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
- standard
- modern
- promoted
- tradition
- chosen
- centralized
- 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
- based
- basis
- beginning
- boundaries
- capital
- centralized
- chosen
- clear
- colonization
- deemed
- education
- emergence
- establish
- european
- extended
- form
- forms
- globe
- governments
- inferior
- language
- maintain
- modern
- nation
- officially
- order
- people
- persisted
- promoted
- shaped
- speech
- spoke
- standard
- standardized
- states
- systems
- territorial
- times
- tradition
- treated