Al-Sayyid Bedouin Sign Language

A sign language used by some of the bedouins of al-Sayyid.


Old Catalan

The Catalan language as it existed in the Middle Ages.


Amal

Borrowed from Arabic أَمَل (ʔamal, “hope”).


Arbëreshë Albanian

The form of the Albanian language spoken by the Arbëreshë people in southern Italy.


Aranadan

A Dravidian language spoken in Kerala, India.


Afade

[…] if the Musgum and Afade words are cognate, […]

1968, in Africana marburgensia (published by the Philipps-Universität Marburg), volumes 1-5

All Kotoko language speakers in Nigeria may speak Afade.

2003, William Frawley, editor, International encyclopedia of linguistics, volume 1, 2, page 235:

Other 'dialects' are spoken in Nigeria and Chad, and include Afade, Lagwan, Mser, Mpade, Maslam, Malgbe and Mazera.

2007, Tones and Tunes: Typological studies in word and sentence prosody (Tomas Riad, Carlos Gussenhoven), page 71


Aramanik

The original language of this people, Aasax.


Arvanitika Albanian

A form of the Albanian language spoken by a minority in Greece.


Mandobo Atas

(linguistics) A Papuan language spoken on the Upper Mandobo River.


Welsh English

The form of the English language that is chiefly used in Wales.


Ambonese Malay

Ambonese, a Malay-based creole language of Indonesia.


Abui

From Abui abui (“mountains; enclosed place”).

A language spoken in the Alor Archipelago of Indonesia.


Saint Lucian Creole French

A language of Saint Lucia, a French-based subvariety of Antillean Creole.


Hijazi Arabic

An Arabic dialect spoken primarily in Jeddah, Mecca, Medina, and Taif in Saudi Arabia.


Omani Arabic

The variety of the Arabic language spoken in parts of Oman.


Cypriot Arabic

A language of Cyprus, a moribund variety of Arabic spoken by the Maronite community.


Dhofari Arabic

A variety of the Arabic language spoken in parts of Oman.


Aduge

A dialect of the Okpamheri language of Nigeria.


Amdo Tibetan

A variety of the Tibetan language spoken by Amdo Tibetans.


Gulf Arabic

United Arab Emirates
United Arab Emirates

A variety of the Arabic language spoken in Eastern Arabia around the coasts of the Persian Gulf in Kuwait, Iraq, Bahrain, eastern Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Iran and northern Oman.


Afro-Seminole Creole

A dialect of the Gullah language, spoken by black Seminoles in scattered communities in Oklahoma, Texas, and Northern Mexico.


Proto-Italic

Hypothetical prehistoric Indo-European language, ancestor of all Italic languages.

Oeritalisch

hypothetical prehistoric ancestor language


Khwarshi

A Northeast Caucasian language spoken in Dagestan region of Russia.


Standard German

The standardised German (more precisely High German) language, especially as distinguished from High German varieties such as Bavarian or Luxembourgish, or from Low German.


Ida'an

A Malayo-Polynesian language spoken by the Ida'an people of Sabah, Malaysia


Mian

A language spoken in Sandaun Province, Papua New Guinea.


Mopán

A Mayan language spoken in Belize and Guatemala.


Michif

A variant pronunciation of the French word Métis.

One of the languages of the Metis people, spoken mainly in Canada. They exist along a continuum with three main types:

A true mixed language with many elements from both French and Cree.


European Portuguese

The Portuguese language as spoken and written in Portugal, particularly when it differs from other regional varieties of that language.

Europæisk portugisisk

Portuguese spoken and written in Portugal


Nafaanra

a Senufo language spoken in northwest Ghana by the Nafana, along the border with Côte d'Ivoire, east of Bondouko.


Hunsrik

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-Hunsrik.wav

From German Hunsrückisch, a Moselle Franconian dialect spoken in Rhineland-Palatinate, from Hunsrück + -isch.

A Germanic language spoken by some 3 to 5 million people, mainly in southern Brazil. The vocabulary and pronunciation are influenced by Portuguese.


Pittsburghese

The dialect of American English spoken around Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.


Natchez

A member of a tribe of Native Americans once living in the area of Mississippi.


Natchez

The extinct Muskhogean language of these people.

A city, the county seat of Adams County, Mississippi, United States.


Odia

The official language of the state of Odisha, India.


Primitive Irish

The Irish language as attested from the fourth to the seventh centuries C.E. and written in the Ogham alphabet, the predecessor of Old Irish.


Ryukyuan

Any of the traditional languages of Ryukyu, in modern times predominantly displaced by Japanese.


father-bother merger

/ˌfɑːðə ˈbɒðə ˈmɜːdʒə(ɹ)/

/ˌfɑðɚ ˈbɑðɚ ˈmɝdʒɚ/

The first is the father-bother merger, a loss of rounding contrast in the low back vowels by which the originally contrastive /ɒ/ has been subsumed by /ɑː/ into the fused phoneme /ɑ/.

2018, Gregory H. Bontrager, “Ambisyllabicity in an Optimal-Theoretic Model of English Stress Assignment”, in Florida Linguistics Papers, volume 5, number 2:

A phonemic merger in English of the vowels /ɑː/ (as in father) and /ɒ/ (as in bother).


Russenorsk

An Arctic pidgin language combining elements of Russian and Norwegian, mainly used by traders in the nineteenth century.


Gedaged

An Austronesian language spoken around Astrolabe Bay in Papua New Guinea.


mother language

en-noun

mother language (plural mother languages)

From Middle English modir langage, equivalent to mother + language.

Yet neuertheleſſe, the rudenes of common and mother tonges, is no bar foꝛ wiſe ſpeaking. Foꝛ in the rudeſt contrie, and moſt barbarous mother language, many be found can ſpeake verie wiſelie: but in the Gréeke and latin tong, the two onelie learned tonges, which be kept, not in common taulke, but in pꝛiuate bookes, we finde alwayes, wiſdome and eloquence, good matter and good vtterance, neuer oꝛ ſeldom a ſonder.

a. 1569 (date written), Roger Ascham, “[The Second Booke Teachyng the Ready Way to the Latin Tong]”, in Margaret Ascham, editor, The Scholemaster: Or Plaine and Perfite Way of Teaching Children, to Vnderstand, Write, and Speake, the Latin Tong, […], London: […] John Daye, […], published 1570, →OCLC, folio 46, recto:


Classical Syriac

An extinct language of the Northwest branch of the Semitic language family.

ܠܫܢܐ ܥܬܝܩܐ

Leššānā ‘atīqā


erhua

(Chinese phonetics) A phonological process that adds rhotic sounds to syllables in some lects of Chinese.


erization

/ˌɜːɹəˈzeɪʃ(ə)n/

/ˌɜːɹaɪˈzeɪʃ(ə)n/

Calque of Chinese 兒化 /儿化 (érhuà). By surface analysis, er + -ization.


Old Low Franconian

(strict sense) The West Germanic language that is the ancestor of modern Dutch and its varieties.

Altniederfränkisch (as adjective: altniederfränkisch)


Dari Persian

Synonym of Dari (variety of Persian spoken in Afghanistan)


Vilamovian

A West Germanic language spoken in the Polish town of Wilamowice.


Timorese

Tetum (a national language of East Timor)


Bai

From Chinese 白 (Bái). Doublet of Bach (Vietnamese surname).


South Sudanese

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-South Sudanese.wav

From South Sudan + -ese, after Sudanese.

A person from South Sudan or of South Sudanese descent.


Australian Sign Language

Auslan; the sign language of the Australian deaf community.


Umeda

A Papuan language spoken in Sandaun Province, Papua New Guinea.


Proto-Altaic

The hypothetical prehistoric ancestor of all Altaic languages, the existence of which is now often rejected.


Mennonite Low German

Mennonite + Low German, because Mennonites were the ones to carry it out of Prussia.

a variety of or descending from Low Prussian (East Low German, Low German or Low Saxon), that developed in Royal Prussia and which is now spoken by communities not only in Germany but also in North America (Canada, the United States), South America (Argentina, Brazil), Russia and some other places. (Not to be confused with the High German language Pennsylvania German; both are spoken in Pennsylvania.)

Molotschna

historically and linguistically important settlements


double S

The name of the Latin-script letter ẞ/ß.


Hanyu Pinyin

zh-l

漢語拼音／汉语拼音 (Hànyǔ Pīnyīn)

Mr. Jenner has also provided the Note on Pronunciation at p. 196, for Chinese names which are romanized in this volume according to the Hanyu Pinyin system.

1973, Lu Xun, translated by Gladys Yang, edited by Gladys Yang, Silent China Selected Writings of Lu Xun, Oxford University Press, →ISBN, →OCLC, →OL, page xii:

I follow McKhann in using Naxi pinyin to transliterate sainii and paq but retain regular Hanyu pinyin for dongba instead of using Naxi pinyin dobbaq since this is the most familiar form.

1996, Bell Yung, Evelyn Sakakida Rawski, Harmony and Counterpoint: Ritual Music in Chinese Context, Stanford University Press, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 253:

This paper points out that since the 1986 National Conference of Language Works, Hanyu Pinyin and Hanzi no longer have equal status in the Chinese writing system. Hanyu Pinyin has assumed a subordinate status to Hanzi, and it is no longer regarded as an evolving alphabetized writing system to replace Hanzi in the future. This posture is much lower than that preferrred by Mao Zedong in the early stage of New China.

2000, Feng Zhiwei, Yin Binyong, “THE CHINESE DIGRAPHIA PROBLEM IN THE INFORMATION AGE”, in Studies in the Linguistic Sciences, volume 30, number 1, page 229:

Introducing Hanyu Pinyin is about convenience and consistency, but should not, through autocratic rules, become a new front in the battle over identity.
Pragmatism is exactly why we would see the retention of “Taipei,” “Kaohsiung” and “Hsinchu” instead of “Taibei,” “Gaoxiong” and “Xinzhu,” and is the most sensible way to proceed in a politicized environment.

2008 September 20, “EDITORIAL: Pinyin is welcome, but not coercion”, in Taipei Times, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2008-09-20, Editorials, page 8:

Kaohsiung City Government said Wednesday that it will continue using the Tongyong Pinyin Mandarin romanization system on its street signs, passing on plans by the city's previous mayor to transition to the more widely-used Hanyu Pinyin system.[…]
In May 2019, former Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) proposed adopting the Hanyu Pinyin system for the city's street signs at an estimated cost of NT$73 million (US$2.54 million), though the plan was ultimately delayed because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

2020 October 14, Wang Shu-fen, Matthew Mazzetta, “Kaohsiung nixes proposal to adopt Hanyu Pinyin street signs”, in Focus Taiwan, archived from the original on 2020-10-16, Society:

Some use romanization to make a political statement, a legacy of the “Great Tongyong-Pinyin Wars” of the 2000s. Here's a useful trick: if you notice someone is using the Hanyu Pinyin system that is standard in China for their name, they are likely pan-blue (pro-KMT), and if they use Taiwan’s Tongyong Pinyin, they are probably pan-green (pro-DPP).

2022 February 22, Courtney Donovan (石東文) Smith, “The joyous variety in Taiwanese chosen names”, in Taiwan News, archived from the original on 2022-02-22:

Around twenty years ago, during Taiwan’s romanization wars (when President Chen wanted to impose Tongyong Pinyin upon Taiwan and a great many foreigners and others reacted with dismay and disgust), a popular claim of the Tongyong supporters was, “If Taiwanese use Hanyu Pinyin for their names, no one will be able to tell Taiwanese from Chinese anymore.”

2023 May 9, “Why is the ROC govt trying to make Taiwanese look like Singaporeans?”, in Pinyin.info, archived from the original on 2023-05-10:

A system of romanization for Mandarin Chinese. Usually called Pinyin.

漢語拼音 /汉语拼音

standard romanization of Mandarin Chinese


Aracanese

en-adj

Aracanese (comparative more Aracanese, superlative most Aracanese)

more Aracanese (comparative)
most Aracanese (superlative)

(historical) Of or pertaining to Aracan (or Arakan) in British Burma, corresponding to the modern Rakhine State.


Arakanese

Arakanese (comparative more Arakanese, superlative most Arakanese)

more Arakanese (comparative)
most Arakanese (superlative)


Kato

A particular group of Native American people in the United States.


Sena

A language spoken in Malawi, Mozambique, and Zimbabwe.


