Rhuyeve tamile Amaharukwe, Rhux̌akwe tanajha chiwirachive, Tanapm Rhalamereve. ”Amaharu said it to me, I have come to say it to you, And I will go say it to the world (OR: And you will go say it to the world)"
Phonotactics: CV syllables only. /ə/ is pronounced [ɨ] in a stressed syllable unless preceded by a pharyngeal/pharyngealized consonant, otherwise it is pronounced [ə]. Syllabic consonants /l̩/, /r̩/, /n̩/ and /m̩/ appear word finally, but these are best understood as underlying /ənə/, /əmə/, /ələ/ and /ərə/ respectively. With voiced consonants, pharyngealization is realised as:
A pharyngeal/epiglottal voiced trill-release of the consonant.
The following vowel is pronounced with a murmured voice.
With voiceless consonants (including ejectives), pharyngealization is realised as:
A pharyngeal/epiglottal voiceless trill-release of the consonant.
The following vowel is pronounced with a noisy, aspirated release.
Furthermore, vowels /i/ and are diphthongized following pharyngeals: /i/ -> [əi], -> [əu] Thus: /dˁu/ -> [d͡ʢə̤ṳ] /tˁi/ -> [t͡ʜʰəi] (This is based on Chechen btw) Sound changes since Kesan: The aspirated series shift to fricatives: /pʰ/ -> /f/ /tʰ/ -> /s/ /kʲʰ/ -> /xʲ/ /kʷʰ/ -> /xʷ/ /qʰ/ -> /χ/ /qʷʰ/ -> /χʷ/ Palatalized velars shift to Alveopalatals, leaving the language with only a labialized velar series. /kʲ/ -> /t͡ʃ/ /xʲ/ -> /ʃ/ /kʲ'/ -> /t͡ʃ'/ /gʲ/ -> /d͡ʒ/ Following this, alveolars also shift to alveopalatals when followed by /i/ /ti/ -> /t͡ʃi/ /si/ -> /ʃi/ /t’i/ -> /t͡ʃ’i/ /zi/ -> /ʒi/ /t͡si/ -> /t͡ʃi/ /d͡zi/ -> /d͡ʒi/ Glottals become pharyngeals when followed by a pharyngealized vowel: /hVˁ/ -> [ħVˁ] /ʔVˁ/ -> [ʕVˁ] Pharyngealization shifts from vowels to adjacent alveolalabial consonants, If no eligible consonants are adjacent to the vowel pharyngealization is lost, if both adjacent consonants are eligible, the consonant following the vowel is pharyngealized. P=eligible consonant. K=non-eligible consonant. /PVˁK/ -> /PˁVK/ /KVˁP/ -> /KVPˁ/ /KVˁK/ -> /KVK/ /PVˁP/ -> /PVPˁ/ Some time following this, /vˁ/ and /fˁ/ shift to /ʕ/ and /ħ/, respectively. /ə/ inserted errywhere: /CC/ -> /CəC/ /CVC__/ -> /CVCə/ (is this how you denote word-final consonants? pls halp my linguistics formulafu is weak) Vowel reduction? I haven't figured out the exact details yet, open to suggestions. Word final voiceless fricatives and word-final syllables composed of a voiceless fricative and an /ə/ are dropped. This has an interesting effect on certain words, which now develop two distinct forms depending on whether or not they take any suffixes. For instance, the 1st person singular pronoun nominative /ʕuχə/ loses the final syllable, becoming /ʕu/, but in the plural, the final syllable is "protected" by the plural suffix, and so the original form remains: /ʕuχa-t͡ʃə/ Lastly: /ɮ/ -> /ʒ/ /ɬ/ -> /l/ /t͡s’/ -> /səʔ/ /t͡s/ -> /s/ /d͡z/ -> /z/ /ji/ -> /jə/ /wu/ -> /wə/ /Cʷu/ -> /Cʷə/ /VhV/ -> /VnV/ (unless at least one of V=, in which case /VhV/->/VmV/) Overall grammatical changes from the proto-language:
Pronouns developed tripartite allignment (rest of the language stays ergative-absolutive)
Developed a three-way gender system (masculine animate, feminine animate, inanimate)
BECAME NON-CONFIGURATIONAL. Word order is more or less random, discontinuity all over the place, pro-dropping, this language doesn't give a shit.
Lost most of the inflected verbs, so might only have 3 verbs depending on how you look at it. See below.
Omni-predicative? Sort of? Technically not? It's hard to explain, see below, in practice everything can be verbified, but it's less that nouns serve as verbs and more that semantically deficient verbs can have nouns bolted on to them to give them an actual meaning... it's weird.
Pronouns, which are now tripartite:
Singular
Dual
Plural
1.
Nominative
ʕu
ʕuʕu
ʕuχat͡ʃə
Ergative
ʕuχakʷə
ʕuʕuχakʷə
ʕuχat͡ʃəkʷə
Accusative
ʕuju
ʕuʕuju
ʕuχat͡ʃəju
Genitive
ʕujə-
ʕuʕujə-
ʕuχat͡ʃi-
2.
Nominative
t͡ʃiwira
t͡ʃit͡ʃiwira
t͡ʃiwirat͡ʃə
Ergative
t͡ʃiwirakʷə
t͡ʃit͡ʃiwirakʷə
t͡ʃiwirat͡ʃəkʷə
Accusative
t͡ʃiwiju
t͡ʃit͡ʃiwiju
t͡ʃiwirat͡ʃəju
Genitive
t͡ʃiwi-
t͡ʃit͡ʃiwi-
t͡ʃiwirat͡ʃi-
3.
Nominative
kʷ’ə
kʷ’əkʷ’ə
kʷ’əʃat͡ʃə
Ergative
-
-
-
Accusative
kʷ’əʃu
kʷ’əkʷ’əʃu
kʷ’əʃat͡ʃu
Genitive
kʷ’i-
kʷ’əkʷ’i-
kʷ’əʃat͡ʃi-
As you can see above, Chesar has a tripartite pronoun system, with distinct forms for intransitive subject (nominative), transitive subject (ergative) and transitive object (accusative). Note that the lack of ergative pronouns in the third person is not an accident, as Kesar completely lacks them. Demonstratives are instead used. Other 3rd person pronouns exist, but demonstratives are again commonly in their place. True 3rd person pronouns are only used for emphasis. Genitive pronouns may appear on their own without an overt head and may thus both be translated as "my" and "mine". ("That's my book. It's mine"). They agree with their head in gender and case. The tripartite system developed, in parts, as a result of the increased use of demonstratives in lieu of third person pronouns. The fact that these demonstratives, unlike pronouns, but like other nouns, followed an ergative allignment, brought further confusion to to an already complex system. The pattern of these demonstratives, which were marked with an Ergative case suffix when transitive subjects, was regularized to apply to other pronouns, and formed by attaching an ergative /-(a)kʷə/ suffix to the nominative form. However, pronouns had distinct Nominative and Accusative forms, and these stuck around even after the addition of the ergative. Thus you get a tripartite system, with no distinct ergative form for 3rd person pronouns. Examples: ”I went” Rhu rhuzigwe.
GRAMMATICAL GENDER SYSTEM: Each grammatical gender has a "common" ending that many words in the group end on, and this ending is used to derive further words into the group. Gender is also mostyl semantically determined, so it is somewhat predictable. But still, for a lot of words you just have to memorize it. The grammatical gender of a noun triggers agreement in adjectives (whose only distinction from nouns is having no inherent gender) and usually demonstratives and genitive pronouns. Gender suffixes: Masculine: /-Ø ~ -na/ (/-na/ is used for deriving new words into the class and also functions as a generic nomen agentis, in agreement context it only appears on adjectives. Genitive pronouns and demonstratives show null-agreement) Feminine (smaller): /-waʃi ~ -ʃi/ (/-waʃi/ is the prefered form for derivation, while /-ʃi/ is the prefered form for agreement) Inanimate: /-Ø ~ -sə-/ (The /-sə-/ form appears only when followed by another suffix, otherwise /-Ø/ is used) ”That big man” Br zejhina rhala
The gender-system developed as a result of a combination of several things... stuff... stuff happened. The basic idea is that continued dislocation resulted in certain derivational suffixes becoming used A LOT, think of the following: "I killed that fat woman", a sentence we have all said at some point in our life. Over time it became more and more common for Chesar speakers to dislocate parts of the sentence: "I killed fat woman, that (one)", or "I killed that woman, (the) fat (one)". With sentences like these becoming more and more common, speakers needed to disambiguate who the dislocated bit refered to. In the above example, the referent is a woman, and the language already had a derivational suffix /-wasi/ used for deriving words, typically refering to females. This suffix was expanded and applied to the dislocated part when it refered back to a female, so the above would be rendered: "I killed fat woman, that-FEM (one)", or "I killed that woman, (the) fat-FEM (one)". This was then regularized to be used even when these elements were not dislocated, and over time dislocation would become simple discontinuity, so the above would end out as: "I killed fat-FEM woman that-FEM" "I killed that-FEM woman fat-FEM." "I killed that-FEM fat-FEM woman." See? Easy peasy. So the development of gender and non-configurationality was closely related. Anyway, the origin of gender: (WIP) The feminine animate came about due to the following:
Increased productivity of the "feminine/odd" derivational suffix /-wasi/ (/-waʃi/ following sound changes).
Generalization/reinterpretation of many words ending on /-si/ (mostly small birds) as part of a grammatical group, along with words that refered to "odd" members of a particular group (such as flightless birds or legless lizards).
The masculine animate (largest group, default for refering to animates):
Old nomen agentis suffix /-na/ reanalyzed as a masculine/non-feminine animate gender marker.
The inanimate:
The old nominalizing/gerundive suffix /-tʰ/ (/-sə/ following sound changes) reanalyzed as an inanimate/abstract gender marker. It is then lost word-finally as a result of regular sound changes, and only surfaces when followed by other suffixes (such as case markers).
