1.
Italy
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Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a unitary parliamentary republic in Europe. Located in the heart of the Mediterranean Sea, Italy shares open land borders with France, Switzerland, Austria, Slovenia, San Marino, Italy covers an area of 301,338 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate and Mediterranean climate. Due to its shape, it is referred to in Italy as lo Stivale. With 61 million inhabitants, it is the fourth most populous EU member state, the Italic tribe known as the Latins formed the Roman Kingdom, which eventually became a republic that conquered and assimilated other nearby civilisations. The legacy of the Roman Empire is widespread and can be observed in the distribution of civilian law, republican governments, Christianity. The Renaissance began in Italy and spread to the rest of Europe, bringing a renewed interest in humanism, science, exploration, Italian culture flourished at this time, producing famous scholars, artists and polymaths such as Leonardo da Vinci, Galileo, Michelangelo and Machiavelli. The weakened sovereigns soon fell victim to conquest by European powers such as France, Spain and Austria. Despite being one of the victors in World War I, Italy entered a period of economic crisis and social turmoil. The subsequent participation in World War II on the Axis side ended in defeat, economic destruction. Today, Italy has the third largest economy in the Eurozone and it has a very high level of human development and is ranked sixth in the world for life expectancy. The country plays a prominent role in regional and global economic, military, cultural and diplomatic affairs, as a reflection of its cultural wealth, Italy is home to 51 World Heritage Sites, the most in the world, and is the fifth most visited country. The assumptions on the etymology of the name Italia are very numerous, according to one of the more common explanations, the term Italia, from Latin, Italia, was borrowed through Greek from the Oscan Víteliú, meaning land of young cattle. The bull was a symbol of the southern Italic tribes and was often depicted goring the Roman wolf as a defiant symbol of free Italy during the Social War. Greek historian Dionysius of Halicarnassus states this account together with the legend that Italy was named after Italus, mentioned also by Aristotle and Thucydides. The name Italia originally applied only to a part of what is now Southern Italy – according to Antiochus of Syracuse, but by his time Oenotria and Italy had become synonymous, and the name also applied to most of Lucania as well. The Greeks gradually came to apply the name Italia to a larger region, excavations throughout Italy revealed a Neanderthal presence dating back to the Palaeolithic period, some 200,000 years ago, modern Humans arrived about 40,000 years ago. Other ancient Italian peoples of undetermined language families but of possible origins include the Rhaetian people and Cammuni. Also the Phoenicians established colonies on the coasts of Sardinia and Sicily, the Roman legacy has deeply influenced the Western civilisation, shaping most of the modern world
2.
Austria
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Austria, officially the Republic of Austria, is a federal republic and a landlocked country of over 8.7 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Hungary and Slovakia to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, the territory of Austria covers 83,879 km2. The terrain is mountainous, lying within the Alps, only 32% of the country is below 500 m. The majority of the population speaks local Bavarian dialects of German as their native language, other local official languages are Hungarian, Burgenland Croatian, and Slovene. The origins of modern-day Austria date back to the time of the Habsburg dynasty, from the time of the Reformation, many northern German princes, resenting the authority of the Emperor, used Protestantism as a flag of rebellion. Following Napoleons defeat, Prussia emerged as Austrias chief competitor for rule of a greater Germany, Austrias defeat by Prussia at the Battle of Königgrätz, during the Austro-Prussian War of 1866, cleared the way for Prussia to assert control over the rest of Germany. In 1867, the empire was reformed into Austria-Hungary, Austria was thus the first to go to war in the July Crisis, which would ultimately escalate into World War I. The First Austrian Republic was established in 1919, in 1938 Nazi Germany annexed Austria in the Anschluss. This lasted until the end of World War II in 1945, after which Germany was occupied by the Allies, in 1955, the Austrian State Treaty re-established Austria as a sovereign state, ending the occupation. In the same year, the Austrian Parliament created the Declaration of Neutrality which declared that the Second Austrian Republic would become permanently neutral, today, Austria is a parliamentary representative democracy comprising nine federal states. The capital and largest city, with a population exceeding 1.7 million, is Vienna, other major urban areas of Austria include Graz, Linz, Salzburg and Innsbruck. Austria is one of the richest countries in the world, with a nominal per capita GDP of $43,724, the country has developed a high standard of living and in 2014 was ranked 21st in the world for its Human Development Index. Austria has been a member of the United Nations since 1955, joined the European Union in 1995, Austria also signed the Schengen Agreement in 1995, and adopted the euro currency in 1999. The German name for Austria, Österreich, meant eastern realm in Old High German, and is cognate with the word Ostarrîchi and this word is probably a translation of Medieval Latin Marchia orientalis into a local dialect. Austria was a prefecture of Bavaria created in 976, the word Austria is a Latinisation of the German name and was first recorded in the 12th century. Accordingly, Norig would essentially mean the same as Ostarrîchi and Österreich, the Celtic name was eventually Latinised to Noricum after the Romans conquered the area that encloses most of modern-day Austria, around 15 BC. Noricum later became a Roman province in the mid-first century AD, heers hypothesis is not accepted by linguists. Settled in ancient times, the Central European land that is now Austria was occupied in pre-Roman times by various Celtic tribes, the Celtic kingdom of Noricum was later claimed by the Roman Empire and made a province
3.
Slovenia
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Slovenia, officially the Republic of Slovenia, is a nation state in southern Central Europe, located at the crossroads of main European cultural and trade routes. It is bordered by Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the south and southeast, and it covers 20,273 square kilometers and has a population of 2.06 million. It is a republic and a member of the United Nations, European Union. The capital and largest city is Ljubljana, additionally, the Dinaric Alps and the Pannonian Plain meet on the territory of Slovenia. The country, marked by a significant biological diversity, is one of the most water-rich in Europe, with a river network, a rich aquifer system. Over half of the territory is covered by forest, the human settlement of Slovenia is dispersed and uneven. Slovenia has historically been the crossroads of South Slavic, Germanic, Romance, although the population is not homogeneous, the majority is Slovene. South Slavic language Slovene is the language throughout the country. Slovenia is a largely secularized country, but its culture and identity have been influenced by Catholicism as well as Lutheranism. The economy of Slovenia is small, open, and export-oriented and has strongly influenced by international conditions. It has been hurt by the Eurozone crisis, started in the late 2000s. The main economic field is services, followed by industry and construction, Historically, the current territory of Slovenia was part of many different state formations, including the Roman Empire and the Holy Roman Empire, followed by the Habsburg Monarchy. In October 1918, the Slovenes exercised self-determination for the first time by co-founding the State of Slovenes, Croats, in December 1918, they merged with the Kingdom of Serbia into the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. During World War II, Slovenia was occupied and annexed by Germany, Italy, and Hungary, with a tiny area transferred to the Independent State of Croatia, in June 1991, after the introduction of multi-party representative democracy, Slovenia split from Yugoslavia and became an independent country. Present-day Slovenia has been inhabited since prehistoric times, and there is evidence of habitation from around 250,000 years ago. A pierced cave bear bone, dating from 43100 ±700 BP, in the 1920s and 1930s, artifacts belonging to the Cro-Magnon such as pierced bones, bone points, and needle were found by archaeologist Srečko Brodar in Potok Cave. It shows that wooden wheels appeared almost simultaneously in Mesopotamia and Europe, in the transition period between the Bronze age to the Iron age, the Urnfield culture flourished. Archaeological remains dating from the Hallstatt period have been found, particularly in southeastern Slovenia, among them a number of situlas in Novo Mesto, in the Iron Age, present-day Slovenia was inhabited by Illyrian and Celtic tribes until the 1st century BC
4.
Croatia
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Croatia, officially the Republic of Croatia, is a sovereign state between Central Europe, Southeast Europe, and the Mediterranean. Its capital city is Zagreb, which one of the countrys primary subdivisions. Croatia covers 56,594 square kilometres and has diverse, mostly continental, Croatias Adriatic Sea coast contains more than a thousand islands. The countrys population is 4.28 million, most of whom are Croats, the Croats arrived in the area of present-day Croatia during the early part of the 7th century AD. They organised the state into two duchies by the 9th century, tomislav became the first king by 925, elevating Croatia to the status of a kingdom. The Kingdom of Croatia retained its sovereignty for nearly two centuries, reaching its peak during the rule of Kings Petar Krešimir IV and Dmitar Zvonimir, Croatia entered a personal union with Hungary in 1102. In 1527, faced with Ottoman conquest, the Croatian Parliament elected Ferdinand I of the House of Habsburg to the Croatian throne. In 1918, after World War I, Croatia was included in the unrecognized State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs which seceded from Austria-Hungary, a fascist Croatian puppet state backed by Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany existed during World War II. After the war, Croatia became a member and a federal constituent of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. On 25 June 1991 Croatia declared independence, which came wholly into effect on 8 October of the same year, the Croatian War of Independence was fought successfully during the four years following the declaration. A unitary state, Croatia is a republic governed under a parliamentary system, the International Monetary Fund classified Croatia as an emerging and developing economy, and the World Bank identified it as a high-income economy. Croatia is a member of the European Union, United Nations, the Council of Europe, NATO, the World Trade Organization, the service sector dominates Croatias economy, followed by the industrial sector and agriculture. Tourism is a significant source of revenue during the summer, with Croatia ranked the 18th most popular tourist destination in the world, the state controls a part of the economy, with substantial government expenditure. The European Union is Croatias most important trading partner, since 2000, the Croatian government constantly invests in infrastructure, especially transport routes and facilities along the Pan-European corridors. Internal sources produce a significant portion of energy in Croatia, the rest is imported, the origin of the name is uncertain, but is thought to be a Gothic or Indo-Aryan term assigned to a Slavic tribe. The oldest preserved record of the Croatian ethnonym *xъrvatъ is of variable stem, the first attestation of the Latin term is attributed to a charter of Duke Trpimir from the year 852. The original is lost, and just a 1568 copy is preserved—leading to doubts over the authenticity of the claim, the oldest preserved stone inscription is the 9th-century Branimir Inscription, where Duke Branimir is styled as Dux Cruatorvm. The inscription is not believed to be dated accurately, but is likely to be from during the period of 879–892, the area known as Croatia today was inhabited throughout the prehistoric period
5.
