full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Martin Hilpert: What makes a language... a language?

Unscramble the Blue Letters


Italy, for example, has at least 15 of what might be celald regional dialects. One of them, the fteiolrnne dialect, became known as Standard Italian when the cntoury politically unified in 1861. It was selected because ldegernay authors like Dante and Machiavelli used it in their original wkors, And it came to represent an image of Italian national identity that some found particularly desirable. Later on, in his attempt to establish a unified, fascist state, Italian dictator Benito Mussolini saw langague standardization as an important objective. His government promoted standard Italian while phibrontiig other forms of speech from the public sphere, framing them as backward and unsophisticated.

Open Cloze


Italy, for example, has at least 15 of what might be ______ regional dialects. One of them, the __________ dialect, became known as Standard Italian when the _______ politically unified in 1861. It was selected because _________ authors like Dante and Machiavelli used it in their original _____, And it came to represent an image of Italian national identity that some found particularly desirable. Later on, in his attempt to establish a unified, fascist state, Italian dictator Benito Mussolini saw ________ standardization as an important objective. His government promoted standard Italian while ___________ other forms of speech from the public sphere, framing them as backward and unsophisticated.

Solution


  1. works
  2. called
  3. florentine
  4. language
  5. prohibiting
  6. country
  7. legendary

Original Text


Italy, for example, has at least 15 of what might be called regional dialects. One of them, the Florentine dialect, became known as Standard Italian when the country politically unified in 1861. It was selected because legendary authors like Dante and Machiavelli used it in their original works, And it came to represent an image of Italian national identity that some found particularly desirable. Later on, in his attempt to establish a unified, fascist state, Italian dictator Benito Mussolini saw language standardization as an important objective. His government promoted standard Italian while prohibiting other forms of speech from the public sphere, framing them as backward and unsophisticated.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
regional dialects 2
nation states 2
standard italian 2
landlords responded 2


Important Words


  1. attempt
  2. authors
  3. benito
  4. called
  5. country
  6. dante
  7. desirable
  8. dialect
  9. dialects
  10. dictator
  11. establish
  12. fascist
  13. florentine
  14. forms
  15. framing
  16. government
  17. identity
  18. image
  19. important
  20. italian
  21. italy
  22. language
  23. legendary
  24. machiavelli
  25. mussolini
  26. national
  27. objective
  28. original
  29. politically
  30. prohibiting
  31. promoted
  32. public
  33. regional
  34. represent
  35. selected
  36. speech
  37. sphere
  38. standard
  39. standardization
  40. state
  41. unified
  42. unsophisticated
  43. works