NationStates Jolt Archive

I'm finally taking a formal course in Cree, to give me some conscious grammatical grasp of my first language. I'm quite excited, and just going over a few things before the class starts. It's such a fantastic view into our worldview, and a sort of...hmmm...validation? A sort of, reminder perhaps.

It got me thinking about languages in general, and how much I love learning them, or about them. It really does reflect worldview, or at the very least, gives you some insight not only into how people talk, but also their history, the way words have evolved, and why. It's always been something I've found interesting.

So before I go on a long rant about what I love about various languages, I thought I'd post the question to you folks in NSG land. What do you love about different languages? The sound? The meaning? The ease of spelling, or difficulty there-in? The guy who said nasty things in Swedish to you while he did even nastier things to you?

For insight...Cree is verb based, not noun based. You could literally talk all day in Cree and never use a noun. Everything is about action. White cat? 'Cat in the state of being white'. Verb. Don't get me wrong, nouns exist of course, but they rarely stand alone, for there is always action surrounding them.

There is no 'male' or 'female' in Cree, as there are in many romance languages. Everything is animate, or inanimate. Some of these classifications may not seem intuitive to a non-speaker. Some berries are inanimate, for example, while stone is animate.

I love that the word for boss is 'okimaw', and the word for chief uses okimaw and adds a suffix that means 'fake' to mean Chief. Ohimahkan. Not the real boss, not the real power...the figurehead. The speaker. Reflects perfectly our system of governance.

The verb, to read, is masinahiko. The noun 'book' is created from that verb...masinahikan. A thing that requires reading. If you add to that noun a suffix for wood, you get masinahikanahtik...wood to make something to read.

Using it to terrorize third parties who do not know the language. It is like in-jokes on steroids.

Spanish I love because it is phonetic. If you can speak it, you can spell it. Unless you are my husband. Seriously...how do you fuck up a phonetic language that badly? *shakes head*

Also, there are some very simple rules about where the stress is in each word, which syllable receives the emphasis. Great for learning new words...unlike English.

Using it to terrorize third parties who do not know the language. It is like in-jokes on steroids.

I have to admit to liking the exclusivity from time to time...though it HAS bitten me in the ass. For example...I stopped swearing in English for a while, and just swore in Spanish. The idea was not to sound like a trucker, and sort of 'clean up my act'. But it backfired. It became habit, and I would get myself into trouble travelling in Spanish speaking areas...or even at home, with people I didn't think spoke Spanish :D

One of the reasons I love Japanese are the little repeating words that come from sounds-they're really pleasant, descriptive and cute words. I like how specific they are, like Zah-zah is a certain type of pouring rain, while potsu-potsu is the lightest drizzle. Also, my grandmother likes to talk about those words with me, and we has good funs talkin'

I have to admit to liking the exclusivity from time to time...though it HAS bitten me in the ass. For example...I stopped swearing in English for a while, and just swore in Spanish. The idea was not to sound like a trucker, and sort of 'clean up my act'. But it backfired. It became habit, and I would get myself into trouble travelling in Spanish speaking areas...or even at home, with people I didn't think spoke Spanish :DI like exclusivity only to make people feel bad. It requires less knowledge of the language, plus it is comical if you are on the knowing side.

I speak 3 myself French and Arabic along with the obvious English. I learned French along with English as a kid. Arabic came with being in the military. As you say it is good to have a variety of languages so you can really get a feel for the different peoples by conversing with them in their native tongues. It is also funny to catch people by surprise when they do not realize you speak their language. I haven't had anything really rude said but it is funny to hear what people will say if they think you do not understand.

Using it to terrorize third parties who do not know the language. It is like in-jokes on steroids.

lol...I do that all the time for fun. I will be speaking in English and if I feel somebody is eavesdropping, I will switch to Hindi or Tamil. Sometimes I get nasty looks. :D

Catchy (http://youtube.com/watch?v=jQYQTFudrqc)

There is so much to love about languages. I agree, that when you learn another language, you learn not only another way to say something, but an intimacy with the social values and history of an entire culture. You literally conceive you thoughts in a subtly different yet resoundingly moving way. I enjoy this, and the contrast possible. However, more than showing us what is different, languages are truly telling in what we share.

