1.
Mauritania
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Mauritania /mɔːrɪˈteɪniə/, officially the Islamic Republic of Mauritania, is a country in the Maghreb region of western Africa. The country derives its name from the ancient Berber Kingdom of Mauretania, approximately 90% of Mauritanias land is within the Sahara and consequently the population is concentrated in the south, where precipitation is slightly higher. The capital and largest city is Nouakchott, located on the Atlantic coast, the government was overthrown on 6 August 2008, in a military coup détat led by General Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz. On 16 April 2009, Aziz resigned from the military to run for president in the 19 July elections, about 20% of Mauritanians live on less than US$1.25 per day. Mauritania suffers from several human rights issues, including slavery, as at least 4% of the population are enslaved against their will, the Bafours were primarily agriculturalist, and among the first Saharan people to abandon their historically nomadic lifestyle. With the gradual desiccation of the Sahara, they headed south, many of the Berber tribes claimed Yemeni origins. There is little evidence to such claims, but a 2000 DNA study of Yemeni people suggested there might be some ancient connection between the peoples. Other peoples also migrated south past the Sahara to West Africa, in 1076, Moorish Islamic warrior monks attacked and conquered the large area of the ancient Ghana Empire. Over the next 500 years, Arabs overcame fierce resistance from the population to dominate Mauritania. The Char Bouba war was the final effort of the peoples to repel the Yemeni Maqil Arab invaders. The invaders were led by the Beni Hassan tribe, the descendants of the Beni Hassan warriors became the upper stratum of Moorish society. Hassaniya, a Berber-influenced Arabic dialect that derives its name from the Beni Hassan, berbers retained a niche influence by producing the majority of the regions marabouts, those who preserve and teach Islamic tradition. Imperial France gradually absorbed the territories of present-day Mauritania from the Senegal River area and upwards, in 1901, Xavier Coppolani took charge of the imperial mission. Through a combination of strategic alliances with Zawiya tribes, and military pressure on the Hassane warrior nomads, he managed to extend French rule over the Mauritanian emirates. Trarza, Brakna and Tagant quickly submitted to treaties with the colonial power, Adrar was finally defeated militarily in 1912, and incorporated into the territory of Mauritania, which had been drawn up and planned in 1904. Mauritania was part of French West Africa from 1920, French rule brought legal prohibitions against slavery and an end to inter-clan warfare. During the colonial period, 90% of the population remained nomadic, many sedentary peoples, whose ancestors had been expelled centuries earlier, began to trickle back into Mauritania. After gaining independence, larger numbers of indigenous Sub-Saharan African peoples entered Mauritania, educated in French language and customs, many of these recent arrivals became clerks, soldiers, and administrators in the new state
2.
Senegal
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Senegal, officially the Republic of Senegal, is a country in West Africa. Senegal is bordered by Mauritania in the north, Mali to the east, Guinea to the southeast, and Guinea-Bissau to the southwest. Senegal also borders The Gambia, a country occupying a narrow sliver of land along the banks of the Gambia River, Senegal also shares a maritime border with Cape Verde. Senegals economic and political capital is Dakar and it is the westernmost country in the mainland of the Old World, or Afro-Eurasia, and owes its name to the Senegal River, which borders it to the east and north. The name Senegal comes from the Wolof Sunuu Gaal, which means Our Boat, Senegal covers a land area of almost 197,000 square kilometres and has an estimated population of about 15 million. The climate is Sahelian, but there is a rainy season, the territory of modern Senegal has been inhabited by various ethnic groups since prehistory. Organized kingdoms emerged around the century, and parts of the country were ruled by prominent regional empires such as the Jolof Empire. The present state of Senegal has its roots in European colonialism, which began during the mid-15th century, the establishment of coastal trading posts gradually led to control of the mainland, culminating in French rule of the area by the 19th century, albeit amid much local resistance. Senegal peacefully attained independence from France in 1960, and has since been among the politically stable countries in Africa. Senegals economy is centered mostly on commodities and natural resources, major industries are fish processing, phosphate mining, fertilizer production, petroleum refining, construction materials, and ship construction and repair. As in most African nations, agriculture is a sector, with Senegal producing several important cash crops, including peanuts, sugarcane, cotton, green beans, tomatoes, melons. Owing to its stability, tourism and hospitality are also burgeoning sectors. A multiethnic and secular nation, Senegal is predominantly Sunni Muslim with Sufi, French is the official language, although many native languages are spoken and recognized. Since April 2012 Senegals president has been Macky Sall, Senegal has been a member of the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie since 1970. Senegal is named after the Senegal River, the etymology of which is contested, one popular theory is that it stems from the Wolof phrase sunu gaal, which means our canoe, resulting from a miscommunication between 15th-century Portuguese sailors and Wolof fishermen. The our canoe theory has been embraced in modern Senegal for its charm. It is frequently used in appeals to national solidarity, frequently heard in the media, modern historians believe the name probably refers to the Sanhaja, Berbers who lived on the northern side of the river. A competing theory is that it derives from the town of Sanghana
3.
Language family
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A language family is a group of languages related through descent from a common ancestral language or parental language, called the proto-language of that family. Linguists therefore describe the languages within a language family as being genetically related. Estimates of the number of living languages vary from 5,000 to 8,000, depending on the precision of ones definition of language, the 2013 edition of Ethnologue catalogs just over 7,000 living human languages. A living language is one that is used as the primary form of communication of a group of people. There are also dead and extinct languages, as well as some that are still insufficiently studied to be classified. Membership of languages in a family is established by comparative linguistics. Sister languages are said to have a genetic or genealogical relationship, speakers of a language family belong to a common speech community. The divergence of a proto-language into daughter languages typically occurs through geographical separation, individuals belonging to other speech communities may also adopt languages from a different language family through the language shift process. Genealogically related languages present shared retentions, that is, features of the proto-language that cannot be explained by chance or borrowing, for example, Germanic languages are Germanic in that they share vocabulary and grammatical features that are not believed to have been present in the Proto-Indo-European language. These features are believed to be innovations that took place in Proto-Germanic, language families can be divided into smaller phylogenetic units, conventionally referred to as branches of the family because the history of a language family is often represented as a tree diagram. A family is a unit, all its members derive from a common ancestor. Some taxonomists restrict the term family to a level. Those who affix such labels also subdivide branches into groups, a top-level family is often called a phylum or stock. The closer the branches are to other, the closer the languages will be related. For example, the Celtic, Germanic, Slavic, Romance, there is a remarkably similar pattern shown by the linguistic tree and the genetic tree of human ancestry that was verified statistically. Languages interpreted in terms of the phylogenetic tree of human languages are transmitted to a great extent vertically as opposed to horizontally. A speech variety may also be considered either a language or a dialect depending on social or political considerations, thus, different sources give sometimes wildly different accounts of the number of languages within a family. Classifications of the Japonic family, for example, range from one language to nearly twenty, most of the worlds languages are known to be related to others
4.
