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Mientras aprendemos del cambio de códigos como el cambio de lenguas entre frases o aún dentro de las frases, este video de Key y Peele muestra que el cambio de códigos se puede ocurrir en la manera que hablas también. Al comienzo del video, cuando el hombre está hablando con su mujer por teléfono, habla en una manera muy correcta/oficial/"normal." Cuando entra otro hombre de su edad, sin embargo, el inmediamente cambia de códigos a una manera  muy coloquial, asumiblemente para que suene más "cool" en la presencia del otro hombre.

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We know you want more Key & Peele -- indulge in the ultimate sketch experience with curated collections, GIFs, memes and an illustrated dictionary. Nooice! http://on.cc.com/1RNbs9n Two guys on the phone try to avoid disaster.

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Me gusta este video porque muestra las dificultades que encontran los que se mudaran de un país con una lengua extranjera. En esta video vemos la dificultades lingüísticas que tiene Gloria, en los Estados Unidos. Por ejemplo, dice "blessings in the skies" en vez de "blessing in disguise" porque es una expresión americana a que ella no contribuye un significado a la expresión - solo es que la ha escuchado y ha tratado de imitarlo, sin éxito completo.

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The Many, Many, Many Mispronunciations of Gloria from Modern Family

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A mi me gusta esta caricatura porque se burla de/ exagera la presencia de los préstamos léxicos de las palabras ingleses a los hispanohablantes. Es chistosa porque casi cada tres palabras es una expresión/palabra americana, aunque técnicamente están hablando el español. Es importante notar que podemos ver estos préstamos en el reverso también (español-->inglés),  como por las palabras de quesadilla, enchilada, tortilla o chihuaha, llama, etc.

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Esto es un video (de donde no sé) de unos ejemplos de la jerga para los adolescentes de esta área.  Mientras muchas veces la jerga refiere a las expresiones de los hablantes de un pais ("la jerga peruana"), me gusta este video porque muestra que este "grupo" puede referir a un grupo de EDAD también, que explica porque los ancianos no pueden entender muchas de las frases que dice la entrevistadora.

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¿ sabe la gente de la calle lo que es "tunearse", "tumbar aguja"...?

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Me
Abby (USA native) - English Dominant multilingual (Spanish)
Parents
Kent (USA native) - English monolingual
Cheryl (USA native) - English monolingual
Maternal Grandparents
Allen (USA native) - English monolingual
Geraldine (USA native) - English monolingual
Paternal Grandparents
Harrison (USA native) - English monolingual
Donna (USA native) - English monolingual
Notes:
1. Los padres de todos mis abuelos son de los EEUU también.
2. Geraldine's grandparents are from Poland, and their children (her parents) only spoke a little bit of Polish.
3. Allen's grandparents are from Germany and Lithuania, and immigrated to the United States before having children.

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CAPíTULO 8: ESPAñOL EN LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS

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CAPíTULO 8: ESPAñOL EN LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS

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Esta es una canción muy famosa de un cantador se llama Juanes, quien es de Colombia. Una observación es que su pronunciación es muy clara. Otra es que es yeísto, porque pronuncia llegan como /yegan/. Una cosa interesante es que en esta canción, hay indistinción de b/v (pueblo, llevarte). Pero esta observación está en contraste con otra canción de Juanes, “Volverte a ver”, en la que la /v/ es mucho más fricativa. A mí, esta sugiere que con la música, no es una regla fija que el dialecto siempre queda con la región del cantador: a veces está influido por otra música/cantadores de otras regiones. Esto quiere decir que la globalización tiene efecto en la música.

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Esta canción es de la cantador se llama Chambao. Ella es de Málaga, una ciudad en el sur de españa. Su dialecto cuando canta tiene mucho más sentido cuando se sabe esta información. Similar a la manera que Sr. Kelm dijo que en España--y aún más al sur--hay eliminación tremenda de la /bdg/ ("a-o-a-o" en vez de abogado), se puede oírla en esta canción también, especialmente en el coro cuando "mojado" se sueña como esta "mo-a-o."

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Chambao - Papeles Mojados (Vídeo Oficial)

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7.1: Explicación chistosa de los acentos 

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7.1: Explicación chistosa de los acentos 

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A mi me encanta esta explicación de los diferentes acentos españoles, por el uso de las analogías. Por ejemplo, cuando habla del acento argentino, usa la comparación de una persona latinoamerica quien está muy impresionado con su propio italiano. También describe la manera de habla dominicana como "verbal cursive" porque ellos hablan tan rápidamente, que yo he escuchado en mis propias experiencias con pasar tiempo en la república dominicana. En general, me gusta este video porque describe todos de nuestras lecciones sobre la variación de la lengua en una manera muy comprensible.

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Thanks to the internet, people around the world can conduct global research, trade tips, and find faraway friends without ever leaving their couch. Not everyone pays the same price for these digital privileges, though, according to new data visualizations spotted by Thrillist.

To compare internet user prices in each country, cost information site HowMuch.net created a series of maps. The data comes courtesy of English market research consultancy BDRC and Cable.co.uk, which teamed up to analyze 3351 broadband packages in 196 nations between August 18, 2017 and October 12, 2017.

In the U.S., for example, the average cost for internet service is $66 per month. That's substantially more than what browsers pay in neighboring Mexico ($27) and Canada ($55). Still, we don't have it bad compared to either Namibia or Burkina Faso, where users shell out a staggering $464 and $924, respectively, for monthly broadband access. In fact, internet in the U.S. is far cheaper than what residents in 113 countries pay, including those in Saudi Arabia ($84), Indonesia ($72), and Greenland ($84).

On average, internet costs in Asia and Russia tend to be among the lowest, while access is prohibitively expensive in sub-Saharan Africa and in certain parts of Oceania. As for the world's cheapest internet, you'll find it in Ukraine and Iran.

Check out the maps below for more broadband insights, or view HowMuch.net's full findings here.

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9 Different Spanish Accents, Hilariously Explained

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Thanks to the internet, people around the world can conduct global research, trade tips, and find faraway friends without ever leaving their couch. Not everyone pays the same price for these digital privileges, though, according to new data visualizations spotted by Thrillist.

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Pienso que este video es interesante no por el contenido (lo siento), sino por las diferencias en la habla entre estos dos hombres, uno de Argentina y otro de México. Inmediatamente, en los primeros 30 minutos, puedes oír la diferencia en sus acentos, específicamente en la pronunciación de la "s," en que el hombre mexicano utiliza fuerte consonante en que puedes oír cada "s," (eSSSSS) mientras hay una aspiración de la "s" al final de la sílaba con el argentino. Este video también demuestra la yeísta del mexicano versus el "ʒ" del argentino, como cuando pronuncia "yo" al 0:21.

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MEXICANO APRENDE INSULTOS ARGENTINOS! | Alejo Igoa ft. DebRyanShow

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MEXICO VS ARGENTINA!! Mexicano aprende insultos Argentinos. Espero que les guste este video que hice con Ryan!

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En este video del “Daily Show” con Jon Stewart, en que explica sarcásticamente los múltiples significados de la elección de palabras de la Administración Bush para mostrar como políticos usan palabras para evitar responder a una pregunta de manera directa. Más de ser chistoso, este video explora cómo la elección de palabras de un gobierno afecta puede afectar como perciben los ciudadanos una situación, porque a veces hay una desconexión en lo que ven versus lo que oyen del presidente.

