Random thoughts for an achiral translation

Learn how to pronounce English

2009-10-14T15:22:00.002-06:00

This post is for some of my students. I wish I were as patient as this teacher! And that you were as determined as this student :p

Now repeat after me:

I.

WOULD.

like.

to buy.

a hamburguer.

GREAT!!! I knew you could do it!

Indonesian Anda

2008-12-22T16:57:00.005-06:00

Indonesian is a young language. And some time ago I was commenting about pronouns. The use of anda in Indonesian is very interesting. I found this and thought of posting it.

There are many words for 'you' in Indonesia. Anda is the one that most closely resembles the all-purpose English pronoun 'you'. But Anda is by no means the most commonly used word for ' you' although its popularity is definitely on the rise. It is important to remember that, unlike the English 'you', Anda still cannot be used indiscriminately to all and sundry. In addition to Anda, learners of Indonesian should set out to master the appropriate use of, at the very least, Bapak, Ibu Saudara, Adik, Abang, kamu dan kalian. There is some confusion over the spelling of Anda. It would seem that for some people Anda is analogous to Bapak, Ibu, Saudara, etc and should be written with an initial capital letter. Others see it as analogous to kamu and kalian and therefore most appropriately spelled with a small initial letter. The official dictionary of standard Indonesian, the Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia prepared by the Government's Language Centre (Pusat Pembinaan dan Pengembangan Bahasa), spells Anda with a capital A. but it is also very common to see anda written wholly in lower case.

Anda is a fairly recent invention. Reputedly it was coined in the 1950s by Sutan Takdir Alisjahbana (1908 - 1994), the greatest of the pioneer developers of Indonesia's national language. A critic of hat he regarded as 'feudal' features of Indonesia's languages, Takdir sought to create an egalitarian second-person pronoun that could be used to address anyone, irrespective of rank and age, and that would eventually displace the hierarchy of pronouns like Tuan, Nyonya, Bapak, Ibu, Saudara, Adik, Abang, engkau, kamu, kaliat, etc. He detached the suffix -anda that was traditionally used to add a dimension of respect to common kinship terms (producing titles like Ayahanda, Ibunda, Ananda, Kakanda, Adinda, and others). Standing on its own, Anda was at first used almost exclusively as a catch-all second-person pronoun in advertisements and formal public announcements. Since the 1980s Anda has come to be used more and more in conversation, though it still sounds somewhat stiff. Despite its increasing use, it has so far failed to achieve "monopoly" status as a second-person pronoun. In effect, it constitutes just one more pronoun option, beside all the others, that has to be considered by speakers when choosing which second-person pronoun is the most appropriate in a particular situation.

It was taken from a Yahoo Groups and it said the source is the Indonesian learner's dictionary.

Le français langue officielle européenne

2008-10-10T23:29:00.001-06:00

Yes, there is also a French version of the "ortography reform" story. Here it is:

Bruxelles, 8 déc. (AFP) - La Commission Européenne a finalement tranché,après la monnaie unique, l'Union Européenne va se doter d'une langue unique, à savoir... le français.Trois langues étaient en compétition : le français (parlé dans le plus grand nombre de pays de l'Union), l'allemand (parlé par le plus grand nombre d'habitants de l'Union) et l'anglais (langue internationale par
excellence).
L'anglais a vite été éliminé, pour deux raisons : l'anglais aurait été le cheval de Troie économique des Etats-Unis et les Britanniques ont vu leur influence limitée au profit du couple franco-allemand à cause de leur réticence légendaire à s'impliquer dans la construction européenne. Le choix a fait l'objet d'un compromis, les Allemands ayant obtenu que l'orthographe du français, particulièrement délicate à maîtriser soit réformée, dans le cadre d'un plan de cinq ans, afin d'aboutir à l'eurofrançais.

La première année, les sons actuellement distribués entre 's', 'z', 'c', 'k' et 'q' seront répartis entre 'z' et 'k', ze ki permettra de zupprimer beaukoup de la konfuzion aktuelle.
La deuzième année, on remplazera le 'ph' par 'f', ze ki aura pour effet de rakourzir un mot komme 'fotograf' de kelke vingt pour zent.
La troizième année, des modifikazions plus draztikes seront pozzibles, notamment ne plus redoubler les lettres ki l'étaient; touz ont auzi admis le prinzip de la zuprezion des 'e' muets, zourz éternel de konfuzion, en efet, tou kom d'autr letr muet.
La katrièm ané, les gens zeront devenu rézeptif à dé changements majeurs, tel ke remplazé 'g', zoi par 'ch', - avek le 'j' - zoi par 'k', zelon les ka, ze ki zimplifira davantach l'ékritur de touz.
Duran la zinkièm ané, le 'b' zera remplazé par le 'p' et le 'v' zera lui auzi apandoné - au profi du 'f', éfidamen - on kagnera ainzi pluzieur touch zur no klafié.Un foi ze plan de zink an achefé, l'ortograf zera defenu lochik, et lé chen pouron ze komprendr et komuniké.
LE REF DE L'UNITE KULTUREL DE L'EUROP ZERA DEFENU REALITE !

Any doubts about it? :p

Reformas ortográficas

2008-09-23T20:13:00.004-06:00

This is like the dream of some people I know. But let me say it now: I think they suck big time.
Anyway, this is another funny thing:

La Real Academia de la Lengua dará a conocer próximamente la reforma modelo 2000 de la ortografía española que tiene como objetivo unificar el español como lengua universal de los hispanoparlantes. Me han mandado, con carácter exclusivo, un documento reservado que revela cómo se llevará a cabo dicha reforma. Será, pues, una enmienda paulatina, que entrará en vigor poco a poco, para evitar confusiones.

La reforma hará mucho más simple el castellano de todos los días, pondrá fin a los problemas de ortografía que tienden trampas a futbolistas, abogados y arquitectos de otros países, especialmente los iberoamericanos, y hará que nos entendamos de manera universal quienes hablamos esta noble lengua.

De acuerdo con el expediente secreto, la reforma se introducirá en las siguientes etapas anuales:

Supresión de las diferencias entre "c", "q" y "k". Komo despegue del plan, todo sonido parecido al de la k (este fonema tiene su definición téknika lingüístika, pero konfundiría mucho si la mencionamos akí) será asumido por esta letra. En adelante, pues, se eskribirá kasa, keso, Kijote.

También se simplifikará el sonido de la "c" y la "z" para igualarnos a nuestros hermanos hispanoamericanos que convierten todas estas letras en un úniko fonema "s". Kon lo kual sobrarán la c y la z: "el sapato de Sesilia es asul".

Por otro lado, desapareserá la doble c y será reemplasada por x: "Tuve un axidente en la Avenida Oxidental". Grasias a esta modifikasión los españoles no tendrán ventajas ortográfikas frente a otros pueblos hispanoparlantes por su estraña pronunsiasión de siertas letras.

Así mismo, se funde la "b" kon la "v", ya ke no existe en español diferensia alguna entre el sonido de la b larga y la v chikita. Por lo kual, a partir del segundo año, desapareserá la v y beremos kómo bastará kon la b para ke bibamos felises y kontentos.

Pasa lo mismo kon la elle y la ye. Todo se eskribirá con y: "Yébeme de paseo a Sebiya, señor Biyar". Esta integrasión probokará agradesimiento general de kienes hablan kasteyano, desde Balensia hasta Bolibia. Toda b será de baka, toda b será de burro.

La hache, kuya presensia es fantasma en nuestra lengua, kedará suprimida por kompleto: así, ablaremos de abichuelas o alkool.

A partir del tercer año de esta implantación, y para mayor konsistensia, todo sonido de erre se eskribirá con doble "r": "Rroberto me rregaló una rradio".

No tendremos ke pensar kómo se eskribe sanaoria, y se akabarán esas complikadas y umiyantes distinsiones entre "echo" y "hecho". Ya no abrá ke desperdisiar más oras de estudio en semejante kuestión ke nos tenía artos.

Para ebitar otros problemas ortográfikos se fusionan la "g" y la "j", para que así jitano se eskriba komo jirafa y geranio komo jefe. Aora todo ba con jota: "El jeneral jestionó la jerensia". No ay duda de ke esta sensiya modifikasión ará que ablemos y eskribamos todos con más rregularidad y más rrápido rritmo.

Orrible kalamidad del kasteyano, en jeneral, son las tildes o asentos. Esta sancadiya kotidiana jenerara una axion desisiba en la rreforma; aremos komo el ingles, ke a triunfado unibersalmente sin tildes. Kedaran eyas kanseladas desde el kuarto año, y abran de ser el sentido komun y la intelijensia kayejera los ke digan a ke se rrefiere kada bocablo.
Berbigrasia: "Komo komo komo komo!"

Las konsonantes "st", "ps" o "pt" juntas kedaran komo simples t o s, kon el fin de aprosimarnos lo masimo posible a la pronunsiasion iberoamerikana. Kon el kambio anterior diremos ke etas propuetas osionales etan detinadas a mejorar ete etado konfuso de la lengua.

Tambien seran proibidas siertas konsonantes finales ke inkomodan y poko ayudan al siudadano. Asi, se dira: "Ke ora es en tu relo?", "As un ueko en la pare" y "La mita de los aorros son de Aguti". Entre eyas, se suprimiran las eses de los plurales, de manera que diremos "la mujere" o "lo ombre".

Despues yegara la eliminasion de la "d" del partisipio pasao y kanselasion de lo artikulo. El uso a impueto ke no se diga ya "bailado" sino "bailao", "erbido" sino "erbio" y "benido" sino "benio". Kabibajo asetaremo eta kotumbre bulgar, ya ke el pueblo yano manda, al fin y al kabo. Dede el kinto año kedaran suprimia esa de interbokalika ke la jente no pronunsia. Adema, y konsiderando ke el latin no tenia artikulo y nosotro no debemo imbentar kosa ke nuetro padre latin rrechasaba, kateyano karesera de artikulo. Sera poko enrredao en prinsipio, y
ablaremo komo fubolita yugolabo, pero depue todo etranjero beran ke tarea de aprender nuebo idioma rresultan ma fasile. Profesore terminaran benerando akademiko ke an desidio aser rreformas klabes para ke sere umano ke bibimo en nasione ispanoablante gosemo berdaderamente del idioma de Serbante y Kebedo.

Eso si: nunka asetaremo ke potensia etranjera token kabeyo de letra eñe.

Eñe rrepresenta balore ma elebado de tradision ispanika y primero kaeremo mueto ante ke asetar bejasione a simbolo ke a sio korason bibifikante de istoria kastisa epañola unibersa.

Gosh! I'd have to relearn Spanish if this were true!! :p

Semantic priming

2008-09-19T15:46:00.012-06:00

I was reading about the Keki language (which is material for a future post) and I stummbled upon the term semantic priming. The clearest explanation I've been able to find so far is this one, in a reseach by Hutchison and Balota:

Human languages are thoroughly contextual in nature. This fact can be seen plainly by considering how the meaning of a sound, word, sentence, or passage can change drastically when taken out of context, or placed in a different context. The contextual nature of language has proven to be a major challenge for developing computer algorithms that can understand or produce language, yet humans process language in context so easily that we are usually not even aware of it. Linguistic and cognitive scientists have been studying how humans process context for decades, often with respect to individual words in the context of other words. For instance, it is well established that a person's ability to recognize a word like "dog" is enhanced when it appears shortly after a word like "cat" that is related in meaning. Results like these are referred to as "semantic priming",

Priming refers to activating parts of particular representations or associations in memory just before carrying out an action or task. The remembered item is remembered best in the form in which it was originally encountered (auditory, visual, etc.).

The hypotesis of lexical priming (found in Prof. Michael Hoey's book Lexical priming, Routledge, 2005) are:

Every word is primed to occur with particular other words; these are its collocates.

Every word is primed to occur with particular semantic sets; these are its semantic associations.

Every word is primed to occur in association with particular pragmatic functions; these are its pragmatic associations.

Every word is primed to occur in (or avoid) certain grammatical positions, and to occur in (or avoid) certain grammatical functions; these are its colligations.

Co-hyponyms and synonyms differ with respect to their collocations, semantic associations and colligations.

When a word is polysemous, the collocations, semantic associations and colligations of one sense of the word differ from those of its other senses.

Every word is primed for use in one or more grammatical roles; these are its grammatical categories.

Every word is primed to participate in, or avoid, particular types of cohesive relation in a discourse; these are its textual collocations.

Every word is primed to occur in particular semantic relations in the discourse; these are its textual semantic associations.

Every word is primed to occur in, or avoid, certain positions within the discourse; these are its textual colligations.

Ongoing action reseach project

2008-09-18T11:56:00.010-06:00

First of all, thanks for volunteering. I am doing this because I need some data about student's vocabulary for my action research project (check here if you want to know more about action research).
For those who will dare to be part of this project, the first step is to answer this vocabulary test (which is version A).
Onece you finish each level, press the "check" button and your result will appear on the left-hand side of the screen. Please write down your results for each level and send it to my e-mail address (which I should have given you after the class).
After you finish a level (and see your result), you can go to the next level by pressing the button "Next level".
If you have any doubts about this, please let me know. You can leave a comment in this post or send it directly to my inbox.

Again, all information I gather from this is absolutely confidential and will not have any impact on your grades.

Thanks for helping!

-Javier

Cambridge exams in English language

2008-09-16T14:03:00.005-06:00

More than 2 million people in 130 countries take one of the many Cambridge exams. The most popular ones are the First Certificate in English (FCE) and the Certificate of Proficency in English (CAE).
I've seen peopleo who are not sure about what exam would be right for them. For some days, Cambridge ESOL has been piloting an online test at their website so candidates can know which exam is best for them. It consists of only 20 multiple-choice questions. You can try it out here.
Next year I might be taking one of those (if I have the money, that is).

It'd be great if you'd like to share here what test you were reccommended to sit.

Just because

2008-09-06T23:30:00.001-06:00

Yes, that's exactly why. And because it had to be today. Javier, enjoy.

¿Culturas nacionales?

2008-09-02T21:56:00.005-06:00

I'd like to quote something I read today. I found it very interesting.

Sabemos que todos los estados nacionales fueron creaciones artificiales en algún momento de la historia y que, en la mayoría de los casos, las nuevas fronteras agruparon a pueblos diferentes, los cuales muchas veces ni siquiera compartían un idioma común (un buen ejemplo al respecto es México). Para llegar a definirse como integrantes de una sola nación, los ciudadanos tuvieron que sufrir un largo proceso de ideologización política y de aprendizaje de la lengua dominante, procesos que hasta la fecha en muchos estados nacionales no han quedado totalmente concluidos. ¿Por qué entonces suponer una cultura nacional, si estas naciones fueron integradas por grupos distintos, cada uno con su propia historia cultural?

[Taken from Lenguas en contexto, from 2005]

Something I hadn't thought of!
I'll keep on reading this article (yeah, yeah. It is homework. I have to anyways!)

Tips for writing

2008-09-01T18:21:00.001-06:00

The text in previous post made me remember this set of tips. I read it at PB, posted by Marta.

1. Verbs has to agree with their subjects.
2. Prepositions are not words to end sentences with.
3. And don't start a sentence with a conjunction.
4. It is wrong to ever split an infinitive.
5. Avoid clichés like the plague. (They're old hat)
6. Also, always avoid awkward, affected, annoying alliteration.
7. Be more or less specific.
8. Parenthetical remarks (however relevant) are (usually) unnecessary.
9. Also too, never, ever use repetitive redundancies.
10. No sentence fragments.
11. Contractions aren't necessary and shouldn't be used.
12. Foreign words and phrases are not apropos.
13. Do not be redundant; do not use more words than necessary; it's highly superfluous.
14. One should never generalize.
15. Comparisons are as bad as clichés.
16. Don't use no double negatives.
17. Eschew ampersands & abbreviations, etc.
18. One-word sentences? Eliminate.
19. Analogies in writing are like feathers on a snake.
20. The passive voice is to be ignored.
21. Eliminate commas, that are, not necessary. Parenthetical words however should be enclosed in commas.
22. Never use a big word when a diminutive one would suffice.
23. Kill all exclamation points!!!
24. Use words correctly, irregardless of how others use them.
25. Understatement is always the absolute best way to put forth earth shaking ideas.
26. Use the apostrophe in it's proper place and omit it when its not needed.
27. Eliminate quotations. As Ralph Waldo Emerson said, "I hate quotations. Tell me what you know."
28. If you've heard it once, you've heard it a thousand times: Resist hyperbole; not one writer in a million can use it correctly.
29. Puns are for children, not groan readers.
30. Go around the barn at high noon to avoid colloquialisms.
31. Proofread carefully to see if you words out.
32. Do not put statements in the negative form.
33. If you reread your work, you can find on rereading a great deal of repetition can be avoided by rereading and editing.
34. A writer must not shift your point of view.
35. Place pronouns as close as possible, especially in long sentences, as of 10 or more words, to their antecedents.
36. Writing carefully, dangling participles must be avoided.
37. If any word is improper at the end of a sentence, a linking verb is.
38. Take the bull by the hand and avoid mixing metaphors.
39. Avoid trendy locutions that sound flaky.
40. Everyone should be careful to use a singular pronoun with singular nouns in their writing.
41. Always pick on the correct idiom.
42. The adverb always follows the verb.
43. Avoid run-on sentences they are hard to read.
44. Use the semicolon properly, always use it where it is appropriate; and never where it isn't.
45. Hyphenate between sy-llables and avoid un-necessary hyphens.
46. Write all adverbial forms correct.
47. It is incumbent on us to avoid archaisms.
48. Steer clear of incorrect forms of verbs that have snuck in the language.
49. Don't string too many prepositional phrases together unless you are walking through the valley of the shadow of death.
50. "Avoid overuse of 'quotation "marks."'"