Hungary
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Hungary is a unitary parliamentary republic in Central Europe. With about 10 million inhabitants, Hungary is a member state of the European Union. The official language is Hungarian, which is the most widely spoken language in Europe. Hungarys capital and largest metropolis is Budapest, a significant economic hub, major urban areas include Debrecen, Szeged, Miskolc, Pécs and Győr. His great-grandson Stephen I ascended to the throne in 1000, converting the country to a Christian kingdom, by the 12th century, Hungary became a middle power within the Western world, reaching a golden age by the 15th century. Hungarys current borders were established in 1920 by the Treaty of Trianon after World War I, when the country lost 71% of its territory, 58% of its population, following the interwar period, Hungary joined the Axis Powers in World War II, suffering significant damage and casualties. Hungary became a state of the Soviet Union, which contributed to the establishment of a four-decade-long communist dictatorship. On 23 October 1989, Hungary became again a democratic parliamentary republic, in the 21st century, Hungary is a middle power and has the worlds 57th largest economy by nominal GDP, as well as the 58th largest by PPP, out of 188 countries measured by the IMF. As a substantial actor in several industrial and technological sectors, it is both the worlds 36th largest exporter and importer of goods, Hungary is a high-income economy with a very high standard of living. It keeps up a security and universal health care system. Hungary joined the European Union in 2004 and part of the Schengen Area since 2007, Hungary is a member of the United Nations, NATO, WTO, World Bank, the AIIB, the Council of Europe and Visegrád Group. Well known for its cultural history, Hungary has been contributed significantly to arts, music, literature, sports and science. Hungary is the 11th most popular country as a tourist destination in Europe and it is home to the largest thermal water cave system, the second largest thermal lake in the world, the largest lake in Central Europe, and the largest natural grasslands in Europe. The H in the name of Hungary is most likely due to historical associations with the Huns. The rest of the word comes from the Latinized form of Medieval Greek Oungroi, according to an explanation the Greek name was borrowed from Proto-Slavic Ǫgǔri, in turn borrowed from Oghur-Turkic Onogur. Onogur was the name for the tribes who later joined the Bulgar tribal confederacy that ruled the eastern parts of Hungary after the Avars. The Hungarians likely belonged to the Onogur tribal alliance and it is possible they became its ethnic majority. The Hungarian endonym is Magyarország, composed of magyar and ország, the word magyar is taken from the name of one of the seven major semi-nomadic Hungarian tribes, magyeri
6.
Lienz
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Lienz is a medieval town in the Austrian state of Tyrol. It is the centre of the Lienz district, which covers all of East Tyrol. The municipality also includes the cadastral subdivision of Patriasdorf, Lienz is located at the confluence of the rivers Isel and Drava in the Eastern Alps, between the Hohe Tauern mountain range in the north, and the Gailtal Alps in the south. It is connected with Winklern in Carinthia by the Iselsberg Pass, the neighbouring municipality of Leisach marks the easternmost point of the Puster Valley. By the consistent growth of the city, some villages around – though officially municipalities in their own right – are now widely considered to be suburbs of Lienz. Those suburbs comprise, The area of Lienz had been settled since the Bronze Age about 2000 BC, celtic people lived here from about 300 BC on, mainly as miners, who came under control of the Roman Empire in 15 BC. The area was incorporated into the province of Noricum and Emperor Claudius had a municipium called Aguntum erected near Lienz in the municipality of Dölsach. Part of the Slavic principality of Carantania, the passed under Bavarian. Lienz itself was first mentioned as Luenzina in an issued by the Bishop of Brixen about 1030. The settlement itself, together with neighbouring Patriasdorf, then belonged of the Patriarchs of Aquileia and it was then purchased by the scions of the Meinhardiner dynasty, who held the office of Aquileian Vögte and chose Lienz as a residence. From about 1127 they called themselves Counts of Görz, located on the important trade route from Venzone in Friuli to Salzburg, the market town of Lienz received city rights on 25 February 1242. In 1278 the Counts finished Burg Bruck, a castle that until 1500 served as their local seat, from the status of an Imperial residence, Lienz sank to the insignificance of a provincial town within the Habsburg Monarchy. During the Italian campaigns of the French Revolutionary Wars, Lienz was occupied twice by French troops in 1797, after the Austrian defeat at the Battle of Austerlitz, Lienz with Tyrol passed to the Electorate of Bavaria according to the 1805 Peace of Pressburg. In 1809 it became the centre of a district within the short-lived Napoleonic Illyrian Provinces. Until 1918, the town was part of the Austrian monarchy, head of the district of the same name. After the 1938 Anschluss of the Federal State of Austria into Nazi Germany, on 8 May 1945 British forces occupied Lienz, which together with Carinthia and Styria became part of the British occupation zone. At this time several thousand members of the former Wehrmacht 1st Cossack Division coming from Yugoslavia had arrived in and they surrendered to the British troops but were forcibly repatriated to the Soviet Union. Lienz has relatively warm and humid summers and cold winters, 1971–2000 there was a recorded precipitation of 915 mm
7.
Spittal an der Drau
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Spittal an der Drau is a town in the western part of the Austrian federal state of Carinthia. It is the centre of Spittal an der Drau District. The town is located on the slopes of the Gurktal Alps. Its summit can be reached by cable car, the municipal area consists of seven Katastralgemeinden, Amlach, Edling, Großegg, Molzbichl, Olsach, Spittal proper, and St. Peter-Edling. In Großegg, the area of Spittal extends to the shore of Lake Millstatt. The adjacent settlement received market rights in 1242, together with the Ortenburg estates, Spittal in 1418 was inherited by Count Hermann II of Celje. Frederick granted the citizens the right to choose their own judge, from 1533 onwards, the Counts of Salamanca-Ortenburg had Schloss Porcia erected on the main square as their residence. The building in the style of an Italian palazzo is considered one of the most important Renaissance castles in Austria. They also rebuilt the Spittl hospital on the side of the Lieser River. In 1662 Spittal passed to the Gorizia Counts of Porcia, owners of Schloss Porcia until 1918, today the palace hosts an annual festival for classic theatrical comedies and is also home of a museum of local history. In 1537 the Carinthian Khevenhüller noble family had a residence erected opposite the castle, restored to the Austrian Empire by the 1815 Congress of Vienna, the local economy was decisively promoted, when it gained access to the Austrian Southern Railway network in 1871. It formally received town privileges on the occasion of the ten-years-anniversary in 1930, since 1995 the Spittl has been a seat of the Carinthian Fachhochschule for engineering. A small museum nearby shows several artifacts of Carolingian origin, on a slope above the valley, northeast of Molzbichl is Schloss Rothenthurn, in the 11th century called Red Tower, a fiefdom of the Counts of Ortenburg. The present-day palace is a building from the 17th century and serves as a hotel, andrä Manuel Kuttin Austrian footballer who plays for Admira Wacker The city has a railway station on the Tauernbahn railway line from Villach to Salzburg. It lies also near the A10 Tauern Autobahn as well as on the Bundesstraßen highways B99 Katschberg-Straße leading to the Katschberg Pass, a cableway runs up to Mount Goldeck. Spittal an der Drau is twinned with, Löhne, Germany Pordenone, Italy Porcia, Italy
8.
Villach
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Villach is the seventh-largest city in Austria and the second-largest in the federal state of Carinthia. It represents an important traffic junction for southern Austria and the whole Alpe-Adria region, as of December 2006, the population is 58,480. Together with other Alpine towns Villach engages in the Alpine Town of the Year Association for the implementation of the Alpine Convention to achieve sustainable development in the Alpine Arc, in 1997, Villach was the first town to be awarded Alpine Town of the Year. Villach, a city, is located on the Drau River near the confluence with the Gail tributary. Situated at the rim of the Klagenfurt basin, the municipal area stretches from the slopes of the Gailtal Alps down to Lake Ossiach in the northeast. The Villach city limits comprise the following districts and villages, In 1905 a part of the municipal area St. Martin was incorporated, in 1973 the city area was further enlarged through the incorporation of Landskron, Maria Gail and Fellach. The oldest human traces found in Villach date back to the Neolithic, many Roman artifacts have been discovered in the city, as it was near an important Roman road from Italy into the Noricum province established in 15 BC. A mansio named Sanctium was probably located at the hot spring in Warmbad south of the city centre, after the Slavic settlement of the Eastern Alps about 600, the area was part of the Carantania principality, and under Bavarian overlordship from about 740. An 878 deed of donation, issued by the Carolingian ruler Carloman of Bavaria, in 979 Emperor Otto II enfeoffed Bishop Albuin of Brixen with the Villach manor. The adjacent settlement was given to the Bishopric of Bamberg in 1007 and received town status in 1060. The first mayor took office in the 16th century, the 1348 Friuli earthquake destroyed a large parts of the town, another devastating earthquake occurred in 1690. There were also several fires in Villach, which destroyed many buildings, in 1759 the Habsburg empress Maria Theresa formally purchased the Bamberg territories in Carinthia for a price of one million guldens. Villach was incorporated into the lands of the Habsburg Monarchy and became the seat of a Carinthian district. During the Napoleonic Wars, the city was part of the French Illyrian provinces from 1809, the citys economy was decisively promoted by the Südbahn railway, which finally reached Villach in 1864, providing growth and expansion. In World War I, the town near the Italian front was the seat of the 10th Army command of the Austro-Hungarian Army, during the period of the Austrian Anschluss to Nazi Germany, the mayor of Villach was Oskar Kraus, an enthusiastic Nazi. During World War II, allied forces bombed Villach 37 times, about 42,500 bombs killed 300 people and damaged 85% of the buildings. Today, Villach is a city with commerce and recreation. It is chaired by the mayor, who is elected by the people
9.
Ferlach
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Ferlach in the district of Klagenfurt-Land in Carinthia is the southernmost town in Austria. It is known for its centuries-old gunsmith tradition, part of the Austrian intangible cultural heritage since 2010 and it is situated in the Rosental/Rož Valley of the Drava River, about 17 kilometres south of the Carinthian state capital Klagenfurt. In the south, the crest of the Karawanks mountain range forms the border with Slovenia, the municipal area comprises the cadastral communities of Ferlach, Kappel an der Drau, Kirschentheuer, Unterloibl, Waidisch, Unterferlach, Glainach, Seidolach, and Windisch Bleiberg. The town centre lies at the junction of the Rosental Straße highway with Loiblpass Straße, part of the European route E652, Ferlach was first mentioned as Vörelach in a 1246 deed, named after the surrounding pine forests. The mountainous area is the site of iron ore deposits, ironworks. Under Empress Maria Theresa, its gunsmiths became the main armorers of the Habsburg Monarchy, Ferlach firearms were also used by the Spanish, French and Turkish armies. The present-day municipality was established as Oberferlach in 1850, Ferlach received town privileges in 1930 and today is a centre for the production of hunting rifles. The history of the town is depicted in its coat of arms, it features a tree with a cone. According to the 2001 census 8. 3% of the population are Carinthian Slovenes
10.