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A Relatively Closer Look - The Bush Agenda - The Daily Show with Jon Stewart (Video Clip) | Comedy Central

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Jon takes a relatively closer look at the various impediments preventing the president from implementing his agenda.

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Muchos critican las sistemas tecnológicas como Google Translate por no poder entender la semántica detrás de una palabra o una idea. Pienso que esta publicación de IBM muestra que el esfuerzo moderno para incluir la semántica en la tecnología. El autor habla de la posibilidad de tecnologías semánticas de  resolver retos empresariales, especialmente los que están relacionados con el bienestar de nuestro planeta . Por ejemplo, habla de Sematic Web, un movimiento colaborativo de organismos internacionales que permite a las máquinas "comprender" y responder a las complejas peticiones humanas basadas en su significado. Este tipo de "comprensión" requiere que las fuentes de información relevantes estén estructuradas semánticamente. En general, la publicación muestra que grandes empresas tecnológicas como IBM reconocen la importancia de la semática en todo que hacen

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I am always intrigued when reading about Smarter IT solutions that help solve real business challenges, especially the ones that are related with the well-being of our planet. One such solution was described in the recently published IBM Redpaper, REDP-5081 and the associated IBM Redbooks Solution Guide , TIPS-11131.

The solution described in these documents is an customized for a specific environmental monitoring use case for oil and gas industries. The solution implements real-time monitoring of environmental data in order to facilitate early detection of, and response to operational events surrounding offshore oil and gas installations, and enables oil companies to implement responsible production operations without inflicting harm to the environment. The solution is built on the semantic framework that enables operational business intelligence for various "smarter solutions".

Here are 5 interesting facts about the semantic technology. Each of these areas is discussed in greater detail in these documents:

1. Semantic technologies provide an abstraction layer above existing IT technologies that connects data, content, and processes

Semantic technologies do this by additional contextual information to some existing data set. An example would be adding traffic and weather data to road maps such as the road conditions, weather information, probability of delays, condition of road, status of constructions, and road hazards. This additional data can be used by "smarter automobiles" to make decisions that minimize the risk of accidents.

2. Semantic technology provides a flexible integration approach

Semantic technologies offer better integration and interoperability of diverse information assets than the traditional IT systems and can easily accommodate changes with no need to re-do the schema. Adding, changing and implementing new relationships is easy with semantic modelling, since unlike the traditional technologies, the meanings and relationships are not predefined and "hard wired" into data formats and the application program code at design time. Because of this traditional relational databases are inflexible and fragile when the nature of the world changes, and thus require constant re-architecting in the face of new knowledge or new relationships.

3. Machines can do the work for us but they need to understand the data: Welcome to the world of Sematic Web!

Sematic Web is a collaborative movement led by international standards body the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). and the goal is enabling machines to "understand" and respond to complex human requests based on their meaning. This type of "understanding" requires that the relevant information sources be semantically stru ctured. RD is the suitable data model for knowledge representation adopted by the Semantic Web. By using RDF it is possible to capture the form, format, serialization or schema of any existing data. This enables its flexibility to handle a changing world. Any data source or schema can be represented in RDF. The RDF data model provides the canonical means of federating information - the foundational benefit of semantic technology.

4. Ontologies are an essential component of the Semantic Web and Smarter Solutions

Ontologies are explicit formal specifications of the terms in a domain and relations among them, and are best suited for representing the information models needed to enable smarter solutions. Smarter solutions developed to address the business challenges must harness the power of information to deliver their promises. These solutions share the common pattern of Monitor -> Assess -> Predict -> Optimize, and thus demand reference information models (ontologies) for capturing and using observation and measurement data. The following figure shows the types of ontologies that are addressed in IBM Redpaper, REDP-5081.

5. IBM is embracing Semantic technologies in its products

IBM has an implementation of RDF in DB2. Semantic technology is a key enabler to "contextual computing" and the contextual enterprise. IBM's WATSON Jeopardy! System is an example of contextual computing, and future versions of WATSON will thrive on rich context creation.

Also linked data standards like those supported in the Semantic Web are also being applied inside IBM Rational and Cloud & Smarter Infrastructure products in support of initiatives.

So what do you think about the potential of semantic technology?

Vasfi Gucer is an IBM Redbooks Project Leader. He works with technical experts to create books, guides, blogs, and videos. Follow Vasfi on Twitter at @VasfiGucer

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5thingstoknow ontologies smarter industry monitoring ibm solutions technology rdf owl itso analytics semantic

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5 Things To Know About Semantic Technologies

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I am always intrigued when reading about Smarter IT solutions that help solve real business challenges, especially the ones that are related with the well-being of our planet. One such solution was described in the recently published IBM Redpaper Foundational Ontologies for Smarter Industries , REDP-5081 and the associated IBM Redbooks Solution Guide Smarter Environmental Analytics Solutions: Offshore Oil and Gas Installations example , TIPS-11131.

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6.2: La importancia de palabras en contexto

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6.2: La importancia de palabras en contexto

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Reconozco que esta imagen es más chistosa que compleja/intelectual, pero todavía pienso que es un buen ejemplo de la importancia de prestar atención a la importancia de la semántica/ significado de palabras cuando uno esté en contextos diferentes. Esta caricatura muestra que mientras se puede usar “I’m sorry” and “my bad” como sinónimos en algunos contextos (i.e. cuando te encuentras con alguien por accidente), los dos tienen significados MUY diferentes en el contexto de un funeral, donde “my bad” significaría que estuvieras el matador de la persona honrada.

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6.1: ¿Qué hace que una palabra sea real?

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6.1: ¿Qué hace que una palabra sea real?

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En este video, una historiador de la lengua se llama Anne Curzan explora lo que determina la legitimidad de una palabra. Ella incluye el hecho de que palabras como “hangry” o “defriend” pueden emitir más claramente un sentimiento/idea, a pesar de no existir en un diccionario official. Al final, Curzan llega a la conclusión de que “Si una comunidad de hablantes usa una palabra y sabe lo que significa, es real.” El punto es que como todo en el mundo cambia--personas, technología, ideas, etc.-- las palabras cambian como consecuencia también. El video está conectado con el tema de la semántica porque muestra que hay acciones y pensamientos humanos detrás de un lenguaje.

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One could argue that slang words like ‘hangry,’ ‘defriend’ and ‘adorkable’ fill crucial meaning gaps in the English language, even if they don’t appear in the dictionary. After all, who actually decides which words make it into those pages? Language historian Anne Curzan gives a charming look at the humans behind dictionaries, and the choices they make.

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5.4: Como el lenguaje español consiguió su "ñ"

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5.4: Como el lenguaje español consiguió su "ñ"

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Este video presenta (en una manera tan interesante) el origin del "ñ" en la lengua española. Empieza con el héroe antiguo se llama "Cid," y como los escribas de su tiempo usaban el títulus para indicar que una palabra se ha acortado. Por ejemplo, tomaron la palabra "donna" (de la palabra latín domina), eliminaron unas de las "n," y escribieron doña para indicar que lo hicieron. Habían títuluses encima de otras letras, aún vocales. Como la lengua española evolucionó, sin embargo, sólo utilizaba el título para la letra "n, que es lo que vemos hoy en día.

