Rewards

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

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

Briti politseinik sai Leedu rahvuskangelaseks.

I should study harder!! :p

fremda

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

Politically-correctness times

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

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

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


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

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

:'(

imiti

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

Some learning tips

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

universo

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

Danish language is falling apart

This is a funny video Ulven posted at PB.

Proto-language

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

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


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

A language is a dialect with an army and navy

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

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

In English:

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

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

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

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

Pioneer

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

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

koketa

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

Español en internet

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

insisti

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

Voyager

Carl Sagan and Ann Druyan wrote:

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

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

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

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

Biang

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

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

Toki pona

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

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

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

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

ñ ! !

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

Swadesh list

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

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

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

Click here for a 100 word Swadesh list with animation.

Freedom of Expression awards

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

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

Index Freedom of Expression Awards 2007.