Dansk er et lille sprog. Med kun lidt over 5,5 million mennesker med dansk som modersmål, kan man dårligt kalde dansk for et verdenssprog på lige fod med spansk eller kinesisk, og desuden taler de fleste danskere flydende engelsk. Så hvorfor lære dansk? Bortset fra øl, smukke piger og den umiddelbare velvilje du vil opleve fra danskerne så snart du kan bestille en kop kaffe på dansk, skal du lære dansk fordi… det er et spændende sprog! Lad mig uddybe ved at fortælle dig om 5 særlige egenskaber ved det danske sprog:

1. Ifølge lingvisten Nina Grønnum har dansk ikke mindre end 16 forskellige vokallyde, hvoraf de fleste både kan være lange eller korte – alt i alt næsten 40 forskellige vokallyde. På baggrund af Grønnums forskning har wikipedia udarbejdet denne tabel som viser hvordan det ortografiske a i ”kat”, ”barn” og ”tak” udtales forskelligt.

2. Udover dette uhyrlige antal vokaler har dansk et andet fonologisk særpræg kaldet stød. Stød er en slags creaky voice eller glottalt stop som optræder i trykstærke stavelser i forbindelse med lange vokaler og stemt udlyd. Hvis dit mål her i livet er at narre danskere til at tro du er en af dem, så giv den gas med stød og den er hjemme. Stød er det eneste der adskiller bønder fra bønner, hund fra hun og viser (som verbum) og viser (på et ur).

3. Dansk er et af de få sprog i verden, der gør brug af det pulmonisk ingressive ”ja”, som til tider bruges i stedet for det egressive ”ja”. Dette lydklip giver et udmærket billede af fænomenet (selvom taleren egentlig er nordmand, men mon ikke det går). Denne lyd produceres ved at ånde luft ind, lidt ligesom et omvendt [h].

4. Det er muligt at danne uhyggeligt lange verbalkonstruktioner på dansk, såsom ”skulle have været blevet spurgt” – 5 verbalformer, vær så god.

5. Du vil i fremtiden være det lysende midtpunkt ved samtlige familiesammenkomster når du imponerer onkler og tanter med fantastiske fraser som ”skinneskidtskraberrenseriassistentaspirant” (i ét ord), ”fem flade flødeboller på et fladt flødebollefad” og den ultimative evergreen ”rødgrød med fløde”.

Så hvad venter du på? Klik over på bab.las danske ordbog og få et forspring allerede i dag!

[English]

Danish is a small language. With just about than 5.5 million native speakers, Danish is hardly a world language like Spanish or Mandarin, and the majority of the population is fluent in English anyway. So why learn Danish? Besides the beer, the pretty girls and the immediate goodwill you will receive from Danes as long as you know how to put 5 words together, you should learn Danish because... it’s an exciting language! Let me elaborate and introduce you to 5 cool features about the Danish language:

1. According to linguist Nina Grønnum, Danish has no less than 16 different vowel sounds most of which can be realized as long and short vowels – a total of almost 40 different vowel sounds. Wikipedia has adapted Grønnums findings into this chart which shows how the orthographic a in “kat” (cat), “barn” (child) and “tak” (thank you) is realized differently.

2. In addition to this obscene number of vowels, Danish has another neat phonological feature called “stød” (sd̥øð). Stød is a kind of creaky voice or glottal stop that occurs in stressed syllables in connection with long vowels and ending in a voiced sound. If your goal in life is to fool Danish native speakers into thinking you’re one of them, master the art of stød, and it should be in the bag. Stød is the only distinguishing feature between the words for “farmers” (bønder) and “beans” (bønner) – and who would want to be mistaking those.

3. Danish features the ingressive pulmonic “ja” which is an inhaled affirmative sometimes used instead of the regular egressive “ja”. This sound clip gives you a pretty good idea of what I’m talking about (even though the speaker is actually Norwegian, but you get the picture). The sound is produced by breathing air into the lungs, sort of like a reversed [h].

4. It is possible to form monster verbal phrases such as “skulle have været blevet spurgt”, which contains 5 verbal forms. This particular sentence translates to “should have been asked”, but with an added distance between the speaker and the utterance, sort of like the use of “Konjunktiv I” in German.

5. You’ll be the center of attention at every future gathering of your friends and family while impressing them with phrases like “skinneskidtskraberrenseriassistentaspirant” (yes, that is one word), “fem flade flødeboller på et fladt flødebollefad” and the ultimate evergreen “rødgrød med fløde”.

What are you waiting for? Go on over to the bab.la Danish dictionary and get a head start learning Danish right away!