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How Spanish got its ñ - the story behind that "n with a tilde"

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5.3: Traductor de castellano antiguo a castellano actual

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5.3: Traductor de castellano antiguo a castellano actual

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Este sitio traduce el castellano antiguo al castellano moderno. Para comprobar su exactitud, inserté algunos de los versos de "Cantar de mío cid" (que vimos en clase) porque ya tenemos la traslación moderna. Curiosamente, era más o menos preciso. Pienso que tiene que ver con el hecho de que este traductor considera algunos cambios morfológicos que hace la palabra antigua española en algunas situaciones incomprensibles. Por ejemplo, sabe que en el español moderno, no se usa el perfecto de dos verbos ''ser'' y ''haber''. Ahora es sólo ''ser."

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traductor de castellano antiguo a castellano actual

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Castellano antiguo traductor idóneo y sensato

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Traductor de castellano antiguo a castellano actual hace traducciones de cualquier tipo. Castellano antiguo traductor con un click está en su dispositivo

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5.2: La influencia del árabe en el lenguaje español

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5.2: La influencia del árabe en el lenguaje español

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Este sitio de web es interesante porque toma diez palabras españolas y describe como son de origen árabe, un grupo que mantenían presencia en españa por casi ocho siglos. Por ejemplo, la palabra "ojalá" viene de una expresión árabe que significa "si Dios lo hará él," que explica porque se usa la palabra "ojalá" en situaciones hipotéticas (subjuntivas). El sitio muestra la importancia de considerar la historia en el estudio de las lingüísticas.

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The previous list that I submitted to Listverse was entitled " Top 10 English Words of Arabic Origin." Some commenters noted a disparity between this title criteria and the included entries (i.e. "jihad" isn't an "English word," but rather the English iteration of and Arabic/Islamic phenomenon). This may be a valid argument; however, titles are tricky and the real purpose of such a list is entertainment and education for those interested in etymology, history and other related subjects. In this vein I have made another list consisting of words and terms that have sparked my interest while studying foreign language. Anyway, haters gonna hate (I don't know how to say that in either Arabic or Spanish).

Islamic armies consisting of Arabs and Berbers began a conquest of the Iberian Peninsula in 711 and maintained a presence until being finally expelled in 1492. Inevitably the invading culture left an impression on the language of the conquered. Below are a number of Spanish language expressions that owe their existence to this chapter in history.

*Please note - transliteration of Arabic terms are based on my own estimation as there is no agreed upon standard.

I feel amiss for not including this word in my previous list, seeing as how I did a report on its etymological origin in college. Several commenters mentioned its absences as well. The term returns to the crusades and come from the term "حشاشيين - hashasheen" meaning "smokers of hash." According to legend, the term was given to a group of warriors who took their marching orders from a mysterious "old man in the mountains." The assassins were most likely members of the Ismaili branch of Shia Islam based in Syria. They were known for attacking prominent leaders who threatened their movement, killing the target but making no attempt to escape. There are two legends as to the drug connection. The first comes from the belief that these warriors indulged in the use of this herb in order to stoke courage and numb the fear inherent with performing a political killings. The second, more fantastical theory, is the idea that they were pampered in all manner of pleasures, narcotic or otherwise, in their mountain lair. Supposedly this taste of paradise motivated them when the time came for undertaking an attack against a rival of their cryptic commander. Enraptured by the thought of a permanent return to such a land of pleasure they gladly carried out their task, making no effort to escape. Instead they carried out the deed and then awaited death in hopes of spending eternity enveloped in the pleasures they had previously known.

I first learned this term while watching the latest Sherlock Holmes movie with the Spanish subtitles (a good tool for foreign language maintenance). This comes from the Arabic word for elephant and refers to the piece known to English speaking players as the bishop. The game of chess probably started in India and came to the Arabic world via Persia. Since the Persian word for elephant is the same as the Arabic, "fil - فيل", it might be more appropriate to call this a Spanish word of Persian origin, but such is the vermiform path of etymology.

Not so much a word as a place name, this fabulous historical site takes its name from the Arabic "الحمراء - alhamra" meaning "the red one." It is the site of the surrender of the Muslim Kingdom of Grenada in 1492, marking the end of an Islamic presence in Iberia and the ascendancy of colonial Spain. The fort itself was not attacked during the Reconquista and therefore remains splendid example of Moorish architecture in Spain.

Holding roughly the same semantic weight as the English word "until" this comes from the Arabic word "حتى - hata," which is a preposition of approximately the same meaning (prepositions are always tricky to define word-for-word). Perhaps more than any other item on this list, this entry shows the deep influence that Arabic has had on Spanish. Nouns and verbs, especially those dealing with new technological or social phenomena, are frequently transferred between languages; however, in my limited linguistic experience, I cannot think of another example where a preposition from a foreign language subsumes the extant form of the same term in the original language.

English speaking students of Spanish might recognize this term from the subjunctive section of your lessons. Meaning "hopefully" it comes from the Arabic exhortation " لو شاء لله - wa sha allah" which means "should God will it." As the subjunctive tense deals, in part, with expressing a wish for as of yet uncertain outcomes this term is always used with it. ¡Ojala que recuerde este lexicón para su próximo examen!

From the Arabic word "الزيت - az-zait" this refers, both in Arabic and Spanish to the liquid derived from olives and not to the fossil fuel. I know that the Portuguese word is phonologically similar and there are most likely similar words in other languages.

Readers will no doubt notices at this point that many of the entries begin with the letter "a". This owes to the fact that the Arabic definite article is "ال - al" and has been maintained in many word transfer. It is not certain whether this word replaced the original Spanish word or if the concept of a stuffed fabric sleeping device was introduced to Spanish lands by Islamic invaders.

The sweetest entry and another food-related item. Like "alfil" it came to Spanish from India via Persian and then Arabic. This is another word that has found its way into many languages.

The root of the original Arabic word "رهين - raheen" means "to deposit as security." I remember coming across this word a number of years ago and it prompted me to investigate the connection between the two languages. I wish that I had additional etymological information to make this a more captivating addition to the list.

I'm not sure how this became the name for everyone's favorite frequently petitioned software update however the namesake mud brick structures have an understandably ancient origin. I excavated the following explanation from Wikipedia and found no reason to alter it:

The word can be traced from the Middle Egyptian (c. 2000 BC) word dj-b-t "mud [i.e., sun-dried] brick." As Middle Egyptian evolved into Late Egyptian, Demotic, and finally Coptic (c. 600 BC), dj-b-t became tobe "[mud] brick." This was borrowed into Arabic as al-tub (الطّوب al "the" + tub"brick") "[mud] brick," which was assimilated into Old Spanish as adobe [aˈdobe], still with the meaning "mud brick."

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Top 10 Spanish Words of Arabic Origin - Listverse

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The previous list that I submitted to Listverse was entitled "Top 10 English Words of Arabic Origin". Some commenters noted a disparity between this title criteria and the included entries (i.e. "jihad" isn't an "English word, but rather the English iteration of and Arabic / Islamic phenomenon).

