Choosing a foreign language to learn

Posted On March 5, 2013By TranspanishIn Languages/  No Comments

By most accounts, it seems that there has never been a better time to be a teacher of languages. With globalization increasing the need for communication between diverse groups of people–the same force keeping the translation industry robust at the moment–more and more people are seeking fluency in one or more foreign languages. From toddlers placed into bilingual learning environments, to post-middle age learners, people all over the world are increasingly recognizing the importance of multilingualism for business and job prospects.

So which languages are the most sought-after? Few would be surprised that English still holds the top spot for those wanting to learn a second language. It remains the dominant language of business and science internationally, and continues to hold the interest of those who learn a language for personal use (often to meet people from other cultures.)

Even so, English is not the most spoken language on Earth, nor is it the second. Those positions go to Mandarin Chinese and Spanish, respectively. The latter is followed closely by English in terms of the number of people that speak it as their first language. And while the Chinese language has seen a significant bump in recent years in terms of the number of people who want to learn it, due largely to economic robustness in the country, there are other factors to consider beyond how many people speak a language globally.

A recent article published on portafolio.co claims that often, Chinese businessmen and women prefer to communicate in English rather than hear someone else speaking their language. It is unclear whether that applies only to foreigners speaking their language badly, but it does point to the preference for English in business dealings. Whatever the reason, it certainly never hurts to have some knowledge of another language, if only to get the greetings out of the way politely.

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History of the letter eñe

Posted On February 20, 2013By TranspanishIn Did you know?, Languages, Spanish Language, The origin of.../  No Comments

Most people associate the letter eñe with the Spanish language. Yet it is actually present in no less than nine different alphabets spanning the globe, including the modern Latin alphabet, Galician alphabet, Asturian alphabet, Filipino alphabet and Guarani alphabet, among others. Additionally, it is currently used to represent the [ŋ] in the Tartar and Crimean languages, along with the Chamorro, Mandinka, Mapudungun and Tocharian languages. Considering the usage of eñe, it quickly becomes clear that the letter is present in a variety of geographical locations, and is used in languages stemming from different language families.

The tilde that sits atop the n to form what is now a separate letter in its own right, originally began as shorthand. It represented a double letter, in this case nn, which was used more frequently in Old Spanish. The word año, for example, was formerly anno and derived from the Latin word annvs. While this usage spread to many languages at the time, most of them eventually dropped the tilde. Meanwhile, Spanish retained its usage as shorthand for a double letter.

As far back as Medieval Latin usage, that tilde came to represent a nasal sound following a vowel (then also used on the letter m). The presence of eñe in Spanish has since expanded to all instances in which the palatal nasal sound is present, even when it does not represent a former double letter, such as with señor.

More recently, there has been cross-linguistic usage in native languages located in or near predominantly Spanish-speaking areas. These languages include Aymara, Quechua, Basque, Leonese, Yavapai, and Tetum. The orthographies of these native languages and others with cross-linguistic usage of eñe all have some basis in Spanish. It is also present in English words borrowed from Spanish, such as jalapeño, piñata, and piña colada.

 

Spanish Keyboard Layout – Latin America. The letter eñe is on the right of the L.

Tip!
Alt key code for the letter eñe: ALT + 0241.

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The Origin of the Word “Carnival”

Posted On February 12, 2013By TranspanishIn Did you know?, Languages, The origin of.../ 4 6 Comments

The term Carnival (or Carnaval, in Spanish), has an etymology that can find little accord among those who explain its origins. Perhaps beginning with the question of whether the roots of the word date back to latin, and which terms they seem to derive from, several theories about the origin of Carnival persist, each with its own explanation.

Free image courtesy of FreeDigitalPhotos.net

 The timing of Carnival celebrations around the world also plays an important role in these theories, in particular as it relates to Christianity. Taking place in February, Carnival occurs just before Lent, a time in which Christians all over the world choose to fast, involving the avoidance of eating meat as dictated by the Church. In this context, one theory claims that the term is derived from the latin carne and vale, literally, saying goodbye to meat. Others who support this theory link it to the Italian expression, carne levare, with the same meaning.

