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Discriminacion Española en los Estados Unidos

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Discriminacion Española en los Estados Unidos

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El español es el segundo idioma más hablado en Texas detrás del inglés con casi siete millones de hablantes y compartimos frontera con méxico. Sin embargo, todavía hay mucho odio por parte de los demás cuando escuchan que se habla español si no es en privado. Aquí es un ejemplo de los muchos casos en que esto sucede en Texas. La información se dijo en inglés y español para llegar a más personas, pero desafortunadamente algunas personas en Texas y en los Estados Unidos en general creen que el inglés debería ser el único idioma hablado.

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A Texas county official apologized this week after mocking a neighboring county judge for speaking Spanish.

Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo, the top elected official in the state's largest county, has delivered bilingual updates over the past few days about cleanup efforts from a chemical fire.

Chambers County Commissioner Mark Tice earned widespread criticism after he commented on CBS affiliate KHOU's Facebook page's livestream: "She is a joke. English, this is not Mexico."

Tice initially doubled down on Tuesday to the Houston Chronicle, saying "This is the United States. Speak English."

But he later posted an apology to Facebook, saying he mistakenly thought an English translation for Hidalgo's remarks was not provided.

"I apologize to Judge Hidalgo, the citizens of my County, and most importantly the entire Hispanic community for hastily acting out with transgression on social media," Tice wrote. "I recognize how my response could have been interpreted in a derogatory manner and for that I am sorry. I immediately regretted my choice of words. I'm not proud of my behavior, that is not the example I wish to lead by. I can only hope, in time, that my actions can be forgiven."

In a response, Kiran Khalid, Hidalgo's director of communications, noted that a third of the county's 4.5 million residents are Spanish speakers.

"The vast majority of the public relies on local news for information in a time of crisis," Khalid said, according to the Chronicle. "Judge Hidalgo represents all of Harris County and given the county's composition and her bilingual skills, she will continue to communicate as broadly as possible especially when public safety is at stake."

Chambers County Judge Jimmy Sylvia issued a statement Tuesday saying Tice's remarks did not represent the commissioners' or the county's opinion.

"The statements he made are his and are not made on my behalf, or on behalf of the Court," Sylvia said, according to the Chronicle. "I am currently in the process of reaching out to Judge Hidalgo and have left a message with her office."

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Texas official apologizes after criticizing county judge for speaking Spanish

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A Texas county official apologized this week after mocking a neighboring county judge for speaking Spanish. Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo, the top elected official in the state's largest county, has delivered bilingual updates over the past few days about cleanup efforts from a chemical fire.

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Hay argot en todas las lenguas pero cuando estás aprendiendo una lengua, usualmente no aprendes el argot. Pero cuando viajas a países hispanohablantes, la mayoría de la gente no habla espanol formal (el espanol aprendemos en clases). Es la misma situación en los estados unidos, usamos mucho argot cuando hablamos y enviamos mensajes de texto. Este video muestra algún argot español en Texas.

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La Línea de Tiempo de Español en los Estados Unidos

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La Línea de Tiempo de Español en los Estados Unidos

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Para entender el español que tenemos en los Estados Unidos hoy en día, necesitamos aprender la historia del español en los Estados Unidos. A principios del siglo XVI, desde los primeros exploradores españoles, hasta las guerras en los países vecinos de habla hispana, dentro de los EE. UU. y en general, la legislación aprobada en el congreso, y mucho más. Este artículo explica todo de eso muy claro.

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Contents

1. Early Spanish Explorers Reach America

2. Los Angeles Founded, First Hispanic Congressman Elected

3. Battle of the Alamo, Mexican-American War

4. Mexico Revolution Drives Immigration to US

5. Puerto Ricans Granted US Citizenship

6. First Hispanic Senator Sworn in

7. Contributions During World War II

8. Supreme Court Prohibits Segregation for Mexican-American Students

9. Civil Rights Act of 1964

10. Cesar Chavez Leads Delano Grape Strike

11. Mariel Boatlift

12. Multiple Firsts in White House Cabinets

13. NAFTA, Prop 187

14. Sonia Sotomayor Joints US Supreme Court

15. DAPA, DACA Rulings

American Hispanic/Latino history is rich, diverse and long, with immigrants, refugees and Spanish-speaking or Indigenous people living in the United States since long before the nation was established.

And, bringing with them traditions and culture from Mexico, Spain, Cuba, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic and other Latin American and Iberian nations, America's Hispanic population continues to grow, reaching a record 62.5 million in 2020, or 18.7 percent of the U.S. population.

From early Spanish colonialism to civil and worker rights laws to famous firsts to recent Supreme Court decisions on immigration, here's a timeline of notable events in U.S. Hispanic and Latino history.

Early Spanish Explorers Reach America
READ MORE: How St. Augustine Became the First European Settlement in America
Los Angeles Founded, First Hispanic Congressman Elected

Battle of the Alamo, Mexican-American War
READ MORE: Why Mexican Americans Say 'The Border Crossed Us' READ MORE: How the 14th Amendment Made Corporations Into People
Mexico Revolution Drives Immigration to US
READ MORE: How Border Crossing Became a Crime in the United States
Puerto Ricans Granted US Citizenship

March 2, 1917
President Wilson signs the Jones-Shafroth Act, granting U.S. citizenship to Puerto Ricans and creating a bicameral legislature in the island territory. With the United States about to enter World War I, it also gives America a stronghold and allows Puerto Ricans to join the U.S. Army. Eventually, 20,000 Puerto Ricans are drafted to serve during the conflict, many charged with guarding the important Panama Canal.
READ MORE: Puerto Rico's Complicated History With the United States
First Hispanic Senator Sworn in

Contributions During World War II

Dec. 7, 1941
Japan attacks Pearl Harbor, drawing the U.S. into World War II. More than 500,000 Mexican Americans serve in the American military during the conflict, with 13 Medals of Honor awarded to Latinos. The 158th Regimental Combat Team, largely composed of Latino and Native American soldiers who fought in the Philippines and New Guinea, is called "the greatest fighting combat team ever deployed in battle" by Gen. Douglas MacArthur.
READ MORE: 6 Facts About the Medal of Honor READ MORE: The Surprising Role Mexico Played in World War II
With racial tensions growing between the Hispanic and Anglo communities following an injust murder trial, sailors drag Latino youth from dineres, cafes, bars and movie theaters, ripping off their baggy suits and beating them with clubs and whips. The youth fight back, leaving both Mexicans and servicemen hospitalized.
READ MORE: The Zoot Suit Riots: Causes, Facts & Photos
Supreme Court Prohibits Segregation for Mexican-American Students

April 14, 1947
The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals makes a landmark ruling prohibiting segregation in California public schools in Mendez v. Westminster School District. In the case, the family of Sylvia Mendez, then 9, and others sued four school districts for being denied entrance to Westminster Elementary School because they were Mexican. The ruling sets precedent for the historic Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court case seven years later.
READ MORE: The Mendez Family Fought School Segregation 8 Years Before Brown v. Board of Ed
May 3, 1954
In Hernandez v. State of Texas, the U.S. Supreme Court rules that Mexican-Americans have equal protection under the law. The important civil rights case centers around Pete Hernandez, a farm worker indicted for murder by an all-anglo grand jury in Jackson County, Texas. His attornies argue discrimination, including the fact that no person of Mexican ancestory had served as juror in the county in 25 years, citing the 14th Amendment. The U.S. Supreme Court unanimously agrees, holding that the amendment protects those beyond "white" or "negro," also covering those of Mexican ancestry.
READ MORE: The Largest Mass Deportation in US History
Feb. 13, 1959
A plane carrying musicians Ritchie Valens, Buddy Holly and "The Big Bopper" J.P. Richardson crashes near Clear Lake, Iowa, killing everyone on board. Valens, who was just 17 years old when he died, is the first Mexican-American rock and roll star, scoring four hit records ( Donna and La Bamba among them) in his eight-month-long career.
READ MORE: All the Way the Bay of Pigs Invasion Failed
Civil Rights Act of 1964
READ MORE: US Immigration Timeline
Cesar Chavez Leads Delano Grape Strike
March 17, 1966
Cesar Chavez, general director of the National Farm Workers Association, leads 75 Latino and Filipino farm workers on a historic 340-mile march from Delano, California to the state capitol in Sacramento. Drawing attention to the demands of grape growers, the march, held at the onset of a strike that would last five years, lasts 25 days, and upon arrival in Sacramento on Easter Sunday, the group is met by a crowd of 10,000. Later that summer, the NFWA merges with the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee to form the United Farm Workers union that affiliates with the AFL-CIO.
READ MORE: When Millions of Americans Stopped Eating Grapes in Support of Farm Workers READ MORE: Maurice Ferré becomes first Puerto Rican to lead a major U.S. mainland city
Mariel Boatlift

Multiple Firsts in White House Cabinets

NAFTA, Prop 187

Sonia Sotomayor Joints US Supreme Court

June 25, 2012
In a 5-3 ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court strikes down most of SB1070, an Arizona immigration law in Arizona v. United States. The decision finds three of the four provisions of the statute are preempted by federal law: the section making it a crime to reside in the country illegally, the section making it unlawful for undocumented workers to apply for a job and the section allowing warrantless arrest based on probable cause of unlawful presence. However, the court does uphold the law's requirement that law enforcement officers verify immigration status during lawful stops.

DAPA, DACA Rulings

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Early Spanish Explorers Reach America Los Angeles Founded, First Hispanic Congressman Elected Battle of the Alamo, Mexican-American War Mexico Revolution Drives Immigration to US Puerto Ricans Granted US Citizenship First Hispanic Senator Sworn in Contributions During World War II Supreme Court Prohibits Segregation for Mexican-American Students Civil Rights Act of

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La alternancia de códigos ocurre cuando alguien usa dos o más idiomas en la misma oración o mientras habla. He notado esto mucho pero nunca supe que hay una palabra para eso. Tambien me dio cuenta que cambió mucho el código pero usualmente hablaré en inglés y usaré al azar una palabra o dos en español, a veces lo planificare, pero a veces sin siquiera pensarlo. Esto es un artículo un poco largo pero tiene mucha información sobre todo lo que le gustaría saber sobre la alternancia de códigos.

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Seçkin Esen is working as an English language teacher in Turkey. He obtained his Bachelor's degree in ELT from Hacettepe University in 2010.

Code Switching in Speech

The ability to communicate our thoughts, emotions, and opinions to others is truly a remarkable skill. But not only does our language communicate who we are, but our use of language can influence our self-concept and identity. It goes both ways: Cultural influences are reflected in our language and also influence how we conceptualize who we are and where we come from. (The social aspect of language is studied by sociolinguistics, a subdivision of linguistics which studies social factors.)