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5.1: El debate sobre publicaciones modernas de Don Quijote

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5.1: El debate sobre publicaciones modernas de Don Quijote

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Este artículo describe el debate que explotó sobre las publicaciones modernas del famoso texto de Cervantes se llama Don Quijote, que traducen su uso antiguo del lenguaje al español moderno para que sea más facil entender. Mientras algunas personas dicen que es necesario, otros dicen que es un “crimen contra la literatura” porque el proceso “tuerce el sabor de las palabras de uno de los más grandes escritores de todo el lenguaje.” En general, el artículo indica la creencia que la traslación de un texto antiguo a la lengua moderna puede influir el mensaje que las palabras emiten.

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A new edition of Miguel de Cervantes' 17th-century novel Don Quixote, which sees the classic story of the would-be knight errant adapted into modern Spanish, might be making waves in Spain, but Don Quixote scholar Ilan Stavans has said that Andrés Trapiello's new version is needed if Spaniards are to keep on reading one of their country's most celebrated works of literature.

Trapiello's Don Quijote de la Mancha, which "faithfully" and "in full" adapts Cervantes' 17th-century vocabulary into contemporary Spanish, was ninth on the Spanish bestseller list in late July, according to AFP. But it has also caused controversy, with Madrid academic David Felipe Arranz describing it as "a crime against literature" to the AFP last week, adding: "I ask the booksellers in Madrid and they tell me no one buys Cervantes' original novel anymore because readers prefer the 'light' version ... you cannot twist the flavour of the words of the greatest writer in our language."

"Nothing upsets Spain more than people - often, its own people - meddling with Don Quixote," admitted Stavans, the Lewis-Sebring professor in Latin American and Latino culture at Amherst College in the US. But Stavans pointed out that Trapiello's adaptation of the novel follows the bestselling author Arturo Pérez-Reverte's abbreviated edition from the Real Academia Espanola last year, and said it was a necessary development.

"Why did the RAE embark on it? Because if it doesn't do something about people not reading Don Quixote, the institution itself will become irrelevant," he said. "As a result of a number of factors, including school curriculum changes, young people in Spain aren't reading. The thermometer is Don Quixote and it has been abandoned ... My own impression ... is that nine out of every 10 people who read Cervantes's novel today are outside Spain. And a large portion of those readers access it in translation."

Stavans, who has written the introduction to a forthcoming new edition of Don Quixote in English for Restless Books, as well as the forthcoming Quixote: The Novel and the World, said that while it "isn't true that Spanish readers can't understand Cervantes's language", with the language ageing less than English over the last 400 years, "by which I mean that Shakespeare is harder to understand today than his contemporary Cervantes", a new version was still required.

"Was there a need for a modern translation, then? Of course there was. Shakespeare is updated, adapted, modernised, and otherwise rewritten all the time and nobody makes a fuss. Those approaches, in my eyes, are a tribute, a celebration, an acknowledgment of the enormous debt we owe him," said the scholar, drawing parallels between the situation in Spain and the uproar that greeted an Alabama publisher's excision of the word "nigger" from Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.

"Its rationale was that in the States young African Americans weren't reading the book because it is offensive to modern sensibilities. Intellectuals and the media vilified the effort. The publisher responded rather intelligently by saying that the project wasn't about censoring Mark Twain's novel but about making it more available," said Stavans. "That, I think, is what Andrés Trapiello is doing."

Trapiello's edition is introduced by Nobel literature laureate Mario Vargas Llosa, who writes that the new version "rejuvenates" Cervantes' novel, while allowing it to remain itself. Many readers, said Llosa, are discouraged from reading Don Quixote from beginning to end because of the "antique vocabulary" and the scholarly footnotes. But after enjoying Trapiello's version, he adds, they might feel encouraged to tackle the original text.

With Don Quixote translated into 145 languages today - Restless Books' new edition, which marks 400 years since the second volume was published, uses John Ormsby's version - Trapiello told the AFP that it was a "paradox" that foreign readers could enjoy the novel "without any problems" in translation, "but Spanish-speaking readers can't understand half of it unless they read it with notes".

"There are a great many people who have not read it or who have given it up several times because it is so hard," he told the agency. "They are obliged to read it in language that is not understood nowadays. They make you read it at school and lots of people have bad memories of that."
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Modern version of Don Quixote declared 'crime against literature'

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A new edition of Miguel de Cervantes' 17th-century novel Don Quixote, which sees the classic story of the would-be knight errant adapted into modern Spanish, might be making waves in Spain, but Don Quixote scholar Ilan Stavans has said that Andrés Trapiello's new version is needed if Spaniards are to keep on reading one of their country's most celebrated works of literature.

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Mientras no es necesario leer esta página en totalidad, sirve como una buena explicación de cómo las computadoras pueden “aprender” una lengua. Básicamente hay una serie de pasos que toma el sistema. El segundo paso, lo más relevante, es análisis sintáctico, o “parsing.” Involucra el análisis gramatical de las palabras en una frase, y también de la organización de palabras en una manera que muestra la relación entre las ellas. Por ejemplo, el sistema puede ver una frase como "La escuela va al niño” y darse cuenta de que no hace sentido. Conecta con la misma habilidad de los seres humanos, que exploramos en clase también por las temas de nuestra adquisición de reglas como lexicón, clíticos, etc.

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Natural Language Processing (NLP) refers to AI method of communicating with an intelligent systems using a natural language such as English.

Processing of Natural Language is required when you want an intelligent system like robot to perform as per your instructions, when you want to hear decision from a dialogue based clinical expert system, etc.

The field of NLP involves making computers to perform useful tasks with the natural languages humans use. The input and output of an NLP system can be −

Components of NLP

There are two components of NLP as given −

Natural Language Understanding (NLU)

Understanding involves the following tasks −

Mapping the given input in natural language into useful representations.

Analyzing different aspects of the language.

Natural Language Generation (NLG)

It is the process of producing meaningful phrases and sentences in the form of natural language from some internal representation.

It involves −

Text planning − It includes retrieving the relevant content from knowledge base.

Sentence planning − It includes choosing required words, forming meaningful phrases, setting tone of the sentence.

Text Realization − It is mapping sentence plan into sentence structure.

The NLU is harder than NLG.

Difficulties in NLU

NL has an extremely rich form and structure.

It is very ambiguous. There can be different levels of ambiguity −

Lexical ambiguity − It is at very primitive level such as word-level.

For example, treating the word "board" as noun or verb?

Syntax Level ambiguity − A sentence can be parsed in different ways.

For example, "He lifted the beetle with red cap." − Did he use cap to lift the beetle or he lifted a beetle that had red cap?

Referential ambiguity − Referring to something using pronouns. For example, Rima went to Gauri. She said, "I am tired." − Exactly who is tired?

One input can mean different meanings.

Many inputs can mean the same thing.

NLP Terminology

Phonology − It is study of organizing sound systematically.

Morphology − It is a study of construction of words from primitive meaningful units.

Morpheme − It is primitive unit of meaning in a language.

Syntax − It refers to arranging words to make a sentence. It also involves determining the structural role of words in the sentence and in phrases.

Semantics − It is concerned with the meaning of words and how to combine words into meaningful phrases and sentences.

Pragmatics − It deals with using and understanding sentences in different situations and how the interpretation of the sentence is affected.

Discourse − It deals with how the immediately preceding sentence can affect the interpretation of the next sentence.

World Knowledge − It includes the general knowledge about the world.

