Basque Archives | Raptor Translations Magazine

Your Ultimate Guide to The Languages of France

9Mar

By George SanghviNo Comments

Culture

Your Ultimate Guide to The Languages of France

France is known for many things: Its art, its culture, it cuisine etc. The languages of France, are not that famous, yet from a linguistic standpoint, it's a true work of art (no pun intended!) When you picture the languages of France, chances are that you only think of French, a language you may have learned at school. However, there are so many more languages spoken in France, that you've never thought about. (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); Official Language As of the time of writing, at least according to the French Constitution, there is only one official language of France: French. However, there are a number of different dialects of what we call "French". As such, the language was standardized long ago. This variant is called Par...

Your Ultimate Guide to The Languages of Spain

23Feb

By David Ratón GonzalesNo Comments

Culture

Your Ultimate Guide to The Languages of Spain

In recent years, it seems as though Spain is struggling to keep itself together. Primarily, this has been due to the numerous different languages of Spain, which often cause tension between the central and local governments. From a linguistic point of view, Spain has some of the most diverse languages on the planet, ranging from Slavic, to Semitic, to Germanic, to Romance languages. It even has a language isolate too! (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); Official Languages of Spain Although a number of languages hold varying degrees of "official" status, Spain currently only has one official language: Castilian Spanish According to the Spanish Constitution, the only official language of Spain, is Spanish. To be more specific, this is the varia...

15 Coolest Languages to Boost Your Street Cred!

10Nov

By David Ratón GonzalesNo Comments

Learning Languages

15 Coolest Languages to Boost Your Street Cred!

Last week, we looked at the weirdest languages to have ever been spoken, from the perspective of an English speaker. This got me thinking: what are the coolest languages you can speak? Whilst there are several different ways of defining "cool", for the purposes of this article, we are defining "cool" as either nice to listen to or, as having some unique quality that makes it so much cooler than other languages! (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); 15. Sanskrit Sanskrit is generally considered the world's oldest spoken language. However, many will point out the fact that the language has been slowly dying for the past 800 years. With not that many people speaking it today. Nevertheless, if you've ever been fortunate to listen, you'll definitely und...

15 Weirdest Languages on Earth You Should Learn!

3Nov

By Gareth SeagullNo Comments

Learning Languages

15 Weirdest Languages on Earth You Should Learn!

There are currently around 6500 languages spoken in the world. Naturally, some of these are going to be strange, odd and weird. This got me thinking, which are the weirdest languages currently spoken? Sadly, many of these languages are endangered languages, with many having only a handful of speakers. With that being said, there are a few languages which are flourishing in the modern 21st Century world. (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); 15. Adyghe Chances are that you have never heard of the Adyghe people, nor have you ever heard of their language before today. However, their language is one of the strangest you will likely ever come across! Looking on a map, the Adyghe people reside in South Russia and North Turkey. So surely the language shar...

13 endangered languages you need to learn!

19May

By Chloe HarmonNo Comments

Facts

13 endangered languages you need to learn!

Today, there are a staggering 2500 endangered languages! However, some are incredibly endangered, and could go extinct in our lifetimes! Here they are... (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); 13. Quechua Quechua's greatest claim to fame is the language of the Hutts from Star Wars, perhaps the most famous of all fictional languages. However, Quechua is also one of the most endangered languages on this list (although not as much as #1). There are currently 2.3 million speakers of Quechua, mainly in the Peruvian Andes but also Bolivian. Quechua suffers from what many indigenous languages in the former Spanish Empire do- the emergence of Spanish. Spanish has become more spoken over the years, with the government and media using it more and more. ...

12May

By George SanghviNo Comments

Learning Languages

17 oldest languages in the world!

Many languages vie for the title of being the oldest language in the world. However, there is only one that can be the oldest, so what language is it? (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); 17. Icelandic (1200 years) Icelandic is perhaps one of the oldest languages that is still spoken in the world today. Icelandic is native to the island of Iceland, as well as 350,000 native speakers. Icelandic began as a combination of Danish and indigenous languages. However, once the Danish stopped bringing new colonizers during the twelfth century, Icelandic became akin to a language isolate. Icelandic is a very good indication of what Old Norse and Old Danish looked and sounded like. As a result of its age and its isolation, Icelandic has become one of t...

12Nov

By George SanghviNo Comments

Facts

12 useless languages

When it comes to learning languages, linguists normally have their heart set know a few to learn. Normally, this is because there is something particular that the language has to offer, or that it will be useful in later life. But, not all languages are equal, some are useless languages that serve little to no purpose for the speaker. I was recently talking with some translator friends of mine when we got around to how translators show off to non-translators. After much back and forth, we came to one that most of us had done- use a language we didn't know to impress someone- usually a girl they liked. Most of the time, these languages were useless languages spoken by less than 10 million people in Africa, or a small pocket elsewhere in Europe. Or better still, they were ...