NationStates Jolt Archive

Okay, I can say "hello" (Or rather, the standard greeting) in eleven different languages. I'm very proud of this. I do not claim to speak these languages, I do not claim to understand these languages, but I can at least greet in these languages. They range from common greetings (Everybody, for example, knows that "bonjour" means "hello") to the less common (Not many of my friends can speak Mandarin), and somewhere in between ("Guten Tag" is easily recognizable as German, but it isn't quite as universal as "Hola"). For many I also know the proper response, since certain languages have specific responses required for specific greetings. As I said, I'm quite proud of my knowledge of these eleven greetings, with one problem....what the f#%& is that eleventh language?

I know Hawaiian, English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Hebrew, Arabic, Japanese, Mandarin Chinese, and....and....and....God damnit, I can not remember what that eleventh language is. I can't remember it's language family (Romance, Germanic, Semitic, etc.), it's geographic homeland, it's native speakers, or anything. This isn't a case where I've forgotten the words, but rather I've forgotten even what I've forgotten. It is killing me. Does anybody know what I've forgotten?

Does anybody know what I've forgotten?
To have a life? Find one, then go live it.

Klingon.

It is killing me. Does anybody know what I've forgotten?
I see you don't have much time left.
We can stall.

judging from you post, I would hazzard a guess and say the language you're capable of talking in, but can't remember the name of, is Shite.

List the eleven greetings, and I'm sure the languages, including the missing one, will be readily identifiable.

Though I'm actually quite fluent in Goa'uld, I'm proud to say that I've never learned to speak Klingon. I'm a fan of Star Trek, I've never tried to hide this, but to actually learn Klingon...it just never hit me. To me the alien civilizations in Star Trek never seemed to fit with their own identities, and they never quite sucked me in.

judging from you post, I would hazzard a guess and say the language you're capable of talking in but can't remember the name is Shite.

Here I feel as though I'm being lured into a trap. Shite: Spelling mistake, or veiled insult?

Acting in good faith...to my knowledge there's no language known as Shi'ite, rather it refers to a particular group of adherents of Islam, and its practitioners speak either their native tounge or Arabic, which is the language that transcends the factions of Islam.

Gaelic? Dutch? Danish? Portuguese? Russian?

List the eleven greetings, and I'm sure the languages, including the missing one, will be readily identifiable.

But that's the problem, I can't remember what that eleventh one is. The one's I do remember are:

Aloha, Hello (And others, do I really need to list all the greetings present in English?), Hola, Bonjour, Guten Tag, Bonjourno, Shalom Alechem (With the proper response of "Alechem Shalom"), Salaam Aleyhou (With the proper response of "Aleyhou Salaam"), Konitchiwa, (Mandarin I have literally no clue how to write, but it sounds like "knee" and "hom").

I may be missing something here, but if you can't remember a greeting and you can't remember what language it was in, then I'm pretty sure you don't qualify as knowing it. Hence you only know ten greetings and this is moot.

Mandarin is Ni hao BTW.

Mandarin is "ni hao ma".
Dobar dan!

If you can't remember the eleventh then surely you can only greet in ten. Dur.

(Mandarin I have literally no clue how to write, but it sounds like "knee" and "hom").

It's Nee Hao. Fact you're saying it "knee hom" means you can't actually claim to greet in it.

But I'm sure that I do know that eleventh language, even if I don't actually know it (Believe it or not, this actually makes sense to me. Can you believe that?).

And I never said I could spell Mandarin, just pronounce it. "Ni hao ma" does appear to be exactly as I've been saying it, although I have always been wary of using the Latin alphabet with languages that have their own alphabet (I've seen way to many spellings of "Chanukkah" to take anything for granted).

That's not a problem in Mandarin anymore, although there used to be a lot of variants in transcribing Chinese: the Chinese government has standardized how the Roman alphabet is to be used (in spelling Mandarin at least; I don't know if there's a standardization for transcribing Cantonese etc.) Either "ni hao" or "ni hao ma" can occur, but I don't know what difference, if any, the final "ma" makes.
If "dobar dan!" wasn't it, how about "zdravstvwitye!" (yes, that's actually how some people greet each other)

That's not a problem in Mandarin anymore, although there used to be a lot of variants in transcribing Chinese: the Chinese government has standardized how the Roman alphabet is to be used (in spelling Mandarin at least; I don't know if there's a standardization for transcribing Cantonese etc.) Either "ni hao" or "ni hao ma" can occur, but I don't know what difference, if any, the final "ma" makes.

A lot. Ni hao is a simple greeting. Ni hao ma means, "How are you?"

Which means, if this is what Klonor has been saying, he can't claim to be able to greet in Putonghua since strictly speaking asking "how are you?" is not a greeting.

That's not a problem in Mandarin anymore, although there used to be a lot of variants in transcribing Chinese: the Chinese government has standardized how the Roman alphabet is to be used (in spelling Mandarin at least; I don't know if there's a standardization for transcribing Cantonese etc.) Either "ni hao" or "ni hao ma" can occur, but I don't know what difference, if any, the final "ma" makes.
If "dobar dan!" wasn't it, how about "zdravstvwitye!" (yes, that's actually how some people greet each other)

'Ma' is the equivalent of a question mark so the translation is better described as 'How are you?'