Azeri Turkic

Yet, classifying these varieties, which are spoken in the sphere of influence of the two major Oghuz languages, Azeri Turkic and Ottoman or Modern Standard Turkish, is difficult

2006, Christiane Bulut, "Syntactic traces of Turkic-Iranian contiguity: An areal survey of language contact-induced shift in patterns of relativization", Turkic-Iranian contact areas: Historical and linguistic aspects (Turcologica 62), page 187


Nootka

From Nootka nuučaan̓uł (“all along the mountains”).


Tamahaq

The only known Northern Tuareg language, spoken in Algeria, western Libya, and northern Niger.


Ma

A language spoken in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.


Proto-Kartvelian

The reconstructed ancestor of the Kartvelian languages.


Kamboji

The language of ancient Kamboja, or the script in which it was written.


Icelandish

From Middle English *Islandish, *Islondisch, equivalent to Iceland + -ish. Compare Dutch IJslands, German Isländisch, Danish islandsk, Icelandic íslenskur.

Some geographical manuscripts written in the Icelandish language in the fourteenth or fifteenth century, and based in part on the statement of the Abbot Nicholas of Thingeyre, who died in 1159 A.d., according to Storm, Werlauff, and Rafn, also bear early witness to the discovery of Vinland by Leif Ericson, to Leif's Christianizing Greenland, and to the establishment of an episcopal see in Gardar.

1903, United States Catholic Historical Society, Historical Records and Studies:

A short time ago open war broke out between the two elements over the new translation of the Bible into the Icelandish language, which had been prepared by Haraldus Nielsson, a teacher in the Theological Seminary at Reykjavik, [...]

(rare, dated [unless linguistic use]) Icelandic (North Germanic language, national tongue of Iceland).


Kalo Finnish Romani

The first part is derived from Kalo Finnish Romani kaalengo tšimb, the language's endonym.

A variant of Romani language spoken by the Finnish Roma.


Late Egyptian

The Egyptian language as spoken from 1069 to 700 BCE

Earlier Egyptian

Middle Egyptian [Late Middle Egyptian, Neo-Middle Egyptian]


Proto-Inupik

A hypothetical prehistoric ancestor of all Inuit languages, including Greenlandic, Inuktitut and Inupiak.

The category of Proto-Inuit on Wiktionary


Ak

A Sepik language spoken in Sandaun Province, Papua New Guinea.


Samo

A language spoken in Western Province, Papua New Guinea.


Sera

From Hebrew שָׂרָה (sará, “lady, princess”), which was originally converted from the given name שָׂרָי (saráy, “Sarai”).

A female given name from Hebrew, of occasional usage.


Cimbrian

(uncountable) The Bavarian Germanic language of these people, which is a variety of German.


Faliscan

The language of these people, related to Latin.


Kilivila

An Austronesian language spoken in the Trobriand Islands.


Slovincian

Alexander Hilferding
Slovincian language
Slovincians

From Kashubian Słowińc (“Slovincian”, person) + -ian. The ultimate origin is uncertain; the name is often said to be coined by Alexander Hilferding, but it actually predates his research, being found in (17th century) German slowinzisch, related to wendisch and often mistaken with Latin vandalicus.

der

The extinct language of the Slovincians.

سْلُوفِينْسِيَّة

extinct language of the Slovincian people


New Zealand English

The form of the English language used in New Zealand.


Hixkaryana

/ˌhɪʃkæˈɹjɑːnə/


Yola

An extinct West Germanic language formerly spoken in Wexford, Ireland.


Kolarian

Neo-Indian has retained a few prepositions. Dravidian and Kolarian have none.

1969, Demetrius Charles Boulger, Asian Review, page 504:

Kol, Munda, and the dialects classed as "other Kolarian " are recorded almost solely from Sambalpur and the Uria States.

3,000,000, held aloof from outside influences, retained their tribal usages and primitive religion, and may now be distinguished by their Kolarian speech.

1909, L. Krishna Anantha Krishna Iyer (Diwan Bahadur), The Cochin tribes and castes, page xxviii:

The language or language family spoken by the Kolarian people.


Konda

A South Bird's Head language, the westernmost mainland Trans-New Guinea language.


Konda

Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug
Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug

A Mansi language, also known as the Eastern Mansi, (was) spoken in the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug in Russia

A river in the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug in Russia


Konda

Various origins:
* Topographic surname borrowed from Telugu కొండ (koṇḍa, “hill, hillock”).
* Borrowed from Japanese 近田 (Konda).
* Borrowed from Slovene Konda, a diminutive of the personal name Konrad.


Kawésqar

[A]lso in the Kawesqar or Alacaluf language of southern Chile.

2008, Willem Adelaar, “Towards a typological profile of the Andean languages”, in Studies in Slavic and General Linguistics,, volume 33, page 27:

An Alacalufan language spoken in southern Chile by the Alacaluf people.


Yuchi

The language isolate spoken by this tribe.


Klamath

From Chinook Jargon Tlamatl (“either "swiftness" or "they of the river"”), with the first syllable's onset consonant cluster dissimilated and the coda of the second syllable changed to the somewhat similar-sounding interdental fricative during the process of anglicization.

bor

census-designated place
census-designated place

Del Norte County
Del Norte County#English

A census-designated place in Del Norte County, California, United States.


Goguryeo

/ɡəʊˈɡʊəjəʊ/

/ɡoʊˈɡʊəɹjoʊ/

From the Revised Romanization of Korean 고구려(高句麗) (Goguryeo). Compare Goryeo and Korea.

(historical) The language spoken in the Goguryeo kingdom.


Berbice Creole Dutch

An extinct creole language formerly spoken in Guyana.


Pictish

From Pict + -ish. Compare Old English Pihttisċ, Pyhtisċ.

The extinct, poorly attested language spoken by the Picts.


Oneida

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-Oneida.wav

Derived from Oneida Onyota'a꞉ka (“men of upright stones”).

der

"Tutaktsi'kwáni'" is Oneida for "kiss me".


Narragansett

en-noun

Narragansett (plural Narragansetts or Narragansett)

Narragansetts (plural)
Narragansett (plural)

/ˌnɛrəˈɡænsət/

A member of an Algonquian Native American tribe that formerly inhabited the shores of Narragansett Bay.


Onondaga

Borrowed from Onondaga Onöñda’gaga’. Compare Seneca Onödowáʼga:.

A member of a Native American tribe originally inhabiting Onondaga County, New York.


Onondaga

An ancient village of the Onondaga people in what is now in upstate New York that served as the capital of the Iroquois Confederacy.

A town in Onondaga County, New York, United States.


Amis

Borrowed from Amis amis (“north”), ultimately from Proto-Austronesian *qamiS (“north wind”). Compare Sakizaya amis (“north”).


Tuscarora

Frederick County
Frederick County#English

An unincorporated community in Frederick County, Maryland.

An unincorporated community in Elko County, Nevada.

Schuylkill County
Schuylkill County#English

A census-designated place in Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania.


Borôro

An indigenous language of Brazil believed to be part of the Macro-Gê family.


Angor

A language of Papua New Guinea in Sandaun province. It belongs to the small Senagi family.


Morori

An endangered language of Irian Jaya, Indonesia. It is a sole member of the Moraori branch within the large Trans-New Guinea family.


Vedda

From Sinhalese වැද්දා (wæddā, “hunter”), from Sanskrit वेति (veti, “hunt”), q.v.


Zou

The Kukish language spoken by the Zou people.


Montagnais

Borrowed from French montagnais, from montagne (“mountain”) + -ais.

An Algonquian language spoken by approximately 11,000 people in Eastern Canada.


Innu

Derived from Montagnais inniw (“man”), from Proto-Algonquian *erenyiwa. Not related to Inuit.


Bororo

The only nonextinct member of the Bororoan language family, spoken in the Central Mato Grosso region of Brazil.


Aquitanian

The extinct Vasconic language of Aquitania. See Wikipedia


Jamaican Creole

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-Jamaican Creole.wav

An English-based creole spoken in and around Jamaica, additionally influenced by various African languages, particularly Akan.


Nuxálk

from Bella Coola nuχalk (“Bella Coola Valley”)

uder

xłp̓x̣ʷłtłpłłskʷc̓ xłp̓x̣ʷłtłpłłskʷc̓

A Salishan language spoken in the vicinity of the Canadian town of Bella Coola, known for long strings of obstruents without any intervening vowels, such as xłp̓x̣ʷłtłpłłskʷc̓ [xɬpʼχʷɬtʰɬpʰɬːskʷʰt͡sʼ].


Pennsylvania German

en-noun

Pennsylvania German (countable and uncountable, plural Pennsylvania Germans)

(uncountable) The High German language, descending from Palatine German, which is spoken by the Pennsylvania Dutch. (Not to be confused with the Low German language Plautdietsch which is also spoken in Pennsylvania.)


Chipewyan

From Plains Cree ᒌᐘᔮᐣ (Cīpwayān, “pointed skin”), from ᒌᐚᐤ (cīpwāw, “to be pointed”) + ᐘᔮᐣ (wayān, “skin, hide”) — a reference to the cut and style of Chipewyan parkas.

bor

The Northern Athabascan language spoken by this tribe.


Penobscot

An extinct Abenaki (Algonquian) language, spoken in parts of the northeastern United States and in Quebec, related to Western Abenaki.


Eastern Abenaki

An extinct Abenaki (Algonquian) language, also called Penobscot, spoken in parts of the northeastern United States and in Quebec, related to Western Abenaki.


Western Abenaki

The Abenaki language (an Algonquian) language), originally spoken in the northeastern United States; now spoken in Quebec.


Bungi

1776 sense of people, 1951 language. From Algonquian, compare Cree ᐸᐦᑭ (pahki, “part, thing, a little”), Ojibwe bangii (“part, thing, a little”)/ᐸᓐᑶ.

cog

A creole language formerly spoken in the Red River settlement of Manitoba.


Proto-Austronesian

A proposed common ancestor to the group of Austronesian languages comprising Malayo-Polynesian and Formosan languages.


Kawi

The theory that Balinese religion was a branch of Indian Hinduism led the society to believe that the literature of ancient Bali should be in the classical language of India, but in fact the Kawi language has absolutely no grammatical connection to Sanskrit.

2012, Adrian Vickers, Bali: A Paradise Created, 2nd edition, Tuttle, page 118:

A literary and prose language based on Old Javanese with a large number of Sanskrit loanwords, and used on the islands of Java, Bali, and Lombok; or the script used in writing this language.


Old Javanese

The oldest attested form of Javanese language spoken up to the thirteenth century.


Pintupi

Western Desert language
Western Desert language

A Pama-Nyungan Australian Aboriginal language spoken in central Australia; part of the Western Desert language group.


Lardil

A moribund Tangkic Pama-Nyungan Australian Aboriginal language spoken on Mornington Island in the Gulf of Carpentaria.


Ayapaneco

A near-extinct Mixe-Zoque language of Mexico.


Mabire

A nearly extinct Chadic language spoken in Oulek village in Chad.


Tehuelche

From Mapudungun, meaning "fierce people".

A nearly extinct Chonan language spoken in Patagonia.


Yolngu

From a word meaning "person" in the Yolngu lects.

The Pama-Nyungan lects spoken by these people, when regarded as a single language or language group; the Murngic languages.


Cayuga

Borrowing from Cayuga gayogo̱hó꞉nǫʼ (“they live in the big swamp”)

bor

An indigenous people of North America, part of the Iroquois Confederacy.


Cayuga

The Northern Iroquoian language of the Cayuga people.

Haldimand County
Haldimand County#English

An unincorporated community, the county seat of Haldimand County, Ontario; named for the Cayuga people.


Wik

Any of their various languages, belonging to the Paman language family.


Lower Silesian

A West Germanic language spoken in Poland, as well as in northeastern Czechia and in eastern Germany. This language (or group of dialects) is nearly extinct.


Silesian German

A nearly extinct West Germanic language (group of Central German dialects), formerly spoken in Silesia, chiefly Lower Silesia (now Poland), and among the expellee community in Germany (now chiefly elderly people).


Galician-Asturian

A set of Galicia dialects found in Asturias.


Proto-Athabaskan

An undocumented hypothetical language from which all the Athabaskan languages later emerged.


moonrunes

From moon + runes. Apparently coined based from moonspeak, an anime reference (of which see there), ultimately associating East Asian languages with celestial levels of foreignness.

Can anyone here read moonrunes?

I'm still learning moonrunes.

This imported box of Pocky is covered in moonrunes; I can barely read it.

