French Upper Volta and two years later on 5 August 1960, it attained full independence. On 4 August 1984, the name was changed to Burkina Faso. The name Upper Volta indicates that the country contains the upper part of the Volta River. The river is divided into three parts, called the Black Volta, White Volta and Red Volta. Until the end of the 19th century, the history of Upper Volta was dominated by the empire-building Mossi/Mossi Kingdoms, who are believed to have come up to their present location from present-day Northern Ghana. For centuries, the Mossi peasant was both farmer and soldier, and
Languages of Japan the Kuril Islands, but also along the Amur River. It is unknown whether speakers of Nivkh still remain in Japan. Since the Middle Ages, owing to visits from Europeans, Japanese has adopted a number of foreign words. The oral languages spoken by the native peoples of the insular country of Japan at present and during recorded history belong to either of two primary phyla of human language: In addition to these two indigenous language families, there is Japanese Sign Language, as well as significant minorities of ethnic Koreans and Chinese, who make up respectively about 0.5% and 0.4% of the