Dravograd
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Dravograd is a small town in northern Slovenia, close to the border with Austria. It is the seat of the Municipality of Dravograd and it lies on the Drava River at the confluence with the Meža and the Mislinja. It is part of the traditional Slovenian provinces of Carinthia and the larger Carinthia Statistical Region, from 976 onwards the Dravograd area was part of the Duchy of Carinthia. The German name Unterdrauburg denoted the place where the Drava River left Carinthia and it corresponded with Oberdrauburg up the river at Carinthias western border with the County of Tyrol. The name Dravograd was invented during the Slovene national revival in the 19th century, previously, the local Slovene name of the town was Traberk, a derivative of the German name Drauburg. The 19th century was a period of awakening of the Carinthian Slovenes. The town of Dravograd itself however remained in the hands of the acting in the name of the German-Austrian rump state. In mid-December 1918, Dravograd was seized by the forces of Slovene General Rudolf Maister. According to the 1919 Treaty of Saint Germain, Dravograd became part of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, in the interwar period, the area of Dravograd witnessed an important process of industrialization. In the 1930s, social tensions grew as the consequence of the economic crisis. In the late 1930s, the Nazi movement started penetrating the German community in Dravograd, physical violence between the pro-Nazi organization and the local section of the Sokol movement were common. In 1939 and in 1940, two mass anti-Nazi rallies were held in the municipality of Dravograd, organized by patriotic and nationalist Slovene organizations, in April 1941, after the Invasion of Yugoslavia, Dravograd was occupied by Wehrmacht forces and incorporated into the Carinthian Reichsgau of Nazi Germany. Local Slovene political activists were executed or deported to Nazi concentration camps. In July 1941, the local artist Franjo Golob organized an underground resistance cell. Violent repression followed, which hindered the development of anti-German resistance in this area. In mid-1943, the Yugoslav Partisans resistance movement started taking roots in the Dravograd area, upon the German Instrument of Surrender and the nearby Battle of Poljana on 14/15 May 1945, the whole area was controlled by the Partisans. In the communist period, the Dravograd area further developed its industrial capacities, during the Ten Day War of Slovenian independence in June and July 1991, some fighting took place in the Dravograd area. The parish church in the settlement is dedicated to Saint John the Evangelist and it was first mentioned in written documents dating to the late 14th century
11.
Vuzenica
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Vuzenica is a town and a municipality in northern Slovenia. It lies on the bank of the Drava River and extends south into the Pohorje Hills. The area was part of the region of Styria. It is now included in the Carinthia Statistical Region, of the 13th-century castle above the settlement, only parts of the walls survive. The parish church in the town is dedicated to Saint Nicholas and it was built in the mid-13th century on the site of a 12th-century church. It was partly rebuilt and extended in the 14th and 15th centuries, a second church in the town is dedicated to the Virgin Mary and dates to the late 14th century. Municipality of Vuzenica on Geopedia Vuzenica municipal site
12.
Muta, Muta
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Muta is the largest settlement and the centre of the Carinthia Statistical Region of northern Slovenia. Traditionally, it is part of Styria because it was part of the Duchy of Styria, Muta was first attested in written sources in 1255 as Muttenberch. The Slovene name is derived from the Slovene common noun muta toll and it therefore refers to a place where tolls were collected. Muta is the site of a mass associated with the Second World War. The Croatian Mass Grave is a cluster of seven locations in the northeast part of the settlement on the bank of the Drava River and it contains the remains of Croatians. The parish church in the settlement is dedicated to Saint Margaret and it was first mentioned in written documents dating to 1349. In the 17th century it was extended and widened, there are two other churches in Muta. The church dedicated to John the Baptistin the hamlet of Spodnja Muta in the settlement is an 11th-century Romanesque rotunda with an Early Gothic sanctuary added, fourteenth-century wall paintings survive in the church and the wooden painted ceiling is from the late 16th and early 17th century. Media related to Muta at Wikimedia Commons Muta on Geopedia
13.
Maribor
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Maribor is the second-largest city in Slovenia with about 96,000 inhabitants in 2015. It is also the largest city of the region of Lower Styria. Maribor was attested in sources as Marpurch circa 1145, and is a compound of Middle High German march march + burc fortress. In modern times, the towns German name was Marburg an der Drau, the Slovene name Maribor is an artificial Slovenized creation, coined by Stanko Vraz in 1836. Vraz created the name in the spirit of Illyrianism by analogy with the name Brandenburg, locally, the town is known in Slovene as Marprk or Marprog. In addition to its Slovene and German names, the city is known as Marburgum in Latin. In 1164, a known as Castrum Marchburch was documented in the March of Drava. The castle was built on Piramida Hill, which is located just above the city. Maribor was first mentioned as a market near the castle in 1204 and it began to grow rapidly after the victory of Rudolf I of the Habsburg dynasty over King Otakar II of Bohemia in 1278. Maribor withstood sieges by Matthias Corvinus in 1480/1481 and by the Ottoman Empire in 1532 and 1683, in 1900 the city had a population that was 82. 3% Austrian Germans and 17. 3% Slovenes, most of the citys capital and public life was in Austrian German hands. Thus, it was known by its Austrian name Marburg an der Drau. The surrounding area however was populated almost entirely by Slovenes, although many Austrian Germans lived in towns like Ptuj. During World War I many Slovenes in the Carinthia and Styria were detained on suspicion of being enemies of the Austrian Empire and this led to distrust between Austrian Germans and Slovenes. After the collapse of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire in 1918, Maribor was claimed by both the State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs and German Austria. On 1 November 1918, a meeting was held by Colonel Anton Holik in the Melje barracks, ethnic Slovene Major Rudolf Maister, who was present at the meeting, denounced the decision and organised Slovenian military units that were able to seize control of the city. All Austrian officers and soldiers were disarmed and demobilised to the new German Austria state, the city council then held a secret meeting, where it was decided to do whatever possible to regain Maribor for German Austria. They organised a military unit called the Green Guard, and approximately 400 well-armed soldiers of this unit opposed the pro-Slovenian, Slovenian troops surprised and disarmed the Green Guard early in the morning of 23 November. Thereafter, there was no threat to the authority of Rudolf Maister in the city, nine citizens were killed and some eighteen were seriously wounded, who had actually ordered the shooting has never been unequivocally established
14.
Ptuj
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Ptuj is a town in northeastern Slovenia. Traditionally the area was part of the Styria region, Ptuj is the oldest city in Slovenia. There is evidence that the area was settled in the Stone Age, in the Late Iron Age it was settled by Celts. By the 1st century BC, the settlement was controlled by Ancient Rome as part of the Pannonian province, in 69 AD, Vespasian was elected Roman Emperor by the Danubian legions in Ptuj, and the first written mention of the city of Ptuj is from the same year. Poetovium was the base-camp of Legio XIII Gemina where it had its legionary fortress or castrum, the name originated in the times of Emperor Trajan, who granted the settlement city status and named it Colonia Ulpia Traiana Poetovio in 103. The city had 40,000 inhabitants until it was plundered by the Huns in 450, in 570 the city was occupied by Eurasian Avars and Slavic tribes. Ptuj became part of the Frankish Empire after the fall of Avar state at the end of 8th century, between 840 and 874 it belonged to the Slavic Balaton Principality of Pribina and Kocelj. Between 874 and 890 Ptuj gradually came under the influence of the Archbishopric of Salzburg, as Pettau, it was incorporated into the Duchy of Styria in 1555. Pettau was a battleground during the Ottoman wars in Europe and suffered from fires in 1684,1705,1710, according to the 1910 Austro-Hungarian census, 86% of the population of Pettaus Old Town was German-speaking, while the population of the surrounding villages predominantly spoke Slovenian. After the invasion of Yugoslavia in April 1941, Ptuj was occupied by Nazi Germany, from 1941 to 1944 the towns Slovenian population was dispossessed and deported. Their homes were taken over by German speakers from South Tyrol and Gottschee County and these German immigrants, along with the native German Pettauer, were expelled to Austria in 1945, many later settled in North America. Since 1945 Ptuj has been populated almost completely by Slovenes and it is a three-naved Gothic building from the 13th and early 14th century, but the structure incorporates parts of a much earlier structure, dating to the mid-9th century. Ptuj is the place of a ten-day-long carnival in the spring. Kurent is believed to be the name of an ancient god of hedonism - the Slavic counterpart of the Greek god Priapos, although there are no written records. Kurenti or Koranti are figures dressed in sheep skin who go about the town wearing masks, a red tongue, cow bells. The Kurenti from Ptuj and the villages also wear feathers, while those from the Haloze. Organized in groups, Kurents go through town, from house to house, making noise with their bells and wooden sticks, to scare off evil spirits. The nearest airports are Ptuj Sport Airfield, which is seven kilometers away, and Maribor Edvard Rusjan Airport, which is eighteen kilometers away
15.