English-Asylum for the verbally insane

2008-08-30T18:23:00.004-06:00

Today I was at a Pearson workshop and they gave us this text. I had read bits of it here and there on the internet, so now it is my tipe to post it as well.

English-Asylum for the verbally insane

We'll begin with a box and the plural is boxes.
But the plural of ox becomes oxen, not oxes.
One fowl is a goose, but two are called geese,
yet the plural of moose should never be meese.
You may find a lone mouse or a nest full of mice,
yet the plural of house is houses, not hice.

If the plural of man is always called men,
why shouldn't the plural of pan be called pen?
If I speak of my foot and show you my feet,
and I give you a boot, would a pair be called beet?
If one is a tooth and a whole set are teeth,
why shouldn't the plurall of booth be called beeth?

Then one may be that, and three would be those,
yet hat in the plural would never bee hose,
and the plural of cat is cats, not cose.
We speak of a brother and also of brethren.
But though we say mother, we never say methren.
Then the masculine pronouns are he, his and him,
but imagine the feminine: she, shis and shim!

Let's face it. English is a crazy language.
There is no egg in eggplant nor ham in hamburger;
neither apple nor pine in pineaplle.
English muffins weren't invented in England.
We take English for granted, but if we explore its paradoxes,
we find that quicsand can work slowly, boxing rings are square,
and a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is a pig.
And why is that writers write but fingers don't fing,
grocers don't groce and hammers don't ham?

If teacher taught, why didn't preachers praught?
If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat?
Sometimes I think all the folks who grew up speaking English
should be committed to an asylum for the verbally insane.

In what other language do peoplerecite at a play and play at a recital?
We ship by truck and send cargo by ship.
We have noses that run and feet that smell.
We park in the driveway and drive in the parkway.
And how can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same,
while a wise man and a wise guy are opposites?

You have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a language in which
your house can burn up as it burns down,
in which you fill in a form by filling it out,
and in which an alarm goes off by going on.

And, in closing, if Father Pop, how come Mother's not Mop?

Engels leren

2008-08-28T00:37:00.000-06:00

This is a Dutch TV commercial:

Yeah. It is kind of important to understand a little what the music you like is about!

Indefinite plural form of Swedish nouns

2008-08-27T23:27:00.004-06:00

Swedish, Norwegian and Danish behave pretty much the same when it comes to grammar. The form of their nouns (definite and indenite in singular and plural) is something that can be difficult for learners.

There are five main ways of forming the plural of nouns in Swedish:

en blomma (a flower) → två blummor. The majority of nouns in this declension are en-nouns ending in -a. They drop the -a before the plural ending. A few nouns of this group do not end in -a (en rose, en våg, en åder).

en arm (an arm) → två armar. All nouns belonging to this declension are en-nouns (with the exception of ett finger → två fingrar). All en-nouns ending in -dom and -ing belong to this group.

en kostym (a suit) → två kostymer. Both en-nouns and ett-nouns are found in this declension. note that many nouns in this group modify their stem-vowel in the plural. Latin words ending in -eum and -ium belong to this group.

ett äpple (an apple) → två äpplen. The majority of nouns in this declension are ett-nouns ending in a vowel, usually -e.

ett glas (a glass) → två glas. They have no ending. To shis declension belong ett-nouns ending in a consonant and en-nouns ending in -are, -ande and -ende. note that some common nouns also modify their stem-vowel (en bro(de)r → två bröder, en man → två män).

According to the book Basic Swedish word list, by Martin Samuel Allwood, 12 % of the 1000 most used Swedish words belong to the first declension; 37 %, to the second; 21 %, to the third; 4 %, to the fourth; and 26 %, to the fifth.

All this would be pretty cool if I had already told the whole story.

Nouns ending in unstressed -e, -el, -en and -er drop the -e before the plural endings -or, -ar and -er:

en toffel (a slipper) → två tofflor, en poijke (a boy) → två pijkar, en dotter → två döttar (note here also the change in the stem-vowel), en regel (a rule) → två regler.

Some nouns form their plural with the ending -r only: en händelse (an event) → två händelser, en ko (a cow) → två kor.

As you can see, some nouns change the stem-vowel and some other, beside that change, also double the final consonant.

Yes, it is like Norwegian... but this is not helping!

More Danish language

2008-08-26T05:58:00.003-06:00

Several months ago I posted a video from the Norwegian series Uti Vår Hage about Danish language.
There is a second part to it! These guys are really funny. Here it is:

Schemata

2008-08-25T20:46:00.005-06:00

Every time we face a situation in language learning, we relay on our schemata and not only on the linguistic information we are facing. These schemata are unconscious mental structures that represent an individual's generic knowledge about the world. It is through schemata that old knowledge influences new information.
Relationships among different levels of abstraction are conceived to be like webs (rather than hierarchical); thus each one is interconnected with many others (as in the image above).
In 1977, Richard C. Anderson brought this concept into the education field. But the term was not entirely new as Piaget had already used it.
According to Anderson, some characteristics of schemata are:

Schemata are always organized meaningfully, can be added to, and, as an individual gains experience, develop to include more variables and more specificity.
Each schema is embedded in other schemata and itself contains subschema.
Schemata change moment by moment as information is received.
They may also be reorganized when incoming data reveals a need to restructure the concept.
The mental representations used during perception and comprehension, and which evolve as a result of these processes, combine to form a whole which is greater than the sum of its parts.

In order to better understand how schema theory fits into the reading of a foreign language, you can read this article.

Jabberwocky

2008-04-21T23:08:00.004-06:00

Is there any nonsense that is not useless? And even nonsense that can be interesting?
You might like to take a look (again) to something Lewis Carroll wrote:

"'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

'Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!

He took his vorpal sword in hand:
Long time the manxome foe he sought--
So rested he by the Tumtum tree,
And stood awhile in thought.

And as in uffish thought he stood
, The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
And burbled as it came!

One, two! One, two! And through and through
The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
He left it dead, and with its head
He went galumphing back.

'And hast thou slain the Jabberwock?
Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!
' He chortled in his joy.

'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

If you need help with some of those words, you might like to take a look here or here.

Translation of Facebook

2008-03-04T23:43:00.001-06:00

Am I a pesimist or what? This news report (and probably most people who is informed about this) is saying that is it such a cool thing. But is it really?

How many social networks are theour out there? I have no idea. But they have grown as mushroons in rainy season. And I have no idea either of why they are so popular (I might be getting old...). Besides from the game Facebook is now featuring, I don't see much to do at those sites.

1500 volunteers translating the whole site into Spanish. Sounds great, huh? But as a native Spanish speaker, I am quite disappointed at the level of that translation.

Out of curiosity, I wanted to be part of that volunteering team. I wanted to know how that translation was being carried out.

There was a text (a sentence) to be translated. You did it as best as you could, just as others were doing. Then, volunteers voted on the accuracy of that translation. I guess the one with most vote was the one Facebook was going to keep.

So far, so good. But who are these volunteers? Are the native speakers? Are they advanced students?

I am very skeptic about democracy, and here it didn't work as well as expected. There is still need for some kind of moderation. People who think are good enough to do the translation is voting too. And from what I saw, they are majority.

Yes, it keeps me wonder how the German translation will be.

Of course, I was not into it deeply, so if anybody who actually participated in the Spanish translation or is participating in the German translation and sees things in a different way (or with what actually goes on and not from an outsider's perspective), it'd be nice to be corrected by you.

RAFTS technique

2008-03-02T16:20:00.007-06:00

RAFTS (and acronym standing for Role, Audience, Format, Topic, Strong verb) is a system to help students understand their role as a writer, the audience they will address, the varied formats for writing and the expected content.

Role of the writer: Who are you as a writer?

Audience: To whom are you writing?

Format: What form will the writing take?

Topic: What is the subject or the point of this piece?

Its purpose is to give students a fresh way to think about approaching their writing.

Voice onset time

2008-02-29T22:21:00.008-06:00

In this figure, the top line shows the closure (single line) and opening (double line) of the lips. Each of the three other lines shows when voicing begins relative to the opening of the lips (the dashed vertical line) for three different stops, [p^h], as in English pie; [p], as in Spanish pie; and [b], as in English buy and Spanish vaya.

For voiceless plosive consonants, vocal fold vibration is stopped for a period that is a little longer than the hold phase, so there is still no vocal fold vibration around the moment of release (when the articulators part and the plosion is heard) and posibly for a further brief time afterwards. This delay, measured from the start of the explosion to the point where vocal fold vibration begins, is called voice onset time (VOT). Though so short that it is best expressed in milliseconds, it is very important for the listener.

If the VOT is longer than 30 ms, a plosive doesn't just sound voiceless. The VOT can actually be heard as a brief [h]-like segment following the explosion and the plosive is said to be aspirated.

There can be a zero VOT (where the onset of the vocal fold vibration coincides with the plosive release), positive VOT (where there is a delay in the onset of the vocal fold vibration after the plosive release) and negative VOT (where the onset of the vocal fold vibration preceeds the plosive release).

Word of the day: salti

2008-02-29T22:05:00.002-06:00

(eo) salti: altiĝi en la aeron kaj for de la tero, fleksante kaj subite etendante la krurojn (se fiŝo, la voston), kaj refali preskaŭ sur la sama loko, plejofte por montri vivplenon, ĝojon aŭ simple por ekzerciĝi.
(no) hoppe: gjøre et hopp, sprette.
(en) jump: move forward by leaps and bounds.
(sp) saltar: salvar de un salto un espacio o distancia.

Electropalatography

2008-02-27T22:26:00.007-06:00

Electropalatography (EPG or palatometry) is a technique for recording the timing and location of tongue contact with the roof of the mouth (hard palate) during continuous speech. It requires the speaker to wear an artificial palate which is similar to an orthodontic brace and fits against the hard palate. This false palate has 62 silver elctrodes embedded in it, arrenged in groups to cover the alveolar ridge and the hard palate. The electrodes are sensitive to the contact by the speaker's tongue. The outputs of the electrodes are continuously monitored by computer while the speaker is talking. The resulting analysis is displayed in a series of figures known as palatograms. an example of such a system is LinguaGraph. The conventional way of displaying the output is in a grid of cells. The alveolar area is at the top and the border with the soft palate area is at the bottom. If a cell is empty, then no tongue contact was recorded there.

EPG can also be used to help diagnose speech disorders like cleft palate, articulation disorders, hearing impairement and in adults with aquired speech disorders (for example, difficulty with speech following a stroke).

You can read a little of this technique's history here. You can read here the procedure followed to do a research with this technique.

Word of the day: ŝoko

2008-02-27T21:31:00.003-06:00

(eo) ŝoko: stato en kiu, iu ĉagrenas iun ajn, malplaĉante al li kaj kontraŭante lian komprenmanieron pri dececo kaj konveneco.
(no) sjokk: en svært stor (og ubehagelig) overraskelse.
(en) shock: the feeling of distress and disbelief that you have when something bad happens accidentally.
(sp) conmoción: movimiento o perturbación violenta del ánimo o del cuerpo.

Word of the day: Skandalo

2008-02-26T10:41:00.003-06:00

I should go back to the word of the day thingy. Again, I'll ba basing it on the word of the day sent by Lernu.

(eo) skandalo: kolektiva indigno, kaŭzata de la malbona ago kulpita de respektata publika persono.
(en) scandal: disgraceful gossip about the private lives of other people.
(no) skandale: noe som vekker stor forargelse og pinlig oppmerksomhet.
(sp) escándalo: acción o palabra que es causa de que alguien obre mal o piense mal de otra persona.

"Introducing phonetic science", by Ashby and Maidment

2008-02-26T08:19:00.006-06:00

I've started reading Introducing phonetic science, by Michael Ashby and Jonh Maidment. You can find the chapter summaries here.

Hanyu Pinyin, Tongyong Pinyin and the rest

2008-02-21T23:36:00.004-06:00

Ever wondered why some of us learned the capital of People's Republic of China is Peking? And what about Beijing? The city that is called 北京 in Chinese (meaning "Northern capital") has been writen for us as Běijīng, Peiching, Pei-ching, and Peking. Maybe because it is pronounced [peɪ˨˩ tɕɪŋ˥˥].

In order to have something to study, I needed to look up some of the words and phrases in Chinese. I find that using pinyin is easier than the ideograms.
But how is pinyin read? And what is pinyin?
Pinyin is a romanization of Mandarin. This is, Madarin language written with Latin alphabet. A logical step, if you consider that for Westerns it'd be way easier to learn that language (and to be used on communications). Yeah, right. This approach has some important drewbacks.
For example, the conventions of how to use pinyin may not coincide with the use of those Latin letters in Western languages. Letters j, q, x and zh indicate sounds that do not correspond to any English sound, but the reader might be mislead and pronounce them as English sounds.
And maybe this is why someone comes and proposes his own romanization way. The most common of all is Hanyu pinyin (汉语拼音), but the current official romanization in the Republic of China is the Tongyong pinyin (通用拼音). These two replaced the old Wade-Giles system (威妥玛拼音).

In 1859, the British Thomas Francis Wade developed a system to write Mandarin language with the Latin alphabet. In his Chinese-English dictionary of 1892, Herber Allen Giles gave a settled form for Wade's system.
This system was the main one for transcription in the English speaking world for a good deal of the 20th century. It was used for all publications relating China until 1979, but it is still in use in the Republic of China.

The Chinese Postal Map Romanization (郵政式拼音) came into use in late Qing dinasty and was officialy sanctioned by the Imperial Postal Joint-Session Confernce (帝國郵電聯席會議), which was held in Shanghai in the spring of 1906. It was retained after the fall of the Qing dinasty in 1912, and since it was in use in the official postal atlas f the Republic of China, it remained the most common way of rendering Chinese place names in the West for a large part of the 20th century. It was based on Wade-Giles.

A group of linguists that included Yuen Ren Chao (赵元任) and Lin Yutang (林语堂) developed the Gwoyeu Romatzyh system (國語羅馬字, meaning "National [language] Romanization) from 1925 to 1926.
In 1928, China adopted the GR system as the official one. The problem with this one is that it was too narrowly based on the eijing dialect and it was too complex.

Then Hanyu pinyin came, developed by Zhou Youguan. The first edition of Hanyu pinyin was approved and adopted at the Fifth Sesion of the First National People's Congress on February 11th, 1958 (Hey! 50th birthday!) . In 2001 the Chinese Government issued the National Common Language Law, providing a legal basis for applying pinyin.

Tongyong pinyin was introduced in Taiwan in 1998 by Yu Bor-chuan (余伯泉) and it was aproved by ROC's Ministry of Education in 2002 but its use is not mandatory.

A comparision chart of Hanyu pinyin and Tongyong pinyin can be found here.

But besides all I've already mentioned, there are still more.

There is a Chinese transcription system by the École française d'Extrême-Orient (EFEO) that was in use in the French speaking world until the middle of the last century. It was created by Séraphin Couvreur in 1902.

In 1928, with the intention that the large Chinese population living in the Eastern region of the U.S.S.R. could be literate, the Soviet Scientific Research Institute on China (in Moscow) constructed the Beifangxua Latinxua Sin Wenz system (北方話拉丁化新文字). In 1931 a coordinated effort between the Soviet sinologists B.M. Alekseev, A.A. Dragunov and A.G. Shrprintsin, and the Moscow-based Chinese scholars Qu Qiubai, Wu Yuzhang, Lin Boqu (林伯渠), Xiao San, Wang Xiangbao, and Xu Teli established the Latinxua Sin Wenz system.

The Yale romanization was created during World War II for use by United States military personnel to communicate with their Chinese allies on battlefield.

Legge romanization is system used by the prolific 19th century Scottish sinologist James Legge.

The Simplyfied Wade is a modification of the Wade-Giles devised by the Swedish linguist Olov Bertil Anderson in 1970.

The Mandarin Phonetic Symbols II (國語注音符號第二式, abbreviated MPS II) was used in Taiwan until it was abandonded in 2002. It was released on May 10th, 1984 by the Ministry of Education and after two years of public feedback, it was established on January 28th, 1986. It is called II to distinguish it from the Zhuyin fuhao (注音符號, officially called officially called "Mandarin Phonetic Symbols I", 國語注音符號第一式).

You can take a look at a brief comparision of some of these systems here.

Chinese numbers

2008-02-20T21:05:00.023-06:00

I need to post here in order to not to forget it. Chinese numbers are easier than I had thought. Or at least the way they are formed beyond ten.
1 一 yī

2 二 èr

3 三 sān

4 四 sì

5 五 wǔ

6 六 liù

7 七 qī

8 八 bā

9 九 jiǔ

10 十 shí

0 零 / 〇 líng

The strokes are taken from the same site I did last time. And now, here's an audio file. It'll make it easier!

