The Nightingale and the Rose

Oscar Wilde, the Irish poet and playwright, wrote The Nightingale and the Rose. It is a short story about love and sacrifice. In the story a young student is in love with a young woman.

The student asks the woman to go to a ball with him, but she tells him she will dance with him only if he gives her a red rose. However, the student's garden has no roses.

The nightingale listens to the student in despair over his situation and feels sorry for him. She knows how rare true love is, and she recognizes that the student is really in love.

She flies to a rose bush and offers to sing in exchange for a red rose. The rose bush only produces white roses, so it cannot give her what she wants. It suggests that she ask another rose bush.

The nightingale makes the same proposal to the next rose bush, but it only produces yellow roses. It directs her to the rose bush right under the student's window. Although the rose bush produces red roses, winter has frozen its branches so it cannot produce any.

The nightingale asks if there is any way for her to get a red rose for the student. The rose bush replies that there is a way, but she must do a terrible thing. The only way is to sing by moonlight while allowing a thorn to pierce her heart. Her blood can then seep through to the bush and produce a red rose. The nightingale agrees because she believes love is more valuable than life and a human heart is more precious than hers.

The nightingale sings with her heart against the thorn until it pierces her heart. The blood from her heart pierces the bush and produces a red rose, but by the time the flower has formed the nightingale is dead.

The next morning the students sees the red rose in his garden. He thinks it is merely good luck and picks the rose. When he presents the rose to the woman, she tells him that another suitor has given her jewels. Jewels are more valuable than flowers, so she will dance with another man at the ball.

The student angrily throws away the red rose. Then he walks home and decides to reject love. He prefers to focus on his studies, which are more practical.

The nightingale is the true love, the one who sacrifices her life. She truly loves the student, but he does not realize it. On the other hand, the woman does not love the student and does not appreciate his red rose.  The nightingale is very different from the woman who is materialistic and the student who quickly denounces love after he is rejected.

Hungarian Pluralization Rules

Hungarian nouns form the plural with the suffix -k. However, a linking vowel is needed with nouns which end with a consonant. This creates many plural forms.

The word autó means car. The plural is autók. However, with the word ház (house), a linking vowel is needed. The word for houses is házak. The plural of könyv (book) is könyvek. The linking vowel is conditioned by the final vowel of the root. Front vowels follow front vowels and back vowels follow back vowels. If the final vowel of the root is a neutral vowel, the linking vowel can be a front vowel or back vowel.

The accusative suffix is placed after the plural suffix. For example, I don't see the children is Nem látom a gyerekeket. The accusative suffix is -t, but in the word gyerekeket it is preceded by a linking vowel.

With numbers and quantitatives such as many, the plural is not used. The phrase két macska means two cats. The plural is not used because it is clear that the phrase is in the plural form. The phrase many cats is sok macska. The plural of macska (cat) is macskák, but in the examples it is not used.

The plural is not used with indefinite nouns, either. They are nouns which are not preceded by an article. For example, the sentence I love books is Szeretek könyvet. The accusative suffix is used, but the noun is not pluralized because the number is not specified. If the noun were preceded by a definite article, the plural would be used. The sentence I love the books is Szeretem a könyveket. The verb has a different form because the definite conjugation is required. In the sentence I love books, the indefinite conjugation is used.

The rules of Hungarian pluralization require a linking vowel for roots which end with a consonant. The plural suffix is always added before the accusative suffix. With number, the plural form of the noun is not used. 

Vowels of Danish In Comparison to Norwegian and Swedish

Danish, Norwegian and Swedish are North Germanic languages. Though they share many similarities, the vowels of Danish can be quite different from those of Norwegian and Swedish. Let us consider a few examples.

The word ja means yes in all languages. In Norwegian and Swedish, the vowel is low back, but in Danish it is low front. The vowel is unrounded in the three languages, but it is more open in Danish than in the other two.

The word du means you in all three languages. The Norwegian and Swedish vowel is a high central vowel, but the Danish vowel is high back. The Danish vowel has the same quality as in German.

In the word busk (bush), the vowel is a mid central rounded tense vowel in Norwegian and Swedish. In Danish, however, the vowel is a high back rounded lax vowel. It is higher and more retracted than the vowel of Norwegian and Swedish.

Another example is found in the word bro. In Danish the vowel is a mid back vowel, but in Norwegian and Swedish it is a high back vowel. The vowel of bro in Norwegian and Swedish is the vowel of du in Danish.

The vowels of Danish often differ from those of Norwegian and Swedish. They can differ not only in height but also in backness. The low front back vowel of Danish does not exist in Norwegian or in Swedish, and the high central rounded vowel of Norwegian and Swedish does not exist in Danish.

Distribution of Schwa in English

In English the schwa only occurs in unstressed syllables. However, in such positions it is very common. The occurrence of the schwa in English is not predictable, but a few rules can be formulated.

The schwa often occurs immediately before a stressed syllable. This is the case with the words ago, eleven and position. It is also very common after a stressed syllable. Consider the words carrot, lettuce and sugar.

Many function words have weak forms which have a schwa. Examples include a, and and to. The pronoun you also has a weak form which is pronounced with a schwa.

The schwa does not occur immediately before a vowel. In the word radio, the second syllable is never reduced to a schwa because it precedes another vowel. The word the has a schwa in the house, but in the orange, the vowel of the is a high front vowel because the word orange begins with a vowel sound.

