All Questions
13 questions
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135
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How similar are the French and Spanish R sounds, linguistically speaking?
To preface, I'm not particularly knowledgeable about linguistics, but I did take several semesters of French and Spanish in college several years ago. I remember putting a lot of effort into learning ...
0
votes
2
answers
264
views
French & Spanish Accusative & Dative cases like German [closed]
I started learning French a couple of months back. My German proficiency is at B2 level (CEFRL).
I wanted to know if French also has the different Accusative & Dative forms for
Personal Pronouns,
...
- 117
1
vote
1
answer
2k
views
Why does the Portuguese language sound similar to French language to me?
I thought Portuguese would sound very close to Spanish. However, to me, it sounds more like French?
Why is that?
- 135
1
vote
1
answer
545
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Why are native English speakers convinced that English language is a Romance language? [closed]
Most people I've know so far in the USA are always saying that learning Latin would be really easy because, since English comes from Latin, it cannot be a hard thing to do, and they really get shocked ...
0
votes
1
answer
140
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Latin jūs and sūcus, and the words in Romance languages
Why is French jus said to be from Latin jūs or iūs, while Spanish jugo is said to be from the Latin sūcus? I don't know if there's a link between sūcus and jūs, but jus and jugo look like they are ...
- 632
3
votes
0
answers
60
views
Looking for a thorough comparison of French and Spanish
Either in English, Spanish or French.
I haven't found a comparative grammar but I got pretty excited with this monograph:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_Portuguese_and_Spanish
I'm ...
- 41
-1
votes
1
answer
461
views
What are the theories for Spanish and French/ Romance languages not coming from Latin?
I know Yves Cortez came up with theories suggesting that French and Spanish/ Romance languages came from old Italian instead of Latin. He argued that this is because Latin was only the written ...
- 1
7
votes
2
answers
488
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What came first: «starboard» or «estribor»?
In English, the right side of a ship (and everything beyond said side) is called «starboard». I know enough about sailing and about stars to know that stars can't have anything to do with that name, ...
- 184
7
votes
1
answer
2k
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Why do many French and Spanish noun cognates have opposing grammatical gender?
While most French/Spanish noun cognates share the same gender (both descending from the same vulgar latin root), there are many exceptions having opposing genders (e.g. la couleur / el color; la ...
user5306
1
vote
4
answers
890
views
For adjectives which change meaning by position: why are they subjective before nouns but objective after?
Meaning-changing adjectives
[Source:] Some adjectives can mean different things depending on their placement around the noun they modify.
When placed after the noun like normal, the adjective carries ...
user5306
3
votes
1
answer
608
views
What explains the sound development from Latin -vi- to French -dg- ?
abridge (v.) [...] from Old French abregier "abridge, diminish, shorten,"
from Late Latin abbreviare "make short" (see abbreviate).
The sound development from Latin -vi- to French -dg- is ...
user5306
3
votes
2
answers
482
views
What explains the differences between doublet verbs that differ by a prefix?
The differences in meanings of doublet verbs such as 3-6 below:
Are there any resources that investigate the big picture behind them?
I abhor to memorise, and prefer to understand, such differences. ...
user5306
4
votes
1
answer
272
views
Why do Spanish and other Romance Languages use the preposition "a" for culinary styles?
I've looked in the Real Academia Española dictionary and I can't find any information regarding why Spanish uses the preposition a for cooking styles, and I've noticed French and Italian do it too. I ...
- 890