Bilingual communities use certain strategies to make communication more effective and meaningful. One of these tricks is "code switching," which we can observe mostly in second- or foreign-language classes. Code switching refers to the use of two languages within a sentence or discourse. It is a natural conflation that often occurs between multilingual speakers who have two or more languages in common.

Here, we will focus on the definition of code switching, the reasons for using code switching, the types of code switching and their definitions, and examples and suggestions for teachers using code switching to teach a foreign or second language.

What Is Code Switching?

Code switching is when a speaker alternates between two or more languages (or dialects or varieties of language) in one conversation. This phenomenon can be observed in the following examples.

What Are Some Examples of Code Switching?

If you have an exam next week, şimdiden çalışmaya başlamalısın. (English + Turkish)

Gracias for the lovely gift. Está awesome! (Spanish + English)

Pwede ba tayo mag dinner sa Barney's Burgers later? I want protein! (Tagalog + English)

Are we eating chez ta mère demain? (English + French)

Saweyti l-homework tabaa'ik? (Arabic + English)

Nó còng đang celebrate cái sinh nhật. (Vietnamese + English)

Ní yào qù get pizza with me ma? (Mandarin + English)

Who Uses Code Switching?

Code switching occurs mostly in bilingual communities. Speakers of more than one language are known for their ability to code switch or mix their language during their communication. As Aranoff and Miller (2003:523) indicate, many linguists have stressed the point that switching between languages is a communicative option available to a bilingual member of a speech community, just as switching between styles or dialects is an option for the monolingual speaker.

Does the Term "Code Switching" Refer Only to Speech, or Does It Include Actions Also?

Since its inception, the term "code switching" has expanded to encapsulate any situation in which speakers finds themselves switching from one accepted vocabulary, cadence, style, or set of rules to another. For example, you'd probably speak to a potential employer differently than you would address a close friend, so you might switch from casual language to professional-speak in certain settings. Another example is how many African Americans describe playing different roles in different settings and with different micro-cultures, and talk about how they must be very careful to speak with an academic vocabulary and cadence in any interaction with a police officer.

What About Code Switching With Dialects?

Yes, someone might code switch within one language by mixing dialects or types of vernacular. You can mix academic-speak with street-speak, for example, or slip mid-sentence into baby-talk.

Reasons Speakers Use Code Switching

There are a number of possible reasons for switching from one language to another; three are described below.

To Fulfill a Need. A speaker who may not be able to express him/herself in one language might switch to another to compensate for the deficiency. As a result, the speaker may be triggered into speaking in the other language for a while. This type of code switching tends to occur when the speaker is upset, tired, or distracted in some manner, or when they are less fluent in one language.

To Express Solidarity. Switching also commonly occurs when an individual wishes to express solidarity with a particular social group. Rapport is established between the speaker and the listener when the listener responds with a similar switch.

To Exclude Others. Code switching may also be used to exclude others from a conversation who do not speak the second language. For example, if two people in an elevator in an English-speaking place spoke Spanish, then not only would the others on that elevator who do not speak Spanish would be excluded from the conversation, but also a degree of comfort and intimacy would be established between the Spanish-speakers due to the fact that not all those present in the elevator can listen to their conversation.

Is Code Switching a Bad Thing?

As Skiba (1997) comments, code switching is not a language interference on the basis that it supplements speech. Where it is used due to an inability of expression, code switching provides continuity in speech rather than presenting an interference in language.

When is code switching helpful?

The socio-linguistic benefits of code switching include communicating solidarity with or affiliation to a particular social group, so code switching can be viewed as a means of providing a linguistic advantage rather than an obstruction to communication.

Furthermore, code switching allows a speaker to convey more nuanced attitudes and emotions by choosing from a bigger pool of words that is available to a bilingual person, much like how one might use font, bolding, or underlining in a text document to emphasize points.

Utilizing the second language, then, allows speakers to increase the impact of their speech and use it in a more effective manner.

When is code switching harmful?

If a dominant culture requires all citizens to conform to the dominant language and manner of speaking, or if subcultures are punished in any way for not conforming completely to the language majority, this is harmful.

Code Switching as a Language Interference

In certain settings, code switching might be a barrier to communication rather than an aid. In the classroom, for example, code switching can be seen as language interference since it might impede learning. Although students may see code switching as an acceptable form of communication in society and may feel comfortable switching languages in everyday normal conversation, in some other settings, this type of communication would put those who are not bilingual at a disadvantage, because they would not be able to understand. Therefore, code switching can be both beneficial and a possible language interference, depending on the situation and the context in which it occurs.

Is Code Switching Deliberate or Accidental?

Sometimes, speakers flip from one language to another accidentally, but in many situations, code switching is done deliberately to both create unity or to exclude someone from a conversation. It is seen as a sign of solidarity within a group, and it is also assumed that all speakers in a conversation must be bilingual in order for code switching to occur. Bilinguals do not usually translate from the weaker language to the stronger one. Code switching is used most often when a word doesn't "come."

Types of Code Switching

1. Inter-Sentential
In inter-sentential code switching, the language switch is done at sentence boundaries-words or phrases at the beginning or end of a sentence. This type is seen most often in fluent bilingual speakers. For example: If you are late for the job interview, işe alınmazsın.
2. Intra-Sentential
In intra-sentential code switching, the shift is done in the middle of a sentence, with no interruptions, hesitations, or pauses to indicate a shift. The speaker is usually unaware of the shift. For example: You are sleepy coğu zaman, because you spend a lot of saat in your bed. Different types of switches occur within the clause level and within the word level.
3. Extra-Sentential or Tag Switching
This is the switching of either a single word or a tag phrase (or both) from one language to another. This type is common in intra-sentential switches. It involves the insertion of a tag from one language into an utterance in another language. For example: " Él es de Oaxaca y así los criaron a ellos, if you know what I mean." Another example is how Turkish students use some boundary words like ama (but) or yani (I mean) while speaking English.

Is Code Switching the Same as Code Mixing?

Both involve creating hybrid words or switching between two or more language within phrases, clauses, or from one complete sentence to the next. Some use the terms "code mixing" and "code switching" interchangeably, especially those who study morphology, syntax, and other formal aspects of language, but other areas (like subfields of linguistics, communication, or education theory) have their own extremely specific definitions for code mixing.

The main difference can be summarized like this: Code switching is something speakers do intentionally because they want to express themselves with a personal style or flavor, but code mixing is something speakers might do unintentionally simply because they don't know the correct word or phrase.

What If Speakers Mix Languages Because They Are Not Fluent?

Some researchers call this need-based conflation of languages "code mixing" rather than code switching.

Is Spanglish a Kind of Code Switching?

Linguists regard Spanglish (Spanish + English) as a hybrid language, and many refer to Spanglish as "Spanish-English code-switching," although it also includes lexical and grammatical shifts as well. In Spanglish, speakers are allowed to switch back and forth without following rules.

However, a speaker is misguided to think that they can make up new words that sound kind of like another language in order to fit in with that other culture. " Mi housa es su housa" for example, is just silly (and possibly insulting).

Here are some other hybrid ways of speaking:

Taglish (Tagalog + English)

Franglais (French + English)

Hindinglish (Hindi + English)

Germanglish (German + English)

Is Code Switching the Same as Speaking a Pidgin Language?

Code switching and pidgin are not exactly the same. The difference is that code switching generally occurs when both speakers are fluent in both languages used in the conversation, while a pidgin language is a grammatically simplified way of talking that develops between two or more groups that don't share a language. Pidgin is more like a third dialect that evolves when speakers do not share a common language. Usually, in pidgin, a speaker draws from two or more languages but vocabulary and grammar are simplified and reduced.

How to Use Code Switching in the Classroom

Allow language-learners to code switch when they have difficulty continuing a conversation in the new language.

If a student pauses mid-sentence trying to remember a word, it will be helpful if the teacher allows her to substitute the word with one from her native language in order to continue. If rules strictly prohibit code switching, classroom rapport and learning will be thwarted.

If students find the need to resort to code switching, it's the teacher's job to use those events as opportunities for learning. Teach the vocabulary, offer synonyms, and model other things students might do to continue conversations without resorting to code switching.

Should a teacher explain instructions in both the native and the new language?

It's best to explain instructions in the language you're trying to teach, and to avoid repeating those instructions in the native language afterward. If students know that you will explain it in their native tongue later, they are less likely to listen to and learn the new language.

Is there any situation where code switching should be avoided in the classroom?

Try to avoid code switching in classrooms where students speak different native tongues. If all your students are native English speakers occasional code switching may be helpful, but if your classroom includes students from different linguistic backgrounds, it will confuse the class and prevent learning.

Suggestions for Teachers

The teacher can use code switching to help promote learning, especially while teaching new vocabulary. Here are some suggestions for teachers of intermediate level students learning English. These examples set the lesson in a classroom of native Turkish speakers, but you could do something like this in any classroom full of students who share any native tongue.
Activity #1:
The teacher shares a written dialogue which includes an English statement for which the students don't know the Turkish meaning.

Joselyn: Babs, Babs, Oh there you are!

Babs: Calm down. What's the rush?

Joselyn: (I've been bursting to tell you.)

Babs: Tell me what? It's obviously got you excited.

Jocelyn: Well, Heather just told me that Mandy has dumped Gordon and got a new boyfriend.

Babs: Oohh, fancy that. Who is he?

The teacher wants the students to learn the meaning of the new word " bursting." Have the class brainstorm to guess what it means in context (hopefully they'll come up with something like Sana söylemek için can atıyorum), then the teacher introduces the new word: To burst.
* Activity 2:
The teacher gives another dialogue to the students and wants them to guess the meaning of the words which are written in bold.

John: Would you like to go out to dinner or to a movie?

Karen: Either one, it's up to you.

John: What would you prefer?

Karen: I really don't care; I just want to get out of the house.

John: Well, then how about dinner and a movie?

Karen: That's a great idea!

Students try to guess the meaning of it's up to you from the context. And after finding the its meaning as ' sana bağlı' , they are asked to put those words in the dialogue and read it again.

Conclusion

Code switching is a phenomenon that is inevitable in bilingual communities. It occurs naturally in second- or foreign-language classrooms and it can be used beneficially in many classroom activities. Although it is sometimes seen as a sloppy or presumptive way to speak, it is natural and can be turned to a purposeful and useful activity in language classes.

References

Aranoff, M. and Rees - Miller, J. (2003). The Handbook Of Linguistics. Blackwell Publishers: Oxford

Crystal, D. (1987). The Cambridge Encyclopedia Of Language. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge

Romaine, S. (1992). Bilingualism. Blackwell Publishers: Cambridge

Saunders, G. (1988). Bilingual Children: From Birth To Teens. Multilingual Matters Ltd: Clevedon

Skiba, R. (1997). Code Switching As a Countenance of Language Interference. The Internet TESL Journal. Vol. III. No: 10.

