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Spanish Word of the Day
| February 9th, 2014 at 10:06:52 AM permalink | |
| Nareed Member since: Oct 24, 2012 Threads: 346 Posts: 12545 |
Look up-thread. There it is. Donald Trump is a one-term LOSER |
| February 11th, 2014 at 7:32:35 AM permalink | |
| Nareed Member since: Oct 24, 2012 Threads: 346 Posts: 12545 | Had any of you been eavesdropping while I work, you'd have learned all my favorite curse-words. I've been going through them a great deal since IT "standardized" all the PCs in the office. Donald Trump is a one-term LOSER |
| February 11th, 2014 at 8:25:21 AM permalink | |
| Pacomartin Member since: Oct 24, 2012 Threads: 1068 Posts: 12569 | In English the word dinner started as the first meal of the day, then became the second, and finally the third meal. The word original in the late 13th century, from Old French disner (Modern French dîner) "to dine, eat, have a meal," originally "take the first meal of the day," from stem of Gallo-Romance desjunare "to break one's fast". As the word moved from French to English, the main meal of the day was eaten at mid-day. By the mid 15th century the first meal was taken literally as breakfast from break (verb) + fast (noun). In the middle ages there was a word nuncheon from none "noon" + shench "draught, cup" so it referred to a mid-day drink. The English dialectal word lunch meant a "hunk of bread or cheese". The two words were eventually combined into luncheon . Finally by the late 18th century, it began to be shortened to lunch. In the late 18th century, the well to do classes started eating their main meal in the evening. As more and more of society adopted the practice, the word "dinner" began to refer to the evening meal. "to fast" and "fast" |
| February 13th, 2014 at 3:49:23 PM permalink | |
| Pacomartin Member since: Oct 24, 2012 Threads: 1068 Posts: 12569 | Kotsenburg was a surprise gold medal winner in snowboarding. The favored Canadian broke his wrist. When said he was "stoked," the interpreters said he was drunk.
How would you translate his comments into Spanish? The word "atizar" seems to be the most literal translation of "stoked", but I don't know if it he figurative meaning as well.
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| February 14th, 2014 at 3:58:26 PM permalink | |
| Nareed Member since: Oct 24, 2012 Threads: 346 Posts: 12545 |
Spanish is "native" mostly to warm places. "Stoke" is not a commonly used word now that coal engines ahve been out of use for decades. The first part is ok. The second repeats "feliz," which would be fine if that was what the interviewee said. Otherwise use "entusiasmado." Donald Trump is a one-term LOSER |
| February 15th, 2014 at 6:50:41 AM permalink | |
| Wizard Administrator Member since: Oct 23, 2012 Threads: 239 Posts: 6095 | Sorry to have not posted here for a while. I guess I can safely say that I've been in London and Malta Feb 1-12. Had a good a time. Will try to write more about it later. For now I'll just try to concentrate on a look at the trip from a language point of view.
In London I heard the word "pissed" quite a few times. We all know it is slang for angry in the US. However, it means drunk in the UK. One reason I enjoyed my trip is I enjoy listening to the English accent, especially coming from women. When it is done in a serious stiff upper lip kind of way, as many Brits are, it isn't much fun, but in a more casual sense it can be a delight. At one point I went to a soccer, oops -- I mean football, game between Chelsea (London) and Newcastle (northern England). There was a lot of songs and chanting between the two groups of fans, which were separated in the stadium by a line of guards on both sides. At one point the Chelsea fans chanted "speak f**king English." I asked for a word of explanation from my friend who took me and he said that up in New Castle the accent starts to sound Scottish. Speaking of the Scottish accent, I had a number of conversations with Scots and it is hard to understand what they are saying much of the time. Hard to believe that England and Scotland can share the same small island (by US standards) for hundreds of years and still sound so much different. I can't imagine how hard Sean Connery must have worked to master a proper London accent for the James Bond films as that Scottish accent is thick. I barely used my Spanish at all during the trip but I did manage to find one victim in London. A charming lass who spoke six languages, one of them Spanish. Whenever I tried to switch to Spanish she laughed her head off because I evidently sounded ridiculous trying to speak the language with an "American