The Language Thread

[Hydrazoic Acid]

Vimana, we will understand!

 

[Panzerhunt]

I speak English and Dutch fluently
I understand the basics of French and can express myself in French but it's not phenomenal. German is something I can only read.
Might also can translate and read Latin. It's a nice language but has strange twists

 

[Vimana]

What specifically are the twists?

 

[Deveianse]

Isn't Bulgarian and Russian almost the same?

they are quite different, but in the same language group

 

[Vimana]

Whenever I tell a Peruvian, Colombian, or any Spanish speaker who pronounces the ll or y almost like a j, they pronounce my name "yo." But then when they say "yo" it sounds like "Joe."

This is how it has sounded in an exchange before.

Other person: ¿Cómo te llamas (pronouncing it jahmas)? (What's your name?)
Me: Joe.
Other person: ¿Yo?

 

[Vacant_Planets]

The accents vary widely within the country, from what my Danish ex told me. I don't know if all Danish people do this, but I noticed that they seem to cut off their own breathing while speaking. It sounds like they're getting hit in the chest as they're talking. It's like some parts of words they pronounce at normal volume and other parts are very quiet. I used to find it amusing how my ex's dad would do that when he spoke English, and it sounded like he kept gulping for air.



Every Native American language I have studied the grammar of out of curiosity was complex as fuck. A lot of the complexity seemed pretty unnecessary minus inclusive and uninclusive versions of "we." The only Native American languages I've found that weren't very complex were spoken in the pre-Columbian civilizations. I've found there is a little bit of a connection between the complexity of the language and the development of the society technologically. Chinese has the simplest grammar out of any language I've studied and they have a very old civilization. On the other hand, Navaho-speaking people weren't quite as developed technologically and their language is the most complex one I know about.

Well to start out a lot of native american languages have complex phonologies due to having really small alphabets. This is also true of most languages in the Algonquin family, Iroquois too if I remember right.

 

[Vimana]

Are there tones in your language? Like one word will have a different meaning if it's said in a different tone?

 

[Vacant_Planets]

Are there tones in your language? Like one word will have a different meaning if it's said in a different tone?

As it's written? No, but so many words sound alike with a single letter difference it'd have to confuse a new speaker hearing someone new speak.

 

[Vimana]

I meant spoken language. And oh, I see. Are there also sounds not found in English?

 

[Draehl]

Norwegian spoken by a rather cute Norwegian chick.

 

[Vacant_Planets]

I meant spoken language. And oh, I see. Are there also sounds not found in English?

Yes, a couple.

 

[Vimana]

Ah. I consider English to be a good native language to have because of its variety of sounds. It makes learning new pronunciation fairly simple because there are less new sounds to learn.

 

[TheInsane]

Ah. I consider English to be a good native language to have because of its variety of sounds. It makes learning new pronunciation fairly simple because there are less new sounds to learn.

I have no opinion on that however one of the major flaws of being born into the English language (from a perspective of learning and understanding languages, relations between them and so on) is that very few actually has to learn another language. English works ok to great in such great parts of the world that very few of my american or english friends has even bothered learning another langauge. And if they have many have forgotten it since they never feel the need to use it.

 

[arg]

^ oui vous avez raison, je voudrais apprendre mieux francais mais tout le monde parle anglais à mon bureau. je peux seulement utiliser la langue dans les magasins ou les restaurants quand j'achete quelque chose... et aussi quand je fais l'amour avec des putes (viens sur moi, suce mon bite, par la derriere, je t'encule, etc) lol.

 

[TheInsane]

^ oui vous avez raison, je voudrais apprendre mieux francais mais tout le monde parle anglais à mon bureau. je peux seulement utiliser la langue dans les magasins ou les restaurants quand j'achete quelque chose... et aussi quand je fais l'amour avec des putes (viens sur moi, suce mon bite, par la derriere, je t'encule, etc) lol.

Was that meant to be funny?

 

[Vimana]

I have no opinion on that however one of the major flaws of being born into the English language (from a perspective of learning and understanding languages, relations between them and so on) is that very few actually has to learn another language. English works ok to great in such great parts of the world that very few of my american or english friends has even bothered learning another langauge. And if they have many have forgotten it since they never feel the need to use it.

That is true, especially with Americans. It just happens when you live in a contiguous place the size of Europe that pretty much speaks one language and has one culture. As a result, Americans, especially in the midwest (in my experience) only speak English and know hardly anything about other cultures. In my language classes in school I'd heard "why can't everyone just speak English?" English is pretty much a global language, but as for it staying that way, I'm not too sure.

Either way, it annoys me how much the world ignores psycholinguistics. That's one of the main reasons I want to learn a lot of languages besides fun. It's a great way to gain perspective because it gives one a new system in which to think, remember, understand, sort, and communicate information. Many Americans will never experience that because all they speak is English and all they really need to speak is English (for now).

 

[arg]

so uh holy shit

hats off to this guy, makes me embarrassed about my level of french

ps the blonde one is facken cute

 

[Vimana]

What if Asians are smarter because their languages are simpler? I've noticed that the most inflected languages are of people who are little over hunter gatherer in development, yet the societies that have been civilized the most have simple languages compared to most others. Maybe when one's native language is so simple that it does not directly convey most information in the words, the person has to rely on quick wit to even understand others. Maybe this gives the brain lots of exercise.

 

[sevag00]

I doubt Asian languages are simpler.

 

[Vimana]

I doubt Asian languages are simpler.

The ones in the most developed areas in Asia are. Korean, Chinese, and Japanese are simpler in that they convey things with less direct meaning.

For example, asking "where are you going?" in Korean is pretty much just "where go?" They have to know who the subject is based on context. In Indo-European languages, people would use pronouns or conjugations that indicate person. That would prevent the need to pick things up from context.