Category: Spanish (español)

Bilingual toys

By Simon

According to an article in The Boston Globe, there has been a significant increase in the sale of bilingual toys in the USA. These are toys the speak words and phrases and sing songs, and which are designed to help young children to learn languages. The most popular language combination is English and Spanish, which doesn’t come as much surprise given that there are nearly 48 million people of Hispanic origin in the United States. There are also toys that speak Chinese, Russian, Korean, Greek, Hebrew and various other languages.

A related article gives more details and mentions that toy manufacturers are bringing out bilingual phones, globes, dolls, books and laptops. A market niche toy companies didn’t expect was the parents of children adopted from other countries, who are keen on toys that speak the languages of their children as this helps ‘bridge the gap between the two countries’.

If kids get an early start with learning languages, and see it as something enjoyable, this bodes well for their future.

Do any of you know if there are any bilingual or multilingual computer games?

Linguistic adventures in Cuba

By Simon

My linguistic adventures started on the flight out to Cuba, during which I was sitting next to an electrician from Germany. I tried speaking a bit of German with him, but he seemed to prefer using English, which he spoke very well. I also tried out my Spanish on the cabin staff and did my best to understand the announcements in Spanish.

When in Cuba I used my Spanish as much as possible. Some of the people I encountered didn’t speak English, so I had to speak to them in Spanish and was able to communicate fairly well. Other people spoke English and some preferred to practise their English with me rather than to speak Spanish. One feature of Cuban Spanish I noticed was a tendency to drop esses, particularly at the ends of words. For example, they say buena dia rather than buenas dias, and ecuela rather than escuela.

I met some Germans and Austrians and was able to converse with them in German, though I kept on having to use English words when I couldn’t remember the German ones. Not bad considering I haven’t used my German much since leaving school many years ago.

One member of the group was Chinese and I spoke some Mandarin with her. Another member of the group was an Irish speaker and I spoke some Irish with her, though she found it a little difficult to understand me as I speak Donegal Irish, while she speaks Munster Irish. The differences between these dialects are not huge, but they take some getting used to.

Word of the day – papelear

By Simon

papelear, verb = to rumage through papers; to make a splash, draw attention to oneself

This word caught my eye while I was looking through my Spanish dictionary today. Though I try to keep the amount paper I use in my home ‘office’ to a minimum, there always seems to be plenty of bits of papers to rumage through.

Related words
papel = paper
papelada = farce, pretence, charade
papelamen = papers, masses of papers
papeleo = paperwork, red tape
papelera = litter bin, wastepaper basket, desk, paper mill
papelería = stationery, stationer (shop), mass/sheaf/heap of papers
papelero = paper, stationer, paper manufacuturer, paper-boy, ridiculous person
papelonero = ridiculous

Word of the day – garganta

By Simon

garganta, noun = throat, gullet, neck, instep, singing voice, gorge, ravine, narrow pass, shaft

Examples of usage
mojar la garganta = to wet one’s whistle (to have a drink)
le tengo atravesado en la garganta = he sticks in my gullet
tener el agua a la garanta = to be in great danger (lit. “to have water in the throat”)

Related words
gargantear, verb = to warble, quaver, trill
garganteo, noun = warble, quaver, trill

This is a word with an interesting range of meanings. You can see how it’s meaning has been metaphorically extended. This is a very common way for words to acquire new meanings. Over time, the orginal metaphorical meanings are forgetten and the words become dead metaphors.

In The Unfolding of Language, Guy Deutscher claims that metaphor is main way we use to describe abstract concepts. Even such every day words as have, in, behind and front were once metaphors. In many cases, the meanings of words for parts of the body are extended to embrace abstractions. Front, for example, originally meant ‘brow’ or ‘forehead’.