I'd consider it a hobby, rather than a skill.

I'd love to learn Spanish. I want to travel some day to Latin America.

I love to play around with languages, tracing where words come from and how they have shifted, and how that shift is played with further.

For our Star Wars nerds out there who happen to play with linguistics, the huge twist of Darth being Lukes father was ruined early on. "th" and "k" are common shifts in pronunciation. Therefore, "Darth" is easily derived from "Dark". V often shifts to and from F, D to and from "th". Vader comes from "Father". Darth Vader is literally "Dark Father".

for a "real world" example, Polynesia is a perfect example. All of these island chains have a myth about the "central island" where all the ancestors came from. The root name for this island was "Havaiki". Given the several vowel and consonant shifts, we get "Tonga" "Samoa" "Tahiti" and "Hawai'i". Being entirely oral languages untill recently, shifts were easy to generate. Tonga and Samoa are the "cradle of Polynesia", where the culture originated (along with Fiji). These show the greatest distance from Havaiki. Not surprisingly, Hawai'i was the last settled, and shows the least shift.

I am fortunate in having the talent to easily learn languages, I do speak 5 languages, all of them from my European region. I find it very pleasant when you meet someone that seems to be struggling with a question, like a tourist for example, and you can set them at ease with a simple greeting in their own language and help them out. I do live in a country that is bilingual, but a lot of citizens refuse to learn or speak the other official language or wont even admit that they know the other official language. Yet they admire me for my multi linguistic talent.
My only problem is the grammatical differences between English and the Germanic languages, the structure of the sentences is completely reversed. another problem is when I am talking to someone in one language and I switch into another one in mid-sentence. I know right away by the look on their face, it's quite amusing most of the time.
Once I learned some Japanese, as I had regularly had contact with Japanese tourists, it was just a greeting explaining who I was and whom I worked for, that I would be with them for an hour or two and that was the only Japanese I knew. I received incredible reactions from them, anything from shy smiles and sometimes applause. Their guide would then tell me that they were extremely honored that I would make the effort to learn their difficult language just to welcome them. The great pleasure is that smile you get back .....

I love to play around with languages, tracing where words come from and how they have shifted, and how that shift is played with further.
Yeah, I for one really love how accents sort of create a regional dialect, that can make even the familiar seem exotic.
*glares darkly*
:D

Yeah, I for one really love how accents sort of create a regional dialect, that can make even the familiar seem exotic.
*glares darkly*
:D

...


I forgot to make you a recording of myself, didn't I...

:(

...


I forgot to make you a recording of myself, didn't I...

:(*withholds forgiveness until gets the goods*

:D

*withholds forgiveness until gets the goods*

:D
You have a TG

I like the harshness of German. You could easily give everything a dark undertone.

Japanese can be fun. You can hold an entire conversation in monosyllable sounds. ;)

grammar rules in languages always confused the hell out of me. i studied latin, german and spanish (the latter only for one year because the teacher was an asshole) in secondary school, and french in primary. i sucked at them all.

the thing i found most difficult was the way other languages had all these different words for "the"... in english its just the one word whether its in the past or present, and skips out the notion of "genders" entirely. having 9+ different variations on the same word was hell to learn.


i would say i don't love languages at all, and am glad i can just speak english. not because i think english is better or anything remotely like that, just because i suck at learning languages.

i do like the way german and russian sound though

I'm an American. I don't speak languages. ;)

Seriously, it is interesting how different various languages can be. The concept of gender seems odd, but also interesting. And many languages are hard for different reasons. Spanish has all those conjugations, German has (AFIAK) no clue beyond memorization what gender a word is, and English is hard to spell.

Edit: Like Pure Metal, I suck at actually learning languages, but I still find them interesting.

I only know 2 languages really :( I neglected German and French in high school. But apparently I know enough german to hitchhike with a Romanian who only spoke Romanian, Hungarian and German. Quite funny :D BUt maybe one day I'll get back to improving my language skills :D

I love that language reflects the time, the location, the politics, the culture it’s used within.

