Navajo

Navajo Word Set English (Français) Navajo words One (Un) Łáá'íí Two (Deux) Naaki Three (Trois) Táá' Four (Quatre) Dįį'
Five (Cinq) Ashdla'
Man (Homme) Hastiin
Woman (Femme) Asdzání
Dog (Chien) Łééchąą'í
Sun (Soleil) Shá
Moon (Lune) Tł'éhonaa'éí
Water (Eau) Tó
White (Blanc) Łigaii
Yellow (Jaune) Łitsooí
Red (Rouge) Łichíí'
Black (Noir) Łizhiní
Eat (Manger) Yiyą
See (Voir) Yoo'į
Hear (Entendre) Yidiists'a'
Sing (Chanter) Hashtaał
Leave (Partir) Diiyá

Chinese Alphabet - How to use Chinese Keyboards

The most common Chinese keyboard are Hanyu pinyin-based, representing the pronunciation of characters using Latin letters. First, decide whether you are going to input your information phonetically or using root shapes (characters).

However, keyboards with labels for alternative structural input methods such as Wubi method can also be found, although those are usually very old products and are extremely rare to this day.

Lets start with the Wubi method. Note that the Wubi method tends to be found on older computers and is extremely rare these days. None the less, it is worth noting because it helps us understand the development of Chinese information inputting. 

What is a Unicode ? - Latin Extended A

If you have ever taken a language class, you will be required to submit written compositions in the target language. Homework can be difficult if you do not know how to type in certain letters or accents. If you are writing a French essay, it helps to have a French keyboard. We all cannot afford that luxury because, afford is the key word here, many language do not have keyboards. 

How To Use The Unicode Values in Microsoft Word?

This method works regardless of any of your language settings, but is the most cumbersome to type.

1. Press and hold down the Alt key.
2. Press the + (plus) key on the numeric keypad.
3. Type the hexidecimal unicode value.
4. Release the Alt key.

Live Mocha and Rosetta Stone are Merging! $8.5 Million Price Tag

I am not liking the idea of these two companies merging. I received this email from Live Mocha stating that they would "merge" with Rosetta Stone. Then, I found information about the acquisition on the from page of Yahoo News, in short, Rosetta Stone bought live Mocha for $8.5 Million dollars.

Live Mocha is  a social network, whereas Rosetta Stone is a cash cow. Do not get me wrong, I like Rosetta Stone. I sincerely do. However, live mocha is more personal, more granola, and is available to people for FREE.

If Live Mocha starts turning into a cash cow, it is time for people to look elsewhere. This acquisition leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Learning languages is so expensive and time consuming that most people cannot possibly do it. If Rosetta Stone made this purchase because they want to reach more of the global, online language learning community I am fine with that. Lets be real for a second - when it comes to business it is about the bottom line.

I have helped many students from around the globe learn English on live mocha. These are people who cannot possibly afford Rosetta stone prices.The Rosetta Stone demographics and the more granola Live Mocha demographics are different.

How does Rosetta Stone expect to recoup that $8.5 million investment? They will try to get it from Live Mocha users. If they try milking these people, particularly people from third world countries with bad internet connection - I will do what I can to encourage people to find another online language learning social network.

Somali Language

Somali (af Soomaali / اَف صَومالي˜)

Somali is a member of the East Cushtic branch of the Afro-Asiatic language family. It has 10-16 million native speakers and perhaps half a million second language speakers mainly in Somali, where it is an official language, Ethiopia, Djibouti and Kenya. There are also significant numbers of Somali speakers in Europe, North America and Yemen.

Somalia have a significant presence in Seattle Washington. For language practice, or if you are interested in being up to date with news from Somalia, visit their website Som Tv. The are the second largest minority in Tukwila, Kent, and Rainer Valley areas. The language is a useful one to know in South Seattle.

لشِعْر العَرَبي The Quran is a Book of Poetry

Sample of Arabic Poetry

Pre-Islamic men of the Arabian Peninsula dictated epic tales, heart-rending poetry, and eloquent prose. Oral poetry predates 6th century BC. Arabic poetry (Arabic: الشِعْر العَرَبي ) is the earliest form of Arabic literature. The ancient Arabs placed a great value on being able to tell an eloquent, palpitating tale with a delicate stanza.

The Quran, like all other forms of poetry at that time, was designed to inspire. Muhammad was a poet. Aided by what appeared to be temporal lobe epilepsy, he became one of the greatest poets during that time period. As he was mostly illiterate, he simply did what all the other poets of that time did - Muhammad narrated them, and recited them. 

Writing Systems: Alphabet Abjad Logographic

World writing systems are classified by common distinguishing features. The useful name of the writing system is given first: alphabetic script, abjad script, or logographic script are the three writing systems discussed today.  Each writing system has distinguishing features.

ALPHABETIC : An alphabetic writing system uses letters, (basic sound units), to  represent sounds only without any reference to meaning.  Languages that fall under the alphabetic writing system have alphabets, which are the letters of a language, arranged in the order fixed by custom. The letters represent a phoneme. The alphabets are a system of characters or symbols representing sounds or things. String together letters (phonemes/sounds) and you make words. Words represent concepts and thoughts.

LOGOGRAPHIC: This writing system uses visual symbols to represent words, rather than phonemes to make up the word.

ABJAD: A writing system where symbols represent consonants, leaving the reader to supply the appropriate vowel. The Abjad writing system is very similar to syllabary (syllabary: sets of syllables have values), in which there is one glyph (symbol or letter) for each consonant or consonant sound unit. Some languages that use abjads are Arabic, Hebrew, Persian, and Urdu. Abjad writing systems have alphabets where vowels are not indicated at all. The vowels are shown by diacritics (marks or symbols above each letter). All Abjad languages (except one) belong to the Semetic Language Family.

What is the difference between alphabetic and logographic writing system? A word such as cat, is represented by three letters C.A.T, each of these letters represents a sound. The sounds come together to make a word. The logographic writing system does not have a letter for every phoneme. When you think about my previous posts (Chinese alphabet, Japanese alphabet, Korean alphabet), technically speaking, these are not alphabets. Logographic writing systems have visual representations of words rather than phonemic representation of words. When you are looking at a Chinese word, keep in mind that you are looking at an image – you are not looking at sounds. When we learn English as children, one of the first things we are told in elementary school is that if we do not know a word, ‘sound it out.’ This is not the case in logographic writing systems, because the writing is pictures, not sounds. Therefore, in logographic writing, little children cannot ‘sound it out.’

What is the difference between abjad and logographic writing systems? Abjad languages are alphabetic. The markings represent sounds. This is different from logographic writing systems where the words are symbols and not a collection of sounds.

What is the difference between alphabetic writing and abjad writing? For one, alphabetic writing represents vowels in the form of letters. Each letter represents a sound. Abjad alphabets are consonants only. The vowels do not have their own letters, rather, the vowels are represented in markings above the letter.