Silas, a 10th-grader in Madison, Wisconsin, is working on his own conlang, or constructed language. He wonders how and why the French uvular R sound, as in the French word rouge, came about, as opposed to the rolled Spanish R in carro. As Trask’s Historical Linguistics (Bookshop|Amazon) notes, this sound continues to spread throughout eight European languages in what’s called a phonemic shift. Western European languages have a coronal R formed along the alveolar ridge at the front of the mouth. Around the 17th or 18th century, this uvular R developed as a characteristic of the speech of the elite, and as such, was increasingly imitated. This is part of a complete episode.
Grant recommends the children’s book Dreams of Green: A Three Kings’ Day Story written by Mariel Jungkunz and illustrated by Mónica Paola Rodriguez (Bookshop|Amazon), about a girl and her family who move from Puerto Rico to Ohio and find ways...
The Spanish equivalent of fur baby, an affectionate term for one’s pets, is perrijo or perrija, a combination of perro, “dog,” and hijo or hija, meaning “son” or “daughter.” This is part of a complete...
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