I love that it changes over time. I love that the US and the UK have different spelling conventions for English and that for all the bickering over what is “correct” it’s still virtually impossible to not understand each other.

I love that English picks up little bits of every other language that it bumps into. I love how it just subsumes everything it comes near.

I love how the French are so damn protective of their language, recognizing that it’s a symbol of their culture and make up new French words to reflect changes in society, rather than adopting the words of other languages. I love how they think that they can contain the beast of international culture.

I love pidgins and creoles and accents. I love anything that makes me work at being a more active listener.

I love when oppressed people reclaim languages that have been beaten, tortured and schooled out of them.

I love when people who are marginalized use language to give themselves voice in subversive ways – graffiti, music, folktales…

I love watching adults, who have verbal language skills, learn to use their skills and abilities to learn to read language, even after society gave up on them.

I’ve loved experiencing my children acquire language, and found it endlessly fascinating to observe their verbal and reading skills develop. I love listening to them search for the correct word for what they want to express. I love that they have great vocabularies and use them.

I love watching foreign movies in languages that I don’t know, and how you can still get the general gist of it, because not all communication is language.

I love listening to the musicality of poetry – when language contains meaning not only in the words that are chosen, but through the form it’s presented in.

I love finding “just the right word.”

You have a TG

Oh oh oh.

Wow.

God I love that accent! *listens for the fiftieth time*

Thank you, gracias, merci, kinana'skomitin.

I studied Latin for five years in high school, and I learned so much English grammar from it. I don't know all the vocabulary I should anymore, but I do know how to structure English sentences better than I did before.

I'm finally taking a formal course in Cree, to give me some conscious grammatical grasp of my first language. I'm quite excited, and just going over a few things before the class starts. It's such a fantastic view into our worldview, and a sort of...hmmm...validation? A sort of, reminder perhaps.

It got me thinking about languages in general, and how much I love learning them, or about them. It really does reflect worldview, or at the very least, gives you some insight not only into how people talk, but also their history, the way words have evolved, and why. It's always been something I've found interesting.

So before I go on a long rant about what I love about various languages, I thought I'd post the question to you folks in NSG land. What do you love about different languages? The sound? The meaning? The ease of spelling, or difficulty there-in? The guy who said nasty things in Swedish to you while he did even nastier things to you?

I like being able to do things most people in my family can't.

I really hate English because of things like their, and there, and they're, and read and read.

I really love Spanish because you can sound out nearly every word, they don't have the B.S. English does with having to figure out context (for the most part, I mean abuelos could be both of my grandfathers or one set of grandparents, but really it's not as bad as English.) I also like Spanish because it's a very efficient language, I don't have to say "Yo Soy blah, blah, blah" I can just say "Soy blah blah blah" saves a whole word. I also like Spanish because of the ll and the rr, they are fun to say!

I speak German, Punjabi and th obvious English. I learnt German in school hile Punjabi was learnt through out my whole life due to my Grandparents and Dad being from the Punjab. I sometimes atch myself thinking in Punjabi while speaking English and vice versa. German I use just to annoy people so they can't understand :Dme

The guy who said nasty things in Swedish to you while he did even nastier things to you?

Fortsätt drömma, sabla fruntimmer!

English is a very ugly, hissy language that has no real identity of its own.

French isn't very much better, except you get some practice in spelling. The sounds aren't quite as hissy as in English.

German, I love. The sound combinations are beautiful though perhpas not to most hearers. I especially like ich-Laut. Also, the sentence structures seem to fit the way my brain works more than any language I have studied.

Irish just sounds cool. Spelling is atrocious and structures are very unlike Romance or Germanic languages, but it's fun. “Ná bac le mac an bhacaigh is ní bhac mac an bhacaigh leat.”

I really hate English because of things like their, and there, and they're, and read and read.

I really love Spanish because you can sound out nearly every word, they don't have the B.S. English does with having to figure out context (for the most part, I mean abuelos could be both of my grandfathers or one set of grandparents, but really it's not as bad as English.) I also like Spanish because it's a very efficient language, I don't have to say "Yo Soy blah, blah, blah" I can just say "Soy blah blah blah" saves a whole word. I also like Spanish because of the ll and the rr, they are fun to say!

