Quest for Camelot - Looking through your eyes

It is not that I am obsessed with this videos (:p). I just like them! And... I'll post here all I find. If someone is interested in having the .mp3 file of these, feel free o rop me a line!




(English)
G: You're wrong
Look at the sky
Tell me what do you see?
Just close your eyes
And describe it to me

(Polish)
Wiem jak jest ich wiele
Wiem, że mienią się
Gdy jesteś tak blisko mnie

(Czech)
K:Já vidím úsvit, když zazní tvůj smích, slyším, Jak pulzuje krev v žilách tvých

(German)
Ja das ist was Leben erst lebenswert macht
das alles seh' ich durch dich

(Greek)
Στα μάτια σαν σε κοιτώ
Ήλιε μου εσύ

(Spanish)
de noche el sol, no hay soledad

(Turkish)
Kalplerimiz hep bir,
Elimizde değil,
Artık yollarımız hep bir.

(Swedish)
Och har förstått så mycket mer
Våra hjärtan ser

(Hungarian)
Ó, bár e földön
Mindig együtt járnánk
És ezt a fényt már
Mindig együtt látnánk

(Norwegian)
Og det er mye mer
enn jeg kan minnes

(Icelandic)
G: Betri nú en áður
K: Betri en ég hélt
B: Napur er nótt

(Danish)
Natten bli'r lang
Mørket er fyldt af hjerternes sang

(Hebrew)
Ve'en chazara mima shehitchil vecara
Ki be'icvot hase'ara

(Finnish)
Silmäs kertoi sen
silmäs kertoi sen

Linguistics

Linguistics is a science at the crossroads of humanities, social and natural sciences. It is a discipline for those who like to have their hands in many fields at the same time – it satisfies the curiosity of anthropologists, historians, scholars of classical languages, biologists, psychologists and others.
Linguistics ask questions about how languaje works such as: What does language usage indicate about speakers? How is language related to our mind? How did language originate? Why does language change and what triggers the change? How do speakers use language to advance their position in society? Why do languages enter into political conflicts and peace negotiations? And so on. Their focus is on language as inseparable from us, speakers, defining and molding us as we use and change it to suit our needs.

The two main branches of linguistics are:

• Theoretical (or general) linguistics

• Applied linguistics

General linguistics encompasses a number of sub-fields, such as the study of language structure (grammar), and meaning (semantics). The study of grammar encompasses morphology (formation and alteration of words) and syntax (the rules that determine the way words combine into phrases and sentences). Phonology (the study of sound systems and abstract sound units) and phonetics (which is concerned with the actual properties of speech sounds (phones) as well as those of non-speech sounds, and how they are produced and perceived) also form part of this field.

Linguistics compares languages (comparative linguistics) and explores their histories, in order to find universal properties of language and to account for its development and origins (historical linguistics).

Applied linguistics puts linguistic theories into practice in areas such as foreign language teaching, speech therapy, translation and speech pathology.

Pocahontas - Colours of the wind II

I like this :p





(Arabic)
Fakerni wah-sha we gahla
we gensak huwa el a'la
tayeb uli ya ma'tub
met'ageb keda leh?
we ser ghururak eh?
uli ta'raf 'an el dunya dih eh?
ta'ref eh?

(Finnish)
On kaikki sinulle vain omaisuutta
Ja valtaat nimiin kaiken minkä näät

(Dutch)
Maar ik weet elke rots en boom elk wezen
Heeft een ziel, heeft een leven, heeft een taal

(Czech)
Myslíš, že ti správní praví lidé,
ti lidé co jsou ti podobní

(Greek)
Μα άν ακολουθήσεις εναν ξένο
Θε να δεις οτι δέν είχες φανταστει

(Cantonese)
missing

(Danish)
Kan du synge højt med stemmerne i bjerget
Kan du male alle vindens farver frem
Kan du male alle vindens farver frem

(Hebrew)
Taruts iti bemasluley ha'oren
Titam et meticut perot habar

(Thai)
Kwam som boon rao ja pob mun na tuk hon haeng
Lae krung nueng mai koei mong hen wa sum kun

(European Portuguese)
Sou a irmã do rio e do vento
A garça e a lontra são iguais a mim

(Hungarian)
És összetartó minden, ami itt él
Körüljárunk és a lábunk égig ér

(Polish)
Do chmur każde drzewo się pnie
Skąd to wiedzieć masz

(Turkish)
Sen hic daglarin sarkisini duyabildinmi

(Norwegian)
For selv om det er hvit hud på ditt kinn
Så må du synge alle tonene i fjellet

(French)
En rêvant de pouvoir peindre l'air du vent
Mais la terre n'est que poussière
Tant que l'homme ignore comment

(English)
You can paint with all the colors of the wind.