(Internet slang, sometimes derogatory, sometimes humorous) An incomprehensible writing script, or the language associated with it, usually referring to Japanese, but may also refer to Chinese, Korean and other East Asian writing scripts.


Suku

A Yaka language spoken by approximately fifty thousand people in the south of Bandundu Province in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (zone H.30 in Guthrie’s classification).


Netherlandic

From Netherland(s) + -ic. Compare Netherlandish, which is used mainly in the context of art and culture.

(rare) the Dutch language (or a variety thereof)


Greenlandic Eskimo Pidgin

The code used on Wiktionary for Greenlandic Eskimo Pidgin is crp-gep


Alviri-Vidari

A Northwestern Iranian language spoken in Alvir and Vidar, two villages near Saveh, Markazi Province, Iran.


Modoc

From Klamath-Modoc moatokni (“southerner”).

The language of this tribe (also known as Klamath-Modoc).


Pre-Greek

Calque of German Vorgriechisch. By surface analysis, pre- + Greek.

A hypothetical language (or languages) conjectured to have been spoken in prehistoric Greece before the arrival of Proto-Greek speakers, and used to explain the large number of non-Indo-European words found in Ancient Greek.


Ditidaht

The language spoken by the Ditidaht people: a member of the Southern Wakashan language group.


Klallam

From the North Straits Salish name for the Klallam people, [xʷsˈtɬæləm].

A member of a group of related Native American communities from the Pacific Northwest of North America.


Yidiny

After the Yidindji tribe (orthographies vary).

An extinct or nearly extinct Aboriginal language from northern Queensland, Australia in the Pama-Nyungan family.


Macushi

Their language, which has between 20000 and 30000 speakers, and is in the Cariban family.


Lushootseed

Anglicized form of Lushootseed xʷəlšucid or dxʷləšúcid.

An endangered Salishan language spoken mainly in Washington state, US.


Manam

A language spoken mainly on the island of Manam.


Tolomako

An Austronesian language spoken in Vanuatu.


A-Pucikwar

From A-Pucikwar a- (prefix used on words relating to the mouth) + Pucikwar.

der

The now-extinct language spoken by the Pucikwar people.


Abun

A language, sometimes considered an isolate and sometimes considered West Papuan, spoken in Papua and divided into the dialects Abun Tat (Karon Pantai), Abun Ji (Madik), and Abun Je.


Ahwai

A Nigerian Plateau language or language group, which comprises the lects Nandu or Ndun, Ningon or Nyeng, and Tari or Shakara.


Aka-Bo

From Aka-Bo aka- (“a prefix used on words relating to the mouth”) + bo.

A Great Andamanese language, the last speaker of which died in 2010.


Akpes

A dialect cluster spoken in Nigeria, which is its own branch of the Volta–Niger languages.


Amarakaeri

An indigenous American language, which is in the Harákmbut or Harákmbet language family, spoken in Peru.


Angami

A Tibeto-Burman language spoken in the Naga Hills in the northeastern part of India.


Pucikwar

The A-Pucikwar language spoken by these people.


Alaba-K'abeena

A Cushitic language spoken in Ethiopia in the Great Rift Valley southwest of Lake Shala.


Abelam

The Ambulas language of Papua New Guinea.


East Frisian

The Low German dialect spoken in East Frisia.


Woi

An Austronesian language spoken by around 1300 people in Irian Jaya (Indonesian New Guinea)


Krio

Borrowed from Krio Krio, from Portuguese crioulo (“creole”). Doublet of Creole.

A creole language based on English/Jamaican Creole spoken by around 500,000 people mainly in Sierra Leone.


Mizo

A language spoken in India, especially Mizoram, and adjoining parts of Bangladesh and Myanmar.


Gadang

An East Chadic language spoken by about 2500 people in Chad.


Lepcha

Lepcha language
Lepcha people
Lepcha script

Their language, a Himalayish language in the Sino-Tibetan family, spoken by about 30000-50000 people.


Babungo

The Bantu language of the Vengo people from the village of Babungo in the Cameroonian Grassfields.


Babuza

A Formosan language of the Babuza and Taokas indigenous peoples of Taiwan, related to or perhaps descended from Favorlang.


Bafanji

The Nun language spoken in the Northwest Region of Cameroon by approximately 17,000 speakers.


Bafut

The Eastern Grassfields language spoken in Cameroon.


Bagirmi

The language of the Baguirmi people of Chad, spoken mainly in the Chari-Baguirmi Prefecture.

A family of languages which includes the Bagirmi language as well as Naba, Kenga, Fer, Beraku, Disa, and Goulai.


Ogoni

Their language division, which consists of Khana, Tẹẹ, Gokana, Eleme, and Baan.


ǃOǃKung

ǃOǃkung Bushman (Angola): […]

1934, The mammals of South West Africa: a biological account, volume 2, page 504

[…] transcribed by slashes or exclamation points, as in the ǃOǃkung language, spoken in Angola […]

2005-2010, The Origins and Development of the English Language, edition 6, volume 1 (ISBN-13: 978-1-4282-3145-0), page 53 http://books.google.com/books?id=znFmBZ2D8rEC&lpg=PA53&dq=%22O-kung%22%20language%20Angola%20OR%20Namibia&pg=PR4#v=onepage&q=%22O-kung%22%20language%20Angola%20OR%20Namibia&f=false

[…] and other groups in Namibia, and with ǃOǃKung (ǃXũ) in Angola; […]

2007, Alan Barnard, Anthropology and the Bushman (ISBN-13 978-1-84520-428-0), page 46 http://books.google.com/books?id=e3MihaaJ314C&lpg=PA46&dq=%22O-kung%22%20language%20Angola%20OR%20Namibia&pg=PR4#v=onepage&q=O%20Kung&f=false

The northern lect of the ǃKung dialect continuum, spoken in southern Angola and northern Namibia.


Vengo

Their language, also known as Babungo, in the Benue-Congo family, with 14000-27000 speakers.


Pshavian

A dialect of the Georgian language spoken in Pshavi.


ǁXegwi

They also occur in ǁxegwi but not in other "Bush" languages.

1980, Jannie Winston Snyman, Bushman and Hottentot linguistic studies, page 75:

[…] variety known as ǁXegwi was spoken. In the 1950s there were fewer than 36 speakers left. They were described as still knowing their language 'fairly well' and being bilingual in 'Swazi-Zulu' and Afrikaans (Potgieter 1955), […]

1995, Rajend Mesthrie, Language and social history: studies in South African sociolinguistics, page 13:

TABLE 11.2 Loss of ancestral ! clicks in ǁXegwi.

2009, Rudolf P. Botha, Chris Knight, The Cradle of Language, page 216:

An extinct language formerly spoken in South Africa near the Swazi border.


Gcwi

[…] about 12000 speakers; Gcwi and Gxana (Botswana), with about 6000 speakers; the Zhu language (Namibia and Botswana), with about 11000 speakers; […]

1997, Encyclopedia of Africa south of the Sahara (John Middleton), volume 2


Zan Gula

[…] Congo, Volta-Congo, North, Adamawa-Ubangi, Adamawa, Mbum-Day, Bua. There is reported to be no intelligibility between Bon Gula and Zan Gula. Speakers may use Arabic as second language. Together with Bon Gula called 'Gula Guera'.

1992, Ethnologue: languages of the world (Barbara F. Grimes, Richard Saunders Pittman, Joseph Evans Grimes),page 229

Not intelligible with Bon Gula or Zan Gula.

2003, International encyclopedia of linguistics (William Frawley), volume 1, page 30

The highly endangered languages include Barein, Boor (Bowara, Damraw). Fania (Mara, Kobe, Fongoro, Koke), Kindeje (Yaali), Kujange, Laal, Mawa (Mahoura), Miltu, Saba, Sokoro, Tamki, Tunia (tounia, Tunya) and Zan Gula (Moriil).

2005, Language decline and death in Africa: causes, consequences, and challenges (Herman Batibo), pages 72-73


Bon Gula

1995: Banana Marba (Mesa) (65%), Bua (80%), Bon Gula (95%), Gkelendeng […] Jurnam (90%).

2001, World Christian Encyclopedia: The world by segments : religions, peoples, languages, cities, topics (David B. Barrett, George Thomas Kurian, Todd M. Johnson), page 182

An Atlantic-Congo language spoken in Chad.


Gola

Most De speak Gola fluently and many also speak Vai.

1971, Rural Africana (Michigan State University, Political Science Department / African Studies Center), issues 13-18, page 13

Nevertheless, some still remember how to speak Gola, occasionally uphold their Gola origins, and seem to reflect them in the orientation of certain social values.

1994, Melissa Leach, Rainforest relations: gender and resource use among the Mende of Gola, Sierra Leone, page 49:

The Gola live on the border with Liberia in the provinces of Kenema and Pujehun. They number about 9000, speak Gola and practice Islam […]

2005, The world guide: a view from the south, volume 2007 (Instituto del Tercer Mundo), page 495


Kulaal

[…] who has seen Pairault's material, says of one of these languages, Kulaal, that it 'is a class language which . . . looks like something out of Chari-Hile by Adamawa-Eastern or the other way round'.

1971, Current Trends in Linguistics: Linguistics in Sub-Saharan Africa (Thomas Albert Sebeok), page 221

Suffixes have probably been 'worn down' and replaced, and in Kulaal, a recent system of concord markers has been created.

1989, The Niger-Congo languages: a classification and description of Africa's largest language family (John Bendor-Samuel, Rhonda L. Hartell), page 204

[…] phonology and morphology, and deals briefly with the classification of this group (which includes thirteen sub-dialects, among which we find Lua and Kulaal).

1995, in Chad (E. George H. Joffé, Valérie Day-Viaud), page 62


Karo Batak

Thus, when Brandstetter compares Karo Batak kilkil "to gnaw", Bisayan baŋkil "to bite" he is justified in regarding this as evidence — albeit very slender evidence — for an "Original Indonesian" root kil.

1988, Austronesian Root Theory: An Essay on the Limits of Morphology (R. A. Blust), page 12

Karo Batak (spoken in Sumatra, Indonesia)
[…]
Table 13: Karo Batak verb forms (Norwood)

2002, The history and typology of western Austronesian voice systems (Fay Wouk, Malcolm Ross), page 2 and page 467

[…] interrogative pronoun, as in the example in (6) from Karo Batak (Austronesian; Sumatra, Indonesia).

2005, Martin Haspelmath, The World Atlas Of Language Structures, page 379:

An Austronesian language that is spoken by the Karo people of Indonesia; ISO code btx.


Moesogothic

From Moeso- + Gothic or Moesogoth + -ic, from Moesia.


Alumu

For quotations using this term, see Citations:Alumu.

A Plateau language spoken in Nassarawa State, Nigeria.


Neogothic

en-adj

Neogothic (comparative more Neogothic, superlative most Neogothic)

more Neogothic (comparative)
most Neogothic (superlative)

The travelling engineer Frencesco Senweignoter designed the church at Falzes (1851) and also the front of the mausoleaum for Archduke Reiner in the principal church in Bolzano. The latter is a pleasing and correct example of the Neogothic style.

1979, Sandro Gattei, Sandro Pirovano, Robert Mainardi, Trentino Alto Adige, page 464:

The earlier periods, the original and ideas-phases of German Neogothic, have been well written up in English; now Lewis's work fills an important gap in English-language works on the later period; indeed, so far, there is no comparable work in German either.

1992, Newsletter - Issues 47-65, page 90:

The Neogothic Revival style of the early 1900s sought to tame the excesses of the flamboyant High Victorian Gothic by turning to English Gothic architecture for inspiration.

1993, East Central Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission, City of Berlin intensive architectural/historical survey: final report:

His interest in architecture was always strongly linked to his sense of responsibility for the care and preservation of the built environment. In 1973 he published an article on Early Neogothic in Finland.

1995, Icon to Cartoon: A Tribute to Sixten Ringbom, page 22:

Toward the end of the nineteenth century, he made a series of designs in the Neogothic idiom of Martorell.

2000, Juan Bassegoda Nonell, Antonio Gaudi: Master Architect:

(architecture, literature) Alternative form of neogothic


Mongo

Democratic Republic of the Congo
Democratic Republic of the Congo

A Bantu language spoken in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.


Indo-Portuguese

Any of various Portuguese-based creoles spoken in India and Sri Lanka.


Isan

From Thai อีสาน (ii-sǎan) (same in Isan), claimed to be from Sanskrit ईशान (īśāna, “Shiva of the northeast”).

der

The language of the Isan people (between Lao and Thai, and sometimes considered a dialect of Lao, although it is written in Thai script).


