The Language Thread!

[Etherealicer]

When I come to this thread, I always remember this one:



 

And when I see the coast-guard spot I'm always reminded of this:



Both are

[ColoSwiss]

A couple of        

[firiki]

Although most people around the world speak about "spanish", in Spain they refer to the language as "castellano" (from the kingdom of Castilla).

There are also some local dialects that don't resemble nothing at all, derived from different populations coming toghether and trying to find ways to understand each other. We have one such dialect in the north of Portugal, near Spain. Mirandês/Mirandum (from Miranda do Douro). It resembles the language of the spanish Galiza mixed with archaic portuguese terms.

Gallego? It sounds funny, I like it. I also like Occitan. Same as Portuguese, though, they make my head spin... Nothing wrong with that

It is intriguing how Portuguese can understand Spaniards who can understand Italians but not the other way round (there are exceptions, of course). A rule in linguistics says that the greater the distance from the metropolitan area that a language originates in the greater the divergence in languages deriving from said language, that the metropolitans don't understand.

I remember reading about a study concluding that by the end of the century Brits won't be able to understand English spoken in other places of the world, like in Jamaica lessay.

[rishardh]

Let it go in 25 languages. The Portuguese bit is my favorite.

[pfrsantos]

Although most people around the world speak about "spanish", in Spain they refer to the language as "castellano" (from the kingdom of Castilla).

There are also some local dialects that don't resemble nothing at all, derived from different populations coming toghether and trying to find ways to understand each other. We have one such dialect in the north of Portugal, near Spain. Mirandês/Mirandum (from Miranda do Douro). It resembles the language of the spanish Galiza mixed with archaic portuguese terms.

Gallego? It sounds funny, I like it. I also like Occitan. Same as Portuguese, though, they make my head spin... Nothing wrong with that

It is intriguing how Portuguese can understand Spaniards who can understand Italians but not the other way round (there are exceptions, of course). A rule in linguistics says that the greater the distance from the metropolitan area that a language originates in the greater the divergence in languages deriving from said language, that the metropolitans don't understand.

I remember reading about a study concluding that by the end of the century Brits won't be able to understand English spoken in other places of the world, like in Jamaica lessay.

The way the spanish/portuguese in or near Galiza speak is more archaic. One of the peculiar things they do is to add a "t" to every "ch" sound. It woul be like some english speaking group would say "catch" instead of "cash" (when are you going to pay the catch I lend you? take out the tratsh).

We can also understand italian (latin roots and all). The brazilian don't understand us so well. We speak faster and with "closer" vowels. They have a more "singing" accent.

Strangelly enough, or not, the russians (and related) have no trouble learning portuguese. The basic sounds are very similar.

[Whoey]

Here's a language tree for the Indo-European languages. Supposedly the closer they are to one another the easier they are to learn.

I had a couple of years of German in school. A language professor told me German was the second easiest language for an English speaker to learn, after Swedish. A librarian friend who was into languages told me German was the second easiest to learn, after Dutch. So went with German.   

Basque is not there... it's not really spoken locally but we do border with provinces where it is spoken more regularly and it's not abnormal for rural areas here to speak Basque as well as Spanish. Apart from a couple words it's not a language I've had a chance to absorb yet... I have more than enough with maintaining my English, forgetting my French and learning Spanish...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basque_language

Basque is geographically surrounded by Romance languages but is not related to any of them, being instead a language isolate. It is the last remaining descendant of the pre-Indo-European languages of Western Europe.

 

[firiki]

Here's a language tree for the Indo-European languages. Supposedly the closer they are to one another the easier they are to learn.

I had a couple of years of German in school. A language professor told me German was the second easiest language for an English speaker to learn, after Swedish. A librarian friend who was into languages told me German was the second easiest to learn, after Dutch. So went with German.   

Basque is not there... it's not really spoken locally but we do border with provinces where it is spoken more regularly and it's not abnormal for rural areas here to speak Basque as well as Spanish. Apart from a couple words it's not a language I've had a chance to absorb yet... I have more than enough with maintaining my English, forgetting my French and learning Spanish...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basque_language

Basque is geographically surrounded by Romance languages but is not related to any of them, being instead a language isolate. It is the last remaining descendant of the pre-Indo-European languages of Western Europe.

 

¡Bienvenido a la locura, hombre! Watch it or you could become like Salvatore in The Name of the Rose (Take a look at Occitan, if you dare...)

I took two years of Civilización española, I can't say I remember much but one thing that has stuck with me is that the strong Spanish [R] as initial letter to a word and the [RR] are considered a basque influence.

