As the Frankfurt Book Fair’s guest of honor last October, Iceland enjoyed unqualified success. No other country has a larger proportion of writers and readers and Iceland’s enthusiasm for literature was an inspiration to many, professionals and amateurs alike.

At its most abstract, the modernisation and globalisation of scripts removes not only evidence of a culture’s history, but also of its very humanity. Even mainstream scripts such as Chinese and Arabic, both of which were remarkable in showing their origins as brushstrokes or penstrokes, have recently been reformed to look simpler and more mechanical.

As the People’s Deputy noted Kyrgyz language must be developed but not at the expense of Russian language which has the official status. “This is the civic rights violation against Russian-speaking nationals,” said Irina Karamushkina.

JAKARTA - More than half of 104 Indonesian nurses who came to Japan in 2008 through a bilateral economic partnership agreement to obtain nursing licenses have returned home, due mainly to difficulties meeting Japanese language requirements, it has been learned.

Our aim is to make Indian languages a source of livelihood in India. We want to spread the importance of Hindi language on national level and reinforce the importance of regional languages in specific regions. Indian languages should be given due weightage in all walks of life, especially in education system and jobs.

A new Welsh language pressure group is needed to meet the challenges of modern Wales, a leading academic and activist has warned. Cardiff University’s Simon Brooks argues that Cymdeithas yr Iaith remains "a leftist radical organisation with its roots in 1960s protest" and a new group is needed to lobby the Welsh Government.

Why are English-medium kids different from Urdu-medium kids? Surely the difference doesn't lie simply in the medium of language and teaching. What is it then? Is it that the EMT ("English Medium Type") kids have "liberal" parents? Or is it that their parents are richer? Do they always get better opportunities in life?

A professor discovers the key to helping students understand complex linguistic principles is through the funny bone.S

The Kamrup Mahanagar Zila Sahitya Sabha today gave a clarion call to the Assamese writers not to sing a sad and pessimistic tune in respect of the future of the Assamese language in particular and the great Assamese community in general.

NEW DELHI: Describing Sanskrit language as the " spirit of India", Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today said Government will further strengthen efforts for promotion, development and enrichment of the ancient language. Addressing the 15th World Sanskrit Conference here, Singh said the spirit of liberalism and tolerance embedded in it must be inculcated in our present day life.

Omron Software Co. has developed a smartphone application that translates short English, Korean and Chinese written phrases into Japanese in less than a second.

A serving US soldier who learned Irish from the internet is the subject of the first ever warzone documentary to be produced in Irish. Private Seamus 'Na Gaeilge' O Fianghusa was asked to take part in the documentary by TG4 in 2010 as he began a tour of duty in Afghanistan.

BEIRUT: At 4:30 p.m. each day, many Lebanese Armenians switch their televisions to FutureNews or OTV to watch coverage of local, regional and international news in Armenian. While community members can choose from among dozens of Arabic-language television stations, many viewres told The Daily Star that they miss having a television channel dedicated to broadcasting Armenian-language programs.

My girls were very early speakers. By age two, they spoke in full Armenian sentences. By age three, they were able to carry on articulate conversations, and oh boy were they chatty! I enrolled them in preschool by age four, with minimal English vocabulary. However, their inability to comprehend basic English directions frustrated them and they would often speak with their teacher and peers in Armenian.

After reaching its peak in popularity around the 1950s (when about half of all blind children could read it fluently), Braille's popularity has waned in recent years. Fewer than 10 percent of the 1.3 million legally blind people in the United States today can read the language, and just 10 percent of blind children are learning it, according to a report released by the National Federation of the Blind.

ANKAWA, Iraq—It is commonly known as the language of Jesus and is the root of both Arabic and Hebrew. But what's less widely known is that Aramaic is still spoken, and is in fact thriving in some parts of Iraq.

In 2001 an assembly elected to draft a constitution for newly independent East Timor, also known as Timor-Leste, chose Portuguese and Tetum as the official languages of the nation, to be used in parliament, schools and other public venues. Notably, the constitution and founding laws were drafted only in Portuguese.

LEIPZIG, Germany, Jan. 3 (UPI) -- People learn a new language more easily when words are accompanied by movement or gestures, European researchers say. Twenty volunteers took part in a six-day course at Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences in Leipzig, Germany, to learn "Vimmi," an artificial language designed to make study results easier to interpret, NewScientist.com reported Tuesday.

Fulfilling its public service remit to broadcast programmes in the Irish language will always be a hugely complex task for TG4 because attitudes to the language are so complex. Census data and Irish language attitudes surveys continually show a high proportion of the Irish population is favourably disposed towards the language. Yet, smaller numbers of Irish people speak the language every day, and within this population, there is huge variation in their language competence.

‘English is attacking Czech from all sides’ one newspaper columnist recently despaired, while others talk of Czech’s ‘battle for survival’ in a world in which ever more English is spoken. From terms like ‘setobox’, ‘vygooglovat’ and ‘mobil’ on the one hand to words like ‘sorry’, ‘byzy’ and ‘lůzr’ on the other, English does seem to be making an impact on today’s Czech.

VADODARA: The city will turn into a melting pot of languages this weekend. It will host 'Bhasha Vasudha' - a global languages conference - that will be attended by persons representing around 900 languages from across the globe and is touted to be unprecedented in scale.

For Tolkien, a philologist by trade, giving his characters their own tongue wasn’t simply a narrative device but the starting point for his fiction. It was a life-long commitment that helped him give The Lord Of The Rings and his other works their unique, immersive atmosphere - and the sense that they had truly arrived from an alternative reality.

On February 19, Latvia will hold a nationwide referendum on whether to make Russian the country’s second official language. According to Latvia’s Central Election Commission, for the Russian language to acquire this status, more than one half of Latvia’s residents, which makes about 772 thousand people, must vote for it.

A new Guernsey French book aims to provide a simple introduction to the island's ancient language. The author Dr Harry Tomlinson said it was based on materials used to give lessons to pupils at Forest School and the book was primarily for children.

THE first group of Aboriginal students and teachers to graduate with a Certificate I in Aboriginal Languages- Gathang have celebrated their year-long achievement at both Taree and Great Lakes TAFE campuses.

The surge in immigrants patronizing the Queens system has spurred its branches to offer books, DVDs and CDs in 59 languages, more than double the total a decade ago. So important has acquiring foreign-language books become to the Queens Library’s mission that Radames Suarez, who supervises the Spanish collection, travels every year to the largest Spanish book fair in the world, in Guadalajara, Mexico.

Peshawar—Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly on Monday passed a bill to establish Regional Languages Authority for the purpose of teaching and promotion of regional languages in the province. The bill titled as ‘Regional Languages Authority Act 2011’ was passed with some amendments proposed by MPA Saqibullah Khan Chamkani. Provincial Minister for Information, Mian Iftikhar Hussain tabled by draft bill in assembly.

WALFORD, Iowa — Newt Gingrich promises to make English the official language of government, but on Monday he sent an e-mail appeal in Spanish asking for support at the Iowa caucuses.

MEMBERS of the public have until Wednesday evening to give their views on the Highland Council’s second draft Gaelic Language Plan. The document looks at how the local authority promotes and ensures the future growth of Gaelic education, language and culture.

SAN LUIS, Ariz. (AP) - A candidate for San Luis City Council might be asked to prove her English proficiency. Last week, the council approved a motion asking for verification that Alejandrina Cabrera meets a state law requiring any person holding office in the state, county or city to speak, write and read English.