Babel

בָּבֶל, in Hebrew. Everybody has heard of this story. It is found in Genesis, chapter 11.

1. וַיְהִי כָל-הָאָרֶץ, שָׂפָה אֶחָת, וּדְבָרִים, אֲחָדִים.
2. וַיְהִי, בְּנָסְעָם מִקֶּדֶם; וַיִּמְצְאוּ בִקְעָה בְּאֶרֶץ שִׁנְעָר, וַיֵּשְׁבוּ שָׁם.
3. וַיֹּאמְרוּ אִישׁ אֶל-רֵעֵהוּ, הָבָה נִלְבְּנָה לְבֵנִים, וְנִשְׂרְפָה, לִשְׂרֵפָה; וַתְּהִי לָהֶם הַלְּבֵנָה, לְאָבֶן, וְהַחֵמָר, הָיָה לָהֶם לַחֹמֶר.
4. וַיֹּאמְרוּ הָבָה נִבְנֶה-לָּנוּ עִיר, וּמִגְדָּל וְרֹאשׁוֹ בַשָּׁמַיִם, וְנַעֲשֶׂה-לָּנוּ, שֵׁם: פֶּן-נָפוּץ, עַל-פְּנֵי כָל-הָאָרֶץ.
5. וַיֵּרֶד יְהוָה, לִרְאֹת אֶת-הָעִיר וְאֶת-הַמִּגְדָּל, אֲשֶׁר בָּנוּ, בְּנֵי הָאָדָם.
6. וַיֹּאמֶר יְהוָה, הֵן עַם אֶחָד וְשָׂפָה אַחַת לְכֻלָּם, וְזֶה, הַחִלָּם לַעֲשׂוֹת; וְעַתָּה לֹא-יִבָּצֵר מֵהֶם, כֹּל אֲשֶׁר יָזְמוּ לַעֲשׂוֹת.
7. הָבָה, נֵרְדָה, וְנָבְלָה שָׁם, שְׂפָתָם--אֲשֶׁר לֹא יִשְׁמְעוּ, אִישׁ שְׂפַת רֵעֵהוּ.
8. וַיָּפֶץ יְהוָה אֹתָם מִשָּׁם, עַל-פְּנֵי כָל-הָאָרֶץ; וַיַּחְדְּלוּ, לִבְנֹת הָעִיר.
9. עַל-כֵּן קָרָא שְׁמָהּ, בָּבֶל, כִּי-שָׁם בָּלַל יְהוָה, שְׁפַת כָּל-הָאָרֶץ; וּמִשָּׁם הֱפִיצָם יְהוָה, עַל-פְּנֵי כָּל-הָאָרֶץ.

The English translation is:

1 And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech.

2 And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there.

3 And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them thoroughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for morter.

4 And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.

5 And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded.

6 And the LORD said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do.

7 Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech.

8 So the LORD scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city.

9 Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the LORD did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the LORD scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth.

You can also see The Brick Testament version.

Pocahontas - Colours of the wind

I could not stop posting this. This one is REALLY COOL!
Enjoy!




The lyrics:

(English)
You think I'm an ignorant savage
And you've been so many places; I guess it must be so
But still I cannot see, if the savage one is me
How can there be so much that you don't know?
You don't know...

(Norwegian)
Du tror du eier jorden som du trår på
med døde ting du tar i kongens navn

(German)
Doch jeder Stein und Baum und jedes Wesen,
hat sein Leben, seine Seele, seinen Stolz.

(Spanish)
Tú crees que igual a ti es todo el mundo
Y hablas como un gran conocedor

(Italian)
Ma solo se difenderai la vita
Scoprirai le tante cose che non sai

(Swedish)
Har du hört en varg som ylar
Under månblekt ljus
En vildkatt blir en stjärnbild mot din kind

(Korean)
그 간적 깊은 산속 숨소라와 바람의 빛깔이 뭔지 아나요?

(Canadian French)
Peux-tu peindre avec toutes les couleurs du vent

(Turkish)
ormandaki çamların içinde koş-
güneşte olmuş çilekleri tat-

(Brazilian Portuguese)
Rolando em meio a tanta riqueza
Nunca vai calcular o seu valor

(mandarin)
有河川山脈日夜跟我聚首
水獺和飛鳥做我的朋友 or

(Japanese)
命は関わりを゠?つ
丸くて永遠のもの

(Castilian Spanish)
¿Cuán alto el árbol crecerá?
Si lo cortas hoy

(Slovak)
Nič sa nedozvieš
A tiež neuvidíš jak vlk vyje na mesiac

(Icelandic)
Því hvar í veröldinni sem þú býrð
Þarftu að syngja söng með furðuröddum fjallsins?