Once you know these eleven numbers, counting to up to 99 is easy thing:

11 (10+1) 十一 shíyī

12 (10+2) 十二 shí'èr

13 (10+3) 十三 shísān

19 (10+9) 十九 shíjiǔ

20 (2x10) 二十 èrshí

21 (2x10 + 1) 二十一 èrshíyī

22 (2x10 + 2) 二十二 èrshí'èr

30 (3x10) 三十 sānshí

40 (4x10) 四十 sìshí

90 (9x10) 九十 jiǔshí

99 (9x10 + 9) 九十九 jiǔshíjiǔ

Again, an audio file. Whoever is ready for an exercise, here it is! Or take a quiz!!

Today we also "learned" how to say our date of birth. It'd go something like 我生日是 1975年 9月6号.

Manner of articulation

2008-02-19T22:44:00.001-06:00

We have already talked about the place of articulation. But for each place the tongue touches, we can do something different. That's what the manner of articulation is about: different ways we use to generate sounds.

Stricture (or constriction degree) is how close the speech organs approach one another. Sounds can be classified as

stop consonants: with occlusion, or blocked airflow
fricative consonants: with partially blocked and therefore strongly turbulent airflow
approximants: with only slight turbulence
vowels: with full unimpeded airflow

Affricates often behave as if they were intermediate between stops and fricatives, but phonetically they are sequences of stop plus fricative. Sibilants are distinguished from other fricatives by the shape of the tongue and how the airflow is directed over the teeth. Taps and flaps are similar to very brief stops. Trills involve the vibration of one of the speech organs. Nasal airflow may be added as an independent parameter to any speech sound. Laterality is the release of airflow at the side of the tongue.

Here, an exercise. Also make sure to visit this interactive site.

Jan Amos Komenský

2008-02-18T23:51:00.000-06:00

Jan Amos Komenský (1592-1670), known as Comenius, was a bishop of the Czech Unity of Brethren. With his fellow Protestants, he was exiled from Bohemia in 1628, and became a master, and later rector, at the gymnasium of Leszno, in Poland.

Comenius’s Janua linguarum was one of the most successful pedagogical works of the seventeenth century. Initially published in 1631, it was soon translated into a number of European languages,

Comenius planned a philosophical language which would be universal, to ease communication and understanding, much as his philosophically-grounded system for teaching in the Janua linguarum had aided the acquisition of tongues.

His work promised to overcome the curse of Babel by re-founding human language on a reformed philosophy, basing it on a simplified range of concepts which reflected a rational analysis of the natural world. The essence of these ideas can be detected in the form of the Janua linguarum, the book which made Comenius's reputation as a teacher and philosopher.

A little more about Comenius, by a Czech, here.

Paralanguage

2008-02-17T10:48:00.000-06:00

Paralanguage refers to the non-verbal elements of communication used to modify meaning and convey emotion. Paralanguage may be expressed consciously or unconsciously, and it includes the pitch, volume, and, in some cases, intonation of speech. Sometimes the definition is restricted to vocally-produced sounds. The study of paralanguage is known as paralinguistics.

The non-technical term tone of voice means the same thing as vocal qualifiers. There are various things that can vary, and that affect our perception of tone of voice; increasing loudness or softness (of a syllable, word phrase or sentence) is one obvious one.

A second set of vocal qualifiers involves raised or lowered pitch, which can convey things like fear, anxiety or tenseness, or designate a question.

Third, there's spread register and squeezed register which refers to the spreading or compressing of the time interval between the pitches when one speaks.

Another is rasp, or openness, which has to due to with the muscular tensions in the larynx when someone speaks. A tenseness will result in a more raspy type of utterance for example, a kind of choked sound, while openness is the opposite.

Then there's drawling or clipping which is associated somewhat with accent, and whether the speaker is drawing out individual syllables or clipping them. This is most noticeable if you compare a native English speaker to someone who has learned French, or German first.

Finally, tempo can be increased or decreased. Speaking quickly tends to communicate urgency or a high emotional state. Slow tempos give the impression of uncertainty. It's worth nothing that interpreting all of these vocal qualifiers requires knowing the speaker's baseline communication.

Vocal differentiators refer to another way that how one says something can be influence by how it is said. Examples of vocal differentiators are crying, laughing and breaking, where breaking refers to speaking in a broken or halting manner. Clearly a phrase uttered by a crying person will mean something different than once said by a laughing person.

Vocal identifiers refer to the small sounds we make that are not necessarily words per se, but have meaning. For example, ah-hah, un-huh, and huh-uh.

Starting with Mandarin

2008-02-16T15:28:00.004-06:00

This post is of no use for anybody except me. As I am "taking" a lightning Chinese course, I just want to have all phrases (very basic ones) in one place so I can take a look at them before the next seven weeks end.
But even I can see some patterns here.

你好 (Nǐ hǎo): Hi!

谢谢 (xièxie): Thanks

妈妈 (māma): mum

爸爸 (bàba): dad

我是中国人 (wǒ shì Zhōngguórén): I am Chinese

中国 (Zhōngguó): China
美国 (Měiguó): U. S. A.

英国 (Yīngguó): Britain

墨西哥 (mò xī gē): Mexico, 墨西哥人 (mò xī gē rén): Mexican person
法国 (Fǎguó): France, 法国人 (Fǎguórén): French person
德国 (Déguó): Germany, 德国人 (Déguórén): German person
日本 (Rīběn): Japan, 日本人 (Rīběnrén): Japanese person

他 (tā): he, 她 (tā): she
我们 (wǒmen): we, 你们 (nǐmen): you (plural)

All the lovely strokes were taken from this site.
OMG! Of course nobody is expecting ME to learn how to WRITE that down! It is an art!

An interesting thing I noticed while searching for the images is the different meanings of some of the words.
美, one of the "components" for "US.A." also means "beautiful". And 英, the starter for "Britain" also means "brave".
It is also interesting to notice the words for "he" and "she". They are spelled 他 and 她, respectively. But they are pronounced the same. 牠 and 它 are third person singular too. They correspond to the animate and inanimate "it", respectively. And they are also pronounced tā!
Originally, Chinese had no distinction for gender in the second and third person pronouns, and no distinction for animacy in the third person either. In fact, in the spoken language, they remain undifferentiated. These characters were created in response to contact with the West and its gender and animacy indicating pronouns.

Endocentric and exocentric constructions

2008-02-15T21:46:00.002-06:00

An endocentric construction (also known as a headed construction, where the head is contained "inside" the construction) is a grammatical construction that fulfills the same linguistic function as one of its constituents. It consists of an obligatory head and one or more optional, dependent words, whose presence serves to narrow the meaning of the head.
Here, the word "head" refers to the morpheme that determines the category of a compound or the word that determines the syntactic type of the phrase of which it is a member.
The distribution of an endocentric construction is functionally equivalent, or approaching equivalence, to one of its member constituents, which serves as the centre, or head, of the whole.

An exocentric constructions are phrases and compound words which are not the same part of speech as their constituents. In an exocentric compound, the word class is determined lexically, disregarding the class of the constituents.

Endocentric compounds were called karmadhāraya, a type of compound in Sanskrit grammar.
Exocentric compounds are called bahuvrīhí (बहुव्रीहि, or bahuvrihi compounds). The term bahuvrihi was first used by Sanskrit grammarians, and is a specific Sanskrit example: a compound consisting of bahu ("much") and vrihi ("rice").

So, the distinction between endocentric and exocentric constructions is based on the question of an equivalence between the class of the construction as a whole and the class of any of its constituents.

Endocentric constructions are traditionally subdivided into two types: subordinative and coordinative. Subordinative ones have one centre and one other element subordinated to it, occurring as an optional extra, so to speak. In a coordinative construction, however, there are two or more independent centres with equal status; the more common type of coordinative construction there is, in addition to the centres, a marker of coordination, like and or or.
While the additive type of construction (with and) may involve a change of subclass, in that the coordinative construction is plural but may contain singular constituents, the alternative type (with or) and the appositive type maintain the subclass of their constituents.

Coordinative and subordinative constructions are so different that it is probably better to regard them as independent types alongside exocentric constructions, rather than as varieties of endocentric constructions.

The passive voice in Norwegian

2008-02-15T21:14:00.003-06:00

The passive is expressed in two ways in Norwegian. First of all, by the auxiliary å bli ("become, get") with the past participle of the main verb: å bli rost = to be praised.
For "he was caught" English can also say "he got caught" and then comes very near the Norwegian construction.

But Norwegian, like other Scandinavian languages, has passive forms ending in -s: han roses = he is praised.

This -s is actually a remnant of the Old Norse reflexive sik (seg in modern Norwegian), which in course of time was reduced to -s when tacked on to the verb.

In most cases, the s-form can be changed into expressions with bli: han kastes ("he is thrown") into han blir kastet.
Sometimes, however, there is a slight nuance between the two forms.

The s-form has a more general meaning and is often used about customary and repeated actions. They are often met with in public notices and in announcements and advertisements. Constructions with bli are often used to denote isoleted and limited actions.

But on the whole, s-forms have a rather restricted use. they are quite common in the present tense and in the passive infinitive after the so-called modal auxiliaries.
In the past tense, it is rare, let alone the perfect tenses, but when it comes to verbs of the first conjugation (the -et class) we get such clumsy forms as kastedes, which belong to a bygone period. You may found them in the works by Ibsen, Bjørnson, Lie and Kielland.

The s-form is hardly ever used in the past tense of strong verbs either.

You can find a few examples and a quiz about this topic here.

Caron, breve, inverted circumflex or what? Háček!

2008-02-14T21:36:00.009-06:00

What is the name of the ˇ we use to place over some letters when doing phonetic transcriptions?
It appears, for example, in š and ž. But how is it called?
Some people call it a wedge, an inverted circumflex, an inverted hat.

It indeed looks like an inverted circumflex. Compare: ĉ and č.
The circumflex, ˆ, is a diacritic mark used in written Croatian, French, Frisian, Esperanto, Norwegian, Romanian, Slovak, Vietnamese, romanized Japanese, Welsh, Portuguese, Italian, Afrikaans, Turkish and other languages. It received its English name from Latin circumflexus (bent about, a translation of the Greek περισπωμένη).
But its name is not that of "inverted circumflex". That is a useful description only.

Some could think it is a breve. Compare: ă and ǎ. I can't say "they are clearly different". And that's why I am using a bigger font to show the difference.
A breve, ˘, (from Latin brevis, "short, brief") is a diacritical mark shaped like the bottom half of a circle. It is often used this way in dictionaries and textbooks of Latin, Ancient Greek and some other languages, such as Tuareg. In the Cyrillic alphabet, a breve is used for Й; in Belarusian, it is used for both the Cyrillic Ў and in the Łacinka Ŭ; in Esperanto, it is used for the consonant Ŭ. It is also used in Romanian, Azerbaijani, Tatar, Turkish and Vietnamese.

The ˇ is used in Pinyin for Chinese to represent the falling-raising tone (the third tone for Mandarin). In the transliteration of Thai, it represents the raising tone. It appears in Finno-Lappic languages that use the Latin alphabet (like Estonian, Finnish, Karelian and some Sámi languages), and in some Baltic and Slavic languages.

The typographical name of ˇ is caron. This name is believed to be derived from the union of the words caret and macron.

In Slovak it is called mäkčeň (i.e. "softener" or "palatalization mark"); in Slovenian, strešica ("little roof") or kljukica ("little hook"); in Croatian and Serbian, kvaka or kvačica (also "small hook"); katus ("roof") in Estonian; and hattu ("hat") in Finnish.

But the important name is in Czech. In Czech, it is called háček ("little hook"), the diminutive form of hák. The plural of háček in Czech is háčky.
Why is it important the name in Czech? Well, the caron is also used in the International Phonetic Alphabet and in the Americanist phonetic notation. And linguists tend not to call it caron, but háček.
If you look for háček in an English dictionary, you'd come with a definition like this:

A diacritical mark that resembles an inverted circumflex and is used over certain letters to indicate quality of pronunciation.

The háček evolved from the dot above diacritic (as from the form ż in Polish), which was introduced into Czech orthography (along with the acute accent) by Jan Hus in his De Ortographia Bohemica in 1412.

One year!

2008-02-13T07:59:00.003-06:00

A week ago I was back writing here just to realize that a year ago I posted for the first time.
It has been an intresting experience.
And now, with the course I am taking, I'll have more topics to talk about, what means more things for me to know about.
And to celebrate this day, one song I like:
From 1991, Blant alle guder, by Sissel Kyrkjebø:

Claude Piron KAJ Don Harlow

2008-02-12T09:54:00.003-06:00

On January 22nd, 2008, the famous Swiss Esperantist Claude Piron passed away. He was a linguist and a psychologist, a translator for the United Nations (from 1956 to 1961) and a prolific Esperanto author.
If you have studied Esperanto, you have probably stumbled upon Gerda malaperis. (downloadable here).
And while searching for this post (I know, I know. I've been away from the movement for a while), I found out that Don Harlow died on January 27th, 2008!!!
All people looking for information about Esperanto in English has surely visited his website.

*sigh* May they rest in peace :(

Kondolencoj omaĝe al Claude PIRON
Jen la paĝaro de la Harlow-familio, kie oni ankaŭ povas lasi mesaĝojn en la familia kondolencpaĝo.

Guidelines for observation by student teachers

2008-02-12T07:51:00.001-06:00

Introduction

Teachers are busy professionals. Classroom observations are not always a welcome intrusion for the classroom teachers involved.
The observation of classroom teachers is serious business; it should not be approached casually.
Learning how to observe in a manner acceptable to all parties takes time, careful reflection, personal tact, and creativity.
An observer is a guest in the teacher's and student's classroom. A guest in the classroom is there thanks to the goodwill of the cooperating teacher.
A guest's purpose for visiting is not to judge, evaluate or criticize the classroom teacher, or to offer suggestions, but simply to learn through observing.

Procedures

Visitors should contact the cooperating teacher for a brief orientation to the class.
A visitor who is planning to observe a class should arrive in the classroom a few minutes ahead of time.
If something unexpected comes up and the visitor is not able to observe a class at the agreed-upon time, the visitor needs to notify the classroom teacher as soon as possible. It's a visitor's responsibility to keep the classroom teacher informed.
Once having entered a classroom, the visitor should try to be as unobtrusive as possible, sitting where directed by the teacher.
If a student in the class asks the visitor a direct question (e.g., What are you doing here? Are you a teacher too?), the visitor should answer as briefly as possible. It is important to bear in mind that the visitor is not a regular member of the class. visitor should not initiate or pursue conversations unnecessarily.
A visitor should be appreciative and polite. At the earliest opportunity, the visitor should thank the classroom teacher for having made possible the opportunity to visit the classroom.
A visitor who is taking written notes or collecting information in some other way should do this as unobtrusively as possible. The visitor must make sure that the teacher and students are comfortable with any procedures used for data collection.

Post-visitation

It is imperative for the visitor to keep impressions of the class private and confidential.
The visitors should explain to the classroom teacher that the teacher's name will not be used in any discussions with other people. any direct references to teachers, in either formal or informal settings, will be anonymous.
Any notes or information collected during a classroom visit should be made accessible to the teacher, if he or she requests.

More of this topic at Classroom observation and instruction and here.

Place of articulation

2008-02-11T22:33:00.000-06:00

When we pronounce consonants, we do something in our vocal tract. Basically, we move something against something else so we can obstruct the air coming out of our lungs. The first something is normally our tongue. The second something will give each consonant part of its special characteristic.
Here, the tongue is called the active articulator (the one that is moving) and the place it touches is called the passive articulator (the stationary one).
Below there is a sagittal section of a head, so these places can be identified easily.
Of course, the area is a continuum and it is very arbitrary to tell exactly where one zone ends and where another begins.

Bilabial: the point of maximum constriction is made by the coming together of the two lips.
Labiodental: the lower lip articulates with the upper teeth.
Dental: the tip of the tongue articulates with the back or bottom of the top teeth.
Alveolar: the tip or the blade of the tongue articulates with the forward part of the alveolar ridge.
Postalveolar: the tip or the blade of the tongue articulates with the back area of the alveolar ridge.
Palatal: the front of the tongue articulates with the domed part of the hard palate.
Velar: the back of the tongue articulates with the soft palate.
Uvular: the back of the tongue articulates with the very back of the soft palate, including the uvula.
Pharyngeal: the pharynx is constricted by the faucal pillars moving together (lateral compression) and, possibly, by the larynx being raised.
Glottal: the vocal folds are brought together; in some cases, the function of the vocal folds can be part of articulation as well as phonation.

When the front of the tongue is used, it may be the upper surface or blade of the tongue that makes contact (laminal sound), the tip of the tongue (apical sound), or the under surface (sub-apical sound).

If two consonants have the same place of articulation, they are said to be homorganic.

If you want to make the previous classification a little more detailed, here is a new sagittal section.

1. Exo-labial; 2. endo-labial; 3. dental; 4. alveolar; 5. post-alveolar; 6. pre-palatal; 7. palatal; 8. velar; 9. uvular; 10. pharyngeal; 11. glottal; 12. epiglottal; 13. radical; 14. postero-dorsal; 15. antero-dorsal; 16. laminal; 17. apical; 18. sub-apical.