Steps in NLP

There are general five steps −

Lexical Analysis − It involves identifying and analyzing the structure of words. Lexicon of a language means the collection of words and phrases in a language. Lexical analysis is dividing the whole chunk of txt into paragraphs, sentences, and words.

Syntactic Analysis (Parsing) − It involves analysis of words in the sentence for grammar and arranging words in a manner that shows the relationship among the words. The sentence such as "The school goes to boy" is rejected by English syntactic analyzer.

Semantic Analysis − It draws the exact meaning or the dictionary meaning from the text. The text is checked for meaningfulness. It is done by mapping syntactic structures and objects in the task domain. The semantic analyzer disregards sentence such as "hot ice-cream".

Discourse Integration − The meaning of any sentence depends upon the meaning of the sentence just before it. In addition, it also brings about the meaning of immediately succeeding sentence.

Pragmatic Analysis − During this, what was said is re-interpreted on what it actually meant. It involves deriving those aspects of language which require real world knowledge.

Implementation Aspects of Syntactic Analysis

There are a number of algorithms researchers have developed for syntactic analysis, but we consider only the following simple methods −

Context-Free Grammar

Top-Down Parser

Let us see them in detail −

Context-Free Grammar

It is the grammar that consists rules with a single symbol on the left-hand side of the rewrite rules. Let us create grammar to parse a sentence − "The bird pecks the grains"

Articles (DET) − a | an | the

Nouns − bird | birds | grain | grains

Noun Phrase (NP) − Article &plus; Noun | Article &plus; Adjective &plus; Noun

= DET N | DET ADJ N

Verbs − pecks | pecking | pecked

Verb Phrase (VP) − NP V | V NP

Adjectives (ADJ) − beautiful | small | chirping

The parse tree breaks down the sentence into structured parts so that the computer can easily understand and process it. In order for the parsing algorithm to construct this parse tree, a set of rewrite rules, which describe what tree structures are legal, need to be constructed.

These rules say that a certain symbol may be expanded in the tree by a sequence of other symbols. According to first order logic rule, if there are two strings Noun Phrase (NP) and Verb Phrase (VP), then the string combined by NP followed by VP is a sentence. The rewrite rules for the sentence are as follows −
S → NP VP NP → DET N | DET ADJ N VP → V NP Lexocon −
DET → a | the

ADJ → beautiful | perching

N → bird | birds | grain | grains

V → peck | pecks | pecking

The parse tree can be created as shown −

Now consider the above rewrite rules. Since V can be replaced by both, "peck" or "pecks", sentences such as "The bird peck the grains" with wrong subject-verb agreement are also permitted.

Merit − The simplest style of grammar, therefore widely used one.
Demerits

They are not highly precise. For example, "The grains peck the bird", is a syntactically correct according to parser, but even if it makes no sense, parser takes it as a correct sentence.

To bring out high precision, multiple sets of grammar need to be prepared. It may require a completely different sets of rules for parsing singular and plural variations, passive sentences, etc., which can lead to creation of huge set of rules that are unmanageable.

Top-Down Parser

Here, the parser starts with the S symbol and attempts to rewrite it into a sequence of terminal symbols that matches the classes of the words in the input sentence until it consists entirely of terminal symbols.

These are then checked with the input sentence to see if it matched. If not, the process is started over again with a different set of rules. This is repeated until a specific rule is found which describes the structure of the sentence.

Merit − It is simple to implement.
Demerits

It is inefficient, as the search process has to be repeated if an error occurs.

Slow speed of working.

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Artificial Intelligence Natural Language Processing - Learning Artificial Intelligence in simple and easy steps using this beginner's tutorial containing basic knowledge of Artificial Intelligence Overview, Intelligence, Research Areas of AI, Agents and Environments, Popular Search Algorithms, Fuzzy Logic Systems, Natural Language Processing, Expert Systems, Robotics, Neural Networks, AI Issues, AI Terminology.

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La parte interesante de esta página de Wikipedia es la sección que explica las cosas interesantes sobre el sintaxis de la español mexicana. Una fenomena interesante es un desarrollo reciente en el centro de México con el uso de la negación en una “pregunta sí / no” sin marcación. Por ejemplo, hay una tendencia de decir “¿No quieres un taco?” en vez de “¿Quieres un taco?” que funciona como “Wouldn’t you like a taco?” en vez de “Would you like a taco?” Otra parte interesante fue la explicación sobre la influencia posible de las lenguas indígenas en la sintaxis del español de México. Algunos expertos dicen que esta teoría se manifiesta en el uso redundante de clíticos verbales, particularmente lo.

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The First Mexican Empire comprised what is present-day El Salvador, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Belize, and Honduras, aside from the mentioned present states of United States; thus dialects of Costa Rican, Guatemalan, Honduran, New Mexican, Nicaraguan, and Salvadoran Spanish were originally included in the dialects of Mexican Spanish.

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Este sitio de web explora los diez idiomas inventados más famosos. Mientras la creación de una lengua parece como una idea tonta, profesionales como los científicos lo hacen para unos propósitos importantes, como para probar teorías sobre la función del cerebro, ayudar a la gente a comunicarse, o "mejorar" los lenguajes existentes. Un ejemplo es Solresol, una lengua deliberadamente simplificado para hacer más fácil la comunicación mundial. Sólo tiene siete sílabas: las siete de la escala musical (do re mi fa so la ti do).

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Inventing a language from scratch might seem like an odd way to spend your time, but there are good reasons to do it. People create languages for scientific, cultural and artistic purposes: to test theories about how the brain works, to help people communicate, to 'improve' existing languages, or because they just need a new language for a book they're writing. Here are some of the best examples of invented languages:

10. Solresol

Developed by Francois Sudre in the first half of the nineteenth century, Solresol is an example of an international auxiliary language: a planned, deliberately simplified language created in order to make worldwide communication easier. Solresol was the first such language to gain any recognition, but what really made it unique is its musical basis: it contains a total of only seven syllables, made up of the names of the musical scale (do re mi fa so la si).

This arrangement meant that words could be written in musical notation, and that the language could be communicated by singing. Syllables could be expressed in seven colors and easily 'read' by the illiterate. Unfortunately, Solresol never really took off, although some devoted fans remain today.

9. Quenya

Quenya was one of at least twenty invented languages used by JRR Tolkien in his Lord of the Rings trilogy. A ceremonial Elvish tongue, it's the most elaborate of all of Tolkien's languages. In fact, Middle Earth was invented for Quenya and not vice versa: Tolkien began to write his stories in order to provide his language with a rich historical background.

According to Tolkien, Quenya was his attempt to create the most beautiful language imaginable, and the sounds and grammar were taken mostly from the real Earth languages that he thought were the most beautiful: Finnish, Latin and Greek.

8. Toki Pona

According to the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, a person's thoughts and perceptions can be shaped by the language he speaks. The Toki Pona language is an attempt, based on this theory, to simplify life by using an extremely simplified language. Toki Pona has only 123 words, which can be combined to make more 'complex' words. So, 'happy' in Toki Pona is 'feel good', alcohol is 'crazy water' and geology is 'earth knowledge'. Although it's easy to learn, the language has some obvious difficulties expressing nuances of meaning.

7. Lingua Ignota

Lingua Ignota was the first known human-made language, created by German abbess Hildegard of Bingen in the 12 th Century. The name means 'unknown tongue', and it was probably used as a secret language by Hildegard and her fellow nuns, although its exact purpose remains unclear. Hildegard was an accomplished composer, and words from the language were often used in her musical compositions. She left behind a glossary of only around 1000 words, most of which were religious or medical terms.

