Sogdian Archetypes in Chatkal Oronymia as an Ancient Substrate of Toponyms of Central Asia

The relevance of studying the oronymy of the Chatkal area of Kyrgyzstan is associated with the fact that many mountain names are well preserved in sound and semantic terms. This factor is an important condition for studying the retrospective of any language, including the Turkic languages too. Also, in the sound shells of mountain names, despite their deep antiquity, long disappeared elements of languages that are in contact in the same linguistic area in the deep past have survived. As part of the mountain names of the Chatkal zone of the mountain ranges of Kyrgyzstan, individual morphemes and sounds of the ancient Turkic languages have been preserved, and at the same time, East Iranian topolexemes of the Indo-European language family are found. At the same time, the structure of oronyms to some extent shows the evolution of the language as a whole and of each tier in it - in particular. The history of the Kyrgyz language and its interaction with various systemic linguistic structures are reflected in the stratigraphy of oronymy. This allows you to explore the historical plan of the Turkic languages in more depth in the diachronic sense.

CLIL, Bilingual Education, and Pluriliteracies

The so-called language gap is not a modern invention, since language is power and a form of taking dominion over the world in humans' intellectual confrontation with reality. Historically, there has been inequality in language learning and mastery as a way to access knowledge and to achieve self-fulfillment in both the public and private spheres. This chapter explores the concept of language gap from a diachronic perspective and the way in which the Andalusian education system has taken actions emanating from European language policies, aimed at bridging the language gap among young people through initiatives of great impact on content and language education, such as the consolidation of bilingual education programmes through the CLIL approach and pedagogical tools like the Integrated Language Curriculum, the European Language Portfolio, and the School Language Project.

Der Flussname Inn, Ockhams Rasiermesser und moderne Indogermanistik

Some European hydronyms (among them also the river-name Inn) have sometimes been explained based on a root PIE “ *en‑/*on‑” (modern spelling: PIE *h₁en(H)-), which has usually been given the meaning ‘flow, river’ vel sim. This root cannot even be found in Pokorny’s Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch (1959). No real proof for that root has been found in the appellative lexicon of any Indo-European language. Moreover, there aren’t any sure continuations of that root in the onymic lexicons of those languages. All names put forward as arguments can either be explained based on a root PIE *pen-/*pon- ‘swamp, (standing) water’ (because they are Celtic) or based on a root PIE *h₂en- ‘haul (water)’. As long as no proof of an appellative use of a root PIE *h₁en(H)- can be offered, which alone might tell us, what that root actually meant, the application of ‘Occam’s razor’ leaves us no other choice but to explain all regarding names from the other two roots.

Signal Phrase Extraction: A Gateway to Information Retrieval Improvement in Law Texts

NLP-based techniques can support in improving understanding of legal text documents. In this work we present a semi-automatic framework to extract signal phrases from legislative texts for an arbitrary European language. Through a case study using Dutch legislation, we demonstrate that it is feasible to extract these phrases reliably with a small number of supporting domain experts. Finally, we argue how in future works our framework could be utilized with existing methods to be applied to different languages.

Brahmadeva. Paramātmaprakāśa-vṛtti. First adhikāra, dohaka 1–10

This publication offers the first translation from Sanskrit into a European language of the commentary of the Digambara exegete Brahmadeva (14th cent.) on the first ten verses-dohakas of the poetic treatise “The Radiance of the Supreme Ātman” (Apabhraṃśa Paramappapāyasu) by Yogindu (ca 6th cent.). This text is one of the very few Jain writings on mysticism. The article comprises an introduction to the problems of the treatise and also provides a general idea of the understanding of the spiritual substance-the ātman and its three forms: the external one, the inner one and the supreme.