Afroasiatic languages
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Afroasiatic, also known as Afrasian and traditionally as Hamito-Semitic, is a large language family of several hundred related languages and dialects. It comprises about 300 or so living languages and dialects, according to the 2009 Ethnologue estimate and it includes languages spoken predominantly in West Asia, North Africa, the Horn of Africa, and parts of the Sahel. Afroasiatic languages have 350+ million native speakers, the fourth largest number of any language family, the phylum has six branches, Berber, Chadic, Cushitic, Egyptian, Omotic and Semitic. By far the most widely spoken Afroasiatic language is Arabic, including literary Arabic and it has around 200 to 230 million native speakers concentrated primarily in West Asia, North Africa, the Horn of Africa, and Malta. Modern Aramaic, spoken by about 550,000 people worldwide and this is not just one language — It includes a number of subdivisions, with Assyrian Neo-Aramaic being the most spoken variety. In addition to languages spoken today, Afroasiatic includes several important ancient languages, such as Ancient Egyptian, Akkadian, Biblical Hebrew and it is uncertain when or where the original homeland of the Afroasiatic family existed. Proposed locations include North Africa, the Horn of Africa, the Eastern Sahara, the terms Hamitic and Semitic were etymologically derived from the Book of Genesis, which describes various Biblical tribes descended from Ham and Shem, two sons of Noah. By the 1860s, the constituent elements within the broader Afroasiatic family had been worked out. The scholar Friedrich Müller introduced the name Hamito-Semitic for the family in his Grundriss der Sprachwissenschaft. Maurice Delafosse later coined the term Afroasiatic, however, it did not come into general use until Joseph Greenberg formally proposed its adoption. In doing so, Greenberg sought to emphasize the fact that Afroasiatic spanned the continents of both Africa and Asia, individual scholars have also called the family Erythraean and Lisramic. The term Hamito-Semitic remains in use in the traditions of some European countries. Greenberg and others considered it a subgroup of Cushitic, whereas others have raised doubts about it being part of Afroasiatic at all, Harold Fleming proposes that Ongota constitutes a separate branch of Afroasiatic. Bonny Sands believes the most convincing proposal is by Savà and Tosco, Beja is sometimes listed as a separate branch of Afroasiatic but is more often included in the Cushitic branch, which has a high degree of internal diversity. Whether the various branches of Cushitic actually form a family is sometimes questioned. There is no consensus on the interrelationships of the five branches of Afroasiatic. This situation is not unusual, even among long-established language families, there are also many disagreements concerning the classification of the Indo-European languages. Meroitic has been proposed as an unclassified Afroasiatic language, because it shares the characteristic of the family
5.
Berber languages
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Berber or the Berber languages or the Amazigh language are a family of similar and closely related languages and dialects indigenous to North Africa. Large Berber-speaking migrant communities, numbering today about 4 million, have been living in Western Europe, about half of this population was born in Europe. Berber constitutes a branch of the Afroasiatic language family, and has been attested since ancient times, the number of Berbers is much higher than the number of Berber speakers. The bulk of the populations of the Maghreb countries are considered to have Berber ancestors, in Algeria, for example, a majority of the population consists of Arabized Berbers. There is a cultural and political movement among speakers of the closely related varieties of Northern Berber to promote and unify them under a standard language, called. The name Tamaziɣt is the current native name of the Berber language in the Moroccan Middle-Atlas region, the Rif regions, in other Berber-speaking area this name was lost. There is historical evidence, from medieval Berber manusctipts, that all native North Africans from Libya to Morocco have called their language, Tamaziɣt. The name Tamaziɣt is currently being used by educated Berbers to refer to the written Berber language. Around 90 percent of the Berber-speaking population speak one of six major varieties of Berber and they are, in the order of demographic weight, Tashelhit, Kabyle, Atlas Tamazight, Riffian, Shawi and Tuareg. The Berber languages and dialects have had a tradition, on and off, for about 2,500 years, although the tradition has been frequently disrupted by cultural shifts. They were first written in the Libyco-Berber and Tifinagh abjad, still used by the Tuareg, the oldest dated inscription is from about 200 BCE. The Berber Latin alphabet was used by most European and Berber linguists during the 19th and 20th centuries. In the 19th and 20th century European and native Berber linguists, a modernized form of the Tifinagh alphabet, called Neo-Tifinagh, was adopted in Morocco in 2003 for writing Berber, but many Moroccan Berber publications still use the Berber Latin alphabet. Algerians mostly use the Berber Latin alphabet in Berber language education at public schools, Mali and Niger recognize a Tuareg-Berber Latin alphabet customized to the Tuareg phonological system. However, traditional Tifinagh is still used in those countries, the term Berber has been used in Europe since at least the 17th century, and is still used today. It was borrowed from Latin Barbari, the Latin word is also found in the Arabic designation for these populations, البربر, al-Barbar, see names of the Berber people. Etymologically, the Berber root Mazigh means free man, noble man, the feminine Tamazight traditionally referred specifically to the Riffian and Central Atlas Tamazight languages. European languages distinguish between the words Berber and barbaric, while Arabic has the same word al-barbari for both meanings, some other Berber writers, especially in Morocco, prefer to refer to Berber with Amazigh when writing about it in French or English
6.
Berber language
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Berber or the Berber languages or the Amazigh language are a family of similar and closely related languages and dialects indigenous to North Africa. Large Berber-speaking migrant communities, numbering today about 4 million, have been living in Western Europe, about half of this population was born in Europe. Berber constitutes a branch of the Afroasiatic language family, and has been attested since ancient times, the number of Berbers is much higher than the number of Berber speakers. The bulk of the populations of the Maghreb countries are considered to have Berber ancestors, in Algeria, for example, a majority of the population consists of Arabized Berbers. There is a cultural and political movement among speakers of the closely related varieties of Northern Berber to promote and unify them under a standard language, called. The name Tamaziɣt is the current native name of the Berber language in the Moroccan Middle-Atlas region, the Rif regions, in other Berber-speaking area this name was lost. There is historical evidence, from medieval Berber manusctipts, that all native North Africans from Libya to Morocco have called their language, Tamaziɣt. The name Tamaziɣt is currently being used by educated Berbers to refer to the written Berber language. Around 90 percent of the Berber-speaking population speak one of six major varieties of Berber and they are, in the order of demographic weight, Tashelhit, Kabyle, Atlas Tamazight, Riffian, Shawi and Tuareg. The Berber languages and dialects have had a tradition, on and off, for about 2,500 years, although the tradition has been frequently disrupted by cultural shifts. They were first written in the Libyco-Berber and Tifinagh abjad, still used by the Tuareg, the oldest dated inscription is from about 200 BCE. The Berber Latin alphabet was used by most European and Berber linguists during the 19th and 20th centuries. In the 19th and 20th century European and native Berber linguists, a modernized form of the Tifinagh alphabet, called Neo-Tifinagh, was adopted in Morocco in 2003 for writing Berber, but many Moroccan Berber publications still use the Berber Latin alphabet. Algerians mostly use the Berber Latin alphabet in Berber language education at public schools, Mali and Niger recognize a Tuareg-Berber Latin alphabet customized to the Tuareg phonological system. However, traditional Tifinagh is still used in those countries, the term Berber has been used in Europe since at least the 17th century, and is still used today. It was borrowed from Latin Barbari, the Latin word is also found in the Arabic designation for these populations, البربر, al-Barbar, see names of the Berber people. Etymologically, the Berber root Mazigh means free man, noble man, the feminine Tamazight traditionally referred specifically to the Riffian and Central Atlas Tamazight languages. European languages distinguish between the words Berber and barbaric, while Arabic has the same word al-barbari for both meanings, some other Berber writers, especially in Morocco, prefer to refer to Berber with Amazigh when writing about it in French or English
7.