Now try yourself solving this exercise. The best way to do it is saying the words out loud and trying to see what one does.

Some quotations about writing

2008-02-10T16:02:00.000-06:00

The act of writing is the act of discovering what you believe.
- David Hare

Writing is the best way to talk without being interrupted.
- Jules Renard

We write to taste life twice: in the moment and in retrospection.
- Anais Nin

We write to think; to be surprised by what appears on the page; to explore our world with language; to discover meaning that teaches us and that may be worth sharing with others.
- Donald M. Murray

Writing is putting one's obsessions in order.
- Jean Grenier

There are no rules in writing. There are useful principles. Throw them away when they are not useful. But always know what you are throwing away.
- Will Shetterly

The skill of writing is to create a context in which other people can think.
- Edwin Schlossberg

The best way to become acquainted with a subject is is to write a book about it.
- Benjamin Disraeli

In time I began to understand that it's when you start writing that you really find out what you don't know and need to know.
- David McCullough

Writing is a really good first step toward that goal of knowing yourself.
- Jewel Kilcher

Also, they don't understand. Writing is language. The use of language. The language to create image, the language to create drama. It requires a skill of learning how to use language.
- John Milius

Sámi

2008-02-10T09:32:00.001-06:00

February 6th is the Sámi National Day. The first Sámi congress was held on February 6th, 1917 in Trondheim, Norway.
It is estimated that the number of Sámis is between 60,000 and 70,000: approximately
40,000 in Norway; 20,000 in Sweden; 7,500 in Finland and 2,000 in Russia.
The word Sámi (sometimes Saami) is the one used now to talk about them. In the past, they were identified by several derogative names: lapper (Lapps) or finner (Finns) in Norway; in Sweden, lappar (Lapps); and lappalaiset (Lapps) in Finland.
Sápmi is the name of the traditional homeland of the Sámi. The term is found in all Sámi
dialects. It derives from the Sámis’ own name for themselves, sámit or sápmelaččat.
There is no single Sámi language. All they form a family of eleven members: Southern Sámi, Ume Sámi, Pite Sámi, Lule Sámi, Norther Sámi (these are the Western Sámi languages) and Inari Sámi, Kemi Sámi, Skolt Sámi, Akkala Sámi, Kildin Sámi and Ter Sámi (these are the Eastern Sámi languages).
The Sámi language is rich in words and expressions describing nature, fauna, formations in
nature and snow; terms that are important in hunting, fishing and reindeer herding societies.
The changes in the Sámi lifestyle have resulted in loss of many particular terms and
expressions which are no longer relevant or in use today.
Not all Sámis speak their language nowadays. Kemi Sámi and Akkala Sámi are extinct. Southern Sámi seems to be the next on the list, as it is no longer the everyday language in many South Sámi families (it is estimated that only 300 speakers are left).

All Sámi languages use an extended version of the Latin alphabet. Depending on the language, these are the special characters (of course, not a single language uses all of them!): á, â, ä, č, ʒ, ǯ, đ, ǧ, ǥ, ǩ, ŋ, ń, õ, š, ŧ, ž, æ, å, ï, ø. Some of these letters are also present in Icelandic, Norwegian, Swedish and Faroese. Kildin Sámi is the only one of them that uses an extended version of the Cyrillic alphabet. The extra letters are: ä, ӣ, ӆ, ӎ, ӊ, ӈ, ҏ, ҍ, (note that these ones are different from й, л, м, н, р and ь), ӭ, j and ѣ, and it makes use of macrons.

Article 110a of the Kongeriget Norges Grunlov, the Norwegian constitution states:

Det paaligger Statens Myndigheder at lægge Forholdene til Rette for at den samiske Folkegruppe kan sikre og udvikle sit Sprog, sin Kultur og sit Samfundsliv.

That is:

It is the responsibility of the authorities of the State to create conditions enabling the Sámi people to preserve and develop its language, culture and way of life.

Sámi is an official language of the municipalities of Kautokeino, Karasjok, Kåfjord, Nesseby, Porsanger, Tana, Tysfjord, and Snåsa. In Finland, the Sámi language act of 1991 granted Sámi people the right to use the Sámi languages for all government services. The Sámi language act of 2003 made Sámi an official language in Enontekiö, Inari, Sodankylä and Utsjoki municipalities. On April 1, 2002 Sámi became one of five recognized minority languages in Sweden. It can be used in dealing with public authorities in the municipalities of Arjeplog, Gällivare, Jokkmokk and Kiruna.

Sámis have highly spiritual songs called joiks. You can hear one (in a modern style) at Youtube, called Du čalmmit (great song, by the way!!), sung by Sofia Jannok and Anna Karstadt. Ann-Marie Andersen, another Sámi, made it to the finals of the Melodi Grand Prix 2008 (the Norwegian contest for the Eurovision Song Contest), but her song was knocked out. Yesterday the final took part. See her performance here.
The national anthem of the Sámi is Sámi soga lávlla ("Song of the Sámi family"). You can read the lyrics in Northern Sámi, Skolt Sámi and Inari Sámi and listen to it here.
Enjoy them and... happy Sámi National Day!

Revisiting personal pronouns

2008-02-09T21:02:00.000-06:00

Last time I centered on the multiplicity of ways Thai can say "I".
But as it is understood, each language describes the world in its very own way. Some times we find similarities. And maybe that's the reason we frown on a use different from what we are used to.
Personal pronouns are not out of this notion.
So... are personal pronouns the same across languages? Fortunately, no.
The first that comes to my mind is "we".
you might know that many languages have two forms for the first person plural pronoun: one for feminine and one for masculine. Thus, Spanish has nosotras and nosotros; while Japanese has 私達, Russian only has мы and French only has nous.
But let's take Chinese, for example. Chinese also has two forms for we, but in this case, the distinction does not depend on gender but in clusivity. Chinese has 咱们 / 咱們, which means "we, in the sense of "you and I", and 我们 / 我們, which means "we, but excluding you". This is a handy distinction!

What about when you read legal papers? Aren't you tired of the text pointing to things like "he or she" or "s/he"? Or, to put it in a more difficult situation, some people who is afraid of telling their family they are homosexual, have to play the pronoun game when talking about their partner. Here, they have to avoid the specific gender pronouns so others don't notice their sexual orientation. How hard can that be in many languages!
There are languages that do not present these problems. You have a pronoun that doesn't point out at the gender of the person you are talking about.
Ido, for example, has il, "he"; el, "she"; and oli, "he or she". It is not that ol is equivalent to English "it", as "it" cannot be used to talk about a person.
But languages like Malay only have one form for the third person singular: Malay has only dia to mean "he" or "she" and the context will tell whether the speaker is refering to a man or a woman.
Continuing with the third pronoun, Spanish doesn't doesn't distinguish animacy and we have only él and ella (ello is a special form seldom used). And Turkish combines both: its pronoun do not reflect gender nor animacy. Turkish o can mean "he", "she" or "it".

All this arises some classifications. We have epicene pronouns (pronouns that neither reveal nor imply the gender or sex of a person) and androgynous pronouns (pronouns that refer to neither or both genders).

And there are even situations when a language needs a pronoun when another doesn't.
An expletive pronoun (sometimes called "pleonastic pronoun" and even the easier to remember "dummy pronoun") is used in non-pro-drop languages when a verb argument (or preposition) is nonexistent, unknown, irrelevant, already understood, or otherwise not to be spoken of directly, but when a reference to the argument (a pronoun) is nevertheless syntactically required, for example when there is increasing ambiguity between the pronoun and the subject or object.
The perfect example of this can be found in English: "It is obvious that the violence will continue". You won't be able to substitute "it" in that sentence with a noun phrase.

I think I need to explore this topic a little more in the future!

Who has been reading the random thoughts?

2008-02-08T00:48:00.000-06:00

Some months ago, when this blog was updated almost daily, I thought it'd be interesting to see what language readers of this blog would be using for their internet browsers.
With no aditions to the blog, pictured showed back then is somewhat different from what I have now.
Now, in the 100 most recent visits, Spanish gained a share and is as used as English. The others are: Slovak (what the hell?! THIS was a surprise!), German, Thai (oh, I am sure this is due to the post about personal pronouns!), Dutch, Slovenian, Russian, Portuguese, Polish and Norwegian.

Organs of speech

2008-02-07T22:07:00.001-06:00

Besides a brain (and the knowledge of the language), what do you need to use the spoken language?
We group them as the speech organs. Of course, right now I am only thinking of the very final phase of the incredibly complex process of speaking out.
As the speech organs can be divided into the respiratory system, the phonatory system and the articulatory system, I am mainly interested in this last one because we use these organs to modify the airstream coming out from our lungs. They are to blame for all spectrum of sounds we can create.

So what are the speech organs that belong to the articulatory system? They are:

lips: they serve for creating different sounds - mainly the labial, bilabial, and labiodental consonant sounds - and thus create an important part of the speech apparatus.
teeth
tongue: with its wide variety of possible movements, it assists in forming the sounds of speech.
alveolar ridge
hard palate
velum (soft palate): it should have holes forming that function during speech to separate the oral cavity (mouth) from the nose, in order to produce the oral speech sounds. If this separation is incomplete, air escapes through the nose during speech and the speech is perceived as hypernasal.
uvula: it functions in tandem with the back of the throat, the palate, and air coming up from the lungs to create a number of guttural and other sounds. In many languages, it closes to prevent air escaping through the nose when making some sounds.
glottis

If you want a neat and short tutorial about this, you can check this one (it even includes a pair of quizzes).
A more in-depth paper about the organs of speech and their application in the formation of articulate sounds can be found here (even though the original date of publication is some 100 years ago).

Back

2008-02-06T21:12:00.000-06:00

Yep, I'll be back to the madness of posting here.
The spirit, of course, will be the same this blog had since the very begining. And I think it'll help me organize my own notes and thoughts about this topic I really like.
I am starting a new process and I want to do it right.

http://www.phrasebase.com/blog

2007-07-12T11:37:00.000-06:00

Lately I haven't had the time to post here anymore. Now, I have even less time. And that is because I'll be posting at the PhraseBase blog.

If you stumbled upon this blog and want to make any comment about it or to simply complain about what was said here, you can reach me at:

Some conlangs

2007-04-22T10:23:00.000-06:00

Auxlangs :

Esperanto: the most widely spoken constructed international language. The name derives from D-ro Esperanto (Dr. Hopeful), the pseudonym under which L. L. Zamenhof first published the language in 1887. Universala Esperanto-Asocio.

Ido: a "reformed" version of Esperanto. It was developed in the early 1900s, and still has a small following today. Uniono por la Linguo Internaciona Ido.

Interlingua: based on the Romance languages. It was first published in 1951 by the International Auxiliary Language Association, based on words common to French, Italian, Spanish/Portuguese, and English. It includes a simplistic grammar and loose pronunciation guidelines. Union Mundial pro Interlingua.

Volapük: created in 1879-1880 by Johann Martin Schleyer, a Catholic priest in Baden. The vocabulary is mostly from English, with a smattering of German and French, and often modified it beyond easy recognizability. Here you can find a handbook of Volapük, and , a ten-lesson course.

Europanto: created in 1996 by Diego Marani. There are no fixed rules, merely a set of suggestions. Europanto as it is used, tends to have a grammar much like English, with words borrowed from various languages and adapted to be easily understood. Europanto home page.

Folkspraak: intended to be quickly learnable by all Germanic speakers. The original idea is that a word from the same root, with the same or similar meaning should be common in, or at least exist in three out of four languages (core languages) including (General) English, (High) German, Dutch and Swedish/Norwegian/Danish (often counted as one language, where a word wouldn't need to be common in more than one of the languages).

Mondlango: also known as Ulango, is similar to Esperanto with a greater English influence. It was initially authored by He Yafu in 2002. Monlango home page.

Lingua Franca Nova: created by C. George Boeree of Shippensburg University, Pennsylvania. It is based on French, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, and Catalan. The grammar is based on that of Romance creoles. LFN home page.

Latino sine Flexione: invented by Giuseppe Peano, a mathematician in 1903. The language itself is simplified version of Latin, and retains its vocabulary. Europeano home page.

Artlangs:

Sindarin: developed by J. R. R. Tolkien. it was the Elvish language most commonly spoken in Middle-earth in the Third Age. It was the language of the Sindar, those Teleri which had been left behind on the Great Journey of the Elves. Tol Elenath School of Sindarin.

Quenya: one of the languages spoken by the Elves in J. R. R. Tolkien's work. It was the language that developed among those non-Telerin Elves that reached Valinor from an earlier language called Common Eldarin. Here it is a Quenya course and here, more information.

Klingon: created by Marc Okrand for Paramount Pictures and spoken by Klingons in the fictional Star Trek universe. He designed the language with Object Verb Subject (OVS) word order to give an alien feel to the language. Klingon is similar to Native American languages in several aspects. The Klingon Language Institute, Klingonska Akademien.

Toki Pona: designed by Canadian translator and linguist Sonja Elen Kisa. It was first published online in mid-2001. Toki Pona is a minimal language. Like a pidgin, it focuses on simple concepts and elements that are relatively universal among cultures. The language has 14 phonemes and 118 words. Official site.

Newspeak: a fictional language in George Orwell's famous novel Nineteen Eighty-Four. Newspeak is closely based on English but has a greatly reduced and simplified vocabulary and grammar. This suited the totalitarian regime of the Party, whose aim was to make subversive thought ("thoughtcrime") and speech impossible.

Nadsat: a constructed set of Russian-based slang invented by the linguist, novelist, and composer Anthony Burgess. Nadsat is a teen language spoken by Alex and his 'droogs' in the futuristic world of A Clockwork Orange. It is basically English, with some transliterated words from Russian.

Engelangs:

Loglan: developed beginning in 1955 by James Cooke Brown with the goal of making a language so powerfully expressive for logic and calculation that people learning it would think better if the Saphir-Whorfhypothesis were true. The Loglan Institute.

Lojban: created by the Logical Language Group in 1987 based on the earlier Loglan, with the intent to make the language more complete, usable, and freely available. The grammar is based on predicate logic, and is capable of expressing complex logical constructs precisely. The Logical Language Group.

Ro: an a priori 'philosophical language,' meaning you can guess what category of meaning a word falls into merely by looking at the first letters. For example, bofoc means red, bofod means orange, and bofof means yellow. It was created by the Reverend Edward Powell Foster (1853-1937).

Ithkuil: designed by American linguist John Quijada to convey large amounts of linguistic information using fewer and shorter words than naturally-evolved languages; most sentences in other languages will be shorter when translated into Ithkuil. Grammar here.

Láadan: created by Suzette Haden Elgin in 1982 to test the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis for women, specifically to determine if Western natural languages were better suited for expressing the views of men than women.

But the list of conlangs is long. Take a look at Langmaker.

influi

2007-04-14T23:05:00.000-06:00

(eo) influi: Havi efikon sur la pensoj, sinteno, agmaniero de alia persono
(no) påvirke: ha en innflytelse som fører til at noe forandrer seg
(sp) influir: Dicho de una persona o de una cosa: Ejercer predominio, o fuerza moral
(en) influence: A power to affect persons or events especially power based on prestige, etc.

Pirahã

2007-04-14T21:27:00.000-06:00

Today someone called my attention to this article.
The Pirahã language is one of those examples in which, despite a very little amount of speakers, the language is not endangered., as as language use is vigorous and the Pirahã community is monolingual.
Pirahã language has a set of interesting features. For example, the pronunciation of several phonemes depends on the speaker's gender. And it has one of the smallest phoneme inventories of any known language. And also their counting system is limited to one, two and many (read a little more here and here).
Read Living without numbers or time. there's even an online dictionary.

sorto

2007-04-13T07:38:00.000-06:00

(eo) sorto: Nekonata forto, imagata kiel supernatura, rigardata kiel havanta kapricojn, kaj al kiu oni emas atribui la okazaĵojn, kies kaŭzon oni ne konas
(no) en skjebne: (innbilte) krefter som er utenfor menneskelig kontroll og som bestemmer hva som skal skje
(sp) el hado: Fuerza desconocida que, según algunos, obra irresistiblemente sobre los dioses, los hombres y los sucesos.
(en) fate: An event (or course of events) that will inevitably happen in the future

Online translators

2007-04-13T00:21:00.000-06:00

Do you know of someone who thinks translating from a language into another is trivial because computers assist us?
Let's makean experiment. Let's try one of the "best" online translators. I'll translate a sentence and then translate it back into English. Let's use a text taken from Wikipedia:

Chess is a recreational and competitive game for two players. Sometimes called Western Chess or International Chess to distinguish it from its predecessors and other chess variants, the current form of the game emerged in Southern Europe in the second half of the 15th century after evolving from similar, much older games of Indian origin.
Today, chess is one of the world's most popular games, played by an estimated 605 million people worldwide in clubs, online, by correspondence (mail and e-mail), in tournaments (amateur and professional) and informally. Aspects of art and science are found in chess composition and theory. Chess is also advocated as a way of enhancing mental prowess.