Ni hao is the standard greeting, if formal you'd say Nin hao much like the difference between 'tu' and 'vous'

EDIT: Screw you DH, I gave the meaning for 'ma' so ya boo sucks with your faster reply :)

I'd heard about that a while back, but never did follow up. Has the standardisation gained wide-spread acceptance? Is it based on a letter-to-letter switch or (Since I'm pretty sure Chinese doesn't have an writing system that lends itself to such an easy transfer) is it rather assigning certain vocal sounds to groups of Latin letters?

And "zdravstvwitye" does sound familiar, but I'm pretty sure I never knew what that meant (I probably just read it in a book somewhere. Does it mean "How do you do, hello"?)

EDIT: And now I know something new, and will modify my speaking accordingly. As I said, I've never claimed to be fluent in any of these languages, and will always correct myself if I'm wrong. I've been putting the question mark on, and will now stop.

'Ma' is the equivalent of a question mark so the translation is better described as 'How are you?'

Ni hao is the standard greeting, if formal you'd say Nin hao much like the difference between 'tu' and 'vous'

EDIT: Screw you DH, I gave the meaning for 'ma' so ya boo sucks with your faster reply :)
You need to get yourself a better job - one that gives you more free time to waste on pointless pursuits like this. I've done my 2 hours teaching for the day and got nothing else to do but some marking, ugh.

shit, and i left my psychic helmet at my pals flat. didn't think i'd need it today. sorry buddy, can't help you i'm afraid.

I'd heard about that a while back, but never did follow up. Has the standardisation gained wide-spread acceptance?
A billion people are using it, is that "wide-spread"?
Is it based on a letter-to-letter switch or (Since I'm pretty sure Chinese doesn't have an writing system that lends itself to such an easy transfer) is it rather assigning certain vocal sounds to groups of Latin letters?
The latter. The native Chinese system uses thousands of characters, one for each word; the easier words are written with simplified pictograms, which are used to form compound characters for other words with one "sounds-like" component and one "means-like". For example, with differing intonations (the Roman-alphabet transcriptions can be adorned with accent marks for these intonations, but mostly people don't bother), "ma" can be not just the particle at the end of "ni hao ma", but also "mother", or "horse". There is a pictogram for "horse", so "mother" is written as "horse-woman" (sounds like "horse", means like "woman").

And "zdravstvwitye" does sound familiar, but I'm pretty sure I never knew what that meant (I probably just read it in a book somewhere. Does it mean "How do you do, hello"?)
It's Russian. The zdrav- root means "healthy; wholesome"; zdravstvo is "good health"; zdrastvwitye is something like "make yourself healthy".
"Dobar dan" is also Slavic, not sure if it's Polish, Czech, or Serbo-Croat (maybe all of those? or slightly variant among them?), meaning "good day" like Bonjour or Guten Tag.

What I meant was are people actually using, or did the government just say people should use it, and they all continued doing their own thing (To mention that Chanukkah bit again, the "Ch" beginning has been "official" for a while now, but "Hanukah" still hasn't gone away. In a more relevent analogy, after the French Revolution the government decreed the creation of a new calendar and dating system that would mark time since the beginning of the Republic, but it never gained a hold outside of the halls of government). I take it you mean it is actually in use outside of official documents and whatnot.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_languages_by_number_of_native_speakers

Take your pick. If it wasn't one of the first five I mentioned, it is sure to be on this list.

What I meant was are people actually using, or did the government just say people should use it, and they all continued doing their own thing.
China doesn't work that way.
(To mention that Chanukkah bit again, the "Ch" beginning has been "official" for a while now, but "Hanukah" still hasn't gone away. In a more relevent analogy, after the French Revolution the government decreed the creation of a new calendar and dating system that would mark time since the beginning of the Republic, but it never gained a hold outside of the halls of government). I take it you mean it is actually in use outside of official documents and whatnot.
In the schools, in the newspapers, and so on. The old character-system is not in danger of disappearing, to be sure.

China doesn't work that way.

Well, a better answer is that the Communist government introduced simplified Chinese to help increase literacy - most people in mainland China use simplified Chinese to write characters if not all.

For romanisation, they did the same, creating Hanyu Pinyin [something else at the end] and that is used by most people, if not all, as well. Even western textbooks now use it rather than the old Wade-Giles system.

So yes, the government decreed it and it was accepted in mainland China.

It wasn't just a whim though, or a form of control, it was done for very good and intellectually argued reasons.

In the schools, in the newspapers, and so on. The old character-system is not in danger of disappearing, to be sure.

Hard to see the future is. I can't think of many people who use traditional Chinese other than to show their ability or for art form in terms of calligraphy but, in general day to day activity, nearly all use simplified Chinese.

Places like Hong Kong still use traditional and, I suppose, they're unlikely to change although, in some ways, I think they might as well.