Italian and Spanish: so that's why they sound so similar

So after an hour or so of typing into Google's search box, "sounds and language," "weird sounds in languages," "pronunciations," and so much more, I came across a website solely about the Italian language. For the longest time, I never knew Italian was a language because I always paired it with Spanish. After viewing this website, I don't feel as bad pairing Italian and Spanish together. It wasn't until I came across "Did You Know Italian Is Easy To Learn For Spanish And French Speakers?" on the website, that this feeling went away. After reading this brief article, I learned exactly what the article's title says and that Spanish is fairly close to sounding like Italian. The article shows the lexical similarity between languages through a very simple table. Whereas a 1 on the table means a lot of overlapping when it comes to vocabulary and a 0 would mean that there are no similarities in vocabulary.

 I thought this was interesting comparing languages and seeing how some really do have the same qualities in some aspect. It was a surprise to see English only coming close to German. So yes, Spanish and Italian do share a high lexical similarity of .82 so that's why they sound so similar!

Metaphors: hot chile peppers that explode in the mouth and the mind

I wanted to blog about anomalies but decided to blog about its eccentric child, metaphor. You see, our book tells us that metaphors are anomalies that make sense. I mean they are things that may be impossible but can be grasped and understood in the most abstract way. I thought this video was a fascinating, calm, and creative video on metaphors. It describes metaphors as something that may or may not be true but makes you feel something. I love the fact that the video also goes into the types of metaphors through examples of wonderful literature. Also, the video shows a snippet of metaphor's obvious child, simile (which I always thought they were on the same level in the figures of speech but I guess a simile is a metaphor??). 

I believe that metaphors are so important in language because metaphors are universal. Well some are anyway. For an example, "still waters run deep" and "a heart of gold" are common metaphors that if translated to another language still carries the same connotation in other cultures. Also, metaphors make things easier to read. Good metaphors, that is. When I see a metaphor when I read, it gives my brain a break and paints the picture for me (if that makes any sense aha).

Anyway, I feel like this video helps when understanding metaphors a bit. Who wouldn't enjoy metaphors being played out in a snippet of Langston Hughes' poem "Mother to Son" or Emily Dickinson's description of a gloomy day? 

The art of metaphor by Jane Hirshfield

It's s'cute.