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South Estonian Language
South Estonian, or Võro-Seto, is a Finnic language spoken in south-eastern Estonia, encompassing the Tartu, Mulgi, Võro and Seto dialects. Diachronically speaking, Estonian and South Estonian are in separate branches of the Finnic languages, with Estonian being more closely related to Finnish than it is to South Estonian. Note that reconstructed *č and *c stand for affricates , . Modern Standard Estonian has evolved on the basis of the dialects of Northern Estonian. However, from the 17th to the 19th centuries in Southern Estonia, literature was published in a standardized form of Southern Tartu and Northern Võro. That usage was called Tartu or literary South Estonian. The written standard was used in the schools, churches and courts of the Võro and Tartu linguistic area but not in the Seto and Mulgi areas. After Estonia gained independence in 1918, the standardized Estonian language policies were implemented further throughout the country. The government official ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Baltic States
The Baltic states or the Baltic countries is a geopolitical term encompassing Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. All three countries are members of NATO, the European Union, the Eurozone, and the OECD. The three sovereign states on the eastern coast of the Baltic Sea are sometimes referred to as the "Baltic nations", less often and in historical circumstances also as the "Baltic republics", the "Baltic lands", or simply the Baltics. The term "Balticum" is sometimes used to describe the region comprising the three states; see e.g All three Baltic countries are classified as World Bank high-income economy, high-income economies by the World Bank and maintain a very high Human Development Index. The three governments engage in intergovernmental and parliamentary cooperation. There is also frequent cooperation in foreign and security policy, defence, energy, and transportation. Etymology The term ''Baltic'' stems from the name of the Baltic Sea – a hydronym dating back to at least ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Diachrony
Synchrony and diachrony are two complementary viewpoints in linguistic analysis. A ''synchronic'' approach - from ,("together") + ,("time") - considers a language at a moment in time without taking its history into account. In contrast, a ''diachronic'' - from ,("through, across") + ,("time") - approach, as in historical linguistics, considers the development and evolution of a language through history. For example, the study of Middle English—when the subject is temporally limited to a sufficiently homogeneous form—is synchronic focusing on understanding how a given stage in the history of English functions as a whole. The diachronic approach, by contrast, studies language change by comparing the different stages. This latter approach is what surface analysis often relies on, as a given composition may not have appeared synchronously in history. The terms ''synchrony'' and ''diachrony'' are often associated with historical linguist Ferdinand de Saussure, who considered the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Isogloss
An isogloss, also called a heterogloss, is the geographic boundary of a certain linguistics, linguistic feature, such as the pronunciation of a vowel, the meaning of a word, or the use of some morphological or syntactic feature. Isoglosses are a subject of study in dialectology, in which they demarcate the differences between regional dialects of a language; in areal linguistics, in which they represent the extent of borrowing (linguistics), borrowing of features between language contact, languages in contact with one another; and in the wave model of historical linguistics, in which they indicate the similarities and differences between members of a language family. Major dialects are typically demarcated by ''bundles'' of isoglosses, such as the Benrath line that distinguishes High German languages, High German from the other West Germanic languages and the La Spezia–Rimini Line that divides the Northern Italian languages and Romance languages west of Italy from Central Itali ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Consonant Cluster
In linguistics, a consonant cluster, consonant sequence or consonant compound is a group of consonants which have no intervening vowel. In English, for example, the groups and are consonant clusters in the word ''splits''. In the education field it is variously called a consonant cluster or a consonant blend. Some linguists argue that the term can be properly applied only to those consonant clusters that occur within one syllable. Others claim that the concept is more useful when it includes consonant sequences across syllable boundaries. According to the former definition, the longest consonant clusters in the word ''extra'' would be and , whereas the latter allows , which is phonetically in some accents. Phonotactics Each language has an associated set of phonotactic constraints. Languages' phonotactics differ as to what consonant clusters they permit. Many languages are more restrictive than English in terms of consonant clusters, and some forbid consonant clusters ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Syncope (phonology)
In phonology, syncope (; from ) is the loss of one or more sounds from the interior of a word, especially the loss of an unstressed vowel. It is found in both synchronic and diachronic analyses of languages. Its opposite, whereby sounds are added, is epenthesis. Synchronic analysis Synchronic analysis studies linguistic phenomena at one moment of a language's history, usually the present, in contrast to diachronic analysis, which studies a language's states and the patterns of change across a historical timeframe. In modern languages, syncope occurs in inflection, poetry, and informal speech. Inflections In languages such as Irish and Hebrew, the process of inflection can cause syncope: Verbs: * Irish: (to play) should become * (I play). However, the addition of the causes syncope and the second-last syllable vowel is lost so becomes . * Hebrew: (katav), (he) wrote, becomes (katvu), (they) wrote, when the third-person plural ending (-u) is added. Nouns: * Iris ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Diphthong