[Dansk]

The numbers that are used worldwide nowadays are basically Arabic numbers. They were actually developed by Arabic Muslim scientists who revised the Indian version of numbers that contains only nine numbers. That took place during the 8th century (771 A.D) when an Indian Gastronomist came to the Almansour royal palace with a book – famous at that time – about astronomy and mathematics called “Sod hanta” written by Brahma Jobta around 626 A.D. Almansour ordered to translate the book into Arabic and explore more sciences.

There were different forms in the Indian version of numbers, Arabs kept some of these forms and changed others to create their own vision of numbers which was used in the Middle East and mainly in Baghdad. Thanks to Al Khawarizmi (Algoritmi), Arabic numbers took their final form. At the beginning, they were not widely spread but they became known in the Maghreb and Andalusia. Europe then adopted these numbers because of their practicality in comparison with Roman numbers. Now they are used worldwide.

1 -Indian numbers:

2-Arabic numbers:

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9

In designing the Arab numbers, Al Khawarizmi based his choice of a particular form on the number of angles that each number should contain. For instance, the number one contains only one angle, number two has two angles, and number three includes three angles, ects…

This picture clarifies the original forms of the Arab numbers, in each angle contains a dot:

These numbers were later modified until they reached the present forms in which we use them now. But the genius invention that Muslim scientists brought to us is the zero (as it contains no angles).

The first usage of the zero dates back to 873 A.D, but the first Indian zero was registered around 876 A.D.
The numbers used worldwide nowadays are all Arabic numbers not only because of their beautiful forms, but also because of their practicality . Indeed, unlike Indian numbers, Arabic numbers make a clear distinction between the zero and the dot so that no confusion would be made while reading numbers.

[اللغة العربية]

What kind of food do you eat every morning and is easily found anywhere in the world? If your answer is "bread", that's right! A few days ago I came across the phrase "One's daily bread" which is the equivalent expression to the Portuguese “pão nosso de cada dia”. I didn’t resist the curiosity and I decided to research more on these idioms that have the word "bread" in its structure.

Not only the matters of the expressions are curious, but also the fact that bread is food present in human history for thousands of years. Bread origins are so ancient that it is even difficult to define where and when it first appeared. However, it is estimated that it happened in ancient Mesopotamia about 12,000 years ago. That's enough time for various nations and languages to develop and incorporate “bread idioms”.

Bringing together a few phrases I could see how meanings vary completely. Not all languages have the same expressions and there are a few phrases that can’t be translated literally. The expression “ser mamão com açúcar” (“papaya with sugar” in Portuguese) is equivalent to "ser pan y miel” ("bread and honey" in Spanish), or "to be a piece of cake” in English.

An expression easily found among the three languages mentioned above is "to take the bread out of someone’s mouth," "tirar o pão da boca de alguém" (in Portuguese) and "quitarse el pan de la boca" (in Spanish). I wonder how such expression, which means harming someone so bad that the person loses their living, has emerged. After doing small research, I discovered that in the Ancient Egypt, bread was used as currency for work payment. Such phrases could be related to that time? Hard to say if we consider how much time has passed.

In contrast to such phrases, in which bread is considered essential in one's life are the idioms: "to get on bread and water", "ficar a pão e água" (in Portuguese) and "estar a pan y agua" (in Spanish). They all mean that someone is going through hardship and have his or her resources reduced to meager bread and water. Suddenly the bread has lost the character of "majesty" as in previous expressions.

For some people “bread” has strong religious connotation and the word can be easily found in Christian prayers. Another curious Portuguese expression, without similar translation, is “comer o pão que o diabo amassou”, whose meaning is to go through terrible trials and difficult situations and the literal translation would be “to eat the bread devil has made”!

Are there any curious expressions involving the word bread in your mother tongue? I’ll be awaiting your comments!

http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/bread

[Português]

Que alimento você come todo dia de manhã e facilmente encontra em qualquer parte do mundo? Caso sua resposta seja “pão”, está certo! Há alguns dias me deparei com a expressão “One daily’s bread” que equivale ao nosso “pão de cada dia”. Não resisti à curiosidade e resolvi pesquisar mais dessas expressões idiomáticas que tem a palavra “pão” em sua estrutura.

Não foi somente a questão de as expressões serem curiosas, mas também o fato de que esse é um alimento presente há milhares de anos na história do homem. A origem do pão é tão antiga que é até mesmo difícil definir onde e quando ele apareceu. Entretanto, estima-se que tenha surgido na antiga Mesopotâmia, há 12 mil anos atrás. Isso é tempo suficiente para diversas sociedades e línguas se desenvolverem e incorporarem esse alimento às expressões idiomáticas de cada dia.