Babelfish, into Spanish and then into English:

The chess is a recreacional and competitive game for two players. Western sometimes called Chess or international chess to distinguish it of its precursors and other variants of the chess, the present form of the game emerged in southern Europe by half second from the fifteenth century after developing of similar games, much more old of the Indian origin. Today, the chess is one of the most popular games of the world, played by 605 million people of considered everywhere in clubs, in line, by the correspondence (mail and email), in matches (become fond of and professional) and unreliable person. The aspects of the art and science are in the composition and the theory of the chess. The chess also is pleaded like way to heighten mental value.

Babelfish again, into German and then into English:

Chess is a relaxing and competitive play for two players. Western Chess or international chess called sometimes to differentiate to it of its predecessors and from other chess variants to dipped the present form of the play into south Europe to the half second 15. Century up, after it had developed of the similar, many older plays Indian origin. Today chess one of the most popular plays of the world, world-wide easily by estimated 605 million people in the associations, is on-line, by correspondence (post office and email), in the tournaments (Bewunderer and specialist) and informal. Aspects of the art and the science are found in structure of chess and theory. Chess is endorsed also as way of increasing of spirit ability.

Babelfish, into French and then into English:

The failures are a play récréationnel and competing for two players. Western sometimes called international Chess or failures to distinguish them from its predecessors and other alternatives from failures, the current form of the play emerged in southernmost Europe in second half of the 15th century after evolution of the similar plays and much older of Indian origin. Today, the failures are one of the most popular plays of the world, played by 605 million people approximately in the whole world in the clubs, on line, by the correspondence (mail and E-mail), in the tournaments (amateur and professional) and semi-officially. Aspects of art and science are found in the composition and the theory in failures. Failures are also recommended like manner of increasing the mental prowess.

Babelfish, into Dutch and then into English:

The schaak is a recreational and competitive game for two players. The sometimes called western schaak came or the international schaak for of its predecessors and other schaakvarianten to distinguish, the current form of the game in Southern Europe in second half of the 15de centuries after evolving at voorschijn from similar, much older plays of Indian origin. Today, the schaak one of the most popular game of the world, which is worldwide played by valued 605 millions people in clubs, online, by correspondence (, is post and e-mail), in tournaments (amateur and profession) and informally. The aspects of art and science are found in schaaksamenstelling and theory. The schaak is also argued as a manner to improve mental dapperheid.

Babelfish, into traditional Chinese and then into English:

The chess is whiles away the time with the competition match is two players. Sometimes tells Western Chess or the international chess distinguish it with its senior and other chess distortions, the competition current form will emerge one half from has later been similar in the southern Europe in 15 centuries second in the evolution, older competed 印第安 to origin. Today, the chess is world most universal competition middle, plays by estimates 605 million people's world in the club, on-line, by the correspondence (mail and email), (amateur and expert) and is informal at the competition. Artistic and the science aspect is discovered in the chess constitution and the theory. The chess and the position achievement enhances the spiritual heroic way.

Babelfish, into Greek and then into English:

The chess is a recreational and competitive game for two players. The sometimes called western chess or the international chess in order to him it distinguishes from his predecessors and other variants of chess, the running form of game resulted in southern Europe in second half the 15$oy of century after it is evolved from the similar, much older games of Indian origin. Today, the chess is one from the world more popular games, that are played by at estimate 605 million persons worldwide in the clubs, in direct connection, by the correspondence (post and electronic post), in the championships (amateur and professional) and informally. The aspects of art and science are found in the composition and the theory of chess. The chess is supported also as way mental bravery.

Babelfish, into Korean and then into English:

The chess 2 person bows with hazard recreation is competitive game. It predecessor in office and different chess variant and it distinguishes it similar inside Southern Europe after the WesternChess international evolving which it calls from time to time inside latter half of 15 century India source it was, very long from the game which becomes, currently the shape of game it came out. By it plays inside the world-wide general on-line club, by a communication (mail and e-mail), (amateur and specialist) and 605 where the molasses flavored rice today, the chess estimates one of world-wide masses game thing, it is a person who is countless inside tournament. The aspect of art and science is discovered inside chess composing and objection. The chess spirit it strengthens bravely, also is supported with method.

Babelfish, into Russian and then into English:

Chess there will be recreational and konkurentnayaa game for 2 players. Sometimes caused is Western chess or international of chess, it is which necessary to distinguish it from its predecessors and different versions of chess, at present the form of game emerged in south europe in the second-half to yshchtyu of century afterward to evolve from similar, much Star of the games of Indian beginning. Today, chess of one of the games of the peace of the popular, after 4 is played that evaluated of 605 million people world in the clubs, online, by correspondence (mail and and -m31lo), in the tournaments (amateur and professional) is unofficial. The aspects of iskusstvoa and science are found in composition and theory of chess. Chess is also protected as road to increase the mental prowess.

You may say that with a little good will from my side, I'd be able to understand the text.
First consider that I translated back into English. Several big errors were reversed "consistently" and that's why the English final version is a little understandable.
Second, nobody does this process. It'd have no sense. You only go from one language into another. Many of those who use this kind of software don't know a word in the target language. So how can they know if the translation needs to be polished? People just leave it like that.
Third, consider that if the source text has typos or grammar errors (verbs or gender words not matching, for example), the translation won't know what to do with that.
If you don't give a damn about the resulting translation, go ahead and use an online translator. I hope your business ends well or your tatoo is not in a very visible place or that only you read the result.
Gosh! Just look at the Korean one! Even after reading the original, the resulting translation is simply crap.
I'll test more of these thingies. Just out of curiosity. Which one would be "the best"?

Who reads me?

2007-04-12T17:31:00.000-06:00

Very few leave a comment. Anyway, as I said from the begining, I am writing this more for me than for someone else. But I find interesting to know what langauge people arriving here have their browser in.
I live in a Spanish speaking country and my browser is in English. It is not in Norwegian only because I am too lazy. But I feel more comfortable with English. The above graph shows the language visitors of this blog use (the last 100, excluding me): English, Spanish, Norwegian, French, Danish, Ukrainian, Korean, Greek, German and Arabic.
Recently, I've had visitors from Turkey and Romania. But the languages spoken there do not show in the graph.
I wonder how that graph would be if I wrote in Spanish or Esperanto.

inviti

2007-04-12T17:20:00.000-06:00

(eo) inviti: Afable peti iun, ke li ien venu
(no) invitere: be noen komme som gjest, by inn
(sp) invitar: Llamar a alguien para un convite o para asistir a algún acto
(en) invite: Express willingness to have in one's home or environs

Russian languages

2007-04-12T15:55:00.000-06:00

So what's the official language in Russia? Russian, of course. But there are regions in which other languages are officially recognized. These are:

in the Altai Republic: Altay

in the Buryat Republic: Buryat

in the Chechen Republic: Chechen

in the Chuvash Republic: Chuvash

in the Kabardino-Balkar Republic: Kabardian and Karachay-Balka

in the Karachay-Cherkess Republic: Abaza, Kabardian, Karachay-Balkar and Nogai

in the Komi Republic: Komi-Zyrian

in the Mari El Republic: Mari

in the Sakha Republic: Yakut

in the Tuva Republic: Tuvin

in the Udmurt Republic: Udmurt

in the Republic of Adygea: Adyghe

in the Republic of Bashkortosta: Bashkir

in the Republic of Ingushetia: Ingush

in the Republic of Kalmykia: Kalmyk

in the Republic of Khakassia: Khakas

in the Republic of Mordovia: Erzya and Moksha

in the Republic of North Ossetia-Alania: Ossetic

in the Republic of Tatarstan: Tatar

in Agin-Buryat Autonomous Okrug: Buryat

in Chukotka Autonomous Okrug: Chukchi

in Evenk Autonomous Okrug: Evenk

in Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug: Khanty and Mansi

in Koryak Autonomous Okrug: Koryak

in Nenets Autonomous Okrug: Nenets

in Taymyr Autonomous Okrug: Dolgan

in Ust-Orda Buryat Autonomous Okrug: Buryat

in Jewish Autonomous Oblast: Yiddish

Of course, there are more languages spoken in the Russian Federation. you can see here and here (or here). Bibliography about some of these languages (only 54 languages with speakers not exceeding 50,000) can be found here. Some of these languages are endangered. See the list.

murdi

2007-04-11T22:52:00.000-06:00

(eo) murdi: intence mortigi homon
(no) myrde: utføre et mord, drepe noen med overlegg
(sp) asesinar: Matar a alguien con premeditación, alevosía, etc.
(en) murder: Kill intentionally and with premeditation

Poor language

2007-04-11T20:58:00.000-06:00

I am always complaining about how Mexican media use Spanish. Poor usage of language, deliverately misusing words or twisting grammar. Many years ago, I would have expected that someone who stands infront of a TV cammera, someone who talks on a microphone or someone who writes for a news papers should have at least some knowledge.
Don't blame immigrants for bad use of English.
But it is a problem when even teachers can't use grammar. How to solve this? Would this approach work?
The problem clearly goes beyond chat speak. I don't like it. But I can't avoid using "lol" and the like. They are already part of the way I type, even when I do it in Spanish. Is it true that youngsters who use their worst English on internet can be taken by someone educated when they write essays?
What if we'd get fined for misusing our language? I am not sure if this is a desirable condition...

Thanks to Colm and Danial.

invadi

2007-04-10T19:55:00.000-06:00

(eo) invadi: Perforte eniri kaj ekokupi fremdan landon
(no) invadere: gjøre invasjon
(sp) invadir: Irrumpir, entrar por la fuerza; ocupar anormal o irregularmente un lugar
(en) invade: March aggressively into another's territory by military force for the purposes of conquest and occupation

The language contest

2007-04-09T22:33:00.000-06:00

I still don't understand why some people wants to know which language is "best". I think the question is poorly stated, in any case. But if that is really the question, I don't get it. Maybe I am stubborn and I don't want to get it.
This parable by Alex Gross, first published in Language Montly in 1987, is about this topic.

The language contest

Fifty contestants enter a large hall. Inside the hall are fifty desks. Each contestant sits down at one of the desks. On each desk is a large weirdly shaped package. All the packages on all the desks have the same size and shape. They all jut out and scoop inwards in strange ways, and they all have a large number of surfaces at odd angles to each other. Some of the surfaces are very hard to the touch, some very soft.
All the packages are exactly the same in this regard. They are in fact identical in every way.
Next to each package is a small pile of wrapping paper, tape, perhaps some string. None of the piles of wrapping materials is the same. In some the wrapping paper comes in one or more sheets of different sizes, in others it comes in rolls or strips, in yet others it is nothing more than fragments or badly wrinkled shreds. The tape too comes in a weird variety of shapes, sizes, and quantities.
The string, on those desks that have it, may be anything from a half-full spool of thread to a thickly encrusted length of clothes line. A pair of scissors is also provided. In fact, the only uniform property possessed by these various piles, other than the scissors, is the known fact, announced to the contestants beforehand, that no one of the piles of materials is sufficient to wrap the package completely, regardless of the ingenuity of the contestants. The best any of them will be able to achieve is to wrap about 90% of the package, with about 10% remaining uncovered.
This, the principle rule of the contest, is now formally announced to the fifty participants. They must use all their knowledge and skills to wrap the package as completely as possible, using only the pile of materials on the desk next to the package. They will be judged according to their success in this task.
A few informal rules are also believed to be true by some contestants but not by others. One such rule alleges that it is possible to cheat by not following all the contours of the package and letting the wrapping material stretch from edge to edge over a hollow between surfaces. Others have heard this rule but believe they may be penalized if they do not cover all the surfaces. Others say that the whole game is an enormous put-on, but one must play along in order to be promoted. Some have also heard that one is awarded higher points for the dextrous use of the scissors, others believe one will be penalized for using the scissors too often.
Contestants employ various strategies in wrapping their packages. Some try to cover as large a surface as possible, leaving the unwrapped area as the very last portion of the package, when their materials run out. Some try to hide this space in some less easily visible contour of the package. Others, in their eagerness to cover space, do not care where this space ends up. A few, dependent on their supplies or their use of the scissors, try out a postage stamp technique, taping small pieces of paper on all surfaces of the box, with the unfilled space intervening on all sides.
The package is reality, with all its odd contours and escarpments. The piles of wrapping paper, tape and string are our languages (most certainly including our computer languages as well) with all their odd, arbitrary rules and connective structures. The places where the contestants fail to follow the package's contours are the places where our language (anyone's language) lies to us about reality. The scissors are probably akin to various odd ideas of grammar and usage that we keep on teaching and tending to believe. The places which cannot be covered by the tape or paper are those parts of reality none can escape: birth, death, hunger, animal passion in its positive and negative aspects.
It is finally announced that none of the wrapping procedures is necessarily better than the others. This message is received amidst much booing, as many contestants are quite convinced that their method of wrapping is clearly the best.
Still others complain that hundreds of other possible contestants were not invited to take part, while some voice the claim that the contest is too simple-minded because everyone receives the same reality/package, contrary to "true" reality, which may differ from people to people, culture to culture, coordinately with language.
The judges give up and leave. No prizes are awarded.

Found here.
I think I am getting tired of the absurd question "What is the best language?".

freneza

2007-04-09T19:48:00.000-06:00

(eo) freneza: Perdinta la prudenton pro mensa malsano
(no) sprø: gal, vanvittig, fra vettet
(sp) loco: Que ha perdido la razón
(en) crazy: Affected with madness or insanity.

ekzisti

2007-04-08T07:01:00.000-06:00

(eo) ekzisti: Efektive kaj nune esti
(no) eksistere: være, finnes, leve
(en) exist: Have an existence, be extant
(sp) existir: Dicho de una cosa: Ser real y verdadera; tener vida.

Hangul

2007-04-08T06:16:00.000-06:00

I fell in love with this writting system since I "discovered" it. It is FULL of meanings! Sensefull meanings everywhere!

Hangul was promulgated by the fourth king of the Joseon Dynasty, Sejong the Great. It is an artificial script in the sense that it was created from scratch by (most probably) a group of people. Hangul (한글) is a term coined by Ju Sigyeong in 1912 that simultaneously means great (한) script (글) in archaic Korean and Korean script in modern Korean. Contrary to what many may think Hangul is a phonemic alphabet. It is organized into blocks of at least two of the 24 jamo (자모) (a jamo is one of the units that make up the Hangul alphabet. 자 means letter or character, and 모 means mother, so the name suggests that the jamo are the building-blocks of the script): at least one of the 14 consonants and one of the ten vowels.

The jamo are:

14 simple consonant letters: ㄱ, ㄴ, ㄷ, ㄹ, ㅁ, ㅂ, ㅅ, ㅇ, ㅈ, ㅊ, ㅋ, ㅌ, ㅍ, ㅎ, plus obsolete ㅿ(alveolar),ㆁ(velar),ㆆ,ㅱ,ㅸ,ㆄ
5 double letters (glotalized): ㄲ, ㄸ, ㅃ, ㅆ, ㅉ, plus obsolete ㅥ,ㆀ,ㆅ,ㅹ
11 consonant clusters: ㄳ, ㄵ, ㄶ, ㄺ, ㄻ, ㄼ, ㄽ, ㄾ, ㄿ, ㅀ, ㅄ, plus obsolete ㅦ,ㅧ,ㅨ,ㅪ,ㅬ,ㅭ,ㅮ,ㅯ,ㅰ,ㅲ,ㅳ,ㅶ,ㅷ,ㅺ,ㅻ,ㅼ,ㅽ,ㅾ,ㆂ,ㆃ, and obsolete triple clusters ㅩ,ㅫ,ㅴ,ㅵ
6 simple vowel letters: ㅏ, ㅓ, ㅗ, ㅜ, ㅡ, ㅣ, plus obsolete ㆍ
4 simple iotized vowel letters (semi consonant-semi vowel): ㅑ, ㅕ, ㅛ, ㅠ
11 diphthongs: ㅐ, ㅒ, ㅔ, ㅖ, ㅘ, ㅙ, ㅚ, ㅝ, ㅞ, ㅟ, ㅢ, plus obsolete ㆎ,ㆇ,ㆈ,ㆉ,ㆊ,ㆋ,ㆌ

Hangul uses distinct strokes to indicate distinctive features such as place of articulation (labial, coronal, velar, or glottal) and manner of articulation (plosive, nasal, sibilant, aspiration) for consonants, and iotation (a preceding i- sound), harmonic class, and I-mutation for vowels. This is just incredible as each jamo is telling you what sound it represents!! You can tell the difference between ㄱ and ㅋ (both velar), but there is no way of telling between Latin letters g and k (here, the shape of the letter means absolutelly nothing).

Vowel letters are based on three elements:

a horizontal line representing the flat Earth, the essence of yin
a point for the Sun in the heavens, the essence of yang (this becomes a short stroke when written with a brush)
a vertical line for the upright Human, the neutral mediator between the Heaven and Earth

Except for a few grammatical morphemes in archaic texts, no letter may stand alone to represent elements of the Korean language. Instead, jamo are grouped into syllabic blocks of at least two and often three: a consonant or consonant cluster called the initial, a vowel or diphthong called the medial, and, optionally, a consonant or consonant cluster at the end of the syllable, called the final. When a syllable has no actual initial consonant, the null initial ㅇ is used as a placeholder (no placeholder is needed when there is no final). That is, a syllabic block contains a minimum of two jamo.