Bats

A Northeast Caucasian language of the Nakh family, spoken in Georgia.


Sassarese

A Romance lect, transitional between Corsican and Sardinian, spoken in the province of Sassari, Sardinia, Italy.


Kaingang

An Indigenous Brazilian language of the Gê family.


Dadibi

A language of Papua New Guinea, of the Trans-New Guinea family.


American Spanish

Any of the varieties of Spanish used in the United States.


Ngbandi

The language of these people, a dialect continuum of the Ubangian family.


Semi-Saxon

(obsolete) Late Old English and early Middle English, perceived as a language intermediate between Anglo-Saxon and English and belonging to the period from 1100 to 1200/1230/1250 (depending on author).


Semi-Saxon

(obsolete) Relating to Late Old English and early Middle English, the form of the English language belonging to the period from 1100 to 1200/1230/1250 (depending on author).


Nyankole

The Bantu lect spoken by more than two million members of the Nkore (Banyankore) and Hema (Hima) peoples of southwestern Uganda, closely related to the Kiga language and sometimes considered with Kiga to be a dialect of Nkore-Kiga, or (with Kiga, Nyoro and Tooro) a dialect of Kitara.


Nkore

The lect spoken by these people, Nyankole.


Libyan Arabic

A group of Arabic dialects spoken primarily in Libya.


Black English

Perhaps Black English will yield a new neutral term for wokeness.

2021 November 16, John McWhorter, “‘Woke’ Went the Way of ‘P.C.’ and ‘Liberal’”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

African-American English
African-American English#English

Any of several varieties of English spoken by or associated with Black people, especially people of African origin or in Africa.

(US) Synonym of African-American English (“AAE”), sometimes specifically African-American Vernacular English (“AAVE”).


Hyblaean

en-adj

Hyblaean (comparative more Hyblaean, superlative most Hyblaean)

more Hyblaean (comparative)
most Hyblaean (superlative)

Borrowed from French Hybléen, via Latin hyblaeus, ultimately from Ancient Greek ὑβλαῖος (hublaîos, “Hyblaean”).

der

Of or pertaining to the Hyblaean Mountains.

(historical) Of or pertaining to Hybla, three ancient cities of Sicily, famous for their bees and honey.


Hyblaean

The dialects of Sicily spoken in the Hyblaean Mountains.


Faroish

From Faroe + -ish, after Icelandic færeyskur.

[...] manned by the queerest old carles, who by way of salute as the boat touched our side, shuffled off their Faroish caps in a very undignified manner.

1920, John William Mackail, The life of William Morris:

Of or pertaining to the Faroe Islands, Faroish people or the Faroish language; Faroese.

ֆարերյան

pertaing to the Faroish language, people or Faroe Islands


Faroish

A person from the Faroe Islands, Faroe Islander.


Faroish

The same story is found in Icelandic, Norse, Faroish, and Estnish ballads, as well as in the Swedish and Danish, and a nearly related one in many other ballads or tales — German, Polish, Lithuanian, [...]

1893, The ballad minstrelsy of Scotland:

The language of the Faroe Islands, closely related to Icelandic, and more distantly to Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish.


Zarma

A Songhay language spoken primarily in Niger.


Marwari

A macrolanguage of India and Eastern Pakistan, descended from Rajasthani.


Elfdalian

From Elfdalia + -an, from Älvdalen in Sweden, literally "river valley," from Swedish älv (“river”) + dal (“valley”).

A linguistic variety of the Scandinavian language continuum spoken in the old parish of Övdaln in Sweden.


Urum

Derived from the endonym Rûm (Rome), the term for the Byzantine Empire in the Muslim world. See Arabic رُوم (Rūm), Persian روم (Rūm), Ancient Greek Ῥωμαῖος (Rhōmaîos), etc.

A Turkic language spoken in Ukraine and by a diaspora around the world, including in Georgia.


Abipón

Borrowed from Spanish abipón of American Indian origin.

The language of the Abipón people, of Guaicuruan origin.


Western Highland Purepecha

Western Highland(s), denoting where it is spoken + Purepecha, a word from Purepecha.

The western lect of Purepecha, a language isolate spoken in Mexico.


Gadjang

Synonym of Worimi (“Australian Aboriginal language”)


Southern Sesotho

The Sesotho language, when distinguished from Northern Sesotho.


Aequian

The Italic language spoken by the Aequi.


Abor-Miri

/ˌɑˌbɔɹˈmɪ.ɹi/


Proto-Malayic

A proposed common ancestor to the group of Malayic languages.


Lombardish

From Middle English Lombardish, from Old English *Longbeardisc (“Lombardish”), equivalent to Lombard + -ish.

inh

And also another scripture that men call the Lombardish law, deviseth thereof in divers cases; the which hereafter shall be declared by me unto thee.

1807, George Burnett, Specimens of English prose-writers:

Of or pertaining to the Lombards, a Germanic people who settled in Italy in the sixth century C.E., their language, customs, or culture.

[...] Jazz became many things—frenetic, destructive, hysterical, decadent, venal, alcoholic, saccharine, Lombardish, vapid—it has enriched stuffed bellies; it has corrupted the innocent; [...]

2010, John Szwed, Alan Lomax: The Man Who Recorded the World:


Lombardish

The language of the Lombards, an extinct Germanic language known from fragmentary evidence; Lombardic.


Proto-Baltic

The reconstructed ancestor of the Baltic languages, descended from Proto-Balto-Slavic.


Tungus

From Russian тунгус (tungus),
* supposedly deriving from donki, a self-designation of certain Siberian groups, or alternatively from a Yakut name for the Evenki.
* Or, of East Turkic origin, from tunguz (“wild boar, pig”), from Old Turkic [script needed] (tonguz), from Proto-Turkic *toŋuz.
* A controversial theory further connects the word with Chinese 東胡 /东胡 (Dōnghú, “Donghu”, literally “Eastern barbarians”), an ancient people of North China.
More at Tungusic.

der

(dated, possibly obsolete) The Evenki language.


Zeme

A Sino-Tibetan language spoken in northeastern India.


Pipil

The Uto-Aztecan language, descended from Nahuatl, spoken by an indigenous people of El Salvador.

nawat

the Uto-Aztecan language, descended from Nahuatl, spoken by an indigenous people of El Salvador


Rennellese

A Polynesian language spoken in the Rennell and Bellona Province of the Solomon Islands.


Armoric

Inherited from Middle English Armorik, from Latin Armoricus directly or from Middle French Armorique.

The language spoken by the Gauls of Armorica, the ancestor of Breton.


Bullom So

A moribund Niger-Congo language spoken near the border between Guinea and Sierra Leone.


Mulao

A Tai-Kadai language spoken by the Mulao people.


Cahuilla

Probably from Cahuilla kawi'a (“master”).


Chorasmian

an extinct Eastern Iranian language once spoken in Chorasmia


Talysh

From Talysh Tolışon, толыши, تالشان, possibly ultimately related to the name of the Cadusii, a Median tribe.

The Western Iranian language of the Talysh people.


Yaghnobi

From Tajik яғнобиҳо (yaġnobiho), from Yagnobi yaγnōbī́t, яғнобӣ (yaġnobi).

An Eastern Iranian language spoken in Tajikistan by the Yaghnobi people.


Ur-Germanic

If now these prefixes are to be connected, as it seems they should be, they point to an urgermanic vowel sound differing but little, if any, in degree of openness from urgermanic e.

1896, Frank Hamilton Fowler, The negatives of the Indo-European languages:

In Germanic the distinction between perfectives and imperfectives is a survival of what was perhaps a vital distinction in Ur-germanic.

1917, University of North Carolina (1793-1962). Philological Club, Studies in philology:

OE. changes unstressed 'i' into 'e' and drops '-n' in Uroe.; the oblique cases in OE. are: micile throughout, the Urgermanic forms were: acc. [...]

1939, Niels Bøgholm, English speech from an historical point of view:

We are immediately confronted with a compound triple disjunction: 1) -*s and -*z fell together in Ur-Germanic as nondistinctive variants of a single phoneme ; or 2) they fell together in Ur-Germanic as a single sound [...]

1941, Douglas Chrétien, Indo-European final-*s in Germanic:

This practice of divided sovereignty over land, which survived into the twentieth century as the Almen of Upper Germany, seemed also to Biicher to respond to “an Ur-Germanic instinct,” [...]

2005, Heath Pearson, Origins of Law and Economics:

They stood in relation to these various tribes as an Ur-Germanic people of remarkable size and prowess.

2010, John D. Niles, Homo Narrans: The Poetics and Anthropology of Oral Literature:

Before the early 1930s, pamphlets and journals hardly ever celebrated incineration as an ur-Germanic tradition.

2011, Alon Confino, Paul Betts, Dirk Schumann, Between Mass Death and Individual Loss:

(linguistics) Hypothetical prehistoric ancestor language of all Germanic languages, including English; Proto-Germanic.

The category of Proto-Germanic on Wiktionary


Milyan

An extinct Indo-European language in the Anatolian group.


Hayasan

the language of Hayasa of unknown affiliation, attested in only few names


Mysian

An extinct unclassified language, possibly belonging to the Anatolian subgroup of Indo-European languages.


Juǀʼhoan

A southern variety of the ǃKung dialect continuum spoken in Namibia and Botswana.


!Kung

One of [the few hunter-gatherer cultures that remain] is the !Kung of the Kalahari Desert in Botswana, Africa (the exclamation point in !Kung represents one of four clicking sounds in their language).

1979, Daniel Goleman, Consciousness, the Brain, States of Awareness, and Alternate Realities, Ardent Media, →ISBN, page 166:

For example, the !Kung* Bushmen of the Kalahari Desert in Botswana have an explanation for the Milky Way, which at their latitude is often overhead.
[…]
*The exclamation point is a click, made by touching the tongue against the inside of the incisors, and simultaneously pronouncing the K.

1980, Carl Sagan, “The Backbone of Night”, in Cosmos, first edition, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 172:

The exclamation point in !Kung is pronounced as a click and is characteristic of Khoisan languages.

2000, Carl N. McDaniel, John M. Gowdy, Paradise for Sale: A Parable of Nature, page 78:


Mangareva

The Polynesian language of the Gambier Islands.


Bina

A language spoken in Nigeria, also called Binawa.


Tsat

A Malayo-Polynesian language spoken near Sanya, Hainan, China by the Utsuls.


Mono

Uncertain. The Monache, a related ethnic group, seems to derive their name from a common source as the Mono, as -chi occurs otherwise in the Yokutsan and Miwok languages as a relatively common suffix on tribal names.

A county in California, United States, see Mono County.


Eyak

the extinct Na-Dené language of these people, formerly spoken near the mouth of the Copper River in Alaska.


Senufo

A member of an ethnolinguistic group composed of diverse subgroups of Gur-speaking people living in an area spanning from southern Mali and the extreme western corner of Burkina Faso to Katiola in Côte d'Ivoire.


Senufo

A group of approximately 15 languages spoken by the Senufo.


Domari

An Indo-Aryan language spoken by the Dom people across the Middle East, North Africa, the Caucasus, Central Asia, and India.


Walmajarri

A Ngumbin Australian Aboriginal suffixing language spoken in and around Fitzroy Crossing in the Kimberley region of Western Australia.


Djaru

A Ngumbin Australian Aboriginal language spoken in the Halls Creek region of Western Australia.


Ayu

A language spoken in Kaduna State of Nigeria.


Proto-Western Malayo-Polynesian

From proto- + Western Malayo-Polynesian.

Western Malayo-Polynesian
Western Malayo-Polynesian

A proposed common ancestor to the group of Western Malayo-Polynesian languages.


Proto-Philippine

A proposed common ancestor to the group of Philippine languages.


Proto-Central-Eastern Malayo-Polynesian

Central-Eastern Malayo-Polynesian
Central-Eastern Malayo-Polynesian

A proposed common ancestor to the group of Central-Eastern Malayo-Polynesian languages.


Proto-Eastern Malayo-Polynesian

Eastern Malayo-Polynesian
Eastern Malayo-Polynesian

A proposed common ancestor to the group of Eastern Malayo-Polynesian languages.


Proto-Central Malayo-Polynesian

Central Malayo-Polynesian
Central Malayo-Polynesian

A proposed common ancestor to the group of Central Malayo-Polynesian languages.


Proto-Nuclear Polynesian

A proposed common ancestor to the group of Nuclear Polynesian languages.