Reunindo algumas frases pude observar como os significados variam completamente, além de verificar as inúmeras situações possíveis em que se apresentam. Nem todos os idiomas possuem as mesmas expressões e são poucas as frases que podem ser traduzidas literalmente. O “ser mamão com açúcar” (“muito fácil” em português) equivale ao “ser pan y miel” (“pão e mel” em espanhol), ou ao “to be a piece of cake” (“pedaço de bolo” em inglês).

Uma expressão facilmente encontrada nestes três idiomas citados é “tirar o pão de alguém”; “take the bread out of someone’s mouth” (em inglês); e “quitarse en pan de la boca” (em espanhol). Fico imaginando como tal expressão, que significa prejudicar alguém a ponto de essa pessoa perder seu sustento surgiu. Depois de fazer uma pequena pesquisa, descobri que na época do Antigo Egito o pão era utilizado como moeda de pagamento. Poderiam tais frases estar relacionadas a essa época? Difícil dizer considerando todos os anos que já se passaram.

Em contraponto a tais frases, em que o pão é considerado fundamental na vida de alguém, estão as expressões: “ficar a pão e água”; “bread and water” (em inglês); e “estar a pan y agua” (espanhol). Todas significam que alguém está passando por privações e tem seus recursos reduzidos a míseros pão e água. De repente o pão perdeu ser caráter de “majestade” como nas expressões anteriores.

O pão, para alguns povos, possuiu forte conotação religiosa e a palavra pode ser facilmente encontrada em orações cristãs. Outra expressão curiosa em português sem traduções similares é “comer o pão que o diabo amassou”, cujo significado é passar por terríveis provações e situações difíceis.

Há em sua língua materna expressões curiosas que envolvam a palavra pão? Aguardo seus comentários!

http://www.priberam.pt/dlpo/default.aspx?pal=p%C3%A3o

[English]

Jag har sommarjobbat som brevbärare de senaste sex åren; sorterat post på morgnarna för att sedan dela ut den på eftermiddagarna.
Det kan vara enformigt, tungt och stressigt. Mestadels är det dock ett helt okej sommarjobb. Du börjar tidigt och slutar tidigt, får motion av att springa i trappor och känner att du gör någonting viktigt då ca. 500 hushåll får sin post från dig. Det allra bästa enligt mig är dock att du kan lyssna på musik halva arbetsdagen medan du delar ut posten. En absolut höjdare är att hoppa nedför de sista fyra trappstegen i en uppgång, tima det med ett tungt rockackord och känna sig som Bruce Dickinson från Iron Maiden (Följande clip illustrerar känslan ganska väl: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ha83vHBMtlw). Jag är medveten om att detta kan låta löjligt men försök att föreställa er hur tråkigt det kan vara att springa upp och ner i hundra trevåningshus.

Hursomhelst, för att komma till saken så kände att jag var i behov av att beskriva en brevbärares vardag. Visst, både min flickväns och min familjs trumhinnor har bombarderats till leda av mina klagomål. Nu känner jag dock att det är dags att bombardera era trumhinnor (eller snarare hornhinnor), kära bloggläsare. Och faktum är även att det kommer att lämpa sig relativt väl för detta forum, som ju ska vara språkrelaterat. Jag ämnar nämligen utreda huruvida det är viktigt för en brevbärare att vara bra på språk. Jag tänker stödja mitt resonemang på tre olika situationer som jag har ställts inför på jobbet under den gångna sommaren. Innan jag börjar ska det även sägas att den vetenskapliga riktigheten i min metod och mitt bidrag bör ifrågasättas å det grövsta.

Situation 1: Ordval - Leg, leg. eller leg?

Jag kör upp till en port till ett trevåningshus med min elmoppe och ska precis sträcka mig efter posten (liknande mannen på denna sidadenna sida, men yngre). http://www.posten.se/om_posten) då jag hör ett ljud bakom mig: ”Leg!?”. Jag vänder mig om och ser en mustaschprydd man i sextioårsåldern titta på mig med frågande ögon. ”Leg!?”, försöker han igen beskedligt. Jag ler osäkert mot honom för att köpa mig tid att tänka: ”Vad är det denne man vill?” Jag kommer fram till två möjliga slutsatser. Leg är ju ben på engelska, har jag någonting på benet eller har han ont i benet? Har han skadat sig? Efter två snabba ögonkast utesluter jag dessa alternativ. Leg. kan ju också vara en förkortning av legitimation. Vill han att jag ska visa mitt leg. för att se om jag verkligen är en brevbärare och inte en bedragare eller för att han är missnöjd med mig och vill ringa in och klaga på kontoret? Det låter absurt men skulle kunna stämma.