This script is fascinating. I suggest taking a look at korea.net, this short tutorial and this tutorial. In order to type the jamo, go here.

It won't last long...

2007-04-07T06:55:00.000-06:00

... so... I thought I had to mention it before it ends :p
For almost ayear I've been answering questions at Yahoo! Answers. Of course, the cathegory I've been participating the most in is... LANGUAGES. Difficult to guess, eh?
The layout has changed a little and now, the person with most "best answers" in each cathegory is being shown.
To my surprise... I AM the one with most answers!

And I think it won't last because second one is Martha P, who is very close and gives many good answers. Here, the list of the top ten.

But this really came as a surprise to me!

I hate this word!

2007-04-07T05:47:00.000-06:00

It always leaves me without much to say back. It sounds as a "I don't want to continue with this argue".

Webster's Online Dictionary says:

One or some or every or all without specification; "give me any peaches you don't want"; "not any milk is left"; "any child would know that"; "pick any card"; "any day now"; "cars can be rented at almost any airport"; "at twilight or any other time"; "beyond any doubt"; "need any help we can get"; "give me whatever peaches you don't want"; "no milk whatsoever is left".

AskOxford says:

used to emphasize a lack of restriction in referring to any thing; no
matter what; pronoun used for emphasis instead of ‘what’ in questions; at all;
of any kind; no matter what happens.

You can also read the entry at Dictionary.com.

So... what's so annoying about this harmless and innocent word? WHATEV-AH!!!!

kulpa

2007-04-07T05:13:00.000-06:00

(eo) kulpa: Intence aŭ konscie plenuminta ion riproĉindan aŭ punindan.
(no) skyldig: som har skylden for en forbrytelse eller en feil, ansvarlig
(en) guilty: Responsible for or chargeable with a reprehensible act; or marked by guilt
(sp) culpable: Se dice de la persona a quien se imputa una acción u omisión ilícitas por haberlas cometido de forma deliberada o con negligencia de sus deberes

Rewards

2007-04-06T05:46:00.000-06:00

It is always nice when you get recognized for your effort at learning a language.

Kudos to Gary Petengell for his Personality of the Year award! Learning Lithuanian might have not been easy.

Briti politseinik sai Leedu rahvuskangelaseks.

I should study harder!! :p

fremda

2007-04-06T05:15:00.000-06:00

I have had some problems in my life and that's why I could not post here (this site is NOT randomly updated!). So, here we go again with the word of the day. Thanks to Lernu! :p
(eo) fremda: Senrilata kun la koncernata persono aŭ afero: pro aparteneco al alia lando.
(no) fremmed: som er ny og ukjent; utenlandsk.
(en) foreign: Of concern to or concerning the affairs of other nations (other than your own); relating to or originating in or characteristic of another place or part of the world.
(sp) extranjero: Que es o viene de país de otra soberanía; natural de una nación con respecto a los naturales de cualquier otra.

Politically-correctness times

2007-04-05T10:25:00.000-06:00

I know this is a very controversian topic. But this:

The American people believe English should be the official language of the
government. ... We should replace bilingual education with immersion in English
so people learn the common language of the country and they learn the language
of prosperity, not the language of living in a ghetto.

Who said that? Newt Gingrich, former Speaker of the United States House of Representatives and possible contender for the White House.
His reply to all critiscism he got was:

Yeah, right...
Just out of curiosity...

The name ghetto refers to an area where people from a given ethnic
background or united in a given culture or religion live as a group, voluntarily
or involuntarily, in milder or stricter seclusion. The word historically
referred to restricted housing zones for Jews; however, it now commonly labels
any poverty-stricken urban area.

2007-03-27T20:31:00.001-06:00

:'(

imiti

2007-03-26T23:59:00.000-06:00

(eo) imiti: agi tiel same, kiel alia persono.
(no) imitere: etterligne eller kopiere (et bestemt mønster), herme.
(sp) imitar: ejecutar algo a ejemplo o semejanza de otra cosa. Hacer o esforzarse por hacer algo lo mismo que otro o según el estilo de otro.
(en) imitate: reproduce someone's behavior or looks
(fr) imiter: faire ou s'efforcer de faire (ce que fait une personne ou un animal) dans le seul but de reproduire dans sa particularité (une attitude, un comportement, une façon de s'exprimer).
(ms) meniru: mengikuti perbuatan (perkataan, gaya, cara, dll) orang dll, mencontoh, meneladan.

Some learning tips

2007-03-26T23:51:00.000-06:00

I just have to quote this. Mainly... to keep it in mind. It was written by Susan Scherer from Indonesia Australia Language Foundation (IALF).

Why do some people learn easily and others have so much more difficulty?

Whether you succeed or not really depends on what kind of a commitment you make to the learning process.

Age is not the issue! Adults not only have better habits for memorizing data, but they also are better at organizing and at studying in general. In the case of adults learning Bahasa Indonesia, the motivation factor is often very high: the difference between being able to communicate and not is obvious in one's daily life. Witness the average newcomer's frustration at not being able to tell a driver where to go or the same person's discomfort at being unable to understand what's happening in the office. Being at the mercy of a so-called 'interpreter' is not a condition most of us independent westerners feel comfortable with. Learning to communicate effectively is, then, something we feel will improve our ability to cope successfully with life in our new surroundings.

The disadvantage of being an adult learner is our reluctance to make mistakes, an area where children are much more comfortable. Adult learners need to tell themselves often that making mistakes is the way we learn and that without mistakes, little learning takes place. One teacher decided to substitute 'learning step' for the word 'mistake', thus putting his students much more at ease with normal errors.

Some people seem to have a talent for languages; for others, it seems that only effort is what makes the difference. Hearing is one area where there is a big difference: those who have a good ear, for music and tone for example, will have an easier time learning to speak since they can 'hear' and thus imitate more accurately. Another factor in successful learning is your attitude: are you open to the new culture and language? Looking forward to learning or dreading it? It can make an enormous difference in the kind of progress you make.

What kind of a person you are also influences language learning: people who are outgoing, extroverted and like talking to others will easily be able to harness their natural instincts in communicating in the target language. Chances are an extroverted person will also be less likely to be upset at making errors. Laughing along with the guys who laugh at your mistakes makes everyone feel better. Within one month of arrival I had ordered two kilos of traditional bras (kutang) instead of the potatoesI wanted (kentang). The entire household had a good laugh over that one!

When learning a language, a high tolerance for ambiguity also helps. As westerners, we tend to want to make everything black and white and very organized: a neat little list of what the language is. Often it isn't exactly that black and white; an acceptance of some gray will help in making your progress faster. Some things can be worried about later.

When you start out from zero, having a plan helps. Give yourself a schedule and some targets or objectives. Whether you choose to take a class, hire a private teacher or study on your own, some type of framework will make meeting your targets an easier task. So now, for the real hints:

1. Set aside a certain time for study each day: after morning coffee, on the way to work, during lunch - whatever you can maintain without too much 'stretching'.
2. Spend time with words: make flash cards and use them until you remember easily, then exchange them for others.
3. Listen a lot: keep the radio on, watch TV. Even without being aware of it, you will be absorbing the sounds of the language.
4. Ask others to correct you when you make mistakes. Most Asians don't feel completely comfortable with this, but at least try.
5. Experiment with new words or new patterns. Even if you make mistakes, you need to use it before it really becomes a part of you.
6. Be active: talk to everyone you meet. Taxi drivers are almost always ready for a conversation; people in shops and restaurants as well. Don't lose these remarkable opportunities for free practice.
7. Make a 'hat rack' of words and build on it. See how words are related and how they fit together in certain ways. Keep a list or book of your new words and expressions and always have it with you.
8. Look at where you make your mistakes. Are you making the same mistake over and over again? Why? Carelessness or real lack of understanding? Check it out and try again.

And that is the final point: try and try again, especially with a sense of humor. Enjoy the joke, even if it's at your expense!

universo

2007-03-25T23:24:00.000-06:00

At last! I thought Lernu was not going to keep on posting new words.
(eo) universo: tutaĵo de ĉio, kio ekzistas
(no) et univers: verden, verdensaltet, kosmos
(sp) el universo: mundo. Conjunto de todas las cosas creadas
(en) universe: everything that exists anywhere. the whole collection of existing things.
(fr) l'univers: l'ensemble de tout ce qui existe, la totalité des êtres et des choses.
(de) das Universum: Gesamtheit aller in Raum und Zeit existierenden und zugleich allumfassenden materiellen Systeme, Weltall, Kosmos.
(ms) alam: segala yg ada di langit dan di bumi.

Danish language is falling apart

2007-03-25T20:25:00.000-06:00

This is a funny video Ulven posted at PB.

Proto-language

2007-03-24T23:59:00.000-06:00

A proto-language, sometimes also called Ursprache (German word, derived from the prefix Ur- "primordial" and Sprache "language"), is a hypothetically reconstructed language based on the comparison of attested vocabularies and grammars.
In most cases, the ancestral proto-language is not known directly and it has to be reconstructed by comparing different members of the language family via a technique called the comparative method. Through this process only a part of the proto-language's structure and vocabulary can be reconstructed; the reconstruction remains the more fragmentary the more ancient the proto-language in question is.

Sometimes, however, the proto-language is a language which is known from inscriptions, an example being the Proto-Norse language attested in the Elder Futhark runic inscriptions.
Other proto-languages are Proto-Indo-European, Proto-Uralic and Proto-Bantu.

Traditional historical linguistics state that so far it has been impossible to show that all the world's languages are genetically related. Critics say that from the purely statistical point of view, among any two unrelated languages, there would be more than 40% of words sharing a roughly similar sound and meaning. Therefore, the concept of comparing languages basing only on general comparisons between their vocabularies is considered flawed.

A language is a dialect with an army and navy

2007-03-23T17:57:00.000-06:00

That was originally said in Yiddish by Max Weinreich in 1945: ״אַ שפּראַך איז אַ דיאַלעקט מיט אַן אַרמיי און פֿלאָט״.

פֿאַר אַ יאָרן האָבן מיר אין דער ד״ר צמח שאַבאַד־אַספּיראַנטור געהאַט אַ קורס פֿון צוואַנציק לעקציעס אויף דער טעמע׃ „פּראָבלעמען אין דער געשיכטע פֿון דער ייִדישער שפּראַך“. צווישן די צוהערערס איז איין מאָל אױך אַרײַנגעפֿאַלן אַ לערער פֿון אַ בראָנקסער הײַסקול. ער איז געקומען קײן אַמעריקע ווי אַ קינד און האָט פֿאַר דער גאַנצער צײַט קײן מאָל ניט געהערט, אַז ייִדיש האָט אַ געשיכטע און קען דינען פֿאַר העכערע ענינים אויך. ווי אַזוי ער איז פֿון דער אַספּיראַנטור פֿון ייִוואָ געווויר געוואָרן ווייס איך ניט, נאָר פֿון יעמאָלט אָן האָט ער שוין גענומען קומען. איין מאָל נאָך אַ לעקציע גייט ער צו צו מיר און פֿרעגט׃ „וואָס איז דער חילוק פֿון אַ דיאַלעקט ביז אַ שפּראַך?“ איך האָב געמיינט, אַז עס רופֿט זיך אים דער משׂכּילישער ביטול, און איך האָב אים געפּרוּווט אַרויפֿפֿירן אויפֿן ריכטיקן וועג, נאָר ער האָט מיך איבערגעריסן׃ „דאָס ווייס איך, אָבער יך וועל אײַך געבן אַ בעסערע דעפֿיניציע׃ אַ שפּראַך איז אַ דיאַלעקט מיט אַן אַרמיי און פֿלאָט“. איך האָב זיך יעמאָלט באַלד פֿאַרגעדענקט, אַז די דאָזיקע וווּנדערלעכע פֿאָרמולירונג פֿון דער סאָציאַלער מערכה פֿון ייִדיש מוז איך ברענגען צו אַ גרויסן עולם

In English:

Last year we held a course in the Dr. Tsemakh Shabad Jewish Studies Program with twenty lectures on the subject, 'Problems in the History of the Yiddish Language'. A teacher at a Bronx high school once appeared among the auditors. He had come to America as a child and during the entire time had never heard that Yiddish had a history and can also serve for higher matters. I do not know how he came to be among the YIVO scholars, only that he was there from then on. Once after a lecture he came up to me and asked, 'What is the difference between a dialect and language?' I said that it was a matter of intellectual subjectivity, and sensed that he felt this led in the right direction, but he interrupted me and said, 'I know that, but I want to give you a better definition. A language is a dialect with an army and navy.' It then struck me that I had to convey this wonderful expression of the social plight of Yiddish to a large audience.

And I quoted all this because many Mexicans think all languages spoken in Mexico are only dialects and the only real language is Spanish.Mexican Constitution says in its Article 2:

[...]
A. Esta Constitución reconoce y garantiza el derecho de los pueblos y las comunidades indígenas a la libre determinación y, en consecuencia, a la autonomía para:
[...]
IV. Preservar y enriquecer sus lenguas, conocimientos y todos los elementos que constituyan su cultura e identidad.
[...]
Para abatir las carencias y rezagos que afectan a los pueblos y comunidades indígenas, dichas autoridades, tienen la obligación de:
[...]
II. Garantizar e incrementar los niveles de escolaridad, favoreciendo la educación bilingüe e intercultural, la alfabetización...

It'd be so great to start informing people that all those are languages and not dialects.

Pioneer

2007-03-22T22:08:00.000-06:00

Siguiendo con el tema de ayer, hoy quiero hablar de las Pioneer 10 y 11. Y la pregunta sigue siendo cómo nos comunicaríamos con una sociedad extraterrestre. ¿Cuál sería la manera de hacer que nuestro mensaje sea entendido? Pioneer 10 y Pioneer portan sendas placas con un mensaje de la humanidad. La placa de aluminio es ésta:La idea básica es comunicar quiénes somos y dónde estamos. A la derecha, hay dos figuras desnudas de hombre y mujer. En la esquina superior izquierda hay una representación de la transición hiperfina del hidrógeno. Debajo hay una representación de la posición de nuestro sol con respecto al centro de la galaxia y a catorce pulsares (también se incluyen los periodos de estos pulsares. Y como estos periodos varían con el tiempo, la época de lanzamiento puede ser calculada). En la parte de abajo hay una representación del sisyema solar. Lo que se ve detrás de las figuras humanas es la silueta de la nave (esto ayuda como escala para tener idea del tamaño real de las figuras humanas).

¿Qué tan difícil de comprender sería todo esto para una civilización extraterrestre? Sería interesante saber si alguien tiene una mejor idea. Claro, el mensaje de la Voyager es mucho más completo. Pero si nos limitamos al contenido de una placa, ¿qué más podríamos decir acerca de nosotros?

koketa

2007-03-22T16:09:00.000-06:00

Segundo día de palabras. Espero poder mantener esto. Mismo orden que ayer: esperanto, noruego, español e inglés. Pero ahora agrego el francés.
(eo) koketa: Penanta plaĉi, precipe al eventualaj seksaj partneroj, per elegantaj vestoj kaj logaj manieroj.
(no) kokett: innsmigrende, flørtende.
(sp) coqueto: dicho de una persona: que coquetea. Dicho de una persona: presumida, esmerada en su arreglo personal y en todo cuanto pueda hacerla parecer atractiva.
(en) coquettish: like a coquette.
(fr) coquet: Qui a le souci de plaire. Par une mine soignée, une toilette recherchée. Par son esprit, ses manières, ses attitudes. Qui est soucieux de plaire à une personne de l'autre sexe. Qui cherche à séduire les hommes sans s'attacher à aucun.

Español en internet

2007-03-22T08:36:00.000-06:00

Ayer, mientras leía el bitácora de mi amiguita (muy recomendable, por cierto), me topé con una liga, que me llevó a otra y luego a otra. En una de esas páginas ví este logo. Y llamó mi atención. Entré a ver y llegué a esta página. Claro que me dejó pensando. No es que vaya a empezar a ecribir todo en español aquí. Desde que empecé en esto del internet lo hice en inglés y la mayoría de las personas con las que interactuo aquí hablan inglés (normalmente el inglés no es su idioma natal). Así que para mí, utilizar el inglés se volvió en algo cotidiano. Si un sitio está disponible en ambos idiomas, prefiero ir al de inglés. Si los programas que descargo me dan la opción de elegir idioma, escojo inglés. No es que tenga algo en contra del español. Siplemente que me siento más cómodo utilizando un idioma en ciertas situaciones.
Pero por el día de hoy, escribiré en español. No es que a alguien le importe. La verdad es que me expreso mejor (no acepto dudas al respecto :p ) utilizando el español en mi vida diaria. Tal vez en un futuro no podré hacerlo. Tal vez mi alguien más tendrá que hacerlo. No lo sé.
Lo que sí sé es que, hasta el momento, ésta es la entrada más aleatoria (e intrascendente) que hay en esta bitácora.

insisti

2007-03-21T18:29:00.000-06:00

I am kind of worried about my vocabulary. It is my main problem regarding language learning, I think. So, I'll start using Lernu's words. I'll start with Esperanto, Norwegian, Spanish and English.
insisti: Firme kaj daŭre esprimi sian opinion, altirante la atenton de aliaj. Firme kaj daŭre postuli, ke alia agu laŭ nia opinio aŭ deziro.
insistere: holde fast ved, ikke gi seg.
insistir: instar reiteradamente. Persistir o mantenerse firme en algo. Repetir o hacer incapié en algo.
insist: be insistent and refuse to budge. Beg persistently and urgently.