Many words can be pronounced with either a schwa or a high front unrounded lax vowel. However, speakers usually prefer one vowel over the other. Examples include before, delicious and reply. In Received Pronunciation, the unstressed syllable does not have a schwa but a high front unrounded lax vowel. The schwa is used less frequently in Received Pronunciation than in other varieties of English.

Unlike in other languages such as Albanian, Afrikaans and Slovenian, the English schwa only occurs in unstressed syllables. It is a very common vowel in English, but its distribution is not predictable. Nevertheless, the schwa does not occur in every unstressed position. In English words which consist of two adjacent vowels, neither vowel can be a schwa. 

Names of Swedish Nominal Numbers

Numbers are often used to modify nouns. In such cases they are adjectives. However, numbers can also used for the purpose of identification. Such numbers are called nominal numbers.

Swedish has special words for the numbers from one to twelve. The word refers to the number itself and is thus a nominal number. It is different from the adjectival form. For example, two children is två barn in Swedish. However, to say The number two is coming soon in reference to the number of the bus or train, the sentence is Tvåan kommer snart. 

Here are the ordinal numbers from one to twelve in Swedish on the left and the nominal numbers on the right:

ett etta

två tvåa

tre trea

fyra fyra

fem femma

sex sexa

sju sjua

åtta åtta

nio nia

tio tia

elva elva

tolv tolva

In a few cases, the name of the ordinal number and the nominal number is the same. This is true with the names for the numbers eight and eleven. Unlike in English, Swedish has distinct names for the nominal numbers from one to twelve.

Vowels of Boston English

The English of Boston is one of the well-known varieties of American English. The vowels of Boston English are different from those of many American varieties of English. Though Boston is not so far from New York, the vowels are quite different. 

Unlike in New York, Boston has the cot-caught merger. The result is that the words cot and caught are pronounced the same in Boston. In New York, they are distinct.

In words such as father, Boston uses a central vowel in the first syllable. In New York English, the first syllable has a back vowel. This is the case in most parts of the United States.

Both Boston English and New York English are classified as non-rhotic varieties of English, but this is not the case for all speakers. In younger speakers, rhoticity has become more common, and in many cases, it is variable. Nevertheless, in words such as dark and star, many speakers use non-rhotic pronunciations. In Boston English, the vowel is low central, but in New York English it is low back.

The diphthongs in words such as night and out are pronounced differently in the two accents. In New York English, the first component of the diphthong is a low central vowel. However, it is a mid central vowel in Boston English. The pronunciation of the diphthongs in Boston English is similar to the pronunciation of the diphthongs in Canadian English.

Boston English has a number of features which serve to distinguish it from other varieties. Though Boston English is often considered similar to New York English, it is distinct. Features of Boston English include the cot-caught merger, the use of the low central vowel in many words and the mid central vowel in diphthongs. 

Diphthongization in Canadian French

The phonology of Canadian French is quite different from that of European French. One area in which the two varieties differ is diphthongization. Many words with long vowels and nasal vowels which have  monophthongs in European French can have diphthongs in Canadian French.

The following words can be realized with diphthongs in Canadian French:

banque (bank)

fête (party)

four (oven)

glaçon (icicle)

livre (book)

neutre (neutral)

pause (pause)

quinze (fifteen)

son (sound)

un (one)

The use of diphthongization in Canadian French varies. It is most common in informal situations. In certain words such as fête (party) and pause (pause) it is very common, but in others such as banque (bank) and glaçon (icicle), many speakers do not diphthongize.

Diphthongization is more common in Canadian French than in European French. However, the use of diphthongs varies from one speaker to another. It is most common in informal situations.

Differences in Finnish and Hungarian Word Order

Finnish and Hungarian are both part of the Uralic language family. However, the similarity between the two languages is relatively small. Much of the vocabulary is different, and though they are both SVO languages, the word order is often different.

The sentence I am a teacher is Olen opettaja in Finnish and Tanár vagyok in Hungarian. In both languages, the subject pronoun I can be dropped. However, the word order is different in the two languages. Finnish places the complement after the verb, the same as in English. In Hungarian, the complement comes before the verb.

The question Where is the park? is Missä puisto on? in Finnish. The word puisto (park) precedes the verb. The question has no definite article because it does not exist in Finnish.

In Hungarian the question Where is the park? is Hol van a park? The word order is the same as in English. The verb comes before the complement.

The sentence I am in the library is Olen kirjastossa in Finnish. The English preposition in is the postposition -ssa in Finnish. In Hungarian the sentence is A könyvtárban vagyok. The preposition in is the postposition -ban in Hungarian, but in the Hungarian sentence, the verb follows the noun phrase and there is a definite article.

The question Is it near? is Onko se lähellä? in Finnish. The order is the same as in English, but the verb includes the question particle -ko. In Hungarian, however, the question is Közel van? The subject position is empty, and the verb follows the complement. The Hungarian question uses rising intonation because falling intonation is used for the sentence Közel van (It is near). In Finnish the intonation in Se on lähellä (It is near) is the same as in the question Onko se lähellä?.

Though Finnish and Hungarian both belong to the Uralic language family and to the Finno-Ugric subfamily, they are not so closely related. Similarities include the use of postpositions and the option to drop subject pronouns. However, in vocabulary, grammar, phonology and also word order they exhibit many differences.