Meaning of September, October, November and December

September, October, November and December are the ninth, tenth, eleventh and twelfth months of the year. However, they are formed from the Latin words for seven, eight, nine and ten. The reason is that the original calendar only had ten months. In the original calendar, the final month of the year, December, was the tenth month.

The months of January and February were later added to the calendar. The result was that the number of months increased from ten to twelve. However, the names of the ninth, tenth, eleventh and twelfth months did not change.

January and February are the first two months, but if they were the last two, September to December would remain months seven to ten of the year. However, January and February are the first two months of the year, so the names of September, October, November and December are inaccurate. Their names reflect that they were once the seventh, eighth, ninth and tenth months of the calendar.

Analysis of Days of the Week in Romanian

Romanian is a Romance language. The days of the week in Romanian are similar to those of other Romance languages. The days of the week in Romanian are the following:

luni

marți

miercuri

joi

vineri

sâmbătă

duminică

The days for Monday to Friday all end with the same letter. However, in the word marți (Tuesday), the final letter palatalizes the preceding consonant, the voiceless alveolar affricate. The result is that marți is only one syllable.

The first letter of joi (Thursday) is the voiced alveopalatal fricative. The word sâmbătă has two vowels which do not occur in other languages. The letter â represents the high central unrounded vowel. It is rare among Indo-European languages but also occurs in Russian. The letter ă represents the schwa. In Romanian it occurs in both stressed and unstressed syllables.

An analysis of the days of the week in Romanian illustrates that they are similar to the days of the week in other Romance languages. The word-final i of marți serves to palatalize the preceding consonant. Romanian has two vowels which do not occur in other Romance languages, vowels which are present in the word sâmbătă (Saturday). The Romanian days of the week indicate that Romanian is truly a Romance language.

Use of Alveolar Nasal and Palatal Nasal in Spanish and Portuguese

The palatal nasal is used in both Spanish and Portuguese. In Spanish it is the letter ñ and in Portuguese it is nh. In many varieties of Brazilian Portuguese, the palatal nasal is realized as the nasal palatal approximant. Many Spanish words with the alveolar nasal have the palatal nasal in Portuguese, and many Spanish words with the palatal nasal have the alveolar nasal in Portuguese.

Here is a list of words to illustrate the alternation:

año ano (year)

dueño dono (owner)

otoño outono (autumn)

pequeño pequeno (small)

señal sinal (signal)

camino caminho (way)

dinero dinheiro (money)

reina rainha (queen)

vecino vizinho (neighbour)

vino vinho (wine)

Spanish and Portuguese often use the alveolar nasal and the palatal nasal in the same words. This is the case with montaña/montanha (mountain) and cono/cone (cone). However, in certain cases, the palatal nasal of Spanish corresponds to the alveolar nasal in Portuguese, and in other cases the alveolar nasal of Spanish corresponds to the palatal nasal of Portuguese. The two sounds share the same manner of articulation, but they differ in their place of articulation.

Phrasal Stress

English word stress is not fixed. It can appear on the first syllable of the word, the final syllable or intermediary syllables. In addition to word stress, phrasal stress is also important. Let us consider a few examples.

In noun phrases, the noun usually has the most stress. In the noun phrase a new computer, the noun computer is usually stressed more than the other words in the phrase. If the word new is stressed the most, it is to emphasize that the computer is new.

The adjective usually has the most stress in adjective phrases  In the adjective phrase very fast, the adjective fast usually has the most stress. If the word very is stressed, it is to emphasize the adverb very.

In verb phrases with an auxiliary verb and a main verb, the main verb usually has the most stress. For example, in the verb phrase is studying, the verb studying is usually stressed the most. If the auxiliary is carries the main stress, it is for emphasis. If speaker A stated "He isn't sleeping, is he?, speaker A could answer, "Yes, he is sleeping" and stress the word is to assure speaker A that it was true.

Word stress is very important in English. However, stress also occurs beyong the word and also extends to phrases, clauses and verbs. Phrasal stress occurs at the phrasal level in phrases such as noun phrases, adjective phrases and verb phrases.

Pronunciation of Spanish Letter ll

The Spanish letter ll is a digraph. This means that the two letters produce one sound. It is common in many Spanish words and can occur word-initially and word-medially. However, the sound can vary

For most Spanish speakers the ll is the palatal approximant. It is the sound which occurs in English words such as yellow, yesterday and you. However, in certain dialects, it is deleted intervocalically in words such as ardilla (squirrel) grillo (cricket) and silla (chair).

Many Spanish speakers pronounce the ll as the voiced alveopalatal affricate. It is not restricted to one country but can be heard in many regions.

The ll can also represent the palatal lateral. It is the original sound of the letter, but is no longer used by most Spanish speakers. However, it is common in Paraguay and parts of Peru and Bolivia.

In Uruguay and most of Argentina, the ll is the voiceless alveopalatal fricative. The sound is associated with the Rioplatense dialect. In Argentina, though less common than the voiceless alveopalatal fricative, a number of speakers use the voiced alveopalatal fricative.

Most Spanish speakers pronounce the letter ll as the palatal approximant. However, the pronunciation varies from one dialect to another. It can also be the voiced alveopalatal affricate, the palatal lateral and the alveopalatal fricative.