Conservapedia - User contributions [en]

Hispanic

2008-01-29T01:56:56Z

Leodj1992:

'''Hispanic''' is an ethnicity. It refers to the Roman people of the Iberian peninsula (today Spain), but the term can refer to the spanish speaking populations of the Americas and Europe. The term Hispanic has also come to refer to the descendants of both [[Native American]] and [[European]] ancestry, although this is wrong. Ethnicity transcends nationality. Portuguese speaking people of the Iberian peninsula and the Americas are Lusitan. Lusitania, or today Portugal, was conquered by the Roman Empire. Similar names are applied to the people of France, the Gauls, Switzerland, the Elvetii, Britain, the Bretons, Germany and Austria, the Germanics.

'''Hispanic''', in classification by the [[United States]], is any person who describes himself as Mexican-American, Chicano, Mexican, Mexicano, Puerto Rican, Cuban, Central American, South American, or from some other Spanish culture or origin, regardless of race.

[[category:ethnicities]]

English language

2008-01-29T01:55:34Z

Leodj1992:

'''English''' is the predominant language of the [[United States of America|United States]], the [[United Kingdom]], and other former members of the [[British Empire]]. Due to the enormous political and economic influence of the these nations, English functions as the world's major international language.

English is a member of the Germanic language family, but with significant influence from [[French]], a Romance language. This is largely due to the conquest of Saxon-speaking [[England]] by [[French]] speaking Normans in 1066 AD. English owes some of its structure (its system of auxiliary verbs, for example) to French. In terms of the lexicon, Old English words are a minority (though they predominate when one looks at the most commonly-used words) whereas words from [[French]] are more numerous, followed by [[Latin]], [[Greek]], and other modern languages.

Since that time, English has continued to grow and evolve, borrowing thousands of words from other languages, among them [[French]], [[Latin]], [[Greek]], and [[Spanish]], as well as generating new words of its own. In large part as a result, English has one of the largest lexicons (vocabularies) of any world language, and is particularly rich in [[synonym]]s and near-synonyms. It is the primary (native) language of approximately 400 million people worldwide, as well as a secondary, or learned language of 600 million more due to the simplicity and lack of substantial rules. There are estimated to be nearly one billion people currently learning English.

English spelling, though originally phonetic, has evolved considerably over time. By the Middle English period, spelling had become quite variable, and standard spellings did not evolve until the late seventeenth century. In the United States, the lexicographer [[Noah Webster]] argued for simplifying some spelling which were no longer phonetic, such as the -our in words such as "colour". Most, though not all, of his proposed changes were adopted, such that US English spelling differs from UK English in some hundreds of instances. UK English spelling is the standard in the United Kingdom, Hong Kong, and most of the Commonwealth of Nations including Canada and Australia; US English spelling is the standard in the [[United States]] and its territories.

The term "English" may also be used to refer to a person from the United Kingdom born in the country of England.

==See also==
* [[Official English]]

[[Category:Languages]]

English language

2008-01-29T01:55:13Z

Leodj1992:

'''English''' is the predominant language of the [[United States of America|United States]], the [[United Kingdom]], and other former members of the [[British Empire]]. Due to the enormous political and economic influence of the these nations, English functions as the world's major international language.

English is a member of the Germanic language family, but with significant influence from [[French]], a Romance language. This is largely due to the conquest of Saxon-speaking [[England]] by [[French]] speaking Normans in 1066 AD. English owes some of its structure (its system of auxiliary verbs, for example) to French. In terms of the lexicon, Old English words are a minority (though they predominate when one looks at the most commonly-used words) whereas words from [[French]] are more numerous, followed by [[Latin]], [[Greek]], and other modern languages.

Since that time, English has continued to grow and evolve, borrowing thousands of words from other languages, among them [[French]], [[Latin]], [[Greek]], and [[Spanish]], as well as generating new words of its own. In large part as a result, English has one of the largest lexicons (vocabularies) of any world language, and is particularly rich in [[synonym]]s and near-synonyms. It is the primary (native) language of approximately 400 million people worldwide, as well as a secondary, or learned language of 600 million more due to the simplicity and lack of substantial rules of it. There are estimated to be nearly one billion people currently learning English.

English spelling, though originally phonetic, has evolved considerably over time. By the Middle English period, spelling had become quite variable, and standard spellings did not evolve until the late seventeenth century. In the United States, the lexicographer [[Noah Webster]] argued for simplifying some spelling which were no longer phonetic, such as the -our in words such as "colour". Most, though not all, of his proposed changes were adopted, such that US English spelling differs from UK English in some hundreds of instances. UK English spelling is the standard in the United Kingdom, Hong Kong, and most of the Commonwealth of Nations including Canada and Australia; US English spelling is the standard in the [[United States]] and its territories.

The term "English" may also be used to refer to a person from the United Kingdom born in the country of England.

==See also==
* [[Official English]]

[[Category:Languages]]

Spanish language

2008-01-29T01:52:43Z

Leodj1992:

The '''Spanish Language''' is a member of the [[Romance language]] family, the group of languages descending from [[Vulgar Latin]], the dialect spoken by the soldiers and provincial officials of the [[Roman Empire]]. Originally spoken in the northern regions of what is now [[Spain]], Spanish also draws some influence from the regional languages of its area. Spanish also draws heavy influence from [[Arabic]], due to the [[Moorish]] [[Umayyad|occupation]] of Spain lasting from 711 to 1492.

Today, the majority of its speakers live outside of Spain, with large numbers in [[Central America|Central]] and [[South America]]. It is one of the most-spoken languages in the [[world]]. It is spoken as a first language by about 350,000,000 people, or by 417,000,000 if non-native speakers are included. The Spanish language is the second-most common language in the [[United States]].

It is more difficult for native English speakers to learn Spanish than it is for native Spanish speakers to learn English, due to the complexity of Spanish [[grammar]] compared to English grammar.

==Distribution==
*[[Spain]]
*Former Spanish colonies in the [[Caribbean]] - ([[Dominican Republic]], [[Puerto Rico]], [[Cuba]])
*[[Latin America]] (with the exceptions of [[Portuguese]]-speaking [[Brazil]], [[French]]-speaking [[French Guiana]], [[English]]-speaking [[Suriname]], and [[Dutch]]-speaking [[Guyana]])
*[[Hispanic]] populations in the [[United States]]
*former Spanish colonies in [[Africa]]
*a distinct dialect is spoken in the [[Philippines]]

[[Category:Languages]]