Voyager

2007-03-21T17:58:00.000-06:00

Carl Sagan and Ann Druyan wrote:

In the annals of exploration, the achievements of the two Voyager spacecraft are unprecedented. The piddling journeys of Columbus and Magellan spanned a few tens of thousands of miles on the watery surface of one small world. Voyagers 1 and 2 have traveled billions of miles through the ocean of space, exploring dozens of new worlds along the way and revolutionizing our knowledge of the solar system in which we live. And as a gift of the brilliant mission design, these robot ships are no longer bound by the Sun's gravity. They have passed the outermost planets and are on their way to the cold, dark near-vacuum that constitutes interstellar space. Nothing can stop them. Their radio transmitters are unlikely to work beyond the year 2020. Thereafter, they will wander silently and forever in the realm of the stars.

Who knows who's out there? Perhaps the rest of the Milky Way Galaxy is populated by desolate, wasteland worlds circling a hundred billion stars. Or maybe the Galaxy is rich in life forms and intelligence and technology much further beyond our reach than the Voyagers are beyond the reach of Columbus and Magellan. Someday - maybe millions of years in the future - one of these ghostly, derelict ships may be detected and captured by the representatives of some devastatingly advanced interstellar culture. They will wonder about the shipbuilders.

If you could send a long message to such extraterrestrial beings - words, pictures, sounds, music - what would you say? How would you describe us? What would you leave out? Could you communicate intelligibly to very different beings with a wholly independent evolution? In 1977, at NASA's behest, a few of us had a remarkable opportunity to attempt such a (one-way) communication.

You can see what was recorded in that golden disc here. This is the golden disc cover:
This is the information on the cover:
You can find a detaild explanation of it here. You can read about its content here.

Biang

2007-03-20T14:24:00.000-06:00

I am able to recognize some easy Chinese characters. 马, 人, 女 and 水 are easy to remember. But... 57 strokes! If I were studying Chinese, I'd try to learn this one just to show off. This is the most complex character in use. As it is a problem to type it, there are two phonetical equivalents to it: 棒棒麵 and 梆梆麵. But what does it mean? Biáng biáng noodles are a a type of noodle popular in China's Shaanxi province.

But there's someone who says the pronunciation is not biang. Read the mnemonics for writing it.

Toki pona

2007-03-19T21:14:00.000-06:00

Among weird conlangs I've found, I think Toki pona is an interesting one. It is a minimal language. Like a pidgin, it focuses on simple concepts and elements that are relatively universal among cultures. Toki pona aims to express maximal meaning with minimal complexity. The language has 14 phonemes and only 118 words. It is not designed as an international auxiliary language but is instead inspired by Taoist philosophy.

The 118 offical Toki pona words are: a, akesi, ala, ale (ali), anpa, ante, anu, awen, e, en ijo, ike, ilo, insa, jaki, jan, jelo, jo, kala, kalama, kama, kasi, ken, kepeken, kili, kin, kiwen, ko, kon, kule, kute, kulupu, la, lape, laso, lawa, len, lete, li, lili, linja, lipu, loje, lon, luka, lukin, lupa, ma, mama, mani, meli, mi, mije, moku, moli, monsi, mu, mun, musi, mute, nanpa, nasa, nasin, nena, ni, nimi, noka, o, oko, olin, ona, open, pakala, pali, palisa, pana, pi, pilin, pimeja, pini, pipi, poka, poki, pona, sama, seli, selo, seme, sewi, sijelo, sike, sin, sina, sinpin, sitelen, sona, soweli, suli, suno, supa, suwi, tan, taso, tawa, telo, tenpo, toki, tomo, tu, unpa, uta, utala, walo, wan, waso, wawa, weka, wile.
These words were based on words from English, Tok Pisin, Finnish, Georgian, Dutch, Acadian French, Esperanto, Croatian, Mandarin Chinese, and Cantonese. To see the origines, read here.
You'd be surprised to see how many things can be said with only those words. If you see the official list, each word has several meanings. For example, moli can mean death, to die, to be dead, to kill or even fatal. The precise meaning has to be taken from the context. But even with this polysemy, it is hard to have much things to say. Toki pona solves this with the use of "compund" words. For example, jan means person, and lili means small, little, young. If you combine them, you have jan lili, meaning child.

Toki pona only accepts capitalizing if the word is not in that list. Not even at the begining of a sentence.
There are no propper nouns. Toki pona has propper adjectives. This can be something difficult to understand at first. For example, Norway is a propper noun in English. To talk about that country in Toki pona, you need a noun and a propper adjective. The noun is ma, which means country, and the adjective is Nosiki (capitalized, because it is a word not included in the list. It is adapted to the Toki pona sound system). Then Norway is ma Nosiki (the adjective follows the noun).

This isn't an auxiliary language. And you won't find many speakers around. Then... why bother?! I am not sure. It has an interesting idea.
If you are curious, abut Toki pona, check a short course.

ñ ! !

2007-03-18T18:25:00.000-06:00

The ñ is one of the seven letters in Spanish that takes a diacritic. The difference is that the diacritics makes it a completely different letter (not as what happens with the other diacritics). the little swung dash is called virgulilla or tilde (the English word for it is tilde, as well) This letter has the sound /ɲ/, a palatal nasal. Are there more languages with this letter? The Spanish language has influenced many other languages and through loanwords, ñ made its way into those languages. You can find ñ in Aragonese, Asturian, Aymara, Quechua, Guaraní, Mapudungun, Tagalog, Basque, Galician and Tetum. It also exists in Tatar and in Breton, but it represents a different sound.
As many letter that are not part of the English alphabet, it might be a problem when trying to type ñ. You can get Ñ with ALT + 0209 or ALT + 165, and ñ with ALT + 0241 or ALT + 164.
In a Newsweek article, Leland and Chambers labeled Hispanic culture and its influence on the US as “Generation Ñ". Ñ is seen as a mark of Hispanic heritage.
Historically, ñ arose as a representation of “nn”. The tilde was shorthand for the second n, written over the first. For example, the Spanish word año is derived from Latin annus.
¿La eñe también es gente? "La letra es sinónimo de carácter", says the author.

Swadesh list

2007-03-17T23:30:00.000-06:00

A Swadesh list is a prescribed list of basic vocabulary (207 words) developed by Morris Swadesh in the 1940-50s, which is used in glottochronology to determine the approximate date of first separation of genetically related languages. The closeness of the relationship of the languages is suggested to be roughly proportional to the number of cognate words present in the list.

The Swadesh list in English is: I, you (singular), he, we, you (plural), they, this, that, here, there, who, what, where, when, how, not, all, many, some, few, other, one, two, three, four, five, big, long, wide, thick, heavy, small, short, narrow, thin, woman, man (adult male), man (human being), child, wife, husband, mother, father, animal, fish, bird, dog, louse, snake, worm, tree, forest, stick, fruit, seed, leaf, root, bark, flower, grass, rope, skin, meat, blood, bone, fat (n.), egg, horn, tail, feather, hair, head, ear, eye, nose, mouth, tooth, tongue, fingernail, foot, leg, knee, hand, wing, belly, guts, neck, back, breast, heart, liver, drink, eat, bite, suck, spit, vomit, blow, breathe, laugh, see, hear, know, think, smell, fear, sleep, live, die, kill, fight, hunt, hit, cut, split, stab, scratch, dig, swim, fly (v.), walk, come, lie, sit, stand, turn, fall, give, hold, squeeze, rub, wash, wipe, pull, push, throw, tie, sew, count, say, sing, play, float, flow, freeze, swell, sun, moon, star, water, rain, river, lake, sea, salt, stone, sand, dust, earth, cloud, fog, sky, wind, snow, ice, smoke, fire, ashes, burn, road, mountain, red, green, yellow, white, black, night, day, year, warm, cold, full, new, old, good, bad, rotten, dirty, straight, , round, sharp, dull, smooth, wet, dry, correct, near, far, right, left, at, in, with, and, if, because, name.

Using this list of "stable" words, glottochronologists believed they could calculate the approximate amount of time that had passed between the split-up of two related languages. Unfortunately, language, unlike C-14, does not seem to change at a constant rate. The word list and the formulas to use it will accurately show that the Romance languages started to split up about 2000 years ago, but I wouldn't be surprised if the formulas were fine-tuned to Romance rates of change in the first place.

Click here for a 100 word Swadesh list with animation.

Freedom of Expression awards

2007-03-16T14:00:00.000-06:00

I just thought I had to call atention into this:
Activists honoured at Freedom of Expression awards
Awards for free speech defenders

Index on Censorship is a magazine founded in 1972 by a group of writers, journalists and artists, who were inspired by the British poet Stephen Spender to take to the page in defence of the basic human right of freedom of expression.

Index Freedom of Expression Awards 2007.

Official language

2007-03-16T08:28:00.000-06:00

An official language is a language that is given a unique legal status in the countries, states, and other territories. It is typically the language used in a nation's legislative bodies, though the law in many nations requires that government documents be produced in other languages as well.

A few states have no official language, although in most such cases there is a single de facto main language. The acceptance of de facto national languages is sometimes used as a means of remaining unprejudiced or unbiased. In the United States, the federal government has not declared a national language. English is accepted as the de facto national language. To partially cope with this situation, the federal government has given states the right to declare their official language. This right is exercised, with New Mexico having recognized both English and Spanish for official purposes ever since gaining statehood. Also, Louisiana uses French and English as official languages, and Hawaii uses Hawaiian and English as official languages.
Similarly, in the former Soviet Union, Russian was not legally the official language, but de facto. Likewise in the UK, English is the dominant language but no official language has ever been declared. Sweden is another case of a country with no de jure language.

A national language is a language (or language variant, i.e. dialect) which represents the national identity of a nation or country. A national language is used for political and legal discourse and so designated by a country's government. Some countries have more than one national language, such as Canada which uses both French and English. A national language is not to be confused with the predominant language, which is spoken by the majority of people from within a country's borders.

A regional language is a language spoken in a part of a country. It may be a small area, a federal state or province, or a wider area. It is often mistaken for a dialect.
For the purposes of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages:

"regional or minority languages" means languages that are:
traditionally used within a given territory of a State by nationals of that State who form a group numerically smaller than the rest of the State's population; and
different from the official language(s) of that State

Switzerland, Sweden, Denmark and Norway have signed a resolution to recognise sign languages as official languages. And New Zealand schools will offer it.

Will Irish be an official language in Northern Ireland? We are waiting for the 12-week consultation period to end.

How to forget your mother tongue and remember your national language?

Greek phrases and proverbs I

2007-03-15T09:33:00.000-06:00

1. Ἀγεωμέτρητος μηδεὶς εἰσίτω
"Let no-one without knowledge of geometry enter". Motto over the entrance to Plato's Academy.

2. Ἀεὶ Λιβύη φέρει τι κακόν / καινόν
Libya always bears something evil / new", Aristotle, in Historia Animalium.

3. Ἀεὶ κολοιὸς παρὰ κολοιῷ ἱζάνει
"A jackdaw is always found near a jackdaw", i.e. "birds of a feather flock together."

4. Ἀεὶ ὁ θεὸς γεωμετρεῖ
"Always god geometrizes", Plato

5. Ἀεὶ ὁ θεὸς ὁ μέγας γεωμετρεῖ τό σύμπαν
"Always the great god applies geometry to everything", A mnemonic for π (pi); Ἀεί =3, ὁ=1, θεός=4, ὁ=1, μέγας=5, γεωμετρεῖ=9,τό=2, σύμπαν=6

6. Ἀετοῦ γῆρας, κορυδοῦ νεότης
"An eagle's old age (is worth) a sparrow's youth".

7. Ἀνάγκᾳ δ’οὐδὲ θεοὶ μάχονται
"Even the Gods do not fight necessity", Simonides.

9. Ἄνθρωπος μέτρον
"Man the measure (of all things)", motto of Protagoras.

10. Ἅπαξ λεγόμενον
"Once said", i.e. a word that only occurs once in a text or body of literature.

11. Ἀπὸ μηχανῆς Θεός
Deus ex machina.

Bible translations

2007-03-14T11:19:00.000-06:00

Contrary to popular belief, the Gutenberg Bible (or Mazarin Bible) is not the first book printed by Gutenberg's new movable type system. But it is his major work. It is a version of the Latin Vulgate translation of the Bible. Its printing started on February 23rd, 1455, and it had 1282 pages.
More than five centuries after that first printing, how many languages have a version of the Bible?
Ethnologue has a catalogue of 6912 living languages. According to the 2006 Scripture Language Report (just released in late January), there are 2426 languages in which at least one book of the Bible has been completely translated. Among those, 260 have complete translation. You might think that 4 % of human languages is not much if we are talking about the book that has been the most read through history. But it is deffinetely a big number!
Why don't they just add translation then? It is not an easy task.

Do you know where Ranonga is? Take a look at the map. It is a tiny island in the Western province of the Solomon Islands.
In that little island, there are some 2800 Lungga speakers. One of them, Alpheaus Zobule, went to the United States to study linguistics and theology. With this backgroud, he wanted to translate the Bible into his mother tongue. The main problem was that Lungga was an oral language. He started translating the New Testament in 1981. And it was not until three years ago when the first 2500 copies of this translation were published.
He had to face many desicions. One was to translate the Hebrew word "amen" (אמן) to the Lungga word agua, which means "that's it" or "I agree". He felt it was important to end the prayer with an indigenous word.

According to the world's largest Bible translator Wycliffe International, oral languages make up the majority of the roughly 2000 Bible translation projects underway around the world.

In Zobule's words:

"In school, we'd be punished for speaking our own language. We had to speak English. It builds a thought in us that our languages were not good; it affected our identity. When people got this translation, they said: 'You mean our language is important? You mean we are important?' "

Read more of this story in the articles Found through translation, God’s Word is ‘the most important canoe’ for islanders, and United Bibles Society's Latest news #301.

Personal pronouns

2007-03-13T01:10:00.000-06:00

In the place I live, it is common to mock politicians. There is not such a thing as a king, but you can see on TV sketches about the president and presidents of other countries. But be careful to say something like that about King Bhumibol Adulyadej (ภูมิพลอดุลยเดช) if you are visiting Thailand. This could happen to you! [As a side comment, the BBC deleted the original note they had when I decided to write about this! Now they only have the one I am linking to and this other one. Wierd!]
Cultural differences can be seen in the use of personal pronouns.
Personal pronouns are pronouns often used as substitutes for proper or common nouns.
English has seven personal pronouns: I, we , you, he, she, it and they. And each of these can take different forms:

a subjective case form (I, we, etc.), used when it's the subject of a finite verb

an objective case form (me, us, etc.), used when it's the object of verb or of a preposition

two possessive case forms (my, our, etc. and mine, ours, etc.), used when it's the possessor of another noun (one that's used as a determiner, and one that's used as a pronoun or a predicate adjective)

a reflexive form (myself, ourselves, etc.), which replaces the objective-case form in referring to the same entity as the subject

You can see the table with all English pronouns here.
But many other languages, Thai among them, are not as simple as that. Not, at least in what it has to do about personal pronouns.
I, in Thai, could be either ฉัน, ผม, ดิฉัน, ข้าพเจ้า or ก, depending on what you mean and who uses it. ฉัน is used by both males and females when speaking to intimates, servants or children. ผม has the same meaning as ฉัน, but is a more “polite” word and is generally used when talking with equals or superiors but it can only be used by males. ดิฉัน is the feminine counterpart of ผม. ข้าพเจ้า is very formal and may be used by either males or females but is seldom met with except in writing (mostly come across it in official documents). ก is used to a really intimate friend as a very informal and friendly word, but in any other situation, it is an insulting word. But there are more! พี่ literally means older brother / sister, this is quite a common word that can be used for I when you are speaking to someone younger than you. น้อง is the opposite of พ, younger brother / sister. กระผม is another word used only by men, and it's used to show respect when talking to people perceived to be of 'higher status' than you. เรา, confusingly, is the normal word for we/us but it is also used by both men and women as an informal word for I/me. หนู litterally means mouse, this is used by women when speaking to people much older. อั้ว is used only by Chinese Thais. ใต้เท้า literally meaning under your feet, this is a respectful word similar to กระผม. And ข้าพพระพุทธเจ้า is a Royal Thai word, and is only used by those in conversation with the Thai King or another member of the Royal family (it's not a word you're likely to hear often, except at the cinema where it's the first word of the royal anthem played before every film. Literally translated, it means The servant of the Lord Buddha).

All this might look crazy! But that's the way it is. And, of course, for the second person, there is a similar amount of words. คุณ is a very common one. And you guessed right, there is one used only when adressing the Thai king or queen: ใต้ฝ่าละอองธุลีพระบาท.
No wonder why some say you see the world through the language you speak!