Since all gender markers originated as derivational suffixes, they appear before any other nominal inflectional suffixes. VERBS Form: SIGNIFIER-AGREEMENT-LIGHT.VERB "We went to drink it" Chitekweyenazi. /t͡ʃitəkʷə-jəna-zi/ drink-1.PLU.ERG:3.SG.ABS-go.PERF Verbs in Chesar are unspecified for transitivity, the only thing determining their transitivity is the upper number of arguments they can meaningfully take. The verb meaning "go" can also mean "bring", the verb meaning "dive" can mean "throw into water". "He died" Brhule
bˁu-Ø-lə die-3.SG.ABS-do.PERF
"He killed him" (lit. "he died him") Brhumile
bˁu-mi-lə die-3.SG.ERG:3.SG.ABS-do.PERF
Changes from Kesan: The verbs overall structure is mostly unchanged from Kesan (see the previous post), but six major developments have taken place in the interim:
The Uninflected verbs have integrated fully with whatever inflected verb postcedes them, becoming morphologically part of the same word. They are now refered to as "signifiers" (not sure what else to call them). So /ɮaˁ mid͡zigʷɨd͡zɨ/ -> /ɮaˁmid͡zigʷɨd͡zɨ/. Furthermore, there is no longer a clear distinction between them and nouns; signifiers can serve as nouns if marked for gender, and nouns can serve as signifiers (in most cases losing their gender)
The vast majority of the Inflected Verbs have been lost, reducing the class to a mere handful. This class is now refered to as the "Light Verbs".
Nouns may now be verbed freely, this came about as a result of A: some nouns also serving as uninflected verbs/signifiers set a precedence. B: reduced subordinate clauses became a mainstay: /magʷəχʷə ʔə-lə/ "a bear he-was" became /magʷəχʷə-lə/ "(he) was a bear"
The light verb base has fused with aspect/mode/tense suffixes.
The agreement affixes have undergone some degree of fusion.
The subordinating relativizer affix /-fə/ has been lost as part of regular sound changes.
Signifier: The Signifier is the element of the verb that carries most of the core meaning of the verb, /t͡ʃitəkʷə/, for instance, means "to drink". Signifiers may serve as predicates on their own, with no agreement or light verb, in certain subordinate clauses (see below), but oddly enough, in spite of what I just wrote, they aren't really the core of the verb - the light verb is. A regular noun may also serve as a signifier. The exact meaning of the resulting verb varries, but generally it means "to be NOUN" or "to do (as one would do if one were a) NOUN to X". Signifiers aren't truly distinct from regular nouns, and may in fact just be interpreted as inanimate nouns incorporated into the verb (it's weird). Agreement: See the link below for a comparison between verbal agreement in Kesan (Proto-Dwarf) and Chesar. https://imgur.com/a/mLoU80Z Reflexives and reciprocals are formed by specialized affixes followed by an intransitive agreement affix. Light Verb: There is, in one way of looking at it, only 3 verbs in Chesar. "to do/be", "to go" and "to come". These are the light verbs. They are the final part of the full verb and serve as a way of indicating associated motion, as well as tense, aspect and modality. Light verbs may appear (with agreement) without any signifier when refering to simple motion. "I go to you" could be expressed simply as: Nawegweze.
nawə-gʷəzə 1SG.ERG:2SG.ABS-go.IMPF
No signifier necessary. The same is true when the action refered to refers back to one previously mentioned, or when it is obvious from context: "I killed him, I did it". or "I did that" (pointing to a corpse) Some inflections have two forms: a short and a long form. The short form is used if the light verb is preceded by four or more syllables (including signifier and agreement), the long form is used otherwise. The light verbs are as follows: To go: Four conjugations: Perfect, Imperfect, Future and Imperative (used for positive imperatives which include motion, "go and X") PERFECT: /-zi ~ -zigʷə/ IMPERFECT: /-gʷə ~ -gʷəzə/ FUTURE: /-pəmə/ MOVEMENT-IMPERATIVE: /-ma ~ -d͡ʒima/ To come: Three conjugations: Perfect, Imperfect and Future. PERFECT: /-χa ~ -χad͡ʒa)/ IMPERFECT: /-d͡ʒa/ FUTURE: /-xʷi/ To be/to do: Rather than indicating a lack of motion, this light verb is simply unspecified for motion - it may refer to motion to-or-from an endpoint, it may not. Unlike the other two light verbs, this one has a bunch of forms, including various irrealis forms. It may be treated as many forms of one light verb or many light verbs with a single form, hard to say. PERFECT: /-lə/ IMPERFECT: /-dˁa ~ -nidˁa/ FUTURE: /-dələ/ HABITUAL: /-t’əka/ PERFECT HABITUAL: /-t’ət’ə/ IMPERATIVE: /-da/ NEGATIVE IMPERATIV: /-dənə ~ -nadənə/ SUBJUNCTIVE: /-bˁa/ JUSSIVE: /-χʷəlu/ Subordinate clauses: Due to the loss of the subordinating relative suffix /-fə/ , there is no longer any formal distinction between verbs in subordinate clauses and verbs in main clauses. Instead you just know them from context, and from the fact that most subordinate clauses are headed by some kind of subordinating particle (haven't done any work on them yet). The aspect/tense used in subordinate clauses is always relative to that of the main clause. When the referent and tense is identical to that of the main clause, the agreement and light verb may be omitted entirely, leaving nothing but a naked signifier as the predicate of the subordinate clause. "I fell and cut my leg" Qwagwerhule, qaye t'ume.
qʷagʷə-ʕu-lə qajə t'umə fall-1SG.ABS-do.PERF leg cut
Note how the signifier /t'umə/ lacks both agreement and light verb. This developed from nominalized signifiers which then lost the nominalizing /-sə/ suffix due to sound changes. The alternate system of forming subordinate clauses by attaching case suffixes to the nominalized verb was completely lost in Chesar. But it would have a massive impact on another branch of the family, but more about that next week. Fun, isn't it? Still a bunch of stuff I haven't figured out, including how exactly the case system turned out (Reduced? Mostly unchanged? Expanded?). But it works.
Добродошли - This week's language of the week: Serbian!
Serbian (Serbian Cyrillic: српски, Latin: srpski, pronounced [sr̩̂pskiː]) is the standardized variety of the Serbo-Croatian language used chiefly by Serbs in Serbia, Montenegro, and Bosnia and Herzegovina. In addition, it is a recognized minority language in Croatia, Macedonia, Romania, Hungary, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Albania and Greece.
Linguistics
Serbian is an Slavic language and, as such, is closely related to Croatian/Bosnian/Montenegrin (and is often considered the same language), as well as Russian and Slovenian. It is more distantly related to English, Hindi and Ancient Hittite. Classification Indo-European > Balto-Slavic > Slavic > South Slavic > Western > Serbo-Croatian > Serbiana Morphophonemics Serbian has five vowel phonemes, /a, e, i, o, u/, which are also distinguished on length, giving a total of 10 phonemic vowel contrasts. The consonant system of Serbo-Croatian has 25 phonemes. One peculiarity is a presence of both post-alveolar and palatal affricates, but a lack of corresponding palatal fricatives. Unlike most other Slavic languages such as Russian, there is no palatalized versus non-palatalized (hard–soft) contrast for most consonants. Morphology and Syntax Serbian is a highly inflected language, with grammatical morphology for nouns, pronouns and adjectives as well as verbs. Serbian nouns are classified into three declensional types, denoted largely by their nominative case endings as "-a" type, "-i" and "-e" type. Into each of these declensional types may fall nouns of any of three genders: masculine, feminine or neuter. Each noun may be inflected to represent the noun's grammatical case, of which Serbian has seven: nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, vocative, instrumental and locative. Nouns are further inflected to represent the noun's number, singular or plural. Pronouns, when used, are inflected along the same case and number morphology as nouns. Serbian is a pro-drop language, meaning that pronouns may be omitted from a sentence when their meaning is easily inferred from the text. In cases where pronouns may be dropped, they may also be used to add emphasis. Serbian verbs are conjugated in four past forms—perfect, aorist, imperfect, and pluperfect—of which the last two have a very limited use (imperfect is still used in some dialects, but the majority of native Serbian speakers consider it archaic), one future tense (also known as the first future tense, as opposed to the second future tense or the future exact, which is considered a tense of the conditional mood by some contemporary linguists), and one present tense. These are the tenses of the indicative mood. Apart from the indicative mood, there is also the imperative mood. The conditional mood has two more tenses: the first conditional (commonly used in conditional clauses, both for possible and impossible conditional clauses) and the second conditional (without use in the spoken language—it should be used for impossible conditional clauses). Serbian has active and passive voice. As for the non-finite verb forms, Serbian has one infinitive, two adjectival participles (the active and the passive), and two adverbial participles (the present and the past). Orthography Standard Serbian language uses both Cyrillic (ћирилица, ćirilica) and Latin script (latinica, латиница). Serbian is a rare example of synchronic digraphia, a situation where all literate members of a society have two interchangeable writing systems available to them. Media and publishers typically select one alphabet or the other. Although standard Serbian uses both scripts, the Cyrillic script is the current official script of the language in Serbia. Written sample Sjeverni ledeni vjetar i Sunce su se prepirali o svojoj snazi. Spoken samples Djokovic press conference (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PvX5Hxy4Zys) Lullaby (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G3fdqj1P3Ns) Sources & Further reading Wikipedia articles on Serbian What now? This thread is foremost a place for discussion. Are you a native speaker? Share your culture with us. Learning the language? Tell us why you chose it and what you like about it. Thinking of learning? Ask a native a question. Interested in linguistics? Tell us what's interesting about it, or ask other people. Discussion is week-long, so don't worry about post age, as long as it's this week's language.