Osijek
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Osijek is the fourth largest city in Croatia with a population of 108,048 in 2011. It is the largest city and the economic and cultural centre of the eastern Croatian region of Slavonia, Osijek is located on the right bank of the river Drava,25 kilometres upstream of its confluence with the Danube, at an elevation of 94 metres. The name was given to the city due to its position on elevated ground which prevented the city being flooded by the swamp waters. Its name Osijek comes from the Croatian word oseka which means ebb tide, the origins of human habitation of Osijek dates back to Neolithic times, with the first known inhabitants belonging to the Illyrians and later invading Celtic tribes. Roman emperor Hadrian raised the old settlement of Mursa to a colony with special privileges in 131 and these battles, especially the latter one, had long-term consequences for the colony and the region which was already under ever-increasing pressure from the invading Goths and other invading tribes. The earliest recorded mention of Osijek dates back to 1196, the town was a feudal property of Kórógyi family between 1353 and 1472. After the death of the last Kórógyi, King Mathias granted it to the Rozgonyi family, the city was almost completely destroyed by the Ottoman conquerors on 8 August 1526. The Turks rebuilt it in Ottoman oriental style and it was mentioned in the Turkish census of 1579, in 1566, Suleiman the Magnificent built a famous,8 kilometer-long wooden bridge of boats in Osijek, considered at that time to be one of the wonders of the world. In Ottoman Empire Osijek was part of the Budin Eyalet, following the Battle of Mohács in 1687, Osijek was liberated by the Habsburg Monarchy on 29 September 1687. Osijek was restored to rule on 29 September 1687 when the Turks were ousted. Between 1712 and 1715, the Austrian authorities built a new fortress, outer walls and all five planned bastions known as Tvrđa, in the heart of the town. Holy Trinity Square is surrounded on the north by the building of the Military Command, on the west by the Main Guard building, in the middle of the square there is a monument to the plague which was erected in 1729 by general Maximilian Petras widow. The Gornji Grad was founded in 1692 and Donji Grad followed on 1698 settled mostly by the inhabitants from swampy area of Baranja, Tvrđa, Gornji, and Donji grad continued as separate municipalities until 1786 when they were united into a single entity. In late 18th century it took over from Virovitica as the centre of the Verőce county, the Habsburg empire also facilitated the migration and settlement of German immigrants into the town and region during this period. In 1809, Osijek was granted the title of a Free Royal City, the city developed along the lines of other central European cities, with cultural, architectural and socio-economic influences filtering down from Vienna and Buda. In the late 19th century and early 20th century, Osijek was the seat of the Virovitica County of the Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia, during the 19th century, cultural life mostly revolved around the theatre, museums, collections, and printing houses. City society, whose development was accompanied by an economy and developed trade relations, was related to religious festivals, public events, entertainment. The Novi Grad section of the city was built in the 19th century, the newest additions to the city include Sjenjak, Vijenac, Jug and Jug II, which were built in the twentieth century
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Toblach
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Toblach is a comune/Gemeinde in South Tyrol in northern Italy, located in the Puster Valley about 70 kilometres northeast of the city of Bolzano, on the border with Austria. As of November 30,2010, it had a population of 3,283, Toblach borders the following municipalities, Gsies, Innichen, Niederdorf, Prags, Auronzo di Cadore, Cortina dAmpezzo and Innervillgraten. The prominent mountain peaks, Tre Cime di Lavaredo/Drei Zinnen are located nearby, the Drava/Drau also flows from the nearby mountains, other rivers in the comune include the Rienz. The municipality of Toblach contains the frazione Aufkirchen/Santa Maria and Wahlen/San Silvestro, the escutcheon is divided vertically into two parts with a central circle, the colors are red and white alternating. It was the arms of the Lords of Herbstenburg who bought the castle in 1509, the emblem was granted in 1967. According to the 2011 census,84. 10% of the population speak German,15. 58% Italian and 0. 32% Ladin as first language, media related to Toblach at Wikimedia Commons Homepage of the municipality
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South Tyrol
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South Tyrol, also known by its alternative Italian name Alto Adige, is an autonomous province in northern Italy. It is one of the two provinces that make up the autonomous region of Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol. The province has an area of 7,400 square kilometres and its capital is the city of Bolzano. As of 2011, South Tyrol is among the wealthiest regions in Italy, South Tyrol is the term most commonly used in English for the province, and its usage reflects that it was created from a portion of the southern part of the historic County of Tyrol. German and Ladin speakers usually refer to the area as Südtirol, Alto Adige, one of the Italian names for the province, is also used in English. The term had been the name of political subdivisions along the Adige River in the time of Napoleon Bonaparte and it was reused as the Italian name of the current province after its post-World War I creation, and was a symbol of the subsequent forced Italianization of South Tyrol. The official name of the today in German is Autonome Provinz Bozen — Südtirol. German speakers usually refer to it not as a Provinz, provincial institutions are referred to using the prefix Landes-, such as Landesregierung and Landeshauptmann. The official name in Italian is Provincia autonoma di Bolzano — Alto Adige, South Tyrol as an administrative entity originated during the First World War. The Allies promised the area to Italy in the Treaty of London of 1915 as an incentive to enter the war on their side, with the rise of Fascism, the new regime made efforts to bring forward the Italianization of South Tyrol. The German language was banished from public service, German teaching was officially forbidden, the regime also favored immigration from other Italian regions. The subsequent alliance between Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini declared that South Tyrol would not follow the destiny of Austria, the region was de facto annexed to the German Reich until the end of the war. This status ended along with the Nazi regime, and Italian rule was restored in 1945, after the war the Allies decided that the province would remain a part of Italy, under the condition that the German-speaking population be granted a significant level of self-government. Italy and Austria negotiated an agreement in 1946, recognizing the rights of the German minority, alcide De Gasperi, Italys prime minister, a native of Trentino, wanted to extend the autonomy to his fellow citizens. This led to the creation of the region called Trentino-Alto Adige/Tiroler Etschland, German and Italian were both made official languages, and German-language education was permitted once more. Still Italians were the majority in the combined region, in a first phase, only public edifices and fascist monuments were targeted. The second phase was bloodier, costing 21 lives, the South Tyrolean question became an international issue. A fresh round of negotiations took place in 1961 but proved unsuccessful, the issue was resolved in 1971, when a new Austro-Italian treaty was signed and ratified
18.
Danube
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The Danube is Europes second-longest river, after the Volga River, and also the longest river in the European Union region. It is located in Central and Eastern Europe, the Danube was once a long-standing frontier of the Roman Empire, and today flows through 10 countries, more than any other river in the world. Its drainage basin extends into nine more countries, the Latin name Dānuvius is one of a number of Old European river names derived from a Proto-Indo-European *dānu. Other river names from the root include the Dunajec, Dzvina/Daugava, Don, Donets, Dnieper, Dniestr. In Rigvedic Sanskrit, dānu means fluid, drop, in Avestan, in the Rigveda, Dānu once appears as the mother of Vrtra. Known to the ancient Greeks as the Istros a borrowing from a Daco-Thracian name meaning strong, in Latin, the Danube was variously known as Danubius, Danuvius or as Ister. The Dacian/Thracian name was Donaris for the upper Danube and Istros for the lower Danube, the Thraco-Phrygian name was Matoas, the bringer of luck. The Latin name is masculine, as are all its Slavic names, the German Donau is feminine, as it has been re-interpreted as containing the suffix -ouwe wetland. Classified as a waterway, it originates in the town of Donaueschingen, in the Black Forest of Germany, at the confluence of the rivers Brigach. The Danube then flows southeast for about 2,800 km, passing through four capital cities before emptying into the Black Sea via the Danube Delta in Romania and its drainage basin extends into nine more. The highest point of the basin is the summit of Piz Bernina at the Italy–Switzerland border. The land drained by the Danube extends into other countries. Many Danubian tributaries are important rivers in their own right, navigable by barges, from its source to its outlet into the Black Sea, its main tributaries are, The Danube flows through many cities, including four national capitals, more than any other river in the world. Danube remains a mountain river until Passau, with average bottom gradient 0. 0012%. Middle Section, From Devín Gate to Iron Gate, at the border of Serbia and Romania, the riverbed widens and the average bottom gradient becomes only 0. 00006%. Lower Section, From Iron Gate to Sulina, with average gradient as little as 0. 00003%, about 60 of its tributaries are also navigable. In 1994 the Danube was declared one of ten Pan-European transport corridors, routes in Central, the amount of goods transported on the Danube increased to about 100 million tons in 1987. In 1999, transport on the river was difficult by the NATO bombing of three bridges in Serbia during the Kosovo War
19.
Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
20.
Black Sea
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The Black Sea is a body of water between Eastern Europe and Western Asia, bounded by Bulgaria, Georgia, Romania, Russia, Turkey, and Ukraine. It is supplied by a number of rivers, such as the Danube, Dnieper, Rioni, Southern Bug. The Black Sea has an area of 436,400 km2, a depth of 2,212 m. It is constrained by the Pontic Mountains to the south and by the Caucasus Mountains to the east, the longest east-west extent is about 1,175 km. The Black Sea has a water balance, that is, a net outflow of water 300 km3 per year through the Bosphorus. Mediterranean water flows into the Black Sea as part of a two-way hydrological exchange, the Black Sea drains into the Mediterranean Sea and then the Atlantic Ocean, via the Aegean Sea and various straits. The Bosphorus Strait connects it to the Sea of Marmara, and these waters separate Eastern Europe and Western Asia. The Black Sea is also connected to the Sea of Azov by the Strait of Kerch, the water level has varied significantly. Due to these variations in the level in the basin. At certain critical water levels it is possible for connections with surrounding water bodies to become established and it is through the most active of these connective routes, the Turkish Straits, that the Black Sea joins the world ocean. When this hydrological link is not present, the Black Sea is a basin, operating independently of the global ocean system. Currently the Black Sea water level is high, thus water is being exchanged with the Mediterranean. The Turkish Straits connect the Black Sea with the Aegean Sea, and comprise the Bosphorus, the Sea of Marmara, the International Hydrographic Organization defines the limits of the Black Sea as follows, On the Southwest. The Northeastern limit of the Sea of Marmara, a line joining Cape Takil and Cape Panaghia. Strabos Geographica reports that in antiquity, the Black Sea was often just called the Sea, for the most part, Graeco-Roman tradition refers to the Black Sea as the Hospitable sea, Εὔξεινος Πόντος Eúxeinos Póntos. This is a euphemism replacing an earlier Inhospitable Sea, Πόντος Ἄξεινος Póntos Áxeinos, strabo thinks that the Black Sea was called inhospitable before Greek colonization because it was difficult to navigate, and because its shores were inhabited by savage tribes. The name was changed to hospitable after the Milesians had colonized the southern shoreline and it is also possible that the epithet Áxeinos arose by popular etymology from a Scythian word axšaina- unlit, dark, the designation Black Sea may thus date from antiquity. A map of Asia dating to 1570, entitled Asiae Nova Descriptio, from Abraham Orteliuss Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, english-language writers of the 18th century often used the name Euxine Sea to refer to the Black Sea
21.
German language
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German is a West Germanic language that is mainly spoken in Central Europe. It is the most widely spoken and official language in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, South Tyrol, the German-speaking Community of Belgium and it is also one of the three official languages of Luxembourg. Major languages which are most similar to German include other members of the West Germanic language branch, such as Afrikaans, Dutch, English, Luxembourgish and it is the second most widely spoken Germanic language, after English. One of the languages of the world, German is the first language of about 95 million people worldwide. The German speaking countries are ranked fifth in terms of publication of new books. German derives most of its vocabulary from the Germanic branch of the Indo-European language family, a portion of German words are derived from Latin and Greek, and fewer are borrowed from French and English. With slightly different standardized variants, German is a pluricentric language, like English, German is also notable for its broad spectrum of dialects, with many unique varieties existing in Europe and also other parts of the world. The history of the German language begins with the High German consonant shift during the migration period, when Martin Luther translated the Bible, he based his translation primarily on the standard bureaucratic language used in Saxony, also known as Meißner Deutsch. Copies of Luthers Bible featured a long list of glosses for each region that translated words which were unknown in the region into the regional dialect. Roman Catholics initially rejected Luthers translation, and tried to create their own Catholic standard of the German language – the difference in relation to Protestant German was minimal. It was not until the middle of the 18th century that a widely accepted standard was created, until about 1800, standard German was mainly a written language, in urban northern Germany, the local Low German dialects were spoken. Standard German, which was different, was often learned as a foreign language with uncertain pronunciation. Northern German pronunciation was considered the standard in prescriptive pronunciation guides though, however, German was the language of commerce and government in the Habsburg Empire, which encompassed a large area of Central and Eastern Europe. Until the mid-19th century, it was essentially the language of townspeople throughout most of the Empire and its use indicated that the speaker was a merchant or someone from an urban area, regardless of nationality. Some cities, such as Prague and Budapest, were gradually Germanized in the years after their incorporation into the Habsburg domain, others, such as Pozsony, were originally settled during the Habsburg period, and were primarily German at that time. Prague, Budapest and Bratislava as well as cities like Zagreb, the most comprehensive guide to the vocabulary of the German language is found within the Deutsches Wörterbuch. This dictionary was created by the Brothers Grimm and is composed of 16 parts which were issued between 1852 and 1860, in 1872, grammatical and orthographic rules first appeared in the Duden Handbook. In 1901, the 2nd Orthographical Conference ended with a standardization of the German language in its written form
22.