OK the ll and rr, I'll concede, but the rest!
I am going to comment from the point of view of Portuguese as it is a language I speak, but the comments will almost certainly apply to Spanish as well (There are some differences, but not enough to prevent the languages being mutually intelligable).

Where a language requires you to know the gender of inanimate objects, there is always going to be confusion generated, particularly if the same root is used for different things, differentiated only by the gender.

Homonyms exist in all languages, try sexta (Sixth) and cesta (Basket)in Portuguese, or maybe pena (Pity) and pena (Feather).
Or how about porquê, porque, por que and por quê. Being the reason or motive, because, why and one that has no effective translation, but is again more or less the reason orr motive.

AS for dropping words, OK, you can drop the odd pronoun, but why do you have to double the negations in any negative sentence. "I don't have anything to say" becomes "Eu não tenho nada a dizer". So it doesn't add words, but it does confuse things. Portuguese is also full of meaningless phrases, said just to make noise as far as I can see. "Caramba cara, sinistro meu imão" is just about untranslatable - it has a semantic content of slightly less than zero, but it is the type of thing you wll hear all day in Rio de Janeiro. Or maybe "Tche que barbaridade, foi tri legal" if you are in Rio Grande do Sul - it means "it was great" (whixch is the last part - the first part is untranslatable and devoid of content).

Don't get me wrong. I am not bashing Portuguese or Spanish for that matter, but English deserves a better press than you have given it, or at least you should point out where the other languages go off the rails as well.

I'm finally taking a formal course in Cree, to give me some conscious grammatical grasp of my first language. I'm quite excited, and just going over a few things before the class starts. It's such a fantastic view into our worldview, and a sort of...hmmm...validation? A sort of, reminder perhaps.

It got me thinking about languages in general, and how much I love learning them, or about them. It really does reflect worldview, or at the very least, gives you some insight not only into how people talk, but also their history, the way words have evolved, and why. It's always been something I've found interesting.

So before I go on a long rant about what I love about various languages, I thought I'd post the question to you folks in NSG land. What do you love about different languages? The sound? The meaning? The ease of spelling, or difficulty there-in? The guy who said nasty things in Swedish to you while he did even nastier things to you?

The sound of some, the fun and often sexy accents they result in, and just the variety they add to human communication, even if they sometimes present hurdles as well. Often in studying them, one can see how different cultural and historic factors have influenced how people speak.

Once I learned some Japanese, as I had regularly had contact with Japanese tourists, it was just a greeting explaining who I was and whom I worked for, that I would be with them for an hour or two and that was the only Japanese I knew. I received incredible reactions from them, anything from shy smiles and sometimes applause. Their guide would then tell me that they were extremely honored that I would make the effort to learn their difficult language just to welcome them. The great pleasure is that smile you get back .....

Reminds me of that Seinfeld episode. :p

I know some conversational French from school, and the obvious English. French grammar has taught me more about English grammar than I ever learned. Not to mention the ease of traveling in Francophone countries. (AP French IV, here I come)

I want to learn German, so I can speak to any relatives we have there if I ever go.

Fortsätt drömma, sabla fruntimmer!

Ooh yes...just like that...

I love studying Latin. I started my fourth year of it last week. This year the class feels pretty relaxing to me. There are only two of us taking AP Latin Vergil this year, and we've been divided up into two different classes. So basically I just sit in the back of the Latin II class translating parts of the Aeneid from Latin to English. I like it; it's fun. :)

And I've been studying French for about two weeks now (well, only 5 class periods though...). I thought I'd have a lot of trouble with it, because when I speak English I mispronounce lots of words when I learn them from reading and never really hear them, and then try to use them, so I thought I'd be really bad at pronouncing things in another language, too. And I probably am, but I've realized that I'm the oldest person in my French class, and that makes me feel more confident, and someone said that it seems like it's easier for me than it is for them. I don't know, it's probably just that I remember things fairly easily. I like French so far, but we've only learned some greetings, the numbers 1-10, the alphabet, and how to order food.

