Omniglot News (15/01/23)

Here’s the latest news from the world of Omniglot.

New constructed script: Verbeħen, which was created by EBT to write a constructed language being developed for fun. It was inspired by the roundness and curviness of Georgian Mkhedruli letters (მხედრული).

Sample text in Verbeħen

New adapted script: Maldivian Arabic, which is a way to write Maldivian (Dhivehi) with the Arabic script devised by Mohamed Naaif.

آ قَانُونُ ٱلْأَسَاسِيُّڮٔ حِمَايَة لِبِڮٔنْ سِيَاسِي حِزْبُتَاّْ هِنْڮٞنٔ طَرِيقَاة تَه هَمَجٔهِفَي نُڣَانَمَ أ قَانـُونُڮٔه مِثَالَكِي اَلِفَانْ رُاڣَجَّنَمَ سَلاَمَة ڣَانٔ سِڋِاَكُ نٔيْه أتَكٔه بُرِيڮٔ عِمَارَاتُڮٔه مِثَالٔكٔڣٔ.

There are new language pages about:

Ikwerre (Gu-jingarliya), an Igboid language spoken in Rivers State in southern Nigeria.
Ogba (Ọgba), an Igboid language spoken in Rivers States in southern Nigeria
Ayizo (Ayizɔ-ko), a Gbe language spoken in southern Benin.

There are new numbers pages in:

Ikwerre, an Igboid language spoken in Rivers State in southern Nigeria.
Jeju (제주말), a Koreanic language spoken in Jeju Province of South Korea.
Nuer (Thok Naath), a Western Nilotic language spoken in South Sudan and western Ethiopia.

There are new family words pages in:

Telugu (తెలుగు), a Dravidian language spoken mainly in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana in southern India.
Marathi (मराठी), a Southern Indo-Aryan language spoken mainly in the Indian state of Maharashtra.

On the Omniglot blog we’re telling Half a Story about words for excuse me and related things in Gaelic languages, and there’s the usual Language Quiz. See if you can guess what language this is:

Here’s a clue: this is language is spoken in the Philippines.

The mystery language in last week’s language quiz was
Xiang / Hunanese (湘语/湖南语), a Sinitic language spoken mainly in Hunan Province in southern China.

In this week’s Adventure in Etymology we are being indirect and circuitous and looking at some Obtuse Pronking.

On the Celtiadur blog there’s a post about words for Taking Hold and related things in Celtic languages.

There’s a new Celtic Pathways podcast about words for Swans and related birds in Celtic languages.

Improved pages: Digaro Mishmi language, Digaro Mishmi numbers, Muscogee (Creek-Seminole) phrases.

In other news, my learning streak on Duolingo reached 2,000 days this week (2,003 today)! I’m currently studying languages for around 10 hours a week, and am focusing on Japanese, Scottish Gaelic and Spanish.