6. Laadan

A professor of linguistics, Dr. Suzette Haden, created Laadan as another test of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis: in this case, to test the idea that human languages are not adequate for female expression. Laadan is designed to allow people to express things in words which in English can only be conveyed by body language or tone. So, for example, a sentence might contain a special word that indicates that the whole sentence is meant to be a warning.

Laadan also contains many ways to describe emotions: there are separate names for an emotion that means 'happiness for a good reason' and one that means 'happiness for no reason', and a single word for expressing the feeling of 'I'm angry for a reason but nothing can be done about it.'

5. Newspeak

Newspeak was created by George Orwell for his novel 1984. The book's totalitarian was in the process of replacing English with Newspeak, intending to eventually wipe out English altogether. Newspeak's purpose was to 'narrow the range of thought': for example, it did not contain the words free or freedom, so the idea of freedom became literally unthinkable. Rather than creating new words, the government aimed to destroy them. Several words from Newspeak like doublethink and ungood have been picked up into English, where they're usually used to make a point about something that's considered totalitarian in nature.

4. Enochian

This language appeared in the 16 th century in a series of books by astrologer John Dee and seer Edward Kelley. According to Dee, it was the language used by God to create the world, which had gradually 'devolved' over time to become the Biblical Hebrew of the Old Testament. Luckily for them, this language was taught to Dee and Kelley by angels. Enochian also came with an alphabet, which Dee and Kelley used to write their books detailing magical practices.

Modern skeptics have since pointed out that Enochian has far more in common grammatically with English than any form of Hebrew. Still, the language became popular again in the 20 th century, and it's still used by some occultists today.

3. E-Prime

Another language constructed to make a philosophical point, E-Prime is simply a version of English that forbids all forms of the verb 'to be' (is, was, were, etc). According to Alfred Korzybski, who promoted the language in his 1933 book Science and Sanity, E-Prime can be used to sharpen critical thinking and make ideas clearer. For example, in E-prime a person can't say 'This is an awful movie': it must be rephrased as 'I dislike this movie.' 'You're wrong' is also impossible: instead he must say 'I disagree with you.' Because of this, it's easier for speakers and listeners distinguish fact from opinion.

On the other hand, following E-Prime to the letter becomes burdensome: 'This is a flower ' must become something like 'English speakers call this a flower.' Today, E-Prime remains popular, but mostly just as an interesting thought exercise to improve clarity.

2. Esperanto

Esperanto is the most successful international auxiliary language to date, with up to two million speakers worldwide. It was invented in the late 19 th century by a Polish doctor, Ludovik Zamenhof, who wanted to end interethnic conflict by providing everyone with a common tongue. Zamenhof's aim was a language that was simple to learn and politically neutral.

Esperanto gained in popularity after World War I, but it was suppressed in Poland during World War II, and many associations that promoted it, including the League of Nations, did not survive the war. Today, the closest thing we have to the 'international language' dreamed of by Zamenhof is the very non-simple, non-neutral English.

1. Klingon

Esperanto may have more speakers, but Klingon is maybe the most famous constructed language if them all. The language of a fictional warrior alien race in the Star Trek movies and TV shows, Klingon was mostly created by a linguist who deliberately added complex rules and sounds that are rare in human languages. Another possible difficulty for anyone wanting to communicate in Klingon is that, as a space-based language, it's lacking a lot of normal Earth words. For example, there are several different words for 'fight', but no word for 'hello': the closest Klingon equivalent is 'What do you want?'

Despite these challenges, a small amount of dedicated speakers worldwide are able to communicate fluently in Klingon, and there have even been several Klingon translations of Shakespeare plays.

Charlotte Coville

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Inventing a language from scratch might seem like an odd way to spend your time, but there are good reasons to do it.

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Este es un sitio de web que explica el fenómeno de los “garden path sentences,” o frases que son fácilmente mal interpretadas, a pesar de ser gramáticamente correctas. Hay ambigüedad local, una que está clara después de la adición de palabras, como “The old train→ “train” como un sustantivo: "The old train left the station" o un verbo como "The old train the young". También hay ambigüedad global, una que se queda ambigua después de ser completada. Uno ejemplo: “Conozco a las mujeres más bellas que Julia Roberts.” Este podría significar “Yo conozco a mujeres que son más bella que Julia Roberts” o “Yo conozco a más mujeres bellas que Julia Roberts conoce.”

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Try reading the following sentences. They are called garden path sentences because they are easily misunderstood (they lead you down the garden path) even though they are all grammatical! Don't worry if some of these sentences seem like nonsense at first (you have been garden pathed); they will be explained below.

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Mientras este video es un poco largo (no tienes que verlo en totalidad), bien explica la diferencia entre morfología derivativa y morfología flexiva. Derivativa refiere al proceso de formar una nueva palabra en la base de una palabra existente-- por ejemplo, felicidad y infelicidad vienen de feliz, y determinación viene de determinar. Morfología flexiva, al otro lado, no incluye un cambio de la palabra esencial, simplamente agrega información adicional, como “gato” a “gatos.” Esta idea explica la razón porque no necesitaríamos poner ambos palabras en un diccionario.

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What Kinds of Pieces Do We Use to Build Words? Derivational and Inflectional Morphology

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How do we put our words together? What varieties of building blocks do we stack up to create bigger meanings? In this week's episode, we talk about derivational and inflectional morphology: what roles each of them play, how to tell them apart, and how differences in how we string them together can lead to ambiguity.

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Este video demuestra el examen “Wug,” diseñado por una científica lingüística se llama Jean Berko Gleason. El examen demuestra cómo los niños jóvenes (tan jóvenes como cuatro años) pueden internalizar reglas lingüísticas complejas (como la formación de los plurales) - y aplicarlas en términos generales a otras palabras, aún palabras que nunca han visto antes como “wug.” Mientras este vídeo específico muestra el examen con un adulto, la idea central del trabajo de Gleason es que los jóvenes tienen una cierta capacidad innata gramatical.

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Este video nos enseña cómo dibujar un árbol de morfología, una figura visual que muestra la estructura interna de una palabra. Para dibujarlo, primero tienes que separar la palabra basado en sus morfinas, o las piezas más pequeñas de una palabra compleja. Entonces, determina si es un sustantivo o un afijo (la parte final). Finalmente, une las dos partes juntos y determina qué tipo de palabra es-- sustantivo, adjetivo, etc. El ejemplo dado es “morphology” (morph-ology). La segunda parte explica cómo dibujar un árbol de la morfología complejo, que es mucho más complicado.

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En este dibujo cómico, una persona animada expresa su frustración cuando trata de expresar el tiempo pasado del verbo “bucear” en inglés. El presente del verbo es “scuba dive” y él no sé si debe decir “dived” o “dove.” Al final, él se rinde y dice “I done did dive under that there water,” que obviamente no es correcto. Mientras el dibujo es chistoso, representa el concepto de la morfología flexiva, un término en el estudio de los lingüísticos que describe el proceso de cambiar la forma de una palabra para darla un significado adicional. Este cambio podía ser la adición/eliminación de un sufijo o prefijo, o (como este dibujo) un cambio de un vocal.

