Spanish Names Research Articles

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This paper presents a quantitative study of the registration of diacritics in Hungarian, Spanish, Vietnamese and Turkish family names in the official Swedish population records. Out of the examined diacritics, vowels with accents and the Turkish letter <ç> are registered in up to 21 % of the cases, whereas the Turkish letter <ü> is registered in over 90 % of the occurrences. Parts of a bigger interview study is also presented, where informants share their views of diacritics in the Swedish population records.

From screen to game: Translating Iron Man 2 cinematics into Spanish

Abstract This article presents a descriptive empirical study of the Spanish translation of the video game Iron Man 2 (Sega 2010) in reference to its 50 cinematic sequences and its intertextual consistency across other Iron Man and related texts in the Marvel universe of movies and comic books. We used Rabadán’s (1991) translemic analysis model to analyze the translation while Vázquez Rodríguez’s (2016) taxonomy was applied to evaluate translation errors found in the dialogue script. The analysis shows that roughly one in five of the cinematic scenes contains translation errors. In addition, we have identified intertextual discrepancies of certain key names in Spanish, which, we argue, could disrupt the game’s enjoyability. Without access to the exact situational contexts we can only assume a breakdown in the work process, involving translators, dubbing directors, sound engineers, and QA testers. Additionally, our findings suggest the importance of overseeing the intertextual dimension across the transmedia franchises for coherent storytelling.

Long-Term Monitoring of the Traditional Knowledge of Plant Species Used for Culinary Purposes in the Valencia Region, South-Eastern Spain.

The aim of this study is to inventory and study ethnobotanical knowledge of edible plants in the Valencian Community (Spain). In respect to culinary uses, 92 species of plant were reported to be edible, finding the following uses: 58 raw, 52 cooked, 16 fried, 7 dried, 21 in liquors and beverages, 25 in dessert and sweets, 11 as seasoning, 17 in pickles, and 10 to curdle milk. We prepared a database that includes genus, family, scientific, and vernacular names in Spanish and Catalan for each plant. We also created a classification of nine edible uses and plant parts used, being Asteraceae (n = 18), Brassicaceae (n = 7), Chenopodiaceae (n = 6), and Rosaceae (n = 6) the families most characterized for gastronomic purposes. The species with the most elevated cultural importance (CI) values were Foeniculum vulgare (CI = 1.389), Cynara scolymus (CI = 1.374), Papaver rhoeas (CI = 1.211), Beta vulgaris (CI = 1.167), and Juglans regia (CI = 1.155). The most used parts were the leaves (71), flowers (25), and branches (19), while the least used were roots (9) and seeds (8). Traditional knowledge of these plants helps to preserve traditional cuisine, promote the local economy and, in several species, encourage their cultivation.

Wild Edible Mushroom Lore in A Suburban Mestizo Community

Objective: To record the mycological lore related to wild edible mushrooms (WEM) in Santa Ana Jilotzingo, a mestizo rural community greatly influenced by the urban area of Mexico City. Design/Methodology/Approach: Unstructured and semi-structured interviews were conducted over the course of three years. Results: Sixty-six WEM species were recorded. Ninety-one traditional names were documented: 65 Spanish names, 3 Nahuatl names, 4 mixed names, and 19 indeterminate names. Local gatherers have a precise knowledge of the biology, ecology, and distribution of the used species; the knowledge preserved by older people is more diverse and accurate. Nowadays, gathering WEM in the rainy season has lost its relevance as an economic activity. However, WEM foraging as a livelihood food supplement remains important for the community. Study Limitations/Implications: The 2020 pandemic hindered the field work. Findings/Conclusions: In the study area, relevant mycological lore still survives despite complex adverse conditions, such as acculturation, migration, and deforestation.

Hypocorisms Meet Sound Symbolism: A Socio-Onomastic Study of Spanish Hypocoristic Forms of Personal Names in -i

The suffix -i has been regarded as a gender-neutral morpheme that communicates affection in Spanish. Previous studies have shown this diminutive morpheme to be more productive in relation to female hypocorisms. There are, however, many Spanish proper names for which there exist pairs of alternative hypocorisms (e.g. Antonia > Toña/Toñi; Antonio > Toño/Toni). This paper compares the potentiality of the suffix -i to build hypocorisms for both genders with its actual use by Spanish speakers over a four-generation time spam from Baby Boomers to Generation Z. It explores the connections between its sound symbolism and its pragmatics in order to assess its alleged gender neutrality over time. The paper is organized as follows. First, the author considers previous literature on sound symbolism and gender, together with a description of the theoretical tools used in the present investigation. Second, the paper describes the methodological decisions adopted for the present research, which include the design of a survey to assess the gender neutrality of the actual use of the hypocorisms by Spanish speakers. The cohort of informants includes 30 men and 30 women from different generations (50% Baby Boomers / Generation X and 50% Millennials / Generation Z). Finally, the author reports and discusses the results of the survey. These point to a preference for hypocorisms in -i for female names. Differences also arise in the use of hypocorisms in -i in relation to the gender and age of the speakers, signalling an incipient diversion from the traditional use of hypocorisms in -i for female names in previous generations.