Slovak (/ˈsloʊvæk, -vɑːk/) or less frequently Slovakian is a West Slavic language (together with Czech, Polish, and Sorbian). It is called slovenský jazyk (pronounced [ˈslɔʋɛnskiː ˈjazik] ) or slovenčina ([ˈslɔʋɛntʃina]) in the language itself. Slovak is the official language of Slovakia, where it is spoken by approximately 5.51 million people (2014). Slovak speakers are also found in the United States, the Czech Republic, Argentina, Serbia, Ireland, Romania, Poland, Canada, Hungary, Germany, Croatia, Israel, the United Kingdom, Australia, Austria, Ukraine, Norway and many other countries worldwide.
History
he earliest written records of Slovak are represented by personal and place names, later by sentences, short notes and verses in Latin and Czech documents. Latin documents contain also mentions about a cultivation of the vernacular language. The complete texts are available since the 15th century. In the 15th century, Latin began to lose its privileged position in favor of Czech and cultural Slovak. The Old Church Slavonic became the literary and liturgical language, and the Glagolitic alphabet, the corresponding script in Great Moravia until 885. Latin continues to be used in parallel. Some of the early Old Church Slavonic texts contain elements of the language of the Slavic inhabitants of Great Moravia and Pannonia, which were called the Sloviene by Slavic texts at that time. The use of Old Church Slavonic in Great Moravia was prohibited by Pope Stephen V in 885; consequently, Latin became the administrative and liturgical language again. Many followers and students of Constantine and Methodius fled to Bulgaria, Croatia, Bohemia, the Kievan Rus' and other countries. From the 10th century onward, Slovak began to develop independently. Very few written records of Old Slovak remain, mainly from the 13th century onwards, consisting of groups of words or single sentences. Fuller Slovak texts appeared starting from 15th century. The old Slovak language and its development can be research mainly through old Slovak toponyms, petrificated within Latin texts. Examples include crali (1113) > kráľ, king; dorz (1113) > dvorec; grinchar (1113) > hrnčiar, potter; mussenic (1113) > mučeník, martyr; scitar (1113) > štítar, shieldmaker; zaltinc (1156) > zlatník, goldmaker; duor (1156) > dvor, courtyard; and otroč (1156) > otrok, slave, servant. In 1294, the monk Ivanka from Kláštor pod Znievom wrote: "ad parvam arborem nystra slowenski breza ubi est meta". It is important mainly because it contains the oldest recorded adjective Slovak in the Slovak language, whose modern form is slovensky. Up until this point, all adjectives were recorded mainly in Latin, including sclavus, slavus and sclavoniae. Anton Bernolák, a Catholic priest (1762-1813), published the Dissertatio philologico-critica de litteris Slavorum in 1787, in which he codifies a Slovak language standard that is based on the Western Slovak language of the University of Trnava but contains also some central Slovak elements, e.g. soft consonants ď, ť, ň, ľ and many words. The orthography is strictly diacritical. The language is often called the Bernolák language. Bernolák continued his codification work in other books in the 1780s and 1790s and especially in his huge six-volume Slovak-Czech-Latin-German-Hungarian Dictionary, in print from 1825-1927. In the 1820s, the Bernolák standard was revised, and Central Slovak elements were systematically replaced by their Western Slovak equivalents. This was the first successful establishment of a Slovak language standard. Bernolák's language was used by Slovak Catholics, especially by the writers Juraj Fándly and Ján Hollý, but Protestants still wrote in the Czech language in its old form used in Bohemia until the 17th century. In 1843, young Slovak Lutheran Protestants, led by Ľudovít Štúr, decided to establish and discuss the central Slovak dialect as the new Slovak language standard instead of both Bernolák's language used by the Catholics and the Czech language used by older Slovak Lutheran Protestants. The new standard was also accepted by some users of the Bernolák language led by Ján Hollý, but was initially criticized by the older Lutheran Protestants led by Ján Kollár (died 1852). This language formed the basis of the later literary Slovak language that is used today. It was officially declared the new language standard in August 1844. The first Slovak grammar of the new language will be published by Ľudovít Štúr in 1846. With the establishment of Czechoslovakia in 1918, Slovak became an official language for the first time in history along with the Czech language. The Czechoslovak Constitution of 1920 and the constitutional law on minorities which was adopted alongside the constitution on the same day established the Czechoslovak language as an official language Since the Czechoslovak language did not exist, the law recognized its two variants, Czech and Slovak. Czech was usually used in administration in the Czech lands; Slovak, in Slovakia. In practice, the position of languages was not equal. Along with political reasons, this situation was caused by a different historical experience and numerous Czech teachers and clerks in Slovakia, who helped to restore the educational system and administration because Slovaks educated in the Slovak language were missing. Czechoslovakia split into Slovakia and Czechia in 1992. The Slovak language became the official language of Slovakia.
Linguistics
An Indo-European language, Slovak is closely related to other languages such as Czech. It is more distantly related to languages as far apart as English and Ancient Hittite. Classification Slovak's full classification is as follows: Indo-European > Balto-Slavic > Slavic > West Slavic > Czech–Slovak > Slovak Morphophonemics Slovak has five (or six) short vowel phonemes. These five can also be distinguished by length, giving a total of 10 contrastive vowel phonemes. There are four diphthongs in the language. Slovak has 29 consonant phonemes, however. These phonemes are contrasted by place of articulation as well as voicing. Voiceless stops and affricates are made without aspiration. In the standard language, the stress is always on the first syllable of a word (or on the preceding preposition, see below). This is not the case in certain dialects. Eastern dialects have penultimate stress (as in Polish), which at times makes them difficult to understand for speakers of standard Slovak. Some of the north-central dialects have a weak stress on the first syllable, which becomes stronger and moves to the penultimate in certain cases. Monosyllabic conjunctions, monosyllabic short personal pronouns and auxiliary verb forms of the verb byť (to be) are usually unstressed. Prepositions form a single prosodic unit with the following word, unless the word is long (four syllables or more) or the preposition stands at the beginning of a sentence. Syntax Word order in Slovak is relatively free, since strong inflection enables the identification of grammatical roles (subject, object, predicate, etc.) regardless of word placement. This relatively free word order allows the use of word order to convey topic and emphasis. Slovak nouns are inflected for case and number. There are six cases: nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, locative, and instrumental. The vocative is no longer morphologically marked. There are two numbers: singular and plural. Nouns have inherent gender. There are three genders: masculine, feminine, and neuter. Adjectives and pronouns must agree with nouns in case, number, and gender. Slovak has 9 different personal pronouns, which can also appear in the various cases. The 9 pronouns are given in the nominative case in the table below.
Meaning
Pronoun
1s
ja
2s informal
ty
3s masc
on
3s neut
ono
3s fem
ona
1p
my
2p (2s formal)
vy
3p (masculine animate, or mixed genders)
oni
3p (other)
ony
Verbs have three major conjugations. Three persons and two numbers (singular and plural) are distinguished. Several conjugation paradigms exist as follows: Slovak is a pro-drop language, which means the pronouns are generally omitted unless they are needed to add emphasis. Historically, two past tense forms were utilized. Both are formed analytically. The second of these, equivalent to the pluperfect, is not used in the modern language, being considered archaic and/or grammatically incorrect. One future tense exists. For imperfective verbs, it is formed analytically, for perfective verbs it is identical with the present tense. Two conditional forms exist, both formed analytically from the past tense. Most Slovak verbs can have two forms: perfective (the action has ended or is complete) and imperfective (the action has not yet ended). Orthography Slovak uses the Latin script with small modifications that include the four diacritics (ˇ, ´, ¨, ˆ) placed above certain letters (a-á,ä; c-č; d-ď; dz-dž; e-é; i-í; l-ľ,ĺ; n-ň; o-ó,ô; r-ŕ; s-š; t-ť; u-ú; y-ý; z-ž) The primary principle of Slovak spelling is the phonemic principle. The secondary principle is the morphological principle: forms derived from the same stem are written in the same way even if they are pronounced differently. An example of this principle is the assimilation rule (see below). The tertiary principle is the etymological principle, which can be seen in the use of i after certain consonants and of y after other consonants, although both i and y are usually pronounced the same way. Finally, the rarely applied grammatical principle is present when, for example, the basic singular form and plural form of masculine adjectives are written differently with no difference in pronunciation (e.g. pekný = nice – singular versus pekní = nice – plural). Written Sample: Všetci ľudia sa rodia slobodní a sebe rovní, čo sa týka ich dostôjnosti a práv. Sú obdarení rozumom a majú navzájom jednať v bratskom duchu. Spoken sample: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLwMLhr_McQ (interview) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ShR1Hp4xFDw (lullaby) https://youtu.be/qW0GpWnioTQ (wikitongues) Sources & Further reading Wikipedia articles on Slovak What now? This thread is foremost a place for discussion. Are you a native speaker? Share your culture with us. Learning the language? Tell us why you chose it and what you like about it. Thinking of learning? Ask a native a question. Interested in linguistics? Tell us what's interesting about it, or ask other people. Discussion is week-long, so don't worry about post age, as long as it's this week's language.
Velkommen - This week's language of the week: Danish!
Danish (/ˈdeɪnɪʃ/ ; dansk [ˈtænˀsk], dansk sprog [ˈtænˀsk ˈspʁɔʊ̯ˀ])is a North Germanic language spoken by around six million people, principally in Denmark and in the region of Southern Schleswig in northern Germany, where it has minority language status] Also, minor Danish-speaking communities are found in Norway, Sweden, Spain, the United States, Canada, Brazil, and Argentina. Due to immigration and language shift in urban areas, around 15–20% of the population of Greenland speak Danish as their first language.