Proto-Eastern Polynesian

A proposed common ancestor to the group of Eastern Polynesian languages.


Proto-South Sulawesi

A proposed common ancestor to the group of South Sulawesi languages.


Proto-Malayo-Chamic

A proposed common ancestor to the group of Malayo-Chamic languages.


Abung

A lect of the Indonesian province of Lampung, considered by some an independent language and by others a dialect of Lampung.


Proto-Malayo-Sumbawan

A proposed common ancestor to the group of Malayo-Sumbawan languages.


Proto-Atayalic

A proposed common ancestor to the group of Atayalic languages.


Proto-Chamic

A proposed common ancestor to the group of Chamic languages.


Proto-Bungku-Tolaki

A proposed common ancestor to the group of Bungku-Tolaki languages.


Fala

A Romance language of Spain mostly spoken in three cities within the valley of Jálima.


Solano

The little-known extinct language spoken by the Solano.


Huaorani

From Huaorani huaorani (“Huaorani, true human”).

The language, a language isolate, which is spoken by these people.


ǂHoan

Some languages are able to morphologically express plurality of events. For instance, in ǂHoan (a moribund Khoisan language spoken in southeastern Botswana), kí- is attached to a verb to express plurality related to events (Collins 2001).

2007, Kimiko Nakanishi, Formal Properties of Measurement Constructions, page 251:

Map 14 shows that the minority type of SVO&GenN languages are primarily found in two areas, among Gur, Kru, and Kwa languages in west Africa and among various Khoisan groups in southern Africa (Ju, ǂHoan, ǃUi and Taa).

2011, Matthew S. Dryer, Noun-Modifier Order in Africa, in Geographical Typology and Linguistic Areas (Osamu Hieda, Christa König, Hiroshi Nakagawa), page 304

A Khoisan language of Botswana, also called ǂHõã.


Tujia

From the Hanyu Pinyin romanization of Mandarin 土家族 (Tǔjiāzú).

Their Tibeto-Burman language, which has northern and southern dialects.


ecnomid

(zoology) Any member of the family Ecnomidae of caddisflies.


Karaim

At times the discrepancy can be even greater: only 12.8% of the Karaim, a Turkic-speaking group living for the most part in Lithuania, declared Karaim as their native language.

1981, Bernard Comrie, The Languages of the Soviet Union, page 2:

For more than six hundred years, Karaim has been spoken as a community language in what is today Lithuania.

2001, Éva Ágnes Csató, “Syntactic code-copying in Karaim”, in Östen Dahl, Maria Koptjevskaja-Tamm, editors, The Circum-Baltic Languages: Typology and Contact, volume 1, →ISBN, page 271:

A Kipchak Turkic language, with Aramaic and Persian influences, spoken in Lithuania, Poland, the Crimea and the Ukraine.

karaiimi

Kipchak Turkic language with Aramaic and Persian influences


Montana Salish

A Salishan language spoken in parts of Washington and Montana.


Miccosukee

Their language, closely related to Hitchiti.


Dothraki

Coined by American writer and television producer George R. R. Martin.
Its fictional derivation is borrowed from Dothraki Dothraki (literally “[we] ride”).

bor+

For example, in Dothraki something done in secret is done torga essheyi—literally, “under a roof”.

2010 September-October, Jim Henry, “Dothraki and Esperanto: an interview with language creator David J. Peterson”, in Usona Esperantisto, →ISSN, page 9:

Dothraki has four vowels.

2011 October 15, Stephen D. Rogers, A Dictionary of Made-Up Languages: From Adûnaic to Elvish, Zaum to Klingon— the Anwa (Real) Origins of Invented Lexicons, Avon: Adams Media, →ISBN, →OL, page 54:

You want to learn a really impressive second language? Try Dothraki. Win over any man in my guild.

2012 October 4, “Andy's Ancestry” (2:51), in The Office (US), season 9, episode 3, spoken by Dwight Schrute (Rainn Wilson):

constructed language
constructed language

A constructed language created for, and spoken in, the Game of Thrones television adaptation in 2011.


Bornholmsk

Bornholmers speak a language, Bornholmsk, that differs both from standard Danish and Swedish; its grammatical features such as triple genders are similar to those in Norwegian or Icelandic and its phonetic patterns similar to south-Swedish Scanian.

2011, Norman Davies, Vanished Kingdoms, Penguin, published 2012, page 87:

A language or Danish dialect spoken on the Baltic island of Bornholm.


Emilian

A language spoken in the historical region of Emilia, closely related to Romagnol.

emilià

a language spoken in the historical region of Emilia, closely related to Romagnol


Klamath-Modoc

The now-extinct language spoken by the Klamath and Modoc peoples of northern California and Oregon.


Astur-Leonese

A Romance language, or language family, historically spoken in northwestern Spain (mostly modern-day Asturias and León)


Hispanic America

The region comprising the countries in the Americas inhabited by Spanish-speaking people

Spaans-Amerika

parts of the Americas which speak Spanish


Plautdietsch

From Plautdietsch Plautdietsch. Cognate to Dutch Low Saxon Platduuts and German Low German Plattdütsch, Plattdüütsch, as well as to High German Plattdeutsch (whence English Plattdeutsch).

cog

Mennonite Low German
Mennonite Low German#English


Low Prussian

Cognate to or a calque of German Niederpreußisch.

A dialect of East Low German that developed in Prussia (East Prussia, West Prussia and Danzig), influenced to some extent by Dutch and Old Prussian, and to a small extent by Polish, Latvian, Lithuanian and Russian, which is now spoken in Germany and which gave rise to Plautdietsch.


New Low German

The modern stage of the Low German language, distinguished from its predecessor stages such as Middle Low German.


Curonian

From Latin Curonia (“Courland”, literally “land of the Curonians”), from an original name Kurš, which could mean "quickly moving (at sea)," from Proto-Indo-European *ḱers- (“to run”).

uder

An extinct Baltic language spoken by the Curonians.


Ubykh

The extinct ergative and agglutinative language spoken by the Ubykh people, notable for its large number of distinct consonants and only two vowels.


Messapian

From Messapi + -ian, from Ancient Greek Μεσσάπιος (Messápios).


Stellingwerfs

A form of Dutch Low Saxon, spoken in the Dutch province of Friesland.

Drents

other Low German dialects in the Netherlands


Auhelawa

An Oceanic Austronesian language spoken in Milne Bay Province, Papua New Guinea.


Oroqen

Possibly from Manchu ᠣᡵᠣᠨᠴᠣ (oronco, “Oroqens”).

A Northern Tungusic language spoken by these people.


Khazar

The origin is unknown. Attested as Arabic خَزَر (ḵazar), Byzantine Greek Χάζαροι (Kházaroi), Hebrew כּוּזָרִים (Kuzarim), Middle Chinese 突厥曷薩 (*tʰuət̚-kɨut̚ ɦɑt̚-sɑt̚) and Middle Chinese 突厥可薩部 (*tʰuət̚-kɨut̚ kʰɑ^X-sɑt̚ buo^X), Latin Gazari and Cosar, Old Armenian խազիրք (xazirkʻ), Old East Slavic козаринъ (kozarinŭ), Persian خزر (xazar), Russian хаза́р (xazár), Tatar хәзәр (xäzär), Turkish Hazar, etc. Compare Old Uyghur 𐰴𐱁𐰺 (qšr¹), Middle Persian [script needed] (Kesar), Tibetan [script needed] (ge-sar).
See Wikipedia's article for etymology.

unk

unknown

cog

𐰸𐰴𐰆𐰺𐰇𐰢 𐰸𐰴𐰆𐰺𐰇𐰢#Khazar

The Turkic language of the Khazar people, of which a single word is attested, 𐰸𐰴𐰆𐰺𐰇𐰢.


Chang

From the Wade-Giles romanization of Mandarin 張／张 (Zhāng) Wade-Giles romanization: Chang¹. Doublet of Teo.

Former Chinese warlord Chang Hsueh-liang, who along with Chinese Communists kidnapped Nationalist leader Chiang Kai-shek and changed the course of Chinese history, died in Hawaii on Oct. 15, Taiwan and Chinese news agencies reported. He was 100.[…]
Chang was born June 3, 1901, in the northeastern province of Liaoning, the son of Manchurian military strongman Chang Tso-lin.

2001 October 16, Benjamin Kang Lim, “Chang Hsueh-liang, 100, Dies”, in The Washington Post, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2020-10-22:

Zhang Xueliang, whose name was also rendered Chang Hsueh-liang, was born in 1901 in Manchuria. His father, Zhang Zuolin, a leading warlord known as "the Old Marshal," was assassinated in 1928 by the Japanese. "The Young Marshal" emerged in his place as one of the most powerful military figures in China.

2001 October 19, Nicholas Kristof, “Zhang Xueliang, 100, Dies; Warlord and Hero of China”, in The New York Times, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2009-10-24, World:


Chang

A Naga language spoken in north-eastern India.


Asu

A Nupoid language spoken in Nigeria (ISO code "aum").

Pare, a Bantu language spoken in Tanzania (ISO code "asa").


Chasu

A Bantu language spoken in Northern Tanzania by people living in the Pare Mountains.


Jersey Dutch

A lect or set of dialects, derived from Dutch, spoken in New Jersey from the late 17th century until the early 20th century, various dialects of which were more creolized (with English and Lenape) than others.


Pritenic

(historical) The language of the inhabitants of northern Great Britain during Roman rule in southern Great Britain (1st to 5th centuries AD), a sister or daughter language of British if Pictish is assumed to be a P-Celtic language.


Kipchak

The Turkic language of the Kipchak people


Chuukese

Chuukese has the unusual feature of permitting word-initial geminate (double) consonants.

A Trukic language of the Austronesian language family, spoken primarily on the islands of Chuuk in the Caroline Islands in Micronesia.


Fakkanci

For quotations using this term, see Citations:Fakkanci.


Taliabu

A language spoken on that island, including the dialect Soboyo.


Rotwelsch

Coordinate term: Bargoens

(historical) A secret cant or thieves' argot spoken by covert groups primarily in southern Germany and Switzerland.


Blin

The Cushitic language spoken by the Blin people.


Bamar

From Burmese ဗမာ (ba.ma). Doublet of Burma.

A member of the majority ethnic group of Burma (Myanmar).


Ruthenian

Any of various languages historically spoken in Ruthenia; also known as Old Ukrainian, Old Belarusian and Rusian, any Old East Slavic descendant, which is different from Russian, Great Russian or "East Russian"

старабелару́скі

historical descendant of Old East Slavic, specifically in Belarus

стараўкраі́нскі

historical descendant of Old East Slavic, specifically in Ukraine


Romagnol

From Romagnol rumagnòl, from the Lombardic name for Romania.

A Gallo-Italic language spoken in central Italy, closely related to Emilian.


Talossan

A constructed language created in 1980 by Robert Ben Madison for the micronation of Talossa.


Gbin

An extinct Mande language of Ivory Coast.


German Swiss Sign Language

Swiss-German Sign Language
Swiss-German Sign Language


Swiss German Sign Language

Swiss-German Sign Language
Swiss-German Sign Language#English

Alternative form of Swiss-German Sign Language


Tuamotuan

The language of the Tuamotuan people, which has around 6,000 native speakers in French Polynesia.


Takuu

A Polynesian language spoken on this atoll.


Pukapukan

A language spoken in the northern Cook Islands. It is a member of the Polynesian family of languages.


Pileni

The Samoic language spoken there; Vaeakau-Taumako.


Vaeakau-Taumako

A Polynesian language spoken in parts of the Solomon Islands.


Sanga

A Bantu language of the Democratic Republic of Congo.


Kalao

An Austronesian language of Kalao Island, South Sulawesi, Indonesia.


Bozo

Thought to derive from the Bambara language, meaning "bamboo house".


Shuswap

The traditional language of these people.


Yinglish

An informal language blending elements of English and Yiddish.


Janglish

Blend of Japanese + English, with intended pun on jangle (“sound discordantly”); coined by English author James Kirkup in 1966.

A variety of English incorporating Japanese words or constructions; English heavily influenced by Japanese grammar or pronunciation.


Rugian

The hypothetical East Germanic language once spoken by the Rugians.


Beothuk

(linguistics) The extinct language of these people.


Hungarish

One of them reader of Hungarish.

1799, Francis Peck, Desiderata Curiosa Or a Collection of Divers Scarce and Curious:

(archaic) The Hungarian language; Magyar.