Atlantic Ocean
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The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the worlds oceans with a total area of about 106,460,000 square kilometres. It covers approximately 20 percent of the Earths surface and about 29 percent of its surface area. It separates the Old World from the New World, the Atlantic Ocean occupies an elongated, S-shaped basin extending longitudinally between Eurasia and Africa to the east, and the Americas to the west. The Equatorial Counter Current subdivides it into the North Atlantic Ocean, in contrast, the term Atlantic originally referred specifically to the Atlas Mountains in Morocco and the sea off the Strait of Gibraltar and the North African coast. The Greek word thalassa has been reused by scientists for the huge Panthalassa ocean that surrounded the supercontinent Pangaea hundreds of years ago. The term Aethiopian Ocean, derived from Ancient Ethiopia, was applied to the Southern Atlantic as late as the mid-19th century, many Irish or British people refer to the United States and Canada as across the pond, and vice versa. The Black Atlantic refers to the role of ocean in shaping black peoples history. Irish migration to the US is meant when the term The Green Atlantic is used, the term Red Atlantic has been used in reference to the Marxian concept of an Atlantic working class, as well as to the Atlantic experience of indigenous Americans. Correspondingly, the extent and number of oceans and seas varies, the Atlantic Ocean is bounded on the west by North and South America. It connects to the Arctic Ocean through the Denmark Strait, Greenland Sea, Norwegian Sea, to the east, the boundaries of the ocean proper are Europe, the Strait of Gibraltar and Africa. In the southeast, the Atlantic merges into the Indian Ocean, the 20° East meridian, running south from Cape Agulhas to Antarctica defines its border. In the 1953 definition it extends south to Antarctica, while in later maps it is bounded at the 60° parallel by the Southern Ocean, the Atlantic has irregular coasts indented by numerous bays, gulfs, and seas. Including these marginal seas the coast line of the Atlantic measures 111,866 km compared to 135,663 km for the Pacific. Including its marginal seas, the Atlantic covers an area of 106,460,000 km2 or 23. 5% of the ocean and has a volume of 310,410,900 km3 or 23. 3%. Excluding its marginal seas, the Atlantic covers 81,760,000 km2 and has a volume of 305,811,900 km3, the North Atlantic covers 41,490,000 km2 and the South Atlantic 40,270,000 km2. The average depth is 3,646 m and the maximum depth, the bathymetry of the Atlantic is dominated by a submarine mountain range called the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. It runs from 87°N or 300 km south of the North Pole to the subantarctic Bouvet Island at 42°S, the MAR divides the Atlantic longitudinally into two halves, in each of which a series of basins are delimited by secondary, transverse ridges. The MAR reaches above 2000 m along most of its length, the MAR is a barrier for bottom water, but at these two transform faults deep water currents can pass from one side to the other
8.
Glottal stop
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The glottal stop is a type of consonantal sound used in many spoken languages, produced by obstructing airflow in the vocal tract or, more precisely, the glottis. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨ʔ⟩, using IPA, this sound is known as a glottal plosive. In English, the glottal stop occurs as an open juncture, for most US English speakers, a glottal stop is used as an allophone of /t/ between a vowel and m or a syllabic n except in slow speech. In British English, the stop is most familiar in the Cockney pronunciation of butter as buer. The non-phonemic glottal stop always occurs before isolated or initial vowels, features of the glottal stop, Its manner of articulation is occlusive, which means it is produced by obstructing airflow in the vocal tract. Since the consonant is also oral, with no outlet, the airflow is blocked entirely. Its phonation is voiceless, which means it is produced without vibration of the cords, necessarily so, because the vocal cords are held tightly together. It is a consonant, which means air is allowed to escape through the mouth only. Because the sound is not produced with airflow over the tongue, the airstream mechanism is pulmonic, which means it is articulated by pushing air solely with the lungs and diaphragm, as in most sounds. Although this segment is not a phoneme in English, it is present phonetically in nearly all dialects of English as an allophone of /t/ in the syllable coda. Speakers of Cockney, Scottish English and several other British dialects also pronounce an intervocalic /t/ between vowels as in city. In Received Pronunciation, a stop is inserted before a tautosyllabic voiceless stop, e. g. sto’p, tha’t, kno’ck, wa’tch, also lea’p, soa’k, hel’p. In many languages that do not allow a sequence of vowels, such as Persian, there are intricate interactions between falling tone and the glottal stop in the histories of such languages as Danish, Chinese and Thai. In many languages, the intervocalic allophone of the glottal stop is a creaky-voiced glottal approximant. These are only known to be contrastive in one language, Gimi, in the traditional Romanization of many languages, such as Arabic, the glottal stop is transcribed with an apostrophe, ⟨’⟩, and this is the source of the IPA character ⟨ʔ⟩. In Malay the glottal stop is represented by the letter ⟨k⟩, in Võro, other scripts also have letters used for representing the glottal stop, such as the Hebrew letter aleph ⟨א⟩, and the Cyrillic letter palochka ⟨Ӏ⟩ used in several Caucasian languages. In Tundra Nenets it is represented by the letters apostrophe ⟨ʼ⟩, in Japanese, glottal stops occur at the end of interjections of surprise or anger, and are represented by the character ⟨っ⟩. In the graphic representation of most Philippine languages, the stop has no consistent symbolization
9.
Sanhaja
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The Sanhaja were once one of the largest Berber tribal confederations, along with the Zanata and Masmuda confederations. Many tribes in Morocco and Mauritania bore and still carry this ethnonym, other names for the population include Zenaga, Veledi Sanhája, Znaga, Sanhája, Sanhâdja and Senhaja. After the arrival of Islam, the Sanhâdja spread out to the borders of the Sudan as far as the Senegal River, from the 9th century, Sanhaja tribes were established in the Middle Atlas range, in the Rif Mountains and on the Atlantic coast of Morocco. A part of the Sanhaja, such as the Kutâma, settled in central/eastern Algeria and they played an important part in the rise of the Fatimids. The Sanhaja dynasties of the Zirids and Hammâdids controlled Ifriqiya until the 12th century, in the mid-11th century, a group of Sanhadja chieftains returning from the Hâjj invited the theologian Ibn Yâssin to preach among their tribes. Ibn Yasin united the tribes in the alliance of the Almoravids in the middle of the 11th century and this confederacy subsequently established Morocco, and conquered western Algeria and Al-Andalus. The Znaga or Zenaga tribes would remain in roles as either exploited semi-sedentary agriculturalists and fishermen, or, higher up on the social ladder, the descendants of the Sanhaja are still found today in the Middle Atlas mountains and eastern Morocco. The Zenaga, a group believed to be of Gudala origin, inhabit southwestern Mauritania, however, they are a small population. Background to Conflict, Barnes & Noble Books
10.