History
Proto-Norse, the common ancestor of all the Germanic languages of Scandinavia and Iceland, had evolved into Old Norse by the 8th century CE. At this time, the Old Norse language began to undergo localized shifts, developing into two similar, but distinct, dialects: Old West Norse (Norway and Iceland) and Ole East Norse (Denmark and Sweden). The language of this period was written in the runic alphabet, first being written in Older Futhark, but then, in Denmark, in Younger Futhark from the 9th century. In the medieval period, Danish emerged as a separate language from Swedish. The main written language was Latin, and the few Danish-language texts preserved from this period are written in the Latin alphabet, although the runic alphabet seems to have lingered in popular usage in some areas. The main text types written in this period are laws, which were formulated in the vernacular language to be accessible also to those who were not latinate. The Jutlandic Law and Scanian Law were written in vernacular Danish in the early-13th century. Beginning in 1350, Danish began to be used as a language of administration, and new types of literature began to be written in the language, such as royal letters and testaments. The orthography in this period was not standardized nor was the spoken language, and the regional laws demonstrate the dialectal differences between the regions in which they were written. Following the first Bible translation, the development of Danish as a written language, as a language of religion, administration, and public discourse accelerated. In the second half of the 17th century, grammarians elaborated grammars of Danish, first among them Rasmus Bartholin's 1657 Latin grammar De studio lingvæ danicæ; then Laurids Olufsen Kock's 1660 grammar of the Zealand dialect Introductio ad lingvam Danicam puta selandicam; and in 1685 the first Danish grammar written in Danish, Den Danske Sprog-Kunst ("The Art of the Danish Language") by Peder Syv. Major authors from this period are Thomas Kingo, poet and psalmist, and Leonora Christina Ulfeldt, whose novel Jammersminde (Remembered Woes) is considered a literary masterpiece by scholars. Orthography was still not standardized and the principles for doing so were vigorously discussed among Danish philologists. The grammar of Jens Pedersen Høysgaard was the first to give a detailed analysis of Danish phonology and prosody, including a description of the stød. In this period, scholars were also discussing whether it was best to "write as one speaks" or to "speak as one writes", including whether archaic grammatical forms that had fallen out of use in the vernacular, such as the plural form of verbs, should be conserved in writing (i.e. han er "he is" vs. de ere "they are").
Linguistics
An Indo-European language, Danish is related to other commonly spoken languages such as Spanish and English. It is closely related to the other North Germanic languages, such as Swedish, Norwegian, Faroese and Icelandic. Older forms of the language include Old Norse, Old East Norse, Early Old Danish and Old Danish. Classification Danish's full classification is as follows: Indo-European> Germanic> North Germanic> South Scandinavian> Danish Morphophonemics Many modern variants of Danish distinguish 27 vowel phonemes. There are 12 long vowels, 13 short vowels and two neutral ones. 19 different diphthongs also occur. Compared to its vowel inventory, the consonant inventory of Danish is relatively simple, with only 16 independent phonemes. However, there can be lots of allophony depending on the positioning of these consonants. Danish is characterized by a prosodic feature called stød (lit. "thrust"). This is a form of laryngealization or creaky voice. Some sources have described it as a glottal stop, but this is a very infrequent realization, and today phoneticians consider it a phonation type or a prosodic phenomenon. It has phonemic status, since it serves as the sole distinguishing feature of words with different meanings in minimal pairs such as bønder ("peasants") with stød, versus bønner ("beans") without stød. The distribution of stød in the vocabulary is related to the distribution of the common Scandinavian pitch accents found in most dialects of Norwegian and Swedish. Stress is phonemic and distinguishes words such as billigst [ˈbilist] "cheapest" and bilist [biˈlist] "car driver" Syntax Danish nouns decline for number and definiteness and are classified into one of two genders, common and neuter. Like other Scandinavian languages, Danish suffixes the definite article onto the word. A case system is only retained in Danish pronouns, where there is a distinction between a a subjective case and an oblique case, similar to the distinction which still exists in English. The pronouns can be seen in the table below.
Person
Subjective Case
Oblique Case
1s
jeg
mig
2s
du
dig
3s
han/hun/den/det
ham/hende/den/det
1p
vi
os
2p
i
jer
3p
de
dem
Danish nouns do not undergo much conjugations. For example, neither number nor person is marked on the verb. Verbs have a past, non-past and infinitive form, past and present participle forms, and a passive, and an imperative. Orthography The oldest preserved examples of written Danish (from the Iron and Viking Ages) are in the Runic alphabet. The introduction of Christianity also brought the Latin script to Denmark, and at the end of the High Middle Ages Runes had more or less been replaced by Latin letters. Danish orthography is conservative, using most of the conventions established in the 16th century. The spoken language however has changed a lot since then, creating a gap between the spoken and written languages. Written Sample: Alle mennesker er født frie og lige i værdighed og rettigheder. De er udstyret med fornuft og samvittighed, og de bør handle mod hverandre i en broderskabets ånd. Spoken sample: https://youtu.be/f7Msppvklb0 (Wikitongues) Sources & Further reading Wikipedia articles on Danish What now? This thread is foremost a place for discussion. Are you a native speaker? Share your culture with us. Learning the language? Tell us why you chose it and what you like about it. Thinking of learning? Ask a native a question. Interested in linguistics? Tell us what's interesting about it, or ask other people. Discussion is week-long, so don't worry about post age, as long as it's this week's language.
Marhaba - This week's language of the week: Sylheti!
Sylheti (Sylheti Nagri: ꠍꠤꠟꠐꠤ Silôṭi, Bengali: সিলেটি, romanized: Sileti) is an Indo-Aryan language primarily spoken in the Sylhet Division of Bangladesh, Barak Valley of the Indian state of Assam and Northern part of the Tripura state. There is also a substantial number of Sylheti speakers in the Indian states of Meghalaya, Manipur, and Nagaland. It also has a large diaspora in the United Kingdom, the United States and the Middle East.
Linguistics
Sylheti is an Indo-Aryan language, which means it's closely related to languages such as Hindi, Punjabi and more distantly related to languages such as English, Welsh and Ancient Hittite. Classification Indo-European> Indo-Iranian > Indo-Aryan > Eastern > Bengali–Assamese > Bengali > Sylheti Morphophonemics Sylheti has five phonemic vowels and 24 phonemic consonants. Unlike most Indo-Aryan (and, indeed, Indo-European) languages, Sylheti is a tonal language (Punjabi is another Indo-Aryan tonal language). While there is no direct evidence that tonogenesis in Sylheti arose due to contact with Tibeto-Burman languages, there has been extensive contact between them so it is possible that tone is an areal feature between the languages. Morphology and Syntax Sylheti does not have any articles. The default word order is Subject-Object-Verb. The language is a pro-drop language as well. Sylheti nouns do not distinguish gender and only sometimes distinguishes between singular and plural nouns. Adjectives precede the noun, and adverbs precede the verbs as well. Sylheti nouns include a locative case and use postpositions. To make a sentence interrogative, you can add the particle ni after it. Sylheti has several different nominative pronouns, and the second person pronoun distinguishes between very familiar, familiar and polite. Likewise, there is a polite form of the third person pronoun. The nominative pronouns can be seen in the table below.
Sylheti
Meaning
ami
I
tui
You (very familiar)
tumi
You (familiar)
afne
You (polite)
igu/ogu
he/she
he
he
tai
she
tain/hein/ein
he/she (polite)
amra
we
tura
you (very familiar)
tumra
you (familiar)
afnara
you (polite)
iguin/oguin
they
tara
they (he pl., she pl., polite plural)
Sylheti pronouns also come in possessive forms, as well as an object case. Sylheti verbs can be conjugated for several tenses: present, present continuous,future, conditional, simple past, perfect, past perfect, and there are present participles, conditional participles and conjunctive participles as well. Verbal nouns can also be created from the verb stems, as can passives. Infinitives and imperatives exist as well; so does a request form using the conditional tense. Orthography The language is primarily written in the Eastern Nagari script however an alternative script was also founded in the Sylhet region known as Sylheti Nagri. During the British colonial period, Moulvi Abdul Karim spent several years in London learning the printing trade. After returning home in the 1870s, he designed a woodblock type for Sylheti Nagri and founded the Islamia Press in Sylhet town. The written form of Sylheti which was used to write puthis was identical to those written in the Dobhashi dialect due to both lacking the use of tatsama and using Perso-Arabic vocabulary as a replacement. Similar to Dobhashi, many Sylheti Nagri texts were paginated from right to left Written sample ꠗꠣꠞꠣ ১: ꠢꠇꠟ ꠝꠣꠘꠥꠡ ꠡꠣꠗꠤꠘꠜꠣꠛꠦ ꠢꠝꠣꠘ ꠁꠎ꠆ꠎꠔ ꠀꠞ ꠢꠇ ꠟꠁꠀ ꠙꠄꠖꠣ ‘ꠅꠄ। ꠔꠣꠞꠣꠞ ꠛꠤꠛꠦꠇ ꠀꠞ ꠀꠇꠟ ꠀꠍꠦ। ꠄꠞ ꠟꠣꠉꠤ ꠢꠇꠟꠞ ꠃꠌꠤꠔ ꠄꠇꠎꠘꠦ ꠀꠞꠇꠎꠘꠞ ꠟꠉꠦ ꠛꠤꠞꠣꠖꠞꠤꠞ ꠝꠘ ꠟꠁꠀ ꠀꠌꠞꠘ ꠇꠞꠣ। Spoken samples https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wP7LAvWsA9U (Rap Song) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M1Kxrm6WrO4 (Foreigner speaking Sylheti) Sources & Further reading Wikipedia articles on Sylheti What now? This thread is foremost a place for discussion. Are you a native speaker? Share your culture with us. Learning the language? Tell us why you chose it and what you like about it. Thinking of learning? Ask a native a question. Interested in linguistics? Tell us what's interesting about it, or ask other people. Discussion is week-long, so don't worry about post age, as long as it's this week's language.
Want to know How will be your Future Life? How transit of Saturn can affect you? Free accurate future prediction by date of birth and time will give you the exact effects according to Zodiac sign. Come in and know what you should do for negative effects.