(Polish)
Barwy które kolorowy niesie wiatr
Możesz zdobyć świat
Lecz to będzie tylko świat

(French)
Il peut peindre
En mille couleurs l'air du vent

Language Movement Day

ভাষা আন্দোলন দিবস, in Bengali. Two days ago, we had the Intrnational Mother Tongue Day. And it was set on that day by UNESCO as an international recognition of this day in Bangladesh life.
Bangladesh declared its independence from Pakistan in 1971. Discontent against Pakistan's "Urdu-only" policy had spilled into mass agitation since 1948 and reached its climactic strength after police fired upon and killed student demonstrators on February 21, 1952.
You can read the complete history at Wikipedia and at Mukto-Mona.

www.rae.es

As a Spanish native speaker, I find this site very useful. RAE stands for Real Academia Española. That means Royal Spanish Academy. Its main purpose is to regulate my native language.
It is based in Madrid, Spain, but there are other 21 affiliated academies through the Spanish-speaking world.
It was created in 1713 by Juan Manuel Fernández Pacheco. Its purpose was "to fix the voices and vocabularies of the Castillian language with propiety, elegance, and purity". No wonder why its motto is "Limpia, fija y da esplendor" ("Cleans, fixes and makes shine"). You may think it could be dangerous to have such an institution. What about if it is too conservative or elitist? Wouldn't it be better to leave the Spanish language evolve by itself? There is some truth about this.

What I use more of this site is the DRAE (Diccionario de la Real Academia Española). But it also contains the DPD (Diccionario Panhispánico de Dudas). This one guides you through some general doubts about word usage, accent mark norms, punctuation, rules for forming feminine and plurals, etc.

International Mother Language Day

Today is the International Mother Language Day. It's objective is to promote the linguistic and cultural diversity and multilingualism.
UNESCO started celebrating it in 2000. They selected February 21st because Bangladesh had been commemorating the Language Movement Day since 1952.
This year, the theme will be devoted to the topic of multilingualism.
The programm includes:

• Multilingualism in Romance-Language countries

• Mother writing

• Philosophy: a riddle of words

• The challenges of bridge building: from mother tongue to multilingual education

To download the poster: in English, in French, black version.

How important is your mother tongue? BBC article.

Heroes

This is one of those times I'll find difficult to justify a post in this blog. But.. it is MY blog, so I can do whatever I want on it, right? (No, I don't want to read the TOS for this site)
Well... the above image has some acronyms. And it caught my atention. Are we in search of heroes?

Acronyms

Yeah... I thought about IPA and IPA. Those two are acronyms (from Greek ακρος, meaning "topmost, extreme" and ονομα, meaning "name"). But... isn't it an initialism?
An abbreviation (from Latin brevis, "short") is a shortened form of a word or phrase.
An initialism is an abbreviation form from initials. This is, if you see "P.O.D.", you'll read it "p-o-d", pronouncing each letter name. When you find an acronym, which is also an abbreviation from initials, you'll read it as if it were a word on its own, as in "FIFA" or "FIDE" or "laser" (this one... is not even written in capitals! It stands for for light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation).
If you are in doubt about an acronym, you could try to search it at the Internet Acronym Server or the Acronym Finder.
There is also another category: portmanteaux (portmanteau, in singular). This is a word or morpheme that fuses two or more words or parts of words to give a combined meaning. You might be familiar with the word "podcast". This word is a blend of the trademark word "iPod" and "broadcast". By the way, portmanteaux are called blends too. Nowadays, this term is considered more approppriate.

International phonetic alphabet

The IPA is a system to provide a standarized, unique and accurate way to represent the sounds of any spoken language. It is contains 107 base symbols and 55 modifiers.
The symbols are divided into three cathegories:

• letters, which indicate basic sounds. They further divide into vowels and consonants.
  

• diacritics, which further specify those sounds.
  

• suprasegmentals, which indicate such quealities as speed, tone and stress
  

IPA is meant to represent only those qualities of speech that are relevant to language itself.

IPA is also the acronym for International Phonetic Association. So, IPA provides the IPA.

You can type these characters by going here or here. You can listen to it here. Fonts can be found here.

