Questions tagged [language]
Questions on historical use of languages and their development.
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Why didn't Turkish become an official language in former Ottoman colonies in the Middle-East and North Africa?
The main language in the Middle East is Arabic, however English and French considered as a secondary language.
Especially in Algeria, Morocco and Lebanon (there are other countries..) people still use ...
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Why haven't Etruscan texts survived?
In Wikipedia it's claimed that Etruscan Civilization had a rich literature, but only one Etruscan text has survived.
And AFAIK at the same moment we have many Ancient Greeks texts roughly from the ...
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What was the ancient Egyptian word for "soldier"?
I can't find it anywhere on the Internet, and I was hoping someone here might know.
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Which undeciphered writing system has the largest corpus of text?
Dozens of ancient writing systems are still undeciphered. My question is: Which of them has the largest number of known inscriptions (and might thus be most accessible to future decipherment, though ...
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What language did Petlura speak casually?
In Bulgakov's novel "The White Guard" one of the characters, Turbin alleges that Simon Petlura does not speak Ukrainian language himself despite the measures he took to promote it.
Are there any ...
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Why are Indian states divided based on the native language spoken? [closed]
All the Indian states are divided on the basis of language the native people speak such that each state has a native language which is not well spoken in other states.
Is this kind of division ...
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Which language is oldest in India? [closed]
Which language is oldest in India?
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What language does this look like?
I was hoping someone here could help tell me what language this is?
The hint for this is Mary Queen of Scots, but I have no background in historical languages, and was hoping maybe someone here does.
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African Clicking Language
During a class a friend of mine brought up an African Clicking language. I don't have a lot of information about this.
Which language groups in Africa include clicking, and what is known about the ...
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Is the modern German language the same as it was in Roman times? [closed]
Was the German language influenced by any other languages? How did the German language get to what we hear today? I know that the letters were influenced by Latin, but did the language change or just ...
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Why was not Greek alphabet adopted by other languages given the Greek influence?
Most of western languages adopt the Latin alphabet with minor variations. Arabic letters are adopted by quite a few other languages. The same is true for Eastern Europe with Cyrillic letters. Why was ...
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Wanderwort origins and the Indus Valley Civilization? [closed]
I have noticed that there seem to be many words that have travelled the globe due to trade, such as the word orange or rice, which have plausible origins in proto-Dravidian. Meanwhile, it is ...
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How much is known about the Punic language (of classical Carthage)?
How much is known of the Carthaginian language, which as I understand it is called Punic and descended from Phoenician? Google searches show some sketches of alphabet characters and such, but do we ...
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Why did modern "Romania" remain the most "Roman" part of the Balkans?
The so-called "Romanians" are the Vlachs who inhabited the territory just north of the Danube in Roman times, and today. Wallachia (home of the Vlachs), represented the outer limit or Roman expansion. ...
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Was German ever an official language in the USSR?
What can be said about historical perspective of this document, seemingly composed in German?
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Colonisation of India: Which regions of the United Kingdom did colonial personnel come from?
I'm a linguist doing research on the emergence of new dialects of English spoken in former colonies, especially India. These new dialects have two major influences: (1) Interference from the mother ...
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When and how did English become the Lingua Franca? [closed]
Specifically, how did it supplant French as the international language? Even in the height of Pax Britannica, many English upperclassmen still saw French as the more romantic language. How was this ...
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In what language was the first Zionist congress in Basel in 1897 held?
In what language was the first Zionist congress in Basel held?
Was it Yiddish, Hebrew, German, English? Where there translators?
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Did Noah Webster ever state why he Americanized spelling?
I am aware that Noah Webster (1758--1843 AD) is responsible for the majority of the differences between British and American spelling (IE: "color" v "colour"). Over time, it seems, in his Speller ...
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Sumerian cuneiform dictionary? [closed]
Is there a single, unified place where one can look up cuneiform signs for Sumerian words? Unicode now supports cuneiform, but every source I've found has only transliterations, not actual cuneiform.
...
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Which is closer to Old Dutch? [closed]
The Dutch dialects spoken in Belgium and the Netherlands are diverse, but if a general statement can be made, which, as spoken today, is closer to the root of the language?
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How did it happen that countries and cities got different names in different languages?
I wonder why a single city's (or country's) name is different in various languages. To me, city and country names are somewhat similar to a person's given name, and it doesn't seem right to call ...
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The practice of translating foreign monarch's or noble's name
In history texts, past foreign monarchs are normally referred to by the English version of their name, e.g. Francis I (not François), Charles V (not Carlos, Karel, or Karl), Phillip II (not Felipe). ...
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Which is the oldest language in the World? [closed]
I want to know which are the oldest languages in the world? And within those, which is still in use?
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Language of early French (West-Frankish) kings
When did Old French displace Frankish as the language spoken in the West-Frankish court, and who was the first natively "French" king?
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How is it possible that the Basque language survived until today?
The mysterious Basque is the mother tongue of only few people, spoken in Vizcaya, a northern province in Spain. It is not similar to any major European language in use today and its origins are ...