With the beginning of the new year, we are going to experience a significant groundbreaking planetary occasion and a noteworthy visionary marvel. The intense drill sergeant and disciplinary teacher, Saturn is going to make its amazing travel in the Capricorn moon sign according to Vedic crystal gazing. Presently, what is so colossal about this? This isn't only an ordinary travel. The planet is returning to its own sign following 30 years of short-lived movements in other zodiac signs! It’s like a homecoming, right? This travel is going to begin from January 23, 2020, and Saturn will continue advancing and retrograding in the sign for around two years.
Impacts of Saturn on your Kundali
At the point when Saturn is well-positioned in one's horoscope, the local will in general become a researcher with great correspondence powers. At the point when it is malefic, it has the forces to try and transform gold into remains. Then again, in the event that it is charitable, its endowments fortunes throughout everyday life. Future prediction says Locals with a valuable Saturn have great prospects of seeking after a profession in the exchange, regardless of whether it is identified with hardware, cowhide, concrete, heater, wood, elastic, and so on. Be that as it may, Saturn put in a troublesome way can make the individual face battles throughout everyday life. They can experience the ill effects of medical problems, essentially identified with the stomach related framework, stomach, and nutritious trench. They are likewise liable to lose riches or be misled to lawful issues throughout everyday life. Find out about the solutions to nullify the terrible impact of Saturn in your horoscope in Exact future predictions free report
What this Saturn travel in Capricorn 2020 methods for you?
According to accurate astrology Predictions free report, Saturn is viewed as a coach and an exacting slave driver who causes an individual to learn noteworthy exercises in life through different encounters which can be either joyful or unfeeling. It is accepted that Saturn is the best instructor taking all things together. As Saturn rules Capricorn sign, its travel would make an extraordinary mix. Capricorn is additionally alluded to as 'Father of the zodiac' as it has its own particular manners of making individuals move in the direction of their objectives after an arranged execution. Consequently, when the disciplinarian itself advances into the place that is known for power and control, it would resemble your own mark vast occasion. Get your Future prediction by date of birth.
What is the planning of Saturn travel in Capricorn?
As per Free accurate future prediction by date of birth and time, Saturn is going to leave the zodiac sign Sagittarius and travel to its own sign Capricorn on January 23, 2020, at around 22:27 hours. It will at that point get into retrograde movement between May 10, 2020, and September 29, 2020. The travel will proceed till April 28, 2022. The Saturn travel in Capricorn is going to give good outcomes to a couple of zodiac signs and to the others, it might give a difficult time. How about we perceive how the zodiac signs will be affected during this stage. Take a look at below paragraph to know how it will affect you by your zodiac sign
Aries
Saturn is the Lord of the tenth and eleventh house in the birth graph of Aries. It is traveling into the tenth house this time. This is a crucial journey for you as this house centers around the satisfaction of objectives. You should take your vitality levels to a more eager level. Notwithstanding, you have to stay cautious about money-related choices. Need to find out about what the planet has for you? Get The most accurate horoscope predictions free.
Taurus
The Lord of the ninth and tenth house, Saturn will make its travel through the ninth house in the Taurians' introduction to the world diagram. Because of its travel in this house, you will be more disposed to strict and otherworldly excursions. The travel will assist you with maintaining compatibility with encompassing individuals. Do you have an advancement anticipating at work in the following stage? Get free Instant future prediction report.
Gemini
For the Geminis, Saturn is the leader of the eighth and ninth house. You will be under the effect of Dhaiya (little panoti) as Saturn is traveling to the eighth house in your graph. Begin arranging your profession with a more slanted demeanor as the planet will test your assurance. Be valiant and certain enough to confront circumstances during the travel stage. Get A detailed life predictions free report on Saturn transit by your date of birth.
cancer
Saturn is the Lord of the seventh and eighth house for you. It will go into the seventh house (place of organizations) in your introduction to the world graph. You should keep tolerance in your conjugal life as the travel may make disbalance in it. It will be remunerating for you to develop new abilities in your expert life. This will be a decent an ideal opportunity to return to your past activities invocation and gain from your mix-ups. Is it true that you are probably going to find a new line of work move or advancement in office? Get Free AstrologyPrediction for career.
Leo
For the Leos, Saturn runs the sixth and seventh house in your introduction to the world diagram. It will travel through the sixth place of rivals. Because of this, you should utilize class and have quiet discussions with your bosses. You are recommended to design your accounts as there are some sudden costs anticipated. As the travel advances, Saturn will have a few amazements for you. Get a Personal Future prediction.
Virgo
Saturn is the decision planet of the fifth and sixth house for the Virgos and this time it is traveling to the fifth house. Till January 23, 2020, you will be under the impacts of Dhaiya (little panoti of Saturn). Because of this, a few issues identified with residential or public activity would have come up in the last 2.5 years. Presently, your Dhaiya stage will get over in the moving toward travel. By what means will your general life way be in the up and coming travel stage? Get an Accurate life prediction by date of birth free report and know your upcoming.
Libra
According to Indian Vedic astrology, Saturn is the Lord of the fourth and fifth house for the Librans. You will be affected by Dhaiya (little panoti) as Saturn is traveling to the fourth house in your horoscope. Being the planet of impediments, it will cause you to feel confined. Be that as it may, you should keep your assurance and confidence first rate. Will the stage assist you with accomplishing a higher rise in your career? Predict your future free online to know about your career.
Scorpio
According to Indian astrology by date of birth For the Scorpions, Saturn is the Lord of the third and fourth house. You will be under the impacts of Sade Sati till January 23, 2020. So, you would have encountered money related limitations. After this stage, Saturn will travel through the third house in your introduction to the world outline. This is by all accounts a productive time for your profession. Do you have an advancement coming your direction? Get full report using free wealth Prediction by date of birth and time.
Sagittarius
Free future prediction by date of birth says Saturn is the leader of the second and third house for Sagittarians. You will be affected by the second period of Sade Sati till January 23, 2020. You may have confronted a log jam invocation or marriage related issues because of this. After this, the third Sade Sati stage will begin with Saturn's travel to the second house in your horoscope. Does the forthcoming stage have some brilliant open doors for you? You can know the answer to this type of question in the Free future prediction report.
Capricorn
Accurate astrology predictions free report says The Lord of the first and second house, Saturn is going into the first house (place of self) in your introduction to the world graph. It is returning to Capricorn moon sign practically following 30 monotonous years. You will enter the second period of Sade Sati in this travel. The faith in yourself and solid self-assurance will come in picture while dealing with testing circumstances.
Aquarius
Saturn is the decision planet of the first and twelfth house for Aquarians. It will make its travel through the twelfth house (place of movement and costs). It's the first period of Sade Sati for you. You will be relied upon to work more viably than expected. Testing circumstances at work may come upon occasion.
Pisces
Saturn is the Lord of the eleventh and twelfth house. It will travel through the eleventh one that is the place of additions. This is by all accounts a decent stage for your expert life. You will be more dedicated and furthermore have great associations with your subordinates. Is the travel ideal for the money related front? Know your future stats with this Free Tamil astrology Full life prediction.
Polish (język polski [jɛ̃zɨk ˈpɔlskʲi]) is a Slavic Language spoken by some 55 million people, primarily in Poland, where it is an official language, but also used by minority communities throughout the world. Although the Austrian, German and Russian administrations exerted much pressure on the Polish nation (during the 19th and early 20th centuries) following the Partitions of Poland, which resulted in attempts to suppress the Polish language, a rich literature has regardless developed over the centuries.
Linguistics
As a Slavic Language, Polish is related to other languages such as Russian and Czech, as well as their more distant cousins Irish and Hindi. More specifically, as a Western Slavic language, it is closely related to languages such as Silesian, Kashubian, Upper Sorbian and Lower Sorbian Classification Polish's full classification is as follows: Indo-European (Proto-Indo-European) > Balto-Slavic (Proto-Balto-Slavic) > Slavic (Proto-Slavic) > West Slavic > Lechitic > Polish Phonology and Phonotactics Polish has eight different vowel phonemes, distinguishing six oral vowels, /i ɛ ɨ a u ɔ/ and two nasal ones, partially preserved from Proto-Slavic, /ɛ̃ ɔ̃/. Polish has either 28 or 31 consonant phonemes, depending on whether the palatalized velars are considered phonemic or not. Polish has a set of retroflex consonants that may be described as palato-aveolar, but are probably better described as retroflex. These retroflex consonants are also laminal, a feature they share with Chinese retroflexes. Polish consonants experience a decent degree of allophony due to various processes. Among these is voicing and devoicing, which has served to neutralize the voicing distinction on consonants in certain positions. Polish, like other Slavic languages, is known to allow complex consonant clusters, such as in the word bezwzględny [bɛzˈvzɡlɛndnɨ]. Stress in Polish is predominantly on the penultimate syllable, with secondary stress appearing on alternating syllables before it. Therefore a five syllable word would have stress on the fourth syllable, with a secondary stress on the second. There are, however, exceptions to this rule, such as some borrowings from Classical languages. Morphology and Syntax Polish is a highly inflected language, with a relatively free word order, though the default is Subject-Verb-Object. Polish nouns inflect for seven cases, nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, instrumental, locative and vocative. Nouns also decline for two numbers, singular and plural (the dual is seen in some relics, but was mostly lost in the 15th century), as well as three genders or noun classes, masculine, feminine and neuter. However, among these genders, the masculine is further subdivided into personal, animate or inanimate categories. The full declension pattern of three nouns in the singular can be seen below. They are klub ('club', masculine animate), mapa ('map', feminine) and mięso ('meat', neuter).
