Translated Song (Even Though I Can't See You)

The Spanish singer Alex Ubago has many beautiful songs. One of them is Aunque No Te Pueda Ver. This means Even Though I Can't See You. Here are the Spanish lyrics followed by my translation:

Aunque No Te Pueda Ver

Si ayer tuviste un día gris
Tranquila, yo haré canciones para ver
Si así consigo hacerte sonreír.
Si lo que quieres es huir
Camina, yo haré canciones para ver
Si así consigo fuerzas pa' vivir.

No tengo más motivos para darte
Que este miedo que me da
El no volver a verte nunca más.

Creo ver la lluvia caer, en mi ventana te veo
Pero no está lloviendo.
No es más que un reflejo de mi pensamiento.
Hoy te hecho de menos.
Yo sólo quiero hacerte saber, amiga, estés donde estés
Que si te falta el aliento, yo te lo daré
Y si te sientes sola, háblame
Que te estaré escuchando aunque no te pueda ver
Aunque no te pueda ver.

De tantas cosas que perdí, diría
Que sólo guardo lo que fue
Mágico tiempo que nació un abril.
Miradas tristes sobre mi se anidan
Y se hacen parte de mi piel
Y ahora siempre llueve porque estoy sin tí.

No tengo más motivos para darte
Que esta fria soledad
Que necesito darte tantas cosas más
Creo ver la lluvia caer, en mi ventana te veo
Pero no está lloviendo.
No es más que un reflejo de mi pensamiento.
Hoy te hecho de menos.
Yo sólo quiero hacerte saber, amiga, estés donde estés
Que si te falta el aliento, yo te lo daré
Y si te sientes sola, háblame
Que te estaré escuchando aunque no te pueda ver
Aunque no te pueda ver.

Even Though I Can't See You

If you had a grey day yesterday
Calm down, I'll make songs to see
If that way I can make you smile.
If what you want is to run away
Walk, I'll make songs to see
If that way I get the strength to live.

I have no more motives to give you
Than this fear that I get
Of never seeing you again.

I believe I see the rain falling, in my window I see you
But it's not raining.
It's just a reflection of my thought.
Today I miss you.
I just want you to know friend, wherever you are
That if you're short of breath, I'll give it to you
And if you feel lonely, talk to me
For I'll be listening to you even though I can't see you
Even though I can't see you.

Of many things that I lost, I'd say
That I only keep what was
Magical time that an April was born.
Sad looks nestle over me
And they become part of my skin.
And now it always rains because I'm without you.

I have no more motives to give you
Than this cold loneliness
That I need to give you so many more things.
I believe I see the rain falling, in my window I see you
But it's not raining.
It's just a reflection of my thought.
Today I miss you.
I just want you to know, friend, wherever you are
That if you're short of breath, I'll give it to you
And if you feel lonely, talk to me
For I'll be listening to you even though I can't see you
Even though I can't see you.

Similar Words in Danish, Norwegian and Swedish

Danish, Norwegian and Swedish are related Germanic languages. Many words are the same in the three languages. However, many are also different in all three. Here are ten words given in English, Danish, Norwegian and Swedish. They vary slightly in each language:

apple æble eple äpple
colour farve farge färg
egg æg egg ägg 
eight otte åtte åtta
head hoved hode huvud
map kort kart karta
milk mælk melk mjölk
mouth mund munn mun
water vand vann vatten
way vej vei väg

The list illustrates the similarity of the three languages. Seven of the Danish and Norwegian words from the list differ by only one letter. However, the Swedish words are also similar.

Suffix of Spanish and Portuguese

Spanish and Portuguese are closely related languages of the Romance language family. Spanish words with the suffix variants -tad and -dad correspond to -dade and -tade in Portuguese. The underlying form in Spanish is -tad and -tade in Portugese, forms which are similar to the Latin suffix -tate. Here are ten words which illustrate the use of the suffix in the two languages:

electricity electricidad eletricidade
equality igualdad igualdade
liberty libertad liberdade
majesty majestad majestade
reality realidad realidade
responsibility responsabilidad responsabilidade
rivalry rivalidad rivalidade
sincerity sinceridad sinceridade
truth verdad verdade
university universidad universidade

The Spanish suffix -tad and the Portuguese suffix -tade is often -ty in English. The Spanish and Portuguese suffixes are both different from the Latin -tate but nevertheless remain similar. Portuguese preserves the final vowel of the suffix, but Spanish does not.

Translated Song (Have A Dream)

The Norwegian singer Jørn Hoel is known for Har En Drøm. This means Have A Dream. Here are the lyrics of the song along with my translation.

Har En Drøm

Har en drøm om å komme hjem
Dit ei fremtid ennå bor
Har en drøm om å finne frem
Over ei mørklagt jord
Snart stiger sol et sted i øst
Og i natt har ingen gitt deg svar
Men det finnes ei fattig trøst
Drømmen du alltid bar

Har en drøm om å høre til
I en hverdag taus og grå
Har en drøm om at alt æ vil
Finne en vei å gå
Snart stiger sol et sted i øst
Alt vil være som det en gang va
Men det finnes ei fattig trøst
Drømmen du alltid bar

Et døgn går forbi
Du lever på lånt og kostbar tid
Mens et hjerte slår
Og dagan går og går

Har en drøm om et ainna land
Og en lengsel øm og stor
Har en drøm som e skrift i sand
Skreven med store ord
Snart stiger sol et sted i øst
Og en verden venter kald og klar
Men det finnes ei fattig trøst
Drømmen du alltid bar

