The
Polyglot
Issue 19
Corners of the world German in Nambia
Papua New 100 words for snow? Guinea: The language Haven?
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German in Namibia Daniel Gurney
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100 words for Snow? Archie Kind
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Interview with Ramli Al-Akiti
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Gabon: Un dossier de faits
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Namibia: Fact File
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Papua New Guinea: The language Haven? Daniel Gurney
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Puducherry: A corner of France in India Arth Gupta
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Interview with Thomas Zhang
Editors' letter
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ravelling restrictiowns have been all too present in our lives recently but this doesn't mean that we can't continue to explore our world. The team has worked hard to take you to some more elusive places, all the while keeping in mind the languages we learn at Abingdon School. In this issue you can read about Ger man in Namibia, French in In donesia or the Inuit lan guage and we hope we can take you on a journey. As the supervising editor I am especially proud of the team as for most this is their first experience in publishing. Mrs Engel-Hart
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German in Namibia Daniel Gurney discovers the German presence in Namibia
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ou might know that after Russian, German is the most spoken language on the European continent. You might even know that German is also an official minority language in other European countries, such as Italy, France, Czech Republic, Hungary, Denmark, Poland, Russia, Romania, Slovakia and the Vatican City. More surprisingly though, it is also present on the African continent. The English colonial history is widely known, but it is lesser known that Germany also had a colonial presence in Africa from 1884-1915 in what are now Namibia, Cameroon, Togo, Rwanda and Burundi. From 1884 to 1915 German was the official language of then Deutsch-Südwestafrika. The presence of German in the country we now know as Namibia, started when the German merchant Franz Adolf Lüderitz founded a
trading post, which he renamed Lüderitzbucht, in 1883 Franz Adolf Lüderitz founded a trading post,83. Under questionable circumstances, he also acquired the nearby coastal region which he named Lüderitzland and by 1884, Deutsch-Südafrika encompassed 835,100 km² which made it more than twice the size of the then German Empire. It wasn’t all plain sailing and the Herero and Nama tribes resisted the German occupancy during the brief and violent occupation. In the years 1904 to 1908 Germany committed horrible crimes to put down the resistance, leading to p-l7 and committed genocide on the Herero and Nama. At the start of World War I, many German troops were drawn from the German colony in South Africa and in July 1915, South African forces regained the area. According to the peace treaty of Versailles, in which all of Germany’s colonies were abandoned, Deutsch-Südwe-
stafrika was given to the control of South Africa in 1919. In 1990 the country gained independence from South Africa and was named Namibia.
"Germany had a colonial presence in Africa from 1884-1915 in what is now Namibia" Despite its complicated past, the old colony left considerable traces of the German language in Namibia. Although the German population is now relatively small, they control a large proportion of the country’s resources and continue to uphold their culture. The annual Oktoberfest and Karne-
"Although the German population is now relatively small, they control a large proportion of the country’s resources and continue to uphold their culture" val celebrations are famous. Also buildings and streets still bare German names. German is most spoken in the white population, of which 32% are German speakers. It’s not too surprising that there are therefore German language radio programmes and even a German daily newspaper, called Allgemeine Zeitung. First published in 1916, it’s Namibia’s oldest daily newspaper which covers Namibian topics but is written in Southwest German. Interestingly, Southwest German has its own particularities compared to standard German, such as the word “rivir”, which means neither river, nor Fluss (German for river), but “dry river”.
So if in the future you want a more exotic location to practise your German, bear in mind the beautiful country of Namibia!
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100 words for Snow?
Archie Kind looks into the truth about the breadth of the Inuit vocabulary
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skimos are a particularly famous group of indigenous peoples, particularly renowned for the cold conditions in which they live. To first be rid of ambiguity, it is necessary to understand that ‘Eskimo’ is a blanket term for many indigenous peoples living in the North, in fact, the word ‘Eskimo’ is derived from the Montagnais word meaning ‘eaters of raw meat’. Even if we consider only the most famous of those peoples, the Inuits, we still have hundreds of dialects to consider. You may think that this renders any examination of the language impossible, however, each language has the same basic structure which allows us to examine the supposed ‘100 Inuit Words For Snow’.
“The possibilities for the creation of words are almost endless.”
