{"id":13262,"date":"2020-02-17T00:00:46","date_gmt":"2020-02-17T05:00:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/spanish\/?p=13262"},"modified":"2020-02-16T20:44:24","modified_gmt":"2020-02-17T01:44:24","slug":"spanish-a-language-with-character-part-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/spanish\/spanish-a-language-with-character-part-1\/","title":{"rendered":"Spanish: A Language with car\u00e1cter (Part 1)"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"

Image taken from Pixabay.<\/p><\/div>\n

The Spanish language can be distinguished by many features: the way its words are formed, its sonority, its many regional varieties\u2026 But an easier way to recognize it among most other languages is its unique set of caracteres<\/em> (written characters).<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s make one thing clear: Spanish uses the Latin alphabet as well as English and many others throughout the world. In that sense, there should be no problem in understanding most of the general traits of written Spanish.<\/p>\n

However, a reduced number of special letters and symbols are all what a language like Spanish needs to stand out. In this blog, we will take a look at the first two of them: la e\u00f1e <\/em>(lowercase \u00f1, uppercase \u00d1) and la di\u00e9resis<\/em> (\u00a8). Let\u2019s begin!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

E\u00f1e (\u00f1, \u00d1)<\/strong><\/p>\n

So emblematic is the e\u00f1e<\/em> for Spanish that it became the logo of the Cervantes Institute, the largest organization in the world responsible for promoting the teaching of Spanish and contributing to the advancement of the Spanish and Hispanic American cultures.<\/p>\n

This e\u00f1e<\/em>\u2014representing a palatal nasal sound, like e<\/em>–ni<\/em>–e<\/em>\u2014evolved from the way scribes from the Middle Ages used the virgulilla<\/em> (little comma) on top of certain consonant clusters in order to not write them entirely and to indicate the new sound Spanish speakers had been using with those words, like the nn<\/em> of Latin anno<\/em> (a\u00f1o<\/em>, year) or the gn<\/em> of Latin signalis <\/em>(se\u00f1al<\/em>, sign, signal).<\/p>\n

Nowadays, this letter allows for loads of words to exist in Spanish, from everyday objects to topographical names. If you want to get an idea of how many Spanish words use e\u00f1e<\/em>, go here<\/a> and enjoy reading what could be accomplished by means of this peculiar consonant!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Di\u00e9resis (\u00a8)<\/strong><\/p>\n

La di\u00e9resis<\/em>, also known as trema<\/em> or umlaut<\/em>, is a special symbol coming from medieval texts that allowed changing how certain syllables were pronounced in different contexts. This symbol is one shared with other European languages, like French and German.<\/p>\n

In the case of these two little points, they have today one specific use: they let Spanish-speakers pronounce the vowel u<\/em> when written in the syllables gue <\/em>and gui<\/em>.<\/p>\n

One example: the Spanish noun for \u2018guitar\u2019 is guitarra<\/em>\u2014the first syllables of those two words are to be pronounced practically the same. However, the Spanish noun for \u2018penguin\u2019 (ping\u00fcino<\/em>) needs the di\u00e9resis<\/em> on top of the u<\/em>; otherwise, that word would be incorrectly pronounced as pin<\/em>–gi<\/em>–no<\/em>, not as pin-gu-i-no.<\/em><\/p>\n

What follows is a very short list of words using di\u00e9resis<\/em>:<\/p>\n

Antig\u00fcedad<\/em><\/strong> (antiquity, age of an object or monument)<\/p>\n

Arg\u00fcir<\/em><\/strong> (to argue, to contend)<\/p>\n

Averig\u00fcemos<\/em><\/strong> (Let\u2019s find out, from averiguar<\/em>, to find out)<\/p>\n

Desag\u00fce <\/em><\/strong>(drainage, wastepipe)<\/p>\n

Pedig\u00fce\u00f1o<\/em><\/strong> (a person who persistently asks for or borrows things)<\/p>\n

Pirag\u00fcista<\/em><\/strong> (canoeist)<\/p>\n

Verg\u00fcenza<\/em><\/strong> (shame)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Keep tuned for Part 2, where we will be checking on the other two special characters that give Spanish its distinctive look. Till next week!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"

The Spanish language can be distinguished by many features: the way its words are formed, its sonority, its many regional varieties\u2026 But an easier way to recognize it among most other languages is its unique set of caracteres (written characters). Let\u2019s make one thing clear: Spanish uses the Latin alphabet as well as English and…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":157,"featured_media":13263,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[358365,12,528733],"class_list":["post-13262","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-grammar","tag-grammar","tag-spanish-language","tag-written-spanish"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/spanish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13262","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/spanish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/spanish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/spanish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/157"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/spanish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13262"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/spanish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13262\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13265,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/spanish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13262\/revisions\/13265"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/spanish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13263"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/spanish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13262"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/spanish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13262"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/spanish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13262"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}