Snart stiger sol et sted i øst
Og i natt har ingen gitt deg svar
Men det finnes ei fattig trøst
Drømmen du alltid bar

Have A Dream

Have a dream of coming home
Where a future still lives
Have a dream of finding out
Over a darkened earth
Soon the sun rises somewhere in the east
And tonight no one has given you an answer
But there is poor consolation
The dream you always carried

Have a dream of belonging
In an everyday life silent and grey
Have a dream that everything I want
Finds a way to go
Soon the sun rises somewhere in the east
Everything will be as it once was
But there is poor consolation
The dream you always carried

A day goes by
You live on borrowed and valuable time
While a heart beats
And the day goes on and on

Have a dream of another land
And a longing tender and great
Have a dream that is written in sand
Written with big words
Soon the sun rises somewhere in the east
And a world awaits cold and clear
But there is poor consolation
The dream you always carried

Soon the sun rises somewhere in the east
And tonight no one has given you an answer
But there is poor consolation
The dream you always carried

Hungarian Accusative Case

Hungarian adds an ending to nouns in accusative case. This distinguishes them from nouns in nominative case, which have a 0 ending. Hungarian nouns in accusative case always end with t. Let us illustrate with a few sentences:

A macska nagyon barátságos. (The cat is very friendly)
Nem látom a macskát. ( I don't see the cat)

A leves finom. (The soup is delicious)
Főzök egy levest. (I'm cooking a soup)

Ez a szendvics jó. (This sandwich is good)
Eszem egy szendvicset. (I'm eating a sandwich)

Ez az autó gyors. (This car is fast)
Vettem egy autót. (I bought a car)

Nincs könyv az asztalon. (There is no book on the table)
Olvasok egy könyvet. (I'm reading a book)

The examples illustrate that the Hungarian accusative marker is -t. However, with words which end with a short vowel, the vowel sometimes lengthens as in macskát. Words which end in consonants often require a linking vowel as in szendvicset. Hungarian nouns have distinct nominative and accusative forms.

Sound Correspondence Between Italian and Portuguese/Spanish

Many Italian words which end with the letters ce have the letter z in Spanish and Portuguese. Here is a list of ten words:

actress attrice atriz (Portuguese) actriz (Spanish)
cross croce cruz
fast veloce veloz
ferocious feroce feroz
empress imperatrice imperatriz (Portuguese) emperatriz (Spanish)
happy feliz feliz
light luce luz
nut noce noz (Portuguese) nuez (Spanish)
peace pace paz
voice voce voz

The words from the list end with an x in Latin. The Latin words for empress, happy and light are imperatrix, felix and lux. The Italian, Spanish and Portuguese words are the result of sound change.

Long Consonants in Italian

Italian distinguishes short and long consonants. This is different from other Romance languages such as French, Spanish and Italian which do not. Here are ten Italian words which are distinguished on the basis of consonant length:

cane (dog) canne (reeds)
capello (hair) cappello (hat)
fato (fate) fatto (fact)
nono (grandfather) nonno (ninth)
palla (ball) pala (shovel)
polo (pole) pollo (chicken)
sera (evening) serra (greenhouse)
seta (silk) setta (sect)
sete (thirst) sette (seven)
tori (bulls) torri (towers)

The examples illustrate that consonant length is distinctive in Italian. However, long consonants only occur word-medially. In other positions of the word, only short consonants can occur.

Bornholm Dialect

The Bornholm dialect is an East Danish dialect. It is spoken on the island of Bornholm in the Baltic Sea. The phonology and vocabulary of the dialect are quite different from that of Standard Danish.

Unlike in Standard Danish, Bornholmian does not have the glottal stop which can create minimal pairs by its presence or absence.  In addition, Bornholmian has a labiovelar approximant /w/ and a voiced alveolar fricative /z/.  Bornholmian dialect also has long consonants, a feature which it shares with Swedish but not with Danish.

The dialect of Bornholm also has numerous differences in vocabulary. Compare the following:

Standard Danish

en stol stolen stole stolene (a chair the chair chairs the chairs)
et hus huset huse husene (a house the house houses the houses)

Bornholm Dialect

enj stol stolinj stola stolana (a chair the chair chairs the chairs)
et huz huzed huz huzen (a house the house houses the houses)

The dialect of Bornholm is very different from that of Standard Danish. It is so different that Danes from other parts of the country find it difficult to understand. However, all residents of Bornholm can speak Standard Danish, and do so when they speak with Danes who are not from Bornholm.

Turkish Loanwords in Hungarian

Hungarian has borrowed words from Turkish. This is because Hungary was part of the Ottoman Empire for 145 years. Here is a list of 10 words with the Turkish word on the left and the Hungarian one on the right:

arpa árpa (barley)
cep zseb (pocket)
çizme csizma (boot)
deniz tenger (sea)
deve teve (camel)
elma alma (apple)
ikiz iker (twin)
kapı kapu (gate)
pamuk pamut (cotton)
sakal szakáll (beard)

In the word pairs deniz/tenger and ikiz/iker we see the change of /z/ to /r/. The change of a consonant to the sound /r/ is rhotacism. The word pairs deniz/tenger and deve/teve illustrate the change from /d/ to /t/. Here the sound change is devoicing. With the words pamuk/pamut we see that the /k/ of Turkish becomes /t/ in Hungarian.

Hungarian has borrowed a number of words from Turkish. In the list the similarity of the words is evident. Hungary was part of the Ottoman Empire for over 100 years. As a result, it is not surprising that it has borrowed words from Turkish.