BITACORA: An isotopic database of modern human tissues (keratin, teeth) for Argentina

As a consequence of the recent history of Argentina related to crimes against humanity, the country has positioned itself as a leader on Forensic Anthropology in human rights contexts. To some extent it can even be argued that Forensic Genetics for human identification had its origins in human rights work in the early 1980s in Argentina. However, there are still hundreds of unidentified human remains recovered from the dictatorial regimes’ crimes. Additionally, every year there are dozens of unidentified deceased buried in public cemeteries. Thus, there is an urgent need to adopt new techniques that could increase the biological profile of a person, and therefore increase the chances of positive identifications. One of such initiatives is the development of isotopic databases and models that can provide information on the population and region of origin of unidentified victims. We present the development of an isotopic database of modern human tissues named BITACORA (from its name in Spanish: Base de Información Isotópica de Tejidos Actuales Como Referencia Argentina). BITACORA holds isotopic data (δ18O, δ2H, δ13C, δ15N and δ34S values) from teeth (enamel and dentine) and keratin tissues (scalp hair, beard and fingernails) obtained from volunteers of known origin, as well as individual information of the donors (age, gender, biometrics, dietary preferences, and relocation history). BITACORA is associated with a tap water isotope database. Currently, we have 345 keratin, 273 teeth and 287 tap water samples gathered from across the country. We present preliminary analyses on the geographic distribution of these isotopic markers, and provide an overall discussion of the current status and future development of the databases.

A Pan-Hispanic approach to the usage of Anglicisms in the thematic area of sports

The influence that English exerts on different languages has been widely examined. Particularly, many studies that have brought the classification of Anglicisms according to thematic fields into focus have shown that, in relation to various languages and varieties, sports is the area in which Anglicisms seem to appear most frequently (Seidel 2010, Andersen 2011). Considering Spanish, when introducing English names of sports, the two main choices are either to adopt/adapt these foreign names or to calque them into the recipient language. This paper aims to clarify which of these two options has been the most successful one and whether diatopic variation plays a part in this respect. To fulfil this goal, a series of equivalent pairs and their variants are looked up in CORPES XXI, and the statistics provided by this corpus in relation to geographical distribution are analysed. Results show that diatopic variation affects disparity in the frequency of use of the different forms of English ball sports names in Spanish.

Wild mushroom consumption in the P’urhépecha Plateau at Michoacán, México: social, ethnomycological and nutritional issues

Among Mesoamerican cultures, P’urhépecha settlers inhabiting Michoacán State in Central Mexico preserve ancestral tradition on mushrooms eating. Most mycological knowledge available for this ethnical group has been addressed in the Pátzcuaro’s Lake zone, whereas P’urhépecha communities in other cultural and ecological relevant geographic areas remain unstudied. Thus, this work describes the ethnomycological knowledge of a scarcely analyzed Arantepacua P’urhépecha community at Michoacán Plateau region. Through structured interviews and field collections, data on the use, knowledge, biomass extraction and nomenclature of wild mushrooms were obtained. A list of P’urhépecha names to design 16 wild mushrooms species and 11 fruitbody components is documented and studied community used Spanish popular names to describe 21 wild mushrooms species and 11 fruitbody structures. Most valuable consumed mushroom species for Arantepacua settlers belong to the Amanita, Boletus, Hypomyces and Ramaria genera. Gender roles on mushrooms collect and cooking, new terms in P’urhépecha dialect to refer the parts of a fruitbody and vegetative mycelium, as well as local recipes and nutritional relevance of the mushroom species consumed by studied community are addressed and discussed. The ethnomycological knowledge documented contributes new terms in P’urhépecha to name the parts of an agarical fruitbody, the mycelium and empirical knowledge about mycorrhizal associations. This was the first P’urhépecha ethnomycological study made outside the Lake Pátzcuaro basin.