Sorry if this is too long or incoherent. I get babbly and talk more than usual when I'm tired. :(

OK the ll and rr, I'll concede, but the rest!
I am going to comment from the point of view of Portuguese as it is a language I speak, but the comments will almost certainly apply to Spanish as well (There are some differences, but not enough to prevent the languages being mutually intelligible). There are times when I have difficulty with Portuguese, but I do really love the language. Yesterday I took the girls to the park and they were playing with three little Portuguese boys. Their dad did not seem to speak any English, and our kids were fighting. We split them up a bit, gave them heck in our languages (in my case, Spanish, the perfect 'giving-shit-in-public' language). Then the dad started talking to me and we had a long conversation, him in Portuguese, me in Spanish. I figure, if I replace all the 's's with 'sh's, I can passably imitate him :P

I love that language reflects the time, the location, the politics, the culture it’s used within.


I love how the French are so damn protective of their language, recognizing that it’s a symbol of their culture and make up new French words to reflect changes in society, rather than adopting the words of other languages. I love how they think that they can contain the beast of international culture.



Le weekend?


There are more, I just can't think of them. I'll edit as I do.

Le weekend?


There are more, I just can't think of them. I'll edit as I do.

Oh, I know there are many. There's no denying that they fight them, though. That why I said I love how they think they can contain the beast of international influence. Noone really can.

I just think it's cool that some languages adopt new words with open arms, and others feel compelled to try to preserve themselves. I don't think one option is any more right than the other.

The culture that comes with learning a new language. The barriers it brings down for the world traveler and the bragging rights of telling your friends how many languages you know in those languages XD

What do you love about different languages?
I'm not much of a person for languages...but...what I do love in other languages is this:

Language defines thought.

How one thinks is dependent of the language one thinks in, thus learning other languages gives one an...important...perspective about the thought processes behind a person native to the language.

It's also one of the things I like about my language compared to other mainstream European descent languages...It's definitely different.

What I regret is my dislike for Swedish language when I was back at elementary school (Fass knows more about this): The more you learn about other languages the better for your world view, 's what I'm thinking....

Irish just sounds cool. Spelling is atrocious and structures are very unlike Romance or Germanic languages, but it's fun. “Ná bac le mac an bhacaigh is ní bhac mac an bhacaigh leat.”

Gaelic (Scotch and Irish, and by a stretch, Welsh) is great for annoying those high minded English neighbors I have. Good way to prove that they didn't win yet.

And Latin, useful for places still offering the Latin Mass. And for understanding legal terminology or taxonomic classifications. And for awesome quotes, like: Quis Custodiet Ipsos Custodes? My personal favorite whenever debating with neo-cons supporting the Patriot (read, Tyranny) Act.

What I like about German is that it never ceases to surprise and delight me. For example: the other day I was flipping through my pocket German dictionary (yeah, I know I'm a language geek) and I came upon the word for clam. The word is Venusmuschel literally meaning (drumroll) Venus Mussel. Seeing as I also take Latin and by extension love classical mythology I was pleasantly amused and amazed by the interconnectedness of it all.

BTW Does anyone know where the word anecdote comes from?

Being able to hold a 'normal' conversation in a noisy club while everyone else is struggling to hear.

Using the BSL sign for lazy and watching hearing people think I'm swearing.

I really like spanish and am in the middle of learning it now.

Also, I like german because those ladies who speak it are inevitably sexy. At least they sound like it, anyway. :D

I love the fact that each language gives you a unique way of thinking and of seeing and interpreting the world around you. Every language is in itself full of different ideas.

I love about foreign languages, that they're opening new windows in the same old house :)
I really like English; as so many people speak it, I can communicate with lots of people from all over the world and retrieve tons of information from the web; then it enables me to read my favourite books without getting annoyed by lousy translations (Ever tried to read Terry Pratchett in German language? It's awful :eek:). And while proper German (although it's my native language, I don't really like it) always sounds and reads like some manual "How to operate a lawn-mower" even if the text was meant to be a poem :rolleyes:, English language leaves far more room to express yourself.
The other foreign language I speak (not very well, but I'm taking lessons again) is French, and about French language I love its sound; even ordering a cup of coffee sounds a bit like a poem :)
Besides it's a lot of fun to speak some foreign languages, as this multiplies your ability of cursing and swearing (hm, I guess I should learn another one or two languages) :p ...