Han character

Chinese character
Chinese character#English


Engganese

The Malayo-Polynesian language of Enggano Island.


Swabish

en-adj

Swabish (comparative more Swabish, superlative most Swabish)

more Swabish (comparative)
most Swabish (superlative)

(rare) Synonym of Swabian: of or related to Swabia in Germany.


Swabish

(rare) Synonym of Swabian: the dialect of German spoken in Swabia.


Swabish

(rare) Synonym of Swabian: a person from Swabia.


Noric

A Celtic language, attested in only two fragmentary inscriptions from the Roman province of Noricum.


Picene

An extinct language spoken by the Picenes.


Crimean Gothic

A Germanic, probably East Germanic, language spoken by the Crimean Goths in some isolated locations in Crimea until the late eighteenth century.

克里米亞哥特語 /克里米亚哥特语

kèlǐmǐyà gētèyǔ


South Picene

an extinct Italic language spoken in what today is the Marches region of Italy


Kri

A Vietic language spoken in parts of Laos.


Lumbee

Uncertain. Said to be first attested in reference to the tribe in 1914. Supposed by some to be of Siouan origin. Thought by others to have been coined by Turkey Tayac as a combination of Lumber (“a river that flows through the tribe's lands”) and Piscataway bee (“bend”).

A member of a certain Native American tribe or group of North Carolina.


Elamitic

An extinct language spoken by the ancient Elamites.


Karimui

The Dadibi language of Papua New Guinea.


Wergaia

(linguistics) An indigenous Australian language group in the Wimmera region of northwestern Victoria.


Guale

Uncertain, has been connected to Creek wvhvlv (/wahála/, “south”).


Cappadocian Greek

a language formerly spoken in Cappadocia by Cappadocian Greeks


Mopan

A Mayan language spoken in Belize and Guatemala.


Karipúna Creole French

a French-based creole language spoken in northern Brazil


Gallaecian

Northwestern Hispano-Celtic, an extinct language of the Celtic family, spoken by the Gallaeci at the beginning of the first millennium CE in a north-western part of the Iberian Peninsula.


Achuar

Synonym of Achuar-Shiwiar (“a Jivaroan language”)


Zargari

From Persian زرگری (zargari, literally “of or pertaining to goldsmiths”), compound of زرگر (zargar, “goldsmith”) + ـی (-i).

uder

a secret language and sociolect based on Persian used by goldsmiths and some minorities of Iran, including Persian Jews


Zargari

From Persian زرگری (zargari, literally “of or pertaining to Zargar”), compound of زرگر (zargar) + ـی (-i).

a Balkan Romani dialect spoken primarily in the Zargar region of the Qazvin province of Iran


Minceirtoiree

McDonagh traces the origins of Travellers back to at least the twelfth century by referring to Traveller-like characters in Irish mythology and emphasizing connections between Traveller language, referred to as Shelta, Gammon, Cant or Minceirtoiree, which literally means "Traveller Talk," and Old Irish.

2007, Colleen Anne Hynes, Strangers in the House: Twentieth Century Revisions of Irish Literary and Cultural Identity, Austin: University of Texas, page 147:

(Ireland) Shelta, a language spoken by Irish Travellers.


Anglish

From Angle + -ish; coined by British author Paul Jennings in 1966 as a jocular name in the British magazine Punch.

coinage

In Anglish, you might call a dictionary a ‘wordbook’.

A register or form of English that gives preference to words of native Germanic origin over words of foreign (especially those of Latin, French, or Greek) origin.


New English

The form of the English language spoken since the Great Vowel Shift in England, completed in roughly 1550.

現代英語 /现代英语

form of the English language spoken since the Great Vowel Shift, completed in roughly 1550

Elizabethan English

Early New English (Early Modern English)


New English

en-noun

New English (plural New Englishes or New English)

New Englishes (plural)
New English (plural)

Nevertheless, a certain amount of schizophrenia pertains to the study of World Englishes as New Englishes, for while new Englishes are regarded as valid varieties in their own right, the description and delineation of them in linguistic terms is conducted through the gaze of native-speaker norms.

2012, James Lambert, “Beyond Hobson-Jobson: A new lexicography for Indian English”, in World Englishes, page 305:

A variety of English that has come into being in a region where English was a former colonial language or is a foreign language.

This Southwest wind is called by the New-English, the Sea turne, which comes from the Sunne in the morning, about nine or ten of the clock Southeast, and about South, and then strongest Southwest in the after-noone, and towards night, when it dies away.

1643, Roger Williams, A Key into the Language of America, London: Gregory Dexter, →OCLC, page 11:

Another complayned of other Indians that did revile them, and call them Rogues and such like speeches for cutting off their Locks, and for cutting their Haire in a modest manner as the New-English generally doe

1647, anonymous author, The Day-Breaking, if not the Sun-Rising of the Gospell with the Indians in New-England, London: Richard Cotes; republished as “The Day-Breaking […] ”, in MHS Collections, series 3, volume 4, Boston: Massachusetts Historical Society, 1834, →OCLC, page 22:

Any honest New Englander—a New Englander of the villages, I mean—will admit that the New English are singularly ungifted for social life and manners.

1920, Katharine Fullerton Gerould, “Miss Alcott's New England”, in Modes and Morals, New York: C. Scribner's sons, →OCLC, page 195:

New England’s fisheries and the carrying trade to the West Indies demanded ships. By the end of the seventeenth century, the New English were building almost all of the vessels they employed, as well as growing numbers for English merchants.

2001, Alan Taylor, American Colonies, New York: Viking Penguin, →ISBN, page 176:

(historical, uncommon, in the plural) New Englanders.

It was already evident that the degree of influence that the New English could exert in Ireland was becoming severely restricted by governmental practices that tended to concentrate effective power in England.

1976, Aidan Clarke, “Selling Royal Favours, 1624–32”, in T. W. Moody et al., editors, A New History of Ireland, volume 3, Oxford: Clarendon Press, →ISBN, page 235:

Instead of exporting hides and raw wool, the New English established communities devoted to tanning and weaving, and the towns of Tallow and Bandonbridge in Munster came to be recognised as model manufacturing towns.

1987, Nicholas P. Canny, From Reformation to Restoration, Dublin: Helicon, →ISBN, page 180:

The New English came to control Ireland — their ultimate expression was the powerful ascendancy which enjoyed exclusive political power in the country for more than a century, and which fought a dogged rearguard action against diminution of its power during the nineteenth century.

1991, Peter R. Newman, “New English”, in Companion to Irish History, 1603–1921, Oxford: Facts On File, →ISBN, page 132:

(historical, in the plural) English settlers who arrived in Ireland in the 16th and 17th centuries, as distinguished from previous Anglo-Norman invaders (the Old English).


New English

en-adj

New English (comparative more New English, superlative most New English)

more New English (comparative)
most New English (superlative)

The New English settlers, whose numbers increased during plantation, and particularly during the land settlement of the 1650s following upon the suppression of the Irish rebellion of 1641-53, were never numerically dominant.

As a Catholic lawyer and land-owner with Gaelic connections, Barnewall represented everything repugnant to full extension of New English rule in Ireland.

2002 [1985], Hans S. Pawlisch, Sir John Davies and the Conquest of Ireland (Cambridge Studies in the History and Theory of Politics), 1st paperback edition, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 111:

During our period the English colonised parts of Ireland (although Old English or Anglo-Norman families were to some extent already integrated into native Irish culture and society), and certainly by the end of the sixteenth century, sought to impose English political rule over the whole island. The New English aristocrats who were now responsible for Ireland's rule more often than not did not bring their wives and families to live in Ireland.

2014 [2007], Rosemary O'Day, Women's Agency in Early Modern Britain and the American Colonies, New York: Routledge, →ISBN, page 15:

(historical) Of or pertaining to English settlers who arrived in Ireland in the 16th and 17th centuries.


Enochian

From Enoch + -ian, with reference to the Book of Enoch in the Bible.

An occult or angelic constructed language associated with this system of magic, presumably recorded by John Dee and his colleague Edward Kelley in late 16th-century.


Old Hungarian

The form of Hungarian used from the 10th to the 15th century.


Tillamook

From Chinook T-Elim-ook, meaning something like 'the many villages of Elim'.

Tillamook County
Tillamook County#English

A city, the county seat of Tillamook County, Oregon, United States.


South Efate

A Nuclear Southern Oceanic language of the Malayo-Polynesian language family, spoken on the island of Efate in central Vanuatu.


Tagbanwa

Any of the mutually unintelligible languages spoken by the Tagbanwa: Aborlan Tagbanwa, Calamian Tagbanwa, and Central Tagbanwa.


Zazao

A near-extinct Oceanic language spoken in the Solomon Islands.


Zabana

An Oceanic language spoken in the Solomon Islands.


Coeur d'Alene

From French cœur (“heart”) + d’ (“of”) + alêne (“awl”).

Coeur d'Alene language
Coeur d'Alene people
Coeur d'Alene, Idaho

Indigenous Native American
Native American

An Indigenous Native American ethnic group of northern Idaho.


Coeur d'Alene

The Salishan language spoken by these people.

A city, the county seat of Kootenai County, Idaho, United States.


Coeur d'Alene

Of or pertaining to the Coeur d'Alene people or language.


Tati

A group of northwestern Iranian dialects which are closely related to the Talysh language, spoken by the Tat people of Iran.


Shimaore

Maore Comorian, one of the two indigenous languages spoken in Mayotte.


Chakma

Borrowed from Bengali চাকমা (cakma), from Chakma 𑄌𑄇𑄴𑄟 (cakma), 𑄌𑄋𑄴𑄟𑄳𑄦 (caṅmha), ultimately from Sanskrit शक्तिमान (śaktimāna, literally “powerful”), composed of शक्ति (śakti, “power”) + -मान (-māna).

der

The Bengali-Assamese language and abugida of the Chakmas. In the early medieval period, they underwent a language shift from their original Jingpho-Luish tongue (of the Tibeto-Burman family).


Paamese

The language of the island of Paama in Northern Vanuatu.


Old Lithuanian

The written form of Lithuanian used in the 16th and 17th centuries.


Lillooet

A member of an Interior Salish people located in the southern Coast Mountains and Fraser Canyon region of the Interior of the Canadian province of British Columbia.


Lillooet

British Columbia
British Columbia#English

A district municipality in Squamish-Lillooet Regional District, British Columbia, Canada.


Mam

A Mayan language spoken in the Mexican state of Chiapas and the Guatemalan departments of Quetzaltenango, Huehuetenango, San Marcos, and Retalhuleu.


Hela

Alternative form of Elu (“ancestral form of the Sinhalese language”)


Leipon

An Austronesian language spoken on Hauwai, Ndrilo and Pityilu islands, just off Manus Island in Papua New Guinea.


Tangut

Bilgä Qaǧan
Ming dynasty
Richard Hakluyt
Secret History of the Mongols
Tangut language
Tangut people
Tangut script
William of Rubruck

From a Middle Mongol exonym used by the Mongols, which would become the Classical Mongolian ᠲᠠᠩᠭᠤᠳ (tangɣud) that was phonetically transcribed in Ming-era Early Mandarin Chinese as 唐兀_惕 (/*tʰaŋ(ŋ)ut/) in the Chinese edition of the Secret History of the Mongols (《元朝秘史》). The designation ultimately derives from Old Turkic 𐱃𐰭𐰆𐱃 (t¹ŋut¹) as attested in the 8th-century Bilgä Qaǧan stele. The English word, and similar forms in European languages, derives from Medieval Latin Tangut (*Tangunt in the Leiden manuscript) from the accounts of William of Rubruck compiled in the 1250s. The English form was attested in the writings of Richard Hakluyt who translated parts of William's accounts in the late 16th century.


Shughni

Southeastern Iranian
Southeastern Iranian

a Pamir language of the Southeastern Iranian language group spoken in the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Province in Tajikistan and Badakhshan Province in Afghanistan


Woleaian

A Trukic language spoken on Woleai and surrounding islands in Micronesia.


Cocopah

Borrowed from Cocopa kwii capáy (literally “cloud people”).

bor

A member of a Native American people living in Baja California and Sonora, Mexico, and in Arizona in the United States.


Cocopah

Their language, belonging to the Delta-California branch of the Yuman language family.


Trasyanka

From Belarusian трася́нка (trasjánka, “low quality mixed grains”), related to трэсці́ (trescí, “to shake”) (3rd person plural - трасу́ць).

uder

A pidgin language or interlanguage combining elements of Russian and Belarusian, spoken in Belarus.