Self-Assessment of English Reading Skills in Grade 6

One of topicalities in the field of education in the 21st century is a necessity to share responsibility. Namely, students should learn to be more responsible for how and what they learn, whereas teachers should learn to share the ownership of the learning process with students, letting them be more involved in it as decision-makers. One way how teachers can encourage students become more conscious of the learning process is to engage them in self-assessment of their learning and learning outcomes. One of self-assessment tools in language education is the European Language Portfolio (the ELP). Apart from different ELPs for adults, there is a portfolio for students in Latvia: My Language Portfolio – The European Language Portfolio for young learners (age 7–12) in the paperback and digital versions. In the present study, the researchers explore how self-assessment can be incorporated in the English language lessons by offering self-assessment activities and the ELP to Grade 6 students to work on their reading skills. Reading skills make the basis for every person’s literacy as reading does not only concern reading itself, it is also about being able to master general knowledge of any other school subject and the world knowledge in general. Thus, the aim of the research is to find out how self-assessment can be used to improve reading skills in English in Grade 6. A case study was carried out for one month in one primary school in Riga, the research sample being two separate groups of Grade 6 students, in total – 26. The researchers analysed and interpreted data collected from assessment and self-assessment of reading activities, questionnaires filled out by students. The main findings of the research show that self-assessment can successfully be incorporated in lessons of English of Grade 6 students as it increases students’ motivation to learn and their reading skills improve. That could be based on the fact that self-assessment allows students to take more ownership of their learning process and learning outcomes, that way making students become more responsible. However, overall progress is not immense and for students who are more competent in English, improvement of their reading skills can barely be traced. It has to be highlighted that students, whose confidence in their English reading skills is lower, benefit from self-assessment more. It could be explained by students’ conscious work on particular problems with reading in English they discover while completing self-assessment activities.

European Language Matters

Why do Greek lorries have Metaphorés written on the side? Is it grammatically correct to say 'the best team won' after a football match? What is the difference between manly, male, masculine and macho? Bringing together Peter Trudgill's highly popular columns for the New European, this fascinating collection explores how English has been influenced, both linguistically and culturally, by its neighbouring languages in Europe. English is very much a European language and Trudgill delves in to the rich linguistic legacy that links all European languages. The bite-sized pieces are grouped together in thematically arranged sections, to allow the reader to dip in and out at will, and cover a wide range of topics, from the etymology of words, to illuminating pieces on grammar. Written in an engaging and lively style, and full of intriguing facts about language and languages in Europe, this book will appeal to both language specialists and to general readers with no prior experience.

How the ELE projects aims to bring the voices of the Wikimedia communities on Digital Language Equality into future European Commission Programs

The European Commission is funding the project “European Language Equality” and next to 52 other partners, Wikimedia Deutschland is part of this partner consortium. The project is aiming to address the challenge that not all 24 official EU languages or the regional and minority languages in Europe have the same digital support. In order to achieve a state in which all languages have the technological support necessary for them to continue to exist and prosper in the digital age, the project partners are preparing a convincing agenda and roadmap on how to get there by 2030. The Wikimedia movement, consisting of volunteers and organizations whose daily business is dealing with languages and language technology, is a major stakeholder for the language technology community. In order to know what it will take to get to a state of full digital equality we want the project consortium to know the pains, challenges, wishes and needs of the volunteers and communities keeping the multi-language environment of Europe alive everyday. This lightning talk will give a short introduction to this European project and present a survey that is used to collect needs, hopes and challenges from the language technology community. We are hoping that with this the communities perspective on digital language equality will influence future programs, projects, funding and structures on an European level.

Consonant Changes in Words Borrowed From Sanskrit to Thai and Patani Malay

Southeast Asia was under Indian influence for more than a thousand years so that the traces of Indian civilization can be determined from a lot of evidence. The entry of Indian civilization in this region has shown that Sanskrit has merged with Thai, the national language of Thailand, and Patani Malay, the mother tongue language of Thai Malays who live in the deep south of Thailand. Borrowing is a process of language contact and language change that can happen in all languages and is not limited to borrow in the same language family or the same type of language. All of them belong to different family trees. Sanskrit is a member of the Indo-European language family, whereas the Thai language is accepted to Tai-Kadai and Patani Malay belongs to the Austronesian language family. This study aims to study consonant changes of shared Sanskrit loanwords in Thai and Patani Malay. This research employed qualitative methodology. Data were collected from documentaries. The findings showed that changes in consonant phonemes occurred in both languages according to phonological adaptations such as deletion, insertion, voicing, devoicing, and substitution.