Arabs
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Arabs are an ethnic group inhabiting the Arab world. They primarily live in the Arab states in Western Asia, North Africa, the Horn of Africa, the Arabs are first mentioned in the mid-ninth century BCE as a tribal people dwelling in the central Arabian Peninsula. The Arabs appear to have been under the vassalage of the Neo-Assyrian Empire, tradition holds that Arabs descend from Ishmael, the son of Abraham. The Arabian Desert is the birthplace of Arab, there are other Arab groups as well that spread in the land and existed for millennia. Before the expansion of the Caliphate, Arab referred to any of the largely nomadic Semitic people from the northern to the central Arabian Peninsula and Syrian Desert. Presently, Arab refers to a number of people whose native regions form the Arab world due to spread of Arabs throughout the region during the early Arab conquests of the 7th and 8th centuries. The Arabs forged the Rashidun, Umayyad and the Abbasid caliphates, whose borders reached southern France in the west, China in the east, Anatolia in the north, and this was one of the largest land empires in history. The Great Arab Revolt has had as big an impact on the modern Middle East as the World War I, the war signaled the end of the Ottoman Empire. They are modern states and became significant as distinct political entities after the fall and defeat, following adoption of the Alexandria Protocol in 1944, the Arab League was founded on 22 March 1945. The Charter of the Arab League endorsed the principle of an Arab homeland whilst respecting the sovereignty of its member states. Beyond the boundaries of the League of Arab States, Arabs can also be found in the global diaspora, the ties that bind Arabs are ethnic, linguistic, cultural, historical, identical, nationalist, geographical and political. The Arabs have their own customs, language, architecture, art, literature, music, dance, media, cuisine, dress, society, sports, the total number of Arabs are an estimated 450 million. This makes them the second largest ethnic group after the Han Chinese. Arabs are a group in terms of religious affiliations and practices. In the pre-Islamic era, most Arabs followed polytheistic religions, some tribes had adopted Christianity or Judaism, and a few individuals, the hanifs, apparently observed monotheism. Today, Arabs are mainly adherents of Islam, with sizable Christian minorities, Arab Muslims primarily belong to the Sunni, Shiite, Ibadi, Alawite, Druze and Ismaili denominations. Arab Christians generally follow one of the Eastern Christian Churches, such as the Maronite, Coptic Orthodox, Greek Orthodox, Greek Catholic, or Chaldean churches. Listed among the booty captured by the army of king Shalmaneser III of Assyria in the Battle of Qarqar are 1000 camels of Gi-in-di-buu the ar-ba-a-a or Gindibu belonging to the Arab
11.
Saint-Louis, Senegal
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Saint-Louis, or Ndar as it is called in Wolof, is the capital of Senegals Saint-Louis Region. Located in the northwest of Senegal, near the mouth of the Senegal River, Saint-Louis was the capital of the French colony of Senegal from 1673 until 1902 and French West Africa from 1895 until 1902, when the capital was moved to Dakar. From 1920 to 1957 it also served as the capital of the colony of Mauritania. The heart of the old city is located on a narrow island in the Senegal River,25 km from its mouth. At this point the river is separated from the Atlantic Ocean to the west by a sand spit, the Langue de Barbarie. Yet a third part of the city, Sor, lies on the mainland and is nearly surrounded by tidal marshes. Saint-Louis is situated on the Mauritanian border, though the crossing is at Rosso,100 km upstream. Three characteristics give Saint-Louis its distinctive appearance, the Sahel, the marshes. The marshes are flood basins that form during the season when the river overflows into the countryside, creating ponds and stretches of mangroves that attract birds like flamingos. The Langue de Barbarie, a 600 km long stretch of sand from Nouadhibou in Mauritania to Saint-Louis and its vegetation mainly consists of Filao trees, propagated to prevent soil erosion in sandy and salty soils. A2011 documentary described Saint-Louis as the African city most threatened by rising sea levels, Saint-Louis was established in 1659 by French traders on an uninhabited island called Ndar. It was baptized Saint-Louis-du-Fort in homage to the former French king Louis IX and it was the first permanent French settlement in Senegal. The fortified factory commanded trade along the Senegal River, slaves, hides, beeswax, ambergris and, later, gum arabic were exported. During the Seven Years War, in 1758 British forces captured Senegal, in February 1779, French forces recaptured Saint-Louis. In the late 18th century, Saint Louis had about 5,000 inhabitants, Saint-Louis became the leading urban centre in sub-Saharan Africa”. Between 1659 and 1779, nine chartered companies succeeded one another in administering Saint-Louis, as in Gorée, a Franco-African Creole, or Métis, merchant community characterized by the famous signares, or bourgeois women entrepreneurs, grew up in Saint-Louis during the 17th and 18th centuries. The Métis were important to the economic, social, cultural and political life of the city and they created a distinctive urban culture characterized by public displays of elegance, refined entertainment and popular festivities. They controlled most of the river trade and they financed the principal Catholic institutions
12.
Podor
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Podor is the northernmost town in Senegal, Africa, lying on Morfil Island between the Sénégal River and Doué River. It was the location of the ancient state Takrur and it is home to a ruined French fort, built in 1854 as a centre for gold trading, and is the birthplace of fashion designer Oumou Sy, and musicians Baaba Maal and Mansour Seck. In the census of 2002 the population of the town was 9,472 inhabitants, in 2007, according to official estimates, it had grown to 11,869
13.
Boutilimit
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Boutilimit lies 164 km south east of Mauritanias capital of Nouakchott. The town has been an important center of scholarship and training since its founding by an Islamic mystic. Although desertification has sapped much of the economic energy, it remains the most important center of religious training in Mauritania. Its Quranic school is known for its library of manuscripts, set up by Shaykh Sidiyya al-Kabir, a unique copy of a grammar by Averroes was recently found there. The estimated population in 2005 was 27,170, the town is also well known in the region for its production of handicraft items, particularly rugs made from camel or goat hair, as well as silver crafts. Notable people from the town include Moktar Ould Daddah, the nations first president following independence from France, the Boutilimit City The Boutilimit Manuscripts Saudi Aramco World, Mauritanias Manuscripts
14.
Nouakchott
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Nouakchott is the capital and largest city of Mauritania. It is one of the largest cities in the Sahara, the city also serves as the administrative and economic centre of Mauritania. Nouakchott was a village of little importance until 1958, when it was chosen as the capital of the nascent nation of Mauritania. It was designed and built to accommodate 15,000 people and this caused massive urban growth and overcrowding, with the city having an official population of just under a million as of 2013. The resettled population inhabited slum areas under conditions, but the living conditions of a portion of these inhabitants have since been ameliorated. The city is the hub of the Mauritanian economy and is home to a deepwater port and it hosts the University of Nouakchott and several other more specialized institutes of higher learning. Nouakchott was a tiny, fortified fishing village in pre-colonial times, as Mauritania prepared for independence, it lacked a capital city and the area of present-day Nouakchott was chosen by Moktar Ould Daddah and his advisors. Ould Daddah desired for the new capital to be a symbol of modernity, the village was selected as the capital city for its central location between Saint-Louis, Senegal, the city from which the colony of Mauritania was governed, and Nouadhibou. Its location also meant that it avoided the issue of whether the capital was built in an area dominated by the Arab-descended Moors or Black Africans. Construction began in March 1958 to enlarge the village to house a population of 15,000, Nouakchott was planned with the expectation that commerce and other economic activities would not take place in the city. During the 1960s, the city obtained its own local government, by the 1970s, these new areas had grown so much that they replaced the old ksar in terms of importance, as they also hosted the governmental buildings and state enterprises. The city was attacked twice in 1976 by the Polisario Front during the Western Sahara conflict, the city has had massive and uncontrained growth, driven by the North African drought, since the beginning of the 1970s, hundreds of thousands moved there in search of a better life. The official censuses showed 134,000 residents in 1977 and 393,325 in 1988, the population is now estimated to consist of at least one third of the countrys population of 3.2 million and the 2013 census showed a population of 958,399. Located on the Atlantic coast of the Sahara Desert, it lies on the west coast of Africa, with the exception of Friendship Port and a small fishing port, the coastal strip is mostly left empty and allowed to flood. The coastline includes shifting sandbanks and sandy beaches, there are areas of quicksand close to the harbour. Nouakchott is largely flat and only a few meters above sea level and it is threatened by the sand dunes advancing from its eastern side which pose a daily problem. There have been efforts to save particular areas, including work by Jean Meunier, owing to the rapid build-up, the city is quite spread out, with few tall buildings. Nouakchott is built around a large tree-lined street, Avenue Gamal Abdel Nasser, other major streets are named for notable Mauritanian or international figures of the 1960s, Avenue Abdel Nasser, Avenue Charles de Gaulle, Avenue Kennedy, and Avenue Lumumba, for example
15.