I really hate English because of things like their, and there, and they're, and read and read.!

You should try Chinese once, how many variants are there of "chu" based on accentuation and enunciation. I don't know it from own experience but some friends demonstrated it once. unbelievable.
and don't forget: quite, quiet, quit, ....

I'm just another dumb monolingual American, I'm afraid, not very knowledgeable about how to speak languages. On the other hand, linguistics and grammar are hobbies of mine for various reasons.

I've studied a bit of Japanese and found the way verbs work very interesting (they feel so logical unlike say Latin verbs, with their hundreds of irregularities and so forth). However, I found the complexity of the writing very offputting, since it basically prevented me from reading anything in Japanese. Also, the language appears to have taken up a massive quantity of English loans, many of them rather silly I would say, even when native equivalents exist.

There's also Spanish, which sounds nice if a bit uninteresting, and Italian, which I would say is the most beautiful language I've heard. On the other hand, I'm not Italian and have little contact with Spanish speakers for the most part, which makes those two rather useless to me from a practical standpoint. Ah, and Latin, a language of reactionism and imperialism I would say, but still cool in terms of sound.

I've been a lover of linguistics and etymology since taking a course in Latin and Greek roots of English in 1990. I learned even more Greek by dating a Greek woman for three years (learning Greek meant making her parents happy -- and happy Greek parents feed you homemade Greek food...*drools like Homer*).

My use, understanding and vocabulary of English increased by orders of magnitude after that class (I liked it so much, I took it twice).

Sinuhue, it's cool, and extremely fitting, that you're going to dig deeply into Cree. Have fun with that!

What I like about German is that it never ceases to surprise and delight me. For example: the other day I was flipping through my pocket German dictionary (yeah, I know I'm a language geek) and I came upon the word for clam. The word is Venusmuschel literally meaning (drumroll) Venus Mussel. Seeing as I also take Latin and by extension love classical mythology I was pleasantly amused and amazed by the interconnectedness of it all.

BTW Does anyone know where the word anecdote comes from?

Germanic laguages and their "Lego" approach have always interested me. The word "flak" for "anti-aircraft fire" is a German "Lego" word. "Fliegenderabwehrkanonen". "Fliegender" = "flyers" or "flying things" (airplanes); "abwehr" = "defense"; and "kanonen" = "cannons". It's like they take all the things something does, and jam them all together to form one very descriptive -- if amusingly long -- noun.

"Anecdote" is Greek in origin: "anekdota" = "unpublished things". "an-" = "not" and "ekdotos" from "ekdidónai" = "publish" (pronounced ek-dthee-DTHONE-ee -- where the Greek "d" is the voiced English "th", like "them").

You want work geekiness? I am here.

Germanic laguages and their "Lego" approach have always interested me. The word "flak" for "anti-aircraft fire" is a German "Lego" word. "Fliegenderabwehrkanonen". "Fliegender" = "flyers" or "flying things" (airplanes); "abwehr" = "defense"; and "kanonen" = "cannons". It's like they take all the things something does, and jam them all together to form one very descriptive -- if amusingly long -- noun.
Almost correct.

I's not "Fliegender" (that would actually in this context mean the pilot) it's "Flieger".

More common, however, is "Flugabwehrkanonen" ("Flug" = flight).

(see German wiki: http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flak)

For insight...Cree is verb based, not noun based. You could literally talk all day in Cree and never use a noun. Everything is about action. White cat? 'Cat in the state of being white'. Verb. Don't get me wrong, nouns exist of course, but they rarely stand alone, for there is always action surrounding them.

There is no 'male' or 'female' in Cree, as there are in many romance languages. Everything is animate, or inanimate. Some of these classifications may not seem intuitive to a non-speaker. Some berries are inanimate, for example, while stone is animate.

I love that the word for boss is 'okimaw', and the word for chief uses okimaw and adds a suffix that means 'fake' to mean Chief. Ohimahkan. Not the real boss, not the real power...the figurehead. The speaker. Reflects perfectly our system of governance.

