full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Ilan Stavans: A brief history of Spanish

Unscramble the Blue Letters

How does a lunagage with so many speakers around the world not break apart into new languages the way Vulgar Latin did? There's no easy answer to this question. Other languages that srpaed through colonialism, like fecrnh, have mixed with Indigenous languages to form entirely new ones. Some would argue that slspganih, a mixture of Spanish and English, is a distinct language or on its way to becoming one. But although a person in Buenos Aires occasionally might use words that aren’t fully intelligible to someone in Bogotá or Mexico City, snsaiph retains enough unity of syntax, gaammrr, and vocabulary to remain one language.

Open Cloze

How does a ________ with so many speakers around the world not break apart into new languages the way Vulgar Latin did? There's no easy answer to this question. Other languages that ______ through colonialism, like ______, have mixed with Indigenous languages to form entirely new ones. Some would argue that _________, a mixture of Spanish and English, is a distinct language or on its way to becoming one. But although a person in Buenos Aires occasionally might use words that aren’t fully intelligible to someone in Bogotá or Mexico City, _______ retains enough unity of syntax, _______, and vocabulary to remain one language.

Solution

  1. french
  2. spanish
  3. spread
  4. language
  5. spanglish
  6. grammar

Original Text

How does a language with so many speakers around the world not break apart into new languages the way Vulgar Latin did? There's no easy answer to this question. Other languages that spread through colonialism, like French, have mixed with Indigenous languages to form entirely new ones. Some would argue that Spanglish, a mixture of Spanish and English, is a distinct language or on its way to becoming one. But although a person in Buenos Aires occasionally might use words that aren’t fully intelligible to someone in Bogotá or Mexico City, Spanish retains enough unity of syntax, grammar, and vocabulary to remain one language.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations

ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
indigenous languages 3
modern spanish 2
hispanic america 2

Important Words

  1. aires
  2. answer
  3. argue
  4. bogotá
  5. break
  6. buenos
  7. city
  8. colonialism
  9. distinct
  10. easy
  11. english
  12. form
  13. french
  14. fully
  15. grammar
  16. indigenous
  17. intelligible
  18. language
  19. languages
  20. latin
  21. mexico
  22. mixed
  23. mixture
  24. occasionally
  25. person
  26. question
  27. remain
  28. retains
  29. spanglish
  30. spanish
  31. speakers
  32. spread
  33. syntax
  34. unity
  35. vocabulary
  36. vulgar
  37. words
  38. world