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'Phags-Pa Script
The ‘Phags-pa script (Mongolian: дөрвөлжин үсэг "Square script") is an alphabet designed by the Tibetan monk and State Preceptor (later Imperial Preceptor) Drogön Chögyal Phagpa for Kublai Khan, the founder of the Yuan dynasty, as a unified script for the written languages within the Yuan. The actual use of this script was limited to about a hundred years during the Mongol Yuan dynasty, and it fell out of use with the advent of the Ming dynasty. The documentation of its use provides clues about the changes in the varieties of Chinese, the Tibetic languages, Mongolian and other neighboring languages during the Yuan era.
  • 1.2K
  • 09 Nov 2022
Topic Review
A Dual-Motivation System in L2 and L3 Learning
This encyclopedia article explores the phenomena of second (L2) and third language (L3) learning, along with the motivational dynamics that underlie L2 and L3 acquisition, as intricate dynamic systems within the realm of multilingual education. The entry proposes a conceptual framework for a dual-motivation system, which aims to characterize the nature of L2-L3 motivational forces that can be utilized in the learning of additional languages.
  • 565
  • 06 Apr 2023
Topic Review
Andalusian Arabic
Andalusian Arabic, also known as Andalusi Arabic, was a variety or varieties of Arabic spoken in Al-Andalus, the regions of the Iberian Peninsula (modern Spain and Portugal) under Muslim rule (and for some time after) from the 9th century to the 17th century. It became an extinct language in Iberia after the expulsion of the former Hispanic Muslims, which took place over a century after the Granada War by the Catholic Monarchs of Spain. Once widely spoken in Iberia, the expulsions and persecutions of Arabic speakers caused an abrupt end to the language's use on the peninsula. Its use continued to some degree in North Africa after the expulsion, although Andalusi speakers were rapidly assimilated by the Maghrebi communities to which they fled.
  • 1.3K
  • 10 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Anglophone Problem (Cameroon)
The Anglophone Problem, as it is commonly referred to in Cameroon, is a socio-political issue rooted in Cameroon's colonial legacies from the Germans, British, and the French. The issue classically and principally opposes many Cameroonians from the Northwest and Southwest regions, many of whom consider themselves anglophones, to the Cameroon government. This is based on the fact that these two regions (formally British Southern Cameroons) were controlled by Britain as a mandated and trust territory of the League of Nations and the United Nations respectively."
  • 234
  • 15 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Avesta
The Avesta (/əˈvɛstə/) is the primary collection of religious texts of Zoroastrianism, composed in the Avestan language. The Avesta texts fall into several different categories, arranged either by dialect, or by usage. The principal text in the liturgical group is the Yasna, which takes its name from the Yasna ceremony, Zoroastrianism's primary act of worship, and at which the Yasna text is recited. The most important portion of the Yasna texts are the five Gathas, consisting of seventeen hymns attributed to Zoroaster himself. These hymns, together with five other short Old Avestan texts that are also part of the Yasna, are in the Old (or 'Gathic') Avestan language. The remainder of the Yasna's texts are in Younger Avestan, which is not only from a later stage of the language, but also from a different geographic region. Extensions to the Yasna ceremony include the texts of the Vendidad and the Visperad. The Visperad extensions consist mainly of additional invocations of the divinities (yazatas), while the Vendidad is a mixed collection of prose texts mostly dealing with purity laws. Even today, the Vendidad is the only liturgical text that is not recited entirely from memory. Some of the materials of the extended Yasna are from the Yashts, which are hymns to the individual yazatas. Unlike the Yasna, Visperad and Vendidad, the Yashts and the other lesser texts of the Avesta are no longer used liturgically in high rituals. Aside from the Yashts, these other lesser texts include the Nyayesh texts, the Gah texts, the Siroza, and various other fragments. Together, these lesser texts are conventionally called Khordeh Avesta or "Little Avesta" texts. When the first Khordeh Avesta editions were printed in the 19th century, these texts (together with some non-Avestan language prayers) became a book of common prayer for lay people. The term Avesta is from the 9th/10th-century works of Zoroastrian tradition in which the word appears as Zoroastrian Middle Persian abestāg, Book Pahlavi ʾp(y)stʾkʼ. In that context, abestāg texts are portrayed as received knowledge, and are distinguished from the exegetical commentaries (the zand) thereof. The literal meaning of the word abestāg is uncertain; it is generally acknowledged to be a learned borrowing from Avestan, but none of the suggested etymologies have been universally accepted. The widely repeated derivation from *upa-stavaka is from Christian Bartholomae (Altiranisches Wörterbuch, 1904), who interpreted abestāg as a descendant of a hypothetical reconstructed Old Iranian word for "praise-song" (Bartholomae: Lobgesang); but this word is not actually attested in any text.
