The Istro-Romanian language is a Balkan Romance language, spoken in a few villages and hamlets in the peninsula of Istria in Croatia, as well as in diaspora, most notably in Italy, Germany and Southern America, Australia. While its speakers call themselves Rumeri, they are known as Vlachs, Rumunski, Ćići and Ćiribiri; the last one, used by ethnic Croats, originated as a disparaging nickname for the language, rather than its speakers. Due to the fact that its speakers are estimated to be less than 500, it is listed among languages that are "seriously endangered" in the UNESCO Red Book of Endangered Languages, it is considered by some Romanian scholars to be an idiosyncratic offshoot dialect of Romanian. There have been many significant challenges facing Istro-Romanians in preserving their language and ethnic identity, including emigration from communism and migration to nearby cities and towns after World War II, when a peace treaty of February 10, 1947, transferred Istria from Italy and awarded it to Yugoslavia, the parent country of present-day Croatia and Slovenia, which divided Istria between themselves, while Italy still retained a small portion near Trieste.

Before the 20th century, Istro-Romanian was spoken in a broader part of northeastern Istria surrounding the Ćićarija mountain range. The Istro-Romanians now comprise two groups: the Ćići around Žejane and the Vlahi around Šušnjevica (denoting the people on the south side of Mt. Učka. However, apart from borrowings from other tongues which vary from village to village, their language is linguistically identical. There are several hundred native speakers who live in the United States – not only in Queens, New York, but throughout the five boroughs of New York City, as well as in upstate New York and the neighboring states of New Jersey and Connecticut. There are further groups of native speakers in Italy, Argentina, Chile, Venezuela and Australia; the number of Istro-Romanian speakers has been reduced by their assimilation into other linguistic groups that were either present or introduced by their respective new rulers of Istria: in the 1921 Italian census, there were 1,644 declared Istro-Romanian speakers in the area, while in 1926 Romanian scholar Sextil Pușcariu estimated their number to be closer to 3,000.

Studies conducted in Istria in 1998 by the Croatian linguist Kovačec revealed only 170 active speakers, most of them being bilingual, except for 27 children. On the other hand, the major northern village Žejane and nearby hamlets at the Slovenian border are less Italianized and more Slavicized. Many villages in the area have names that are of Romanian origin, such as Jeian, Katun, Sucodru, Costirceanu; some of these names are official. Some loanwords suggest that before coming to Istria, Istro-Romanians lived for a period of time on the Dalmatian coast near the Dinara and Velebit mountains. A. Kovačec hypothesizes that the Istro-Romanians migrated to their present region about 600 years ago from Romania, after the Bubonic plague depopulated Istria; this hypothesis is based on chronicles of the Frankopan princes that state that in the 15th century they accepted the migrating Vlachs from the nearby mainland and from the northern part of Krk island, settled them in isolated villages at Poljica and Dubašnica and at the port Malinska.

The term "vlach", refers to all Eastern-Romance-language speakers and cannot be associated with Istro-Romanians. In fact, pockets of Romanian-language speakers persisted in Malinska up to the mid 19th century, they assimilated and their language disappeared with the last speaker, Mate Bajčić-Gašparović. Today, few Romance-language toponyms remain in Malinska. Istria Istro-Romanians Istro-Romanian alphabet Istro-Romanian grammar Thraco-Roman Eastern Romance substratum Romanian language Origin of the Romanians Romance languages Legacy of the Roman Empire The Balkan language area Istriot language Wolfgang Dahmen. “Istrorumänisch”, in Lexikon der romanistischen Linguistik, vol. 3. Tübingen: Max Niemeyer, 1989, pp. 448–460 Nerina Feresini. Il Comune istro-romeno di Valdarsa. Trieste: Edizioni Italo Svevo, 1996. Vasile Frățilă. “La terminologia del corpo nel dialetto istroromeno”, in Actas del XXIII Congreso internacional de lingüística y filología románica, vol. 3, Sección 4: Semántica léxica, lexicología y onomástica.

