The Language Times

Three Must-Read News of the Week

thelanguagetimes — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 11:44:07 +0000

Spanish

While writing, a comma can determinate the meaning of a whole story. Úrsula Velezmoro give us some advices to improve our writing skills in Spanish.

http://www.manualdeestilo.com/ortografia/la-coma-criminal/

The Economist published an article about the Spanish Theta.

http://www.economist.com/blogs/johnson/2012/01/accents

English

Ben Zimmer tell us a bit of the history of English in America

http://articles.boston.com/2012-01-29/ideas/30673028_1_quakers-17th-century-anne-hutchinson

Grammar Tips: Nominative and accusative cases in German

thelanguagetimes — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 19:29:48 +0000

This week we’ll learn about nouns in German, starting with two cases: nominative and accusative.

In German, nouns and pronouns are declined in order to reflect the case in which they are being used.
There are different endings or forms for the noun or pronoun itself, plus any article, or adjective, that will indicate the case.

The Nominative Case refers to the subject of the sentence. The subject is who or what is doing the action (the verb).

For example:

Der Student lernt Deutsch

The student learns German

Der student=subject

lernt=verb

Deutsch=direct object

For predicate nouns (when the main verb is sein or werden) we’ll use also the nominative case for both subject and predicative nouns.

For example:

Das ist ein Stuhl

Articles in the Nominative case:

		Definite Articles	Indefinite Articles*
Masculine	Der		Ein
Femenine	Die		Eine
Neuter	Das		Ein
Plural	Die		-

*Negative Form:

masc Kein

fem Keine

neut Kein

Plural Keine

The Accusative Case in German is also known as “direct object” and it means that the noun or the pronoun follows a transitiv (action) verb.
A simple example would be:
Maria spielt Tennis

Maria plays tennis

Maria=subject

spielt=verb

Maria plays what? =Tennis=direct object

The well-known expression “es gibt” (there is/are) needs the noun to be declined in the accusative case because it is grammatically a direct object.

Generally, with the accusative prepositions the noun will always be in accusative, but there are two kinds of accusative prepositions: those which are always accusative and obviously the noun will always be in accusative, and those which could be accusative or dative:

Always accusative:


Deutsch	Englisch
bis*	until, to, by
durch	through, by
entlang	along, down
NOTE: The accusative preposition entlang, unlike the others, usually goes after its object, as in the example above.
für	for
gegen	against, for
ohne	without
um	around, for; at (time)
NOTE: The German preposition bis* is technically an accusative preposition, but it is almost always used with a second preposition (bis zu, bis auf, etc.) in a different case, or without an article (bis April, bis Montag, bis Bonn).

Two ways Prepositions

NOTE: The meaning of a two-way preposition often depends on whether it is used with the accusative or dative case*
Deutsch	Englisch
an	at, on, to
auf	at, to, on, upon
hinter	behind
in	in, into
neben	beside, near, next to
über	about, above, across, over
unter	under, among
vor	in front of, before; ago (time)
zwischen	between

* To know if a preposition is accusative or dative the basic method is to recognize if the preposition indicates motion or location: If it indicates motion, the prepostion will be accusative. If it indicates location it will be dative. BUT there are some prepositions that, besides their meaning, will always be dative or accusative (the always-accusative ones you have it in the first table)

Example:

Du gehst ins Kino. (in das, accus.) aber ich bin im Kino (in dem, dat.)
You’re going to the movies (motion towards) but I am already in the cinema (location).

Times expressions: in a sentence are usually in accusative: jeden Tag, letzten Sommer, den ganzen Tag, diesen Abend, etc.