Surzhyk

From Ukrainian су́ржик (súržyk) and regional Russian су́ржик (súržik, “bread made from a dough from different types of grains”).

“I was waiting for them with so much happiness,” Larisa, 74, said in surzhik, a dialect that is a mixture of Ukrainian and Russian.

2022 September 14, Valerie Hopkins, “War May Be Distant in Moscow, but in One Russian Border City, It’s Real”, in The New York Times:

A pidgin language or interlanguage combining elements of Russian and Ukrainian, spoken mainly in Ukraine but also some neighbouring regions in Russia (Kursk, Voronezh and Belgorod) or Ukrainians living in Russia.


Ashkharhabar

The Modern Armenian language; usually contrasted with Grabar.


Oropom

A language, of disputed existence, supposed to have been spoken by the Oropom.


Elu

Borrowed from Sinhalese එළු (eḷu), හෙළු (heḷu), from Prakrit 𑀲𑀻𑀳𑀮 (sīhala) (compare Pali sīhala), from Sanskrit सिंहल (siṃhala, literally “lionlike”), from सिंह (siṃha, “lion”) + -ल (-la). Doublet of Ceylon and Sinhala.

der

the ancestral form of Sinhalese, the Sinhala language, a Middle Indo-Aryan Prakrit of the 3rd century BCE.


Pakistani English

Much more common was the bureaucratic use of Pakistani English. Below the level of the most highly educated, whose English was invariably modelled on old-fashioned teaching, were the English-using clerks of the Imperial administration.

1986, Robert McCrum, William Cran, Robert MacNeil, The Story of English, Viking Penguin Inc., page 329:

A dialect of the English language, having one variety in Pakistan, and also spoken by Pakistani expatriates, Pakistani migrants, and Pakistani tourists throughout the world.


Vanji

An extinct Iranian language formerly spoken in the Vanj River valley of Tajikistan.


Ngaatjatjarra

Western Desert language
Western Desert language

A Pama-Nyungan Australian Aboriginal language spoken in central Australia; a major dialect of the Western Desert language group.


Ngaatjatjarra

Pertaining to the Ngaatjatjarra language or the people who speak it.


Old Low German

In particular, we will cover Old High German (OHG), Old Low German (OLG, including Old Saxon/OS and Old Low Franconian/OLFr, sometimes also referred to as Old Dutch), Old English (OE), and Old Frisian (OFri).

2021, Agnes Jäger, George Walkden, West Germanic, p. 281; in: Götz Keydana, Wolfgang Hock, Paul Widmer (eds.), Comparison and Gradation in Indo-European, p. 281ff.


Xinjiangese

He takes a beautiful ivory and bamboo waterpipe out of a trunk, and packs the bowl with layer after layer of Xinjiangese herbs and sticky hash, grinning. "Most Chinese people hate it, but we Xinjiang people love to fly."

1992 October, Andrew F. Jones, “Beijing Bastards”, in Spin, volume 8, number 7, New York, N.Y.: Spin Magazine, →OCLC, page 122:

The ancient dynasty's storied openness to cultural influences (and particularly exotic new musics) arriving from central Asia and the Middle East through the frontier province of Xinjiang informed the band's choice of musical elements – a mix of heavy metal, Xinjiangese folk harmonies and traditional Chinese instruments.

1998, Chinese Music, volumes 21–22, Woodridge, Ill.: Chinese Music Society of North America, page 56:

Sources of instability [in China] include terrorist threats by radical groups in Xinjiang as well as a broader group of Xinjiangese and Tibetans who desire independence or at least greater autonomy.

2006, Randall Peerenboom, “An Empirical Overview of Rights Performance in Asia, France, and the USA: The Dominance of Wealth in the Interplay of Economics, Culture, Law, and Governance”, in Randall Peerenboom, Carole J. Petersen, Albert H[ung-yee] Chen, editors, Human Rights in Asia: A Comparative Legal Study of Twelve Asian Jurisdictions, France and the USA, London, New York, N.Y.: Routledge, →ISBN, page 18:

Of, from or pertaining to the region of Xinjiang.


Mantjiltjara

A Pama-Nyungan Australian Aboriginal language; one of the principle components of Martu Wangka, part of the Western Desert language group.


Green Hmong

Calque of Green Hmong Moob Leeg (“Green/Blue Hmong”).

calque

A Hmongic lect spoken in Laos and elsewhere, including among Hmong American communities, and written using the Latin or Pahawh Hmong scripts.


Hmong Daw

From White Hmong Hmoob Dawb (“White Hmong”).


White Hmong

Calque of White Hmong Hmoob Dawb (“White Hmong”).


Kensiu

An Austroasiatic language of the Jahaic (Northern Aslian) subbranch.


Dagbani

A Gur language spoken in the northern region of Ghana, closely related to Mampruli.


Hamer

* As an English surname, from the place in Lancashire, from Old English hamor (“cliff”), apparently a rare use instead of the sense for "hammer" (compare Old Norse hamarr (“stone, cliff”).
* As an English surname of Norman origin, variant of Amer.
* As a Dutch surname, from hamer (“hammer”).
* As a German and Jewish surname, variant of the noun Hammer (“hammer”), with several Slavic derivatives.

An unincorporated community in Williams County, Ohio.

An unincorporated community in Dillon County, South Carolina.


Hamer

A South Omotic language spoken primarily in southern Ethiopia by the Hamar people and Banna people, and by speakers of Karo.


Mundari

Borrowed from Mundari मुंडारी (muṇḍārī).

A Munda language spoken by tribes in the Indian states of Jharkhand, Odisha, and West Bengal, and in northern Bangladesh.

An Eastern Nilotic language spoken by an ethnic group of South Sudan.


Melanau

Their Northwest Malayo-Polynesian language.


Nisenan

A member of the Southern or Valley Maidu, various Native American groups of central California.


Powhatan

A member of a Native American confederation of tribes in Virginia.


Powhatan

An unincorporated community, the county seat of Powhatan County, Virginia, United States.


Arabish

The Arabic language when informally written in the Latin alphabet, typically on computers or cell phones that do not support the Arabic script.


Ronga

A southeastern Bantu language spoken just south of Maputo in Mozambique.


Judeo-Aramaic

A group of Hebrew-influenced Aramaic and Neo-Aramaic languages.


Neo-Aramaic

A group of modern Aramaic languages evolved from Middle Aramaic dialects around 1200 AD.


Havasupai-Walapai-Yavapai

The Upland Yuman language spoken by the Havasupai, Hualapai, and Yavapai peoples in central and northwest Arizona.


Old Iranian

Collective name for a number of extinct Iranian languages which are descended from Proto-Iranian.

հին իրանական

languages directly descended from Proto-Iranian


Middle Iranian

Collectively, a number of Indo-European Iranian languages spoken between the 4th century BC and the 9th century AD.

միջին իրանական

Iranian languages spoken between 4th century BC and 9th century AD


Spokane

A number of etymologies of the name have been proposed, most frequently Sun children, children of the Sun, or muddy people. According to Barry Pritzker (2011), these interpretations are most probably popular etymologies derived from an actual self-designation of Spoqe'ind, meaning round head.

A Native American Plateau tribe who inhabited the eastern portion of Washington state and parts of northern Idaho.


Spokane

The language of the Spokane tribe, a member of the Salish (or Salishan) language family.

A large city, the county seat of Spokane County, Washington.

Any of various other places in the United States.


Tuyuhun

zh-l

吐谷渾／吐谷浑 (tǔyùhún)

(historical) The language of the Tuyuhun kingdom.


Mikasuki

The language spoken by the Seminole Tribe of Florida and the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida.


Central Nahuatl

A group of Nahuatl lects spoken in central Mexico.


Diegueño

The Kumeyaay, a Native American people of Southern California and Baja California.


Kavalan

From Kavalan kebalan, meaning "people of the plains".


Wemale

Their Malayo-Polynesian language, divided into northern and southern forms.


Meithei

A Tibeto-Burman language spoken in the southeastern Himalayan state of Manipur in India.


Knaanic

From Hebrew כְּנַעַן (k'na'án, “Slavic lands”, literally “Canaan”) + -ic.


Ijaw

The group of languages spoken by these people.


Kikai

Those over 50 use Kikai at home among themselves but can understand and use Japanese.

2000, Barbara F. Grimes, Joseph Evans Grimes, Summer Institute of Linguistics, Ethnologue: Languages of the World, volume 1, SIL International, page 539

[…], including the Ryûkyûan dialects (11 dialects: Southern, Amami-Oshima Northern, Kikai, Kunigami, Miyako, Okinawan Central, Oki-no-Erabu, Toku-no-Shima, Taeyama, Yonaguni, and Yoron) […]

2003, Robert B. Kaplan, Richard B. Baldauf Jr., Language and Language-in-Education Planning in the Pacific Basin, Kluwer Academic Publishers, page 18:

[…], (iii) the Amami group (Kikai, Ōshima, Tokunoshima, Okierabu, Yoron), […]

2012, Nicolas Tranter, The Languages of Japan and Korea, Routledge, page 3:

A Ryukyuan language spoken on Kikai island.


Kiliwa

The traditional language of these people.


Cocama

An indigenous language of western South America.


Ro

international auxiliary language
international auxiliary language

An a priori international auxiliary language created by Edward Powell Foster beginning in 1904.


Phuthi

A Nguni Bantu language spoken in southern Lesotho and parts of South Africa.


Chatino

Borrowed from Spanish chatino, from a Chatino language; cf. Zacatepec Chatino chaʔ tinyan (literally “speech”).


Kamayurá

A Tupian language spoken by the Kamayurá people.


Wawa

A Mambiloid language spoken in Cameroon.


Komi-Permyak

A Permic language in the Finno-Ugric branch of the Uralic language family, smaller of the two main regional varieties (ISO 639-3 language code: koi) of the pluricentrical Komi language, the other variety being Komi-Zyrian. It's the standard language of Komi people in Komi-Permyak Okrug.

Komi-Yazva

dialect of Komi-Permyak or a language, depending on source


Komi-Zyrian

A Uralic language, the more common of the two main regional varieties of the pluricentric Komi language, the other variety being Komi-Permyak. It's the standard language of Komi people in Komi Republic and, along with Russian, an official language in the republic.


Neo

Recent coinage from the prefix neo- (“new”). Popularized by a character in the science-fiction film The Matrix (1999), where it is explained as an anagram of "(the) One".

A male given name originating as a coinage.


Neo

Named after the Neo Users Group in 2004.

An optimized German keyboard layout supporting nearly all Latin-based alphabets.


Neo

An international auxiliary language created by Arturo Alfandari in 1961, combining features of Esperanto, Ido, Novial, and Volapük.


Philippine English

The form of the English language used in the Philippines.


Kanoé

language isolate
language isolate#English

A nearly extinct language isolate spoken in Rondônia, Brazil.


Atakapa

Borrowing from Choctaw hatak apa (literally “man eater”).


Dhegihan

Of or relating to a Siouan language family that includes Kansa–Osage, Omaha–Ponca, and Quapaw.


R'lyehian

From writings of the horror fiction author H.P. Lovecraft, named for the fictional city of R'lyeh, + -ian.

An artificial language created by H.P. Lovecraft.


West African Pidgin Portuguese

en-noun

West African Pidgin Portuguese (uncountable)

(creolistics) A hypothetical Portuguese-based pidgin spoken across the western coast of Africa between the 14ᵗʰ and 18ᵗʰ centuries, believed by some to be the proto-language of most or all modern creoles.


Maliseet

From Mi'kmaq Malesse'jik (“broken talkers”) — the Mi'kmaq perceived the Maliseet as speaking a broken version of Mi'kmaq.

Wabanaki Confederacy
Wabanaki Confederacy

A member of an Algonquian-speaking Native American people of the Wabanaki Confederacy, indigenous to the Saint John River valley and its tributaries, crossing the borders of New Brunswick and Quebec in Canada, and Maine in the United States.


Maliseet

The Algonquian language of these people, a dialect of Malecite-Passamaquoddy.


Vanimo

A Skou language spoken in Papua New Guinea.


Gwoyeu Romatzyh

/ˌɡwəʊjuː rəʊˈmɑːtsə/

Borrowed from Chinese 國語羅馬字 /国语罗马字 (Guóyǔ Luómǎzì).

bor+

With regard to romanization, several different systems are concurrently being used in Taiwan, including Wade-Giles, Tongyong Pinyin 通用拼音, Hanyu Pinyin 漢語拼音, and Gwoyeu Romatzyh.

