LAS LENGUAS INGLESA Y ESPAÑOLA de Delfín Carbonell

Elena Lappin´s memoir What Language Do I Dream In , and John Gallagher´s review of it in The Guardian , are both disappointing. I have read the book because of my interest in languages and bilingualism only to find an autobiography of a person and her family who have had a thirst for travel. From Russia to Czechoslovakia, then to Germany and Israel, to continue to Canada, the US, and finally, to the UK. We are told about grandparents, parents, and relatives, with side escapades to odd people of many nationalities. In passing, Ms Lappin mentions the languages she has been exposed to in her wondering, in her world-trotting. All of us can write an autobiography. Lappin´s experiences might be of interest to her family and offspring but to nobody else. Her insights into languages show that although she speaks several languages, she´s no linguist. She says:  " To this day, my brother owes his perfect Russian accent to his extended stay in Moscow at the age of almost two." Really? A...

My daughter Laura, a teacher in San Francisco, has urged me today to read The Guardian US ; she is partial to it. I did and she is right. A good newspaper. I have read several of its articles and pieces of news and one, especially, caught my eye: Alex Needham ´s "Notoriously Cruel: Should we cancel Picasso?" I enjoyed the piece but cannot judge it because I am no art critic. But something drew my attention, something that, I bet, no one has noticed. It´s a small detail, but very tale-telling. It appears in the line: "We have the vampire, the Andalucían macho..." Notice? It is not "Andalucian" but "Andalucían" which cannot be a typo at all.  It should be "Andalusian", of course. Also, the word "macho", included in English dictionaries, echoes Spanish men, and Spanish culture. Mr. Needham did not write "macho andaluz", no, he wrote "Andalucían macho"... and added a written accent (´) to his misspelt word. Ste...

Severin Carrell writes a piece in The Guardian, 26 March, 2018, titled: "St. Andrews hits out at Spanish bid to extradite Catalan academic." "An attack on free speech" is what Professor Sally Mapstone brands Spanish warrant for Clara Punsatí 's arrest for crimes against democratic laws. I wonder what David Hume would have said about St. Andrews´s biased judgement, and defense of a faculty scofflaw. Ponsati has tried to sever a country. Punsatí is a scofflaw who has trespassed and trampled the Constitution of a democratic country. Ponsatí is a free citizen of a free country who has been permitted to express her ideas at will. She is now a runaway from the law, along with others like her. St. Andrews is an old and respected university which must abide the truth and the pursuit of academic freedom. Politics and cademic free speech do not mix. But the authorities of the university have decided on the misguided course of taking sides, and the defense of an all...

En The Guardian (21 enero, 2018) Jonathan Bouquet, nos ofrece un bouquet de bobadas sobre la lengua inglesa. El título es "May I have a word... about nouns posing as verbs?" Y se queja de la tendencia de convertir sustantivos en verbos. Desgraciadamente para el Sr. Bouquet esto no hay quien lo pare, y es una de las características del inglés moderno que lo hace tan dúctil y versátil: Pen = pluma To pen = escribir a pluma Paper = papel To paper = empapelar Finger = dedo To finger = hurgar con el dedo Hand = mano To hand = entregar a mano Todos los idiomas cambian y sólo los viejos decrépitos añoran la rigidez del idioma de su juventud, sea el que sea. Y el Sr. Bouquet puede desgañitarse todo lo que quiera poniendo puertas al campo, pero nosotros creemos que es una ventaja que cualquier nombre en inglés puede ser también verbo . Ah. También nos pide The Guardian que le demos una libra esterlina para ayudarles en su labor, para que sigan publicando articulillos ...

No empleamos la tecnología para aprender idiomas. Preferimos ir a Londres a escuchar cómo los ingleses destrozan su idioma. Creemos que ese viaje actuará como bálsamo de Fierabrás. Pero no. Aprender un idioma requiere un esfuerzo fuera de lo común y una asiduidad constante, de 24 horas al día, siete días a la semana, 365 días al mes. Nada menos. Sin esfuerzo, sin molestias, sin interés, nunca aprenderemos un idioma, ni siquiera el propio. Todos los días, en la oficina, leeremos los titulares de periódicos, diarios, en internet, como el New York Times, The Guardian , The Huffington Post . Y así sabremos qué es lo que pasa en el mundo y seguro que en cada titular encontraremos una palabra nueva o con un sentido nuevo para nosotros. Todos los días escucharemos una charla corta en YouTube sobre cualquier tema que nos interese. Y escucharemos activamente: cómo pronuncia el orador, la fraseología que emplea, las pausas que hace. El inglés tiene muchos sonidos, pero no son infinitos y ...