Articles in the Nominative Case:

		Definite Articles	Indefinite Articles*
Masculine	Den		Einen
Femenine	Die		Eine
Neuter	Das		Ein
Plural	Die		-

*Negative Form:

masc Keinen

fem Keine

neut Kein

Plural Keine

And now two tables of pronouns in both, nominative and accusative cases:

German Pronouns
	Nominative	Accusative
Singular
I	ich	mich
You (informal singular)	du	dich
He	er	ihn
It	es	es
She	sie	sie
Plural
We (us)	wir	uns
You (informal plural)	ihr	euch
They	sie	sie
You (formal – singular or plural)	Sie	Sie

		Nominative	Accusative
Possesive Pronouns	masculine	unser	unseren
	feminine	unsere	unsere
	neuter	unser	unser
	plural	unsere	unsere
Demonstrative Pronouns	masculine	dieser	diesen
	feminine	diese	diese
	neuter	dieses	dieses
		diese	diese

Next week we’ll learn about Dative and Genitive.

Lancement Officiel d’ Élan-Afrique

thelanguagetimes — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 15:42:22 +0000

Le lancement de cette initiative a eu lieu les 23 et 24 janvier en Mali. Le projet « École et langues nationales en Afrique » est maintenant une réalité qui a eté promue par l’OIF.

Huit pays francophones d’Afrique sub-saharienne vont développer un enseignement bilingue dans le primaire respectueux des langues nationales.

Bénin, Burundi, Cameroun, Mali, Niger, Burkina Faso, Congo et Sénégal sont les pays concernés.

Three Must-Read News of the week

thelanguagetimes — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 03:59:22 +0000

Spanish

El Diario La Nación de Argentina publicó un artículo acerca de una investigadora del idioma español.

http://www.lanacion.com.ar/1441158-cont-el-idioma-espanol-tiene-una-detective

English

Waterstone’s, the famous chain of BookStores loses the apostrophe in its name and generates a debate about Grammar usage in the UK.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/jan/13/in-praise-of-apostrophes-editorial

French

Séminaire à Mali sur la couverture par les médias et le bonnes pratiques francophones.

http://www.francophonie.org/Seminaire-sur-La-couverture-des.html

Learning French? Practice your language skills!

thelanguagetimes — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 02:45:40 +0000

Learning French? You already speak it and want to practice? Try these ways to make the most of your Francophonie.

Speaking: go to language exchange groups: if you don’t know where to start, I’ll recommend you to search for one in meetup.com or polyglotclub.com.

Listening: Music is a great help to improve your vocabulary and practice your listening skills. Go to Deezer.com and start listening to radios and podcasts! (If the site is not available in your country there is also a version of it by Yahoo! France) The websites Sons en Français and Listen to French include a wide variety of TV and/or Film extracts. If you are learning French you should visit the Rfi website as well!

Writing: Starting a blog is a good way. If you are interested in journalism and French you should try lepost.fr (in these days it will change to huffingtonpost.fr). Or if you just want to start a blog and talk about the things you like you should try over-blog.com, it is a popular Blog Platform and it is francophone!

Reading: In Lepost.fr you will find a network of interesting French Blogs and definitely you should read Lemonde.fr for news about France and the world.

Other useful resources to try:

Interactive Courses and activities:

Bonjour de France: http://www.bonjourdefrance.com/

Le Point du FLE http://www.lepointdufle.net/

Français interactif http://www.laits.utexas.edu/fi/home

Le Monde Francophone http://www.mhhe.com/socscience/foreignlang/french/inet.htm

Occupy: Word of the year

thelanguagetimes — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 23:09:31 +0000

Occupy has been chosen as Word of the Year by The American Dialect Society.

The American Dialect Society, made up of prestigious linguistics, has voted “occupy” as the word of 2011 in its 22nd annual words of the year vote.

The Voting session was presided by ADS Executive Secretary Allan Metcalf of MacMurray College, and Ben Zimmer, chair of the New Words Committee of the American Dialect Society.

“It’s a very old word, but over the course of just a few months it took on another life and moved in new and unexpected directions, thanks to a national and global movement,” Zimmer said. “The movement itself was powered by the word.”

In a companion vote, sibling organization the American Name Society voted “Arab Spring” as Name of the Year for 2011 in its eighth annual name-of-the-year contest. It refers to popular political uprisings in Middle Eastern countries.

