Guide To The Spanish Language
An introduction to Spanish without the grammar - A new and fresh perspective with some interesting items on
language and the similarities between Spanish and English
Learning Spanish - Common History of Spanish and English
Immigrants bring with them their own particular style of using language. They also bring new words and ways to pronounce existing words. This is not a
new phenomena, one of the most significant influences on the English language was the language of the Roman Empire. Today some 60% of
English words are derived from Latin. Just look in a good dictionary for the
definition of a selection of English words and you will find “the history of the
development of the words since their earliest recorded occurrence”; this is known as the ETYMOLOGY of the word. Interestingly the word “etymology” is
a word derived form the Latin word “etymologia”. There is another word which
is of much interest to the language student “ELISION” the etymology of the word “elision” tells us this word comes from the Latin “elidere”.
There are many such examples. If you look at the etymology of English words you will
find they originate from Norman French, 4th Century Low German, Danish, Old Norse, Latin and Greek. The Latin influence is of particular interest for the
Spanish student because the Romans had a big influence on both Spanish and English. This common influence means there are many common words in
the Spanish and English languages which are derived from the same root.
These words have changed slightly through usage but they are already familiar to us, in fact there are many words in Spanish which are so similar to
the equivalent English word that we can easily recognize them. We will highlight these words because as we are already familiar with them they are
more easily learnt. They provide some good shortcuts, more about that later.
Tracing the history and of individual Spanish and English words provides us with some fascinating examples. The Spanish language has been influenced
by the both the Romans and also for 800 years by the Arabs; the Moors from North Africa. The Arabs brought with them their own words, words such as
“Allah” often used in greetings and salutations in the Arab World.
In Spain this Arabic word has evolved into the Spanish word “Hola” to mean “Hello”.
There are other interesting examples such as the Spanish word for the fruit “orange” which is interesting because as a word it has travelled from India to
Arabia then to Spain and eventually into the English language. Of course it has evolved and changed over the years as words do through usage on the
streets.
The English word for the “ORANGE” can be traced back to India and the Sanskrit language. In Sanskrit the word for orange fruit was
“NARANJ”. The word travelled into Arabic as “NARANJAH” and then the North African Arabs
passed the fruit and word into Spanish as “NARANJA” The word then moved from Spanish to English as NARANJ. Once it was in common use in far off
England the word was again distorted and changed because words ending in the letter “J” are not common in the English language so the spelling quickly
changed to “NARANGE”. The letter “N” disappeared because of local dialects that failed to pronounce the “N”. So the word was pronounced as
“ARANGE” this kind of change is known as “metanalysis”.
For some time in England the “Orange” was known as “An Arange”. Through usage it distorted again and the “A” at the beginning became an “O”
to make “Orange” as we know today. In Spain today the word for orange is “Naranja” pronounced as nah-rahn-hah. There are many words which have
an interesting history which can be traced back through the centuries and many different countries. The aim of this book is to introduce you to learning Spanish as a foreign
language and to put the task of learning a second language into some broader perspective without relying upon the tools of grammar developed by
academics in universities. I have tried to highlight the less talked about aspects of language learning and to introduce some interesting and thought
provoking aspects that will I hope both motivate and inspire you and at the same time prepare you for task ahead. I recommend you take it a step at a
time, be persistent, have fun and forget about the finer points of grammar.
Use the language as soon as possible and at every opportunity, this is very important and a really valuable tip, don’t worry about making mistakes just go
for it. Vocabulary and actual usage is far more important than grammar and verb endings. By using the words you know, in real life situations, you will
learn more than you ever will in a classroom.
