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.

Dutch Words with the Same Form in English

Dutch is a Germanic language and shares many common words with English. A number of Dutch words are identical to English in both spelling and meaning. However, the pronunciation is often quite different. Here are ten Dutch words that are identical to English in both spelling and meaning but are pronounced differently:

beginner

blind

fruit

hand

school

water

week

wild

wind

winter

The velar/uvular fricative is used in the word beginner and the labiodental approximant is used in water, week and wind. Final consonant devoicing is applied in the words blind and wind.

Dutch vocabulary is often similar to that of English. The words in the list are identical to the English counterparts. However, they are pronounced differently.

Variants of the Prefix sub-

The prefix sub- is very productive in English. It comes from Latin and means under. Examples of words with the prefix include subcontinent, submarine and subterranean. The prefix also has many variants. They are the result of assimilation. Here are words with variants of the prefix sub-:

succint

suffix

suggest

support

surreal

suspend

The process which assimilated the prefix to derive the features is the following:

succint = sub + cint

suffix = sub + fix

suggest = sub + gest

support = sub + port

surreal = sub + real

suspend = sub + pend

The process which derives the prefix variants is reverse assimilation. However, in the case of suspend, the process is spirantization because the plosive /b/ becomes /s/. The variants illustrate the process of assimilation, a very common linguistic process.