Competing place names

Abstract The ongoing Argentinian claim of sovereignty over the Falklands has impacted its toponymy by assigning the archipelago, and places within it, different names than those used on the Islands. Place naming phenomena like this one have not received much attention. To our knowledge, there is no prior research either on place naming in the Falklands within the framework of critical toponomatics or on ethnography regarding Islanders’ language attitudes. This is a preliminary attempt to do so, by looking into the Spanish place names used in Argentinian maps but not in local ones. In our analysis, we further resort to in situ interviews, participant observation, and social media data. Our analysis suggests that these Argentinian toponyms receive neither official nor societal approval by Islanders. We conclude that Argentinian Spanish names became a point of contention because of the political conflict, leading to a linguistic conflict scenario.

BILIJ: A Children's Literature Interactive Space from the Global South

BILIJ:A Children's Literature Interactive Space from the Global South María José Dulcic (bio), Valentina Rivera (bio), and Constanza Mekis (bio) The Interactive Latin American Library for Children and Youth (hereafter BILIJ, the acronym for its Spanish name, Biblioteca Interactiva Latinoamericana Infantil y Juvenil) opened its doors for the first time on January 8, 2022, in Santiago, Chile. This space was born out of a collective dream that began four years ago in Chile, where Latin American children's literature was at the heart of the discussion. A vast and diverse territory comprising twenty countries with their own heritage and cultural richness, Latin America is often talked about as one homogenous region. Naturally, this misrepresentation makes its way into literary discussions, where distinguishing Latin American identities can become troublesome and their depictions can appear as deficient or incomplete. Luckily, writers, illustrators, and publishers of children's literature have skillfully made efforts to put at the center of their works topics that affect Latin American childhood and have offered creative means to do so, achieving aesthetically and thematically engaging books. Although it is impossible to portray—or even discuss—Latin America as one uniform, unvaried region, it is still possible to find the common threads weaving this extensive identity while giving visibility to each territory. Furthermore, the mostly white and anglophonic exposure within children's literature in the area for many decades has resulted in a lack of mirrors (using Rudine Sims Bishop's useful analogy) and a lack of openings to understand their experiences and to be seen. Needless to say, this affects not only Latin American children, but also all the minority groups outside dominant social groups. All of those experiences, feelings, cultural differences, and knowledges that were, for the most part, suppressed or ignored in children's traditional literature have made their way into a recent trend in publishing and research, where efforts are being made to stray away from ethnocentric ways to read the world through children's books. This challenge instills the urgency for a regional library that could bring together the work of creators of the region and strengthen the sense of belonging to a common culture and identity. It started with the creation of Fundación Palabra, a nonprofit reading-promotion organization aiming to reinforce the bond between young people and reading, culture, science, and art through dialogue and enjoyment with books and cultural objects from Latin America and the world. Within four years, the foundation started BILIJ—a lively space driven by interactivity and the Latin American spirit. The interactivity is fostered through engagement [End Page 69] with different expressions, allowing readers active participation in their reading. Through this interdisciplinary reading space, readers can freely and autonomously explore reading as a wider practice. BILIJ also seeks to highlight the Latin American spirit by means of catalog, artifacts, and encounters with music, art, dance, storytelling, and creative writing. To date, BILIJ has registered 776 members and 5,204 book loans within its first year of operation. Latin America: Its (In)visibility within Children's Books As challenging as it might be, our committed work in and toward BILIJ has led us to identify some commonalities in current Latin American's children's literature, topics and issues that go beyond the mythification and exotification of the territory, which for so long have resulted in reducing Latin American culture to ancestral Indigenousness. In turn, recent publications have brought attention to trends and matters concerned with what Latin America actually faces in the current time. More representation has been given to migration, relationships with the environment and nature, scarcity of resources, and local flora and fauna, and has even delved into political and social crises, present and past. In order to show a wide picture of its state of art, we deem it important to highlight some authors and illustrators, considering the positive reaction from our young readers and their families, along with their ability to portray different current issues. Intra-regional migration and commercial and cultural exchanges have shaped Latin America's characteristics for most of its history. Recent political and social crises have contributed to more significant migration waves, as displacement, labor and...

The association between bilingual semantic fluency and episodic memory among bilingual Mexican American older adults.

