To have glimpse of the world of languages, we can get started from the comparison between the two significant languages, English and Spanish.
Have you ever wondered that how are there some similarities between languages? Are they the same language at the commencement? Or they just influence each other? You can find out the answer in the comparison beneath.
Intro
According to the research, it’s estimated that more than 5,000 languages are spoken around the world. However, do you know that all these thousands of languages are from the same origin? From the “Adamic Language” in the bible story “The tower of Babel” to the archeology evidence of “Out of Africa Model”, thus we realize that some languages must share related features. (Seep Picture 1&2 here)
Picture 1 Picture 2
The languages we use in our daily life seem unalike, but some of them actually share the same origin, similar alphabet, and syntax, etc. Among all the languages, there are two most significant languages that are alike. The first is Spanish, which is the mostly-spoken mother language. The second is English, which is the second-mostly spoken language. Therefore, to know the mystery of English and Spanish and to learn them well, we shall know their similarities and differences. English and Spanish share more similarities than differences in alphabet and syntax, and they are slightly different in verb tense and word gender.
Similarities
Due to the joint origin that we know from archeology study, English and Spanish share parallel features in alphabet and syntax. The first is the vocabularies aspect. Because of their common Indo-European origin, Spanish and English have almost the same alphabet that makes their vocabularies highly corresponding. (see Picture 3 on the left).
For instance, “the television” in English vs. “la televisión” in Spanish, and “university” in English vs. “universidad" in Spanish. In the newest version of Spanish official alphabet, there’s only “ñ” that is not in English which makes people a lot easier to learn them. In addition, their syntaxes are similar as well. Unlike other languages like Japanese or Chinese, the sentence structure of English and Spanish are much more straightforward. In English sentence structures, it´s “I’m eating an apple for breakfast.” In Spanish, it´s “Desayunando una manzana.” They are both “Subject, Verb, Object” structure. The related alphabet and syntax cause them more similar rather than different.
Differences
Although English and Spanish share the same origin and similar syntax, etc., the different language systems (Germanic and Romanic) eventually differ in word formation aspect. Among the differences, the verb tense, word gender and the restriction are the major ones. In Spanish, the verb tense is much more frequently changed for different grammatical person. Take an apple for instance again. In the first-person present tense, it’s “Tengo una manzana.”, which means I have an apple. However, in the third-person past tense, it’s “Tenía una manzana.” As the situation changes, the verb tenses may actually be up to 108 types (6 grammatical persons x 3 verb types x 6 tenses). Although the variation is complex, it’s fortunate that there are regular rules for learners, especially beginners to follow. (See Picture 4 here).
Likewise, the following difference is the gender rule. In English, there’s no gender variation at all. But Spanish nouns and prepositions usually obtain genders. Normally, nouns end with –o or –e are masculine and usually followed with prepositions like “un, el”. Instead, words end with –a, -dad and –ción will be followed with “la, una”. (See Picture 5). Even if the differences in verb tense and gender rule of Spanish make itself slightly different from English, the regular rules still facilitate the learning and make it not a big deal.
Conclusion → Picture 5
By comparing the major similarities in alphabet and syntax as well as the slight differences in verb tense and word gender, we can progress on the learning of English and Spanish. Considering it’s a highly complex and built-in talent that no creatures can learn, we can say that language is one of the greatest inventions of human. From the ancient Bible story to archology evidence, we gradually understand the world of languages. I assume that what keeps the similarities of alphabet and syntax is our common origin, and what produces the differences of tense and word gender and the other variations is our creativity. With the comparison of different languages and the study during the process, the importance and the meaning of languages will bring us countless knowledge as well as enable us to have a glimpse of the language mystery.
Reference
Smith S. (2019). What does mean to be human? Smithsonian Institution. (2019) Retrieved from http://humanorigins.si.edu/education/introduction-human-evolution
COURTNEYKING. (2019) Spanish and English: 10 Must-know Differences Between the Two. FluentU. (2019) Retrieved from https://www.fluentu.com/blog/spanish/differences-between-english-and-spanish/
COURTNEYKING. (2019) 6 Surprising Similarities Between Spanish and English That Will Help You Learn. FluentU. (2019) Retrieved from https://www.fluentu.com/blog/spanish/similarities-between-spanish-and-english/
Shinea. (2008) 孤立語(isolating language). 台灣華語教學入口網站(2007) Retrieved from https://twtcsl.org/further/isolating_language
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