Survival Language Guide
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SURVIVAL LANGUAGE GUIDE This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This publication reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein. BULGARIAN ALPHABET In 886 AD, the Bulgarian Empire introduced the Glagolitic alphabet which was devised by the Saints Cyril and Methodius in the 850s. The Glagolitic alphabet was gradually superseded in later centuries by the Cyrillic script, developed around the Preslav Literary School, Bulgaria in the beginning of the 10th century. Because the script was conceived and popularised by the followers of Cyril and Methodius, rather than by Cyril and Methodius themselves, its name denotes homage rather than authorship. The name "Cyrillic" often confuses people who are not familiar with the script's history, because it does not identify a country of origin (in contrast to the "Greek alphabet"). Some call it the "Russian alphabet" because Russian is the most popular and influential alphabet based on the script. Some Bulgarian intellectuals, have expressed concern over this, and have suggested that the Cyrillic script be called the "Bulgarian alphabet" instead, for the sake of historical accuracy. In Bulgarian, Macedonian, Russian, and Serbian, the Cyrillic script is also known as azbuka, derived from the old names of the first two letters of most Cyrillic alphabets (just as the term alphabet came from the first two Greek letters alpha and beta). Sample Text in Bulgarian Всички хора се раждат свободни и равни по достойнство и права. Tе са надарени с разум и съвест и следва да се отнасят помежду си в дух на братство. ITALIAN ALPHABET AND LANGUAGE Italian orthography uses a variant of the Latin alphabet consisting of 21 letters to write the Italian language. The base Italian alphabet consists of 21 letters: five vowels (A, E, I, O U) and 16 consonants. The letters J, K, W, X and Y are not part of the proper alphabet, and are used only for loanwords and foreign names (with very few exceptions, such as in the native names Jesolo and Bettino Craxi). In addition, acute, grave and circumflex accents may be used to modify vowel letters. According to the Bologna statistics of the European Union, Italian is spoken as a native language by 59 million people in the EU (13% of the EU population), mainly in Italy, and as a second language by 14 million (3%). Including the Italian speakers in non-EU European countries (such as Switzerland and Albania) and on other continents, the total number of speakers is around 85 million. Italian is descended from Latin. Unlike most other Romance languages, Italian retains Latin's contrast between short and long consonants. As in most Romance languages, stress is distinctive. Among the Romance languages, Italian is the closest to Latin in terms of vocabulary ROMANIAN ALPHABET The Romanian alphabet is a variant of the Latin alphabet used by the Romanian language. It is a modification of the classical Latin alphabet and consists of 31 letters. Romanian is a Romance language spoken by about 24 million people in Romania, Moldova and Ukraine. Romanian retains a number of features of Latin, such as noun cases, which other Romance languages dispensed with a long time ago. Romanian contains many words taken from the surrounding Slavic languages, and also from French, Old Church Slavonic, German, Greek and Turkish. Romanian first appeared in writing during the 16th century mainly in religious texts and other documents. The earliest known text in Romanian dates from 1521 and is a letter from Neacşu of Câmpulung to the mayor of Braşov. From the late 16th century a version of the Latin alphabet using Hungarian spelling conventions was used to write Romanian in Translyvania. Then in the late 18th century a spelling system based on Italian was adopted. A version of the Cyrillic alphabet was used in the Soviet Republic of Moldova until 1989, when they switched to the Romanian version of the Latin alphabet. Sample text in Romanian Toate ființ ele umane se nasc libere și egale în demnitate și în drepturi. Ele sunt înzestrate cu raț iune și con ș tiin ț ă și trebuie să se comporte unele faț ă de altele în spiritul fraternităț ii TURKISH ALPHABET The Turkish alphabet is an alphabet derived from the Latin alphabet used for writing the Turkish language, consisting of 29 letters, seven of which (Ç, Ğ, I, İ, Ö, Ş, and Ü) have been modified from their Latin originals for the phonetic requirements of the language. This alphabet represents modern Turkish pronunciation with a high degree of accuracy and specificity. It is the current official alphabet and the latest in a series of distinct alphabets used in different eras. Turkish was written using a Turkish form of the Arabic script for over a thousand years. It was well suited to write Ottoman Turkish which incorporated a great deal of Arabic and Persian vocabulary. However, it was poorly suited to the Turkish part of the vocabulary. Whereas Arabic is rich in consonants but poor in vowels, Turkish is exactly the opposite. The current 29-letter