AbstractBackgroundBilingualism is increasingly common in older adults in the US and may impact the expression and course of Alzheimer’s Disease and related dementias (ADRD). Optimal methods for assessing cognition in population‐based studies of bilingual older adults are not established. Given that declines in semantic fluency are associated with declines in episodic memory in ADRD, we examined the degree to which animal naming in English and Spanish is associated with memory performance in a sample of bilingual Mexican American (MA) older adults.MethodThe Brain Attack Surveillance in Corpus Christi‐Cognitive study is a population‐based study of cognition in MA and non‐Hispanic white adults 65+ in south Texas. We included US‐born, bilingual MA participants who completed in‐person neuropsychological assessment in their preferred language (English) with the Harmonized Cognitive Assessment Protocol. We added a Spanish animal naming trial to the standard animal naming trial in English. We used the delayed recall score from a word list as the indicator of memory performance. We performed a series of regression analyses with delayed recall as the dependent variable and the English and Spanish animal naming scores as the independent variables, with age, sex, years of education, and a self‐reported bilingualism index score to account for level of bilingualism (range 0–1; 0 indicates monolingual Spanish; 1 indicates monolingual English) as covariates.ResultNinety‐six participants were included (Mage = 73yrs±6; Meducation = 11±4; 60% women; Table 1). In separate regression models including covariates, English animal naming (b = 0.25, p<.0001) and Spanish animal naming (b = 0.20, p <.05) were each associated with delayed recall. When considered together, English animal naming (b = 0.24, p = <.0001) and not Spanish animal naming (b = 0.03, p = .69) was associated with delayed recall, after accounting for age, sex, years of education, and level of bilingualism (Table 2). Results were consistent when the analysis was restricted to balanced bilinguals (Table 3).ConclusionSemantic fluency in English and Spanish were each related to episodic memory among bilingual MA older adults assessed in English, although the Spanish trial did not add unique information in its association with episodic memory. Future studies should evaluate how bilingual semantic fluency is associated with longitudinal cognitive decline in ADRD.

The Old Toponymy and New Topography of Zion: Utah, Photography, and Daniel George's Series God to Go West

The Old Toponymy and New Topography of Zion: Utah, Photography, and Daniel George's Series <i>God to Go West</i>

Uso do tempo nas relações de casal e no exercício da maternidade e da paternidade na Costa Rica: uma análise crítica desde uma perspectiva sociológica

The objective was to develop an analysis of the existing asymmetries and gaps in the use of time between men and women, both in their relationship as a couple and in the exercise of motherhood and fatherhood, which means reviewing, on the one hand, the of daily tasks linked to unpaid domestic work, the care and upbringing of minors and, on the other hand, the free time dedicated to recreational, sports and personal care activities. The theoretical framework takes up the contributions of sociology and sexual political economy, where romantic love, idyllic motherhood and motherhood as punishment are problematized, in contrast to contemporary trends that reflect on the experience of pleasant motherhood. In methodological terms, it corresponds to a bibliographical research, where information collected by the National Survey of Time Use (abbreviated as ENUT from its original Spanish name, Encuesta Nacional de Uso del Tiempo) 2017 and other studies developed at the national level were used. It is verified that a social and sexual contract persists within couple relationships, which places women in a disadvantaged situation regarding the use of the most valuable resource: time. Since there are clear asymmetries between both sexes regarding days of unpaid work, care and upbringing. This is based on the romantic idea of love, which works to extract time and vital energy from women, proving that there is a supervised but little accompanied maternity; finally, some reflections are offered on the exercise of pleasant motherhood and, therefore, of responsible parenthood.

Spanish Place Names of the Falkland Islands

It has been argued that no Spanish toponymic inventory is used in the Falkland Islands (Woodman 2016). Nonetheless, maps attest to the presence of several Spanish names. The existence of these place names reflects the history of the area. Even though the Falklands currently host an English-speaking community, the Islands have a long history of Spanish-speaking settlers. The former Spanish administration as well as contact with 19th century Spanish-speaking gauchos left quite a few Hispanic toponyms. Mostly coined after 1833, these toponyms collectively reflect the need for orientation, delimitation, and land management for livestock. However, there is another group of Spanish place names that is not used in the Islands. These toponyms are partly a result of the ongoing Argentinian claim of sovereignty over the Falklands. The objective of this paper is twofold: to account for the existence of Spanish place names used locally to refer to the Islands, and to present a novel classification system for the Spanish-language toponymic inventories of the Falklands into Gaucho-heritage and Argentinian. For these purposes, both traditional and modern approaches of toponomastic analyses were employed.