Ed. by Fernando Sánchez Miret. Tübingen: Max Niemeyer, 2003, pp. 169–80. August Kovačec. Istrorumunjsko-hrvatski rječnik s gramatikom i tekstovima. Verba moritura vol. I, 378 p. Mediteran, Pula 1998 Josif Popovici. Dialectele romîne din Istria. Halle, 1909 Pavao Tekavčić. “Due voci romene in un dialetto serbo-croato dell'Isola di Veglia ”, Studia Romanica 7: 35-38. Vrzić, Zvjezdana. "Language contact and stability of basic vocabulary: Croatian loanwords for body parts in Vlashki/Zheyanski". Fluminensia. 26: 105–122. Vrzić, Zvjezdana.

The Centralia Downtown Historic District is a 25 acres historic district in Centralia, listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2003. It is bounded by Center St. Burlington Northern right-of-way, Walnut St. and Pearl St. It includes 59 contributing buildings, a contributing structure, three contributing objects. Four sites in the district are listed separately on the National Register: Centralia Union Depot, Centralia Main Post Office, Olympic Club Saloon The Sentinel, a sculpture dedicated to four legionnaires killed in Centralia's 1919 Armistice Day Riot; the district includes the Centralia Masonic Lodge at 218 N. Pearl. Media related to Centralia Downtown Historic District at Wikimedia Commons

Briggs Preparatory School is a private primary school in Trinidad and Tobago. It was established in 1975, by the late Esmee Briggs, a former teacher of Bishop Anstey High School, her husband, the late Malcolm Briggs, a former clerk at the Red House; the school caters to children aged 3 -- 11. As well as traditional subjects, students study music, religious instruction, computing and drama; the school started with seven students, was located on the corner of Edward and Gordon Streets in Port of Spain. Within a year, the school outgrew the space and moved to 167-169 Belmont Circular Road, opposite Providence Girls' Catholic School. Sometime after the transfer of the school from the Briggs family, the school was relocated to Cascade; the Belmont building is now owned by the Trinidad and Tobago Retired Persons Association and is leased to Belmont Boys Roman Catholic School. Esmee Briggs started the school with the help of Ms. Ethel Smith and Mrs. McCarthy; the pioneering members of staff were, Claudia Wilson as school secretary and Rosemary Hezekiah as administrator and bookkeeper.

Along with teachers were Ms. Sergeant, Lucy Pierre, Angela Henry and Shirley Hinkson. After the retirement of Mrs. Briggs as principal, Mrs. Marie-Michelle Conyette succeeded her as principal; the building at 167 Belmont Circular Road was a converted home, with a large lot behind, separated by a fenced-off stream. During July 1978, the yard was paved and the stream was covered by large wooden slats, allowing for more open space. Around 1980, the school constructed three additional classrooms, as the student population had outgrown the main building; the leadership mantle has been handed over to Mrs. Claudia Fingal as principal; the Vice-Principal is Mrs. Karen Samaroo-Daniel and the Manager is Mrs. Sarah Wallace; the school uses the North American elementary school curriculum, importing textbooks from the U. S; the Scott Foresman system was used extensively for math, science and composition. As is done in the U. S, the books were loaned out to the students at the beginning of the school term and returned at the end.

The school uniform has undergone changes over the years. Boys wore a blue patterned shirt with jacket and grey short pants. Girls wore dresses of the same blue patterned material; the blue uniform pattern changed over the years, starting with a powder blue pattern with criscross stripes. This was changed to a blue background with a small white uneven block in square patterns. At some time around 1984, the pattern changed to a thick, heavy squared darker blue due to unavailability of the old pattern; this remained the same until sometime in the mid 1990s when it was changed to the current light striped blue. Red - Flamboyant Yellow - Allamanda Purple - PetriyaWhen the students enter Junior 1 each is assigned to a house and given a button to be worn on their uniform; the school celebrates events such as St. Nicholas day, when the school goes to the All Saints Anglican Church. In December of every year, there is a Christmas party at the end of the first term. There is a Sports day, as well as a Speech day, that takes place every year, at which prizes are given to students based on merit.

During their final year students of the standard five class attend outings, including a Tobago trip after writing the SEA exams. After Speech day, there is a graduation ceremony, at which the students get their certificates