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Language in German cloisters during the High Middle Ages
I would like to know which was the spoken and literary language in German cloisters during the High Middle Ages. Is it possible to differentiate between social groups in the cloister (monks, laymen, ...
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Were does Tifinagh come from?
Because all of my knowledge of Tifinagh came from the Wikipedia article, I was quite puzzled to read this blog.
For those of you that just don't bother checking, the author describes the different ...
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What are the reasons of the ethnical fragmentation of the Caucasus?
While investigating on Albania, I kept finding peoples I never heard of before. Notwithstanding my vast ignorance, this was systematic to the point that I started investigating. Take a look at this ...
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What language was the Charter of Liberties written in?
While researching my answer for the What was the official language used across European monarchies in the XII century? question I came upon the Charter of Liberties, or Coronation Charter, issued by ...
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What was the official language used across European monarchies in the XII century?
I have been reading about European history in the XII century and I am finding out that several of the modern day languages hadn't yet evolved to what they are now: Langue d'oïl was still being used ...
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What examples are of French and Arab cultural integration?
In the last centuries there were very close tights between the French Empire and its colonies in the Maghreb before and the immigrants and citizens of France after the decolonisation.
What are the ...
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Why was language not used to establish dominance throughout England 1066 AD–1360s CE?
Why didn’t the Normans enforce the use of their native tongue throughout the whole of England after William the Conqueror (of Normandy) became king of England? During William’s reign as king he ...
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Which were the continent-wide common languages in human history?
My question on rpg.stackexchange.com seems to have reached a point where a "history-person" would be quite suitable to answer it. So let me rephrase it, so as to be at least marginally suitable for ...
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Are there any existing foreign language teaching texts from the Ancient Near East?
The various cultures of the Ancient Near East spoke a wide array of languages and we know that there was plenty of communication between cultures. We even have a language like Akkadian that served as ...
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How is Bad-Tibira written in Sumerian?
Bad-Tibira is one of the oldest recorded cities in the world. The Sumerians believed it was the second city to exercise kingship (after the more famous Eridu). I can't find the Sumerian spelling of ...
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Languages spoken by Josephus?
What languages did Josephus speak? He lived in the land of Israel during the first century CE. He wrote in Greek (so he obviously knew that), but did he know Hebrew, Aramaic, or Latin?
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Why did the the East-Pakistanis oppose Urdu as their national language while Indians accepted Hindi as theirs?
In 1947, Both India and Pakistan were given independence from Britain. India was able to establish Hindi as its national language with minimal problems. Pakistan, on the other hand, was created with ...
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In what language did Caractacus deliver his speech to the emperor Claudius?
In The Annals, the Roman historian Cornelius Tacitus wrote about the British chieftain Caractacus and how he was captured by the Romans. According to him, Caractacus was taken to Rome along with his ...
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What is a mezrag-holder?
I stumbled upon this word in one of my anthropology readings. Here's the excerpt.
The robbers were from a tribe which had not yet submitted to French authority and were in open rebellion against it,...
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When did the Hebrews stop speaking Hebrew and start speaking Aramaic?
The Torah was written Hebrew, and most of the old testament was written in Hebrew, although parts of Daniel were written in Aramaic. By the time of the 1st century, Aramaic was the common language for ...
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What is the basis for the claims that the word "Israel" means "Exiled for their sins"?
Joseph Davidovits claims that the word "iisii-r-iar", "ysrỉar" or however you want to transcribe it, which appears on the Merneptah Stele, is an Egyptian phrase meaning "those who are exiled for their ...
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Are there confirmed cases where a country changed its language without being conquered?
I thought about this question and wondered: Are there any known cases where a country switched to a different language other than because of being conquered? If some country ever did this I would be ...
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What was the cultural background of Burgundians?
In the Middle Ages there was a big country in Europe between France and German kingdoms, Burgundy. What language did they speak there? Were they more German or French in origin?
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Did the roman conquerors have directives/guidelines to either integrate or assimilate foreign tribes/folks?
It is likely that Romans made no distinction between today's terms integration and assimilation. They did everything that was necessary for the expansion of the Roman empire and worked from experience....
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How would slaves have addressed their masters in Ancient Greece?
In Ancient Rome, slaves addressed their masters as Dominus or Domina (male or female, respectively).
Would the slaves (or servants) of Ancient Greece have used a similar title, or would they have ...
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Why did Meiji government consider switching from Japanese to English?
During the Meiji restoration, the Meiji govenment sought to switch Japan's national language from Japanese to English.
Who and why advocated that?
Ultimately, why was it unsuccessful?
Source: ...
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Language of Franks vs later French
I am reading that before the 8-9th(10th?) century, Franks were a Germanic-speaking nation.
How it is possible to explain that in later centuries their language became a totally different Latin-...
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What language(s) were spoken within the Holy Roman Empire?
What language(s) were considered the primary language for the Holy Roman Empire? Were there many different languages spoken due to the many different regions?
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