Nomad
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A nomad is a member of a community of people who live in different locations, moving from one place to another. Among the various ways nomads relate to their environment, one can distinguish the hunter-gatherer, as of 1995, there were an estimated 30–40 million nomads in the world. Nomadic hunting and gathering, following seasonally available wild plants and game, is by far the oldest human subsistence method, pastoralists raise herds, driving them, or moving with them, in patterns that normally avoid depleting pastures beyond their ability to recover. Nomadism is also a lifestyle adapted to regions such as steppe, tundra, or ice and sand. For example, many groups in the tundra are reindeer herders and are semi-nomadic and these nomads sometimes adapt the use of high technology such as solar photovoltaics to reduce their dependence on diesel fuel. These groups are known as peripatetic nomads, a nomad is a person with no settled home, moving from place to place as a way of obtaining food, finding pasture for livestock, or otherwise making a living. The word Nomad comes from a Greek word that one who wanders for pasture. Most nomadic groups follow an annual or seasonal pattern of movements and settlements. Nomadic peoples traditionally travel by animal or canoe or on foot, today, some nomads travel by motor vehicle. Most nomads live in tents or other portable shelters, Nomads keep moving for different reasons. Nomadic foragers move in search of game, edible plants, the Australian Aborigines, Negritos of Southeast Asia, and San of Africa, for example, traditionally move from camp to camp to hunt and to gather wild plants. Some tribes of the Americas followed this way of life, Pastoral nomads make their living raising livestock, such as camels, cattle, goats, horses, sheep, or yaks. These nomads travel to find more camels, goats, and sheep through the deserts of Arabia, the Fulani and their cattle travel through the grasslands of Niger in western Africa. Some nomadic peoples, especially herders, may move to raid settled communities or avoid enemies. Nomadic craftworkers and merchants travel to find and serve customers and they include the Lohar blacksmiths of India, the Romani traders, and the Irish Travellers. Most nomads travel in groups of families called bands or tribes and these groups are based on kinship and marriage ties or on formal agreements of cooperation. A council of adult males makes most of the decisions, though some tribes have chiefs, in the case of Mongolian nomads, a family moves twice a year. These two movements would generally occur during the summer and winter, the winter location is usually located near mountains in a valley and most families already have their fixed winter locations
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Arabic
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Arabic is a Central Semitic language that was first spoken in Iron Age northwestern Arabia and is now the lingua franca of the Arab world. Arabic is also the language of 1.7 billion Muslims. It is one of six languages of the United Nations. The modern written language is derived from the language of the Quran and it is widely taught in schools and universities, and is used to varying degrees in workplaces, government, and the media. The two formal varieties are grouped together as Literary Arabic, which is the language of 26 states. Modern Standard Arabic largely follows the standards of Quranic Arabic. Much of the new vocabulary is used to denote concepts that have arisen in the post-Quranic era, Arabic has influenced many languages around the globe throughout its history. During the Middle Ages, Literary Arabic was a vehicle of culture in Europe, especially in science, mathematics. As a result, many European languages have borrowed many words from it. Many words of Arabic origin are found in ancient languages like Latin. Balkan languages, including Greek, have acquired a significant number of Arabic words through contact with Ottoman Turkish. Arabic has also borrowed words from languages including Greek and Persian in medieval times. Arabic is a Central Semitic language, closely related to the Northwest Semitic languages, the Ancient South Arabian languages, the Semitic languages changed a great deal between Proto-Semitic and the establishment of the Central Semitic languages, particularly in grammar. Innovations of the Central Semitic languages—all maintained in Arabic—include, The conversion of the suffix-conjugated stative formation into a past tense, the conversion of the prefix-conjugated preterite-tense formation into a present tense. The elimination of other prefix-conjugated mood/aspect forms in favor of new moods formed by endings attached to the prefix-conjugation forms, the development of an internal passive. These features are evidence of descent from a hypothetical ancestor. In the southwest, various Central Semitic languages both belonging to and outside of the Ancient South Arabian family were spoken and it is also believed that the ancestors of the Modern South Arabian languages were also spoken in southern Arabia at this time. To the north, in the oases of northern Hijaz, Dadanitic and Taymanitic held some prestige as inscriptional languages, in Najd and parts of western Arabia, a language known to scholars as Thamudic C is attested
17.
Hassaniya Arabic
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It has almost completely replaced the Berber language originally spoken in this region. Although clearly a dialect, Hassānīya is relatively distant from other North African variants of Arabic. Its geographical location exposed it to influence from Zenaga-Berber and Wolof, there are several dialects of Hassaniya which differ primarily phonetically. Today, Hassaniya is spoken in Algeria, Libya, Morocco, Mauritania, Mali, Niger, Senegal, the phonological system of Hassānīya is both very innovative and very conservative. All phonemes of Classical Arabic are represented in the dialect, as in other Bedouin dialects, Classical /q/ corresponds mostly to dialectal /ɡ/, /dˤ/ and /ðˤ/ have merged into /ðˤ/ and the interdentals /θ/ and /ð/ have been preserved. In common with most Maghrebi Arabic varieties, the equivalent of Modern Standard Arabic /d͡ʒ/ is realised as /ʒ/, however, there is sometimes a double correspondence of a classical sound and its dialectal counterpart. Thus classical /q/ is represented by /ɡ/ in /ɡbaðˤ/ to take, similarly, /dˤ/ becomes /ðˤ/ in /ðˤəħk/ laugh, but /dˤ/ in /mrˤədˤ/ to be sick. Some consonant roots even have an appearance, /θaqiːl/ heavy vs. /θɡiːl/ heavy. Some of the forms are easily explained as recent loans from the literary language or from sedentary dialects in case of concepts pertaining to the sedentary way of life. For others, there is no obvious explanation, etymological /ðˤ/ appears constantly as /ðˤ/, never as /dˤ/. Nevertheless, the status of /q/ and /dˤ/ as well as /ɡ/ and /ðˤ/ appears very stable. Somewhat similarly, classical /ʔ/ has in most contexts disappeared or turned into /w/ or /j/, in some literary terms, however, it is clearly preserved, /mət. ʔal. lam/ suffering. Hassānīya has innovated many consonants by the spread of the distinction emphatic/non-emphatic, in addition to the above-mentioned, /rˤ/ and /lˤ/ have a clear phonemic status and /bˤ fˤ ɡˤ mˤ nˤ/ more marginally so. One additional emphatic phoneme /zˤ/ is acquired from the neighbouring Zenaga Berber language along with a palatal series /c ɟ ɲ/ from Niger–Congo languages of the south. At least some speakers make the distinction /p/–/b/ through borrowings from French, all in all, the number of consonant phonemes in Hassānīya is 33, or 39 if you count the marginal cases, too. On the phonetic level, the classical consonants /f/ and /θ/ are usually realised as voiced, the latter is still, however, pronounced differently from /ð/, the distinction probably being in the amount of air blown out. In geminated and word-final positions both phonemes are voiceless, for some speakers /θ/ apparently in all positions, the uvular fricative /ʁ/ is likewise realised voiceless in a geminated position, although not fricative but plosive. In other positions, etymological /ʁ/ seems to be in free variation with /q/, vowel phonemes come in two series, long and short
18.