Slovene language
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Slovene or Slovenian belongs to the group of South Slavic languages. It is spoken by approximately 2.5 million speakers worldwide and it is the first language of about 2.1 million Slovenian people and is one of the 24 official and working languages of the European Union. Standard Slovene is the standard language that was formed in the 18th century, mostly based on Upper and Lower Carniolan dialect groups. For example, the Resian and Torre dialects in the Italian Province of Udine differ most from other Slovene dialects, the distinctive characteristics of Slovene are dual grammatical number, two accentual norms, and abundant inflection. Although Slovene is basically an SVO language, word order is very flexible, Slovene has a T-V distinction, second-person plural forms are used for individuals as a sign of respect. Slovene and Slovak are the two modern Slavic languages whose names for themselves literally mean Slavic. Slovene is an Indo-European language belonging to the Western subgroup of the South Slavic branch of the Slavic languages, furthermore, Slovene shares certain linguistic characteristics with all South Slavic languages, including those of the Eastern subgroup, such as Bulgarian. The Slovene language also has commonalities with the West Slavic languages. Like all Slavic languages, Slovene traces its roots to the same group of languages that produced Old Church Slavonic. The earliest known examples of a distinct, written Slovene dialect are from the Freising Manuscripts, the consensus estimate of their date of origin is between 972 and 1093. These religious writings are among the oldest surviving manuscripts in any Slavic language and this linguistic border remained almost unchanged until the late 19th century, when a second process of Germanization took place, mostly in Carinthia. Between the 9th and 12th century, proto-Slovene spread into northern Istria, during most of the Middle Ages, Slovene was a vernacular language of the peasantry, although it was also spoken in most of the towns on Slovene territory, together with German or Italian. Although during this time, German emerged as the language of the nobility, Slovene had some role in the courtly life of the Carinthian, Carniolan and Styrian nobility. This is proved by the survival of certain ritual formulas in Slovene, the words Buge waz primi, gralva Venus. The first printed Slovene words, stara pravda, appeared in 1515 in Vienna in a poem of the German mercenaries who suppressed the Slovene peasant revolt. Standard Slovene emerged in the half of the 16th century, thanks to the works of Slovene Lutheran authors. During this period, German had a influence on Slovene. Many Slovene scientists before the 1920s also wrote in languages, mostly German
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Croatian language
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It is the official and literary standard of Croatia and one of the official languages of the European Union. Croatian is also one of the languages of Bosnia and Herzegovina, a recognized minority language in Serbia. Croatian is written in Gajs Latin alphabet, besides the Shtokavian dialect, on which Standard Croatian is based, there are two other main dialects, Chakavian and Kajkavian. It is still used now in parts of Istria, which became a crossroads of various mixtures of Chakavian with Ekavian/Ijekavian/Ikavian dialects, the cultural apex of this 17th century idiom is represented by the editions of Adrianskoga mora sirena by Petar Zrinski and Putni tovaruš by Katarina Zrinska. However, this first linguistic renaissance in Croatia was halted by the execution of Petar Zrinski. Subsequently the Croatian elite in the 18th century gradually abandoned this combined Croatian standard, specifically, three major groups of dialects were spoken on Croatian territory, and there had been several literary languages over four centuries. The leader of the Illyrian movement Ljudevit Gaj standardized the Latin alphabet in 1830–1850, the uniform Neo-Shtokavian then became common in the Croatian elite. In the 1860s, the Zagreb Philological School dominated the Croatian cultural life, drawing upon linguistic, while it was dominant over the rival Rijeka Philological School and Zadar Philological Schools, its influence waned with the rise of the Croatian Vukovians. Croatian is commonly characterized by the Ijekavian pronunciation, the use of the Latin alphabet. Some differences are absolute, while some appear mainly in the frequency of use, Croatian, although technically a form of Serbo-Croatian, is sometimes considered a distinct language by itself. Differences between various forms of Serbo-Croatian are often exaggerated for political reasons. Most Croatian linguists regard Croatian as a language that is considered key to national identity. The issue is sensitive in Croatia as the notion of a language being the most important characteristic of a nation is widely accepted. The terms Serbo-Croatian or Serbo-Croat are still used as a term for all these forms by foreign scholars. Within ex-Yugoslavia, the term has largely replaced by the ethnic terms Serbian, Croatian. In 2013, the EU started publishing a Croatian language version of its official gazette, Standard Croatian is the official language of the Republic of Croatia and, along with Standard Bosnian and Standard Serbian, one of three official languages of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is also official in the regions of Burgenland, Molise, additionally, it has co-official status alongside Romanian in the communes of Carașova and Lupac, Romania. Croatian is officially used and taught at all the universities in Croatia, there is no regulatory body that determines the proper usage of Croatian
24.
Hungarian language
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Hungarian is the official language of Hungary and one of the 24 official languages of the European Union. Outside Hungary it is spoken by communities of Hungarian people in neighbouring countries. Like Finnish and Estonian, it belongs to the Uralic language family, its closest relatives being Mansi and it is one of several European languages not part of the Indo-European languages, and the most widely-spoken European language that does not belong to the Indo-European family. The Hungarian name for the language is magyar or magyar nyelv, the word Magyar is used as an English and Hungarian word to refer to Hungarian people as an ethnic group. Hungarian is a member of the Uralic language family, the name of Hungary could be a result of regular sound changes of Ungrian/Ugrian, and the fact that the Eastern Slavs referred to Hungarians as Ǫgry/Ǫgrove seemed to confirm that. Current literature favors the hypothesis that it comes from the name of the Turkic tribe Onogur, there are numerous regular sound correspondences between Hungarian and the other Ugric languages. For example, Hungarian /aː/ corresponds to Khanty /o/ in certain positions, for example, Hungarian ház house vs. Khanty xot house, and Hungarian száz hundred vs. Khanty sot hundred. The distance between the Ugric and Finnic languages is greater, but the correspondences are also regular, during the later half of the 19th century, a competing hypothesis proposed a Turkic affinity of Hungarian. Following an academic debate known as Az ugor-török háború, the Finno-Ugric hypothesis was concluded the sounder of the two, foremost based on work by the German linguist Josef Budenz. The traditional view argues that the Hungarian language separated from its Ugric relatives in the first half of the 1st millennium b. c. e. in western Siberia, east of the southern Urals. The Hungarians gradually changed their lifestyle from settled hunters to nomadic pastoralists, in Hungarian, Iranian loans date back to the time immediately following the breakup of Ugric and probably span well over a millennium. Among these include tehén ‘cow’, tíz ‘ten’, tej ‘milk’, increasing archaeological evidence from present-day southern Bashkortostan found in the previous decades confirms the existence of Hungarian settlements between the Volga River and Ural Mountains. The Onogurs later had a influence on the language, especially between the 5th-9th centuries. This layer of Turkic loans is large and varied, and includes words borrowed from Oghur Turkic, e. g. borjú ‘calf’, dél ‘noon, many words related to agriculture, to state administration or even to family relations have such backgrounds. Hungarian syntax and grammar were not influenced in a dramatic way during these 300 years. After the arrival of the Hungarians into the Carpathian Basin the language came into contact with different speech communities, Turkic loans from this period come mainly from the Pechenegs and Cumanians who settled in Hungary during the 12th-13th centuries, e. g. koboz ‘cobza’, komondor ‘mop dog’. Hungarian borrowed many words from especially the neighbouring Slavic languages, in exchange, these languages also borrowed words from Hungarian, e. g. Serbo-Croatian ašov from Hung ásó ‘spade’. Approximately 1. 6% of the Romanian lexicon is of Hungarian origin, on the basis of the growing genetic evidence, the accepted origin theory is contested by geneticists too
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Central Europe
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Central Europe lies between Eastern Europe and Western Europe. The concept of Central Europe is based on a historical, social and cultural identity. Central Europe is going through a phase of strategic awakening, with such as the CEI, Centrope. While the regions economy shows high disparities with regard to income, elements of unity for Western and Central Europe were Roman Catholicism and Latin. According to Hungarian historian Jenő Szűcs, foundations of Central European history at the first millennium were in connection with Western European development. The keyword of Western social development after millennium was the spread of liberties and autonomies in Western Europe and these phenomena appeared in the middle of the 13th century in Central European countries. There were self-governments of towns, counties and parliaments, in 1335 under the rule of the King Charles I of Hungary, the castle of Visegrád, the seat of the Hungarian monarchs was the scene of the royal summit of the Kings of Poland, Bohemia and Hungary. They agreed to cooperate closely in the field of politics and commerce, in the Middle Ages, countries in Central Europe adopted Magdeburg rights. Before 1870, the industrialization that had developed in Western and Central Europe, even in Eastern Europe, industrialization lagged far behind. Russia, for example, remained rural and agricultural. The concept of Central Europe was already known at the beginning of the 19th century, an example of that-time vision of Central Europe may be seen in J. Partsch’s book of 1903. On 21 January 1904, Mitteleuropäischer Wirtschaftsverein was established in Berlin with economic integration of Germany, another time, the term Central Europe became connected to the German plans of political, economic and cultural domination. The bible of the concept was Friedrich Naumann’s book Mitteleuropa in which he called for a federation to be established after the war. The concept failed after the German defeat in World War I, the revival of the idea may be observed during the Hitler era. According to Emmanuel de Martonne, in 1927 the Central European countries included, Austria, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Hungary, Poland, Romania, italy and Yugoslavia are not considered by the author to be Central European because they are located mostly outside Central Europe. The author use both Human and Physical Geographical features to define Central Europe, the interwar period brought new geopolitical system and economic and political problems, and the concept of Central Europe took a different character. The centre of interest was moved to its eastern part – the countries that have appeared on the map of Europe, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, however, the conflict of interests was too big and neither Little Entente nor Intermarium ideas succeeded. The interwar period brought new elements to the concept of Central Europe, after the war, the Eastern part of Central Europe was placed at the centre of the concept
26.
