The Twelve Months of the Year in 850 Languages & Dialects (PDF)
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If you speak Achuar Chicham, you call August “Wampuash,” switch to Spanish for numbers greater than four, and cover your mouth and avoid eye contact when conversing with visitors. Pingelapese? Chances are uncommonly good that you see everything in black and white.
Do you go b-b-b-b-b-b-b! when you’re cold? Some languages count that sound, the bilabial trill, in their regular inventory. Navava, heard in four villages on Vanuatu’s Malakula Island, employs b-b-b-b-b-b-b for “until,” with the length of the trill indicating how long the wait.
Aymara speakers, Bolivian president and trade unionist Evo Morales among them, see the past as something in front of them and the future, behind. Taki taki, spoken in Suriname, gets by with a total vocabulary of 340 words.
Looking to pick up invaluable pointers?
Cuisine: “Don’t show butter to a Chinese; don’t show vegetables to a Yugur.” (Yugur)
Home economics: “Gambling today, selling clothes tomorrow.” (Zhuang)
Acculturation: “When you ride in a Chechen cart, sing a Chechen song; when you ride in a Kumyk cart, sing a Kumyk song.” (Chechen)
Teamwork: “When webs of spiders join together, they trap a lion.” (Luo)
Surprising, thought-provoking, hypnotically engaging. Guaranteed.
468 pages
5 Stars - Congratulations on your 5-star review!
Reviewed by K.C. Finn for Readers’ Favorite
The Twelve Months of the Year in 850 Languages and Dialects: Mostly Ones You've Probably Never Heard Of is a work of non-fiction examining language and culture. It is suitable for readers of all kinds and it was penned by Kukisvoomchor. As the title suggests, the work takes readers through some of the most incredible and unusual languages and dialects in the world with their unique sayings, and to view the twelve months of the year and their meanings. What results is a fascinating global journey through different modes of speech, and a celebration of all things linguistic.
Kukisvoomchor has curated a fantastic work of non-fiction for enthusiasts of world history, language, culture, and linguistics everywhere, and this book would make a superb primer for anyone looking to explore lesser-known elements from extinct peoples and extremely remote nations. I for one was thrilled to see inclusions such as Breton, which is close to my native heritage as a Welsh person, and so many different wonderful dialects from Africa in their full glory, which I knew very little about until they were all on display here. The work also benefits from a wonderful indexing system at the back to help you find families of language or track them down by name, and the overall organization and layout of the work make it an ideal reference to start your linguistic journey. I’d highly recommend The Twelve Months of the Year in 850 Languages and Dialects to students, scholars, and everyone in between with a love for words and the world we live in.
— K.C. Finn for Readers’ Favorite
"The breadth of this unusual enterprise is impressive, delivering many rich and distinctive details. The specifics the author provides about the assortment of speakers and their countries are intriguing, as is the orthographic variety on display..." [Previous Edition]
-- Kirkus Reviews --
"Trivia lovers and movie buffs would enjoy the treats Kukisvoomchor sprinkles throughout this reference... Examples include the language used in the video game Minecraft and the Northeast Bantu language spoken in Return of the Jedi..." [Previous Edition]
-- Online Book Club --
"Shout out to the author who put in such an intense amount of work to culminate this book! It is a remarkable book of our time... The book also has a super interesting glossary of some interesting linguistic terms, IPA [International Phonetic Alphabet], and references for language family which is such a treat for the readers!!" [Previous Edition]
-- inkdream on Amazon --
The Twelve Months of the Year in 850 Languages and Dialects (Mostly Ones You’ve Probably Never Heard Of), PDF. Taxes included (VAT).
Do you go b-b-b-b-b-b-b! when you’re cold? Some languages count that sound, the bilabial trill, in their regular inventory. Navava, heard in four villages on Vanuatu’s Malakula Island, employs b-b-b-b-b-b-b for “until,” with the length of the trill indicating how long the wait.
Aymara speakers, Bolivian president and trade unionist Evo Morales among them, see the past as something in front of them and the future, behind. Taki taki, spoken in Suriname, gets by with a total vocabulary of 340 words.
Looking to pick up invaluable pointers?
Cuisine: “Don’t show butter to a Chinese; don’t show vegetables to a Yugur.” (Yugur)
Home economics: “Gambling today, selling clothes tomorrow.” (Zhuang)
Acculturation: “When you ride in a Chechen cart, sing a Chechen song; when you ride in a Kumyk cart, sing a Kumyk song.” (Chechen)
Teamwork: “When webs of spiders join together, they trap a lion.” (Luo)
Surprising, thought-provoking, hypnotically engaging. Guaranteed.
468 pages
5 Stars - Congratulations on your 5-star review!
Reviewed by K.C. Finn for Readers’ Favorite
The Twelve Months of the Year in 850 Languages and Dialects: Mostly Ones You've Probably Never Heard Of is a work of non-fiction examining language and culture. It is suitable for readers of all kinds and it was penned by Kukisvoomchor. As the title suggests, the work takes readers through some of the most incredible and unusual languages and dialects in the world with their unique sayings, and to view the twelve months of the year and their meanings. What results is a fascinating global journey through different modes of speech, and a celebration of all things linguistic.
Kukisvoomchor has curated a fantastic work of non-fiction for enthusiasts of world history, language, culture, and linguistics everywhere, and this book would make a superb primer for anyone looking to explore lesser-known elements from extinct peoples and extremely remote nations. I for one was thrilled to see inclusions such as Breton, which is close to my native heritage as a Welsh person, and so many different wonderful dialects from Africa in their full glory, which I knew very little about until they were all on display here. The work also benefits from a wonderful indexing system at the back to help you find families of language or track them down by name, and the overall organization and layout of the work make it an ideal reference to start your linguistic journey. I’d highly recommend The Twelve Months of the Year in 850 Languages and Dialects to students, scholars, and everyone in between with a love for words and the world we live in.
— K.C. Finn for Readers’ Favorite
"The breadth of this unusual enterprise is impressive, delivering many rich and distinctive details. The specifics the author provides about the assortment of speakers and their countries are intriguing, as is the orthographic variety on display..." [Previous Edition]
-- Kirkus Reviews --
"Trivia lovers and movie buffs would enjoy the treats Kukisvoomchor sprinkles throughout this reference... Examples include the language used in the video game Minecraft and the Northeast Bantu language spoken in Return of the Jedi..." [Previous Edition]
-- Online Book Club --
"Shout out to the author who put in such an intense amount of work to culminate this book! It is a remarkable book of our time... The book also has a super interesting glossary of some interesting linguistic terms, IPA [International Phonetic Alphabet], and references for language family which is such a treat for the readers!!" [Previous Edition]
-- inkdream on Amazon --
The Twelve Months of the Year in 850 Languages and Dialects (Mostly Ones You’ve Probably Never Heard Of), PDF. Taxes included (VAT).