Varieties of Arabic
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There are many varieties of Arabic in existence. Arabic is a Semitic language within the Afroasiatic family that originated on the Arabian Peninsula, the largest divisions occur between the spoken languages of different regions. Some varieties of Arabic in North Africa, for example, are incomprehensible to an Arabic speaker from the Levant or the Persian Gulf, within these broad regions further and considerable geographic distinctions exist, within countries, across country borders, even between cities and villages. The regionally prevalent variety is learned as the speakers first language while the language is subsequently learned in school. Many Arabic dialects, North African Arabic in particular also have significant vowel shifts, unlike other dialects, in Moroccan Arabic first person singular verbs begin with a n-. Further substantial differences exist between Bedouin and sedentary speech, the countryside and major cities, ethnicities, religious groups, social classes, men and women, and the young and these differences are to some degree bridgeable. Arabic is characterized by a number of varieties, however. An important factor in the mixing or changing of Arabic is the concept of a prestige dialect and this refers to the level of respect accorded to a language or dialect within a speech community. The formal Arabic language carries a considerable prestige in most Arabic-speaking communities and this is not the only source of prestige, though. Many studies have shown that for most speakers, there is a variety of vernacular Arabic. In Egypt, for non-Cairenes, the dialect is Cairo Arabic. For Jordanian women from Bedouin or rural background, it may be the urban dialects of the big cities, especially including the capital Amman. Moreover, in contexts, a dialect relatively different from formal Arabic may carry more prestige than a dialect closer to the formal language—this is the case in Bahrain. Language mixes and changes in different ways, Arabic speakers often use more than one variety of Arabic within a conversation or even a sentence. This process is referred to as code-switching, for example, a woman on a TV program could appeal to the authority of the formal language by using elements of it in her speech in order to prevent other speakers from cutting her off. Another process at work is leveling, the elimination of very localised dialectical features in favour of more general ones. This can affect all linguistic levels—semantic, syntactic, phonological, etc and this process of accommodation sometimes appeals to the formal language, but often does not. Moreover, given the prevalence of movies and TV shows in Egyptian Arabic, the greatest variations between kinds of Arabic are those between regional language groups
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Ethnologue
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Ethnologue, Languages of the World is a web-based publication that contains information about the 7,099 living languages in its 20th edition, which was released in 2017. The publication is well respected and widely used by linguists, Ethnologue is published by SIL International, a Christian linguistic service organization with an international office in Dallas, Texas. Ethnologue follows general linguistic criteria, which are based primarily on mutual intelligibility, shared language intelligibility features are complex, and usually include etymological and grammatical evidence that is agreed upon by experts. These lists of names are not necessarily complete, in 1984, Ethnologue released a three-letter coding system, called an SIL code, to identify each language that it described. This set of codes significantly exceeded the scope of other standards, e. g. ISO 639-1, the 14th edition, published in 2000, included 7,148 language codes. In 2002, Ethnologue was asked to work with the International Organization for Standardization to integrate its codes into an international standard. The 15th edition of Ethnologue was the first edition to use this standard and this standard is now administered separately from Ethnologue according to rules established by ISO, and since then Ethnologue relies on the standard to determine what is listed as a language. e. A language with which no-one retains a sense of ethnic identity, in December 2015, Ethnologue launched a soft paywall, users in high-income countries who want to refer to more than seven pages of data per month must buy a paid subscription. Ethnologues 18th edition describes 228 language families and six typological categories, in 1986, William Bright, then editor of the journal Language, wrote of Ethnologue that it is indispensable for any reference shelf on the languages of the world. In 2008 in the journal, Lyle Campbell and Verónica Grondona said, Ethnologue. has become the standard reference. However, he concluded that, on balance, Ethnologue is a comprehensive catalogue of world languages. Starting with the 17th edition, new editions of Ethnologue are to be published every year, linguasphere Observatory Register Glottolog Lists of languages List of language families Martin Everaert, Simon Musgrave, Alexis Dimitriadis, eds. The Use of Databases in Cross-Linguistic Studies, linguistic Genocide in Education-or Worldwide Diversity and Human Rights. Evaluating language statistics, the Ethnologue and beyond
20.
University of Nice Sophia Antipolis
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The Nice Sophia Antipolis University is a university located in Nice, France and neighboring areas. It was founded in 1965 and is organized in eight faculties and it also hosts the first WWW Interactive Multipurpose Server. At the heart of the Mediterranean Basin, the Université Nice Sophia Antipolis has developed a vivid cosmopolitan spirit, the University of Nice was officially established by decree dated October 23,1965. However, its roots go back to the 17th century. It was composed of an important body of jurisconsuls and its fame lasted until Nice was incorporated into France in 1860, in the 17th century, courses, renowned throughout Europe, were taught at its College of Medicine. Following that, the Institut dEtudes Juridiques was established In 1938, the Institut dEtudes Littéraires in 1941, la Faculté de Droit et des Sciences Economiques was created by decree on August 2,1962 and was connected to the Université dAix-Marseille. The university has four campuses, the Valrose campus, the Trotabas campus, the Saint-Jean dAngély campus. However, the university operates on several secondary locations like Sophia Antipolis or Villefranche-sur-Mer outside Nice, alphabetically by surname, Cawo Mohamed Abdi – Somali professor and writer Robert B. unice. fr University International of Nice Website
21.
International Standard Book Number
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The International Standard Book Number is a unique numeric commercial book identifier. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an e-book, a paperback and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, the method of assigning an ISBN is nation-based and varies from country to country, often depending on how large the publishing industry is within a country. The initial ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 based upon the 9-digit Standard Book Numbering created in 1966, the 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108. Occasionally, a book may appear without a printed ISBN if it is printed privately or the author does not follow the usual ISBN procedure, however, this can be rectified later. Another identifier, the International Standard Serial Number, identifies periodical publications such as magazines, the ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 in the United Kingdom by David Whitaker and in 1968 in the US by Emery Koltay. The 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108, the United Kingdom continued to use the 9-digit SBN code until 1974. The ISO on-line facility only refers back to 1978, an SBN may be converted to an ISBN by prefixing the digit 0. For example, the edition of Mr. J. G. Reeder Returns, published by Hodder in 1965, has SBN340013818 -340 indicating the publisher,01381 their serial number. This can be converted to ISBN 0-340-01381-8, the check digit does not need to be re-calculated, since 1 January 2007, ISBNs have contained 13 digits, a format that is compatible with Bookland European Article Number EAN-13s. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an ebook, a paperback, and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, a 13-digit ISBN can be separated into its parts, and when this is done it is customary to separate the parts with hyphens or spaces. Separating the parts of a 10-digit ISBN is also done with either hyphens or spaces, figuring out how to correctly separate a given ISBN number is complicated, because most of the parts do not use a fixed number of digits. ISBN issuance is country-specific, in that ISBNs are issued by the ISBN registration agency that is responsible for country or territory regardless of the publication language. Some ISBN registration agencies are based in national libraries or within ministries of culture, in other cases, the ISBN registration service is provided by organisations such as bibliographic data providers that are not government funded. In Canada, ISBNs are issued at no cost with the purpose of encouraging Canadian culture. In the United Kingdom, United States, and some countries, where the service is provided by non-government-funded organisations. Australia, ISBNs are issued by the library services agency Thorpe-Bowker
22.
