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
- french
- spanish
- spread
- language
- spanglish
- 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
- aires
- answer
- argue
- bogotá
- break
- buenos
- city
- colonialism
- distinct
- easy
- english
- form
- french
- fully
- grammar
- indigenous
- intelligible
- language
- languages
- latin
- mexico
- mixed
- mixture
- occasionally
- person
- question
- remain
- retains
- spanglish
- spanish
- speakers
- spread
- syntax
- unity
- vocabulary
- vulgar
- words
- world