The verb, to read, is masinahiko. The noun 'book' is created from that verb...masinahikan. A thing that requires reading. If you add to that noun a suffix for wood, you get masinahikanahtik...wood to make something to read.

You're making me want to take Cree.

i really hate being in a foreign country and having to hope that people speak english. it's embarassing. i would like to try my hand at spanish, and i'm so out of practice with french and german i doubt i can still get by. also i'm going to Venice in about 10 days, i really should be trying out some italian.

Almost correct.

I's not "Fliegender" (that would actually in this context mean the pilot) it's "Flieger".

More common, however, is "Flugabwehrkanonen" ("Flug" = flight).

(see German wiki: http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flak)

"Flieger" is what my Mirriam-Webster product has in its pages. I mis-remembered it when I was posting from memory. Thanks for the correction. Either way, the "Lego" concept is typically German.

i really hate being in a foreign country and having to hope that people speak english. it's embarassing. i would like to try my hand at spanish, and i'm so out of practice with french and german i doubt i can still get by. also i'm going to Venice in about 10 days, i really should be trying out some italian.

Just speak Latin with an Italian accent, and that's good for about 80% of what you need. Of course, my knowledge of much of Latin comes from singing in choirs for 25 years...so...nevermind.

Just speak Latin with an Italian accent, and that's good for about 80% of what you need. Of course, my knowledge of much of Latin comes from singing in choirs for 25 years...so...nevermind.

and my knowledge of latin amounts to "amo, amas, amat, amub, ambwf, aigy amumblemumblemumble...yeh".

The guy who said nasty things in Swedish to you while he did even nastier things to you?
I'm going to go with this one (at least partly) except replace Swedish with French and nasty things with sweet talk... *sigh*

Plus the whole bit of getting around in another country (or part of a country).

You're making me want to take Cree.

One thing I love about it is that with one word, you have an entire sentence, you have the verb, the subject, the object, the transition etc...

Emaskihkowapohkeyan...I am making tea.
Ninohtehokiskinohamakewin...I want to be a teacher.

One thing I love about it is that with one word, you have an entire sentence, you have the verb, the subject, the object, the transition etc...

Emaskihkowapohkeyan...I am making tea.
Ninohtehokiskinohamakewin...I want to be a teacher.

Forgive the impertinence, but isn't that just the German "Lego" approach? Those aren't really one-word sentences, they're sentences compressed to one word. Saying them aloud makes that point: a medium-paced speaker of English makes "I want to be a teacher" sound like it might no thave any word breaks in it to anyone who doesn't know English. Not separating the Cree into discrete words to embody each concept (noun, verb, subject, object, etc.) doesn't affect the sound of the language, just the typography.

Forgive the impertinence, but isn't that just the German "Lego" approach? Those aren't really one-word sentences, they're sentences compressed to one word. Saying them aloud makes that point: a medium-paced speaker of English makes "I want to be a teacher" sound like it might no thave any word breaks in it to anyone who doesn't know English. Not separating the Cree into discrete words to embody each concept (noun, verb, subject, object, etc.) doesn't affect the sound of the language, just the typography.

No, I assume he's referring to polysynthesis, which combines heavy inflection with compounding. In this case, you would compound "tea" and "make" to make a single verb (sort of like "babysit") and then inflect that word for tense and person (something you should already be familiar with if you've studied Spanish, Latin, and so on). Same story with the second example, which would gloss as teach-want-habitual-I or something.

No, I assume he's referring to polysynthesis, which combines heavy inflection with compounding. In this case, you would compound "tea" and "make" to make a single verb (sort of like "babysit") and then inflect that word for tense and person (something you should already be familiar with if you've studied Spanish, Latin, and so on). Same story with the second example, which would gloss as teach-want-habitual-I or something.

Neesika's a she.

Very well put. Thanks for the explanation, splitting hairs though it may be.

I do like the English "Wanna" contraction...some how, all native English speakers know when we can use "wanna" and when you must use "want to"

I don't want to go to the store can become I don't wanna go to the store
Who do you want to cook dinner cannot become Who do you wanna cook dinner

I'm sure other languages have similar contractions that rely on where the verb associates, but I enjoy that one.