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Code Switching: Definition, Types, and Examples

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Seçkin Esen is working as an English language teacher in Turkey. He obtained his Bachelor's degree in ELT from Hacettepe University in 2010. The ability to communicate our thoughts, emotions, and opinions to others is truly a remarkable skill. But not only does our language communicate who we are, but our use of language can influence our self-concept and identity.

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Me gusta este PowerPoint porque analiza las diferencias entre diglosia y bilingüismo sin embargo, puede ser difícil distinguir los dos. Bilingüismo es el uso de dos lenguas diferentes. La Diglosia es similar pero no tiene que ser un idioma completamente diferente, puede ser una variación diferente del mismo idioma, simplemente usado en diferentes contextos. Estas diferentes variaciones se pueden ver en entornos escolares / laborales frente a entornos domésticos.

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Guatemala tiene más de 23 lenguas indígenas, la mayoría de las cuales se hablan en zonas rurales o aisladas de Guatemala y el idioma nacional de Guatemala es el español. Este artículo destaca el tratamiento de muchas lenguas indígenas en Guatemala, específicamente la lengua poqomam. La evidencia está en las escuelas porque la mayoría solo enseña en español para ayudar a asimilar las comunidades indígenas con el resto de Guatemala, pero esto termina en que los niños pierdan su idioma y herencia a pesar de que estos idiomas están protegidos por el gobierno.

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Has clic para version en Español.
" We are not going to forget it. As our grandmothers and grandfathers said, "it is our life." --Ana Concogua
Palín: Poqomam Territory
Amidst beautiful mountains and volcanoes sits the town of Palín, Escuintla, land of the Poqomam people. It is located 40 kilometers from Guatemala's capital, Guatemala City. Here, in Palín-Escuintla, the people speak the Mayan language of Poqomam. The close proximity to the capital and the Pacific coast has made the town a strategic center for commerce and industry; the city is a cosmopolitan center where Indigenous people, Guatemalan Ladinos, and Central Americans coexist together, comprising a population of about 60,000. In contrast with other Maya towns, where Indigenous people are often contained to the fringes, in Palín the Indigenous people are concentrated in the urban center and account for 50 percent of the population.

"Many years ago, we Indigenous people were the majority, not the Ladinos. There were few Ladinos, " says Ana Concogua, a native of Palín. "We were only taught to speak Poqomam, and when a Ladina addressed us in Spanish, our mother would say, 'don't bother talking to her, you won't understand.' This is why, today, we teach our daughters, sons, and grandchildren both Poqomam and Spanish, so that they can relate to and understand what the other culture says and does."
Distortion and Loss of Language
To address the disappearance of Poqomam, the first linguistic seminar was held in the town of Palín in 1985. The seminar was a sort of cultural call to arms, where Moscut warned that "our generation could be the last to speak Poqomam; or we could be those who motivate its regeneration." Since then, a group of farmers, students, and teachers worked together to create the Cultural Association of Poqomam Qawinaqel, along with an educational center of the same name, to allow for children's education and care to be provided in the Mayan language.

The existence of these Centers has improved the self-esteem of many Poqomam people, inspiring them to fight for recognition of their rights and identities and to challenge the notion put forth by anthropologist Richard Adams in the 1950s: that Indigenous people in Guatemala were on an irreversible path to Latinization.
Radio as a Service to the Community
Radio has become a popular medium to make information widely accessible and to facilitate the strengthening of Indigenous identity. On July 30, 1997, Radio Qawinaqel was born after the signing of the Peace Accords established the Accord on Rights and Identity of Indigenous People, which gave Indigenous communities in Guatemala the right to community radio.

However, without being granted a license from the Superintendent of Telecommunications, the station had to purchase a license for its frequency at auction for Q215,000 (approximately $27,000, adjusted for inflation). To raise the funds, the station had to mortgage its building, a debt that took 10 years to pay off.

Since its inception, Radio Qaqinaqel has broadcasted bilingually in Spanish and Poqomam. Some people have liked this, though others have not, considering it a regression for people to listen to Poqomam music and language. But after 15 years of work, public opinion is beginning to change. "Now, many people call and congratulate us on the work we are doing. Some have even told us that they have learned Poqomam words by listening to the radio," says station director Carlos Gomez.

Elías Choc, President of the Poqomam Linguistic Community of the Guatemalan Academy of Mayan Languages, explains that his institution has joined the effort to de-stigmatize Poqomam by developing texts for the teaching and learning of the Mayan language. It has also provided facilitators to public schools who help teach students to speak and write in Poqomam.

"We see positive changes, like various people coming into the office to learn to pronounce words or to request information," Choc says. Because of it, the Academy has recorded a series of messages in Poqomam on topics such as correct word usage, the resurrection of terms that have fallen into disuse, and elements of identity that can be shared over public radio.

Upon seeing the impact of the resurgence of Poqomam language on the people of Palín, organizations and businesses have joined in to transmit their messages bilingually as well. Verónica Dávila, who leads the community health center's efforts against malnutrition in young children, says that since they began broadcasting health campaigns in Poqomam and Spanish on Radio Qawinaqel, the number of patients visiting the health center has increased. And because three Indigenous women work there, Mayan speakers are more confident coming in for their exams.
Beyond Palín
Palín is not the only town where Poqomam is spoken, so part of the Poqomam Linguistic Community's action plan for 2013 is to seek out media organizations in the towns of Mixco and Chinautla in the department of Guatemala to replicate what is being done in Palín. However, in order to ensure that Poqomam prevails for many more generations, responsibility ultimately rests with the parents. "The home is the first school where the Poqomam language should be taught to children," says Choc.

All participants in this article agree that Radio Qawinaqel has contributed greatly to the revival and diffusion of Poqomam, but more work is needed. "We must continue to raise awareness of the richness of cultural differences, so as to construct unity among our diverse cultures. With the help of the radio, the language has become stronger," says Moscut. "The next step is to resurrect the academic Poqomam spoken ancestrally by our elders."

While the community understands the urgency of the situation, native speakers are confident that Poqomam will endure. Says Concagua, "I do not believe that the language will disappear. Each day, more babies are born. My granddaughter just had her baby and she must teach him Poqomam. We are not going to forget it. As our grandmothers and grandfathers said, it is our life."
Has clic para version en Español.

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A Tale of One City, Two Languages: Palín, Guatemala

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Has clic para version en Español. " We are not going to forget it. As our grandmothers and grandfathers said, "it is our life." -- Ana Concogua Palín: Poqomam Territory Amidst beautiful mountains and volcanoes sits the town of Palín, Escuintla, land of the Poqomam people.

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El español y el catalán tienen algunas similitudes porque ambos son lenguas romances, pero se parecen más al francés o al italiano que al español o al portugués. El catalán que se habla en Barcelona es el más fácil de entender pero una vez que te aventuras fuera de la ciudad se vuelve más difícil debido a los fuertes acentos. Este vídeo destaca las diferencias lingüísticas entre el catalán y el español de una forma muy sencilla: aprender a contar hasta diez.

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Spanish vs Catalan: How to count from 0 - 10

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Alfredo Diaz Nabor es un rapero mexicano que busca preservar la lengua indigena cuicateco. Él es de Cuicatlán y su lengua está muriendo. Un amigo le recomendó la música rap y pensó que sería una excelente manera de preservar y promover la lengua materna. También, sus canciones incluían temas sobre violencia de género, migración y recursos naturales. Me gusta este podcast porque explica la historia del rapero de una forma divertida.

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A young Mexican man discovers that he can use rap as a tool to help save his native language. But can he convince a new generation to love this new form of rap, too?

How to Listen

Listen free on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Transcript

Martina: One afternoon in 2015, Alfredo Díaz Nabor took the stage dressed in baggy pants, hat, and sneakers, it's somewhat typical of a Mexican hip hop artist. But one thing he was wearing wasn't typical: his shirt. It was embroidered with floral native designs as a tribute to Mexican artists with indigenous roots like him.

Alfredo: Yo estaba nervioso porque no iba a rapear en español, la lengua predominante en México, sino en cuicateco, mi idioma materno. ¿Acaso mi decisión de rapear en ese idioma iba a ofender al público?

Martina: Only 13,000 people speak Cuicateco, one of Mexico's native languages. The name of the region where they speak it is Cuicatlán, which means "Land of Singers." There might have been singers in Cuicatlán in the past...but as far as Alfredo knew, he was the first rapper.

Alfredo: Mi concierto de rap era en el gimnasio del colegio donde estudié cuando era niño. Mientras preparaba mi voz, yo estaba preocupado. Pensaba en mis vecinos, mis amigos y familiares que estaban en el público. Nunca nadie había rapeado en cuicateco.

Martina: Cuicateco, like many indigenous languages across Mexico, is a critical part of Cuicatlán identity - a language that survived Spanish colonization but still needs to be saved, or salvado. As Alfredo took the stage...he felt enormous pressure. As the speakers blasted at full volume, insecurity overtook him. He felt that his Cuicateco was rusty.

Alfredo: Yo quería rescatar mi idioma a través del rap. Pero en ese momento tuve miedo. ¿Y si esto era un insulto para mi comunidad?

Martina: Bienvenidos and welcome to the Duolingo Spanish Podcast. I'm Martina Castro. Every episode, we bring you fascinating true stories, to help you improve your Spanish listening, and gain new perspectives on the world.

The storyteller will be using intermediate Spanish, and I'll be chiming in for context in English. If you miss something, you can always skip back and listen again. We also offer full transcripts at podcast.duolingo.com.

Martina: Alfredo grew up speaking Cuicateco at home. When he was nine, he started listening to rap in Spanish. He fell in love with groups like Calle 13 and Molotov, who included political statements in their songs. He liked them because he could relate to the lyrics, which sometimes touched on the hardships of native communities.

Alfredo: Mi familia no tenía mucho. Yo nunca conocí a mi papá, pero mi mamá era muy trabajadora. De donde yo vengo, muchos jóvenes trabajan en el campo, otros emigran a la ciudad y algunos terminan teniendo malas experiencias con los trabajos. Aparentemente, esas eran mis únicas posibilidades. Pero gracias al rap, yo soñaba con otra vida.

Martina: As a kid, Alfredo dreamt of singing in a language that wasn't really his. With 121 million speakers, Mexico is the largest Spanish-speaking country in the world, but it still includes 68 other native languages and hundreds of dialects.

Alfredo: Las canciones que me gustaban hablaban sobre el "pueblo", pero en cuicateco la palabra es diferente, se dice "Yaav". Yo sentía la necesidad de hablar sobre mi pueblo, mi "Yaav", pero en mi idioma.