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The Eskimo languages are polysynthetic (its ‘words’ are formed from many smaller parts which can be added in various orders). Generally, this is done by the addition of suffixes to a base radical. For example, in regards to snow, ‘qanittaq’ means ‘freshly fallen snow’ whereas its root word ‘qanik’ means only ‘snow falling’. As you can see, the meaning of the words, the subtle differences that they convey are dependent on these suffixes that are added to the end of the word. Let’s examine what is meant by a word. A ‘word’ in the English language is a singular semantic and grammatical unit. However, Eskimo languages can add as many suffixes as they want to the end of a word. For example
‘tusaatsiarunnanngittualuujunga’ means ‘I can’t hear very well’. As you can see, in English it takes an entire sentence to convey the same meaning. It is this differentiation between words that create the impression that the Eskimo languages have so many words for snow. However, if we can’t count the number of traditionally defined ‘words’ then something else could be used as a measure. A lexeme could be a good thing to count. A lexeme is an independent vocabulary item or dictionary entry. In English, we have ‘leap’ from which we can then change to ‘leapt’ and ‘leaps’ depending on our need for it in regards to the grammatical situation: these would be known as the inflected forms of the
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words. However, in Eskimo languages, nouns can have around 280 different inflected forms and each verb can have over 1000. The possibilities for the creation of words are almost endless. The construction of words for ‘snow’ in Eskimo languages begin with a number of snow-related roots. For example, ‘gani’ means ‘snowflake’, ‘api’ means ‘snow lying on the ground’. From these roots, suffixes are added in order to give more specific descriptions. If you regard a list of Inuit words for ‘snow’ then you will see that many of the words have the same roots. For example, on the popular Buffalo Ontology Site - 21 of their 100 words for snow begin with the root ‘tl’.
Interview with Ramli Al-Akiti (Malay)
Q. A. Q. A. Q. A. Q. A. Q. A. Q. A. Q. A. Q.
Which languages do you speak apart from English? I speak Malay Where is Malay spoken (which countries / regions)? Malaysia, sometimes Indonesia however the pronunciation is different. Why do you speak Malay? My whole family speaks it, they all come from Malaysia. Who do you speak Malay with? (parents / grandparents / extended family / on holiday / …) I have spoken it with a few friends, my parents and my family What’s your first / favourite memory of Malay? I don’t have a specific language however I enjoyed the process of learning to read in the language Do you think or dream in Malay or in English? English, It is my first language How would it compare to English? (easier/more difficult, softer/harder, more/less melodic, …) I think it is roughly the same difficulty as English to learn Can you tell us how to say “Hello, my name is….” in Malay (Please ask them to write it out and you then write it in a way that helps the reader pronounce it) Apa kaba saya nama Ramli
Q. A.
And finally which place can you highly recommend to travel to where Malay is spoken? Malaysia
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Gabon: Un dossier de faits Le 85,4% du pays est de la forêt tropicale
Il y a presque 95.000 éléphants de forêt au Gabon. La population du Gabon est de 1,7 million.
Il y a beaucoup d'animaux en voie d’extinction au Gabon, comme la gorille à dos argenté et la baleine a bosse. Il y a treize parcs nationaux au Gabon, comme Loango et Pongara.
Gabon est un petit pays qui est situé sur la ligne équatoriale en Afrique.
Le 85,4% du pays est de la forêt tropicale
Le Gabon est une ancienne colonie française
Gabon est un petit pays qui est situé sur la ligne équatoriale en Afrique.
Il y a 762 espèces d'oiseaux au Gabon, comme le Tisserand de Loango et le Martin Fluvial.
En hiver, des tortues luth arrivent sur la plage du Gabon pour pondre leurs œufs.
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La capitale de Gabon est Libreville et il y a 845.000 personnes
Namibia: Fact File
Namibia liegt im Südwesten von Afrika.
Namibia hat die größte Anzahl der Welt an freilaufenden Cheetahs und schwarzen Nashörnern.
Namibia ist eine pluralistische Demokratie.
Die Namibische Wüste ist die älteste der Welt.
Namibia wurde 1990 unabhängig, nachdem es von 1884-1915 deutsche Kolonie und von 19191990 südafrikanisches Mandat war.
Die Hauptstadt von Namibia ist Windhoek, dort leben fast 500.000 Menschen.
Namibia ist das am zweit wenigsten dicht besiedelte Land der Welt, mit insgesamt knapp über 2,6 Millionen Einwohnern.
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Englisch ist seit 1990 die offizielle Sprache Namibias, aber Muttersprache von nur von 3% der Bevölkerung.
Papua New Guinea: The language Haven? Daniel Gurney explores the linguistic predicament in Papua New Guinea
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apua New Guinea has long been a place of interest for linguists because Papua New Guinea has recorded over 800 separate languages which is remarkable for a country of 8 million inhabitants (as of 2019). However nowadays globalization is taking over indigenous languages. That is also the case in Papua New Guinea. Papua New Guinean languages originated over 40,000 years ago, when the first settlers landed and these languages all have very different roots. These languages have been preserved because of how wild Papua New Guinea’s topography is and how proud the tribes are of their uniqueness. This means that limited contact occurs between the tribes and it is reinforced by the fact that only 13% of Papuans live in cities, compared to the U.K in which 83.9% of people live in urban areas.
The country's map of languages got even more complicated in the 1800s because of British and German speaking settlers who brought their own languages. Tok Pisin originated in order to communicate in this jungle of languages with different groups. Tok Pisin is a Pidgin language (Tok Pisin = talk pidgin) that contains grammatical features from Melanesian and vocabulary from English.
newspaper which is written in Tok Pisin. It is very easy to learn and to acquire by children as their native language.