AMERICAN DIALECT SOCIETY VOTE TALLIES

The number after each nomination is the number of votes it received. Numbers separated by slash marks indicate a run-off. Voting totals for each category might not be identical because the number of voters might have changed for each category.

WORD OF THE YEAR

occupy – verb, noun, and combining form referring to the Occupy protest movement. 82/174 WINNER

FOMO – acronym for “Fear of Missing Out,” describing anxiety over being inundated by information on social media. 41/28

the 99%, 99 percenters – those held to be at a financial or political disadvantage to the top moneymakers, the one-percenters. 43/24

humblebrag – expression of false humility, especially by celebrities on Twitter. 30

job creator – a member of the top one-percent of moneymakers. 4

MOST USEFUL

humblebrag – expression of false humility, especially by celebrities on Twitter. 87/121 WINNER

occupy – verb, noun, and combining form referring to the Occupy protest movement. 70/102

FOMO – acronym for “Fear of Missing Out,” describing anxiety over being inundated by information on social media. 25

tablet – lightweight portable computer with a touchscreen to input data. 30

MOST CREATIVE

Mellencamp – a woman who has aged out of being a “cougar” (after John Cougar Mellencamp). 103 WINNER

bunga bunga – name for sex parties allegedly involving former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. 21

kardash – unit of measurement consisting of 72 days, after the short-lived marriage of Kim Kardashian and Kris Humphries (coined by Weird Al Yankovic). 82

put a bird on it – to add artistic flair to something, usu. used ironically or humorously. 23

MOST UNNECESSARY

bi-winning – term used by Charlie Sheen to describe himself pridefully, dismissing accusations of being bipolar. 77/156 WINNER

amazeballs – slang form for “amazing.” 82/85

planking – posing for a photograph, esp. in a public place, with one’s body in a stiff, prone position, for circulation online. 13

Qwikster : short-lived Netflix spinoff of its DVD rental service, separated from its streaming. 44

MOST OUTRAGEOUS

assholocracy – rule by obnoxious multi-millionaires. 166 WINNER

deather – one who doubts the official story of the killing of Osama bin Laden. 35

botoxionist – a doctor who administers Botox injections. 1

MOST EUPHEMISTIC

job creator – a member of the top one-percent of moneymakers. 111 WINNER

artisan, artisanal – faux-fancy term used to describe food and other products. 78

regime alteration – alternative to “regime change” promoted by Obama administration in some Middle Eastern countries. 19

sugar-coated Satan sandwich : something bad on the inside that looks good on the outside, as used by Missouri U.S Congressman Emanuel Cleaver. 1

MOST LIKELY TO SUCCEED

cloud – online space for the large-scale processing and storage of data. 155WINNER

Arab Spring – a series of popular uprisings in Middle Eastern countries against dictatorial regimes. 54

tiger mom, tiger mother – an exceedingly strict parent (after Amy Chua’s memoir, “Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother”).

LEAST LIKELY TO SUCCEED

brony – adult male fan of the “My Little Pony” cartoon franchise. 103 WINNER

Tebowing – posing for photograph praying on one knee, after Denver Broncos quarterback Tim Tebow. 47

9-9-9 – tax plan proposed by Herman Cain (9% business tax, 9% personal income tax, 9% federal sales tax). 65

OCCUPY WORDS (new category)

the 99%, 99 percenters – those held to be at a financial or political disadvantage to the top moneymakers, the one-percenters. n-percenters, n-percent. 219 WINNER

occupy – verb, noun, and combining form referring to the Occupy protest movement. 17

people’s mic, human microphone – method of amplifying a person’s speech by having surrounding people repeat it line by line 7

twinkling – system of wiggly hand gestures to register approval or disapproval. 9

Source: American Dialect Society

Auf Deutsch, bitte

thelanguagetimes — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 23:04:45 +0000

Sprichst du Deutsch? Some people think German is very difficult to learn considering its complex Grammar or even “not so attractive” comparing to other languages such as French or Italian. But the German language is a very important one with 98 million native speakers. It is the most widely spoken first language in the European Union and 80 million people speak it as a second Language proving that German is definitely not so hard to learn. German is the official language in Deutschland (Germany), Österreich (Austria) and Liechtenstein. It is one of the official languages in die Schweiz (Switzerland) and Luxemburg (Luxembourg). Many of the best writers in the world have been German Native speakers, such as Goethe, Kafka, Handke, Brecht and the list goes on. They encourage you to discover the pleasure of reading their original masterpieces in their native language.

