Language Fun

A fun tidbit from wordsmith.org that is a reminder that different languages are different, not one better than another:

In English the verb goes in the middle of a sentence (I love you), while some languages relegate it to the end (I you love). This may sound preposterous to those not familiar with such a language (German, Hindi, Japanese, among others), but it's quite common.
In fact, the largest percentage of languages prefer the verb at the end (45%), followed by the middle placement (43%). The remaining 12% of the languages stick the verb out front (Fijian, Irish, etc.).
Like much in a language, there is no particular reason behind these varied placements. A front placement for a verb doesn't imply that speakers of that language give more importance to the action compared to those who put it at the end. Sometimes things just are.
But wherever the verb sits, it brings life to a sentence.

Happy Winnie the Pooh Day--January 18th

Winnie the Pooh stories (and movies) have been translated into a number of languages., including Spanish.  Winnie the Pooh and other characters in the stories by A. A. Milne are universally loved. 

English Only Is Ludicrous

The following information came with my "Word-for-the day"  this morning.  It definitely supports our desire to help our Esperanza scholars preserve their language. 

If you speak English, you know a little of more than a hundred languages. That's because English has borrowed words from so many languages around the world. Through trade, conquest, colonialism, etc. it came in contact with other languages.
When two languages rub against each other, as with humans, there is a certain give and take. Languages exchange words. English has many words from Latin, Greek, French, and Spanish, but it has also borrowed from languages as obscure as Basque (chaparral), Tongan (taboo), and Shelta (moniker).
When English meets with another language, the other language usually ends up badly. That's the downside to the spread of English. It enjoys a certain prestige among languages and everyone wants to learn it. It opens more opportunities. With each successive generation, interest in one's native language declines and eventually there's no one left to speak the tongue.
That makes the English-only agitation in a few states around here ludicrous. English is alive and well and thriving. Linguistic diversity is a good thing. Already a language dies every other week, and with it a whole culture. And as anthropologist and explorer Wade Davisso well describes it, "a language is not just a body of vocabulary or a set of grammatical rules, ... but an old growth forest of the mind."

Borrowing From Other Languages

"'A friend was on an Aeroflot flight crossing Russia when the woman next to him sneezed. He said 'Gesundheit!' She said: 'Thank goodness, someone who speaks English.'"
Peter Spencer; Column 8; The Sydney Morning Herald (Australia); Jul 23, 2011.

I loved this! There is so much truth in humor. There are so many words in the English speaking world that have been taken from other languages and claimed them as our own. These foreign words have enriched our communication and conversations.