Re: Back from Nicaragua

On Saturday 29 May 2004 01:01 pm, Sally Caves wrote:
> I'll second JYS Czhang's welcome back to you, Sylvia.  What a wonderful
> vacation!  How are all your pets?
Happy to see me again. Even Foxybutt, who usually ignores me whenever
possible.
> >
> > El Habla Nicaraguense y otros ensayos by Carlos Mantica
> > Historia del Español de America by Juan Antonio Frago Gracia
> > Historia de la Lengua Española by Rafael Lapesa
> > Gramatica de la Lengua Sumu by Susan Norwood
>
> So which of these do you find most interesting?
>
The Sumu books is fun, because it's written in a simpler Spanish than the
rest (i.e. I can puzzle it out with just the dictionary, and it has lots
of tables & diagrams.) Sumu is apparently related to Mosquito, and has 6
vowels: a, long a, i long i, u, long u. It also has voiceless nasals and
sonorants (m, n, eng, l, r).

Lapesa has small print and complicated sentences, but it also has maps! I
love maps. One is a map of Spain showing the distribution limits of
various diphthongs, and palatalization. Another shows the expansion of
Castellano from 950 to the 14th C.  Another shows the new world, and maps
the distribution of tú & vos. The Frago Garcia doesn't have any maps, but
does talk more specifically about the changes in Spanish in the Americas.
(There was another book that I didn't buy that talked about the changes in
Spanish in Africa.) The Mantica gives specific examples of Nicaraguan
Spanish, particularly the parts influenced by Nahuatl, which survive in
place-names, names of food and animals and such.

I'll probably read the Sumu book and the Mantica first, and keep the others
as references.

Welcome back to you, too.
-Sylvia

--
Sylvia Sotomayor
sylvia1@ix.netcom.com
kelen@ix.netcom.com

Kélen language info can be found at:
http://home.netcom.com/~sylvia1/Kelen/kelen.html

This post may contain the following:
á (a-acute)  é (e-acute)  í (i-acute)
ó (o-acute)  ú (u-acute)  ñ (n-tilde)

áe ñarra anmárienne cí áe reharra anmárienne lá;