In this explanation — often referred to as “folklore” by proponents of other theories — Carnival represents the final blowout before saying goodbye to eating meat. More broadly, a similar theory also states that it could represent a farewell to matters of the flesh, or carne, in general. The essence of the celebrations of Carnival, in their displays of excess and letting go, contrast with the mood of Lent in which the matters of the spirit outweigh the importance of worldly things.

An alternate origin involves the Roman festival Navigium Isidis (ship of Isis). In this traditional festival, the image of Isis was carried in a procession to the shore in order to bless the beginning of the sailing season. The procession involved elaborate masks and a wooden boat that was also carried. These characteristics could be the precursors of modern Carnival tradition involving floats and masks.

The etymological connection with this last theory rests in the term carrus, meaning car, as opposed to carne. The festival mentioned above was known by the latin term carrus navalis. It should be noted, however, that this festival was associated with both agricultural seasons (taking place just before the beginning of spring) and sexuality. As a result, it is also possible that when the festival became Christianized some time later, these two aspects were simply replaced by carne vale, a more appropriate beginning to Lent.

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Cocoliche and the origins of a regional dialect

Posted On January 30, 2013By TranspanishIn Did you know?, Languages, Lunfardo, Spanish Language, Tips for Translators, Translation Buyers/ 1 No Comments

Regional differences in the way Spanish is spoken can usually be attributed to either the influence of native languages that exist in a particular area or the languages brought by immigrants that blend with Spanish to create a unique regional dialect. The Spanish spoken in Buenos Aires, as we have discussed in our series on Lunfardo words, is no exception.

Another example of a language influence is Cocoliche, which takes its name from Antonio Cuculicchio, a theater worker in the Podestá theater company established in Argentina and Uruguay towards the end of the nineteenth century. An Italian immigrant, Cuculicchio’s accent was apparently often mocked by others, giving rise to the comical caricature of a figure called “Cocolicchio”, representing a southern Italian.

Cocoliche is a hybrid language that arose from the meeting of Spanish in Argentina and Italian brought to that country by immigrants around the turn of the twentieth century. The result was a pidgin — an oral form of communication that blended elements of two languages to foster communication between diverse groups of people, in some cases simplifying the grammar and lexicon of each language.

Over time, as the Italian immigrants in Argentina spread out geographically and blended more into their new culture, Cocoliche began to disappear. Yet as it became more and more rare to hear the language spoken, per se, its remnants were left — and still remain — in the form of surviving words and turns of accent. Indeed, Cocoliche is the origin of some characteristics commonly associated with the Argentinian accent of Italian immigrants, such as the “ch” sound in “diche” (dice).

Italian family arriving in Buenos Aires

Some cocoliche words:

 

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A Call to “Erase” Racism from Spanish

Posted On January 28, 2013By TranspanishIn Did you know?, Languages, Spanish Language, Tips for Translators, Translation Buyers/  No Comments

Uruguayan Musician Rubén Rada supports the campaign

A new campaign is picking up steam to eradicate instances of racism in the Spanish language. The contentious phrase, “trabajar como un negro” (“to work like a black person”), is unifying musicians, famous athletes, and officials in a call to Spain’s Real Academia Española (RAE) to eliminate the phrase for being discriminatory and outdated.

The RAE is a royal institution responsible for regulating the Spanish language including its lexicon, grammar, orthography and other linguistic aspects. The institution received an open letter signed by several figures which was then published and disseminated around the Spanish-speaking world by various media outlets.

The phrase has roots in the history of African slavery on the continent, and is sometimes compared to the expression “to slave away” in English. Proponents for its eradication from common speech argue that it recalls a time of discrimination, inequality and subjugation which Uruguay — and the Spanish-speaking world as a whole — would best leave in the past. They also argue that removing it from the Spanish language would help break the cycle of using pejorative language in reference to certain ethnic groups.

