The Language Chronicles: El Choro Lingüístico 💬

[For English, see below] ¿Sabías que existe un artículo femenino especial con palabras que comienzan con el sonido /a/ tónico como en “ el agua ” “ el hacha ”, y “ el águila "? Aunque hoy día se considera un vestigio fonológico  del español, en castellano medieval era muy productivo - se trata de la elisión . Un ejemplo en francés es cuando se debe escribir " l'orthographe " en vez de "la* orthographe" para evitar la fusión de dos sonidos vocálicos entre artículo definido y sustantivo, y en español moderno sucede con las contracciones " del " (de + el) y " al " (a + el), aunque no se utilice el apóstrofo para señalar la elisión. Fuera de las contracciones "del" y "al", en español moderno existe la elisión, pero no forma parte del lenguaje formal escrito , mientras que en francés sí es obligatorio plasmarla ortográficamente, principalmente por medio del apóstrofo. Aunque muy difundido, es falso que combinaciones como

[Para español, ver abajo.] In Old Spanish , indirect object pronoun "le" (to him, her, you plural), when put together with direct object pronouns lo(s)/la(s) in the combination lelo/lela , evolved phonetically and naturally, first to diphthong lie(lo) > lle(lo)> gelo (g was pronounced like French j or s in measure), and finally to present day se lo or -selo . Note that this se only looks like reflexive se as in Mi mejor amigo se levanta a las 5 de la mañana , but its function is completely different. That's why, nowadays, we say se lo doy (I give it to him, her, you singular, you plural or them) or dáselo (give it to him, her, you, you all, them). Old Spanish: gelo do (se lo doy). If the context is not sufficient, people specify by adding on: descríbeselo a él, a ella, a ustedes, a ellas, a mi amigo, al profesor, etc. If you speak Italian, you'll notice a similar evolution happened to arrive at " glielo do " (se lo doy). -----------------------

[Défiler vers le bas pour la version en français] In Latin, a "feather" was known by two names: penna and pluma .  Spanish quickly decided to stick with pluma , the meaning of which was extended to include the concept of a writing utensil, and practically discarded penna . This is still the case in several Spanish-speaking countries, especially Mexico and Central America - but it's not the only word used for pen . Old French used penne and plume as synonyms, later broadening the meaning to the writing instrument. Although "penne" died off in French, it had already passed the word "pen" down to English. Although "plume" is no longer used for pen in modern French (today it's un stylo), it is still fossilized in some expressions like nom de plume (pen name), prendre la plume (to begin writing), avoir une belle plume (to have great writing style or nice handwriting), among others. As many of you know, "pluma" for pen may not

Note : If you are looking for a thorough review of how to tell time in Spanish, click  here . Why do we say "es la una"  (singular) and  "son las dos" (plural) in Spanish, but say "it's one" ,  "it's two" (only singular) in English? I love questions like these because they get us to question why we say things the way we do in both the language we're learning, but as important, at least to me as a linguist, in our own language. The answer to this question is quite simple in Spanish. Number-gender agreement : es la una (hora implied - feminine singular), son las dos (horas implied - feminine plural). In the past tense, era la una or eran las dos. Question solved! More than likely, though, that didn't really solve the question. We're really wondering why Spanish respects number agreement  with the verb to be , but English doesn't, at least in this case. The real issue, then, is to be found, not in Spanish, but in English!

[This article has clickable sound files in blue.] Historically in Spanish, there is a difference between the sound for "y" as opposed to "ll" , which still exists in several pockets in the Andes highlands (most of Peru and Bolivia, parts of Ecuador, Colombia, Chile, Argentina) ,  Guaraní speaking areas like Paraguay , some parts of  northern and rural Spain , and the Philippines , usually among older Spanish speakers . In these places, "ll" is realized as /ʎ/ - calle, llamarse, valle . This is the minority sound in Spanish that is still current in standard Catalan (filla) , Portuguese (filha) , and Italian (figlia) . The consonant "y" in Spanish is pronounced in a variety of ways, with [ʝ̞] , which is similar to English [y] , being the most widespread sound outside the Southern Cone . For [ʝ̞] , the tip of the tongue doesn't rest almost relaxed behind the bottom teeth like in English  [y] . Instead, when the back of the tongue gets close

Hoy quiero rescatar de mis recuerdos de Facebook una conversación entre uno de mis contactos y yo cuando puse que la forma " veniste(s) " es tan o más común que la versión normativa " viniste ". Mi contacto comentaba bromeando que él usaba la más vistosa y fonéticamente jocosa palabra " vinites " - ok, no usó exactamente esas palabras, pero esa era la idea. Y claro, su comentario desencadenó mi respuesta sobre un proceso lingüístico llamado metátesis : Ese proceso es muy común en la evolución de los idiomas - evolución pasada y presente. Sucedió con " axe " (" aks ") y " ask " en inglés medio (" ax " todavía está vigente en el inglés vernáculo afroamericano - AVE ), sucedió con " peligro " y "periglo" (de Latín períc[u]lum > periclu > periclo > periglo) y con " palabra " y " parabla " (de Latín paráb[o]la > parabla) en la evolución del latín popular al español, suc

[Contenido en portugués - Content in Portuguese] [Para español, ver abajo.] To learn more about the loss of intervocalic -n-, also a unique characteristic of Portuguese, please see  this entry . To see the most frequent mistakes when learning Portuguese, click here .  -------------------------------------   El enigma de la desaparecida L en portugués explicado Para aprender sobre la caida de la -n- intermedia , también una característica única del portugués, favor de ver  esta entrada . Para ver los errores más frecuentes al aprender portugués, hacer clic  aquí . 