Tisza
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The Tisza or Tisa is one of the main rivers of Central Europe. Once, it was called the most Hungarian river because it flowed entirely within the Kingdom of Hungary, today, it crosses several national borders. The Tisza begins near Rakhiv in Ukraine, at the confluence of the White Tisa, from there, the Tisza flows west, roughly following Ukraines borders with Romania, then Hungary, and finally Serbia. It traverses Hungary from north to south, a few kilometers south of the Hungarian city of Szeged, it enters Serbia. Finally, it joins the Danube near the village of Novi Slankamen in Vojvodina, the Tisza drains an area of about 156,087 km2 and has a length of 965 km —the largest catchment and greatest length of any of the Danubes tributaries. Its mean annual discharge is 792 m3/s and it contributes about 13% of the Danubes total runoff. Attila the Hun is said to have been buried under a section of the river Tisza. The river was known as the Tisia in antiquity, other ancient names for it included Tissus and Pathissus and it may be referred to as the Theiss in older English references, after the German name for the river, Theiß. It is known as the Tibisco in Italian, and in older French references it is referred to as the Tibisque. Modern names for the Tisza in the languages of the countries it flows through include, Romanian, Tisa, Ukrainian, Тиса, Slovak, Tisa, Hungarian, Tisza, Serbian, Тиса, the length of the Tisza in Hungary used to be 1419 km. It flowed through the Great Hungarian Plain, which is one of the largest flat areas in central Europe. Since plains can cause a river to flow very slowly, the Tisza used to follow a path with curves and turns. After several small-scale attempts, István Széchenyi organised the regulation of the Tisza which started on August 27,1846, and substantially ended in 1880. The new length of the river in Hungary was 966 km, in the 1970s, the building of the Tisza Dam at Kisköre started with the purpose of helping to control floods as well as storing water for drought seasons. However, the resulting Lake Tisza became one of the most popular tourist destinations in Hungary since it had similar features to Lake Balaton at drastically cheaper prices and was not crowded, the Tisza is navigable over much of its course. The river opened up for international navigation only recently, before, Hungary distinguished national rivers and international rivers, after Hungary joined the European Union, this distinction was lifted and vessels were allowed on the Tisza. Conditions of navigation differ with the circumstances, when the river is in flood, it is often unnavigable, the Tisza has a rich and varied wildlife. Over 200 species of birds reside in the reserve of Tiszafűred
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Sava
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The Sava is a river in Central and Southeastern Europe, a right tributary of the Danube. It flows through Slovenia, Croatia, along the border of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Its central part is a border of Bosnia-Herzegovina and Croatia. The Sava forms the border of the Balkan Peninsula. The Sava is 990 kilometres long, including the 45-kilometre Sava Dolinka headwater rising in Zelenci and it is the greatest tributary of the Danube by volume of water, and second-largest after Tisza in terms of catchment area and length. It drains a significant portion of the Dinaric Alps region, through the tributaries of Drina, Bosna, Kupa, Una, Vrbas, Lonja, Kolubara, Bosut. The Sava is one of the longest rivers in Europe and among a handful of European rivers of that length that do not drain directly into a sea. The population in the Sava River basin is estimated at 8,176,000, the Sava is navigable for larger vessels from the confluence of the Kupa River in Sisak, Croatia, approximately two-thirds of its length. The Sava River is formed from the Sava Dolinka and the Sava Bohinjka headwaters in northwest Slovenia, the Sava Dolinka rises at the Zelenci Pools near Kranjska Gora, Slovenia, in a valley separating the Julian Alps from the Karavanke mountain range. The spring is located near the Slovene-Italian border at 833 metres above sea level, the Sava Dolinka spring is fed by groundwater possibly exhibiting bifurcation of source karst aquifer to the Sava and Soča basins. Nadiža creek, a losing stream flowing nearby, is the source of Zelenci Pools water. The Sava Dolinka is considered the Savas initial, 45-kilometre segment, the Sava Bohinjka originates in Ribčev Laz, at the confluence of the Jezernica, a short watercourse flowing out from Lake Bohinj and the Mostnica River. The watercourse flows 41 kilometres —including the length of the Savica—east to Radovljica, downstream from the confluence, the river is referred to as the Sava. The Sava is located in Southeast Europe, flowing through Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia and its total length is 990 kilometres, including the 45-kilometre Sava Dolinka and the 945-kilometre Sava proper. As a right tributary of the Danube, the river belongs to the Black Sea drainage basin and it is also the largest tributary of the Danube by discharge. The river course is used to describe the northern boundary of the Balkans. Before the breakup of Yugoslavia in 1991, the river was located completely inside Yugoslav borders, downstream of Radovljica, the Sava proceeds southeast towards Kranj. Between Kranj and Medvode, its course comprises the Lake Trboje and the Lake Zbilje reservoirs, built for the Mavčiče, the Sava then flows through the capital of Slovenia, Ljubljana, where another reservoir is located on the river, adjacent to the Tacen Whitewater Course
28.
Prut
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The Prut is a 953 km long river in Eastern Europe. In part of its course it forms Romanias border with Moldova, the Pruth was known in antiquity as the Pyretus, Porata, Hierasus or Gerasius. It originates on the slope of Mount Hoverla, in the Carpathian Mountains in Ukraine. The Prut flows southeast, eventually joining the Danube river near Giurgiulești, between 1918 and 1939, the river was partly in Poland and partly in Greater Romania. After the German invasion of Poland in 1939, it became almost entirely Romanian, prior to World War I, it served as a border between Romania and the Russian Empire. After World War II, the once again demarcated a border. Nowadays, for a length of 695 km, it forms the border between Romania and Moldova and it has a hydrographic basin of 27,500 km2, of which 10,990 km2 are in Romania and 7,790 km2 in Moldova. The largest city along its banks is Chernivtsi, Ukraine, the Stânca-Costești Dam, operated jointly by Moldova and Romania, is built on the Pruth. There is also a Hydro-Electric Station in Snyatyn, ships travel from the rivers mouth to the port city of Leova. The Turks and Crimean Tatars attacked first against Sheremetev, who retreated to the other side to join Peter the Great. Afterwards the Russian army set up a camp between Stănilești and the river, which was then completely surrounded by the Ottoman army. Negotiations started on 21 July 1711 and the Treaty of the Prut was signed on 23 July 1711, after this treaty, Dimitrie Cantemir had to go in exile at Moscow. This treaty means the end of local dynasties of kings and instauration of rulers from Fanar, sydir Vorobkevych, Within that Prut Valley. Within that Prut Valley a cabin rests close In which lives a lassie—a beautiful rose, Her eyes like the stars that lighten the sky, When you see them, laddie. Within that Prut Valley the moon does not shine, Tis only a lover has come to his shrine, a sweet conversation in murmur now goes While dreamy old river just quietly flows. Within that Prut Valley the flowers are plucked And wreathes for the wedding with myrtle are tucked, Inside of the cabin play fiddles and bass While friends sing together, legend about Prut and Hoverla In one village lived a boy who was called Prut. One time he worked for so long that by the evening decided to stay overnight in the mountains and he found a big pine tree and slept underneath it. During his sleep he saw a dream as a very beautiful girl all in green came to him
29.
Innichen
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Innichen is a market town and comune in South Tyrol in northern Italy. It is located in the Puster Valley on the Drava River, about 80 kilometres northeast of Bolzano and it hosts Italy’s International Snow Sculpture Festival each year. As November 2010, it had a population of 3,175, Innichen borders the municipalities of Toblach, Innervillgraten, Sexten, and Sillian. Innichen is home to the Innichen Abbey, founded in the late 8th century, the abbey itself was disestablished in 1785, while the surrounding estates were acquired by the County of Tyrol after the Mediatisation of 1803. According to the Treaty of Saint-Germain terms, Innichen became part of Kingdom of Italy in 1919, Innichen is still the site of a Franciscan monastery founded in 1691. The tower has settled on vert countryside and gules and this kind of representation points out that the site was once under the rule of the Bishops of Freising owners of a large area in the region from 769 to 1803. The coat of arms was granted by King Albert I of Germany in 1303, according to the 2011 census,85. 06% of the population spoke German,14. 64% Italian and 0. 30% Ladin as first language. Innichen is twinned with, Freising, Germany, since 1969 Official website Media related to Innichen at Wikimedia Commons
30.
Puster Valley
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The Puster Valley is a valley in the Alps that runs in an east-west direction between Lienz in East Tyrol, Austria and Mühlbach near Brixen in South Tyrol, Italy. The municipalities of the Puster Valley constitute the Puster Valley district, East of Sillian, the Puster Valley leaves the Peradriatic Line and turns to the northeast towards Lienz. Half of the valley drains to the west to the Adriatic via the Adige river, the watershed lies in the shallow valley floor called Toblacher Feld. The Rienz river flows westwards through the Puster Valley and the Drau river flows eastwards into East Tyrol, the eastern part of the valley on the upper Drava is called Upper Puster Valley. The towns in the Puster Valley are located between 750 and 1,180 meters above sea level. The most important of these towns in the valley are Toblach, Welsberg-Taisten, Olang, and Bruneck, the most important in the eastern valley are Innichen, Sexten. The largest tributaries of the Rienz river form the Antholzer Bach, the Ahr, the Pragser Bach, the Gsieser Bach, the Gran Ega, the Pfunderer Bach, the Puster Valleys largest side valley is the Tauferer Ahrntal. The Draus largest eastern tributaries are the Sextner Bach and the Villgraten-Bach, the Puster Valley District was founded in 1969 with the merger of 26 municipalities. Its combined area is 2,071 km² and its population is over 73,000, according to the 2001 census,80. 96% of the population of the valley speak German,13. 40% Ladin, and 5. 64% Italian as their native language. The following municipalities are part of the Puster Valley District, Media related to Puster Valley at Wikimedia Commons Puster Valley District
31.
East Tyrol
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East Tyrol, occasionally East Tirol, is an exclave of the Austrian state of Tyrol, separated from the main North Tyrol part by the short common border of Salzburg and Italian South Tyrol. It is congruent with the district of Lienz. The area around the former Roman municipium of Aguntum was from the 12th century held by the Counts of Gorizia, while Tyrol was lost to the Austrian House of Habsburg in 1363, the Gorizian counts retained Lienz until the extinction of the line in 1500. Emperor Maximilian I of Habsburg finally incorporated it into Austrian Tyrol, East Tyrols present-day situation arose from the defeat of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in World War I and its subsequent dissolution. After the Austrian Anschluss in 1938 East Tyrol became part of the Reichsgau Kärnten and it was returned to the Tyrol in 1947. After World War II East Tyrol became part of the British occupied zone of Austria and it is separated from the Tyrolean district of Schwaz in North Tyrol by a 9.5 km long common border of South Tyrol with the Salzburg Pinzgau region. The High Tauern National Park is in East Tyrol, along with several mountains including the Großglockner, History of Tyrol History of South Tyrol Trentino Euroregion Tyrol-South Tyrol-Trentino
32.
Carinthia
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Carinthia is the southernmost Austrian state or Land. Situated within the Eastern Alps, it is noted for its mountains and its regional dialects belong to the Southern Bavarian group. Carinthian Slovene dialects, which predominated in the part of the region up to the first half of the 20th century, are now spoken by a small minority. Carinthias main industries are tourism, electronics, engineering, forestry, the multinational corporations Philips, Infineon and Siemens have large operations there. The etymology of the name “Carinthia”, similar to Carnia or Carniola, has not been conclusively established, the Ravenna Cosmography referred to a Slavic “Carantani” tribe as the eastern neighbours of the Bavarians. In his History of the Lombards, the 8th century chronicler Paul the Deacon mentions “Slavs in Carnuntum, likewise the Slovene name *korǫtanъ may have been adopted from the Latin *carantanum. The toponym Carinthia is also claimed to be related, deriving from pre-Slavic *carantia. The state stretches about 180 km in east-west and 70 km in north-south direction, with 9,536 km2 it is the fifth largest Austrian state by area. Most of the larger Carinthian towns and lakes are situated within the Klagenfurt Basin in the southeast and these Lower Carinthian lands differ from the mountainous Upper Carinthian region in the northwest, stretching up to the Alpine crest. The Carinthian lands are confined by mountain ranges, the Carnic Alps, the High Tauern mountain range with Mt Grossglockner,3,797 m, separates it from the state of Salzburg in the northwest. To the northeast and east beyond the Pack Saddle mountain pass is the state of Styria, the main river of Carinthia is the Drava, it makes up a continuous valley with East Tyrol to the west. Tributaries are the Gurk, the Glan, the Lavant, carinthias lakes including Wörther See, Millstätter See, Ossiacher See, and Faaker See are a major tourist attraction. The capital city is Klagenfurt, which in Slovenian is called Celovec, the next important town is Villach, both strongly linked economically. While some of these Slovene place names are official designations, the majority are Slovene colloquial usage, Carinthia has a humid continental climate, with hot and moderately wet summers and long harsh winters. In recent decades, winters have been exceptionally arid, the summer precipitation maxima often takes the form of heavy rain and thunderstorms, especially in the mountainous regions. The main Alpine ridge in the north is a divide with pronounced windward and leeward sides where foehn occurs regularly. Due to the terrain, numerous distinct microclimates exist. Nevertheless, the amount of sunshine hours is the highest of all states in Austria
33.
