TOP 40: CURIOSITIES OF THE SPANISH LANGUAGE ( PART 2)

Today I’ll continue with more of the Top 40: Curiosities of the Spanish Language that I started on April 23rd, remembering Spanish Language day.

Enjoy Reading!

No. 20: The letters “E – A -  O -  L -  S” are the most used by Spanish Speakers every day. The leader is letter E with "A" (16,78%), next is letter "O" (11,96%), "L" (8, 69%) and “S” (7,88%). The less used is W (0,01%).

No. 21: The letter “ñ” belongs to Spanish Language and other Languages as  Aragonese, Galician, Basque (Between Spain and France), Aymara (Indigenous Language spoken in Peru, Bolivia, Argentina and Chile). 

No. 22: The virguilla (~) the “ñ” has comes from another “n” and it was use on top of the biggest one, like an abbreviation. After some time, it flattens and ~ is and it becomes one of the biggest distinctive of Spanish Language.  

No. 23: “CH” (che) and “LL” (elle) were eliminated from the abecedary since 1994 by the Real Academy of Spanish Language. 

No. 24: Numbers in Spanish have either “O” or “E”, except for  "MIL" (thousand)   is the only one that doesn´t.

No. 25: There are four words with four consonants in line: Transplant ( Transplantar) , subtract ( Sustraer) , abstract ( abstracto), abstraction ( abstracción).

No. 26: The only Word with 5 “R” is: ferrocarrilero (railroader).

No. 27: The longest words in Spanish are: sternocleidomastoid (esternocleidomastoideo) an electroencephalography ( electroencefalografía)

No. 28: Spanish Language was official in many regions in all five continents. Many people think it is only spoken in the Americas (North, Central and South) and Europe.  It is also spoken in African Equatorial Guinea. In Philippines was the official Languages until 1950s. (Philippines was Spanish island territory from 1565 to 1898). Besides, in Easter Island Spanish is the official Language as it is in Oceania.

No. 29: Spanish Language has more than 350.000 words or terms, although the Real Academy of Language only accepts 88.000.

No. 30: A Spanish speaker usually employs an average of 300 words daily. A well-educated person knows more terms and employs 500 words daily. A journalist or a writer, may employ 3000 words. 

No. 31: Cervantes called Father of the Spanish Language, allegedly used 8000 different words in his Books.

No. 32: People in Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay and Chile usually call someone "vos" (instead of you). This is also used in Guatemala, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, St. Salvador, Honduras and in some Colombian regions such as Antioquia, Risaralda and Valle del Cauca.  

No. 33: These are some verbs with little use in Spanish: “Aupar”, it means to lift something, “Amustiar” is the same as “be sad, wither, languish” and “ralentizar” means go slower. 

No. 34: Translation to Spanish Language have 20% more words tan translations to English Language. 

No. 35: The term “HAIGA” does exist, but it doesn’t replace "HAYA" (from the verb Haber in english " to have"). According to Real Academy of Spanish Language it’s an ironic name for a big flamboyant car (you don’t hear it in daily language). 

No. 36: The word “AYA” exists. It doesn´t replace “ALLÁ” (there). "Aya" means slave or nursemaid. It is best known as Nanny or governess.

No. 37: The term ceviche/ cebiche/ sebiche (dish made with marinated fish meat or seafood): According to the Real Academy of spanish Language, they are all correct, but its preferable to use “Cebiche” because it comes from the persian “Sirk” that means vinegar, then the medieval Arabic ﺳكباج (sikbāǧ) that means “acid meat”. Although there is another origin that comes from quechua (Incan Language) and it os called “siwichi” that means “fresh and tender fish”. And another posible origin comes from the Muisca Civilization where “Viche” means “Tender Fish”. 

No. 38: Spoken Spanish Language is the fastest because the number of syllables a person can pronounce per second.

No. 39: An anagram is a word, phrase, or name formed by rearranging the letters of another, such as spar, formed from rasp. Spanish examples: Ecuatorianos and Aeronáuticos;  Irónicamente and Renacimiento;  Cleopatra and  Aceptarlo (same letters in different order). 

No. 40: Palindromes are words or phrases that can be read from left to right as in right to left. One  examplesin english:  Madam, Im Adam. Now  Some examples in Spanish:

Reconocer (to recognize) , acurruca (snuggles), somos ( we are), arenera (vessel for sand) o sometemos (we submit) . Also, some palindrome phrases: “la ruta natural” (the natural route) , “Anita lava la tina (Anita washes the tub) ”, “Yo hago yoga hoy” (I do yoga today).

   

Written by Adriana Martinez

TOP 40: CURIOSITIES OF THE SPANISH LANGUAGE (PART 1)

April 23 is around the corner and it is one of the happiest days of the year for me as a Spanish as a Foreign Language Teacher. Any guesses about this date? Is the Spanish Language Day! This year will be the anniversary #402.

Today we celebrate Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra who contributed to the Spanish Language with his masterpiece: “The Ingenious Nobleman Sir Quixote of la Mancha”. This novel was Published in two volumes, in 1605 and 1615, and consolidated our Language. The author is well known around the world Literature, sharing honors with Homer (Greek writer who wrote The Iliad and the Odyssey), Dante (in Italy) and Shakespeare (England). Cervantes died in Madrid, on April 23^rd, 1616. Every year and every Spanish Speaking country on this date celebrate “Language Day”.