Martina: For many years, schools in Mexico didn't teach native languages. Even in the small towns that only spoke Cuicateco and other regional languages, the classes were only in Spanish.

Alfredo: Un día, un compañero de clase me hizo escuchar una canción que sus hermanos habían grabado en español. Después de escucharla, entendí que solo necesitas un micrófono para rapear. Entonces, ahorré dinero, me compré un micrófono y experimenté con mis primeras canciones.

Martina: Alfredo liked making music, but he thought rap wouldn't earn him a living. He wanted to give college a try, and the field that attracted him the most was renewable energies.

Alfredo: Yo decidí estudiar ingeniería y ayudar a mi comunidad. En el 2014, cuando terminé el colegio, la Universidad de Chapingo, cerca de Ciudad de México, me ofreció una beca para estudiar ahí.

Martina: Alfredo officially became the first person in his family to go to college, and with a scholarship or beca. He left his mom in Cuicatlán and moved 400 kilometers north to Mexico City. As school took over his life, rap became just a hobby for him.

Alfredo: Durante los primeros meses, tuve mucho trabajo en la universidad y me olvidé un poco de la música. Pero un día, en el 2015, la universidad organizó un festival para todos los estudiantes. Un día hubo un concierto de rap y yo fui a escuchar.

Martina: In that concert, Alfredo listened for the very first time to members of a movement called rap originario, or original rap. It's led by young Mexican musicians who are experimenting with rap in languages other than Spanish.

Alfredo: En esos tiempos, el rap originario era un movimiento underground. Pocos raperos experimentaban con hip hop en lenguas nativas. Esto era un pequeño género dentro del ambiente cultural mexicano, donde toda la música era exclusivamente en español.

Martina: These rappers were keeping native languages alive by using them in their verses. That night, at the concert, Alfredo met several rappers and a producer. When this producer learned that Spanish wasn't Alfredo's native language, he encouraged him to rap in Cuicateco.

Alfredo: Durante ese festival, yo vi a varios artistas que cantaban en sus idiomas nativos, como zapoteco, seri y maya. Sus canciones eran políticas y me inspiraron a escribir rap en cuicateco.

Martina: Alfredo didn't sleep much the following days. He had to go to his engineering classes and study during the day. But he spent nights writing lyrics and memorizing verses. He realized that in just a few months, he had started to forget his Cuicateco.

Alfredo: Yo había dejado de hablar en cuicateco. Este es un idioma complicado y con pocos sonidos de consonantes. Se me hacía difícil rimar las palabras para escribir mis versos.

Martina: Alfredo finally finished his first song with the help of some producer friends. Composing in Cuicateco was possible. Tired and excited, he immediately uploaded a video of him singing the song to YouTube.

Alfredo: "Cuchí cuvǐ nꞌisi" que se traduce como: "Vengo a decirles". Al principio, pocos la escucharon, menos de 200 personas. No fue un gran éxito, pero sirvió de algo. Un día, después de una clase de ingeniería, vi en mi teléfono que tenía dos llamadas perdidas.

Martina: Two missed calls... Alfredo immediately left the classroom and called back. It was a producer for La Hora Nacional, or The National Hour, one of the most famous radio shows in Mexico. They had found Alfredo's video online and wanted to interview him.

Alfredo: Los cantantes famosos van a ese programa. Yo dije que sí porque eso significaba que el cuicateco iba a llegar a millones de personas. Fui al estudio de radio a explicar por qué rapeaba en cuicateco.

Martina: During his interview, Alfredo explained that the number of people who speak Cuicateco decreases every year, as with many other native languages in Mexico. Of those who identify as native Cuicatecos, only half understand and speak the language. The rest of the population never learned it.

Alfredo: Si un idioma no se utiliza, muere. Las personas que hablamos cuicateco debemos poner de nuestra parte para mantenerlo vivo.

Martina: After the interview, Alfredo understood that rapping in Cuicateco was more than just a hobby for him. It was a statement. He felt that his community lacked young musicians and poets who could keep its language alive and preserve it for the future. He wanted to be that voice.

Alfredo: Decidí que esa voz no sería yo, Alfredo. Iba a ser alguien con un nombre en cuicateco, un representante de la comunidad para ayudar a mantener y defender sus tradiciones.

Martina: Alfredo created a rap name named Yune Vaa, which in Cuicateco means "House of the Wind." From now on, he decided, he would write and perform as Yune Vaa. After polishing his verses, Alfredo recorded more songs, which would end up on his first short album. As his music spread, Yune Vaa's reputation spread, too.

Alfredo: Me empezaron a llegar muchas invitaciones para rapear. La que más me emocionó fue la del pueblo en donde yo crecí.

Martina: Alfredo was invited to perform as Yune Vaa at a festival honoring the native languages in Cuicatlán. It was a long and bumpy eight-hour bus ride from Mexico City back to his hometown.

Alfredo: Era un honor poder rapear para mi comunidad en nuestro idioma. Yo quería demostrarles que hablar cuicateco era un orgullo para mí.

Martina: Alfredo hadn't had much time to rehearse before traveling back to Cuicatlán. His class schedule was so demanding, he arrived in town barely an hour before the performance began.

Alfredo: Tuve que practicar mi cuicateco en el autobús. No tuve mucho tiempo porque llegué solo una hora antes del concierto. Cuando salí al escenario, vi a profesores y alumnos en el público y también a muchos de mis amigos y familiares. Yo estaba muy nervioso.

Martina: Alfredo started to sing...and immediately noticed the crowd was not responding as he had hoped. They seemed confused by the mix of modern music and Cuicateco. Alfredo started to worry. He saw full rows of frowning students, looking puzzled, their arms crossed.

Alfredo: La mayoría del público hablaba cuicateco muy bien y yo sentía que mi cuicateco estaba oxidado. Me preguntaba: "¿Me van a criticar por rapear en cuicateco? ¿Me van a salir mal las palabras? ¿Van a odiar mis canciones?".

Martina: Alfredo decided he needed to get the audience moving. He asked the students to stand up, raise their arms and clap to the rhythm of the music. He looked them in the eyes and started singing in Cuicateco.

Alfredo: Pocos minutos después, todos estaban cantando y bailando. Fue un gran cambio, el público se estaba divirtiendo. Yo entendí que para ellos era una experiencia nueva. Ellos no sabían que se podía rapear en cuicateco.

Martina: After the show, some people approached him. Some of them even knew his mother or remembered him as a child. Older people weren't sure about the hip hop music...but they congratulated him because they knew he was keeping Cuicateco alive.

Alfredo: Mi carrera de rapero estaba creciendo y yo soñaba en grande. Mi ambición era rapear en El Zócalo, la plaza más importante de todo México, para que mucha gente escuchara el rap cuicateco. Pero yo tenía miedo... ¿Había espacio en mi vida para la ingeniería y el rap?

Martina: Alfredo had convinced his hometown that rap could be just as good in Cuicateco as in Spanish. But could he convince the rest of Mexico? He began to dream about rapping in El Zócalo, the most famous public square in the country...it's the ancient ceremonial center of the Aztec culture.

Alfredo: Yo quería hacerles ver a los mexicanos que el cuicateco estaba desapareciendo y que para salvarlo, había que usarlo más, incluso en el rap. Yo puse todas mis energías y mi tiempo en ese proyecto.

Martina: In 2018, three years after his performance in his hometown, Alfredo's dream finally came true. The Mexican government invited him to be part of a concert honoring native cultures...in El Zócalo Square!

Alfredo: ¡Yo no podía creerlo! Me sentía muy feliz. Es un lugar muy simbólico porque conmemora la independencia de México.

Martina: There was only one problem - Alfredo had to perform for 40 minutes straight. He was not used to doing shows that long.

Alfredo: Aunque yo solo tenía una canción grabada, dije que sí. No lo pensé dos veces porque ese era mi sueño. Inmediatamente, comencé a componer otras canciones.

Martina: As before, Alfredo faced the same problem of not having enough time to juggle his studies and his passion. He needed to prepare for his show but he also had to prepare for his classes.

Alfredo: Yo no había practicado y me faltaba experiencia, pero también me faltaba profesionalismo. No tuve mucho tiempo para preparar el show porque había tenido que estudiar con mis compañeros de la universidad.

Martina: The setting for the concert was a big tent set in the middle of El Zócalo Square. There were stands filled with handmade Mexican objects.

Alfredo: No lo pensé mucho, simplemente me subí en el escenario y canté. No pude conectar con el público. La gente se veía distante y fría. Cuando me bajé del escenario, yo supe que no había sido un buen concierto y lo confirmé porque nadie me preguntó sobre el idioma cuicateco.

Martina: Alfredo was crushed. He knew that next time if he wanted to avoid another bad performance, he had to record more music and spend more time rehearsing. In the following months, he produced six songs for a short album titled Dbaku, which is how people from Cuicatlán refer to themselves in Cuicateco.

Alfredo: También grabé un videoclip y fui a muchas entrevistas para promocionar mi música. El único problema era que le estaba dedicando todo mi tiempo al rap y casi nada de tiempo a mis estudios.

Martina: Though Alfredo was proud of his new music, he wasn't making very much money from his career as a rapper. At the same time, school wasn't going well. His grades were slipping.

Alfredo: Me gustaba la idea de dedicarme completa y exclusivamente al rap y, de esa manera, dar a conocer el cuicateco. Pero... ¿iba a poder vivir solo de eso?

Martina: Because of his poor grades, Alfredo risked losing his scholarship. He didn't know how he would pay his bills. He decided he couldn't keep shuffling between rap and engineering.

Alfredo: Decidí concentrarme en mis estudios y terminar mi carrera. Después de eso, yo iba a poder dedicarle el tiempo necesario al rap.

Martina: Alfredo doubled down on his school work. As he became more invested in his studies, he had to pass on some offers related to his rap career. It felt counter-intuitive, but he knew deep inside that he had to put school first - and focus on his music in his spare time.

Alfredo: Todavía componía algunas canciones y cantaba de vez en cuando, pero era solo un hobby. Mi objetivo principal era terminar la universidad. Yo encontré un equilibrio. Después de estudiar lo suficiente, me dedicaba a componer y a rapear y, poco a poco, mi música mejoró. Yo creo que maduré mucho en todo ese proceso.

Martina: A year later, Alfredo had fully turned his academic career around, and was pulling better grades. Then to his surprise, he was invited to perform again at El Zócalo in 2019. He said yes and decided not to leave anything to chance.

Alfredo: Yo preparé el show muy bien. Quería dar un concierto más dinámico y con un mensaje claro: hay que usar las lenguas nativas para mantenerlas vivas. De lo contrario, el cuicateco iba a desaparecer.

Martina: Alfredo came up with a 40-minute routine of hip hop and breakdancing, with a clear political and social message. He wanted his performance to be a wake-up call about the loss of native languages in Mexico. For days, he rehearsed his Cuicateco in front of a mirror.