2003, Julie Ju et al., editors, A Brief Introduction to Taiwan, Government Information Office, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 16:

A transliteration system for Mandarin Chinese, characterized by its tonal spelling without diacritic marks.


Swiss Standard German

For instance, while the Swiss German word Färnseer (television set) derives from Fernseher, Hutte (tub) and Beige (pile) are Swiss German words that are now used also in Swiss standard German.

1990, Stephen Barbour, Patrick Stevenson, Variation in German: A Critical Approach to German Sociolinguistics, page 213:

The independent position of Swiss Standard German has been strengthened by Swiss neutrality and the recent German past.

1995, Michael G. Clyne, The German Language in a Changing Europe, page 47:

The form of the German language used for publishing, broadcasting and writing in Switzerland and Liechtenstein, as distinguished from the Swiss German language used in speech.


Taimyr Pidgin Russian

A Russian-based pidgin used by the Dolgans and Nganasans.


Malacca Creole Portuguese

A Portuguese-based creole spoken in Malacca and Singapore.


Principense

A Portuguese-based creole spoken in the island of Príncipe.


Mungbam

A Southern Bantoid language of Cameroon.


Angolar

São Tomé and Príncipe
São Tomé and Príncipe#English

A Portuguese-based creole spoken in São Tomé and Príncipe.


Rotokas

An East Papuan language spoken in Bougainville Island.


Agawam

First cultivated by the Agawam, broadleaf tobacco was soon planted by white settlers as a cash crop after they drove the Natives off the land.

2019, Ocean Vuong, On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous, Jonathan Cape, page 86:

An Eastern Algonquian tribe, settlement, and language, native to northeastern Massachusetts (around Ipswich).

A city in Hampden County, western Massachusetts.

Former name of Westfield River in Hampden County, western Massachusetts.


Nez Perce

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-Nez Perce.wav

A Native American people who live in the Pacific Northwest region (Columbia River Plateau) of the United States.


Thao

An Austronesian language spoken by the Thao people.


Balachka

From regional Russian бала́чка (baláčka, “conversation, chat”), from the regional Russian verb бала́кать (balákatʹ, “to talk, to chat”) (compare Ukrainian Ukrainian бала́чка (baláčka), бала́кати (balákaty)).

bor

The dialects spoken by Cossacks living in Russia, heavily influenced by Ukrainian dialects but features akanye, like standard and central Russian.


Sentinelese

The language of these people, unknown but presumed to belong to one of the Andamanese language families.


Mijikenda

Borrowed from Swahili miji kenda (“nine villages”).

The language or dialect continuum spoken by these people.


Pedi

The Northern Sotho language as spoken by these people.


Ulithian

A language spoken on Ulithi and neighbouring islands.


Mohave

From a shortened form of the endonym, Mojave Hamakhaave (“beside the water”), spelled Mojave in Spanish.

A Yuman language spoken by Mohave people of California and Arizona.


Nihali

A language isolate spoken in west-central India.


Judeo-Italian

A near-extinct Jewish Romance language or family of languages based on Italian and its dialects.


Italkian

From Hebrew אִיטַלְקִי (italkí, “Italian”) + -ian.


Malecite-Passamaquoddy

The Algonquian language spoken by the Maliseet and Passamaquoddy peoples in New England and Canada.


P-Celtic

Any Celtic languages (such as Brythonic or Gaulish) which show /p/ as a reflex of Proto-Indo-European *kʷ.


Arabicize

en-verb

Arabicize (third-person singular simple present Arabicizes, present participle Arabicizing, simple past and past participle Arabicized)

Arabicizes (present singular third-person)
Arabicizing (participle present)
Arabicized (participle past)
Arabicized (past)


Kangiryuarmiutun

A dialect of the Inuit language spoken in Ulukhaktok, Northwest Territories, Canada by the Kangiryuarmiut, a Copper Inuit people.


fanqie

/fɑːnˈt͡ʃjɛ/

From the Hanyu Pinyin romanization of Mandarin 反切 (fǎnqiè).

(Chinese phonetics) In traditional Chinese lexicography, a method of indicating the pronunciation of a character by using two other characters, each giving part of the pronunciation.

反切

method of indicating pronunciation of a character


Hupa

From the Yurok name of the valley in which they reside (Hoopa Valley).

The Athabaskan language which they speak.


Chilula

From the Yurok designation of the tribe.

A tribe whose members inhabited the area on or near lower Redwood Creek, in Northern California, and have since been incorporated into the Hupa tribe.


Mattole

A group of Native Americans in California, whose traditional lands were along the Mattole and Bear Rivers near Cape Mendocino in Humboldt County.


Kenyan English

The English language as written and spoken in Kenya, and among Kenyan expatriates in other countries.


Palmyrene

From Ancient Greek Παλμυρηνός (Palmurēnós).

The first panel is a bilingual text in Greek and Palmyrene, the second entirely in Palmyrene, and the third and fourth entirely in Greek.

1989, Jean-Marie Dentzer, Winfried Orthmann, Archéologie et histoire de la Syrie, page 74:

In one such inscription, Odaenathus is referred to in Palmyrene simply as Ras Tadmor without any indicators of Roman rank.

2003, Gary K. Young, Rome's Eastern Trade, page 209:

The auxiliaries also occasionally left behind bilingual dedications in Palmyrene with Greek or Latin.

2017, Kyle H. Keimer, Gillan Davis, Registers and Modes of Communication in the Ancient Near East:


Saurashtra

Borrowed from Gujarati સૌરાષ્ટ્ર (saurāṣṭra, “Saurashtra”) or its etymon Sanskrit सौराष्ट्र (saurāṣṭra, “from Saurashtra”), vriddhi form of सुराष्ट्र (surāṣṭra, “Saurashtra”), from सु- (su-, “good”) + राष्ट्र (rāṣṭra, “realm, dominion”).

af

/saʊˈɹɑːstɹə/

/saʊˈɹɑːʃtɹə/

An Indo-Aryan language spoken by the Saurashtra people.


Saurashtra

Borrowed from Saurashtra ꢱꣃꢬꢵꢰ꣄ꢜ꣄ꢬ (saurāṣṭra), from Sanskrit सौराष्ट्र (saurāṣṭra, “from Saurashtra”).

bor+

/saʊˈɹɑːstɹə/

/saʊˈɹɑːʃtɹə/

An Indo-Aryan language spoken by these people.


Jeju

Borrowed from Korean 제주(濟州) (Jeju). Doublet of Cheju.

An endangered language, sometimes considered a dialect of the Korean language, spoken on the island.


Gaya

The presumed language of the Gaya confederacy.


Ona

A language spoken by the Selk'nam people in Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego in southernmost South America.


High Dutch

Pennsylvania Dutch
Pennsylvania Dutch#Proper noun

(US) Pennsylvania Dutch, particularly the Fancy Dutch.

(South Africa) The standard Dutch language, especially the literary Dutch language of the Netherlands, as contrasted with Cape Dutch or Afrikaans.

The Emperor Charles V, made almoſt the ſame Obſervation, when he ſaid, That if he were to ſpeak to his Horſe, it ſhould be in High-Dutch.

1726 October 28, [Jonathan Swift], “The Author Studious to Learn the Language, the Houyhnhnm His Master Assists in Teaching Him. […]”, in Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. […] [Gulliver’s Travels], volume II, London: […] Benj[amin] Motte, […], →OCLC, part IV (A Voyage to the Houyhnhnms), page 188:

[H]is impatience increased, he swore in high Dutch, the noise of the wheels on his pavement saluted his ears, his vexation redoubled […].

1751, [Tobias] Smollett, The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle […], volume (please specify |volume=I to IV), London: Harrison and Co., […], →OCLC:


Bahasa Indonesia

Borrowed from Indonesian bahasa Indonesia.

The official name of the official language of Indonesia, otherwise known as Indonesian.


Bamum

A series of six scripts created for the Bamum language.


Eskayan

An artificial auxiliary language used by the Eskaya people, based on Boholano but with a substituted lexicon.


Pemon

A Cariban language spoken by the Pemon people


Geechee

Clipping of Ogeechee.
From the Ogeechee River, a river in South Carolina, where this West African derived community settled. From Ogeechee, from the Muskogee language term meaning "river of the Uchees", from Creek Uchee, the Muskogee Creek name for the Yuchi people (an exonym provided by the Creek).

Gullah (South Carolina island language and culture)


Mwotlap

Borrowed from Mwotlap M̄otlap (“Motalava island”), from Proto-Torres-Banks *Mʷotalaβa (“big Mota”). Cognate with Mota M̄ota Lava.

An Oceanic language spoken mainly on the island of Motalava in Vanuatu (Banks Islands).


Puelche

An extinct language formerly spoken by these people in the Pampas region of Argentina.


Hidatsa

A member of a Siouan people, part of the Three Affiliated Tribes.


Hidatsa

The traditional language of the Hidatsa people.


Hidatsa

en-adj

Hidatsa (comparative more Hidatsa, superlative most Hidatsa)

more Hidatsa (comparative)
most Hidatsa (superlative)

Of or pertaining to the Hidatsa language.


Palenquero

From Spanish palenquero, from San Basilio de Palenque + -ero.

A Spanish-based creole spoken in northern Colombia.


Airspeak

It is always, apparently, the UK, US and Australian aircrews who are criticised for going outside the codified bounds of 'airspeak'.

The advantage of a formalized language is rapid communication and the avoidance of ambiguity in applied settings tough, for instance, the use of "affirm" instead of "yes", and one request for "clearance to bypass your class" testifies to the inappropriateness of "Airspeak" as an acceptable mode of social communication!

1994, Gunilla Bradley, Human Factors in Organizational Design and Management-IV:

Even within a single language, terminology and phrasing need to be standardized, to avoid ambiguity, and great efforts have been made to develop such a system for English, widely called 'Airspeak'.

2012, David Crystal, English as a Global Language, page 109:

air traffic controller
air traffic controller

A controlled form of natural language based on English and designed to facilitate communication between aircraft pilots and air traffic controllers.


Caribbean English

The dialects of the English language spoken in the Caribbean islands, and most countries on the Caribbean coasts of Central America, and South America, including Belize and Guyana.

caribisk-engelsk

broad term for sum of all Caribbean dialects of English


Sidetan

Synonym of Sidetic, the language of the Sidetans.


Mba

Democratic Republic of the Congo
Democratic Republic of the Congo

An Ubangian language of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.


Bolon

(lake in Russia): Transliteration of Russian Болонь (Bolonʹ), probably from Nanai [Term?].

translit

A Manding language spoken in Burkina Faso.


Wymysorys

From Vilamovian wymysiöeryś; see Wilamowice.

A West Germanic language spoken in the Polish town of Wilamowice.


Sikkimese

A Southern Tibetic language spoken in Sikkim.


Maquiritari

From Spanish Maquiritare, said to be from an Arawakan language, with a meaning “people of the rivers, water people”.

Synonym of Ye'kwana (“A Cariban language of Venezuela and Brazil”).


Maquiritari

Synonym of Ye'kwana (“A speaker of this language or member of a tribe that speaks it”).


Isaurian

An extinct language spoken in the area of Isaura, Asia Minor.


Koyraboro Senni Songhai

The expression "koyra-boro senn-i" denotes "the language of the town dwellers" as opposed to nomads like the Tuareg people and other transhumant people.


Kobon

A language of Papua New Guinea, spoken in Madang Province and Western Highlands Province, north of Mount Hagen.


Unami

A Native American people, one of the three main divisions of the Lenape Nation.


Hattic

An extinct language once spoken in that region.


Gelao

The lect spoken by these people, which is a cluster of a large number of lects which are sometimes considered dialects and sometimes separate languages.


Bala

In Wales, from Welsh Bala, from bala (“effluent from a lake”).

An unincorporated community in Riley County, Kansas, United States, named after Bala in Wales.


West Central German

North Rhine-Westphalia
North Rhine-Westphalia

one of two major subgroups of the Central German dialects; spoken primarily in the German states of Hesse, Rhineland-Palatinate, Saarland, and North Rhine-Westphalia, as well as Luxembourg, easternmost Belgium, and southeasternmost Limburg (Netherlands); characterized by the preservation of pre-Old High German initial *p-.

Hessian

Rhine Franconian (Rhine-Franconian), Rhenish-Franconian


West Central German

of or pertaining to the West Central German dialects