Months in Asturian

Asturian is a Romance language spoken in northwestern Spain. To illustrate the vocabulary of Asturian, here are the days of the months along with the months in Spanish.

January xineru enero

February febreru febrero

March marzu marzo

April abril abril

May mayu mayo

June xunu junio

July xunetu julio

August agostu agosto

September setiembre septiembre

October ochobre octobre

November payares noviembre

December avientu diciembre

Notice that two months are very different, November and December. The word for April is identical in both languages. Spanish uses a word-final o in seven months, but Asturian uses word-final u.

Russian High Front and Central Vowels

The Russian high front and central vowels are often in complementary distribution. The high front unrounded vowel is very common among languages, but the high central unrounded vowel is not. Russian has the five full vowels of Spanish, and it also has unreduced vowels. The high central unrounded vowel is classified as a vowel phoneme by many, but there are linguists who claim it is an allophone of the high front unrounded vowel.

The Russian high front vowel occurs after soft consonants, and the high central occurs after hard consonants. The soft consonants are palatalized, and the hard ones are not. All Russian consonants can be classified into two groups, hard and soft.

Though the two vowels are often in complementary distribution, there are instances in which their distribution is contrastive. They can contrast in word-initial position. For this reason, many linguists consider the high central vowel a phoneme.

The high central vowel is relatively rare among languages. It always follows hard consonants. On the other hand, the high front vowel always follows soft consonants. The high central vowel is a vowel that distinguishes Russian from many other languages.

Danish Consonantal and Vocalic r

The Danish r can be both vocalic and consonantal. In the word ris (rice), it is consonantal. However, in the word bur (cage), it is vocalic. 

In contrast to other languages with vocalic r, the Danish r often vocalizes between vowels. This can be illustrated with the word irriterende. The word means irritating, and it is identical in Danish and Norwegian. However, in the Norwegian dialects with a uvular r, it is always pronounced as a consonant.

In Norwegian dialects with a uvular r, the word irriterende has two uvular consonants that are syllable initial. However, this is not the case in Danish. The first syllable of irriterende is a diphthong in Danish.and the third syllable is a vowel and glottal stop. As a result, the word irriterende is syllabified differently in Danish and Norwegian.

In Danish the letter r can be realized as a vowel and a consonant. This is also true in other languages such as German and many varieties of English. However, the Danish r is unique because it can also be vocalic when it occurs between two vowels.

Future Tense with Predictions and Conditional Statements

English has different ways of expressing the future. It can be expressed with will, going to and the present continuous. However, with predictions and conditional statements, only will and going to can be used.

The following sentence can be expressed in three ways:

I'll visit my grandparents this weekend.

I'm going to visit my grandparents this weekend.

I'm visiting my grandparents this weekend.

However, with predictions only will and going to can be used. It is possible to say It will rain tomorrow and It's going to rain tomorrow. Here the present continuous is not used.

The same is true for conditional sentences. Consider the following examples:

You have to study or you won't get a good grade.

You have to study or you aren't going to get a good grade.

These two sentences are conditional sentences. The first clause states what the listener must do, and the second expresses the result if the listener does not comply. The sentences can be restated with if and then. They then become the following:

If you do not study, you won't get a good grade.

If you do not study, you aren't going to get a good grade.

English can express the future in different ways. The present continuous can be used in many cases. However, with predictions and conditional sentences, the present continuous is not used to express the future.

Internal/External Locatives with Finnish Place Names

The Finnish language uses many postpositions. With Finnish cities, both internal and external locative cases are used. They can be translated in English as in and on. The internal locative is used for the city of Helsinki, but for the city of Tampere, the external locative is used. Let us illustrate with examples.

The following cities use internal locatives:

in Helsinki Helsingissä

in Lahti Lahdessa

in Lappeenranta Lappeenrannassa

in Joensuu Joensuussa

in Jyväskylä Jyväskylässä

in Kokkola Kokkolassa

Kuopio Kuopiossa

in Oulu Oulussa

in Porvoo Porvoossa

in Turku Turussa

The following cities use external locatives:

in Hyvinkää Hyvinkäällä

in Kouvola Kouvolalla

in Lapua Lapualla

in Mäntsälä Mäntsälällä

in Pieksämäki Pieksämäellä

in Riihimäki Riihimäellä

in Rovaniemi Rovaniemellä

in Seinäjoki Seinäjoella

in Tampere Tampereella

in Vantaa Vantaalla

In contrast to many other languages, Finnish uses postpositions. For cities they can be either internal or external locative cases. In addition to the correct use of the postposition, modifications to the base can also occur.

Poem (I Wandered Lonely As A Cloud)

William Wordsworth was an English poet. His poem I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud was composed in the early 1800's. It is often nicknamed Daffodils. Here is the poem:

I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud

I wandered lonely as a cloud

That floats on high o'er vales and hills,

When all at once I saw a crowd,

A host, of golden daffodils;

Beside the lake, beneath the trees,

Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine

And twinkle on the milky way,

They stretched in never-ending line

Along the margin of a bay;

Ten thousand I saw at a glance,

Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they

Out-did the sparkling waves in glee;

A poet could not but be gay,

In such a jocund company;

I gazed--and gazed--but little thought

What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie

In vacant or in pensive mood,

They flash upon that inward eye

Which is the bliss of solitude;

And then my heart with pleasure fills,

And dances with the daffodils.

The poem consists of four stanzas with six verses each. In each stanza the first and third verses, and the second and fourth verses rhyme. All the stanzas conclude with a rhyming couplet. William Wordsworth's poem I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud is a very expressive poem about the beauty of daffodils.

Use of Schwa in Welsh English

The use of the schwa in Welsh English is less extensive than in standard English. In many words that have a schwa in standard English, Welsh uses a full vowel. This also influences the rhythm of Welsh English, which has a less signficant difference between stressed and unstressed syllables.

In words such as about, data and hospital, Welsh English retains full vowels in the unstressed syllables. This is very different from dialects such as that of Received Pronunciation, which reduces the unstressed syllables of about and data to a schwa, and the final syllable of hospital to a schwa and lateral or syllabic lateral.

Also notable is that in words such as but, dust and fund, Welsh English tends to use a higher and more centralized vowel than other varieties of English. In these words, the vowel is not stressed, but nevertheless, Welsh English uses a vowel which has a similar quality to that of the unstressed schwa.

Welsh English uses full vowels in many words which have reduced vowels in other dialects. This gives Welsh English a distinct rhythm. In stressed words, Welsh English often uses a schwa with a different vowel quality of other dialects, one that corresponds to the schwa other dialects use in unstressed syllables.