For frequent mistakes in Spanish, click here . If you're on your browser, open the below image in a separate tab for best resolution. Another frequent mistake by Portuguese language learners is the formation of plurals with words ending in -l  - click the link for an explanation that will hopefully make it clear for you.  

You're reading this article in English, so I've made a few assumptions about you in order to write it. I'll make yet another one. I'll assume you've probably heard all or most of the following and understand what they mean: willy-nilly , fifty-fifty , kitty-cat , wishy-washy , that baby seems to be getting uglier and uglier. All of these are examples of reduplication in the English language, and they are so common that we seldom stop to think that we're really duplicating a whole element or part of it. Reduplication happens in all languages, including Spanish. It can be classified into two main categories: complete (a whole word is replicated) and partial reduplication (a part of a word is replicated). The category that is the juiciest in Spanish is the one that uses whole words, but for the sake of completeness, examples of words that duplicate an element and not a whole word in Spanish are: "un notici on ón", "chiqu it ito", "grand o

[Bajar para español] To pave the way for a comparison between the shared simple past tense of “ir” and “ser”, let’s begin with the complex history of “ser”. Its origins combine Proto-Indo-European *h₁ésti (to be) and *bʰuH- (to become or to grow) via Latin “esse.” Its simple past forms, “fui, fuiste, fue,” link to the *bʰuH- root, which also appears in English "be" and German "bist." Other forms like “es,” “eres”, and “soy” via archaic Latin esum from esse link to *h₁ésti. This phenomenon of filling in gaps in verb conjugations or alternating roots, is called suppletion. Another instance occurred with the Latin verb sedere (to sit) > se(d)ere > Old Spanish seer> “ser” replacing the Latin infinitive “esse”. Examining "ir," the Spanish verb "to go," reveals another case of suppletion. The Latin verb “ire” complemented its conjugations in early Romance or Old Spanish and Galician-Portuguese with other verb forms. In the present tense, speak

why are there stem-changing verbs in Spanish? Short answer : Because of the distinction that was already lost in Vulgar Latin between long and short vowels in the evolution from Latin to modern Spanish.  Long answer : In Latin, long vowels were additionally naturally tense , while short vowels were additionally more relaxed . This makes sense, since to say a loooooong vowel, the muscles of the mouth have to be more tense than when you say a short vowel. When vowels were reduced from 10 in Latin to 5 in Modern Spanish , "things happened";  and among these, there was a phase where there came to be two vowels that had a closed or open quality ... "o" and "e" like in Portuguese.  Coincidence? I think not. Other Romance languages like Galician , Catalan , Italian , and French , in fact, stopped at this stage of evolution during the Vulgar Latin stage, with respect to "o" and "e" and remain today with at least 7 oral vowels , where the

Leí hace poco a alguien muy molesto porque " ocupar " se usa por algunas personas como sinónimo de necesitar , no solo con sustantivos, sino también con verbos: ocupo dinero, ocupo buscar terapia. Su molestia llegaba al grado de exclamar que cómo era posible ese tipo de " tergiversaciones " y acusaba a estas personas de "necesitar" leer más.  Sin embargo - y aquí viene la versión no popular - son supercomunes esas "tergiversaciones" en los idiomas. Por ejemplo:  La palabra carro  o coche ya no quiere decir vehículo no motorizado jalado por animales de carga - ahora quiere decir automóvil.  Avión ya no quiere decir gran ave, como los franceses lo habían entendido inicialmente - hoy día es un vehículo aéreo de gran porte.  Arribar ya no quiere decir llegar a la ribera, o sea llegar a tierra por barco - ahora quiere decir llegar por mar, tierra, aire, etc.  Plegar > llegar inicialmente quería decir doblar las velas cuando una emba

[Bajar para español] Do you know why accent marks are used in Spanish? No, not just because they help you pronounce words. I mean, do you really know why the Real Academia Española   decided to use them in certain cases and not others? In other words, what's the rationale behind the "rules"? Here are some guidelines: Guideline #1: When there is natural stress , no accent marks needed. This happens when the stress (acento tónico in Spanish) naturally falls on the next to last syllable in the most common syllable pattern of the language -   words that end in any vowel + words that end in -n or -s . For example: pa to, a mi go, li bre, supermer ca do, ex per ta, ma dre, sa bia (ia in Spanish counts as one syllable pronounced in a single breath, sa-bia is two syllables) , a gua (ua in Spanish counts as one syllable pronounced in a single breath, a-gua is two syllables), co me, ha bla, di ce, es tu dia , etc.  Why do we include words that end in -n or -s in this category?