Styria (Slovenia)
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Styria, also Slovenian Styria or Lower Styria, is a traditional region in northeastern Slovenia, comprising the southern third of the former Duchy of Styria. The population of Styria in its historical boundaries amounts to around 705,000 inhabitants, the first two parts, predominantly German-speaking, today form the Austrian state of Styria. The southern third, predominantly Slovene-speaking, is part of Slovenia. The Austrian rulers had the estates developed benefitting the Lower Styrian towns, according to the last Austro-Hungarian census of 1910, Lower Styria had around 498,000 inhabitants, of which around 82% were Slovene and around 18% German speakers. After a short fight with German-Austrian paramilitary units, the current border was established, acknowledged by the provisional Styrian assembly at Graz, by December 1918, all of Lower Styria was de facto included in the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes. A protest by German-speaking Marburg citizens resulted in the Marburg Bloody Sunday, confirmed by the 1919 Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye, the border between Yugoslav and Austrian Styria mostly followed the ethnic-linguistic dividing line between Slovenes and ethnic Germans. Nevertheless, several Slovene-speaking villages around Leutschach, Spielberg, Soboth, according to the 1921 Yugoslav census, some 22,500 ethnic Germans lived in Yugoslav Styria. They represented around 4. 5% of the population of the region. In 1931, this dropped to around 12,500 or 2. 3% of the regional population. In 1922, the County of Maribor was formed, comprising most of the territory of Slovene Styria, plus the Prekmurje, after the coup detat of King Alexander I of Yugoslavia in January 1929, the counties were abolished and replaced with nine Banates. In April 1941, Nazi Germany invaded Yugoslavia and Slovene Styria was annexed to the Third Reich, a policy of violent Germanization was introduced. Public use of Slovene language was prohibited, and all Slovene associations were dissolved, members of all professional and intellectual groups, including many clergymen, were expelled. Between April 1941 and May 1942, around 80,000 Slovenes were expelled from Lower Styria, as a reaction, a resistance movement developed. Many areas of Lower Styria witnessed fierce fighting between German troops and Slovene partisan units, after World War II, Yugoslav authority over the region was established and Slovene Styria became an integral part of the Socialist Republic of Slovenia. Between the 1950s and 1970s, many areas of the region underwent rapid industrializations, towns like Maribor, Celje and Velenje became among the most important industrial centers of Slovenia and Yugoslavia. Lower Styria has no status as an administrative or statistical unit within Slovenia. The bulk of Lower Styria is subdivided between the Drava Statistical Region with its seat in Maribor, and the Savinja Statistical Region with its seat in Celje, nowadays, many of these peripheral areas are no longer considered part of Styria. An exception is the Prlekija subregion, which is widely considered part of Styria
34.
Mur (river)
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The Mur or Mura is a river in Central Europe rising in the Hohe Tauern national park of the Central Eastern Alps in Austria with its source being 1,898 m above sea level. It is a tributary of the Drava and subsequently the Danube, the Murs total length is around 480 kilometres. About 330 km are within the interior of Austria,95 km flow in and around Slovenia, the largest city on the river is Graz, Austria. Its basin covers an area of 13,800 km2, tributaries of the Mur include the Mürz, the Sulm, the Ščavnica, the Ledava and the Trnava. The river rises in a valley within the Lungau region of Austrian state of Salzburg. The river flows eastwards through Tamsweg before crossing the border into the state of Styria, between Tamsweg and Unzmarkt-Frauenburg the river flows through a rural mountain valley and is closely paralleled by the 65 km long narrow gauge Murtalbahn railway. From Unzmarkt the river continues in a direction through the industrial towns of Leoben. At Bruck an der Mur the Mürz joins the Mur, which turns south to flow through the city of Graz. The river flows through the centre of Graz, passing underneath the Schloßberg, as a result of being the European Capital of Culture for 2003, an artificial island known as the Murinsel was constructed in the middle of the river. Once heavily polluted by several mills on the shore and by the ironworks around Leoben, the water quality has improved since the 1980s. From Graz the river continues to south, past the town of Leibnitz to its nearby confluence with the Sulm. Near Spielfeld, the forms the border between Austria and Slovenia, a role it retains until just after the twin towns of Bad Radkersburg and Gornja Radgona. In Slovenia it passes the towns of Radenci, and Veržej, the river gives its name to the Slovenian region of Prekmurje and the Croatian region of Međimurje. Cable ferries and ship mills are found in this area. In the upper Međimurje area, in the part of the region. Here, the biggest forest along the river, the Murščak, is located between Domašinec and Donji Hrašćan, after receiving its last significant tributary Trnava, the river ends near Legrad in Koprivnica-Križevci county, Croatia, where it flows into the Drava River. Since the 4th century BC, there have reports of floating mills powered by the streams of the river. The ancient technology was adopted later by arriving Slavs and then by Magyars, several decades ago, in the 1920s and 1930s, many of these mills were still operating along the river
35.
Sanskrit language
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Sanskrit is the primary liturgical language of Hinduism, a philosophical language of Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism, and a literary language and lingua franca of ancient and medieval South Asia. As a result of transmission of Hindu and Buddhist culture to Southeast Asia and parts of Central Asia, as one of the oldest Indo-European languages for which substantial written documentation exists, Sanskrit holds a prominent position in Indo-European studies. The body of Sanskrit literature encompasses a rich tradition of poetry and drama as well as scientific, technical, philosophical, the compositions of Sanskrit were orally transmitted for much of its early history by methods of memorization of exceptional complexity, rigor, and fidelity. Thereafter, variants and derivatives of the Brahmi script came to be used, Sanskrit is today one of the 22 languages listed in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution of India, which mandates the Indian government to develop the language. It continues to be used as a ceremonial language in Hindu religious rituals and Buddhist practice in the form of hymns. The Sanskrit verbal adjective sáṃskṛta- may be translated as refined, elaborated, as a term for refined or elaborated speech, the adjective appears only in Epic and Classical Sanskrit in the Manusmṛti and the Mahabharata. The pre-Classical form of Sanskrit is known as Vedic Sanskrit, with the language of the Rigveda being the oldest and most archaic stage preserved, Classical Sanskrit is the standard register as laid out in the grammar of Pāṇini, around the fourth century BCE. Sanskrit, as defined by Pāṇini, evolved out of the earlier Vedic form, the present form of Vedic Sanskrit can be traced back to as early as the second millennium BCE. Scholars often distinguish Vedic Sanskrit and Classical or Pāṇinian Sanskrit as separate dialects, although they are quite similar, they differ in a number of essential points of phonology, vocabulary, grammar and syntax. Vedic Sanskrit is the language of the Vedas, a collection of hymns, incantations and theological and religio-philosophical discussions in the Brahmanas. Modern linguists consider the metrical hymns of the Rigveda Samhita to be the earliest, for nearly 2000 years, Sanskrit was the language of a cultural order that exerted influence across South Asia, Inner Asia, Southeast Asia, and to a certain extent East Asia. A significant form of post-Vedic Sanskrit is found in the Sanskrit of Indian epic poetry—the Ramayana, the deviations from Pāṇini in the epics are generally considered to be on account of interference from Prakrits, or innovations, and not because they are pre-Paninian. Traditional Sanskrit scholars call such deviations ārṣa, meaning of the ṛṣis, in some contexts, there are also more prakritisms than in Classical Sanskrit proper. There were four principal dialects of classical Sanskrit, paścimottarī, madhyadeśī, pūrvi, the predecessors of the first three dialects are attested in Vedic Brāhmaṇas, of which the first one was regarded as the purest. In the 2001 Census of India,14,035 Indians reported Sanskrit to be their first language, in India, Sanskrit is among the 14 original languages of the Eighth Schedule to the Constitution. The state of Uttarakhand in India has ruled Sanskrit as its official language. In October 2012 social activist Hemant Goswami filed a petition in the Punjab. More than 3,000 Sanskrit works have been composed since Indias independence in 1947, much of this work has been judged of high quality, in comparison to both classical Sanskrit literature and modern literature in other Indian languages
36.
Celtic languages
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The Celtic languages are descended from Proto-Celtic, or Common Celtic, a branch of the greater Indo-European language family. Modern Celtic languages are spoken on the north-western edge of Europe, notably in Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Brittany, Cornwall. There are also a number of Welsh speakers in the Patagonia area of Argentina. Some people speak Celtic languages in the other Celtic diaspora areas of the United States, Canada, Australia, in all these areas, the Celtic languages are now only spoken by minorities though there are continuing efforts at revitalisation. Welsh is the only Celtic language not classified as endangered by UNESCO, the spread to Cape Breton and Patagonia occurred in modern times. SIL Ethnologue lists six living Celtic languages, of four have retained a substantial number of native speakers. These are the Goidelic languages and the Brittonic languages, the other two, Cornish and Manx, died in modern times with their presumed last native speakers in 1777 and 1974 respectively. For both these languages, however, revitalisation movements have led to the adoption of these languages by adults and children, taken together, there were roughly one million native speakers of Celtic languages as of the 2000s. In 2010, there were more than 1.4 million speakers of Celtic languages, shelta, based largely on Irish with influence from an undocumented source. Some forms of Welsh-Romani or Kååle also combined Romany itself with Welsh language, beurla-reagaird, Highland travellers language Celtic divided into various branches, Lepontic, the oldest attested Celtic language. Anciently spoken in Switzerland and in Northern-Central Italy, from the Alps to Umbria, coins with Lepontic inscriptions have been found in Noricum and Gallia Narbonensis. Celtiberian, anciently spoken in the Iberian peninsula, in parts of modern Galicia, Asturias, La Rioja, Aragón, Cantabria, Old Castile, the relationship of Celtiberian with Gallaecian, in the northwest of the peninsula, is uncertain. Gallaecian, anciently spoken in the former Gallaecia, northwest of the peninsula, Gaulish languages, including Galatian and possibly Noric. These languages were spoken in a wide arc from Belgium to Turkey. Brittonic, including the living languages Breton, Cornish, and Welsh, before the arrival of Scotti on the Isle of Man in the 9th century, there may have been a Brittonic language in the Isle of Man. Goidelic, including the living languages Irish, Manx, and Scottish Gaelic, scholarly handling of the Celtic languages has been rather argumentative owing to scarceness of primary source data. Other scholars distinguish between P-Celtic and Q-Celtic, putting most of the Gaulish and Brittonic languages in the former group, the P-Celtic languages are sometimes seen as a central innovating area as opposed to the more conservative peripheral Q-Celtic languages. In the P/Q classification schema, the first language to split off from Proto-Celtic was Gaelic and it has characteristics that some scholars see as archaic, but others see as also being in the Brittonic languages
37.
