Lunfardo: What Does “Guita” Mean?
Argentine Spanish is strewn with words and colorful phrases from Lunfardo, a rich vocabulary born on the streets of Buenos Aires in the second half of the 19th century. Now considered a fixture of the Spanish language in Argentina (especially in and around Buenos Aires) and Uruguay, linguists cite the use of Lunfardo as a defining […]
The Languages of Spain
The first language that springs to mind when one thinks of Spain is – not surprisingly – Castilian Spanish, the country’s official language. However, there are actually a number of other languages and dialects spoken there, a few of which have attainted co-official status in certain regions: Catalan/Valencian, Basque, Galician, and Aranese. Here’s a brief […]
Linguistic Features of Rioplatense (River Plate) Spanish
The dialect of Spanish spoken in and around Buenos Aires, Argentina is known as Rioplatense or River Plate Spanish. The dialect’s sphere of influence extends to other major cities within the River Plate region including La Plata, Santa Fe, Rosario, Paraná and Mar del Plata in Argentina, and Montevideo in Uruguay. While significant dialectical differences […]
“Refudiate” Chosen as 2010 Word of the Year
The New Oxford American Dictionary mulled over pages’ worth of new candidates for the 2010 Word of the Year. Although the technology sector contributed a considerable number of terms to 2009’s field of contenders, this year seemed more heavily influenced by politics, the economy, and current events with words like “Tea Party,” “bankster,” “double-dip” and […]
Endangered language opens window on to past
An endangered Greek dialect which is spoken in north-eastern Turkey has been identified by researchers as a “linguistic goldmine” because of its startling closeness to previous forms of the Greek language. Fieldwork examining Romeyka, a little-studied form of Greek still spoken in the area around Trabzon, on Turkey’s Black Sea coast, has revealed a number […]
How old is language?
Although this question is still being debated, most linguists assume that the full language capacity had evolved by 100,000 BC. This is when modern humans (homo sapiens sapiens) evolved in Africa with a modern skull shape (indicating modern brain function) and a modern vocal tract which would allow these people to articulate all the sounds […]
Endangered Languages Open Database Launched Online
An open database of endangered languages has been launched by researchers in the hope of creating a free, online portal that will give people access to the world’s disappearing spoken traditions. The website has been developed by researchers at the World Oral Literature Project, based at the University of Cambridge, and is now available at […]
How many people speak Welsh?
Number of people 3 years old and over that can speak Welsh: 1991 – 508,000 (18.7%) 2001 – 582,000 (20.8%) Increase of 74,000 or 2.1% Source: Welsh Language Board Learn more about Welsh Language Influence on English
The bilingual brain
Children learning two languages from birth achieve the same basic milestones (e.g., their first word) as monolinguals do, but they may use different strategies for language acquisition. Although bilinguals tend to have smaller vocabularies in each language than do children who know one language, bilinguals may have an advantage when it comes to certain nonverbal […]
When was the first Spanish Grammar Book published?
In 1492, Antonio de Nebrija published Gramática de la lengua castellana, the first grammar book of the Spanish language. Works had previously been published on Latin usage, such as Lorenzo Valla’s De Elegantiis Latinae Linguae (1471), but Gramática was the first book to focus on the study of the rules of a Western European language […]