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2.4: La enseñanza de la pronunciación española en los Estados Unidos

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2.4: La enseñanza de la pronunciación española en los Estados Unidos

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Esta es una publicación de Western Michigan University sobre la educación de la lengua española en los Estados Unido, y enfoque en el uso de los vocales. Es muy larga, pero una página interesante fue número cuatro, que elabora en nuestros problemas con la pronunciación. Dice que los americanos tienden a añadir un diptongo al fin de los vocales, que crea una nueva secuencia de vocales que no es correcta. Como resultado, los maestros deben enfrentarse este problema cuando practican la pronunciación de los vocales “e” y “o.”

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2.3: Palabras españolas que los gringos no pueden pronunciar

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2.3: Palabras españolas que los gringos no pueden pronunciar

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Este es un video de unos americanos que tratan (sin éxito) de pronunciar palabras españoles. Mientras es un video bien chistoso, sirve como una ilustración de la razón porque los gringos tienen estas luchas. En clase, aprendimos que en la lengua inglés, tenemos vocales con ciertos sonidos. Cuando tratamos de hablar el español, incorporamos nuestros vocales en vez de los vocales de la lengua española. Por ejemplo, cuando tratan de decir “odontología,” prolongan los vocales en vez de cortarlos.

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MORE Spanish Words "White" People Can't Say

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Me gusta este gráfico porque es una ilustración del alfabeto fonético de la lengua española que incluye ejemplos de los símbolos para los consonantes. Mientras el modo y lugar de articulación son bien importantes también, es importante entender claramente ejemplos de estos sonidos consonantes. También es importante reconocer que hay diferentes pronunciaciones de los consonantes para hablantes de diferentes palabras, como el ejemplo de tres diferentes maneras de decir “caja.”

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He incluído este diagrama de los puntos de articulación porque sirve como un ejemplo visual de los lugares de la boca que utilizamos cuando hablamos. Es importante entender como el lugar de articulación para una palabra afecta como suena. Por ejemplo, cuando una persona mexicana dice “casa,” utilice la parte alveolar para que suene como una “s.” Al contrario, cuando una persona del norte de españa dice “casa,” utilice la parte dental para que suene más como un “th.”

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1.3: Su lengua y su habilidad de ahorrar el dinero 

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1.3: Su lengua y su habilidad de ahorrar el dinero 

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En este video de Ted Talks, un economista se llama Keith Chen discuta el hipótesis que la lengua que hablas podría afectar su habilidad de ahorrar dinero. Explica primero que su lengua influye como piensas de la hora y por eso su comportamiento a través del tiempo. Por ejemplo, el idioma inglés separa el presente y el futuro y hace que el futuro se sienta más distante de la presente, y como resultado hace más dificil ahorrar. Mientras no sé si creo en lo que dice Keith, son interesantes las conexiones entre los campos de la economía y la lingüística.

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Could your language affect your ability to save money?

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What can economists learn from linguists? Behavioral economist Keith Chen introduces a fascinating pattern from his research: that languages without a concept for the future -- “It rain tomorrow,” instead of “It will rain tomorrow” -- correlate strongly with high savings rates.

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Esta encuesta sirve como un “mapa dialecto personal” porque explora la manera en que la parte del país de donde eres afecta como hablas. Está basada en un proyecto linguístico de Harvard de 2012. Como una persona que ha vivido en Chicago por 18 años y en Texas por un año, era muy interesante ver las regiones populares para ciertas expresiones y pronunciaciones, porque he observado los dos variedades de muchos. Unos ejemplos son “y’all vs. you guys,” “frontage road vs. access road,” “soda vs. pop,” “sneakers vs. gym shoes,” y la pronunciación de la palabra “aunt.” Era increíble que la encuesta supo que soy de Chicago después de 25 preguntas.

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Create an account or log in to take the quiz and share your results.

You're viewing another reader's map. Click here to take the quiz and see your own.

Your Map

See the pattern of your dialect in the map below. Three of the most similar cities are shown.

These maps show your most distinctive answer for each of these cities.

About This Quiz

The data for the quiz and maps shown here come from over 350,000 survey responses collected from August to October 2013 by Josh Katz, a graphics editor for the New York Times who developed this quiz and has since written "Speaking American," a visual exploration of American regional dialects.

Most of the questions used in this quiz are based on those in the Harvard Dialect Survey, a linguistics project begun in 2002 by Bert Vaux and Scott Golder. The original questions and results for that survey can be found on Dr. Vaux's current website.

The colors on the large heat map correspond to the probability that a randomly selected person in that location would respond to a randomly selected survey question the same way that you did. The three smaller maps show which answer most contributed to those cities being named the most (or least) similar to you.

Additional work by Eric Buth.

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Create an account or log in to take the quiz and share your results. You're viewing another reader's map. Click here to take the quiz and see your own. Your Map See the pattern of your dialect in the map below. Three of the most similar cities are shown.

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Este artículo habla del deseo del partido Comunista de China de eliminar las lenguas regionales en China y establecer mandarín como el idioma nacional del país. Sin embargo, hay dificultad en hacer esto porque el Internet permite que los jóvenes continúen usar las lenguas regionales y evitar la antigüedad y inflexibilidad del chino clásico escrito. Habla de la “revolución linguística,” en que la creatividad linguística está permitiendo a los ciudadanos chinos pensar en diferentes maneras. Quizás esta revolución tendrá implicaciones políticas en el futuro.

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AS DIPLOMATIC incidents go, it was not a big one, but for many people in Hong Kong and southern China it felt like the latest in a long line of slights. In May, Nintendo-a Japanese toy company- launched its most recent video games of Pokémon, a franchise of cute furry creatures, and announced that the names of the creatures would henceforth be written in characters that adhere to Mandarin pronunciation, not Cantonese. This, said the company, would help to provide unity across the greater Chinese market. On May 30th, a group of demonstrators gathered outside the Japanese consulate in Hong Kong to protest.

Behind Nintendo's announcement is a bigger linguistic and political issue. As part of its broader nation-building programme, the Communist Party has, since 1949, been trying to unify the country under the banner of spoken Mandarin. It has recently been pushing the project harder, and many companies are going along with it. Just as the British authorities tried to get rid of the Gaelic languages in Scotland and Ireland in the 18th century, the party has long been worried about separatist Tibetans and Uighurs using their language as a rallying point for independence. But central authorities are also now worried about any regional languages (which it insists on calling dialects) among the Han majority helping foster too much regional identity. Most worrying to the party is Cantonese, a language spoken by the same number of people who speak Italian (about 60m) in southern China and Hong Kong. In recent years it has mandated that many news broadcasts in Guangdong province switch to Mandarin from Cantonese.
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This linguistic homogenisation is being enforced, however, just as a number of forces are pushing in the opposite direction. Technology is empowering regional languages, of which there are hundreds, and enhancing the centrifugal effect of migration, modernity and social change. Young people, empowered by mobile phones and computers, are changing the way they use their own language and breaking out of the straitjacket that has restricted communication for millennia. The trends in language mirror broader tensions between centralising, top-down forces trying to prevent dissent, and bottom-up trends among an increasingly empowered populace. They are adding to social fault lines that the Communist Party fears may threaten national unity.