  • 1.2K
  • 21 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Babine-Witsuwit'en Language
Babine–Witsuwit'en or Nadot'en-Wets'uwet'en is an Athabaskan language spoken in the Central Interior of British Columbia. Its closest relative is Carrier. Because of this linguistic relationship together with political and cultural ties, Babine–Witsuwit'en is often referred to as Northern Carrier or Western Carrier. Specialist opinion is, however, that it should be considered a separate, though related, language (Kari 1975, Story 1984, Kari and Hargus 1989). A term used briefly in the 1990s is Bulkley Valley – Lakes District Language, abbreviated BVLD. Ethnologue uses the bare name Babine for the language as a whole, not just for the Babine dialect. As its name suggests, Babine–Witsuwit'en consists of two main dialects, Babine (Nedut'en) and Witsuwit'en. Babine is spoken around Babine Lake, Trembleur Lake, and Takla Lake. Witsuwit'en is spoken in the Bulkley Valley, around Broman Lake, and in the vicinity of Skins Lake. The two dialects are very similar and are distinguished primarily by the fact that in Babine but not in Witsuwit'en the Athabaskan front velar series have become palatal affricates. Like most languages native to British Columbia, Babine–Witsuwit'en is an endangered language. It is spoken by a minority of the population, primarily elders. There are 161 fluent and 159 partial speakers of the Babine dialect and 131 fluent and 61 partial speakers of the Witsuwit'en dialect. At most, a handful of children are still speaking the language.
  • 307
  • 07 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Behavioral Studies on Metaphorical Processing
Metaphorical embodiment is an influential view that builds on the conceptual metaphor theory. This view was initially proposed by Gallese and Lakoff and later was developed and modified by some subsequent works. According to this view, the same neural networks and brain structures involved in processing the base of a metaphor are actively recruited to process the target of the metaphor.
  • 252
  • 21 Jul 2023
Topic Review
Buyeo Languages
The Buyeo languages, or Fuyu languages (Korean: 부여; Chinese: 扶餘, Fúyú), is a theoretical language family that consists of the Koreanic languages, the Japonic languages and of the ancient languages of the Korean Peninsula and Manchuria. According to ancient Chinese records, the languages of Buyeo, Goguryeo, Dongye, Okjeo, Baekje and Gojoseon were similar to one another but very different from Tungusic languages. The Ye-Maek language may have been ancestral.
  • 747
  • 08 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Ch’orti’ Language
The Ch'orti' language (sometimes also Chorti) is a Mayan language, spoken by the indigenous Maya people who are also known as the Ch'orti' or Ch'orti' Maya. Ch'orti' is a direct descendant of the Classic Maya language in which many of the pre-Columbian inscriptions using the Maya script were written. This Classic Maya language is also attested in a number of inscriptions made in regions whose inhabitants most likely spoke a different Mayan language variant, including the ancestor of Yukatek Maya. Ch'orti' is the modern version of the ancient Mayan language Ch'olan (which was actively used and most popular between the years of A.D 250 and 850).
  • 949
  • 15 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Classification of Indigenous Peoples of the Americas
Classification of Indigenous peoples of the Americas is based upon cultural regions, geography, and linguistics. Anthropologists have named various cultural regions, with fluid boundaries, that are generally agreed upon with some variation. These cultural regions are broadly based upon the locations of Indigenous peoples of the Americas from early European and African contact beginning in the late 15th century. When Indigenous peoples have been forcibly removed by nation-states, they retain their original geographic classification. Some groups span multiple cultural regions.
  • 1.2K
  • 25 Oct 2022
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