Just how did a dialect spoken by a handful of shepherds in Northern Spain become the world's second most spoken language, the official language of twenty-one countries on two continents, and the unofficial second language of the United States? Jean-Benoit Nadeau and Julie Barlow, the husband-and-wife team who chronicled the history of the French language in "The Story of French"," " now look at the roots and spread of modern Spanish. Full of surprises and honed in Nadeau and Barlow's trademark style, combining personal anecdote, reflections, and deep research, "The Story of Spanish" is the first full biography of a language that shaped the world we know, and the only global language with two names--Spanish and Castilian.

The story starts when the ancient Phoenicians set their sights on "The Land of the Rabbits," Spain's original name, which the Romans pronounced as "Hispania." The Spanish language would pick up bits of Germanic culture, a lot of Arabic, and even some French on its way to taking modern form just as it was about to colonize a New World. Through characters like Queen Isabella, Christopher Columbus, Cervantes, and Goya, "The Story of Spanish" shows how Spain's Golden Age, the Mexican Miracle, and the Latin American Boom helped shape the destiny of the language. Other, more somber episodes, also contributed, like the Spanish Inquisition, the expulsion of Spain's Jews, the destruction of native cultures, the political instability in Latin America, and the dictatorship of Franco.

"The Story of Spanish" shows there is much more to Spanish than tacos, flamenco, and bullfighting. It explains how the United States developed its Hispanic personality from the time of the Spanish conquistadors to Latin American immigration and "telenovelas." It also makes clear how fundamentally Spanish many American cultural artifacts and customs actually are, including the dollar sign, barbecues, ranching, and cowboy culture. The authors give us a passionate and intriguing chronicle of a vibrant language that thrived through conquests and setbacks to become the tongue of Pedro Almodovar and Gabriel Garcia Marquez, of tango and ballroom dancing, of millions of Americans and hundreds of millions of people throughout the world.

Build your fluency in Spanish by mastering its pronouns and prepositions Pronouns and prepositions may be small, but they are crucial for effective communication with speakers of Spanish. Practice Makes Perfect: Spanish Pronouns and Prepositions is the go-to guide for clear, precise explanations that pinpoint when a certain word should be used in a given situation. Learners will also receive plenty of practice in using their new language skills. And this book is accompanied by flashcards and audio recordings (available online and via app) that provide an extra dimension to your study of Spanish. THE BOOK IS DIVIDED INTO THREE MAIN PARTS: PART I covers pronouns, including subject, interrogative, possessive, relative, demonstrative and reciprocal pronouns, as well as double-object pronoun order, se and the passive voice, and more. PART II focuses on prepositions, including their various uses and the subtle difference. And, of course, there is extensive practice with the perennial troublemakers por and para! The Appendixes feature helpful charts, explanations, and summaries of the eight parts of speech, with special emphasis on pronouns and prepositions.

Language learning is retraining your brain, and any form of training requires focus, constant practice, and support. This guide gives the ultimate support by helping the user to instantly create hundreds of sentences for communication in German. Color-coded and easy-to-use, this laminated, portable guide can be used for students and travelers alike. 6 page laminated guide includes: Rules to Remember Pronunciation (Aussprache) Greetings & Goodbyes (Grussworte und Verabschiedungen) Questions (Fragen) Social Courtesies (Hoeflichkeit) Numbers (Zahlen) Days of the Week (Wochentage) Negatives (Negation) Months of the Year (Monate) Expressing Opinions (seine Meinung sagen) Time Expressions (Zeitausdrucke) Seasons (Jahreszeiten) Colors (Farben) Weather (Wetter) On the Phone (Am Telefon) Basic Statements (Aussagen) Personal Information (Persoenliche Angaben) Family (Familie) Work Life (Arbeit und Beruf) Shopping (Einkaufen) Money (Geld) House & Home (zu Hause) Food (Nahrung) Spare Time (Freizeit) Transportation (Transportation) Travel (Reisen) Health (Gesundheit) In Case of Emergencies (Im Notfall) Technology & Social Media (Technologie und soziale Medien) Directions (Wegbeschreibung)

This volume investigates the form of love letters and erotic letters in Greek and Latin up to the 7th Century CE, encompassing both literary and documentary letters (the latter inscribed and on papyrus), and prose and poetry. The potential for, and utility of treating this large and diverse corpus as a 'genre' is examined. To this end, approaches from ancient literary criticism and modern theory of genre are made; mutual influences between the documentary and the literary form are sought; and origins in proto-epistolary poetic texts are examined. In order to examine the boundaries of a form, limit cases, which might have less claim to the label 'love letter', are compared with more clear-cut examples. A series of case studies focuses on individual letters and letter-collections. Some case studies situate their subjects within the history and literary evolution of the love letter, using both intertextuality and comparative approaches; others placing them in their cultural and historical contexts, particularly uncovering the contribution of epistolarity to erotic discourse, and to the history of sexuality and gender in diverse eras and locations within Classical to Late Antiquity.

This multi-authored monograph offers a state-of-the-art analysis of how translanguaging supports bilingual Roma students' learning in monolingual school systems. Co-written by academic and non-academic participants, it is an essential reading for researchers, pre- and in-service teachers of Romani-speaking students and experts working with students whose home languages are different from the teachers' and the school curricula.