George Grigore
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George Grigore is a Romanian writer, essayist, translator, professor, researcher in Middle Eastern Studies. George Grigore was born in the village of Grindu, Ialomița, in 1983, he graduated the Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literatures of the University of Bucharest. In 1997, he earned a Ph. D. from the same university and his translation of the Qur’an was most noteworthy and published in several editions, including a bilingual one, printed in Istanbul, in 2003. He has published studies on the Qur’an and Islam, as well as on the Arabic dialects, with a focus on the dialects of Baghdad. He has also undertaken research in Kurdish Studies, since 2001, George Grigore has been the associate editor of Romano-Arabica, the academic review published by the Center of Arabic Studies at the University of Bucharest. Grigore has published translations of Romanian literature into Arabic, among which The Mould, by the Romanian playwright Marin Sorescu and The Tyranny of Dream and his anthology of Romanian poetry rendered into Arabic has been awarded the prize of the Iraqi Writers Union. Kriterion,2009 Ibn Sīnā, The Book of Definitions, Translation from the Arabic language, analysis and bibliography by George Grigore. Notes and comments by George Grigore, Alexander Baumgarten, Paula Tomi, critical transcription of the Latin version of the treaty and the comments of Andrea Alpago, along with the translation of the comments in the Romanian language, by Alexander Baumgarten. Iași, Polirom Publishing House, Medieval Library Series,2012, conference on Communication and Information Structure in Spoken Arabic, University of Maryland First International Symposium on Mardin History Arab Studies at the University of Bucharest,50 Years
23.
Languages of Mauritania
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The languages of Mauritania mainly consist of various Afroasiatic languages, including the Berber Zenaga and Tamasheq idioms, as well as Arabic. French is also due to colonial influence, and some ethnic minorities speak Niger-Congo languages. Arabic Literary Arabic is the official language, Hassaniyya Arabic is the local and oral form of Arabic. It is close to the used by the Bedouins. It is the used by the majority of the Mauritanian population. It is also the language of the Imraguen who also use elements of Soninké, Berber Zenaga, Still used in the south of the country, close to the River Sénégal, the last vestige of the Berber identity in Mauritania. Those who use it are known are Zenaga, after the language they speak, otherwise, most of the Moor population speak Berber languages. Islamisation and Arabisation of the population have meant that much of this population have lost all ties with this world, in 1978, even the term Arabo-Berber to designate the Moors was replaced by Arab. Tamasheq, Tamasheq is spoken in the extreme south-east of the country, due to colonialism, European languages are often present on the African continent. Mauritania is no exception to this rule, Mauritania is a member of La Francophonie. Most of the population speaks or understands some French, though overall knowledge and usage has declined substantially in recent years due to use of Arabic. Mauritanias political elite is Arab, and Arabic is their language of use. Wolof Soninké Pulaar is spoken in Mauritania by the Fula and the Toucouleur, bambara Hassaniyya Mauritania Moors Linguistic map of Mauritania at Muturzikin. com
24.
Modern Standard Arabic
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Modern Standard Arabic, Standard Arabic, or Literary Arabic is the standardized and literary variety of Arabic used in writing and in most formal speech. It is considered a pluricentric language, MSA is based on classical Arabic, and differences between the two varieties of the language are directly related to modernizing and simplification, both in speaking and writing styles. Classical Arabic, also known as Quranic Arabic, is the used in the Quran as well as in numerous literary texts from Umayyad. Many Muslims study Classical Arabic in order to read the Quran in its original language, Modern Standard Arabic is the literary standard across the Middle East, North Africa, Horn of Africa and is one of the six official languages of the United Nations. Most printed matter in the Arab League—including most books, newspapers, magazines, official documents and they are not normally written, although a certain amount of literature exists in many of them. Literary Arabic is the language of all Arab League countries and is the only form of Arabic taught in schools at all stages. Additionally, some Christian Arabic speakers recite prayers in it, as it is considered the literary language and this diglossic situation facilitates code-switching in which a speaker switches back and forth between the two dialects of the language, sometimes even within the same sentence. People speak MSA as a language if they speak other languages native to a country as their first language. Modern Standard Arabic is also spoken by people of Arab descent outside the Arab world when people of Arab descent speaking different dialects communicate each other, as there is a prestige or standard dialect of vernacular Arabic, speakers of standard colloquial dialects code-switch between these particular dialects and MSA. For these reasons, Modern Standard Arabic is generally treated separately in non-Arab sources, Arabic sources generally tend to regard MSA and Classical Arabic as different registers of one and the same language. Speakers of Modern Standard Arabic do not always observe the rules of Classical Arabic grammar. On the whole, Modern Standard Arabic is not homogeneous, there are authors who write in a very close to the classical models. As MSA is a revised and simplified form of Classical Arabic, as diglossia is involved, various Arabic dialects freely borrow words from MSA, this situation is similar to Romance languages, wherein scores of words were borrowed directly from formal Latin. It depends on the knowledge and attitude to the grammar of Classical Arabic, as well as the region. Pronunciation of foreign names in MSA is loose, names can be pronounced or even spelled differently in different regions, pronunciation also depends on the persons education, linguistic knowledge and abilities. Modern languages have also influenced pronunciation or word order. Examples are Turkish and English in Egypt, French in North Africa, Lebanon and Syria, English and Hebrew in Israel, notes, the marginal phoneme /ɫ/ only occurs in the word الله /aɫːaːh/ and words derived from it. /u/ can also have different realizations, i. e and they are distinct phonemes in loan words
25.