Innan jag hinner sträcka mig efter mitt körkort i byxfickan pekar dock mannen, som insett att jag är förvirrad, på sig själv och säger återigen: ”Leg”. Först nu minns jag vad som står på första dörren till höger i huset vi befinner oss framför? Mannen sträcker fram händerna med handflatorna uppåt. Han heter Leg i efternamn och vill ha sin post. Jag lägger posten i hans händer och glömmer i förvirringen att be honom om hans leg. för att bevisa att han verkligen är Leg (vilket är ett ovanligt namn med tanke på att bara sju listningar av det finns i den German telephone catalogue.

Slutsats: En brevbärare måste kunna välja rätt mellan namn, förkortningar och engelska substantiv.
Denna första situation var en liten teaser. Nästa vecka kommer jag att fastställa huruvida en brevbärare måste vara ett språkgeni eller inte. Jag kommer då att gå igenom situation två och tre med underrubrikerna ”Översättning – Liemannen till undsättning” och ”Sammanhang – Reklam eller toapapper”. Fram till dess skulle det vara väldigt intressant att få höra om någon annan har liknande exempel på språkkrav på sina arbetsplatser.

[English]

Now that it has been a couple of weeks since we published the results of our competition, this is the perfect time to take stock of it.

Hosting the competition has always been a great experience, but this year it was even more fun. We introduced quite a change, broadening the competition to Facebook pages and Twitter accounts besides the “classic” blog categories. From the feedback we have received and the enthusiasm we have felt, we can say that it was definitely worth it!

Many of you helped us to spread the word about the competition and the results with some nice posting, comments and mentions, such as:
Fluent in 3 months
Deutsch lerner
Buurtaal
Localización y testeo con Curri

Some of you really surprised us with very creative and funny ways of promoting themselves and the competition: have a look here

The average quality of the competitors was considerably high: it has been tough to select the Top 100 and then the final ranking! As usual, we rewarded the winners with a prize: this year we made a donation on their behalf to the Homeless World Cup.

At last, some fun statistics . We collected 747 nominations and 47521 votes – wow! – and the competition's updates have been noticeably shared on the social media: more than 5900 likes on Facebook! There is only one thing left to say: thank you all for your participation and/or support! We hope to see you again on bab.la and Lexiophiles next year… stay tuned!

PS: Why 53421? The total of your votes and your Facebook likes, thank you everybody!

UPDATE: Nominations are closed. Voting has started!

After the great success of the last three editions of our Top 100 Language Blogs competition (results for 2008, 2009, 2010), the bab.la language portal and Lexiophiles language blog are announcing this year's contest with some minor changes: the Top 100 Language Lovers 2011 competition.

Passion for languages is still the protagonist of the competition but this year we are also taking Facebook pages and twitterers into consideration, hence the new title

As always, we need your help to find the best of the best for the following categories:
1. Language Learning Blogs (blogs about language learning & teaching)
2. Language Professionals Blogs (blogs from translators, interpreters etc. on the professional usage of languages)
3. Language Facebook Pages (Facebook pages about language, language learning etc.)
4. Language Twitterers (Twitter accounts focused on language, language learning etc.)

The nominations for the Top 100 Language Lovers 2011 competition are open until May 16th, 23:59 hours German time. Nominate your favorite Blogs, Facebook Pages and Twitter Accounts by sending an e-mail with the URL to giulia (at) bab (dot) la or just leave a comment below.

There are no strict boundaries for your nominations: as long as passion for languages is involved, the blog or Facebook page or Twitter account you have in mind fits into our competition! Just to give you an idea, main topics could be about tips on how to learn a language, language teaching, commenting on translations, strategies for interpreters etc.

Hurry up, the deadline to nominate your favorites is Monday May 16th! After the nomination phase, you will be able to give your vote to most promising for each category. The final ranking will be based half on the users' votes and half on our internal ranking (more information on the ranking criteria here). Results will be made public on June 1st. If you’d like to know more about how the competition is run, please read our how the competition works article. If you have any further questions, just ask giulia (at) bab (dot) la.

The official hash tag is #tll11.

Stay tuned!

The bab.la language portal and Lexiophiles blog are pleased to introduce the Top 100 Language Lovers 2011 competition. Due to the success of our previous Top 100 Language Blogs (read more about why we started the competition here), we decided this year to open the contest to Facebook Pages and Twitterers.