Alfredo: Yo estaba incluso más nervioso que la primera vez, pero adopté una actitud más profesional y eso me ayudó a calmarme. Me sentía más preparado porque había practicado la pronunciación de las palabras en cuicateco frente al espejo.

Martina: As Alfredo took the stage again in Zócalo Square, he saw thousands of people staring back at him. Here he was again. But he was changed - more confident and focused.

Alfredo: Yo subí al escenario más seguro de mí mismo. Con las canciones preparadas y los versos aprendidos, rapeé con fuerza. Y, esta vez, la gente se conectó conmigo. Dije "Ú saꞌaⁿ yita. Yitá yeꞌeⁿ iyꞌaⁿ yeꞌéⁿ". Eso significa: "Soy el hombre que canta, que canta para su gente".

Martina: He rapped loud and clear about young Mexicans who need to remember their roots. He was energetic. And this time it worked.

Alfredo: El Zócalo estaba lleno de gente. La mayoría eran mexicanos de diferentes pueblos nativos, todos juntos, aplaudiendo. Algunos hasta gritaban mi nombre en cuicateco, Yune Vaa. Fue muy emocionante y me hizo entender que mi decisión de dedicarme a mantener vivo el cuicateco era la correcta.

Martina: Alfredo made a decision, then and there. He would finish his thesis and look for a job in engineering, but he would devote all of his free time and resources to preserving Cuicateco.

Alfredo: Es difícil no cantar en español en un país como México, pero sé que mis canciones en cuicateco van a ayudar a las nuevas generaciones. Yo sé que las personas entenderán que hablar una lengua originaria es una forma de resistencia.

Martina: Alfredo Díaz Nabor is about to become an engineer in renewable energy sources. He's finishing his thesis - while also working on his first full-length album as Yune Vaa. In his podcast A través del viento, he interviews young Mexican artists and academics rescuing native languages.

This story was produced by "Ado" or Antonio Díaz Oliva, a Chilean writer and translator who lives in East Nashville.

We'd love to know what you thought of this episode! You can call and leave us a voicemail or audio message on WhatsApp, at +1 703 953 93 69, or write us an email at podcast@duolingo.com. And if you liked this story, please share it! You can find the audio and a transcript of each episode at podcast.duolingo.com. You can also subscribe at Apple Podcasts or your favorite listening app, so you never miss an episode.

With over 300 million users, Duolingo is the world's leading language learning platform, and the most downloaded education app in the world. Duolingo believes in making education free, fun, and accessible to everyone. To join, download the app today, or find out more at duolingo.com.

The Duolingo Spanish Podcast is produced by Duolingo and Adonde Media. I'm the executive producer, Martina Castro. ¡Gracias por escuchar!

Credits

This episode was produced by Duolingo and Adonde Media.

Producer: Antonio Díaz Oliva

Mixed by: Martín Pérez Roa

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Episode 63: Rap originario (Indigenous Rap)

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Listen to episodes of the Spanish Duolingo podcast for compelling, true-life stories that improve your Spanish listening and comprehension skills.

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Los roles semánticos no son difíciles de aprender. Básicamente, son los roles que juegan las palabras en una oración. En un nivel más profundo, las palabras por sí solas tienen significado, pero cuando se ponen en una oración, reciben un segundo significado. Algunos de estos roles o significados son el agente, paciente, instrumento, beneficiario, recipiente, y más. Este video explica más sobre los roles semánticos.

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Semantic Roles- Thematic Roles- Agent, Theme and Experiencer- Instrument in Semantics

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Al aprender un idioma, la existencia de dos palabras que suenan igual y tienen la misma ortografía, puede resultar inicialmente muy confuso. Esto es verdad especialmente cuando estás leyendo. Esto es por que me gusta esta imagen, porque si solo lee o escucha las oraciones sin ningún contexto, parece que solo están diciendo las mismas palabras una y otra vez. Pero cuando sabe el contexto, se da cuenta que es la misma palabra con un diferente significado.

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Me gusta aprender la pragmática porque no lo he pensado. Aunque hay mucho en este tema, la parte que quiero enfocarse en es las implicaturas conversacionales. Las implicaturas conversacionales son cuando alguien responde a una pregunta en un contexto completamente diferente. Aprender sobre esto me hizo darme cuenta de que a veces hago esto, aunque suena extraño cuando lo leo. Este video explica más sobre la pragmática.

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Creo que una de mis cosas favoritas sobre aprendizaje de la lingüística porque todas de estas cosas podemos ver pero algunas son fáciles de entender y otras son difíciles. La deixis en mi opinión es facil para entender pero puede ser un poco confuso lo que implica. Me gusta esta imagen porque creo que los elementos visuales facilitan la comprensión de los temas.

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La transición de Latin Clásica a Espanol Moderno

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La transición de Latin Clásica a Espanol Moderno

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La evolución de Latin clásica a los lenguas que tenemos hoy en día es muy interesante. Sin embargo, porque hay tanta historia en la evolución, puede ser un poco confundida en cuanto a por qué el español moderno es lo que es hoy en día. Elegí este artículo porque tiene los eventos más importantes en historia que afecta la transición y con cada evento tiene un video para explicar más.

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Spanish is a beautiful, lyrical language. It's music to the ears of those who listen to it and sweet on the tongue for those who speak it.

Have you ever wondered where, exactly, does Spanish come from?

Just how much did Spanish evolve over time? I mean, how different is the Spanish we hear and speak today from the language at different stages in its history?

It turns out, Spanish has gone through a pretty vast and incredible journey.

This Romance language, with its deep roots, has spread far and wide from its point of origin. The Spanish we now know and love is the result of thousands of years of language development and cultural influence.
It's a fascinating story.
Let's go on a journey to learn about the origin of the Spanish language and its evolution to today's iteration of the language!

Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere.Click here to get a copy. (Download)

The Spanish Language Today: Just the Facts

Spanish Is Spoken by Millions Around the World

Spanish is the most widely spoken Romance language. The other Romance languages include Portuguese, French, Italian, Romanian and Catalan, among others. They all trace their linguistic family lines back to the Indo-European language family, which we'll learn about in just a bit.

This language is spoken across the globe and is even used widely in countries that have an official language that isn't Spanish. The United States is a prime example of a place where Spanish is used extensively despite it not being the country's official language.

Spanish is the native language to 330 million people in 21 countries. It's considered the second world language in international communication and the third world language in politics, economics and culture. A "world language" is a language that's widely learned as a second language and spoken extensively across the globe. That's a pretty big deal!

The Different Branches of the Spanish Language

Castilian Spanish, also called Castellano, is spoken predominantly in Spain.

There are some pronunciation points that make it sound different from Latin American Spanish. There are also a few vocabulary differences. For example, in Spain you'd drive un coche (a car) while elsewhere you'd use un carro (a car). Additionally, the vosotros (you) form is utilized rather than the ustedes (you) that you'd hear in other Spanish-speaking countries.

In the Americas, Latin American Spanish is used.

Be aware, though, that there are regional differences in Latin American Spanish, depending on location. Dialects, idioms and slangy phrases make this a fun language to hear and speak-wherever you are!

To learn Spanish as it's used by real people around the world, make FluentU your companion on your journey to learn the language. FluentU takes real-world videos-like music videos, movie trailers, news and inspiring talks-and turns them into personalized language learning lessons.

The program makes authentic Spanish content approachable at any level through interactive subtitles, multimedia flashcards and adaptive quizzes that learn as you do. It's a fun and memorable way to get to know Spanish!

Now that you know a bit about what the Spanish language is like today, let's find out where the language came from!

From Proto-Indo-European to Latin: The Story Begins Near the Black Sea

In his widely-read book "A History of the Spanish Language," author Ralph Penny traces the Spanish language all the way back to the Indo-European languages, but really, it might go even further back than that.

Historians and linguists believe that a family of languages called the Proto-Indo-European languages were spoken until around 3,400 BCE, which then gave way to the development of the languages we know today. Since these languages never developed a writing system, we don't know too much about them ( or even if they really existed). But we do know that eventually, they morphed into the Indo-European languages -and we know a lot more about those.

The Indo-European languages were first spoken 5,000 years ago in the area surrounding the Black Sea, located between southeastern Europe, western Asia and modern-day Turkey.

As groups of people moved around, they spread out across the Europe and Asia-and as they did, they took their languages with them. Over time, the languages evolved and branched out into Anatolian, Indo-Iranian, Greek, Italic, Celtic, Germanic, Armenian, Tocharian, Balto-Slavic and Albanian. Linguist Mark Damen explores one aspect of this evolution over the years in a fascinating TEDx talk, if you'd like to learn more about the topic!

But we're only concerned with the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages, because it's from that branch that we eventually got to Latin, spoken by the ancient Romans. (You can follow the route that the evolution took in this nifty flow-chart from the Ancient History Encyclopedia).

And Spanish? Well, it has Latin roots!

From Latin and Arabic to Castilian: The Travelers Reach the Iberian Peninsula

The Iberian Peninsula, where Spain and Portugal are located, is nearly 2,000 miles from the Black Sea. But this distance didn't stop the Roman Empire from spreading its reach all the way out and influencing the development of the area, both in terms of culture and language.

The Romans settled on the peninsula in about 200 BC, bringing their spoken language with them. This wasn't the classic Latin that we associate with fine art and religion today. Instead, they spoke a more common, cruder form of Latin, known as Vulgar Latin.

If you're interested in hearing how the Latin language differed between the classic and vulgar variations, NativLang has an interesting exploration of the sounds (and how they translated to modern Romance languages).

Other settlers and languages began to filter in to the area, including Arabic due to the Muslim rule of the peninsula between 711 and 1491. In fact, approximately 4000 modern Spanish words are derived from Arabic! You can hear just how similar the two languages are in this fun video from Annenberg Media.

As the languages in the area mixed together, dialects began to take shape within the spoken language. Around the end of the 11 th century, the Castilian dialect was formed in northern Spain. This is the earliest point where we can see the beginnings of modern Spanish being spoken!

What started as a local dialect spread and gained a foothold when the kingdoms of Castile, Leon and Aragon joined together to form the beginnings of Spain in the late 15th century. In 1492, Castilian became the official language of the region, having also developed a writing system.

With this newly widespread use, literature began to emerge from the area. People started to write down the tales that were previously spread through oral storytelling, further evolving and refining the language. Other literature began to be translated into Castilian, as well.

A surge of written language is a high point for any society and Spain was no exception. In Charles E. Chapman's "A History of Spain," we learn that there was a large intellectual surge during the period leading up to the end of the 15 th century.

To this day, Castilian Spanish remains the official language of that incredible country, Spain!