The petition can be viewed at http://www.borremoselracismodellenguaje.com/s.php. Those who would like to add their name to its list of supporters can also sign the petition at the same web address.

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Do Children Benefit From Language Mixing?

Posted On January 24, 2013By TranspanishIn Did you know?, Languages, Tips for Translators/  1 Comment

More information continues to come out about the challenges and benefits of young children learning two or more languages simultaneously. Studies in recent years have largely focused on how early bilingualism or multilingualism affects learning in other areas, as well as the effect on a child’s vocabulary both short-term as well as long-term.

 

A recent study in Canada looked at the specific issue of language mixing — borrowing words from one language while speaking in another, often resulting in individual sentences with two languages. Children who were raised bilingual from birth were found, as toddlers, to have slightly smaller vocabularies as a result of their parents engaging in language mixing while communicating with them or teaching them new words.

There were a few reasons for mixing languages thus which many parents cited, such as the nonexistence of an exact translation for a particular word, not remembering the equivalent of a word in the language they are using, or difficulty with pronunciation. It was also noted in the study that parents will often mix languages when teaching new words, so their child could learn the word in both languages at the same time.

Yet while the study pointed to resulting vocabularies that were smaller in the short term, the researchers noted that it is likely that a bilingual child’s vocabulary would expand at a faster rate later on. The short-term challenge of categorizing and distinguishing between two different languages when they were so mixed would eventually be counterbalanced by the learner’s increased ability to compensate for such challenges in reasoning and other cognitive skills. These skills include, for example, an increased ability to switch between strategies as well as the ability to learn two new rules at the same time.

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Language Barrier Linked To Worse Diabetes Control

Posted On January 20, 2013By TranspanishIn Languages, Spanish Language, Spanish Translation, Translation Buyers/  No Comments

The ability to receive effective health care and follow recommendations is contingent on open communication between doctor and patient. Barriers to communication not only hurt the doctor’s ability to understand what is ailing their patient, but they prevent patients from understanding treatment options and, often, how to implement them. Indeed, health-related problems are some of the most costly effects — both in terms of costs to society and personal costs — that come from language difficulties.

People involved with the healthcare industry have long been able to identify the problem. But what has been less clear are the scope of the problem and it’s immediate consequences. A recent study has shed some light on these questions, conducted by researchers at UCSF and the Kaiser Permanente Division of Research. Their study analyzed the ability of Latinos with limited English skills to adequately manage and control their diabetes. The findings were surprising.

Among Latino patients with limited English abilities, those who saw doctors for their diabetes which did not speak Spanish were twice as likely to have little or no control over their blood sugar levels than those whose doctors spoke Spanish. In addition to highlighting the huge discrepancy in how these patients were able to handle their disease, the study was also able to draw a clear and direct connection between doctor-patient communication and the ability of patients — in this case, diabetes patients — to receive effective health care.

As the largest minority in the U.S., the Latino population has one of the highest rates of diabetes of any ethnic group. In addition, roughly 14 million adults in this group speak English less than “very well”. It should also be noted that as far as ailments go, diabetes is a very complex and relatively difficult-to-manage disease to begin with. Among these patients in particular, access to Spanish-speaking doctors and information translated to Spanish could have a tremendous effect on patient outcomes.

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Spanish Is Second Most Used Language On Twitter

Posted On January 18, 2013By TranspanishIn Did you know?, Languages, Spanish Language, Tips for Translators, Translation Buyers/  No Comments

According to Spain’s Cervantes Institute, Spanish has officially become the world’s second most used language on Twitter after English. With the most speakers of any language globally, Chinese is in third place. And while China does have its own version of Twitter, Weibo, it is undeniable that Spanish is currently seeing a growing presence on the internet in general.

Transpanish

With more than 500 million Spanish speakers worldwide, and counting, the language currently occupies the place of third most used language online. And even with that, it is estimated that roughly 60% of Latin Americans still have not joined the web. In the non-digital world, the Cervantes Institute reports that the number of people learning Spanish globally is witnessing an 8% increase year on year.

