User:Eortici1/Language selection

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The languages I'm interested in working on this semester include:

  • Bikol (Bikol Naga, Central Bicolano)
  • Guaraní (Paraguayan Guarani)
  • Kinyarwanda

Bikol

Morphological Typology

Bikol is an agglutinative language. Its system of verbal morphology allows for a wide variety of semantic and syntactic contrast. [1]

Basic Information

  • Speakers: 2.5 million speakers (1990 census). Speakers of all Bikol languages: 4,580,000 (2000 census). [2]
  • Location: Central Bikol the most common language in the Bicol Region of southern Luzon, Philippines. It is spoken in all provinces of Bicol and it is a majority language in Camarines Sur. [3]
  • Other languages speakers may know: Speakers also speak Filipino (/Tagalog) and English, the two official languages of the Philippines.[4]
  • Language Status: Bikol is the sixth most-spoken native language in the Philippines and its population of speakers is increasing.
  • Orthography: Uses Latin script. Also has braille.
  • ISO code: [bcl]

Text Availability

Text should be easy to find. There are almost 7,000 Wikipedia articles in Bikol here and a bible here. My dad is also a native speaker.

Guaraní

Morphological Typology

Guaraní is highly agglutinative to the degree that it is often classified as polysynthetic. [5]

Basic Information

  • Speakers: 4,650,000 in Paraguay (1995). 2,500,000 monolinguals (2002). [6]
  • Location: Primarily located in Paraguay, where it is an official language and spoken by a majority of the population. Guaraní is also widespread in South America; present in Bolivia, Brazil, and Argentina. [7]
  • Other languages speakers may know: Many know Spanish. [8]
  • Language Status: The population of speakers is decreasing. Guaraní is used extensively in bilingual schooling. [9]
  • Orthography: The orthography of Guaraní uses Latin script and includes two diacritics and six digraphs. The tilde is used for Ñ/ñ to differentiate the palatal nasal from the alveolar nasal (as in Spanish), whereas it marks stressed nasalization when used over a vowel (as in Portuguese): ã, ẽ, ĩ, õ, ũ, ỹ. The tilde also marks nasality in the case of G̃/g̃, used to represent the nasalized velar approximant by combining the velar approximant "G" with the nasalizing tilde. The letter G̃/g̃ is unique to this language and was introduced during the mid-20th century. Its use is controversial as it isn't a set letter in Unicode, which can cause typographic inconveniences. [10]
  • ISO code: [gug]

Text Availability

There are over 3,000 Wikipedia articles in Guaraní here and a Guaraní bible here. This should provide plenty of data.

Kinyarwanda

Morphological Typology

Kinyarwanda is characterized by an agglutinative verbal complex, like other Bantu languages. [11]

Basic Information

  • Speakers: 11,299,900 total, 10,600,000 in Rwanda (2013). [12]
  • Location: Rwanda (where it is an official language), Eastern Congo, Uganda [13]
  • Other languages speakers may know: Speakers may know English and French, the other two official languages of Rwanda. [14]
  • Language Status: The population of speakers is growing. It is used for poetry, radio programs, and various other new media. [15]
  • Orthography: Latin script, braille. [16]
  • ISO code: [kin]

Text Availability

There are about 1800 Wikipedia articles written in Kinyarwanda, some BBC articles, and a bible. Of the three languages I've chosen, I think it will be the hardest to find material written in Kinyarwanda.

References

  1. ↑ https://books.google.com/books?id=F2SRqDzB50wC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q=bikol&f=false
  2. ↑ https://www.ethnologue.com/languages/bcl
  3. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_Bikol_language
  4. ↑ https://www.ethnologue.com/languages/bcl
  5. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guarani_language#Grammar
  6. ↑ https://www.ethnologue.com/languages/gug
  7. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guarani_language
  8. ↑ https://www.ethnologue.com/languages/gug
  9. ↑ https://www.ethnologue.com/languages/gug
  10. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guarani_language#Writing_system
  11. ↑ https://books.google.com/books?id=JDW1hzVqT7gC&pg=PA1&source=gbs_toc_r&cad=4#v=onepage&q&f=false
  12. ↑ https://www.ethnologue.com/language/kin
  13. ↑ https://www.ethnologue.com/language/kin
  14. ↑ https://www.ethnologue.com/language/kin
  15. ↑ https://www.ethnologue.com/language/kin
  16. ↑ https://www.ethnologue.com/language/kin