From Castilian to Latin American: Castilian Spanish Crosses the Ocean

But wait: Spanish is also spoken in the Americas! You may be wondering how Spanish ended up being spoken so far from the Iberian Peninsula.

The journey of the language "across the pond" is thanks in large part to an Italian ( or, maybe, Portuguese) explorer whose name you might recognize: Christopher Columbus.

Starting with his voyage in 1492, Italian sailor Christopher Columbus traveled on behalf of Spain (speaking Castilian Spanish) to the Americas four times. He and his crews brought the language to many places, including the Bahamian islands, Trinidad, the South American mainland, Panama and present-day Haiti and the Dominican Republic.

He wasn't the only explorer who visited the inhabitants of America: Spain's Ponce de León also made some trips starting in 1513 to Florida and expanded across present-day United States.

All this exploration by the Spanish led to the establishment of several Spanish-speaking colonies along the way.

Of course, languages don't live in isolation, and Spanish continued to evolve after its arrival in the Americas. Castilian Spanish may have arrived in its pure, original form to Latin America but it didn't remain that way. Native languages spoken by the people who were impacted by visitors and the church, and later, English speakers in modern-day United States, led to variations in spoken Castilian Spanish.

Dialects emerged-and Latin American Spanish evolved. Even today, depending on where you go, you'll hear differences in the language, sometimes subtle and sometimes pretty drastic.

And, over time, the sounds of Latin American Spanish became pretty different from those of Castilian Spanish, as you can hear by comparing the wonderful variety of Latin American Spanish in the previous video to Alberto Jorrin's entrancing Castilian pronunciation below!

Spanish is the result of linguistic evolution. The origins of the Spanish language show that languages don't form in isolation.

The language is like una hermosa mariposa (a gorgeous butterfly).

It went through various stages of growth and change.

Finally, the language that we know and love emerged, in all its glorious colors and variations. It spread its wings and flew-and now calls the global community its home!

Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere.Click here to get a copy. (Download)

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The History of the Spanish Language: From Origin to Romance

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Where does Spanish come from? Come with us on an adventure through the history of the Spanish language, from its origin to the beautiful language you know and love today! Find out where the language originated and how it evolved over time with our reader- and learner-friendly overview.

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El desarrollo de los sibilantes en Espanol

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El desarrollo de los sibilantes en Espanol

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Muchas personas creen que la gente en España tiene un ceceo. Siempre estaba confundida porque algunas hispanohablantes generalmente en España producían el sonido “th” con letras “c”, “z” o “s”. Esta video explica qué porque latin tenía muchas fonemas, por la evolución del español, las fonemas cambinarian. En algunas partes del español, había los sonidos “s” y “th” y en otros solo había uno. Los sistemas son distincion (“s” y “th”), seseo (solo “s”) y ceceo (solo “th”).

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Distinción, seseo, and ceceo: sibilant pronunciation in Spain

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Al aprender español, los verbos irregulares me resultaban muy confusos de entender. Nunca pensé que hubiera una razón histórica para ello y me frustraba porque no entendía el sentido de hacer que los verbos fueran irregulares. Este artículo explica brevemente los verbos “boot”, los verbos ir “únicos”, y otros verbos irregulares en sus formas de indicativo y subjuntivo y explica sus raíces latinas.

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I can remember the exact moment when Spanish utterly and permanently captivated me. I was fifteen years old and in my fourth year as a Spanish student. Our class had wrapped up the basic tenses and the present subjunctive, and was ready to launch into the imperfect subjunctive. Our teacher explained to us that this tense was based on the pretérito and incorporated all of its irregulars.

This struck me as laugh-out-loud funny. We had already learned that the present subjunctive inherited all the idiosyncrasies of the normal present tense, including the ones that only show up in the yo form (the -zco and -go types). But the preterit is even thornier. It seemed bizarre beyond belief that the subjunctive should adopt the most problematic elements of both these tenses.

As a student, it amused me to imagine that a twisted "Spanish committee" (perhaps a branch of the Spanish Inquisition?) had designed the subjunctive. (My little PowerPoint below depicts this scenario.) As a teacher, I now like to tell my students that the present subjunctive is God's way of getting them to review the irregular verbs that they'd studied weeks, months, or even years ago. I figure that teaching at a Jesuit university authorizes me to invoke God in the classroom.

In fact, the many irregulars of the subjunctive are neither a cosmic joke, an evil machination, nor an act of God. They're simply a coincidence. The present and imperfect subjunctive happened to follow the same evolutionary paths as several distinct categories of irregular verbs in the present and pretérito indicative.

Consider the examples of irregular verbs shown in the table below, color-coded for your convenience.

The " boot " verbs, in yellow, are irregular in the present tense because of a language-wide process that changed stressed /o/ to /ue/ and stressed /e/ to /ie/. The corresponding present subjunctives have the same vowels and the same stress pattern, and therefore the same irregularity.

The blue, are irregular in the -ir "sole" verbs, in present and the pretérito because of another general process: the raising of /e/ to /i/ and /o/ to /u/ before /j/ (the sound of English y). All Latin -ire present subjunctive endings, and the "sole" (3rd person) endings of the imperfect subjunctive, contained (or still contain) /j/, triggering the vowel change.

The -zco and -go irregulars of the present tense, in green, evolved because the -o ending of the yo form insulated it from changes that affected the other present tense forms and the infinitive. The subjunctive endings for these verbs begin with -a, which had the same insulating property.

Finally, the drastic stem-changing pretéritos, in magenta, descend from Latin's "strong perfect" past tense forms. The imperfect subjunctive is based on Latin's pluperfect tense, which had the same irregularities.

This leaves "only" the six additional irregulars of the present tense subjunctive. Their diverse origins are summarized below.

As always, if you want to learn more, the best source is Ralph Penny's A History of the Spanish Language. But beware - nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!

This entry was posted in From Latin to Spanish, Verbs and tagged boot verbs, imperfect subjunctive, irregular verbs, Latin, sound change, Spanish, stem-changing verbs, verbs on by .

Because my high school friend Peter was on the yearbook committee, he managed to have his picture published upside-down (that's NOT him in the picture below), with the senior quote "Maybe, just maybe, everyone else is wrong".

In our family, Peter's quote has become an anti-trend mini-meme. No Facebook account? Don't think Seth MacFarlane is funny? Every other "car" in the parking lot is an SUV? Maybe, just maybe...

Believe it or not, I thought of Peter immediately when I looked into the origin of the two biggest Spanish verb groups with irregular yo forms in the present tense: the so-called -zco and -go verbs. (This is particularly ironic because Peter didn't even take Spanish.) It turns out that from a historical perspective, the yo forms are actually the most REGULAR - that is, most faithful to the original Latin. In a nutshell, their -o ending insulated them from sound changes that affected /k/ before /e/ and /i/; i.e. before front vowels.

So in this case, everyone else IS wrong, or at least linguistically radical.

For -zco verbs like florecer, from Latin florescere, the relevant change was the simplification of /sk/ to /s/ (in Andalucian and Latin American Spanish) or /Θ/ (in Castilian Spanish) before /e/ or /i/. [Note: this is a drastic abbreviation of a process that involved several intermediate steps; see Ralph Penny's A History of the Spanish Language or another good history of Spanish for details.] So the infinitive changed from florescere to florecer, the tú form from floresces to floreces, and so on. Only florezco kept the /k/ cluster of the original Latin.

For -go verbs like hacer, from Latin facere, the relevant change was the fronting and softening of /k/ to /s/ or /θ/ before front vowels. So the infinitive changed from facere (with a /k/ sound) to hacer, the tú form to haces, and so on. Only haco remained in the present tense as a reflection of the original Latin /k/. Later, a separate change voiced the /k/ to /g/, giving us modern hago. (This /g/ is still a lot closer to /k/ than is /s/ or /θ/.) A similar sequence of events impacted Latin dicere as it evolved into decir, giving us the (yo) digo form.

All the sound changes mentioned above were general, occurring throughout Spanish vocabulary. For example, the /sk/ simplification gave us pez (from Latin pesce), /k/ fronting gave us cielo (from Latin caelu), and /k/ voicing gave us lugar(from Latin locale). The change of /f/ to /h/ in hacer (from facere) is also seen in words like hijo (from Latin filius).

As I described in an earlier post, analogy untidies the results of sweeping sound changes like these. This was certainly the case with the -zco and -go verbs. The verb lucir and related verbs like deslucir adopted the -zco pattern, as did several verbs ending in -ducir, such as producir, even though none of these had an /sk/ cluster in Latin. Likewise, the -go pattern spread to other common verbs including venir, tener, and salir, though at the same time, some verbs originally in the -go group became regular ( cocer is one). After these back-and-forths, modern Spanish ended up with almost 100 -zco verbs, and around 10 -go verbs. You can check my Teaching page for a full list of the -zco verbs.

The other irregular yo types - ver, the -oy verbs, and the two -e verbs ( haber and saber) -are another story entirely; maybe I'll post about them later.

[Update: I have now posted about ver.]

This entry was posted in From Latin to Spanish, Verbs and tagged analogical change, go verbs, irregular verbs, irregular yo, Latin, sound change, Spanish, verbs, zco verbs on by .

Lately I've been looking into the origins of the Spanish irregular verbs oh-so-affectionately called " boot" verbs. They are more properly called "stem-changing verbs" because their final stem vowel changes from e to ie (e.g. negar/niego), from o to ue (e.g. poder/puedo), or from e to i (e.g. medir/mido). It's exciting to discover that this verb class is a perfect example of the two classic forces in language change: sound change and analogy. As any basic linguistics textbook will tell you, sound change affects all words with a given sound, and analogy then messes things up.

Two sound changes are responsible for the "boot" verbs: the change of Latin short /ĕ/ and /ŏ/ to the diphthongs (vowel sequences) /ie/ and /ue/ in stressed syllables, and the raising of /e/ to /i/ before the sound /j/, which is pronounced like English y. The first change is more common because it affected -ar, -er, and -ir verbs. It's the change behind the form of much Spanish vocabulary, including such common words as fiesta and puerta, from Latin festa and porta (see this previous post). And because it's confined to stressed syllables, it's the source of the classic "boot" pattern, where the diphthong occurs in the singular and the 3rd person plural ( pUEdo, pUEdes, pUEde, pUEden) but not in the nosotros and vosotros forms, where stress falls on the verb ending ( podEmos, podÉIs).

Analogy messed up this tidy result by turning some regular verbs into boot verbs and some boot verbs into regulars. The former is akin to the emergence of dove as an alternative to dived, by analogy to drove and other irregular " strong" English verbs. The most common verb that "went boot" is pensar, which shouldn't have a stem change because its /e/ comes from a Latin long vowel. Some examples of former boot verbs that are now regular are prestar (formerly priesto, priestas, etc.) and diezmar (the original infinitive was dezmar).