Much of that growth is taking place in the U.S., which is estimated to have the largest Spanish-speaking population in the world within three or four generations, but it’s also happening in Asia. Indeed, the demand to learn Spanish in China currently far exceeds teacher availability — resulting in many applications to learn it being rejected. The Asia-Pacific region as a whole is seeing an increase in Spanish language instruction spurred by economic growth and close ties to another region making strong economic gains — Latin America.

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Integration: An Unstoppable Force

Posted On January 15, 2013By TranspanishIn Languages/  No Comments

Countries are rarely monolingual, and not only due to the effects of globalization on cross-border movement. Nearly every country of the world counts at least one, and often many native languages among those spoken within its borders. Nonetheless, each area maintains one dominant, modern-day language that is used for government, commerce, industry, education, etc. While populations speaking languages native to an area are often integrated in modern society, it is very rare that they cannot communicate in its dominant language.

Imagine living not only in a modern, but a highly urbanized and populous area, without knowing even the basics of the dominant language? It seems impossible, but that is the effect that globalization and cross-border movement are having on some countries, particularly in Europe.

integration

An article published by BBC News last month looks at the existence of migrant communities within Great Britain which get by solely with the languages from their countries of origin. The Romanian population, in particular, is a case in point as a community so large and enclosed that many of its members cannot speak or understand even basic English. And it’s not unique to European countries. The history of the US is filled with examples of communities — the Irish in New York, the Japanese in California, etc. — which came and settled among each other, resisting to some degree integration with society at large. And yet resistance to learning the dominant language — in this case, English — never lasted more than a generation or two.

According to the BBC, such is the case with migrant groups in the UK. While parents may never learn English, their children invariably pick up the language in school, and more recently in their use of technology. Regardless, as immigration shows no sign of slowing down, governments increasingly employ interpreters and commission translations of documents to accommodate these migrant communities. Some argue that this simply encourages them to not learn English.

And yet ultimately, it doesn’t really matter how many satellite TV channels are available, or whether the shop owner down the street doesn’t speak English either. Integration is a force that can’t really be completely stopped. It might be delayed for a few generations, but whatever forces cause the rejection of integration — fear, disinterest, lack of resources – it will eventually give way to curiosity of one’s surroundings and their proximity.

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Linguistic Diversity in the U.S.

Posted On January 3, 2013By TranspanishIn Languages, Tips for Translators, Translation Buyers/  No Comments

Diversity in North America has essentially been on the upward trend since the continent was first colonized. It’s natural, then, that the region’s linguistic diversity would be increasing as well. But while linguistic diversity in the U.S. in particular has undeniably been rising in recent decades, according to a report by the Census Bureau, these bilingual and multilingual gains have come unevenly.

For one thing, linguistic diversity appears to be intricately tied to geography. For example, Asian languages such as Chinese and Korean are more widely spoken in California and Hawaii, along the Pacific coast. The concentration of French speakers is mostly in Louisiana and Maine, while German speakers are primarily found in North and South Dakota. Meanwhile, Spanish is spoken far more heavily along the Mexico border and in Florida, as is to be expected.

Language Diversity

Free image courtesy of FreeDigitalPhotos.net

What may be less expected is the rate of growth of speakers of another language in the US. Sure, with current rates of immigration, it makes sense that the number of foreign language speakers in the US would increase quickly. After all, the country was built by immigrants. Yet what a report from the Census Bureau analyzing linguistic diversity in the U.S. between 1980 and 2007 revealed was that the number of foreign language speakers is increasing faster than population growth itself. And that’s just talking about people who speak another language at home – not the number of people learning a foreign language.

How is it possible that the number of native speakers of a language other than English can grow faster than overall population growth (an astounding four times faster, to be exact)? The answer is that more immigrants are retaining their linguistic heritage and teaching their children from an early age. While there were 381 distinct languages recorded in the report, the languages were categorized geographically by source, including Spanish, other Indo-European languages, Asian or Pacific Island languages, and all other languages. With its own category in the report, Spanish constituted 62 percent of the population of native speakers of another language.

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