Case
klub
mapa
mięso
Nominate
klub
mapa
mięso
Accusative
klub
mapę
mięso
Genitive
klubu
mapy
mięsa
Dative
klubowi
mapie
mięsu
Vocative
klubie
mapo
mięso
Locative
klubie
mapie
mięsie
Instrumental
klubem
mapą
mięsem
Polish has 13 different pronomial forms, contrasting several persons and genders, as well as a T-V distinction based on politeness that corresponds to gender. The full set of pronouns, in the nominative, can be seen below
Pronoun
Meaning
ja
1st singular
ty
2nd singular informal
pan
2nd singular formal masculine
pani
2nd singular formal feminine
on
3rd singular masculine
ona
3rd singular feminine
ono
3rd singular neuter
my
1st plural
wy
2nd plural informal
panowie
2nd plural formal masculine
panie
2nd plural formal feminine
oni
3rd plural masculine personal
one
3rd plural other
Adjectives in Polish inflect to agree with the noun in gender, case and number. Polish has no definite or indefinite article, either. Polish verbs conjugate for two numbers, three persons, three tenses, two aspects and four moods. Because of the extensive conjugation paradigm of Polish verbs, the pronoun is often dropped as the information is given in the verb itself, thus making Polish a pro-drop language similar to Spanish. Polish's two aspects are the imperfective aspect and the perfective aspect, though these two aspects can only be utilized in the past and future tenses; all conjugations in the present must use the imperfective as they are ongoing, repeated or habitual. The perfective is used only with structures where an action has ended or will have ended, such as entire, uninterrupted action just after the moment of speech or just before it. To create a perfective verb from an imperfective one, Polish adds a prefix. Some verbs, including all motion verbs, have two forms of the imperfective aspect. The other is the frequentative form, which is used to emphasize repetition and describe habits. The four moods that Polish can express are the indicative, imperative, conditional and subjunctive moods. The three tenses are the past, present and future. Polish verbs come in one of four conjugation paradigms, often based on how the verb ends. Polish also allows for verbal nouns to be derived from the verb and used in certain cases.
Miscellany
The Book of Henryków (Polish: Księga henrykowska, Latin: Liber fundationis claustri Sancte Marie Virginis in Heinrichau), contains the earliest known sentence written in the Polish language: Day, ut ia pobrusa, a ti poziwai (pronounced originally as: Daj, uć ja pobrusza, a ti pocziwaj, modern Polish: Daj, niech ja pomielę, a ty odpoczywaj or Pozwól, że ja będę mełł, a ty odpocznij, English: Come, let me grind, and you take a rest), written around 1270.
Polish was used as a lingua franca in Central Europe during the 16th and 17th centuries due to the influence of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
Old Polish is an attested ancestral form of the language, with Middle Polish being used from the 16th to the 18th centuries and Modern Polish being used from then on.
Samples
Spoken sample: Newscast Lullaby Talkshow Written sample: Wszyscy ludzie rodzą się wolni i równi w swojej godności i prawach. Są obdarzeni rozumem i sumieniem i powinni postępować wobec siebie w duchu braterstwa.
Jó napot kívánok - This week's language of the week: Hungarian!
Hungarian is an Uralic language spoken predominantly in Hungary, though there exist enclaves of speakers in neighboring countries and among expatriate communities. There are approximately 13 million native speakers of the language. The dialects of Hungarian identified by Ethnologue are: Alföld, West Danube, Danube-Tisza, King's Pass Hungarian, Northeast Hungarian, Northwest Hungarian, Székely and West Hungarian. These dialects are, for the most part, mutually intelligible. The Hungarian Csángó dialect, which is mentioned but not listed separately by Ethnologue, is spoken primarily in Bacău County in eastern Romania. The Csángó Hungarian group has been largely isolated from other Hungarian people, and they therefore preserved features that closely resemble earlier forms of Hungarian. See Hungarian dialects for more information. Hungarian is the official language of Hungary, and thus an official language of the European Union. Hungarian is also one of the official languages of Vojvodina and an official language of three municipalities in Slovenia: Hodoš, Dobrovnik and Lendava, along with Slovene. Hungarian is officially recognized as a minority or regional language in Austria, Croatia, Romania, Zakarpattia in Ukraine, and Slovakia. In Romania it is a recognized minority language used at local level in communes, towns and municipalities with an ethnic Hungarian population of over 20%
History
See History of the Hungarian Language for more information. Prehistory Hungarian likely split from the other Ugric languages in the first half of the 1st millennium BCE. This likely happened in western Sierian, east of the southern Ural mountains. This event also likely coincided with the shift of the Hungarians from a settled hunter to a nomadic pastoralist lifestyle, which possibly came about through contacts with Iranian nomads (Scythians and Sarmatians). Old Iranian loanwords, dating back to shortly after the split of Hungarian from the other Urgic languages, help support this view. During this shift, the Hungarians were also migrating. They first settled the coastal region of the northeastern Black Sea, where the language was greatly influenced by the Turkish languages spoken in the area. It was while they were living here, in the 6th century CE that Hungarians likely experienced writing for the first time. The first written accounts of Hungarian arise in the 10th century, though they are mostly personal and place names (written in the Old Hungarian Script; this is likely due to wood, a highly perishable material, being the main medium of writing. The first extant text fully written in Hungarian is the Funeral Sermon and Prayer, which dates to the 1190s. A more extensive body of Hungarian literature arose during the 14th and 15th centuries. Changes to the language are clearly seen through the literature of the eras. The Old Hungarian period ended at roughly the beginning of the 16th century. The first printed Hungarian book was published in Kraków in 1533, by Benedek Komjáti. The work's title is Az Szent Pál levelei magyar nyelven (In original spelling: Az zenth Paal leueley magyar nyeluen), i.e. The letters of Saint Paul in the Hungarian language. In the 17th century, the language was already very similar to its present-day form, although two of the past tenses were still used. German, Italian and French loans also appeared in the language by these years. Further Turkish words were borrowed during the Ottoman occupation of much of Hungary between 1541 and 1699. This was the Middle Hungarian period. In the 18th century a group of writers, most notably Ferenc Kazinczy, spearheaded a process of nyelvújítás (language revitalization). Some words were shortened (győzedelem > győzelem, 'triumph' or 'victory'); a number of dialectal words spread nationally (e.g., cselleng 'dawdle'); extinct words were reintroduced (dísz, 'décor'); a wide range of expressions were coined using the various derivative suffixes; and some other, less frequently used methods of expanding the language were utilized. Further standardization occurred during the 19th and 20th centuries, and a leveling of dialects. causing previously unintelligible dialects to move closer together. This is the Modern Hungarian period.
Linguistics
As an Uralic language, Hungarian is related to major languages such as Finnish and Estonian. However, it is more closely related to the Ugric branch of these languages, which includes such as Khanty and Mansi. Classification Hunagarians's full classification is as follows: Uralic (Proto-Uralic) > Finno-Ugric > Ugric > Hungarian Phonology and Phonotactics Hungarian has 14 vowel and 25 consonant phonemes. The vowels are grouped in pars of short and long phonemes. Hungarian consonants can also be long or short, a process knows as gemination As in Finnish, Turkish, and Mongolian, vowel harmony plays an important part in determining the distribution of vowels in a word. Hungarian vowel harmony classifies the vowels according to front vs. back assonance and rounded vs unrounded for the front vowels. While /i/, /iː/, /ɛ/, and /eː/ are all front unrounded vowels, they are considered to be "neutral vowels" in Hungarian vowel harmony. Apart from vowel harmony, Hungarian has many other sandhi processes, such as voicing assimilation, nasal assimilation, sibilant assimilation, palatal assimilation, degimination, intercluster elision, elision of [l] and hiatus effects. Stress is on the first syllable of the word, and particles are generally left unstressed. Morphology and Syntax Hungarian is an agglutinative language, and predominantly suffixing. It is a topic-prominent language and so its word order depends on the topic-comment structure of the sentence (for example, what aspect is assumed to be known and what is emphasised) With a few exceptions, Hungarian nouns do not mark a distinction for gender, or for any noun classes. They are marked for two numbers, the singular and plural, though the plural is used less sparsely. Hungarian nouns do, however, decline for eighteen different cases. These are: nominative, used for the subject; accusative, used to express the direct object; dative, used to mark the indirect object; instrumental-comitative, used to mark 'with'; causal-final, used to signal 'for, for the purpose of'; translative, which works as the English 'into'; terminative, 'as far as, up to'; essive-formal, 'as, in the capacity of'; essive-modal, 'by way of'; inessive, which signals position inside; superessive, which signifies position on; adessive, for position nearby/at; illative, expressing motion into something; sublative, expressing motion onto something; allative, expressing motion to a place; elative, used for expressing motion out of a place'; delative, for expressing motion off a place, or information about/concerning a place; and ablative, expressing motion away from a place. Examples of all of these can be seen in the table below. Where changes differ from the expected form based on the suffix, it's due to assimilation.
Case
Suffix
lakás (apartment)
English Meaning
Nominative
∅
lakás
apartment (as subject)
Accusative
-ot/(-at)/-et/-öt/-t
lakást
apartment (as direct object)
Dative
-nak/-nek
lakásnak
to the apartment
Instrumental-Comitative
-val/-vel
lakással
with the apartment
Causal-final
-ért
lakásért
for the apartment
Translative
-vá/-vé
lakássá
[turn] into an apartment
Terminative
-ig
lakásig
as far as the apartment
Essive-formal
-ként
lakásként
in the capacity of an apartment, as an apartment
Essive-modal
-ul/-ül
lakásul
by way of an apartment
Inessive
-ban/-ben
lakásban
in the apartment
Superessive
-on/-en/-ön/-n
lakáson
on the apartment
Adessive
-nál/-nél
lakásnál
by/at the apartment
Illative
-ba/-be
lakásba
into the apartment
Sublative
-ra/-re
lakásra
onto the apartment
Allative
-hoz/-hez/-höz
lakáshoz
to the apartment
Elative
-ból/-böl
lakásból
out of the apartment
Delative
-ról/ről
lakásról
off the apartment, about/concerning the apartment
Ablative
-tól/-től
lakástól
(away) from the apartment
As you can see, many of these correspond to prepositions in English. That's exactly how they were formed, as can be seen through the shifts in written Hungarian. Several of the suffixes were originally postpositions, common in Hungarian, that were then grammaticalized and suffixed onto the noun before it to form a new case. Even though Hungarian is a pro-drop language, meaning pronouns are rarely used, there are personal pronouns used when for contrast or emphasis, or when there is no verb. Hungarian pronouns decline for person and plurality, but not for gender. There are three second person pronouns, labelled "informal", "formal" and "official". These are seen on the table below, in their subject form.