Linguistically, China wants to be like America-a country where language and script are unified. In reality it is like medieval Europe-a continent full of different languages, nominally united by a written lingua franca. Before the 20th century, regional Chinese literati could communicate on paper in classical Chinese, but barely in conversation, just as European scholars communicated in Latin. The fracturing of Europe, politically and religiously, led to the emergence of written regional vernaculars like English and German.

But China never fractured-at least not permanently. And without an alphabetical writing system, no one in China could write down regional languages as the English or French or Germans could. When China adopted a common spoken vernacular as part of its modernisation in the 20th century, it was a form of one particular northern dialect called Mandarin-as though Europe had thrown away Latin and decided to enforce French across the continent.

The British decision on June 23rd to leave the European Union is the legacy of Europe's age-old divisions. Once Geoffrey Chaucer was inclined, and able, to write in English, it was a straight road to English nationalism and, by extension, Brexit. The Chinese push for linguistic unity is, economically, to facilitate education and development. But politically it is to prevent Hong Kong or Guangdong (or Tibet or Xinjiang) gaining so much regional identity and independence that they want to do a Brexit of their own.

Like Latin, classical written Chinese was a dead language, spoken by no one. A century ago, when language reformers began to introduce a common nationwide spoken tongue of Mandarin, they also abandoned the classical written language and replaced it with one that mirrored the spoken form, thus trying to synchronise their speech and their script. Some revolutionaries, including Mao Zedong, initially wanted to scrap Chinese characters altogether and replace them with an alphabet. They settled instead for a simplification of the characters and a standardisation of how they are pronounced and written in Roman letters, known as pinyin. Yet despite major success in literacy programmes, there are still 400m people in China who do not speak Mandarin, and some 100m who the government says cannot read at all. The actual number is undoubtedly higher.

Part of the reason is the complexity of the Chinese script, says David Moser, author of "A Billion Voices", a new book about the Chinese language. There are few and confusing links between the form of a character and its sound. Some, but not all, characters have a phonetic clue to how they should be pronounced, each regional language pronouncing a character differently. But the pronunciation never really mattered. All that mattered was that national unity was engendered from each region being able to understand what the character meant, however it was pronounced. This has been good for control, since it has given emperors (and party secretaries) a script for official pronouncements that can be read anywhere in the country, in any era. China claims to have a high literacy rate, though its definition of literacy is the subject of intense debate. Even so, its beautiful but complex writing system has hardly helped the drive for literacy.

Early in the technological revolution, many thought the complexity of inputting characters into computers might kill them off completely. But the opposite has happened as software experts have developed a fast and efficient way to write characters with a keyboard. Just type "chang" or "mao" in pinyin and choose from a selection of 5 or 6 characters pronounced that way, easing the burden of having to recall the characters cold.

Although that has helped to launch 700m Chinese people into cyberspace, it has not helped the party's efforts to synchronise written characters with Mandarin pronunciation. Last year Jackie Chan, a Hong Kong film star, famously launched a phonetic firestorm in mainland China with an advert for shampoo where he flicked his bouffy hair and exclaimed how "duang" it was. Everyone wanted to tweet it and text their friends how "duang" their own hair was, too, but they could not, for "duang" has no character to go with it. It is one of many slang or dialect words and phrases that you can say but not write using Chinese characters. (It translates roughly as "boing" in English.)

Characters may be beautiful and ooze history but they still have trouble absorbing anything new, unconventional or foreign, or representing anything said in slang or dialect. Europeans solved this problem by starting to write not in Latin but in their local language. Cantonese is the only Chinese language that has come close to accomplishing this (helped greatly by the separateness of Hong Kong under British rule). A host of special characters represent unique syllables of Cantonese, enabling books and magazines to be printed in Cantonese rather than Mandarin, and fuelling the party's ire at Hong Kongers intent on asserting their distinct identity. But the fact that other Chinese regions have been unable to do so has helped central authorities avoid European-style fragmentation. The tweeters have got round their Jackie Chan problem by simply writing "duang" in Roman letters. "Chinese people are now approaching language more as a phonetic phenomenon than as a graphic one," says Victor Mair of the University of Pennsylvania. "Pinyin allows anyone to read and write anything they can say."

The inflexibility of Chinese script is a source of some frustration to members of an increasingly empowered younger generation used to saying and doing what they want. They do not accept a canon of unchanging characters handed down from antiquity. They want to make up new ones and use Roman letters, and they believe the language police cannot stop them. Meanwhile, just as Mandarin is becoming more entrenched nationwide, the internet-harder to censor than radio or television-has given a boost to other types of linguistic free thinking and a platform for regional languages, from hip-hop artists rapping in their local dialect to satirical videos lampooning local pop icons . Such linguistic creativity is "cognitively transformational", says Mr Mair. It is changing the way people think, he says, and enhancing a subversive streak apparent everywhere among Chinese young people.

The other part of the linguistic revolution is that computers and mobiles mean that children are spending less time slogging away at the rote learning of characters. That used to mean that students had little space left to think of anything else. It is often said that by the time a child has mastered writing characters, he has lost the ability to use what he has learned to be original. Now, though, people no longer need to learn so many characters, as they just need to be able to recognise them, once typed using pinyin on a roman-letter keyboard.

This means Chinese people, young and old, increasingly have "character amnesia", says Mr Mair. No longer emphasising the writing of characters by hand can free up cognitive resources for other things, he says, like thinking for themselves, and is part of the empowering of the Chinese mind that could have political implications. The inflexibility of the Chinese script has always reinforced the inflexibility of the Chinese state. The reason Xi Jinping can have total control over China is because the education system underpins all the mechanisms of the police state, says Mr Mair.

Criticism of China's writing system has also provoked debates among Western scholars. Thomas Mullaney of Stanford University has accused those who say Chinese characters are a stumbling block to literacy of being "Orientalist", a fighting-word in modern academe. But, says Mr Moser, it is Chinese people themselves who have always been the most critical of their own script. And now they are able to go beyond the script, using alphabets, emojis, invented characters and foreign languages, or bypassing the written word altogether by speaking into their phones and computers-in their own languages and dialects.

The growing use of pinyin, and the continued tension between spoken regional "dialects" and Chinese characters, will continue, even though, for reasons of national and cultural pride, it now seems unlikely that characters will ever be replaced with an alphabet. With the help of technology, more people are thinking for themselves, outside the boxy prison of Chinese characters-one more part of the steady empowerment of the populace that is challenging orthodoxy in Beijing. The Mandarinisation of the nation will continue; the use of a standard language is undeniably helpful in educating the poorest and helping them engage with broader development trends in the country and across the world. But even if the party achieves linguistic unity under Mandarin, says Mr Moser, it may still find social and political unity as elusive as ever.

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AS DIPLOMATIC incidents go, it was not a big one, but for many people in Hong Kong and southern China it felt like the latest in a long line of slights.

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En este video, un lingüista se llama Daniel Everett visita a la comunidad pirahá, un grupo indígena del norte de Brasil. Su lengua es única porque no tiene palabras para los colores, futuro o pasado, ni los números. Cuando Daniel pide que un hombre pirahá cuente unos ganchos, responde con frases como pocos, algunos, y muchos en vez de uno, dos, tres. El video es interesante porque muestra que no hay necesidad tener un sistema numérico en una lengua para comunicar y sobrevivir en todas las comunidades.