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Parts of the body   »   Lichaamsdelen

58 [fifty-eight]

Parts of the body

Parts of the body

58 [achtenvijftig]

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Lichaamsdelen

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I am drawing a man. Ik b-- e-- m-- a-- h-- t------. Ik ben een man aan het tekenen. 0 +
First the head. Ee--- h-- h----. Eerst het hoofd. 0 +
The man is wearing a hat. De m-- d----- e-- h---. De man draagt een hoed. 0 +
     
One cannot see the hair. Je k-- z--- h--- n--- z---. Je kan zijn haar niet zien. 0 +
One cannot see the ears either. Je k-- o-- z--- o--- n--- z---. Je kan ook zijn oren niet zien. 0 +
One cannot see his back either. Je k-- o-- z--- r-- n--- z---. Je kan ook zijn rug niet zien. 0 +
     
I am drawing the eyes and the mouth. Ik b-- d- o--- e- d- m--- a-- h-- t------. Ik ben de ogen en de mond aan het tekenen. 0 +
The man is dancing and laughing. De m-- d---- e- l----. De man danst en lacht. 0 +
The man has a long nose. De m-- h---- e-- l---- n---. De man heeft een lange neus. 0 +
     
He is carrying a cane in his hands. Hi- d----- e-- s--- i- z--- h-----. Hij draagt een stok in zijn handen. 0 +
He is also wearing a scarf around his neck. Hi- d----- o-- e-- s---- o- z--- n--. Hij draagt ook een sjaal om zijn nek. 0 +
It is winter and it is cold. He- i- w----- e- h-- i- k---. Het is winter en het is koud. 0 +
     
The arms are athletic. De a---- z--- g-------. De armen zijn gespierd. 0 +
The legs are also athletic. De b---- z--- o-- g-------. De benen zijn ook gespierd. 0 +
The man is made of snow. De m-- i- v-- s-----. De man is van sneeuw. 0 +
     
He is neither wearing pants nor a coat. Hi- d----- g--- b---- e- g--- j--. Hij draagt geen broek en geen jas. 0 +
But the man is not freezing. Ma-- d- m-- b------- n---. Maar de man bevriest niet. 0 +
He is a snowman. Hi- i- e-- s--------. Hij is een sneeuwman. 0 +
     

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The language of our ancestors

Modern languages can be analyzed by linguists. Various methods are used to do so. But how did people speak thousands of years ago? It is much more difficult to answer this question. Despite this, scientists have been busy researching for years. They would like to explore how people spoke earlier. In order to do this, they attempt to reconstruct ancient speech forms. American scientists have now made an exciting discovery. They analyzed more than 2,000 languages. In particular they analyzed the sentence structure of the languages. The results of their study were very interesting. About half of the languages had the S-O-V sentence structure. That is to say, the sentences are ordered by subject, object and verb. More than 700 languages follow the pattern S-V-O. And about 160 languages operate according to the V-S-O system. Only about 40 languages use the V-O-S pattern. 120 languages display a hybrid. On the other hand, O-V-S and O-S-V are distinctly rarer systems. The majority of the analyzed languages use the S-O-V principle. Persian, Japanese and Turkish are some examples. Most living languages follow the S-V-O pattern, however. This sentence structure dominates the Indo-European language family today. Researchers believe that the S-O-V model was used earlier. All languages are based on this system. But then the languages diverged. We don't yet know how that happened. However, the variation of sentence structures must have had a reason. Because in evolution, only that which has an advantage prevails…