Meaning
Singular
Plural
1st
én
mi
2nd informal
te
ti
2nd formal
maga
maguk
2nd official
ön
önök
3rd
ő
ők
Most Hungarian verbs only conjugate for the past and present tense, with the future being formed by an auxiliary verb. The verb lenni, 'to be', however, has three inflected tenses. Hungarian verbs can be expressed in three moods: conditional, indicative and subjunctive/imperative. In Hungarian, verbs not only show agreement with their subjects but also carry information on the definiteness of their direct objects. This results in two types of conjugations: definite (used if there is a definite object) and indefinite (if there is no definite object). Therefore, Hungarian verbs conjugate depending on both the subject and the object of the verb. The full paradigm of a regular verb can be seen on the Wikipedia page. Furthermore, Hungarian has two forms which can be added to the stem to modify the meaning. One of these, -hat-/-het-, has a modal meaning of permission or opportunity. Compare beszélek, "I speak", with beszélhetek, "I may speak" or " I am allowed to speak". The other, -at-/-et-/-tat-/-tet- has a causative meaning. It's often used to express "having something done", or "Having/making someone do something. Compare beszélek, above, with beszéltetek, "I make somebody speak". Hungarian verbs also have three participles as well as a verbal noun and infinitve and verbal prefixes/particles.
Miscellany
Old Hungarian text: Latiatuc feleym zumtuchel mic vogmuc. yſa pur eſ chomuv uogmuc. Menyi miloſtben terumteve eleve miv iſemucut adamut. eſ odutta vola neki paradiſumut hazoa. Eſ mend paradiſumben uolov gimilcictul munda neki elnie. Heon tilutoa wt ig fa gimilce tvl. Ge mundoa neki meret nu eneyc. yſa ki nopun emdul oz gimilſtwl. halalnec halalaal holz. Hadlaua choltat terumteve iſtentul. ge feledeve. Engede urdung intetvinec. eſ evec oz tiluvt gimilſtwl. es oz gimilſben halalut evec. Eſ oz gimilſnek vvl keſeruv uola vize. hug turchucat mige zocoztia vola. Num heon muga nec. ge mend w foianec halalut evec. Horogu vec iſten. eſ veteve wt ez munkaſ vilagbele. eſ levn halalnec eſ poculnec feze. eſ mend w nemenec. Kic ozvc. miv vogmuc.
Written sample: Minden emberi lény szabadon születik és egyenlő méltósága és joga van. Az emberek, ésszel és lelkiismerettel bírván, egymással szemben testvéri szellemben kell hogy viseltessenek.
Merħba - This week's language of the week: Maltese!
Maltese is a Semitic language and the national language of the island country of Malta. It is an official language of the European Union, making it the only Semitic language to be included in that group. Maltese is spoken by approximately 520,000 speakers, mostly within Malta though diaspora communities exist elsewhere, with the most populous being located in Australia. Most Maltese are bilingual, regularly using English (a co-official language of the island) or French.
History
Maltese likely first arrived on Malta via settlers from Sicily in the early 11th century, following the conquest of the island by the Fatimid Caliphate in the 9th century. After the Norman conquest of the island in 1090, and the expulsion of the Muslims from the island (completed two centuries later), the language was completely isolated from its North African relatives. However, the language was allowed to develop, in contrast to its sister language in Sicily, and remained used as the vernacular alongside Italian. It eventually replaced Italian as the official language (alongside English) in 1934. The first reference to the Matlese language is from an Italian document in the 15th century, while the oldest extant Maltese document, Il-Kantilena by Pietru Caxaro, dates from roughly the same period. The first dictionary of the language was written in the 16th century and was included in an 18th century manuscript but is now lost. Another early manuscript dictionary, Dizionario Italiano e Maltese, was discovered in the Biblioteca Vallicelliana in Rome in the 1980s, together with a grammar, the Regole per la Lingua Maltese, attributed to a French Knight named Thezan. The first systematic lexicon is that of Giovanni Pietro Francesco Agius de Soldanis, who also wrote the first systematic grammar of the language and proposed a standard orthography. Maltese has diverged greatly in its 800 years of independent development from Arabic, meaning that it falls outside the Arabic macrolanguage and thus isn't in a state of diglossia with Arabic. About one-third of the vocabulary descends from Arabic, while the rest comes from Italian and Sicilian and English. Speakers of Maltese can, however, understand about 30% of what is said to them by speakers of Tunisian Arabic, a dialect closely related to it; in contrast, Tunisian Arabic speakers can understand about 40% of Maltese. This reported level of asymmetric intelligibility is considerably lower than the mutual intelligibility found between Arabic dialects.
Linguistics
As a Semitic language, specifically a descendant of Arabic, Maltese is closely related to Arabic and its dialects. It's also closely related to other Semitic languages such as Hebrew, Aramaic and the now-extinct Punic (the Phonecian dialect spoken in Carthage). More distantly, it is related to other Afroasiatic languages such as Ancient Egyptian, Hausa, Oromo and Central Atlas Tamazight. Classification Maltese's full classification is as follows: Afroasiatic (Proto-Afroasiatic) > Semitic (Proto-Semitic) > West Semitic > Central Semitic > Arabic> Old Arabic > Classical Arabic > Maghrebi Arabic > Siculo-Arabic > Maltese Phonology and Phonotactics Maltese's vowel system consists of five short vowels, /ɐ ɛ i ɔ ʊ/, six long vowels, /ɐː ɛː iː ɪː ɔː ʊː/, and seven diphthongs, /ɐɪ ɛɪ ɐʊ ɔʊ ɛʊ ɪʊ ɔɪ/. There are 24 consonant phonemes in Maltese. Gemination is distinctive word-medially and word-finally. Voiceless stops are only lightly aspirated and voiced stops are fully voiced. Voicing is carried over from the last segment in obstruent clusters; thus, two- and three-obstruent clusters are either voiceless or voiced throughout, e.g. /niktbu/ is realised [ˈniɡdbu] "we write". Maltese has final-obstruent devoicing of voiced obstruents and voiceless stops have no audible release, making voiceless–voiced pairs phonetically indistinguishable. Stress is generally on the penultimate syllable, unless some other syllable is heavy (has a long vowel or final consonant), or unless a stress-shifting suffix is added. (Suffixes marking gender, possession, and verbal plurals do not cause the stress to shift.) Morphology and Syntax Maltese nouns decline for three numbers (singular, dual, plural) and two genders (masculine and feminine) but they do not decline for case. Instead, meanings expressed by case in other languages are generally expressed by prepositions. Maltese nouns do decline for definiteness, expressed with the clitic il-. There are seven independent pronouns in the language, as well as object forms, used when it's both the indirect and the direct object. The free pronouns generally do not occur, unless they are needed for contrast or emphasis. These are shown in the table below:
Meaning
Subject Form
Indirect Object
1s
jien(-a)
lili
2s
int(-i)
lilek
3s masc
hu(-wa)
lilu
3s fem
hi(-ja)
lilha
1p
ahna
lilna
2p
intom
lilkom
3p
huma
lilhom
Maltese has no infinitive verb, and if an English infinitive is used as an object (as in, "I want to eat"), Maltese conjugates it to agree with the finite verb in number and gender -- "I want + I eat" thus means "I want to eat". Likewise, the stem word is in the third person masculine singular, perfect tense, not an infinitive. Thus, haseb is 'he thought', corresponding to English 'to think' when looking up root words. The Matlese verb has two 'tenses': the perfect, corresponding to the past tense or the past perfect of English, and the imperfect corresponding to the present and often the future. There are also several moods and other verbal forms that can exist, such as the imperative mood, the present and past participles and the verbal noun. The person is marked on the verb, by suffixes attached to the third radical. Because of this, Maltese is highly pro-dropping, as mentioned earlier. Maltese verbs fall in different classes, such as strong verbs, which change their conjugation patterns. A simple perfect tense strong verb's pattern can be seen in the table below. In this paradigm, the first person and second person singular are the same.
Maltese
English
qatel
he killed
qatlet
she killed
qtilt
you/i killed
qatlu
they killed
qtiltu
y'all killed
qtilna
we killed
The verb kien/ikun (he/it was/will be) can be used as an auxiliary verb to express meanings such as English 'have'. The various meanings that can be done with this are shown in the table below.
Maltese formation
English formation
Maltese Sample
English
kien + perfect tense
'had' + pas participle
Kienu hargu xhin wasal missierek
They had gone out when your father arrived
kien + imperfect tense
'was, were' + present participle
kien jiekol xhin wasal missierek
he was eating when your father arrived
ikun + perfect tense
'shall, will have' + past participle
Ganni jkun kiel meta jasal tal-posta
John will have eaten when the postman will arrive
ikun imperfect tense
'shall, will be' + present participle
Ahna nkunu nieklu xhin jasal tal-posta
we shall be eating when the postman arrives
Like other Semitic languages, Maltese can easily change the meaning of the stem-word and derive other verbs. It does this via a combination of prefixes, infixes and suffixes. There are theoretically ten such stems, including the stem-word, but there is not a single Maltese verb that exhibits all ten forms. Furthermore, instead of only subject endings on verbs, there are pronomial suffixes that can be used to express the direct and indirect objects. The paradigm for these suffixes can be seen in the table below.
Person
Direct Suffix
Indirect Suffix
1s
-ni
-li
2s
-k, -ok, -ek
-lek
3s masc
-h, -u
-lu
3s fem
-ha
-lha
1pl
-na
-lna
2pl
-kom
-lkom
3pl
-hom
-lhom
Miscellany
Maltese is written in the Latin script, and has never been written in the Arabic script.
