrated through the centuries and gradually developed new languages.

The group of people who spoke PIE and migrated west divided into groups who spoke languages that were the ancestors of the Germanic, Greek, and Latin tongues. The Germanic languages developed into English, Danish, Dutch, German, Norwegian, and Swedish. The ancient Greek language became modern Greek, and early Latin grew into French, Italian, and Spanish.

Today, the Germanic languages are often divided into the North Germanic languages and the West Germanic languages. The North Germanic languages are the Scandinavian languages of Danish, Faeroese, Icelandic, Norwegian, and Swedish. Dutch, English, and German are West Germanic languages.

The German language itself has two principal spoken dialects: High German and Low German. They are not named for their status or class but for where they are spoken. High German (Hochdeutsch) is spoken in the “high” mountainous region of Germany, and Low German (Plattdeutsch) is spoken mainly in the lowlands of northern Germany. High German serves as the base for Standard German. Standard German is spoken in schools and on radio and television. It is also the written language of Germany.

One person is credited with having helped form the modern German language more than any other: the religious reformer Martin Luther. Luther, a leader of the Reformation in Germany, translated the Bible into German, using the dialect of east-central Germany, particularly the region called Saxony. In shaping the development of the German language, his translation, completed in 1534, influenced German writers much as the King James Version of the Bible influenced English writers.

Although German and English resemble each other, they differ in a number of significant ways. In German, for example, all nouns are capitalized no matter where they appear in a sentence. And in German, unlike English, nouns also have a grammatical gender—masculine, feminine, and neuter. The grammatical gender of a noun does not indicate the sexual nature of the thing named. For example, pencil (der Bleistift) is masculine, pen (die Feder) is feminine, and paper (das Papier) is neuter. Similarly, chair (der Stuhl), desk (der Schreibtisch), and table (der Tisch) are all masculine, but bed (das Bett) and sofa (das Sofa) are neuter.

In German, articles, adjectives, and verbs also have a variety of forms. A noun’s grammatical gender and function determine which form of the adjective or article is used. The subject of the sentence determines, in part, which form of the verb is used.

Word placement follows fairly definite rules in German. The verb normally comes in the second position in the sentence. If the subject does not begin the sentence, it immediately follows the verb. But in a dependent clause, the verb comes at the very end.

Despite their differences, German and English have many similar words in their vocabularies. Examples of similar German and English words include light and Licht, house and Haus, and cat and Katze. Some German words are the same as English words, including fair, Internet, Manager, and Text. A number of English words have come directly from German, such as flak, hinterland, and kindergarten.

Finally, of the German words that have made their way into the English language mainly unchanged are several that describe states of mind or feelings. Among them are angst (a feeling of anxiety, fear, or insecurity), Schadenfreude (malicious joy or pleasure; joy at the misfortune of others), and Weltanschauung (broad and comprehensive view of the world). Uber, the German word for above, across, or over, has come to mean the best of its kind or extremely in English. It is often used a prefix and combined with other words. So, if you are uberbored, then you are extremely bored.

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Image 2: German is the official language of Germany as well as nearby Austria and Liechtenstein. Credit: WORLD BOOK map