full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Martin Hilpert: What makes a language... a language?

Unscramble the Blue Letters

The basis for what’s officially deeemd a language was shaped by the emergence of a European nation states beginning around the 1500s. In order to establish and maintain craeelintzd governments, clear territorial boundaries, and state-sponsored education systems, many nation states preotmod a standardized language. Which form of speech was cehson to be the stnradad language was usually based on what people spoke in the capital. And while other forms of speech persisted, they were often treated as inferior. This titrdioan extended across the globe with European colonization and into mdeorn times.

Open Cloze

The basis for what’s officially ______ a language was shaped by the emergence of a European nation states beginning around the 1500s. In order to establish and maintain ___________ governments, clear territorial boundaries, and state-sponsored education systems, many nation states ________ a standardized language. Which form of speech was ______ to be the ________ language was usually based on what people spoke in the capital. And while other forms of speech persisted, they were often treated as inferior. This _________ extended across the globe with European colonization and into ______ times.

Solution

  1. standard
  2. modern
  3. promoted
  4. tradition
  5. chosen
  6. centralized
  7. deemed

Original Text

The basis for what’s officially deemed a language was shaped by the emergence of a European nation states beginning around the 1500s. In order to establish and maintain centralized governments, clear territorial boundaries, and state-sponsored education systems, many nation states promoted a standardized language. Which form of speech was chosen to be the standard language was usually based on what people spoke in the capital. And while other forms of speech persisted, they were often treated as inferior. This tradition extended across the globe with European colonization and into modern times.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations

ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
regional dialects 2
nation states 2
standard italian 2
landlords responded 2

Important Words

  1. based
  2. basis
  3. beginning
  4. boundaries
  5. capital
  6. centralized
  7. chosen
  8. clear
  9. colonization
  10. deemed
  11. education
  12. emergence
  13. establish
  14. european
  15. extended
  16. form
  17. forms
  18. globe
  19. governments
  20. inferior
  21. language
  22. maintain
  23. modern
  24. nation
  25. officially
  26. order
  27. people
  28. persisted
  29. promoted
  30. shaped
  31. speech
  32. spoke
  33. standard
  34. standardized
  35. states
  36. systems
  37. territorial
  38. times
  39. tradition
  40. treated