You can read more about all these pronouns in the blog entry And you thought 'thee' and 'thou' was hard, in learningthai.com and the most complete one is into-asia.com. You might want to check all the other words for you there.

Mobile ASL

2007-03-12T01:04:00.000-06:00

Who doesn't have a cell phone in this crazy society? But how many Deaf use a phone? I guess the number increased since we now have text messaging. But I am sure signing would be more comfortable for them. There is a project at the University of Washington in order to make wireless cell phone communication through sign language a reality.
The main problem now is the low-bandwith wireless cellphone network, so they are working on a new compresion scheme. The software uses skin detection algorithms to zoom in on those specific areas in the video that contain essential movements used to communicate via ASL, typically, hand, face and arm movements. You can read the BBC article about it.
There is also another project to help people who have lost hearing abilities.

And more about this topic. What to do if your son is born deaf? You should learn how to sign. This family is having problems with it. Read a little more.

Broca's area

2007-03-11T09:33:00.000-06:00

This is the approximate location of Broca's area in the inferior frontal gyrus of the frontal lobe of the cortex. It was discovered by Pierre Paul Broca in 1861. One of his patients could understand speech but was unable to speak. Upon the patient's death, it was shown that the area darkened in the diagram above was damaged. The speech defect caused by damage to Broca's area is called expressive aphasia, motor aphasia or Broca's aphasia. A person suffering from this condition is unable to put together sentences that are grammatically complex. In addition, the sentences typically contain very few words related to content.
A study has shown that musical syntax is also processed in Broca's area and another study says Broca's area is involved in processing hierarchically structured behaviors regardless of their temporal organization (these kinds of hierarchical behaviors are necessary for language, since meaning depends on grammatical relations, which are themselves hierarchical rules for encoding relational information in a temporal sequence. So, the authors hypothesized that Broca's area, necessary for grammar, might also be necessary for these kinds of temporal plans).
There are tow parts of Broca's area, which represent different roles during language comprehension and production:

Pars triangularis (anterior), which is thought to support the interpretation of various 'modes' of stimuli (plurimodal association) and the programming of verbal conducts

Pars opercularis (posterior), which is thought to support the management of only one kind of stimulus (unimodal association) and the coordination of the speech organs for the actual production of language, given its favorable position close to motor-related areas

Maybe you remember Broca's Brain: Reflections on the Romance of Science, by Carl Sagan. Broca saved hundreds of human brains in jars of formalin; among the collection is his own neural organ. When Sagan finds it in a museum, he asks some questions that challenge some core ideas of human existence like "How much of that man known as Paul Broca can still be found in this jar?".

Turkish survey

2007-03-10T09:58:00.000-06:00

I read some blogs. Some are language related, like Osman's Lingulangu. He has interesting material there. The most recent post at Lingulangu is a request to help answering a survey. It is about computer-assisted Turkish learning. If you are learning Turkish, please help him answering it. The questions are about demographic features, internet usage frequencies as well as questions regarding Turkish language learning.
Take the survey here. Thanks!

Cornish

2007-03-10T03:19:00.000-06:00

Myttin da! That's good morning in Cornish. And I am interested in how this language is in the process of being revived. Nowadays there are about 300 effective speakers with up to 3000 people able to have simple conversations.
There is no concentrated area of Cornish speakers. They live spread through Cornwall. Since Cornish has been revived and the language is not bound to certain concentrated areas, Modern Cornish does not have distinct dialects. Variety in vocabulary and pronunciation does occur, depending on where and with which teacher students have learned the language. But this variety is minimal.

The Cornish language does not have an official status in the United Kingdom. There are no laws referring to the position of the Cornish language. The UK Government signed the European Charter on Regional and Minority Languages in March 2000 and ratified it later that year but excluded Cornish. Moreover, the national government has decided that the Cornish are not a national minority for the purposes of the Framework Convention for the Protection of National minorities. The exclusion from both documents has probably occurred because Cornish is considered an artificial language as defined in the UNESCO Redbook of Endangered Languages. This source considers Cornish to be extinct and calls the Cornish language artificial. The absence of government recognition means that the government has made no provisions for the Cornish language.

The Cornish language (Kernowek, Kernewek, Curnoack, in Cornish) is one of the Brythonic group of Celtic languages. It shares about 80 % basic vocabulary with Breton, 75 % with Irish, and 35 % with Scottish Gaelic.

It is being already taught to kids at schools and road signs are now in English and Cornish. Read a report about current situation, some FAQs about the language, a report about Cornish in education in the UK and find places where you can learn Cornish in Cornwall.
You can take a look at 12 Cornish lessons, read the explanation about Cornish sounds, consult a dictionary (here, another one) or a short lexicon or check Wikipedia in Cornish.

Acrostics

2007-03-09T08:02:00.000-06:00

An acrostic (from Greek ακσος meaning "extream" and ςτιγος, "verse") is a poem or other writing in an alphabetic script, in which the first letter, syllable or word of each verse, paragraph or other recurring feature in the text spells out another message. A form of constrained writing, an acrostic can be used as a mnemonic device to aide memory retrieval.

Elizabeth it is in vain you say
"Love not" — thou sayest it in so sweet a way:
In vain those words from thee or L.E.L.
Zantippe's talents had enforced so well:
Ah! if that language from thy heart arise,
Breath it less gently forth — and veil thine eyes.
Endymion, recollect, when Luna tried
To cure his love — was cured of all beside —
His follie — pride — and passion — for he died.
Edgar Allan Poe

Довольно именем известна я своим;
Равно клянётся плут и непорочный им,
Утехой в бедствиях всего бываю боле,
Жизнь сладостней при мне и в самой лучшей доле.
Блаженству чистых душ могу служить одна,
А меж злодеями — не быть я создана.
Юрий Нелединский-

Quand je mets à vos pieds un éternel hommage
Voulez-vous qu'un instant je change de visage?
Vous avez capturé les sentiments d'un cœur
Que pour vous adorer forma le Créateur.
Je vous chéris, amour, et ma plume en délire
Couche sur le papier ce que je n'ose dire.
Avec soin, de mes vers lisez les premiers mots
Vous saurez quel remède apporter à mes maux
Alfred Musset

Sou em você o ser mais completo e mais perfeito
Uma combinação como se nunca estivéssemos separados
Ying e Yang girando até não se ver a distinção
Amantes autofágicos em nós mesmos inebriados
Nascidos a cada instante, a cada pulsar do coração,
Esquecidos do mundo, em nossos corpos entrelaçados.

Insistindo em ser eterno, nosso amor infinito
Não foi por acaso que nos reencontramos, mas
Foi por castigo por termos nos deixado a
Intensidade de tudo que sentimos agora.
Não me lembrava mais o que era a paixão
Inexpressivos estavam meus sentimentos
Também era inexpressiva para mim a solidão
Agora uma algoz me matando de saudades
Mata-me como se fosse uma falta de ar
E só a sua voz me faz de novo respirar
No silêncio da noite, tenho só a memória
Tenho a lembrança de cada detalhe e cada som
Então durmo sonhando com você, num sonho bom.

Muitos foram os caminhos que seguimos até agora
Incontáveis foram os amores que tivemos e esquecemos
Nada do que ficou para trás irá tirar a nossa glória
Hoje começamos uma nova vida, ainda que recomecemos.
Aqui se inicia a melhor parte da nossa história.

Poet tvoj nov Slovencam venec vije,
Ran mojih bo spomin in tvoje hvale,
Iz sŕca svoje so kalí pognale
Mokrócvetéče rož'ce poezije.

Iz krajov niso, ki v njih sonce sije;
Cel čas so blagih sapic pogrešvále,
Obdajale so utrjene jih skale,
Viharjov jeznih mrzle domačije.

Izdíhljeji, solzé so jih redile,
Jim moč so dale rasti neveselo,
Ur temnih so zatirale jih sile.

Lej! torej je bledó njih cvetje velo,
Jim iz oči tí pošlji žarke mile,
In gnale bodo nov cvet bolj veselo.
France Prešeren

Read some acrostics made by children. Or read about some advice to create an acrostic.

What's in a name?

2007-03-08T15:23:00.000-06:00

الله is the Arabic word for God. From the Islamic point of view, Allah is the special name of God and is the most precious name because it is not a descriptive name like the other 99 names of Allah (go here or here to see the Arab calligraphy), but the name of God's own presence. It is impossible to alter the word in Arabic (such as create a plural form or change the gender).

'Tis but thy name that is my enemy.
Thou art thyself, though not a Montague.
What's Montague? it is nor hand, nor foot,
Nor arm, nor face, nor any other part
Belonging to a man. O, be some other name!
What's in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet.
So Romeo would, were he not Romeo call'd,
Retain that dear perfection which he owes
Without that title. Romeo, doff thy name;
And for that name, which is no part of thee,
Take all myself.

That's said by Juliet in Romeo and Juliet (II, ii, 1-2), by William Shakespeare. Here, a little explanation of it.
Is it important how we are named? Should parents be allowed to call their children what ever they want? Check name meanings at Behind the name. Or read suggestions about choosing a name for a baby.

I was asking for something specific and perfect for my city,
Whereupon, lo! upsprang the aboriginal name!
Now I see what there is in a name, a word, liquid, sane, unruly, musical, self-sufficient;

Here, Walt Whitman is saying that the name Mannahatta (or, Manhattan) is the perfect name for such a city, because it is so descriptive of its true essence. Whitman shows the importance and effect of proper naming.
Shakespeare was talking about an anthroponym (the name of a human being). Witman was talking about a toponym (from Greek words τόπος, place, and oνομα, name). But we also have other words like these:

hydronym, a proper name of a body of water

ethnonym (from Greek έθνος, tribe and όνομα), the name of an ethnic group

pseudonym, an artificial, ficticious name, also known as alias

pen name, a pseudonym adopted by an author, also the French nom de plume

And finally, we have:

exonyms, which are names for places that are not used within that place by the local inhabitants, or a name for a people or language that is not used by the people or language to which it refers

endonyms (or autonyms), the names used by the people or locals themselves

Onomastics (or onomatology, from Greek ὄνομα) is the study of proper names of all kinds and the origins of names.

International Women's Day

2007-03-08T01:10:00.000-06:00

Reading some facts is just shocking.
The UN gave official sanction to the International Women's Year in 1975 and since then sponsors International Women's Day.
It is a major day of global celebration for the economic, political and social achievements of women.
But... is this still a men's world?
The day remains an official holiday in Armenia, Russia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bulgaria, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Macedonia, Moldova, Mongolia, Tajikistan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan and Vietnam, and is observed by men giving the women in their lives - mothers, wives, girlfriends, colleagues, etc., flowers and small gifts.
So, this one goes to an incredible girl. The girl I am in love with! Natalie, thanks for everything! Jeg elsker deg!! :W

Spoken Chinese

2007-03-07T06:54:00.000-06:00

I've heard many say that in the future, learning Chinese will be as common as learning English is today. But most who say that, know nothing about Chinese culture. The Chinese term 方言 litteraly means "regional speach" and in English it is commonly translated into dialect. Although the Chinese share the same writen language (文), the pronunciation of identical characters (the spoken language, 语/語) differs from region to region and variations are such that they are generally mutually unintellegible.
Can we talk about a Chinese language? Read here.
But maybe those saying about Chinese being almost compulsory in the future, are refering only to 普通话 (Pǔtōnghuà), or Standard Mandarin, as we'd called it.
But today, I found this article. China has certainly a huge task ahead.
And for those saying that learning Chinese is the future, there are some who are already there. Read a BBC article.

Grammatical categories

2007-03-06T10:58:00.000-06:00

A grammatical category is a set of syntactic features that

express meaning from the same conceptual domain

occur in contrast to each other

are typically expressed in the same fashion

are often subject to agreement constrains

Grammatical categories encompass:

Grammatical aspect, which is associated with verbs that express a temporal view of the event or state expressed by the verb

Grammatical case, which is determined by the syntactic or semantic function of a noun or pronoun

Definiteness, which is concerned with the grammaticalization of identifiability and nonidentifiability of referents

Grammatical mood, which is one of the distinctive forms thatare used to signal modality, which in turn is a facet of illocutionary force

Noun class, which is a grammatical system that some languages use to overtly categorize nouns

Grammatical number, which expresses count distinctions

Grammatical polarity, which distinguishes affirmative and negative

Tense, which typically marked on the verb, that deictically refers to the time of the event or state denoted by the verb in relation to some other temporal reference point

Transitivity, which is the number of objects a verb requires or takes in a given instance

Grammatical voice, which expresses the semantic functions attributed to the referents of a clause

Tengwar

2007-03-05T21:03:00.000-06:00

In his books, J. R. R. Tolkien described a whole world. In this world, Elves played an important role. They had a rich history, culture and, of course, language. The two most known languages are Sindarin and Quenya. Those are written by a script created by Fëanor. The script is Tengwar. And, in Tengwar (in Quenya mode), it is 1Rx#6. 1Rx#6 in Quenya means "letters".
It is written from left to right in horizontal lines, vowels are indicated by diacritics (tehtar), long vowels are always attached to a vowel holder, and consonants are doubled by adding a wavy line below them.
There are 24 primary Tnegwar letters. The letters were organized into four series (known as Témar) and each series was used to represent sounds created by different parts of the mouth. These four series were further broken down into six grades (known as Tyeller), which were used to represent sounds created by different ways that air flows through the mouth and nose.
All of the primary letters were composed of (at least) two elements:

a vertical stem or Telco, representing air

a curved bow or Lúva, representing voice

You might not recognize that text. but if you read the book, you might remember these words: "The Doors of Durin, Lord of Moria. speak, friend, and enter".
If you are interested in using Tengwar, you might want a transcriber or download a font.
To read more about it, you can go to Dan Smith's fantasy fonts page, or read a quick guide on how to write your name in Tengwar or read the Tengwar textbook.

To finish, this is the first article of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, transcribed in Tengwar from English. Neat, eh?

McGurk effect

2007-03-04T07:02:00.000-06:00

What would you say if I tell you that squares A and B are exactly the same shade of grey?

I needed a while to be convinced of it. This is an optical illusion. An optical illusion is always characterized by visually perceived images that, at least in common sense terms, are deceptive or misleading. Therefore, the information gathered by the eye is processed by the brain to give, on the face of it, a percept that does not tally with a physical measurement of the stimulus source. A conventional assumption is that there are physiological illusions that occur naturally and cognitive illusions that can be demonstrated by specific visual tricks that say something more basic about how human perceptual systems work.
For more about this, read here.
Probably you are not convinced yet, you can see the proof here or here. Do it yourself and you'll be convinced!
What does all this have to do with language? Have you ever thought about an effect like this... but with voice?
Well... now I want you to turn on your speakers, play this short video and hear and see carefully. What is the syllable he is pronouncing? See video here.
If you don't have Quicktime to see it, you can use this file or go to this site.
Your conclusion? 98 % of adults will say they hear the sound da. Now, please play it again, but close your eyes. Don't keep reading. Just play it again and listen. What is he pronouncing? Remember to close your eyes!
Maybe you want to play it again. Are you sure he is pronouncing ba? Well, he is! And the image is of him pronouncing ga. This is called the McGurk effect (sometimes also called McGurk-MacDonald effect). It is a perceptual phenomenon which demonstrates an interaction between hearing and vision in speech perception. It suggests that speech perception is multimodal, that is, that it involves information from more than one sensory modality. You can read the abstract of the research paper published by Nature magazine in 1976.

Read to them!

2007-03-03T07:35:00.000-06:00

I am still thinking about yesterday. More than a governmental effort, it has to be a household effort. According to yesterday's article, Asian kids outperform the rest. I wonder if it has to do more with how parents support them at home. That is, using time as a resource instead of money.

How can I improve my child's reading?
Reading and your child
Reading to babies, toddlers and young children
Top ten ways to improve reading skills
Helping your child become a reader
Put reading first
Enseñar a leer, aprender a leer

Time is so much more important than money...

No child left behind

2007-03-02T16:55:00.000-06:00

Do those words sound to something familiar to you? Probably you thought of "Leave no man behind", the motto of the United States Army Rangers. Any relation to it? Maybe, if you consider the military has access to teens data thanks to this Act.
This is a controversial Act from 2001. I found this article about it. Certainly, being able of using your mother tongue is not only important, but absolutely necessary to succeed in the other subjects. No child left behing? How good are we doing it? And here, I am not asking about the U. S. How good are our kids doing? Not about grades, but about knowledge. I am pretty disappointed.
If you have a whole life to read, here you'll find the complete Act. But I assume that's too much reading for someone like me, so I''ll also point at the Wikipedia article about the Act.

www.phrasebase.com

2007-03-01T22:03:00.000-06:00

If I have had a house on the net, it definitively has to be PhraseBase. I think it is the biggest language-related website. The kindest people I've met online are members of Phrasebase.
I am proud to say I am part of the team working at this website.
If you are looking for a language partner or someone to help you leant a language via email or Skype, this is your option. You also can participate in the active fora they have there.
My profile at PB, here. PB at Wikipedia.
There are some very interesting plans for PB. It'll become a real phenomenon when those plans are materialized. They even have a blog that is worth giving it a look.