The raising of /e/ to /i/ before /j/ only happened in a few verb forms, but analogy took it the rest of the way. The /j/ that triggered this change occurred in Latin -īre verb endings; this is why all Spanish verbs in this boot class are -ir verbs. For example, the - iō ending of Latin mētiō "I measure" came to be pronounced /jo/ in Vulgar Latin, triggering the change of /met/ to /mit/. This vowel change then spread, by analogy, throughout the full "boot", and the /j/ was eventually lost. (The /t/ also turned into a /d/, obviously.)

Spanish was actually supposed to have four types of boot verbs, because /j/ affected /o/ as well as /e/, raising it to /u/ in a number of -ir verbs. However, in these cases analogy truly ran rampant and /u/ completely took over the verb, changing Latin mollire, for example, to Spanish mullir "to hoe". No modern forms of this verb reflect the original /o/. The same thing happened to subir. ItsLatin source was sŭbīre; without the /j/ the short /ŭ/ of the stem would have turned into an /o/, i.e. sobir.

For more, see pp. 156-161 In the 1991 edition ofRalph Penny's marvelous A History of the Spanish Language (unfortunately, not the edition pictured below, which has eliminated some detail.)

I wrote again about boot verbs a few days later, in this post.

This entry was posted in From Latin to Spanish, Sounds, Verbs and tagged analogy, boot verbs, irregular verbs, Latin, sound change, Spanish, verbs, vowels on by .

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I can remember the exact moment when Spanish utterly and permanently captivated me. I was fifteen years old and in my fourth year as a Spanish student. Our class had wrapped up the basic tenses and the present subjunctive, and was ready to launch into the imperfect subjunctive.

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La influencia de los lenguas indígenas a espanol

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La influencia de los lenguas indígenas a espanol

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Aunque, las lenguas indígenas ya no son tan comunes, tuvieron y siempre tendrán un impacto duradero en el español moderno. Este video muestra palabras que vine de la lengua indigena, el náhuatl, la origen de esta lengua son las comunidades prehispánicas en México. En comparación con otras lenguas indígenas, el náhuatl es más popular e incluso se enseña en algunas de las instituciones educativas de méxico.

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Spanish words you didn’t know come from indigenous languages! | Spanish with Juan 12

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Aunque, no es muy complicado siempre he luchado saber cuándo colocar un adjetivo antes o después de un sustantivo. Creo que es tan difícil para mí porque en inglés, el adjetivo siempre está antes del sustantivo y nunca he tenido que pensar en eso. Afortunadamente algunas de las reglas por cuanda usarlos tienen siguen un patrón. Me gusta este artículo porque te muestra todas las diferentes reglas con ejemplos también.

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One of the first things you may be told when you start studying the Spanish adjective is that, unlike its English counterpart, it comes after the noun. But it doesn't take very much reading of Spanish to find out that the "rule" about word order is meant to be broken; it is actually quite common to place adjectives before nouns.

Certainly, adjectives - especially descriptive adjectives (ones that describe a quality of something) - usually come after the noun, and sometimes they must. But there are some adjectives that preferably come before the noun, and even a few whose meanings change depending on where they're placed.

Here are some of the different types of adjectives and where you will find them:

Nondescriptive Adjectives

Most adjectives other than those that describe go before the noun. Sometimes these adjectives are classified by other names, such as possessive adjectives or determiners.

Colors come after the noun.

Adjectives Indicating Membership or Classification

These include adjectives of nationality and various types of affiliation and nearly always come after the noun. Note that such adjectives aren't capitalized in Spanish even when they are based on a proper noun such as the name of a country.

la mujer ecuatoriana (the Ecuadoran woman)

el sacerdote católico (the Catholic priest)

el restaurante chino (the Chinese restaurant)

el juez demócrata (the Democratic judge)

Adjectives Modified by an Adverb or Phrase

These come after the noun.

la taza llena de agua (the cup full of water)

el libro muy interesante (the very interesting book)

la computadora bastante buena (the quite good computer)

Multiple Adjectives

When two or more adjectives of similar importance describe something, they go after the noun.

la casa grande y cara (the big and expensive house)

el zapato tradicional y barato (the traditional, cheap shoe)

Adjectives of Appreciation

By placing an adjective before the noun, you can sometimes indicate a degree of appreciation for that quality and/or emphasis. In English we sometimes do the same thing by using a word such as "really" or by a change in intonation. Often the distinction isn't ready translatable.

Es un músico bueno .(He's a good musician.) Es un buen músico. (He's a really good musician.)

la hermosa vista (the beautiful view)

Hollywood, la ciudad de incontables películas (Hollywood, the city of countless movies.)

Adjectives Conveying Emotion

It is very common to place adjectives that convey emotion or feelings before the noun:

el inolvidable cantante (the unforgettable singer)

un increíble historia (an incredible story)

una estupenda película (a stupendous movie)

Sometimes, the fact that an adjective conveys emotion results in it having a different meaning, or at least a different English translation, depending on whether they're placed before or after the noun. Generally, the adjectives placed after the noun have an objective meaning or one that carries little or no emotional content, while one placed before the noun can indicate something about how the speaker feels toward the person or thing being described.

mi viejo amigo (my longtime friend), mi amigo viejo (my elderly friend)

el gran canal (the grand canal), el canal grande (the large canal)

un hombre triste (a sad man), un triste hombre (a pathetic man)

Reinforcing Adjectives

Adjectives that reinforce the meaning of the noun, such as adjectives that "go with" the accompanying noun, often are placed before the noun. In many cases, one might also say that the purpose of these adjectives is less for describing the noun that's modified and more for conveying some sort of an emotion to it.

una oscura noche (a dark night)

el horrible monstruo (the horrible monster)

la alta montaña (the high mountain)

la blanca nieve (the white snow)

Another way of explaining such adjectives is that they point to an essential characteristic of what is being described:

las verdes hojas (the green leaves)

el delicado equilibrio (the delicate balance)

sangre rojo (red blood)

Key Takeaways

Adjectives that are purely descriptive come after the nouns they refer to.

Adjectives that are used for grammatical purposes other than describing the nature or state of the nouns they refer to, such as determiners, typically come before nouns.

Many descriptive adjectives can come before or after the nouns they refer to; when placed before, they often impart an emotional quality to the description.

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Spanish Adjectives: Before or After the Noun?

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One of the first things you may be told when you start studying the Spanish adjective is that, unlike its English counterpart, it comes after the noun. But it doesn't take very much reading of Spanish to find out that the "rule" about word order is meant to be broken; it is actually quite common to place adjectives before nouns.

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Aprender sobre todos los usos del “se” en español puede ser realmente abrumador si no se toma una regla a la vez. Hay muchos usos como el reflexivo, el impersonal, el accidental, y más. Este video es un poco largo pero contiene todos los usos de se en diferentes segmentos con las definiciones, explicaciones, y ejemplos.

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How to use "se" in spanish - the most confusing word

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En mi primera clase de español, estaba muy confundida sobre el orden de palabras en las oraciones. No tenía sentido que no siempre hay pronombres sujetos como hay en inglés. También el dato que él objeto indirecto está antes que el verbo no tenía sentido. Eso es porque elegí este artículo porque explica todas las reglas.

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Imagine hearing someone in English say:
"I not him have seen"
That's what we risk sounding like in Spanish when we don't use the right word order. Order is important.
Because this is a common misstep for many English speakers learning Spanish, we've developed 5 key rules of reference to help you remember which order things go in.

Rule #1:

Put personal pronouns first ... if you use them

Personal pronouns : Yo, tú, él, ella usted, nosotros, vosostros, ellos, ellas, ustedes

Personal pronouns simply tell us who the sentence is about. It's typically one of the first lessons you learn in Spanish. As you probably remember, personal pronouns are not obligatory in Spanish. You can either say:

It's all the same. The thing to remember is if you're going to use it, put it first thing.

Rule #2:

Then, just say no

After the personal pronoun, if you are going to negate the sentence, here is where you place the . The '' is important and needs to be in front. If you can remember that you won't be tempted to put it in a strange place or get it mixed up with the upcoming rules.

Rules #3 & #4:

First people, then things

Indirect (people): me, te, le (se), nos, os, le (se)
Direct (things): me, te, lo/la, nos, os, los/las

Direct object pronouns typically represent objects and sometimes people. Indirect object pronouns always represent people. Both are used to replace the name of an already-known noun. For example, find the direct and indirect pronouns in the following English sentance:

Rewriting the sentence in Spanish uses the same pronouns but changes the order:

There are two important rules regarding the object pronouns:

1. The indirect object pronoun goes before the direct object pronoun when both are in the sentence; people before things. This is the reverse from English.
2. Both direct and indirect object pronouns go after the personal pronoun and any negation, but before the conjugated verb.

In the following examples we convert the first sentence into a second using direct and indirect object pronouns:

Rule #5:

Finally, conjugate verbs together

At the end comes the conjugated verb.

Sometimes we have more than one part to a verb conjugation. For example, the perfect tense is created by combining two verbs (haber + past participle).

The most important thing to remember is:
Never put anything between 2 conjugated verbs
This is also true of any compound conjugation. For example when using the infinitive:

A common mistake made by Spanish students is to put pronouns or other words in between the perfect tenses. See the incorrect and correct example below:
Additional examples:

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Imagine hearing someone in English say: "I not him have seen" That's what we risk sounding like in Spanish when we don't use the right word order. Order is important. Because this is a common misstep for many English speakers learning Spanish, we've developed 5 key rules of reference to help you remember which order things go in.

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Aunque, para mi entender los sintagmas es fácil, algunas veces puede ser difícil saber cual sintagma es. Eso es por que me gusta esta imagen porque te muestra todo lo que necesitas saber sobre la estructura de los sintagmas nominales. Aunque, parece mucho para recordar pero creo que es mejor tener toda la información que solo tener un poca de información.

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Está presentacion ofrece un resumen general sobre morfemas y morfologia. Me gusta esta ayuda mucho porque creo que es una cosa genial para estudiar si no estas seguro sobre este tema. Para mi, es muy difícil entender los subtemas de la morfología si no entiendo la definición base. La presentación cubre mucha información y puedes decidir cuánto quieres usar.

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From the phoneme to the morpheme - ppt video online download

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PREVIEW Preview Compound nouns Anglicism, calques, borrowings, and language evolution Semantic equivalents Connotations idiomatic expressions Morphemes of gender and number in nouns, pronouns,verbs, articles, adjectives, and adverbs Lexical units vs.