Spanish I love because it is phonetic. If you can speak it, you can spell it. Unless you are my husband. Seriously...how do you fuck up a phonetic language that badly? *shakes head*

Also, there are some very simple rules about where the stress is in each word, which syllable receives the emphasis. Great for learning new words...unlike English.

Yes, I agree with you completely; Spanish is much more... for lack of a better way of saying it, phonetically structured than English or French, and therefore easier to learn. Because of this, even though I do not understand the spoken language very well at all, i CAN read and write it, and pronounce the written words.

Yes, Spanish IS very easy to learn, compared to English as a second language, or French.

I do like the English "Wanna" contraction...some how, all native English speakers know when we can use "wanna" and when you must use "want to"

I don't want to go to the store can become I don't wanna go to the store
Who do you want to cook dinner cannot become Who do you wanna cook dinner

I'm sure other languages have similar contractions that rely on where the verb associates, but I enjoy that one.

Here are some more contractions and/or elisions:

Yew bleevat? = Do you believe that?
Wheeyoant? = What do you want?
I'mon = I am going to
gon' = gonna = going to
downt = down at (the)

I like the harshness of German. You could easily give everything a dark undertone.

I like German because it comes from the same family (Germanic) of languages that English does, and consequently, some of the words are at least somewhat intelligible to an English-speaking person who does not otherwise know German. For exammple, the Beatles recorded a German version of I Want To Hold Your Hand, called Komm, Gib Mir Deine Hand. I can tell, just by looking at it and saying it, that it literally means "come give me your (or thine) hand". They did the same with She Loves You (Sie Liebt Dich, meaning "she loves you").

I speak German, Punjabi and th obvious English. I learnt German in school hile Punjabi was learnt through out my whole life due to my Grandparents and Dad being from the Punjab. I sometimes atch myself thinking in Punjabi while speaking English and vice versa. German I use just to annoy people so they can't understand :Dme

Am I correct in assuming you also like to remove a letter from some of your words? LOL :D

English is a very ugly, hissy language that has no real identity of its own.

French isn't very much better, except you get some practice in spelling. The sounds aren't quite as hissy as in English.

German, I love. The sound combinations are beautiful though perhpas not to most hearers. I especially like ich-Laut. Also, the sentence structures seem to fit the way my brain works more than any language I have studied.

Irish just sounds cool. Spelling is atrocious and structures are very unlike Romance or Germanic languages, but it's fun. “Ná bac le mac an bhacaigh is ní bhac mac an bhacaigh leat.”

I like German too, especially really long words like "Reinigungsfluessigkeit", which means "cleaning fluid" (I got it from the instructions for using a K&N Reusable Air Filter Cleaning Kit (or possibly Recharge Kit, I forget which it was called)). What is "ich-Laut"?

I have also been curious about Irish and Welsh. I don't think I would mind learning those, at least not that I know of. What does “Ná bac le mac an bhacaigh is ní bhac mac an bhacaigh leat” mean?

I just started learning Kazakh at MSU. I already love it. Learning a language lets you see a culture from an entirely different prospective.

To approach this from a slightly different perspective than most people's: one of the many things I love about being a choral singer is the amount of exposure I get to other languages. A rough list of languages I have sung in, off the top of my head, would be something like the following: English, Latin, French, Italian, Spanish, German, Swedish, Finnish, Russian, Portuguese, Romanian, Church Slavonic, Georgian, Estonian, Old English, Middle English, Hebrew, Gaelic, Scots Gaelic, assorted languages of Middle Earth, Ladino, vaguely Portuguese gibberish, assorted archaic/dialect forms of most of the above, and probably several other languages I'm forgetting at the moment. The net result of this is that I end up being exposed not just to a lot of different ways of pronouncing one's vowels ( ;) ) but to a lot of different cultures. (For that matter, I've found vowel pronunciation rather reflective of culture, but that's a discussion for another evening...)

It's useful, too, in making new friends from other linguistic backgrounds. It's amazing how thrilled people often are to hear that I know even just enough of their native tongue to sing one song. (I once made a Finnish expatriate burst into happy tears when I introduced myself by singing a bit of the Finlandia. Seriously.) :)