Poem (Only You)

This is my latest poem dedicated to my wife on the occasion of our tenth wedding anniversary.

Only You

In early evening of falling rain

And dark cloud we first met.

It was not by chance,

And I looked forward to more.

You lit a fire in my heart,

A fire that never dies.

I forgot the hours of time,

And you entered my heart, mind and soul.

You made me whole.

Say you will explore life with me

Because my heart needs you.

With you I open my future

Because you are in my heart and mind.

You have transformed me,

Filled me with dreams and plans.

Only you can make me feel what I do,

Only you.

Differences Between English and Spanish Syntax

English and Spanish are both SVO languages. The basic sentence order in both languages is the subject first and then the verb and the object. However, the two languages also exhibit syntactic differences.

In English adjectives precede nouns. In Spanish adjective phrases, the adjective usually follows. For example, the phrase la comida deliciosa means the delicious food. The adjective deliciosa (delicious) follows the noun comida (food).

The sentence I don't understand is Yo no entiendo in Spanish. The word order is the same as in English. However, Spanish is a pro-drop language. This means that the subject pronoun does not need to be expressed. As a result, No entiendo is also fine. To add emphasis, the pronoun yo (I) can be placed at the end. Another possible sentence is No entiendo yo.

In the sentence Yo veo un avión (I see a plane), the two languages use the same word-order. However, Spanish often drops the subject pronoun, which means that Veo un avión is also correct. If the object is replaced with a pronoun, the order of the Spanish sentence changes. To express I see it, Spanish says Yo lo veo or Lo veo. In this case, the word order is SOV or (S)OV.

The basic sentence structure of English and Spanish is SVO. In fact, both languages share similar syntax. However, in certain cases, the syntactic structure of English and Spanish sentences is different.

Two Distinct Pronunciations of Here and There in Danish

The words her and der mean here and there in Danish. However, in many dialects, the two words have distinct pronunciations. Let us explore the difference between them.

When the words are emphasized, they are pronounced with a mid front unrounded vowel and a glottal stop. In English, emphasis can be given with more stress and longer duration. To emphasize that someone is in a particular location, we can say "He is here". In this situation, we can emphasize the word here.

However, the sentence "He is here" may simply be to confirm that someone is present. In this case, no emphasis is needed. Then the words her and der are pronounced [ha] and [da].

Danish has two pronunciations for the words her and der. One is used for emphasis, and the other is used when no emphasis is needed. The words for emphasis have a mid front vowel, and the other ones have a low central vowel.

Swedish Directional Adverbs

Swedish directional adverbs express location and motion to and from a place. They have two forms, one for location and the other for motion. Swedish has a number of directional adverbs. Here are a few examples:

Jag bor här. (I live here)

Han kommer hit. (He's coming here)

Vi arbetar uppe på taket. (We are working up on the roof)

Jag steg upp på taket. (I stepped up on the roof)

Jag är hemma. (I am home)

Nu flyger jag hem. (Now I'm flying home)

Jag är född där. (I was born there)

Jag cyklar dit. (I'm cycling there)

Han är borta. (He is away)

Han sprang bort. (He ran away)

Directional adverbs in Swedish have two forms. One form is for location, and the other is from direction to and from a place. The form for direction is always shorter than the one for location. Directional adverbs in Swedish express a distinction which is not expressed in all languages.

Pronunciation of the Dutch r

The Dutch r can be pronounced in many ways. In Belgium most speakers use an alveolar trill, but some use a uvular fricative. In the northern Netherlands, most speakers use an alveolar trill. However, many Dutch speakers use an alveolar approximant in the coda. In the city of Leiden, the alveolar approximant can be used in both the onset and coda, and in the Hague, many speakers vocalize the r in the coda. In the southern Netherlands, many speakers use a uvular fricative or trill.

The variations of the Dutch r can be illustrated with the word rivier. The word means river. It has an r in the onset and in the coda. This word can be pronounced in a number of different ways. Here are a few:

1) alveolar trill + alveolar trill (common in the northern Netherlands)

2) alveolar trill + alveolar approximant (common in the western Netherlands)

3) alveolar approximant + alveolar approximant (common in Leiden)

4) uvular trill + alveolar approximant (common in Utrecht)

5) uvular trill + vowel (common in the Hague)

6) uvular fricative + uvular fricative (common in Ghent)

In Dutch the letter r has many pronunciations. This can be exemplified with the word rivier, a word with one r in the onset and one in the coda. The same r can be used in both positions, but many speakers use a different sound in the onset and in the coda.

Sound Correspondence Between Swedish and Danish/Norwegian

Many Swedish words with the letter å, a letter that is pronounced similarly to the letter o in English, correspond to words with the letter a in Danish and Norwegian. The letter å is also used in Danish and Norwegian and also appears in identical words. The following list of ten words illustrates the pattern:

ålder alder (age)

då/da (then)

fångst/fangst (catch)

gång/gang (time)

lång/lang (long)

långsam/langsom (slow)

många/mange (many)

sång/sang (song)

stång/stang (pole)

tång/tang (seaweed)

In many cases, the letters a and å appear in identical words in Danish, Norwegian and Swedish. Examples include far (father) and ål (eel). In the pair hand/hånd (hand), the Swedish word has a and the Danish/Norwegian word has å. The list provides ten words with different vowels, å in Swedish and a in Danish and Norwegian.

Schwa in Catalan

Unlike Romance languages such as Spanish and Italian, Catalan has a schwa. As in English, it occurs in unstressed vowels. The schwa is a common vowel of Catalan.

Words in which the Catalan schwa occurs are casa (house), home (man) and pare (father). The same words are casa, hombre and padre in Spanish. However, in Spanish, the word-final vowel of each word is not a schwa. In western dialects of Catalan, unstressed vowels are not reduced to a schwa, but the eastern dialects are the most widely spoken and include the largest city of Catalonia, Barcelona.

Catalan is a Romance language. One of the vowels of Catalan is the schwa, a vowel that does not occur in Spanish. The schwa in Catalan always occurs in unstressed syllables.