Learning Languages
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African Languages
- Bambara As part of the Manding language group, Bambara is a culturally significant and widespread language. Bambara is mainly spoken in the West African country of Mali. Together with Dioula and Malinke, the language belongs to the dialect continuum of Mande languages (also Manding). Around 30 million people in ten West African countries understand and speak Bambara to varying degrees. In Burkina Faso, the Ivory Coast, Guinea, Senegal and Gambia, large parts of the population speak variants of Manding as their mother tongue or as a lingua franca and trading language. The local N'Ko script or the Latin alphabet are used for writing. Lecturer Anke Nehrig, M.A.
- Hausa is spoken from the north of Nigeria to the south of Niger, as well as in Ghana, Mali, Benin and Togo. Kano Hausa is generally regarded as standard Hausa. Hausa is the mother tongue of around 50 million people. A further 25 million people also speak it as a second language. Like the Semitic, Cushitic, Omotic and Berber languages (Amazigh and Ancient Egyptian), Hausa belongs to the Afro-Asiatic languages. Lecturer Yusuf Baba Gar
- Afrikaans Afrikaans is a Germanic language that originated from Dutch and has been significantly influenced by contact with speakers of South African and Southeast Asian languages in particular. Afrikaans is spoken as a mother tongue by around 7.2 million people from very diverse social groups, particularly in western parts of South Africa and southern Namibia, and is used as a second language by around 15 million people. It thus reflects the diverse history of the Cape region as a Dutch colonial area. Lecturer: Dr. Christfried Naumann
- Swahili Setswana belongs to the group of closely related Sotho-Tswana languages and is spoken as a mother tongue by around 6 million people, mainly in the north of South Africa and in Botswana, and is understood as a second language by a further 9 million people in the region. Setswana is not only widely used as an oral lingua franca, but is also widely used as a written, teaching and media language, e.g. in education and on the radio especially in Botswana. Lecturer: Dr. Christfried Naumann
East Asian Languages
- Chinese (modern & classical) Chinese languages are spoken by 1.3 billion people – mostly in the People's Republic of China and in the Republic of China (Taiwan). Chinese speaking minorities are distributed among different countries, especially in Southeast Asia. Most speakers of Chinese speak (Modern) Standard Chinese, also called "Mandarin" or simply "Chinese". Mandarin today has 885,000,000 native speakers and is the most spoken language in the world. The Chinese or Sinese languages are one of the two primary branches of the Sino-Tibetan language family. Lecturer Dr. Chin-hui Lin
- Japanese is the official language of Japan and spoken by almost all of its around 128 million inhabitants as a native language (2012). Japanese is close to other Asian languages, especially to Korean. The script was derived from Chinese characters, although the languages are not related. Presently, there are 1945 characters assigned to common use. After Japan's rise as an economic power, the interest in Japanese culture and the study of the Japanese language increased significantly. Currently, there are about three million people studying Japanese outside of Japan (2010). Lecturer Hisami Shimba
South Asian Languages
- Hindi is spoken in most northen and central Indian states. Next to English, it is the official language of the independent Republic of India (since 1965). With around 601 million native and second language speakers (2001), Hindi is one of the most spoken languages in the world. Outside of India, there are various Hindi speaking communities. Especially on Mauritius and the Fiji islands, a scarce majority speaks Hindi until today. Hindi is an Indo-European language with a rich literature. Hindi and Urdu differ mostly in their written form. Hindi is based on the Devanagari script and derives some terms from Sanskrit. Lecturer Dr. Monika Freier
- Urdu is the official language of Pakistan. In India, Urdu is mainly spoken in Delhi, Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand. Six percent of the Indian population are Urdu speakers. Worldwide, there are about 60.6 million native speakers of Urdu (1993-97). Including the second language speakers, this number amounts to 150-200 million people. Hindi and Urdu differ mostly in their written form. Urdu is based on the Arabic script and derives loanwords from the Persian and Arabic languages. Outside of Pakistan and India, there are Urdu speaking communities mostly in UK, Saudi-Arabia, the US and in Bangladesh. Urdu is an Indo-European language and belongs to the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European language family. Lecturer Dr. Faiza Muhammad Din
Southeast Asian Languages
- Bahasa Indonesia The modern Indonesian official language Bahasa Indonesia is one of the most widely spoken languages of the Southeast Asian area and used as a business and working language. It is mostly spoken in Indonesia and in Malaysia (Bahasa Melayu). Bahasa Indonesia and Bahasa Melayu, which are linguistically regarded as one language, are spoken by around 200 million people worldwide. Outside of Indonesia, Bahasa Indonesia is spoken mainly in Saudi-Arabia, Singapore, the Netherlands and in the US. The modern day official language has its roots in the Old Malay language and is a part of the Austronesian language family (like Balinese, Philipino and Malagasy). The written language of Bahasa Indonesia is based on the Latin script. Lecturer Esie Hanstein
- Thai Modern standard Thai is the official language and lingua franca of the Kingdom of Thailand. Thai, formerly Siamese, belongs to the Kam Tai languages – like Lao and the Burmese Shan. Thai is a phonetic language. Five tones are represented by an independent, complex script system. Thai adapted loanwords from Sanskrit, Mon, Khmer, Chinese and recently also from English into its own phonetic system. The Thai vocabulary reflects the traditional culture and the complex social relationships of Thai society. Knowledge of Thai therefore facilitates access to an understanding of cultural and social phenomena in Thailand. Lecturer Martin Schalbruch