The Pidgin language has become the most common language in Papua New Guinea. It is the favorite language for activities like church and there is even a
This opens the question of whether future generations will be able to enjoy the rich linguistic haven that is Papua New Guinea.
However, with Tok Pisin taking over, some researchers have noticed that a third of Papua New Guinea’s native languages are in danger of being forgotten. Data collected from 6,000 students speaking 392 languages showed that 58% of them could speak their indiginous language fluently. An example of Tok Pisin would This is a rapid decline from the be: bun nating - its literal meangeneration prior, where 91% of ing is “bone nothing” however its their parents could speak the naintended meaning is “a very thin tive language. It is now predicted person”. Another example is susok that only 26% of the next generaman meaning “shoe sock man” but tion will be able to speak a Papuan is translated as an urbanite. native language fluently.
"Nowadays globalization is taking over indigenous languages"
"Papua New Guinea’s over 800 indigenous languages run the danger of being wiped out"
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Puducherry: A corner of France in India Arth Gupta investigates the French East India Company and its influence in the former French colony of Puducherry
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uducherry (also known as Pondicherry) is not only interesting because it is where the first third of the popular movie and book ‘Life of Pi’ takes place or because Prince Pondicherry from ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’ originates from here, but also because of its illustrious history. Though the name may ring a distant bell to avid book readers and movie watchers, Puducherry is a relatively unknown corner of the world. It is located in India and it has a population of 1,375,592 as of 2020. It is a union territory made of four separate areas: Pondicherry, Karaikal, Mahe and Yanaon. All of these locations are geographically separate from each
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other, but are united by one thing: their French heritage. First established in 1673, the French East India Company was formed to compete with its much larger British and Dutch counterparts. The French set up a trading outpost in Puducherry (formerly Pondicherry) which eventually became the main base for the French East India Company. That being said, Pondicherry does have a very storied past. It was fought over by the Dutch, British and the French over the following years, with France losing the territory to the Dutch and the British (twice!), but when all was said and done, the territory was returned to France for good in 1814, where they kept the land until 1954, when a now independent India took it back. French influence in the territory remains high even today. Not only is French an official language in Pondicherry, with over 10,000 people speaking it, French institutions are also set up there, such as the consulate of France, Institut Français, and L’Alliance Française, be-
cause French nationals continue to live in Puducherry, and make up roughly 3% of the population. In addition, Indians descended from people who lived in French India have their own dialect. In Hindi, every letter seen in a word is pronounced (e.g there is no silent ‘e’) , which explains the spelling of words in the French Hindi dialect such as: Mousé, (Monsieur/Mister) Baccaloria, (Baccalauréat/Secondary School Diploma) and Coseiyya (Conseiller/Councillor).
“Indian French is a beautiful melange of the French pronunciation and Hindi spelling” If you’re in Pondicherry, be sure to visit ‘Ville Blanche’, which is the French Quarter. This area contains lots of beautiful tree laced boulevards dotted with vibrant French mansions, many of which have been transformed into cafes and guest
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houses. Unrelated to the territory’s French history, don’t forget to visit the stunning beaches that are a jewel of this town. By the time you’ve left, you would feel as if you’ve visited two different corners of the world!
Interview with Thomas Zhang (Mandarin)
Q. A. Q. A. Q. A. Q. A. Q. A. Q. A. Q.
Which languages do you speak apart from English? Apart from English, I speak Mandarin as my native language and I am currently learning French Spanish for my GCSEs. Where is Mandarin spoken (which countries / regions)? Mandarin is spoken mainly in China and some places in Singapore and Hongkong, I guess? Who do you speak Mandarin with? I speak Mandarin when I'm at home, and now I speak Mandarin when I'm with my roommates also. What’s your first / favourite memory of Mandarin? There isn’t a particular favourite moment of me speaking Mandarin but whenever I speak Mandarin I feel like I’m at home and I feel very comfortable speaking that language. Do you think or dream in Mandarin or in English? It depends on what I’m thinking about, it’s kind of a mixed situation. I often dream in Mandarin because it is convenient for me and it tends to be easier for me because before I came to this school I spent most of my time speaking mandarin. How would it compare to English? As a native speaker, I definitely find speaking Mandarin easier, but I find writing and spelling in Mandarin seems to be a little bit harder for me. Can you tell us how to say “Hello, my name is….” in Mandarin?
A. Q. A.
Ni hao wo jiao (Thomas)! And finally which place can you highly recommend to travel to where Mandarin is spoken? I’d recommend my hometown, Tianjin! It is not a very popular city next to Beijing. It is very convenient and the quality of life is very nice and there are very good dishes in my own city. The breakfast there is so delicious - it’s really tasty.
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The
Polyglot Issue 19
Polyglot is a publication wholly produced and owned by Contributors: Arth Gupta, Daniel Gurney, Archie Kind The Abingdon School, a company limited by guarantee and a registered charity (Charity No. 1071298). Copyright in all articles and Design: Lucas Ord images remains with the creators and owners of those works. Previously published images and other excerpts from published Supervising editor: Mrs Engel-Hart works.