Where to learn

The Goethe Institut has schools offering German courses in about 90 countries. They also organize events to promote cultural exchange.

Many Universities offer German courses to the public and for sure you will find public or private institutions where you can learn.

ONLINE Learning

If you want to learn German online you should definitely check the Deutsche Welle website, there you will find a free and very useful online course and a collection of other important resources.

BBC also has a very interesting free online course and a variety of helpful resources that cannot be missed out.

Take a look at deutsch-lernen.com. It has a free course as well.

GOING TO GERMANY?

Living in a place where the language is spoken is just amazing. In Germany there are public institutions called Volksschule that provide cheap courses. There are also well known private schools in almost every city and the Goethe Institut also provides classes in Germany.

Three Must-Read News

thelanguagetimes — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 22:24:16 +0000

Le mur des je t’aime. I love you Wall

À Paris, on peut trouver un mur créé par Frédéric Baron et Claire Kito avec le syntagme “je t’aime” traduit à 311 langues.

http://atlasobscura.com/place/le-mur-des-je-t-aime

Literature Events

A complete list of the most relevant events happening this year.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jan/06/literary-events-2012?CMP=twt_gu

Recomendación Urgente del día, por la Fundeu

Fundeu siempre útil y necesaria nos recomienda un uso correcto del español.

http://www.fundeu.es/recomendaciones-T-tachar-de-y-tildar-de-siempre-tienen-caracter-negativo-1196.html

O português, um oceano de culturas.

thelanguagetimes — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 04:20:18 +0000

A lingua portuguesa é uma das mais faladas do mundo com cerca de 240 milhões de falantes. O Instituto Camões publicou uma série chamada de “Um Oceano de Culturas” para fazer uma homenagem fotográfica ao português e as diferentes culturas que o falam.

Um Oceano de Culturas

¿Castellano o Español?

thelanguagetimes — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 00:43:57 +0000

Es a menudo una duda que suscita en el mundo linguístico. ¿Castellano o Español? He de ahí el dilema.

El cuestionamiento se remite a la historia del idioma mismo. El idioma en cuestión se originó en la región de Castilla pero su difusión a lo largo del territorio español y de las colonias españolas se debió a la política expansionista de los reyes católicos que en 1492 promovieron la primera publicación de La Gramática de la Lengua Castellana. Una vez oficializada lengua nacional, empezó a denominarse español.

El diccionario Panhispánico de Dudas, obra de la Real Academia Española, responde a esta inquietud:

“español. Para designar la lengua común de España y de muchas naciones de América, y que también se habla como propia en otras partes del mundo, son válidos los términos castellano y español. La polémica sobre cuál de estas denominaciones resulta más apropiada está hoy superada. El término español resulta más recomendable por carecer de ambigüedad, ya que se refiere de modo unívoco a la lengua que hablan hoy cerca de cuatrocientos millones de personas. Asimismo, es la denominación que se utiliza internacionalmente (Spanish, espagnol, Spanisch, spagnolo, etc.). Aun siendo también sinónimo de español, resulta preferible reservar el término castellano para referirse al dialecto románico nacido en el Reino de Castilla durante la Edad Media, o al dialecto del español que se habla actualmente en esta región. En España, se usa asimismo el nombrecastellano cuando se alude a la lengua común del Estado en relación con las otras lenguas cooficiales en sus respectivos territorios autónomos, como el catalán, el gallego o el vasco.”