Wolof language
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Wolof is a language of Senegal, the Gambia, and Mauritania, and the native language of the Wolof people. Like the neighbouring languages Serer and Fula, it belongs to the Senegambian branch of the Niger–Congo language family, unlike most other languages of Sub-Saharan Africa, Wolof is not a tonal language. Wolof originated as the language of the Lebu people and it is the most widely spoken language in Senegal, spoken natively by the Wolof people but also by most other Senegalese as a second language. Wolof dialects vary geographically and between rural and urban areas, dakar-Wolof, for instance, is an urban mixture of Wolof, French, and Arabic. Wolof is the spelling and may refer to the Wolof people or to Wolof culture. Variants include the older French Ouolof and the principally Gambian Wollof, Jolof, jollof, etc. now typically refers either to the Jolof Empire or to jollof rice, a common West African rice dish. Now-archaic forms include Volof and Olof, the English language is believed to have adopted some Wolof words, such as banana, via Spanish or Portuguese, and yum/yummy, from Wolof nyam to taste, nyam in Barbadian English meaning to eat. Wolof is spoken by more than 10 million people and about 40 percent of Senegals population speak Wolof as their native language, in the whole region from Dakar to Saint-Louis, and also west and southwest of Kaolack, Wolof is spoken by the vast majority of the people. Typically when various groups in Senegal come together in cities and towns. It is therefore spoken in almost every regional and departmental capital in Senegal, nevertheless, the official language of Senegal is French. In Serekunda, the Gambias largest town, although only a minority are ethnic Wolofs. The official language of the Gambia is English, Mandinka, Wolof, in Mauritania, about seven percent of the population speak Wolof because of the river that is shared with Senegal. There, the language is used only around the coastal regions. Wolof is one of the Senegambian languages, which are characterized by consonant mutation and it is often said to be closely related to the Fula language because of a misreading by Wilson of the data in Sapir that have long been used to classify the Atlantic languages. Senegalese/Mauritanian Wolof and Gambian Wolof are distinct national standards, they use different orthographies, however, both the spoken and written languages are mutually intelligible. Lebu Wolof, on the hand, is unintelligible with standard Wolof. Note, Phonetic transcriptions are printed between square brackets following the rules of the International Phonetic Alphabet, the Latin orthography of Wolof in Senegal was set by government decrees between 1971 and 1985. The language institute Centre de linguistique appliquée de Dakar is widely acknowledged as an authority when it comes to spelling rules for Wolof, Wolof is most often written in this orthography, in which phonemes have a clear one-to-one correspondence to graphemes
26.
French language
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French is a Romance language of the Indo-European family. It descended from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire, as did all Romance languages, French has evolved from Gallo-Romance, the spoken Latin in Gaul, and more specifically in Northern Gaul. Its closest relatives are the other langues doïl—languages historically spoken in northern France and in southern Belgium, French was also influenced by native Celtic languages of Northern Roman Gaul like Gallia Belgica and by the Frankish language of the post-Roman Frankish invaders. Today, owing to Frances past overseas expansion, there are numerous French-based creole languages, a French-speaking person or nation may be referred to as Francophone in both English and French. French is a language in 29 countries, most of which are members of la francophonie. As of 2015, 40% of the population is in Europe, 35% in sub-Saharan Africa, 15% in North Africa and the Middle East, 8% in the Americas. French is the fourth-most widely spoken mother tongue in the European Union, 1/5 of Europeans who do not have French as a mother tongue speak French as a second language. As a result of French and Belgian colonialism from the 17th and 18th century onward, French was introduced to new territories in the Americas, Africa, most second-language speakers reside in Francophone Africa, in particular Gabon, Algeria, Mauritius, Senegal and Ivory Coast. In 2015, French was estimated to have 77 to 110 million native speakers, approximately 274 million people are able to speak the language. The Organisation internationale de la Francophonie estimates 700 million by 2050, in 2011, Bloomberg Businessweek ranked French the third most useful language for business, after English and Standard Mandarin Chinese. Under the Constitution of France, French has been the language of the Republic since 1992. France mandates the use of French in official government publications, public education except in specific cases, French is one of the four official languages of Switzerland and is spoken in the western part of Switzerland called Romandie, of which Geneva is the largest city. French is the language of about 23% of the Swiss population. French is also a language of Luxembourg, Monaco, and Aosta Valley, while French dialects remain spoken by minorities on the Channel Islands. A plurality of the worlds French-speaking population lives in Africa and this number does not include the people living in non-Francophone African countries who have learned French as a foreign language. Due to the rise of French in Africa, the total French-speaking population worldwide is expected to reach 700 million people in 2050, French is the fastest growing language on the continent. French is mostly a language in Africa, but it has become a first language in some urban areas, such as the region of Abidjan, Ivory Coast and in Libreville. There is not a single African French, but multiple forms that diverged through contact with various indigenous African languages, sub-Saharan Africa is the region where the French language is most likely to expand, because of the expansion of education and rapid population growth
27.
Languages of Senegal
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Senegal is a multilingual country, Ethnologue lists 36 languages, Wolof being the most widely spoken language. French, which was inherited from the era, is the official language of Senegal. It is used by the administration and understood by about 15–20% of all males, Senegal is a member State of the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie. A Senegalese, Abdou Diouf, held the position of its Executive Secretary between 2003 and 2014. Several of the Senegalese languages have the status of languages, Balanta-Ganja, Hassaniya Arabic, Jola-Fonyi, Mandinka, Mandjak, Mankanya, Noon, Pulaar, Serer, Soninke. In terms of usage, Wolof is the lingua franca and the most widely spoken language in Senegal, mande languages spoken include Soninke, and Mandinka. Jola is a language in the Casamance region. The Guinea Creole dialect, based on Portuguese is also spoken in that region, in 2008 Senegal, due to its historical connections to Portuguese colonisation in Casamance, was admitted as Associate Observer in the CPLP. Education for the deaf in Senegal uses American Sign Language, introduced by the deaf American missionary Andrew Foster, a local language is Mbour Sign Language. A report for the High Council of Francophonie in Paris stated in 1986 that in Senegal,60,000 people spoke French as a first language and 700,000 spoke French as a second language, the total population of Senegal at the time was 6.5 million. Le français et les langues africaines au Sénégal, Linguistic map of Senegal at Muturzikin. com Local language resources from Peace Corps Senegal Ethnologue page on Senegal PanAfrican L10n page on Senegal Linguistic situation in Senegal
28.
Serer language
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Serer, sometimes called Serer-Sine Serer proper after its prestige dialect, is a language of the Senegambian branch of Niger–Congo spoken by 1.2 million people in Senegal and 30,000 in the Gambia. It is the language of the Serer people. Serer is one of the Senegambian languages, which are characterized by consonant mutation, the traditional classification of Atlantic is that of Sapir, which found that Serer was closest to Fulani. However, a widely cited misreading of the data by Wilson inadvertently exchanged Serer for Wolof, dialects of Serer are Serer Sine, Segum, Fadyut-Palmerin, Dyegueme, and Niominka. Not all Serer people speak Serer, because the speakers are ethnically Serer, these are commonly thought to be Serer dialects. However, they are not closely related, Serer is significantly closer to Fulani than it is to Cangin, the voiceless implosives are also written ⟨ƥ ƭ ƈ ⟩, these are highly unusual sounds. The following greetings and responses are spoken in most regions of Senegal that have Serer speakers, in Senegalese culture, greetings are very important. Sometimes, people will spend several minutes greeting each other, the ethnolinguistic classification of Seereer in question. In Africa, Challenges of Multilingualism, ds Altmayer, Claus / Wolff, H. Ekkehard, Peter Lang, Frankfurt am Main, Berlin, Bern, Bruxelles, New York, Oxford, consonant mutation and reduplication in Seereer-Siin. Mc Laughlin, Fiona, Voiceless implosives in Seereer-Siin, Journal of the International Phonetic Association,35, 201–214, doi,10. 1017/S0025100305002215 Crétois, Dakar, Centre de Linguistique Appliquée de Dakar. Fal, A. Les nominaux en sereer-siin, Parler de Jaxaaw, senghor, L. S. Lharmonie vocalique en sérère. Journal de la Société des Linguistes