A friend of mine, a passionate philologist of Greek, told me some months ago that the origins of the Basque language enigma had been solved, placing said origins somewhere in Anatolia, same as the Etruscans, but I wouldn't know what to say without further reading.

Finally, there's this: http://www.diariovasco.com/20130404/mas-actualidad/sociedad/linguista-asegura-euskera-procede-201304041315.html

Same article in English, with some interesting comments at the bottom: http://www.blogseitb.us/basqueboise/2013/04/06/has-the-origin-of-basque-language-finally-been-discovered/

Note that the Dogon have been credited with advanced astronomical knowledge and possible contact with extraterrestrials https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dogon_people

[firiki]

Although most people around the world speak about "spanish", in Spain they refer to the language as "castellano" (from the kingdom of Castilla).

There are also some local dialects that don't resemble nothing at all, derived from different populations coming toghether and trying to find ways to understand each other. We have one such dialect in the north of Portugal, near Spain. Mirandês/Mirandum (from Miranda do Douro). It resembles the language of the spanish Galiza mixed with archaic portuguese terms.

Gallego? It sounds funny, I like it. I also like Occitan. Same as Portuguese, though, they make my head spin... Nothing wrong with that

It is intriguing how Portuguese can understand Spaniards who can understand Italians but not the other way round (there are exceptions, of course). A rule in linguistics says that the greater the distance from the metropolitan area that a language originates in the greater the divergence in languages deriving from said language, that the metropolitans don't understand.

I remember reading about a study concluding that by the end of the century Brits won't be able to understand English spoken in other places of the world, like in Jamaica lessay.

The way the spanish/portuguese in or near Galiza speak is more archaic. One of the peculiar things they do is to add a "t" to every "ch" sound. It woul be like some english speaking group would say "catch" instead of "cash" (when are you going to pay the catch I lend you? take out the tratsh).

We can also understand italian (latin roots and all). The brazilian don't understand us so well. We speak faster and with "closer" vowels. They have a more "singing" accent.

Strangelly enough, or not, the russians (and related) have no trouble learning portuguese. The basic sounds are very similar.

Oh, I believe you. The first time I heard people speaking Portuguese I thought it was Russian spoken with a German accent. Then I realised I could understand some of the things they said but I don't speak neither German nor Russian (I wouldn't mind if I did, though) so I just had to go ask them what language they spoke. This was in 1997, before the Internet, on a boat on the Guadalquivir in Seville.

As for Galiza speak, I knew a guy from outside Lugo. Initially I thought he took pride in his localism, although it was obvious that this wan't the case. I asked and he explained that he preferred to speak this way rather than official castellano. I already knew about gallego but nothing much (I still know little about it). It was a pleasant experience.

BTW, I've been in Italy, France, Spain, Portugal. The only place where people spoke decent English was in Portugal. I don't know how to explain this, despite being aware of the difficulties occurring from differences between Romance and Germanic languages.

[Gerhard Gerber]

Fascinating stuff 

[dks]

some nations will refuse to speak English, or any other language, even though they know how to.

Usually buying something from them magically improves their linguistic skills   

[firiki]

I still remember that French lady I'd buy cigarettes and newspapers from; she was terrified of this (adequate in French) foreigner, holding her breath until I got out... The next bureau de tabac-presse was half an hour's walk away. After a while I started handing her the money first.

I doubt I ever did something to cause her to be alarmed. In her case the selling point was proximity. 

[zoidberg]

I still remeber that French lady I'd buy cigarettes and newspapers from; she was terrified of this (adequate in French) foreigner, holding her breath until I got out... The next bureau de tabac-presse was half an hour's walk away. After a while I started handing her the money first.

I doubt I ever did something to cause her to be alarmed. In her case the selling point was proximity. 

You were wearing pants right?   

[firiki]

I still remeber that French lady I'd buy cigarettes and newspapers from; she was terrified of this (adequate in French) foreigner, holding her breath until I got out... The next bureau de tabac-presse was half an hour's walk away. After a while I started handing her the money first.

I doubt I ever did something to cause her to be alarmed. In her case the selling point was proximity. 

You were wearing pants right?   

I think I was. Maybe it was my beard. Back then I'd shave every two months.

Edit: Spelling & grammar

[zoidberg]

I still remeber that French lady I'd buy cigarettes and newspapers from; she was terrified of this (adequate in French) foreigner, holding her breath until I got out... The next bureau de tabac-presse was half an hour's walk away. After a while I started handing her the money first.

I doubt I ever did something to cause her to be alarmed. In her case the selling point was proximity. 

