World Cultures
Topic: Languages

We have chosen  6 out of the 3,000+ languages of the world to explore.   You and your partner(s) will be teaching the rest of your class about your language. But, before you can teach it, you need to learn about it.  Answer the following questions in your booklets.  COPY THE QUESTION FIRST!!!!!!!  You do NOT have to copy the parts in parentheses.

1) What is the history of your language?  Where was it first spoken?  Is it  a mix of older languages?


2) Did your language spread to other parts of the world?  Research this briefly and describe the spread.  (Ask  Ms. Riddle for help if you are getting stuck on this one.)


3) How do you say your language, IN the language? ( For example, 'Spanish' is 'Español'.   Try to print it out if it is in a script other than Roman letters.)


4) What does your language look like?  Describe in a sentence or two what it looks like.  (Use the following links:)


http://news.bbc.co.uk/  (scroll down and click on 'languages' to the left and see if your language is there).
http://www.onlinenewspapers.com/
http://www.multilingualbooks.com/online-newspapers.html


5) Do you see any words that look sort of like English words?   (If your language uses our alphabet, take a good look and try to find a couple)


6)Can you tell what any of the articles are about, based on the pictures and/or text?  (Make an educated guess)

7) How do you say 'Hello' in your language?   

8) Can you find any words, phrases, numbers etc. with audio links, so that you can hear them?  (Try to find at least numbers 1-10 and a few basic greetings / phrases and copy the links into your notebook.  CAREFULLY write the link address, and comment briefly WHAT vocabulary you found audio files of.)

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