Sign language

When we hear those words, we imagine deaf people communicating by movements of their hands, arms and bodies and by facial gestures. But not only completely deaf people use it. Also people with any kind of hearing or speech impairment, and, as a side note, also some of their relatives or friends.
Some think that Sign Language is only spelling out on fingers. That is used when they need to talk about people's names or places, but fingerspelling is not Sign Language.
Many people take for granted the "internationality" of the sign language. Truth is that there is not such. Ever country has its "official" sign language, and certain pair can be as mutually untellegible as many spoken languages are between them. Differences may be in grammar or vocabulary.
The most popular (and good to follow) example for this is the Nicaraguan Sign Language.There are not reliable statistics to know how many people in the world are deaf. First, because sensus may blur them together with people having other kinds of handicaps. Second, because there is a thin line from "hard of hearing" to "deaf". Third, for babies it might be difficult to diagnose such a condition, and many go to an older age until they are recognized as deaf. When in advanced aging, people lose their ability to hear, and go to the category of "hard of hearing", and some to deaf (people older than 65 have eight times more likely to have hearing impairment than people between 18 and 34 years old).
Some estimate that in 1990, the United States had nearly 2.300.000 people considered hard of hearing and deaf. This is a little more than 8.5 % of the population!
I think the most well-known deaf person is Helen Keller. She also goes to my list of admired people.

Wikipedia.org

I think there is no day in which I don't need to take a look at Wikipedia. You do a search about a topic and chances are that Wikipedia has an article about it. It could be only a stub, but at least there is something.
What is so amazing about this site? Wikipedia is a free content encyclopedia. Its articles are written, reviewed and updated by hundres of volunteers.
The name Wikipedia is a portmanteau, from wiki and encyclopedia. Till today, Wikipedia has more than six million articles in 250 languages. No doubt it is one of the twelve most visited sites on the net!
The ten biggest editions are:

• English, 1.600.000 articles

• German, 550.000 articles

• French, 450.000 articles

• Polish, 350.000 articles

• Japanese, 330.000 articles

• Dutch, 280.000 articles

• Italian, 265.000 articles

• Portuguese, 240.000 articles

• Swedish, 240.000 articles

• Spanish, 210.000 articles

Some say Wikipedia's main problems are that, as being edited by so many people, it is not reliable, accurate, subject to vandalism, not consistent. But truth is that those problems do not affect the genral content of it. This is, the quality of the information obtained there is good.

Most of what I'll be writing here will be taken from Wikipedia.
Are African languages important?
Fake professor in Wikipedia storm.

Artificial languages

They are also called conlangs (from constructed language). But the termn artificial may make feel awkward to more than one person. Thus, many prefer to call them planned languages.
Why would someone care about doing such a crazy thing as a conlang? Don't we have enough with all languages out there as to start creating our own language?
There might be several reasons as for one would try to create a conlang. And based on this, we have the first way to categorize them.

• to ease human communication. These conlangs are refered as auxlangs (auxiliary languages)
• to be as part of a fictional environment in art. As in many well-known TV series, movies and books. They are caled artlangs (artistcal languages).
• to experiment on something. These are called engelangs (engineered languages) and they may be of two types: philosophical languages and loglangs (logical languages).

but we can make another kind of division, depending on whence vocabulary or grammar comes from. They can be:

• a priori, if its elemets were created from scratch

• a posteriori, if the elements are derived from one or more natural languages.

Some definitions

I wander a lot, I know, but this blog is intended to be about languages and related topics.
As I already said, I am writing here only to keep track of what I read in the net. So, to clear my mind a little, I think I should start with some definitions.

What is language?
A language is a system, used to communicate, comprised of a set of symbols or sounds and a set of rules (or grammar) by which the manipulation of these symbols is governed. These symbols can be combined productively to convey new information, distinguishing languages from other forms of communication.

What is dialect?
A dialect (from the Greek word διάλεκτος) is a variety of a language used by people from a particular geographic area.

What is vocabulary?
A vocabulary is a set of words known to a person or other entity, or that are part of a specific language.

What is grammar? (Maybe I should also ask why so many spell it "grammer")
Grammar is the study of rules governing the use of language.

What is linguistics?
Linguistics is the scientific study of language.

What is syntax?
Syntax (from the Greek words συν, meaning "co-" or "together", and τάξις, meaning "sequence, order, or arrangement") is the study of the rules, or "patterned relations", that govern the way words combine to form phrases and phrases combine to form sentences.

Introduction

There is something I am interested in. Languages. It is not my only interest, of course, but I want to learn more about this topic. And that's why I'll start this. I am not planning to add state-of-the art knowledge. I just want to keep track of things I am learning. I am a newbie, and I think I'll always be. But that doesn't keep me away for wishing to learn something.
Before starting this, I've checked other blogs with similar topics. Very aknowledble people are writing there. And of course I'll be following those blogs too!
As I am writing only for myself and not for any audience, I won't bother to worry if I am original or not.
If someone thinks most of what is here is just plagiarism... well... I am indeed trying to make my own all these ideas. Isn't that what we do when we study? I am not claming the things that sound intellignt are mine. All typos and the like are. And the rambling thoughts. But I am not going to write here to be taken as intellectual or something, so... no, it is NOT me who will be talking here. But I am too lazy to cite.