Velarized Laminal Alveolar Approximant of Danish

The Danish language has a sound that does not occur in any other language. It is the velarized laminal alveolar approximant. In Danish spelling it is a d and it always occurs between vowels and in the syllable coda. 

The velarized laminal alveolar approximant occurs in the following words:

chokolade (chocolate)

fløde (cream)

fod (foot)

gade (street)

mad (foot)

møde (meeting)

sød (sweet)

tid (time)

uden (without)

ørred (trout)

The velarized laminal alveolar approximant of Danish is often compared to the voiced interdental fricative of English. However, the two sounds are quite different. The Danish sound is not a fricative but an approximant. It is not produced with the tip of the tongue but with the blade, and the tongue is raised towards the velum. Another difference is that the tongue makes contact with the alveolar ridge rather than with the teeth.

One of the most distinctive sounds of Danish is the velarized laminal alveolar approximant. It occurs in many Danish words. The velarized laminal alveolar approximant is a unique sound which occurs in no other language.

Finnish Colour Adjectives in Singular and Plural

Finnish colour adjectives are inflected for number. They have different forms before singular and plural nouns. However, not all of them are inflected the same. A few follow a distinct pattern. Let us illustrate with examples.

In the following sentences the difference between singular and plural is regular:

The black car is new. Musta auto on uusi.

The black cars are new. Mustat autot ovat uusia.

The green car is new. Vihreä auto on uusi.

The green cars are new. Vihreät autot ovat uusia.

The suffix -t is the plural marker for both the adjective and the noun. In the second sentence, uusia has a different form because it is not in nominative case but in partitive. The partitive case is a very productive case in Finnish.

Compare the previous sentences with the following.

The blue car is new. Sininen auto on uusi.

The blue cars are new. Siniset autot ovat uusia.

The white car is new. Valkoinen auto on uusi.

The white cars are new. Valkoiset autot ovat uusia.

The red car is new. Punainen auto on uusi.

The red cars are new. Punaiset autot ovat uusia.

The yellow car is new. Keltainen auto on uusi.

The yellow cars are new. Keltaiset auto ovat uusia.

With this set of colour adjectives, we also see the suffix -t to mark the plural. However, another change occurs. The penultimate nasal changes to an alveolar plosive. This sound change can be illustrated with the rule /n/ → /s/. 

It may be that the change is an example of partial assimilation. The /n/ is a nasal but the /s/ and the /t/ are plosives. According to this analysis, the sound change is a partial assimilation in the manner of articulation.

Finnish adjectives are inflected for number. This can be illustrated with the colour adjectives. However, they inflect in two ways. One group of colour adjectives follows the regular pattern of plural inflection, but the other group does not.

The Metamorphosis

The Metamorphosis is a short story by Franz Kafka. It was first published in 1915 and is among his best-known works. The short story has many interpretations.

In the story, Gregor Samsa, a travelling salesman and cloth merchant, wakes up one morning and finds himself transformed into a monstrous insect. On his back and unable to leave his bed, he reflects on his life. He concludes that it is full of temporary and changing human relationships which are never sincere. He does not like his employer and would gladly quit his job if he were not the sole income earner, who is working hard to erase his bankrupt father's debts.

While trying to move, he learns that his office manager has come to check on him, upset about Gregor's unexcused absence. He attempts to communicate with both his office manager and his family, but all they can hear is incomprehensible noises. Gregor struggles to cross the floor and open the door. When his office manager sees the transformed Gregor, he leaves the apartment. Gregor's family is horrified, and his father forces him back into his room.

With Gregor's sudden transformation, the family faces financial difficulty. Gregor is locked in his room, and he begins to adapt to his new body. His sister Grete is the only one who brings him food, but Gregor only likes it if it is rotten. He spends much of his time crawling on the floor, walls and ceiling.

His father, mother and sister all get jobs and start to neglect Gregor, who now eats very little. They decide to use Gregor's room for storage and rent one room in the apartment to three male tenants. The tenants are not told about Gregor, who feels very lonely. One day, Gregor is attracted to the music of Grete's violin and leaves his room, which is not closed properly. He is seen by the tenants, and they complain about the dirty apartment, say they are leaving and will not pay anything for the time they have stayed.

Grete, who is tired of taking care of Gregor, complains that they must get rid of him, or they will be financially ruined. Gregor, fully aware that he is no longer wanted, goes back to his room with great effort and dies of starvation before sunrise. When his family learns the news, the father, mother and sister all take the day off work. They make plans to move to a smaller apartment to save money. Grete has grown into a pretty young woman and they think about finding her a husband.

