[Basic information about Kalmyk (Mongolic language) and Julius Klaproth (1783-1835) below.]
For researchers of Julius Klaproth or those interested in Kalmyk language, I'm preparing to catalogue this Kalmyk-German glossary believed to have belonged to Klaproth. Any suggestions as to which book it is a glossary of? pic.twitter.com/SfSPyvZR3W
The death of a language is a sad and dramatic event. It is, however, a fact that many languages died out in the past and are now dying out as well. However, although we often know the time and causes of present or recent language deaths and have a relatively large amount of information about them, we often do not know the time and causes of past language deaths, or our knowledge of these processes is very limited. In other words, the very limited written sources or linguistic material make it very difficult to study “language shift” or “language death” phenomena in historical periods.
I knew that in the future it would come to this. More than forty years ago, I predicted that one day China would have to make a choice between Hanyu Pinyin and English when it comes to phonetic writing. As we say in Mandarin, "guǒrán 果然" ("as expected / it turns out")….
It seems that there's been quite a flap over the replacement of signs for subway station stops from English to Hanyu Pinyin, as documented (verbally and visually [many photographs]) in this Chinese article. Naturally, the Chinese characters are there in either case, but what people are complaining about is the replacement of English with Hanyu Pinyin. For example, changing "Library" to "Tushuguan" or "Hefei Train Station" to "Hefei Huochezhan".
"Te Wehenga: The Separation of Ranginui and Papatūānuku presents the Māori creation pūrākau in a bold design using universal elements recognised across iwi. The bilingual text is poetic, and integrated into the artwork on each page in a way that draws readers into an interactive experience, inviting them to turn the book as they become immersed …"