full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Ilan Stavans: A brief history of Spanish

Unscramble the Blue Letters


By the time Miguel de Cervantes published the first part of “Don Quixote” in 1605, the language was arguably more slimair to modern Spanish than palys of one of his contemporaries, William Shakespeare, were to mrdeon English. sinattrg in the 18th century, French language and culture were extremely fashionable in Spain, and later Hispanic America. While the two laeuagngs already had commonalities from their shared roots in Latin, Spanish gained new words from French during this period.

In the 19th century, all over Central and sotuh America, people revolted to gain inependcndee from Spain. In the newly seeovgirn nations, people continued to speak the language of their former oroprspses. Today, there are approximately 415 million inhabitants of hpnaiisc America. Spanish is the official language of 21 countries and peutro Rico. As of 2021, only English, Mandarin, and Hindi have more speakers.

Open Cloze


By the time Miguel de Cervantes published the first part of “Don Quixote” in 1605, the language was arguably more _______ to modern Spanish than _____ of one of his contemporaries, William Shakespeare, were to ______ English. ________ in the 18th century, French language and culture were extremely fashionable in Spain, and later Hispanic America. While the two _________ already had commonalities from their shared roots in Latin, Spanish gained new words from French during this period.

In the 19th century, all over Central and _____ America, people revolted to gain ____________ from Spain. In the newly _________ nations, people continued to speak the language of their former __________. Today, there are approximately 415 million inhabitants of ________ America. Spanish is the official language of 21 countries and ______ Rico. As of 2021, only English, Mandarin, and Hindi have more speakers.

Solution


  1. languages
  2. plays
  3. sovereign
  4. similar
  5. oppressors
  6. starting
  7. modern
  8. independence
  9. puerto
  10. south
  11. hispanic

Original Text


By the time Miguel de Cervantes published the first part of “Don Quixote” in 1605, the language was arguably more similar to modern Spanish than plays of one of his contemporaries, William Shakespeare, were to modern English. Starting in the 18th century, French language and culture were extremely fashionable in Spain, and later Hispanic America. While the two languages already had commonalities from their shared roots in Latin, Spanish gained new words from French during this period.

In the 19th century, all over Central and South America, people revolted to gain independence from Spain. In the newly sovereign nations, people continued to speak the language of their former oppressors. Today, there are approximately 415 million inhabitants of Hispanic America. Spanish is the official language of 21 countries and Puerto Rico. As of 2021, only English, Mandarin, and Hindi have more speakers.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
indigenous languages 3
modern spanish 2
hispanic america 2


Important Words


  1. america
  2. approximately
  3. arguably
  4. central
  5. century
  6. cervantes
  7. commonalities
  8. contemporaries
  9. continued
  10. countries
  11. culture
  12. de
  13. english
  14. extremely
  15. fashionable
  16. french
  17. gain
  18. gained
  19. hindi
  20. hispanic
  21. independence
  22. inhabitants
  23. language
  24. languages
  25. latin
  26. mandarin
  27. miguel
  28. million
  29. modern
  30. nations
  31. newly
  32. official
  33. oppressors
  34. part
  35. people
  36. period
  37. plays
  38. published
  39. puerto
  40. revolted
  41. rico
  42. roots
  43. shakespeare
  44. shared
  45. similar
  46. south
  47. sovereign
  48. spain
  49. spanish
  50. speak
  51. speakers
  52. starting
  53. time
  54. today
  55. william
  56. words