Illyrian languages
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The Illyrian languages are part of the Indo-European language family. The relation of the Illyrian languages to other Indo-European languages—ancient and modern—is poorly understood due to the paucity of data and is still being examined, a grouping of Illyrian with the Messapian language has been proposed for about a century, but remains an unproven hypothesis. The theory is based on sources, archaeology and onomastics. Messapian material culture bears a number of similarities to Illyrian material culture, Some Messapian anthroponyms have close Illyrian equivalents. A grouping of Illyrian with the Venetic language and Liburnian language, once spoken in northeastern Italy, the consensus now is that Illyrian was quite distinct from Venetic and Liburnian. The relation between Venetic and Illyrian was later discredited and they are no longer considered closely related and they also point to other toponyms including Osseriates derived from /*eghero/ or Birziminium from PIE /*bherǵh/ or Asamum from PIE /*aḱ-mo/. For example, Vescleves has been explained as PIE *wesu-ḱlewes, also, the name Acrabanus as a compound name has been compared with Ancient Greek /akros/ with no signs of palatalization, or Clausal has been related to /*klew/. However, it has shown that even in Albanian and Balto-Slavic. Even the name Gentius or Genthius does not help to solve the problem since we have two Illyrian forms Genthius and Zanatis. If Gentius or Genthius derives from *ǵen- this is proof of a Centum language, another problem related to the name Gentius is that nowadays it cannot be stated surely if the initial /g/ of the sources was a palatovelar or a labiovelar. However, the insufficiency of this theory is that so far there is no certainty as to the historical or etymological development of either ardhja/hardhi or Ardiaioi, as with many other words. Bindo/Bindus, an Illyrian deity from Bihać, Bosnia and Herzegovina, cf. Alb. bind to convince or to make believe, bilia daughter, cf. Alb. bijë, dial. I madh big, great mantía bramblebush, Old and dial, Alb. mandë berry, mulberry Ragusa-Ragusium grape, cf. Proto-Alb. Ragusha rhinos fog, mist, cf. Old Alb. ren cloud Vendum place, wen-ta The Greeks were the first literate people to come into frequent contact with the speakers of Illyrian languages. Their conception of Illyrioi, however, differed from what the Romans would later call Illyricum, the Greek term encompassed only the peoples who lived on the borders of Macedonia and Epirus. Pliny the Elder, in his work Natural History, applies a stricter usage of the term Illyrii when speaking of Illyrii proprie dicti among the communities in the south of Roman Dalmatia. For a couple of centuries before and after the Roman conquest in the late 1st century BC, finally it encompassed all native peoples from the Adriatic to the Danube, inhabiting the Roman provinces of Dalmatia, Pannonia and Moesia, regardless of their ethnic and cultural differences. An extensive study of Illyrian names and territory was undertaken by Hans Krahe in the first decades of the twentieth century
38.
Old European hydronymy
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Old European is the term used by Hans Krahe for the language of the oldest reconstructed stratum of European hydronymy in Central and Western Europe. The character of these names is pre-Indo-European and dated by Krahe to the 2nd millennium BC. Of the three Mediterranean peninsulas, Italy was most completely included, whilst the Balkan Peninsula was only scarcely covered and this area is associated with the spread of the later Western Indo-European dialects, the Celtic, Italic, Germanic, Baltic, and Illyrian branches. He uses mainly Indo-European roots to allow the names in question to speak of which more than 10,000 are listed. In Morphology of Paleoeuropean river names III A1 number 3, Krahe concentrates on suffixes and distinguishes eleven different ones in a table and he attributes geographical, functional or temporal functions to the suffixes of the river names. For the temporal function he claims the existence of a system of phonetic changes, Krahe ignored the impact of Moorish occupation in Spain, which led to frequent combinations of Arab prefixes on Celtic suffixes as seen in Guadiana. Jürgen Untermann, a disciple of Krahe with dissertation 1954 in Tübingen was professor for Comparative Linguistics at the University of Cologne and he was an epigraphist and Indoeuropeanist. Antonio Tovar, with studies in Berlin, later professor of the University of Salamanca, was professor for Comparative Linguistics in Tübingen from 1967 to 1979. Together with Manuel Agud and Koldo Mitxelena he prepared an unedited etymological dictionary of the Basque language, Mitxelena was only the creator of the modern Basque language. This is in fact the most comprehensive publication on Gaulish words and he presents all cases of appearance of toponyms and hydronyms in question, cites authors and roots, showing alternatives, and classifies, if necessary, as uncertain or questionable. He shows all river name examples with prefixes, for example, see comparison of old hydronyms adding water, clear, hard stone, etc. The German linguist Theo Vennemann suggested in 2003 that the language of the old European hydronyms was agglutinative and this theory has been criticised as being seriously flawed, and the more generally accepted view is that hydronyms are of Indo-European origin. However, the idea of Old European was criticized by Untermann in 1999, villar Liébana is a supporter of Gimbutas against the theories of Colin Renfrew. In his work, Indoeuropeos y No Indoeuropeos en la Hispania Prerromana he presents a nine root series and a few more collective series, mainly of toponyms but also including hydronyms. For example, in chapter IV B VII Liebana discusses hydronyms of the series uba starting with Maenuba = modern Veléz and with the same name affluent of the Baetis = Guadiamar, Salduba. He compares modern rivers like Ubia, Ove, Fonte dos Ovos with, amongst others, the Danube, the map on the right shows Old European hydronymic maps for the root *var-, *ver-
39.
Tourmaline
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Tourmaline is a crystalline boron silicate mineral compounded with elements such as aluminium, iron, magnesium, sodium, lithium, or potassium. Tourmaline is classified as a stone and the gemstone comes in a wide variety of colors. The name comes from the Tamil and Sinhalese word Turmali or Thoramalli, brightly colored Sri Lankan gem tourmalines were brought to Europe in great quantities by the Dutch East India Company to satisfy a demand for curiosities and gems. At the time it was not realised that schorl and tourmaline were the same mineral, tourmaline was sometimes called the Ceylonese Magnet because it could attract and then repel hot ashes due to its pyroelectric properties. Tourmalines were used by chemists in the 19th century to light by shining rays onto a cut. It may account for 95% or more of all tourmaline in nature, the early history of the mineral schorl shows that the name schorl was in use prior to 1400 because a village known today as Zschorlau was then named Schorl. This village had a tin mine where, in addition to cassiterite. The first description of schorl with the name schürl and its occurrence was written by Johannes Mathesius in 1562 under the title Sarepta oder Bergpostill, up to about 1600, additional names used in the German language were Schurel, Schörle, and Schurl. Beginning in the 18th century, the name Schörl was mainly used in the German-speaking area, in English, the names shorl and shirl were used in the 18th century. In the 19th century the names common schorl, schörl, schorl, dravite, also called brown tourmaline, is the sodium magnesium rich tourmaline endmember. Uvite, in comparison, is a calcium magnesium tourmaline, dravite forms multiple series, with other tourmaline members, including schorl and elbaite. Today this tourmaline locality at Dravograd, is a part of the Republic of Slovenia, tschermak gave this tourmaline the name dravite, for the Drava river area, which is the district along the Drava River in Austria and Slovenia. Dravite varieties include the green chromium dravite and the vanadium dravite. A lithium-tourmaline elbaite was one of three pegmatitic minerals from Utö, Sweden, in which the new alkali element lithium was determined in 1818 by Johan August Arfwedson for the first time. Elba Island, Italy, was one of the first localities where colored, in 1850 Karl Friedrich August Rammelsberg described fluorine in tourmaline for the first time. In 1870 he proved that all varieties of tourmaline contain chemically bound water, in 1889 Scharitzer proposed the substitution of by F in red Li-tourmaline from Sušice, Czech Republic. In 1914 Vladimir Vernadsky proposed the name Elbait for lithium-, sodium-, most likely the type material for elbaite was found at Fonte del Prete, San Piero in Campo, Campo nellElba, Elba Island, Province of Livorno, Tuscany, Italy. In 1933 Winchell published a formula for elbaite, H8Na2Li3Al3B6Al12Si12O62
40.
Slizza
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The Slizza or Gailitz is an Alpine torrent in Italy and Austria, a right tributary of the Gail river. Its source is below the Sella Nevea mountain pass in the Julian Alps and its flows in a north-easterly direction through Lago del Predil and via Cave del Predil down towards the town of Tarvisio. Here it enters the broad Val Canale and its waters are swelled by a number of tributaries. Near the village of Coccau it is joined by the Rio di Fussine and at the village of Thörl it crosses the border with Carinthia, Austria and it then passes through Arnoldstein before flowing into the Gail. The water quality of the Gailitz in Austria has significantly improved since the closure of the Arnoldstein lead works in 1987/88, today it is today again the home range of fish like brown trout, grayling and even European bullhead
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Tributary
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A tributary or affluent is a stream or river that flows into a larger stream or main stem river or a lake. A tributary does not flow directly into a sea or ocean, tributaries and the main stem river drain the surrounding drainage basin of its surface water and groundwater, leading the water out into an ocean. A confluence, where two or more bodies of water together, usually refers to the joining of tributaries. The opposite to a tributary is a distributary, a river or stream that branches off from, distributaries are most often found in river deltas. Right tributary and left tributary are terms stating the orientation of the relative to the flow of the main stem river. These terms are defined from the perspective of looking downstream, where tributaries have the same name as the river into which they feed, they are called forks. These are typically designated by compass direction, for example, the American River receives flow from its North, Middle, and South forks. The Chicago Rivers North Branch has the East, West, and Middle Fork, the South Branch has its South Fork, forks are sometimes designated as right or left. Here, the handedness is from the point of view of an observer facing upstream, for instance, Steer Creek has a left tributary which is called Right Fork Steer Creek. Tributaries are sometimes listed starting with those nearest to the source of the river, the Strahler Stream Order examines the arrangement of tributaries in a hierarchy of first, second, third, and higher orders, with the first-order tributary being typically the least in size. For example, a second-order tributary would be the result of two or more first-order tributaries combining to form the second-order tributary, another method is to list tributaries from mouth to source, in the form of a tree structure, stored as a tree data structure