There are four categories for the Top 100 Language Lovers 2011, in order to make the language experts comparable:
1. Language Learning Blogs: blogs about the language learning process, both from the learners and teachers perspective.
2. Language Professionals Blogs: blogs by people using languages in their profession, such as translators or interpreters.
3. Language Facebook Pages: Facebook pages related to language topics, such as dictionaries, translation tools, language lovers’ communities…
4. Language Twitterers: Twitter accounts sharing content about languages

How exactly does the competition work?
The competition is divided into three phases. In the nomination phase, you can nominate any blog/Facebook page/twitterer you would like to be included by leaving a comment here or sending an email to giulia (at) bab (dot) la. In the following voting phase, you can vote for your favorites in each of the above four categories. Users' votes will count for 50% of the final result, the Lexiophiles ranking criteria (see below) will count for the other 50%. Results will be made public in the third phase on June 1st.

What is the exact time frame and what happens during each phase?

Nominations (May 3rd - May 16th, 23:59 hours German time)
Nominate your favorite language lovers. All blogs from last year that are still active will be automatically nominated, as well as suggestions we have received since then. We will contact all bloggers/Facebook page admins/twitterers who are nominated (either by email or posting a comment) to let them know about the nomination. You can nominate max. 1 blog, 1 Facebook page and 1 Twitter account per person/company (so max. 3 in total). If you have several blogs, Facebook pages or Twitter accounts, you need to choose one. The official end for nominations is May 16th. However, we will stop considering suggestions after the first thousand nominations per category.

Voting (May 17th - May 29th 23:59 hours German time)
Out of all nominations received until May 16th, we will set a list of the 100 best ones per category to be submitted for voting. On May 17th we will publish the voting lists of the top 100 for each category (top 200 for language learning blogs, see update below). You can vote once for each category. We will check the votes at the end of the voting phase for fraudulent votes and, if necessary, adjust the number of votes. If your blog/Facebook page/Twitter account is on the voting list, you can ask your readers, friends, family and whoever comes to mind to vote for you. Bloggers will be provided with a voting button for their convenience before the voting phase starts. The voting period runs until May 29th, 23:59 hours German time.
UPDATE: Due to so many nominations in the language learning blog category we have raised the level to 200 blogs.

Ranking & Results (May 30th – June 1st)
All the competitors will be ranked based on user votes (50%) and the Lexiophiles ranking criteria (50%, see below). We will then compile the top 100 overall language lovers list and the top 25 list for each of the four categories. Results will be published on June 1st. Each blogger/Facebook page admin/twitterer will be contacted when the results are published.

What are the Lexiophiles ranking criteria?
Every competitor will be analyzed and ranked by our staff. Even though we know that no ranking system is 100% accurate and always somewhat subjective, we feel that the following criteria give a good overall view of how good a blog, or a Facebook page, or a Twitter account is.

Learning & Professionals Blogs: We look for authored and original content, considering the depth of postings, the incorporation of multimedia (such as videos, pictures, slideshows etc.) and meaningful linking (e.g. in-depth information for further reading, background information, interesting opinions on a subject, etc.). Interaction is also very important, i.e. sharing information and getting other people involved. The most observable feature is comments, but it doesn’t stop there: can users contact the blogger via a contact page, Facebook or similar? We also take into consideration the regularity and frequence of updating, and, finally, the overall appearance of the blog.

Facebook Pages: We look for originality and diversity of content. Good interaction means there are discussions with comments from users and answers to them. We will take into consideration the regularity of posting and the fan base of the page.

Twitter accounts: We will take into consideration the relevance of the shared information, the diversity of content, the use of hastags and links. Another important factor will be the influence of the twitterer, i.e. whether the content posted is also retweeted and the account is recommended by other twitterers via Follow Friday. Regularity of posting will count as well.

I am nominated. Why can I not find my blog/Facebook page/Twitter account on the voting list?
This might be the case due to one of the following reasons:
1. Your blog/Facebook page/Twitter account didn't get to the Top 100 best ones of its category.
2. You already have another blog/Facebook page/Twitter account nominated for the competition.
3. We received more than one thousand nominations for the category you fit into (after which we stop considering new suggestions).

What about the results?
The Top 100 Language Lovers 2011 competition will be published on bab.la on June 1st to reach the biggest audience possible. We will publish an overall Top 100 list and a Top 25 list for each of the four categories (see above). We also have some nice prices lined up for the top winners. We will make a donation to the Homeless World Cup in the name of the Top 3 overall bloggers and the no. 1 in each category.

The official hash tag for the competition is #tll11.

Good luck and enjoy!