Cultural studies ; Ethnic community ; Graubünden ; Italy ; Language ; Linguistic minority ; Mountain ; Peripheral region ; Switzerland
The Rhaetoromansch language, divided into five main dialects, is unevenly distributed in Grisons canton. Well-qualified people have emigrated. Schooling in German has intensified its decline, leaving the future of the language in grave doubt. - (DWG)
Ethnic community ; Frontier ; Human geography ; Language ; Slovak Republic
The present study is an attempt to outline the changes of the ethnic structure of the Nitra district (Slovakia) in the last thousand years. The author tries to reconstruct the changes of the number of the main language groups (slovaks, hungarians
, germans) and the moving of the language border. - (AM)
A new geographical language : A perspective of GIS
Conceptual model ; Epistemology ; Geographical information system ; Geographical language ; Geography ; Ontology
The GIS language is the highest-level geographical language developed to date, integrating semantic definitions, feature extraction, geographical dynamic representation and spatio-temporal factors and unifying the computation of geographical
phenomena and objects. The GIS language possesses 5 important characteristics : abstraction, systematicness, strictness, precision and hierarchy. In summary, the GIS language provides a new means for people to recognize, understand and simulate entire geo
-environments. Construction of the conceptual model and scientific systems of the GIS language will promote the development of the disciplines of geography and geographical information sciences. Therefore, this paper investigates the prospects of the GIS
language from the perspectives of digital technology, geographical norms, geographical modeling and the disciplinary development of geography.
Acculturation ; Africa ; Cultural geography ; Cultural studies ; Eastern Africa ; Language
A comparative investigation of Swahili language and culture in the eastern part of Africa, carried out during the Hungaria Africa Expedition (1988) in several local communities. - (JS)