Cosmic ray observations from Livingston Island

ORCA, from the Spanish name Observatorio de Rayos Cósmicos Antártico, is a cosmic ray detector devoted to the observation of secondary cosmic rays at Juan Carlos I Spanish Antarctic Base (62°39′46″S,60°23′20″W, 12 m above sea level). ORCA was installed at the beginning of January 2019 after performing a latitudinal survey from Vigo (Spain) to Livingston Island aboard the Sarmiento de Gamboa Research Vessel. ORCA was in commissioning phase from January 2019 to March 2020, being in normal operation mode from March 2020. A vertical cutoff rigidity of 2.37GV has been computed at ORCA location and during the first year of operation, i. e. from March 2020 to March 2021.ORCA consists of three detectors stacked in a shared structure that maintains the relative distances between the detectors. A muon telescope (ORCM), a neutron monitor without any shielding around (ORCB) and a 3NM64 neutron monitor (ORCA). This configuration allows the measurement of neutron count rates at two different energy thresholds, muon count rate and muon incident directions.Measurements recorded during the first year of operation and ORCA potential capabilities are shown in this work.

The Spanish Language as a Cultural and Touristic Resource for the Chinese Market to Develop Quality Education.

Since 1952, Spanish has been included as a Degree in the Foreign Language Studies in the higher education system of China. The number of Spanish students has gradually increased and, until March 2020, with 6 Universities recently approved by the Chinese Ministry of Education (MOE), there are 102 Chinese universities that teach Spanish as a university degree. In 2017, the MOE of the People's Republic of China (PRC) published the Curriculum Plan in the Higher Secondary Schools, which incorporated the teaching of Spanish as a teaching option along with other languages, such as English, Japanese, Russian, German, and French. In the following year, during the Chinese President's state visit to Spain, a cooperation agreement was signed between the Royal Spanish Academy (abbreviated as RAE for its Spanish name) and SISU, under which a RAE-SISU Joint Research Centre was established. This study aims to publicize the situation of Spanish teaching in China, showing how a language can become a cultural and language tourism resource for Spain. An empirical study of student profiles was carried out at one of the most prestigious universities with reference to Spanish teaching in China, SISU. The data were obtained through primary sources employing a survey sent to the Chinese students studying their bachelor's degree of Spanish Philology, obtaining a sample of 159 students. The results revealed information on the studies carried out, also reviewing the most popular universities among the Chinese students in Spain, their stay period, and the destination image that the students have. The data will serve to show the opportunities for Spain as a destination for language tourism for the Chinese market. One of the implications of this study would be that it helps to explain how Spain can design a product for a niche market that demands Spain as a destination for language and cultural tourism.

The structure of plural last names in Spanish and other languages

An associative plural functional head is proposed for Spanish plural last names. Spanish plural last name noun phrases appear with a plural determiner and a singular or plural noun. Last names marked as singular are interpreted as a group, whereas plural ones are interpreted as collection of individuals (additive reading), although both pattern like fully plural DPs. Based on a comparison with first names, I propose that last names involve a null nominal head that encodes the meaning ‘group’, dominated by an plural category, which is realized as the plural morpheme on the determiner. When the last name is plural, a second plural-like category NUM head, located in the lower part of the structure and shared with common nouns, forces the additive reading. The last name number patterns are shown to be similar to those of N-N compounds, this parallelism is derived from a common underlying semantic predication, realized as a relator phrase. The paper also surveys crosslinguistic pluralization patterns, proposing potential patterns of variation: the presence/absence of the null nominal and the structural location of the associative plural head.

Cultural Assimilation and Ethnic Discrimination: An Audit Study with Schools

In a field experiment, I test whether the cultural assimilation of immigrant families mitigates the discriminatory behavior of schools. To this end, I sent fictitious visit requests to more than 2,500 schools located in the Community of Madrid (Spain). I signaled cultural assimilation of immigrant families through the parents' decision of giving their child a native name. Overall, Romanian families who gave a Spanish name to their child receive 7 % (5 p.p.) more responses than those who selected a Romanian name. Emails from families whose members have Romanian names are 12 % (9 p.p.) less likely to receive a response than those from native Spanish-named families. The results show a consistent pattern across schools with differing characteristics.

Corpus-Based Methods for Recognizing the Gender of Anthroponyms

This paper presents a series of methods for automatically determining the gender of proper names, based on their co-occurrence with words and grammatical features in a large corpus. Although the results obtained were for Spanish given names, the method presented here can be easily replicated and used for names in other languages. Most methods reported in the literature use pre-existing lists of first names that require costly manual processing and tend to become quickly outdated. Instead, we propose using corpora. Doing so offers the possibility of obtaining real and up-to-date name-gender links. To test the effectiveness of our method, we explored various machine-learning methods as well as another method based on simple frequency of co-occurrence. The latter produced the best results: 93% precision and 88% recall on a database of ca. 10,000 mixed names. Our method can be applied to a variety of natural language processing tasks such as information extraction, machine translation, anaphora resolution or large-scale delivery or email correspondence, among others.

La creación del mundo

La creación del mundo