The 29th of August is #TeluguLanguageDay, marking the birthday in 1863 of Gidugu Ramamurthy, a writer and one of the earliest #Telugu #linguists. He championed the use of commonly understood #languages as opposed to an elite scholastic language. [Image: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gidugu_Ve…]

🇲🇩#Moldova celebrates the 31st of August as #LimbaNoastră (Our Language), marking the day in 1989 when mass demonstrations compelled the Moldavian #Soviet Socialist Republic to make #Moldovan (a variety of #Romanian) written in the #Latin script the republic's official #language.

The #Kingittorsuaq #Runestone is the longest inscription of #Greenlandic #Norse, showing both "hl" and the "t" substitution for "þ". It was made far north of the #Norse settlements, probably by explorers. The final signs are unrecognised, not part of any known #runic #alphabet.

The 8th of September is UNESCO 🏛️ #Education #Sciences #Culture 🇺🇳 International #LiteracyDay. The global adult #literacy rate is ~86.3%. 🇨🇺#Cuba has the highest adult literacy rate (99.7%) in the Americas. 🇬🇶#EquatorialGuinea (95.3%) has #Africa's highest rate.

A #runic "r" with sloping branches is particularly characteristic of #Greenlandic #Norse. Only two such inscriptions have been found outside 🇬🇱#Greenland: one in #Trondheim, 🇳🇴#Norway and one in #Orphir, #Orkney, 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿#Scotland; perhaps carved by #Greenlanders who sailed to #Europe.

"#Atlamál in grœnlenzku" is an #OldNorse #Edda (heroic poem) believed to have been composed in 🇬🇱#Greenland in the 12th century. It's a murderous tale about #AttilaTheHun and his wife and inlaws. Atlamál is included in the #CodexRegius, an #Icelandic collection of #Norse poems.

Blown off course in 986, Bjarni Herjólfsson spotted land west of 🇬🇱#Greenland. Intrigued by the discovery, #Leif Erikson, son of #ErikTheRed, bought Bjarni's ship and led en expedition. He established a #Norse settlement in the land he called #Vinland in present-day 🇨🇦#Canada.

#Vinland was likely near the Gulf of St Lawrence. #Norse ruins dating to ~1000 have been found at L'Anse aux Meadows in #Newfoundland. Norse #sagas also refer to #Markland, perhaps #Labrador; and to #Helluland, perhaps #BaffinIsland, where probably-#Viking artefacts were found.

By the mid 15th century, the #Viking colonies of #Greenland and #Vinland — along with the #Greenlandic variety of #OldNorse — were no more, perhaps owing to conflict with #indigenous peoples. The #Inuit #Kalaallisut #language includes #Norse loan words such as 'kona' ('wife').

#Okinawa Prefecture in 🇯🇵#Japan recognises the 18th of September as #しまくとぅばの日 #IslandLanguageDay in celebration of #Okinawan and other #indigenous #Ryukyuan #languages of the #Ryukyu Islands. The languages are in steep decline as the population shifts to #Japanese.

🇳🇴#Norway is home to important #runestones spanning several centuries. The Tune stone (200-450 CE) from #Østfold was carved using Elder #Futhark #runes. The Proto-#Norse inscription begins: 'I, Wiwaz, made the runes after Woduridaz, my lord.' [Image: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Tune…]

The Proto-#Norse inscription on the 4th century #Einang stone near #Fagernes, 🇳🇴#Norway begins '[I, Go]dagasti painted the #rune', suggesting these Elder #Futhark #runes were originally highlighted with paint. [Image: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Eina…]

#Winnipeg is the capital and largest city of #Manitoba 🇨🇦#Canada. (2016 metropolitan area population ~778.5K) Mother tongue: #English: 69.0% #Tagalog: 5.8% #French: 3.5% #German: 2.3% It has the greatest percentage of #Filipino residents (8.7%) of any major #Canadian city.

#Steinbach, #Manitoba was founded in 1874 by #Mennonites who spoke #Plautdietsch, a Low #Prussian #dialect of East Low #German influenced by #Dutch. 22.5% of the city's 15,829 residents reported German as their mother tongue in 2016. Mennonite Heritage Village in Steinbach:

#Dauphin is a small city of ~8.1K people in western #Manitoba. Nearly 35% of its population is ethnically #Ukrainian. 8.5% of residents claim Ukrainian as their mother tongue. Ukrainian #Catholic Church of the Resurrection in Dauphin: [Image: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Ukra…]

The #Métis people of #Canada and the #UnitedStates are descendants of #indigenous women (mainly #Cree, #Nakota, and #Ojibwe), and fur trade workers of mainly #French and #Scottish #Canadian ancestry. #Manitoba has Canada's highest percentage (7.3%) of residents who are Métis.

#Bungi is a (perhaps extinct) #creole #language that was spoken in #Manitoba by around 5,000 #Métis people of mixed #indigenous and #Scottish #Canadian descent. Bungi combines elements of #ScottishEnglish, #Orcadian #Scots, Scottish #Gaelic, #French, #Norn, #Cree, and #Ojibwe.

#MétisFrench is an endangered variety of #CanadianFrench spoken in #Manitoba, #NorthDakota, and nearby states and provinces by fewer than 100 #Métis people. It includes loanwords from #Cree and #Ojibwe, and uses some letters not normally seen in #French, such as Ñ, Ć, Á, Ÿ and Æ.

#Saskatchewan, 🇨🇦#Canada by mother tongue: (2016 population ~1.1M) #English: 82.4% #German: 2.0% #Tagalog: 1.9% #Cree: 1.8% #French: 1.4% #Ukrainian: 1.0% The province is named for the Saskatchewan River, which is called kisiskāciwani-sīpiy (swift flowing river) in Cree.

#Saskatchewan has #Canada's largest number (235) of native speakers of #Michif, a mixed #language spoken by fewer than 1,000 #Métis people in #Canada and the #UnitedStates. Michif combines #Cree and #MétisFrench, with some borrowings from #English, #Ojibwe, and #Assiniboine.