User:Lfornof1/Language selection

From LING073
Jump to: navigation, search

Project Preferences

Partner Preference: I would like to work with someone with a strong CS background and with maybe a foundation in linguistics.

Language preference: Ha, Nahautl, Shona

Ha

Bantu language (Niger-Congo language)

Ha (haq) is agglutinative. Spoken in the Kigoma region of Tanzania, it has 990,000 speakers, many of which speak it as their only language. The official languages of Tanzania are English Kiswahili, which are taught in schools and Kiswahili is used by many speakers of Ha. The language is used face-to-face with sustainable application (status 6a). Resources on vocabulary, grammar, and phonology are available, a portion being in French. There are also bible recordings and translations available as well as print books on grammar and usage of the language. [1] [2][3]


Nahautl

Uto-Aztecan language

Nahautl is agglutinative (some have claimed nahautl to have oligosynthetic characteristics, but this is mostly rejected). Nahautl, also referred to as Aztec, originates and is still spoken in Mexico. Nahautl has over 1,700,000 speakers with about 410,000 speaking the Eastern Hausteca variety (nhe), 400,000 speaking the Western Hausteca variety (nhw), and 200,000 speaking the Central Hausteca variety (nch). Speakers will often use Spanish, the national language of Mexico. It is a currently developing language (status 5). [4][5][6] There exist many normative orthologies of this language, including a 16th century orthology developed when the Spanish first came in contact with the language. As an ancient language translated into latin during Spanish involvement, there may be many orthographies as well as ones for each variety. [7][8]. For example, sources address phonology, vocabulary, dialectology, and modern Nahautl grammar. Wikipedia has over 7,000 articles in Nahautl and many historical and modern accounts in the language exist. [9]


Extremaduran

Indo-European language

Extremaduran (ext) is agglutinative. Spoken in Spain, specifically the autonomous region of Extremadura and parts of Salamanca. It has 200,000 speakers, but an estimated 500,000 can use the language. Some speakers are monolingual, but many will also speak Spanish. The language is shifting (status 7). [10] There seems to be some resources on vocabulary and dictionaries. [11] Furthermore, Extremaduran has over 2,000 articles on Wikipedia and even some online learning tools. [12]