A diphthong ( ), also known as a gliding vowel or a vowel glide, is a combination of two adjacent vowel sounds within the same syllable. Technically, a diphthong is a vowel with two different targets: that is, the tongue (and/or other parts of the speech apparatus) moves during the pronunciation of the vowel. In most varieties of English, the phrase "no highway cowboys" ( ) has five distinct diphthongs, one in every syllable. Diphthongs contrast with monophthongs, where the tongue or other speech organs do not move and the syllable contains only a single vowel sound. For instance, in English, the word ''ah'' is spoken as a monophthong (), while the word ''ow'' is spoken as a diphthong in most varieties (). Where two adjacent vowel sounds occur in different syllables (e.g. in the English word ''re-elect'') the result is described as hiatus, not as a diphthong. Diphthongs often form when separate vowels are run together in rapid speech during a conversation. However, there ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Long Vowel
In linguistics, vowel length is the perceived or actual duration of a vowel sound when pronounced. Vowels perceived as shorter are often called short vowels and those perceived as longer called long vowels. On one hand, many languages do not distinguish vowel length phonemically, meaning that vowel length alone does not change the meanings of words. However, the amount of time a vowel is uttered can change based on factors such as the phonetic characteristics of the sounds around it: the phonetic environment. An example is that vowels tend to be pronounced longer before a voiced consonant and shorter before a voiceless consonant in the standard accents of American and British English. On the other hand, vowel length is indeed an important phonemic factor in certain languages, meaning vowel length can change word-meanings, for example in Arabic, Czech, Dravidian languages (such as Tamil), some Finno-Ugric languages (such as Finnish and Estonian), Japanese, Kyrgyz, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vowel Harmony
In phonology, vowel harmony is a phonological rule in which the vowels of a given domain – typically a phonological word – must share certain distinctive features (thus "in harmony"). Vowel harmony is typically long distance, meaning that the affected vowels do not need to be immediately adjacent, and there can be intervening segments between the affected vowels. Generally one vowel will trigger a shift in other vowels, either progressively or regressively, within the domain, such that the affected vowels match the relevant feature of the trigger vowel. Common phonological features that define the natural classes of vowels involved in vowel harmony include vowel backness, vowel height, nasalization, roundedness, and advanced and retracted tongue root. Vowel harmony is found in many agglutinative languages. The given domain of vowel harmony taking effect often spans across morpheme boundaries, and suffixes and prefixes will usually follow vowel harmony rules. Termi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kraasna
Krasnogorodsk (; ) is an urban locality (a work settlement) and the administrative center of Krasnogorodsky District of Pskov Oblast, Russia, located on the Sinyaya River south of Pskov. Municipally, it is incorporated as Krasnogorodsk Urban Settlement, the only urban settlement in the district. Population: History Krasnogorodsk was founded in 1464 as Krasny Gorodets and was a fortress protecting Pskov from the southwest - one of the directions the Livonian Order was likely to advance from. In the beginning of the 15th century, together with Pskov, it was transferred to the Grand Duchy of Moscow. In 1581, Krasny Gorodets was conquered by the Polish Army and burned down. In 1607, it was again conquered by Lithuanians. In 1634 a peace between Russia and Poland was concluded, and the Krasny Gorodets was transferred to the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. It was returned to Russia under one of the provisions of the Truce of Andrusovo in 1667. By the end of the 19th century, the n ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Leivu
Gauja Estonians (, ''Leivu maarahvas'' or ''leivud''; – 'Vidzeme Estonians' or ''leivi'') were Estonians who lived along Gauja river in Latvia. History Gauja Estonians are most likely native to their homelands. There are mentions of Chudes living in Adzele county from 12th century Russian sources. There are later mentions of them living in the Gauja river area. According to August Wilhelm Hupel's book ''Topographische Nachrichten von Lief und Ehstland'' there were about thousand Estonians in 1777. Anders Johan Sjögren claimed that there were 2,600 Gauja Estonians in 1849. Heikki Ojansuu counted only 116 when he made a trip to an area in 1911. According to Ojansuu's theory, Gauja Estonians were refugees of the Great Northern War from Southern Estonia, but today this theory has been largely discredited. According to Harri Moora and Paul Ariste, Gauja Estonians were the original inhabitants of their homelands.Seppo Zerterberg: Viro, Historia, kansa, kulttuuri Helsinki: Suomalai ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Enclave
An enclave is a territory that is entirely surrounded by the territory of only one other state or entity. An enclave can be an independent territory or part of a larger one. Enclaves may also exist within territorial waters. ''Enclave'' is sometimes used improperly to denote a territory that is only partly surrounded by another state. Enclaves that are not part of a larger territory are not exclaves, for example Lesotho (enclaved by South Africa), and San Marino and Vatican City (both enclaved by Italy) are enclaved sovereign states. An exclave is a portion of a state or district geographically separated from the main part, by some surrounding alien territory. Many exclaves are also enclaves, but an exclave surrounded by the territory of more than one state is not an enclave. The Azerbaijani exclave of Nakhchivan is an example of an exclave that is not an enclave, as it borders Armenia, Iran, and Turkey. Semi-enclaves and semi-exclaves are areas that, except for possessing ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