Gregor's metamorphosis results in feelings of isolation, sadness and rejection. His family depends on him, but when he can no longer work, he feels he is a burden. However, another metamorphosis occurs when Grete changes from a young girl into a pretty woman and the family decides to find her a husband. 

Another interpretation of the story is that Gregor's transformation into a gigantic insect is merely a dream. He is not happy with his life and wants to escape from it. The insect symbolizes that he does not feel connected to his family or to the society in which he lives.

Belizean Spanish

Though English is the official language of Belize, a large percentage of the population speaks Spanish. It is perhaps not surprising because the country has Spanish-speaking neighbours. They are Mexico to the north and Guatemala to the west and south.

In Belizean Spanish the /s/ in syllable-coda position is often weakened to /h/. This is a typical feature of Caribbean Spanish. The consonants /b/, /d/ and /g/ are not realized as fricatives intervocalically but rather as plosives. This is not the case in most Spanish dialects. The syllable-coda /r/ can be pronounced as an approximant.

Belizean Spanish is similar to many varieties of Caribbean Spanish. This is evident in the aspiration of the /s/ in the syllable-coda. However, the pronunciation of /b/, /d/ and /g/ as plosives in intervocalic position is a feature which does not occur in most dialects of Spanish.

Words with æ in Danish and e in Norwegian

The letter æ is used in both Danish and Norwegian. For example,the Norwegian word vær means weather and in both languages the word bær means berry. However, it is far more common in Danish. In fact, many Danish words with æ have e in Norwegian. Here is a list to illustrate:

bælte belte (belt)

blæk blekk (ink)

færge ferje (ferry)

gæst gjest (guest)

knæ kne (knee)

mælk melk (milk)

næse nese (nose)

træ tre (tree)

æble eple (apple)

æg egg (egg)

The letter æ was once used in English. It is a letter of both the Danish and Norwegian alphabets. In many cases, Danish words with the letter æ correspond to the letter e in Norwegian.

Unstressed Mid Vowels in Portuguese

Portuguese has two mid front vowels and two mid front back vowels. They can be high mid or low mid. The quality of the unstressed mid vowels varies from one dialect to another. Let us illustrate with two words.

The word fonologia (phonology) has two mid back vowels. They are in the first two syllables and are unstressed. The stress is penultimate. In northern Brazil the first two mid back vowels are low mid. They can also be called open. However, in southern Brazil, they are high mid or closed. In Portugal, the mid back vowels in the word fonologia are raised and have the quality of [u]. Not all unstressed mid vowels are raised in European Portuguese, but in many cases they are.

Another word with two mid vowels is energia (energy). In this word they are mid front vowels. As in the word fonologia (phonology), the stress is penultimate. In northern Brazil, the mid front vowels are low mid, but in southern Brazil they are high mid. They can also be distinguished with the terms open and closed. However, in Portugal, they are raised and retracted and thus pronounced with a high central unrounded vowel. The high central unrounded vowel does not occur in Brazilian Portuguese. 

The dialects of southern Brazil realize unstressed mid vowels with mid high tongue position, but the dialects of northern Brazil realize them with mid low tongue position. The unstressed mid vowels of northern Brazil can be classified as open, and the unstressed mid vowels of southern Brazil can be classified as closed. European Portuguese is different. The unstressed mid vowels are often raised, but in those cases in which they are not, they are open vowels.

The Word So

The word so is a very useful word. It can be used in a number of ways. Let us illustrate with a few examples.

It is often used as an adverb and modifies both adjectives and adverbs. In the sentence She is so good, the word modifies the adjective good. However, in the sentence She sings so well, it modifies the adverb well.

The word so can be used as a discourse marker. It can be used to summarize information as in the sentence So, the meeting will be moved to next week. However, it can also signal a change of topic such as So, what do you do?

Another meaning of the word so is also. This is illustrated in the sentence I love tennis and so does my brother. However, the word order is different. With the word also, the sentence is I love tennis and my brother does also.

The word so can also be placed after verbs and replace clauses. For example, to answer the question "Can he come?", it is possible to answer with "I hope so". The sentence "I hope so" expresses the idea "I hope that he can come". Here it replaces the subordinate clause "that he can come".

In many sentences so functions as a conjunction. This is the case in the sentence She isn't feeling well, so she can't come today. The word so connects two independent clauses and is thus a coordinating conjunction.

Though so is a small word, it is very common and has many meanings. It can modify both adjectives and adverbs, function as a discourse marker, express the meaning of also, function as a conjunction that connects independent clauses and follow verbs with the function of replacing clauses. The word so has many uses in English.