Maltese is the only Semitic language to be an official language of the EU
Written sample: L-Unjoni hija mibnija fuq il-valuri ta' rispett għad-dinjità tal-bniedem, ta' libertà, ta' demokrazija, ta' ugwaljanza, ta' l-istat tad-dritt u tar-rispett għad-drittijiet tal-bniedem, inklużi d-drittijiet ta' persuni li jagħmlu parti minn minoranzi. Dawn il-valuri huma komuni għall-Istati Membri f'soċjetà karatterizzata mill-pluraliżmu, in-non-diskriminazzjoni, it-tolleranza, il-ġustizzja, is-solidarjetà u l-ugwaljanza bejn in-nisa u l-irġiel.
¡Hola! - This week's language of the week: Spanish!
Spanish or Castilian (español or castellano) is a Western Romance language that originated in the Castile region of Spain and today has hundreds of millions of native speakers in Latin America and Spain. It is usually considered the world's second-most spoken native language, after Mandarin Chinese, and a global language. Spanish is one of the six official languages of the United Nations. It is also used as an official language by the European Union, the Organization of American States, the Union of South American Nations, the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States, the African Union and by many other international organizations.
Linguistics
Note: Because Spanish is so varied, the information presented below is a combination of all dialects, with the phonetic information focusing on Spanish as it's spoken in Castile by educated middle-age speakers (information taken from Martínez-Celderán et. al 2003, cited below). As a Western Romance language, Spanish is descended from Vulgar Latin and closely related to all the other Romance languages, such as French, Romansch, Romanian and the extinct Dalmatian. It is furthermore part of the Indo-European group, making it related to languages a disparate as English, Hindi, Russian and Hittite. Classification Spanish's full classification is as follows: Indo-European (Proto-Indo-Euoprean) > Italic (Proto-Italic) > Latino-Faliscan > Romance (Vulgar Latin) > Italo-Western Romance > Western Romance > Iberian Romance > West Iberian Romance > Spanish Phonology and Lexicon Spanish has five vowel phonemes, /i e a o u/, which can occur in both stressed and unstressed syllables. In some dialects, it's postulated that there are 10 phonemes, though many scholars consider these to be allophones. However, despite having only five vowel phonemes, there are allophones of those five, with some scholars postulating five while others postulate up to 11. Spanish has six falling diphthongs and eight rising diphthongs. While many diphthongs are historically the result of a recategorization of vowel sequences (hiatus) as diphthongs, there is still lexical contrast between diphthongs and hiatus. Some Spanish dialects contain triphthongs as well. Spanish recognizes nineteen consonant phonemes, with several allophones of these existing. Lexical stress is a distinctive feature in Spanish, and the meaning of the word can depend on where the stress is. One common example of this is between the first person singular present and the third person singular preterite conjugations of verbs ending in -ar. For example, amo, with the stress on the first syllable, means 'I love', whereas amó, with the stress on the second, means 's/he loved'. Other examples are lavo-lavó and cambio-cambió. In some cases, stress can even be used to distinguish between three minimal pairs, one noun and two verbal forms, as in the case of depósito-deposito-depositó. In these cases, the acute accent is used to mark which syllable has the stress, if it's not the normal one (i.e. penultimate) Most words in Spanish are stressed on the penultimate syllable, though any of the final three (antepenultimate, penultimate or final) can be stressed. In verbal forms that have enclitic personal pronouns, even the fourth-from-last syllable can be stressed, as is the case in cuéntaselo and acábatelo. Intonation in Spanish changes based on the type of sentence being asked, much as in English. wh-questions and statements generally have a falling type of intonation, whereas questions have a rising intonation. Spanish syllable structure can be defined as (C(C))(S)V(S)(C(C)), where () mean an element is optional, C stands for consonant, V stands for a vowel and S stands for a semivowel. There are restrictions on some of these sounds, in particular the second consonant in both the onset and the coda. One interesting feature of Spanish dialects is how they distinguish (if at all) the sounds written as (/s/) and / (/θ/) ( is only pronounced that way before ). If they use separate sounds for them, they have what is known as distinción. If they have seseo, they collapse both phonemes into [s]. If they have ceceo, they collapse them both into [s̟] (s with a cross underneath it), sounding similar to /θ/, but not identical. This can be seen in the table below:
Pronunciation
la casa
la caza
distinción
/la ˈkasa/
/la ˈkaθa/
ceceo
/la ˈkas̟a/
/la ˈkas̟a/
seseo
/la ˈkasa/
/la ˈkasa/
Grammar Spanish is an inflected language of the fusional type, meaning that words inflect for different meanings, but the morpheme is often 'fused' with the word, instead of being attached directly to the end of it, as in agglutinative languages like Turkish. Spanish nouns and adjectives inflect for two genders -- masculine and feminine -- as well as two numbers -- singular and plural. The adjective must always agree with the noun. Some vestiges of a neuter gender still exist in Spanish, mostly within the pronomial system. Spanish diminutives are a very productive class, and can attach easily to nouns. All Spanish pronouns except the first person and second person singular distinguish for gender. Likewise, Spanish has a T-V distinction in the second-person singular and plural (however, the second person plural informal, vosotros/vosotras has fallen out of use in most places outside Spain). Spanish nominative pronouns are:
Pronoun
Interpretation
yo
1st person singular
tú
2nd person singular informal
usted
2nd person singular formal
él
3rd person singular masculine
ella
3rd person singular feminine
ello
3rd person singular neuter
nosotros
1st person plural masculine
nosotras
1st person plural feminine
vosotros
2nd person plural informal masculine
vosotras
2nd person plural informal feminine
ustedes
2nd person plural formal
ellos
3rd person plural masculine
ellas
3rd person plural feminine
It's worth noting that the 3rd person singular neuter, ello, is a vestige and rarely found in spoken Spanish. Furthermore, some varieties of Spanish use vos instead of tú as their second person singular informal pronoun. This feature is called voseo, and is common in Rioplatense Spanish (Argentina and Uruguay), Eastern Bolivia, Paraguayan Spanish, and Central American Spanish (El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, southern parts of Chiapas in Mexico). Object pronouns do not exist as independent words in Spanish, but instead appear as enclitics that can attach to the beginning of the word or to the end of it. Spanish verbs have an extensive conjugation paradigm. Spanish verbs can distinguish between three tenses -- past, present and future -- two numbers -- singular and plural -- three persons -- first, second and third -- T-V distinction, three moods -- indicative, imperative and subjunctive -- two aspects in the past tense -- perfective and imperfective -- as well as two voices, passive and active. The modern verb distinguishes between simple tenses (i.e. no auxiliary verb) and compound tenses (which require an auxiliary verb). In the simple tenses, there are 9 complete paradigms, which include conjugation for all persons and numbers, as well as 2 incomplete (the imperative). Spanish is known for having two copulas, or ways of expressing "to be". Their use is distinct, and saying using the same words but with a different copula (e.g. está bien versus es bien) do change the meaning. Likewise, because of the extensive conjugation paradigm, Spanish is a pro-drop language, which means an explicit object pronoun is often not used. In Spanish, it is added in for emphasis, as all the information is alread conveyed in the verb.
Miscellany
Some dialects of Spanish, such as Andalusian Spanish, show rudimentary vowel harmony as a phonetic process. Likewise, some dialects drop all intervocalic /d/ and /, as well as all /s/, thus making words like pescado become pecao.
Samples
Spoken sample: Lullaby Latin American Folktales Newscast Written sample: Todos los seres humanos nacen libres e iguales en dignidad y derechos y, dotados como están de razón y conciencia, deben comportarse fraternalmente los unos con los otros.
Sources
Further Reading
Wikipedia pages on Spanish
Martínez Celdrán, Eugenio; Fernández Planas, Ana Ma.; Carrera Sabaté, Josefina (2003), "Castilian Spanish", Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 33
Wij willen hier een beschrijving geven, maar de site die u nu bekijkt staat dit niet toe. conjugation translation and definition in Tamil, related phrase, antonyms, synonyms, examples for conjugation Tamil Dictionary definitions for Conjugation. Conjugation: இடைச்சொல். Conjugation: இடைச்சொல். Conjugation: இடைச்சொல். Conjugation definition Noun. the act of uniting or combining; union; assemblage. Two things conjoined; a pair; a couple. Thanks for using this online dictionary, we have been helping millions of people improve their use of the TAMIL language with its free online services. Tamil meaning of Conjugation is as below... Conjugation : பால்சேர்க்கை. Sorry, no text. The best Tamil dictionary. World's largest tamil to Tamil dictionary and Tamil to English dictionary translation and more. ilearntamil 100 Important Tamil Verbs – With Conjugation. Uncategorized. The “Type” column in the following table is linked to How To Conjugate Finite Verbs S.No Tamil Verb English Meaning Type Examples Conjugation; 1: Tamil verb conjugation Tamil is a South Dravidian language, spoken by about 50 million people in Tamilnadu (India). There are also up to 3 million speakers in Sri Lanka, and at least another million scattered through South-East Asia. Tamil meaning for the english word conjugation is இடைச்சொல் from செந்தமிழ் அகராதி செந்தமிழ் அகராதி conjugation meaning in tamil Verb conjugation refers to how a verb changes to show a different person, tense, number. Review of Verb conjugation in English: In English to conjugate a verb the below form is necessary. 1. Person: In English, we have six different person’s: first person singular (I), second person singular (you), third person singular (he/she/it/one) and we have to use them as it, a conjugated verb will Tamil Meaning of Conjugation. Thanks for using this online dictionary, we have been helping millions of people improve their use of the TAMIL language with its free online services. Tamil meaning of Conjugation is as below... Conjugation : ஒன்று சேர்த்தல் இணைவு (இலக்.) வினைவிகற்ப வகுப்புப்பட்டி வினைக்கணம் வினைத்திரிபு அமைவுக்குழு
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