- Burmese Lecturer Johanna Neumann
- Vietnamese is the official and working language in Vietnam. The Austro-Asiatic language, which belongs to the Mon Khmer branch of languages, is spoken by around 81 million native speakers (2011). A bigger part of its vocabulary is based on Chinese. Vietnamese is a tonal language. Originally, it was written using the Chinese writing system in a modified format. Modern Vietnamese is based on the Latin alphabet with additional diacritics to represent phonetic features. Lecturer Anke Friedel-Nguyen
Central Asian Languages
- Dari/Persian Dari is the name commonly used in Afghanistan for Persian, an Islamic cultural language that has been developed for centuries and is the official language and common colloquial language in Afghanistan alongside Pashto. Persian is the national language in Iran. Dari/Persian is also widely spoken in the Afghan and Iranian diaspora, including several hundred thousand people in Germany. Dari/Persian is written using a modified Arabic alphabet. From a linguistic-historical point of view, Dari/Persian belongs to the family of Indo-European languages and has many similarities with other Islamicized languages. Language training at the Central Asia Seminar includes a basic course, which provides a practical introduction to oral and written language use over four semesters. Further courses include reading and communication courses. Differences between the Dari of Afghanistan and the Persian of Iran are addressed at all levels of learning. Lecturer: PD. Dr. Lutz Rzehak
- Mongolian Mongolian is the primary or secondary language in Mongolia, Inner Mongolia in the People's Republic of China, and the autonomous republics of Buryatia and Kalmykia in Russia. The total number of speakers is approximately 9 million. Mongolian belongs to the Altaic language group, alongside Turkic and Tungusic languages. The Chalcha Mongolian dialect (Modern Mongolian), which is taught at IAAW, is part of the central branch of the Mongolic languages and serves as the official language and lingua franca of the modern Mongolia. It is written in the Cyrillic script. Classical Mongolian, by contrast, serves as an official language and script in Inner Mongolia (PRC) alongside Chinese, and is gradually being reintroduced as the second official script in Mongolia. Lecturer Dr. Ganchimeg Altangerel
- Paschto is mainly spoken in Afghanistan and Pakistan. In Afghanistan, Pashto is one of the two official languages alongside Dari and is the language of instruction in schools and universities in many places. In Pakistan, Pashto does not have a comparable official status, but it is playing a growing role in the media and film as well as in education and science. Pashto is also widespread in the Afghan and Pakistani diaspora, including several hundred thousand members in Germany. In terms of language history, Pashto belongs to the group of East Iranian languages and also has many similarities with other Islamized languages. Pashto is written using a modified Arabic writing system. The language course at the Central Asia Seminar comprises a basic course in which a practical introduction to the oral and written use of the language is offered over four semesters. Lecturer PD. Dr. Lutz Rzehak
- Tajik is a variant of Persian that developed in the course of the 20th century in the Central Asian states of the Soviet Union. Tajik is the national language in Tajikistan and has the status of a recognized minority language in Uzbekistan. From a linguistic-historical point of view, Tajik belongs to the family of Indo-European languages and has characteristics that can be traced back to the Soviet past and to special language contact features in Central Asia. Tajik is written using a modified Cyrillic alphabet. Language training at the Central Asia Seminar includes a basic course in which a practical introduction to the oral and written use of the language is offered over four semesters. Lecturer PD. Dr. Lutz Rzehak, Nicholas Gregg M.A.
- Tibetan belongs to the Tibeto-Burman languages of Asia and is closely related to other languages of the Himalaya. Around six million Tibetans speak Tibetan in a multiplicity of dialects. Most native speakers live on the Tibetan plateau in the west of China. Approximately 130,000 Tibetans live in Nepal, India, Bhutan and other countries. In about 30 percent of the Chinese mainland, Tibetan is the official language. The Tibetan alphabet is derived from a variant of the ancient Indian Brahmi script. At the IAAW, an east Tibetan form of Tibetan (region of Amdo) is taught. Lecturer Huadan Zhaxi, B.A.
- Usbek is the most widely spread Turk language of Central Asia. Worldwide there are about 27 million speakers of Uzbek. The bigger part of them lives in Uzbekistan, where Uzbek is the only official state language. There are also speakers of Uzbek in Tadzhikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and in Turkmenistan, as well as in parts of the Chinese Xinjiang region and in Afghanistan. Due to its central position within the Turk languages of Central Asia, beyond its own area of influence, Uzbek opens the greater region ranging from the Volga to Sinkiang and from the Hindu Kush to South Siberia. Today’s standard variety of Uzbek, which has been strongly influenced by Persian, was developed in the 1920s and 1930s as a modern literature and scientific language. Uzbek is simple and logically structured. Lecturer Ayfer Durdu
Arabic
Arabic is the official and working language in 21 countries of Asia and Africa. The literary language is called Modern Standard Arabic. It is currently the only official form. Spoken Arabic varieties are used in a wide arc of territory stretching across the Middle East and North Africa. There are about 280 million native speakers of Arabic (2006), around 800 million speakers use Arabic as their second language.
At the IAAW, Arabic is currently offered in cooperation with the Language Centre of Humboldt-Universität. Two semesters are free of costs, semester 3-4 are charged according to the study fees of the Language Centre. At the IAAW, the language course in Arabic is recognized although it is only a secondary, third or fourth language in the regions of study.