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La morfología derivada  son las pequeñas frases al final de las palabras. El objetivo principal de un morfema derivativo es cambiar el significado de la palabra. Hay muchas variaciones de morfemas derivaciones desde el afecto hasta los insultos y el cambio de la parte del habla del verbo a sustantivo, por ejemplo. Esta imagen muestra algunos de los ejemplos cuando el morfema derivativo cambia la parte del habla o objeto.

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Los diminutivos son uno de los aspectos de la morfología derivada. Ellos cambian el significado de una palabra para mostrar que una cosa es pequeña o corta o para mostrar amor y afecto. Este video define el término y le muestra cómo usarlo. Por ejemplo, “-ito” o “-ita” son diminutivos comunes pero en lugares como Español del sur, ellos usan “-illo” o “-illa”.

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Spanish Ask a Teacher with Rosa - What are diminutives?

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How to Learn Spanish FAST on your own time: http://www.SpanishPod101.com/video Sign up for your FREE Lifetime Account right now. In this lesson, you'll learn the answer to the question 'What are diminutives?" Also, please LIKE, SHARE and COMMENT on our videos! We really appreciate it. Thanks!

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Una de las diferencias más destacadas entre el español e inglés son sus verbos y cómo se conjugan. Con inglés, conjugar a los verbos es simple, no hay específicos para persona, estado de ánimo, o tensión como hay en español. El español tiene más de cincuenta maneras conjugar a un verbo cuando el inglés solo tiene tres o cuatro. Este artículo explica eso y tiene algunos ejemplos de inflexiones verbales de ambos idiomas.

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Inflection is the change in the form of a word that affects its grammatical usage or category, such as changing its part of speech or making it singular or plural.

Both English and Spanish are moderately inflected in that they use inflection much less than some languages but much more than others. Greek and Russian are examples of highly inflected languages. Chinese is an example of a language that has little inflection. In general, word order tends to be more important in languages that have more inflection. You can see how this plays out in English and Spanish: Spanish, the more inflected language, primarily through verb conjugation, also requires more attention to word order.

How English and Spanish Inflections Are Similar

In both English and Spanish, the most common way to inflect a word is by adding an ending. For example, in both languages an -s or -es can be to a regularly inflected noun to make it plural. Thus "wall" and pared are singular, while "walls" and paredes are plural.

It is also common in both languages to use suffixes to change to change its part of speech. For example, suffixes frequently used to turn adjectives to nouns are -dad in Spanish and "-ness" in English. So feliz becomes felicidad, turning "happy" into "happiness."

Both languages have irregular verbs and occasionally change the stem (the base word) rather than add a suffix. For example, "taught" is a form of "teach," and diciendo (saying) is a form of decir (to say).

It is possible for a language to be inflected through the use of prefixes, but neither Spanish nor English use them to change a word's grammatical function. Prefixes are used instead to change meaning, such as by using the prefixes pre- and "pre-" to change the time of a verb's action.

How English and Spanish Inflections Are Different

Among the inflections that are different in the two languages are:

Spanish inflects for gender for numerous nouns and adjectives, usually by adding an -a ending to the feminine form or changing the the ending to include an a for the feminine. (In Spanish, the base form of nouns and adjectives, the form listed in dictionaries, is masculine.) English doesn't have gendered adjectives, and only a few nouns (such as "actor" and "actress") have gendered forms.

English has limited use of inflection of verbs, known as conjugation, primarily using "-d" or "-ed" for regular verbs for the past tense and adding "-ing" to form the gerund. Spanish, on the other hand, inflects verbs extensively to indicate tense, mood, and person. In English, most regular verbs have three or four possible conjugated forms, while Spanish verbs have more than 50.

English inflects nouns by adding an apostrophe and "s" to indicate possession, while Spanish has no such inflection, using the preposition instead.

Examples of Inflection

Inflected differences are shown in boldface:

Samuel es abogado. Katarina es abogada. (Samuel is a lawyer. Katarina is a lawyer.)

Abre la ventana. Le gusta ventanear. (She is opening the window. She likes being by the window.)

La mujer está feliz. Las mujeres están felices. (The woman is happy. The women are happy.)

Another Meaning for 'Inflection'

There is also a second meaning for "inflection." It can refer to how words are stressed or given tone. For example, questions in English and Spanish are often inflected in raising the tone at the end of a sentence.

Inflection is known as either inflexión (change of voice) or flexión (grammatical change) in Spanish.

Key Takeaways

Inflection in the grammatical sense is the change of a word to affect its grammatical use.

The most common type of inflection Spanish and English share is the addition of an "-s" or "-es" to make nouns plural.

Conjugation, which is extensive in Spanish, refers to the inflection of verbs.

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Inflection is the change in the form of a word that affects its grammatical usage or category, such as changing its part of speech or making it singular or plural. Both English and Spanish are moderately inflected in that they use inflection much less than some languages but much more than others.

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Los aspectos diminitivos cambian el significado de una palabra a algo insultante.

A. Cierto
B. Falso

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Las consonantes en español pueden estar muy confundidas si estás acostumbrado a las consonantes inglesas. Este video es muy útil para principiantes para tener una comprensión básica. Muestra cómo se pronuncian todas las consonantes y las circunstancias inusuales, por ejemplo, como <c> tiene dos sonidos dependiendo de la palabra. En la palabra “como” la <c> se pronuncia como una <k> pero en la palabra “cien”, la <c> se pronuncia como una <s>.

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Esta imagen es sobre los diptongos que es cuando hay dos vocales en una sílaba y están formados por una vocal fuerte (a,e, o) y una vocal débil (i, u) o dos vocales débiles. Muestra cómo las sílabas están pronunciadas con combinaciones diferentes de las vocales y da algunos ejemplos de palabras con diptongos.

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Este artículo tiene información sobre la letra <d> y sus alófonos. Un alófono es un sonido que una letra tiene, algunas letras tienen solo un alófono y otras tienen dos o más alófonos. <D> tiene dos alófonos, un <d> fuerte y un <d> suave que suena como <th> en inglés  y hay reglas sobre cuándo usarlos. Usamos él <d> fuerte si está antes del frase fonémico o después de un <l> o un <n> y él <d> suave está usado en el resto de las situaciones.

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A quick recap

/d/ is produced by our tongue tapping against the back of our top teeth - slightly further forward than for our English /d/, which leads to a softer sound:

Variations

/d/ has two allophones: a "hard" [d], and the "soft" [ð]. The hard [d] is the sound we've been practising recently (although we call it "hard", it's still softer than our English /d/ sound). The softer [ð] sound is closer to our English "th" sound from "this" - although not so soft. It's between a "d" and a "th" sound in English:
Hard [d]: Soft [ð]:
Where these occur

Hard [d] sound occurs at the beginning of the phonemic phrase, or after /n/ and /l/. Listen to the slightly harder quality of the [d] sound in these words and phrases:
Día El día Dar Dolor Dulce Un dulce Dónde
Notice that with "el día" and "un dulce", the [d] sound is still used, as it is affected by the /l/ or /n/ in the previous word (this is assimilation in action, once again!). Speakers in real life do not pause between words!

Softer [ð] sound appears everywhere that [d] is not used. Listen to the slightly softer quality of the [ð] in the following recordings:
Pedir Estado Una docena Ese dedo
Again, the quality of the /d/ sound is affected by the sounds that come before it, whether or not these are part of the same word.

When it occurs at the end of the word, the /d/ can actually disappear in casual speech in certain accents:
Usted
This elimination of the sound also often occurs in words ending with "-ado" (so, a lot of verbs), at least in fast speech:
¿Qué has tomado?
You'll also often hear the "d" sound disappear with words ending in "dad", although this is not true with all dialects:
Verdad, ciudad, amistad
Exercise

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/d/ and its allophones - Spanish Obsessed

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Start here Course introduction How to use this course Beginner Modules An introduction to phonemes Vowels Pure vowels Pure vowel 1: /i/ Pure vowel 2: /e/ Pure vowel 3: /u/ Pure vowel 4: /o/ Pure vowel 5: /a/ Pure vowels recap Vowel combinations Vowel combinations part 1 Type 1 diphthongs Type 2 diphthongs Type 2 [...]

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Elegí esta práctica porque aunque las transcripciones no son muy duras para entender, hay mucho para aprender y recordar. Pero con temas con esto, mucha práctica ayuda enormemente a aprenderlo rápidamente. Es interesante porque cuando veo las transcripciones por primera vez, parece un idioma completamente nuevo. Pero cuando empiezas a entender las pronuncias diferentes en las palabras, tiene sentido.

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Can you match the basic Spanish words, written in the International Phonetic Alphabet (Castilian Spanish pronunciation), with their English translations? For example, /kasa/ (casa) would match with 'house'. Test your knowledge on this language quiz to see how you do and compare your score to others. Quiz by Alcas

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Características del lenguaje humano: Las Palabras Arbitrarias

Hay muchas características interesantes sobre el lenguaje humano pero algunas cosas no tienen sentido completo. Por ejemplo, por qué una manzana se llama una manzana y no una naranjo. Sin embargo, esto no es importante porque estas palabras son arbitrarias. Esto significa que no hay un significado , una persona decidió que una manzana será llamada una manzana, y no una naranja y eso es eso.

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Mitos del Lenguaje Humano: Los animales pueden hablar en la misma manera como los humanos
Algunas personas creen que algunos animales pueden hablar exactamente como los humanos pero no es la verdad. Los animales solo tienen tienen una pequeña cantidad de formas de comunicarse como comida, miedo, y reconciliación. En contraste, los humanos tienen muchas formas de comunicarse como, expresar emociones, hacer preguntas, pensar críticamente, hablar sobre la manera en que hablamos y mucho más.

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Evolution of Language | Curious Questions with Answers | Educational Videos by Mocomi Kids

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Las Ramas de la Lingüística: Sintaxis

Sintaxis es como formar oraciones, pero no todos los idiomas son iguales. Por ejemplo, el inglés y el español siempre tienen un sujeto y un verbo. Pero en inglés, el sujeto siempre está antes del verbo pero en español el sujeto puede estar antes o después del verbo dependiente de la oración.

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Syntactic differences between english and spanish

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trabajo escrito para la materia de morfo sintaxis

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Neurolinguistica: Afasia
El lenguaje es inutil si no podemos entenderlo o formarlo. Los dos lugares en el cerebro donde procesamos el lenguaje es en la broca y wernicke. Pero si tienes afasia en la broca, no puedes producir palabras. Si tienes afasia en el wernicke, no puedes entender palabras que están escritas o hablan. Y cuando hablas, tus palabras no tienen sentido.

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Pregunta: ¿Qué no es cierto acerca de la diglosia?

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Pregunta: ¿Qué no es cierto acerca de la diglosia?

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A. Puede ser dos idiomas diferentes
B. Se usa en diferentes contextos
C. Puede ser la misma lengua
D. Es lo mismo que el bilingüismo