To celebrate this important day, for Spanish as a Foreign Language students, I have written this article with the 40 curiosities of the Spanish Language. This publication is the first part of 19 curiosities, the others will come in a second part.

Enjoy the reading, as much as I have writing it!!

ONE: Have You noticed this language is called both Spanish and Castilian? Are both names correct? Well, according to the Royal Spanish Academy, the most commonly used is SPANISH, the reason is because this name was attributed to the unification with the SPANISH Crown and by this name the term it was established in Hispano-America, and the term “Castilian” is only used for the language used in the Realm of Castile. On the other hand, we have the synonyms. Sometimes, when you have used all demonstrative pronouns in a paragraph, you might appeal to use Castilian as a synonym for “Spanish”, and vice-versa, avoiding repeating the same words.   

TWO: Spanish is the modern sequel of vulgar Latin and other ancient languages, but only after the third century and after the fall of the Roman Empire, vulgar Latin and some of its extended variants from all the territory, the Romance Languages. For this reason, Spanish belongs to the same linguistic family as Italian, Portuguese, Catalan, French, Occitan and last, but not least, Romanian. Actually, there are some Romance Languages as Sardinian, Friulan and Retroromance, and some other. 

THREE: The Spanish, in its beginnings had two accents: Acute that we use nowadays, and the Circumflex accent that remains in other Romance Languages like French (for more details, please read the article form  April 20^th of this blog).

FOUR: In relation with Castilian, in former days it was known as “Christian” because the Moor (an Arabic and Muslim community that invaded Spain from the eighth century to the fifteenth century) used this word to establish a difference between those who spoke Castilian, and those who spoke Arabic Language. 

FIVE: It is believed that the first written Spanish document was written between 974 and 978 in an abbey in Leon, Spain, where a monk wrote a kitchen list of expenses. The text was named “Nodicia de Kesos” and listed mainly the use of cheese used by the monks. 

SIX: Spanish language has about 70% words in Latin, although more than the 85% everyday language has a Latin origin.

SEVEN: Spanish lexical originated from Vulgar Latin, and it has some influences from other languages such as Greek (used mostly in scientific and mathematic and prefixes for medicine and jurisprudence) Arabic, Gothic, Romance Languages, Náhuatl (language the Aztecs ),  Quechua (language of the Incas) English and others.

 EIGHT: More than 4000 words in Spanish come from Arabic domination. Approximately this would be an eight percent of the actual vocabulary.

NINE: In the History of our Language, from Proto-Romance to Proto-Castilian, most of the word “loans” for the Pseudo-Spanish came from Germanic Languages mostly from a variation of the Goth Language called Visigoth (a branch of Germans who came to Spain between 200 and 700 A.D) This “loans” included verbs, names (Ricardo, Alberto, Rodrigo, Guzmán, Alvarado, Guerra o Guerrero, Estrada, some became Last Names), colors white  (blanco), war terms (such as spurs, guard, helmet).

TEN: When most medieval texts appear, it was easy to see a huge influence of the Arabic Language and related with new technologies (Algorithm, logarithm, Zenith, Nadir, Azimuth), government terms (Governor, bailiff, executor, almojarife). Commercial terms (store, carat, at weight, hundredweight), and at the same time the last names ending in “EZ” mean “son of” Like Martínez that means “Son of Martin”.

ELEVEN: With America’s Discovery, appeared new terms coming from Indian tribes. These are: Tomato, cocoa, tobacco, maize (or corn), ceiba trees, rubber, canoe, hammock, hurricane. After the black slaves from Congo (Africa) to Latin America. other words appeared like: banana, marimba (musical percussion instrument), fatmouth (Bemba), guineo (a kind of plantain), guaro (alcohol obtained from sugar cane), motete (a bundle).

TWELVE: Spanish Language acquired some terms from Italian. During the Golden Age we get a lot of words related with music (sonnet, piano, baton). 

THIRTEEN: At the end of the Medieval Ages (1700) and the Illustration (1800), Spanish Language takes from French Language terms related to fashion: (Tisu, corset, toupee), gastronomy (bonbon, restaurant and Foie gras (liver spread) …), and management (desk, ID card).

FOURTEEN: "Satisfy” comes from Latin “Satis” that means quite or enough.  

FIFTEEN: Most words that start with H, in Latin, were written with "F". Is the case :filius (son/ hijo) o filu (/ thread/hilo) ferro (iron/hierro).

SIXTEEN: Many word in Spanish that have the “MBR” particle, come from Latin words with -MIN-, like hunger (faminem), female (feminam), hombre (hominem), light (luminem), wire (amarinem) or hill (culminem).

SEVENTEEN: Huge Tome (“Mamotreto”) is something very heavy or thick. This term comes from Greek “μαμμοθρεπτος” (mammothreptos) and Late Latin “mammothreptus”.

EIGHTEEN: “Miss you” comes from the Portuguese expression “achar menos” where “Achar” means “look for”.

NINETEEN: Those who have suffered with the “subjunctive mode” are very familiar with this two words: Maybe ( quizas/quiza) and Hopefully ( ójala). The adverb maybe (quizás/quizá) comes from the Latin expression “qui sapit” and it means “who knows”. On the other hand, “hopefully” comes from the Arabic Word لو شاء الله (law sha'a Allah) and it means “God may”.

Written By Adriana Martinez