Turkish alphabet was established as a personal initiative of the founder of the Turkish Republic, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. Sample text in Turkish Bütün insanlar hür, haysiyet ve haklar bakımından eşit doğarlar. Akıl ve vicdana sahiptirler ve birbirlerine karşı kardeşlik zihniyeti ile hareket etmelidirler. GERMAN ALPHABET AND LANGUAGE German is a West Germanic language spoken mainly in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Belgium, Luxembourg and Italy. Standard German (Hoch Deutsch) has around 90 million native speakers, and other varieties of German have some 30 million. There are about 80 million people who speak German as a second language, and many others study it as a foreign language. Sample text in German Alle Menschen sind frei und gleich an Würde und Rechten geboren. Sie sind mit Vernunft und Gewissen begabt und sollen einander im Geist der Brüderlichkeit begegnen. Written German script styles Fraktur Fraktur was used for printed and written German from the 16th century until 1940. The name Fraktur comes from Latin and means "broken script". It is so called because its ornamental twiddly bits (curlicues) break the continuous line of a word. In German it is usually called the deutsche Schrift (German script). Sütterlin Sütterlin was created by the Berlin graphic artist L. Sütterlin (1865- 1917), who modelled it on the style of handwriting used in the old German Chancery. It was taught in German schools from 1915 to 1941 and is still used by the older generation. PORTUGESE ALPHABET AND LANGUAGE Portuguese is a Romance language spoken by about 220 million people mainly in Portugal and Brazil (Brasil), and also in Angola, Mozambique (Moçambique), Cape Verde (Cabo Verde), Guinea-Bissau (Guiné-Bissau), São Tomé e Principe, East Timor (Timor-Leste), Equatorial Guinea and Macau. Portuguese is a descendent of Latin, which was brought to the Iberian Peninsula by Roman soldiers, settlers and merchants from 218 BC. The earliest records of a distinctly Portuguese language appear in administrative documents dating from the 9th century AD. In 1290 King Denis decreed that Portuguese, then simply called the "Vulgar language" should be known as the Portuguese language and should be officially used. A reformed Portuguese orthography (nova ortografia), in which words were spelled more in accordance with their pronunciation, was adopted is Portugal in 1916. A slightly modified form was adopted in Brazil in 1943 and revised in 1970. A new orthography which aims to unify the written Portuguese of all the lusophone countries was adopted in Brazil in 2009. Dates have yet to be set for its adoption in the other Portuguese-speaking countries A a B b C c D d E e F f G g H h I i á bê cê dê é efe gê agá i J j K k L l M m N n O o P p Q q R r jota cá/cap ele eme ene ó pê quê erre a S s T t U u V v W w X x Y y Z z esse tê u vê dábliu, xis ípsilon zê dáblio, ipsilão, duplo- i grego vê Sample text in Portuguese Todos os seres humanos nascem livres e iguais em dignidade e em direitos. Dotados de razão e de consciência, devem agir uns para com os outros em espírito de fraternidade. SWITZERLAND The four national languages of Switzerland are German, French, Italian and Romansh. All but Romansh maintain equal status as official languages at the national level within the Federal Administration of the Swiss Confederation. Native speakers of German (chiefly Swiss German, though Standard German is also understood) number about 4.6 million (64%); for French (mostly Swiss French, but including some Arpitan dialects) they number 1.5 million (20%); for Italian (mostly Swiss Italian, but including Lombard dialects), 500,000 (6.5%); and for Romansch, 35,000 (0.5%). The German region (Deutschschweiz) is roughly in the east, north and center; the French part (la Romandie) in the west and the Italian area (Svizzera italiana) in the south. There remains a small Romansh-speaking native population in Graubünden in the east. The cantons of Fribourg, Bern and Valais are officially bilingual; Graubünden is officially trilingual. "Map Languages CH" by Marco Zanoli (sidonius 13:20, 18 June 2006 (UTC)) - Swiss Federal Statistical Office; census of 2000. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons - http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Map_Languages_CH.png#/media/File:Map_Languages_CH.png ENGLISH BULGARIAN GERMAN ITALIAN PORTUGESE ROMANIAN TURKISH Hello! Здрасти! Hallo! Ciao! Olá! Buna! Salut! Merhaba! Good Guten Bună morning! Добро утро! Morgen! Buongiorno! Bom dia! dimineața! Günaydın! Good Guten Buon Iyi afternoon! Добър ден! Tag! pomeriggio! Boa tarde! Bună ziua! akşamlar! Good Guten Iyi evening! Добър вечер! Abend! Buonasera! Boa noite! Bună seara! akşamlar! Bye! Чао! Tschüss! Bye! Tchau! Pa! Güle güle! Hab einen Have a Приятен schönen Buona Tenha um nice day! ден! Tag! giornata! bom dia! O zi plăcută! Iyi günler! What is Wie ist Как се Come ti Qual é o seu Cum te your dein Adın ne? казваш? chiami? nome? numești? name? Name? Benim Аз се казвам Il mio nome Meu nome é Numele My name Mein adım ..