accent." Malta. Fortunately they all seemed to know some English as they were a recent British colony, although not always fluently. However, among themselves, they speak in Maltese. This is unlike any language I've heard before. Usually when I overhear a foreign language I can peg which it is, but if I over heard Maltese I would just have to shrug and say "no clue." It is my understanding the language is Arabic in origin and the only one to use the A-Z alphabet. Ironically, the country is heavily Catholic. You would think near the coast of north Africa there would be a strong Muslim presence but I saw much much more of that in London. Okay, time to get back into the swing of the SWD. Fecha: 15-2-14 Palabra: Linterna Today's SWD means flashlight. The assignment for the advanced readers is to explain the origin/meaning of the prefix lint and whether it can be found in any English words.' Ejemplo time. El profesor cargó las batarías de la linterna. = The Professor charged the flashlight batteries. Knowledge is Good -- Emil Faber |
| February 15th, 2014 at 7:46:27 AM permalink | |
| Pacomartin Member since: Oct 24, 2012 Threads: 1068 Posts: 12569 |
The language is Arabic, but the Muslims were expelled 800 years ago. It only became British in the 19th century. Obviously Maltese non Indo-European. With fewer than half a million speakers it may become extinct. It is one of the four official European Union languages that is not Indo-European. The other three are closely related to each other. Hungarian, Finnish, Estonian Basque is a non Indo-European language that is only semi-official. I believe that Basque is the only language isolate in Europe, and spoken by fewer than a million people. Official languages Bulgarian Croatian Czech Danish Dutch English Estonian Finnish French German Greek Hungarian Irish Italian Latvian Lithuanian Maltese Polish Portuguese Romanian Slovak Slovene Spanish Swedish Semi-official languages Catalan Galician Basque |
| February 15th, 2014 at 7:57:35 AM permalink | |
| Wizard Administrator Member since: Oct 23, 2012 Threads: 239 Posts: 6095 | Why isn't Yiddish a semi-official language? Regarding Maltese, I personally think the world has too many languages and we should try to ween ourselves off of the minor ones like Maltese. Of course, it is easy for me to say that. I applaud China for trying to convert the whole country to Mandarin, although southern China is going along with that kicking and screaming. Knowledge is Good -- Emil Faber |
| February 15th, 2014 at 12:15:50 PM permalink | |
| Pacomartin Member since: Oct 24, 2012 Threads: 1068 Posts: 12569 |
Yiddish has fewer than 100,000 speakers left in the EU. I would imagine that there is nobody who speaks just Yiddish anymore. Indonesia has 700 indigenous languages. The national language of Indonesia is not the most widely spoken language. It is a version of Malay that was the language of commerce, but which has been artificially made to be more regular. The most widely spoken language is Javanese. Mexico has dozens of languages spoken by fewer than 1000 people. Eliminating them is not an issue, as it would take a lot of money to preserve them. Children have little or no incentive to learn these languages. Pima Bajo (Oob No'ok) 836 Q'eqchí (Q'eqchí) 835 Lacandón (Hach t'an) 731 Jakaltek (Poptí) (Abxubal) 584 Matlatzinca/Ocuilteco (Tlahuica) 522 Seri (Cmiique iitom) 518 Ixcatec 406 K'iche' 286 Kaqchikel 230 Paipai (Jaspuy pai) 221 Cucapá (Kuapá) 206 Mototzintleco (Qatok) 186 Kumiai (Ti'pai) 185 Pápago (O'odham) 153 Kikapú (Kikapoa) 144 Ixil 108 Cochimí (Laymón, mti'pá) 96 Kiliwa language (Ko'lew) 55 Aguacatec 27 In Oaxaca the two big indigenous languages were Mixtec (Tu'un sávi) and Zapotec (Diidxaza). You would run into many people who did not speak Spanish. Cantonese has some 60 million native speakers, which puts it on about the same level as Italian, and certainly many more than Greek, Polish, Hungarian, Czech or a Nordic language. Look at how much money is invested in keeping Welsh a viable language, and only about 1/3 of a million consider themselves to be fluent. |
| February 16th, 2014 at 5:51:44 PM permalink | |
| Wizard Administrator Member since: Oct 23, 2012 Threads: 239 Posts: 6095 | Fecha: 16-2-14 Palabra: redacción Today's SWD means essay. The question for the advanced readers is to confirm or deny a common etymology with the English redact, which means to edit/revise. Ejemplo time. Traté escribir mi redacción la noche atrás, pero no pude a concentrarse. = I tried to write my essay last night, but I couldn't concentrate. Bonus points: Can you name the movie this para-quote is from? Knowledge is Good -- Emil Faber |