You were wearing pants right?   

I think I did. Maybe it was my beard. Back then I'd shave every two months.

Edit: Spelling

I've gone from shower and shave once a season to once a month, it's a step in the right direction.

[dks]

As long as you smell better than the sheep   

[firiki]

Well...

[firiki]

I still remeber that French lady I'd buy cigarettes and newspapers from; she was terrified of this (adequate in French) foreigner, holding her breath until I got out... The next bureau de tabac-presse was half an hour's walk away. After a while I started handing her the money first.

I doubt I ever did something to cause her to be alarmed. In her case the selling point was proximity. 

You were wearing pants right?   

I think I did. Maybe it was my beard. Back then I'd shave every two months.

Edit: Spelling

I've gone from shower and shave once a season to once a month, it's a step in the right direction.

Annoying people have become scarcer? 

[Whoey]

some nations will refuse to speak English, or any other language, even though they know how to.

Usually buying something from them magically improves their linguistic skills   

I worked as an English teacher when we first arrived in Spain, and it seems the norm for a lot of companies to force employees to take English class as an unpaid part of their work day (2-3h/week partially government financed and likely a tax writeoff).

My wife still works as a teacher, and gives classes to students of all ages as well as in companies. She's also studying a degree in English philology, to put on top of her Institute of Linguists translation diploma (English to Spanish). She also does her radio show in English, which as a native Spanish speaker is a proper feat to think and act so quickly in a secondary language. We do watch most TV in English, and have a good mix of Australian, New Zealand, British and American programming to absorb as much accents as possible.

We both get the impression most people here make a minimal effort. It's not uncommon for everything to be dubbed into Spanish, whereas I believe in many other EU countries a lot of stuff is undubbed but with local language appropriate subtitling. This makes a huge difference. They even poke fun of Spanish people's English in advertising on TV here, and recently there's been a line of merchandising where they take Spanish sayings and translate them literally into English where they make no sense at all in most cases but is funny to Spanish people I guess... many examples here: http://busqueda.fnac.es/Search/SearchResult.aspx?SCat=0%211&Search=Superbrit%C3%A1nico&sft=1&submitbtn=OK

[firiki]

Gimme subtitles any freaking time... In many European countries practically everything is dubbed, they even have people speSmurfpillsing in dubbing certain actors! Thankfully, most things are subtitled here. I can't understand why some people don't like subtitles; you can hear the original tone of the voice which helps get the feeling better, you can improve your language skills, subtitles cost less.

I've hated dubbing ever since I was a kid, they'd dub some Japanese anime into Greek and because the mouths on the screen kept speaking you'd hear the same thing two or three times or something that made little sense or a voice stretching and speaking unnaturally or, or, or...

[Etherealicer]

some nations will refuse to speak English, or any other language, even though they know how to.

Usually buying something from them magically improves their linguistic skills   

I would not generalize that. I find that people get friendlier if they know I'm from Switzerland and if they are able are more willing to speak German with me.

As for Switzerland, here we even switch to German when speaking to Germans (as opposed to Swiss German).

[firiki]

some nations will refuse to speak English, or any other language, even though they know how to.

Usually buying something from them magically improves their linguistic skills   

I would not generalize that. I find that people get friendlier if they know I'm from Switzerland and if they are able are more willing to speak German with me.

As for Switzerland, here we even switch to German when speaking to Germans (as opposed to Swiss German).

What about English?

And, do you guys have subtitles there or things get dubbed?


Edit: When people hear I'm Greek they mostly turn friendlier*, some even curiously looking at the exotic animal I've even had one guy in Gibraltar ask me where's Greece

*That was until 3 years ago, I haven't been abroad since so I can't tell.

[Fortytwo]

Luckily Sweden is too small to make it economically viable to dub stuff so we're basically forced to use subtitles/or learn better English. Kids show are about the only thing being dubbed. Subtitles can be a saviour, not often because the English is difficult (although that happens of course) but more often because I see plenty of stuff where the sound-mix is bad to the point where explosions or laughs overshadow the dialogue (or I'm just going deaf).

[Etherealicer]

some nations will refuse to speak English, or any other language, even though they know how to.

Usually buying something from them magically improves their linguistic skills   

I would not generalize that. I find that people get friendlier if they know I'm from Switzerland and if they are able are more willing to speak German with me.

As for Switzerland, here we even switch to German when speaking to Germans (as opposed to Swiss German).

What about English?

And, do you guys have subtitles there or things get dubbed?


Edit: When people hear I'm Greek they mostly turn friendlier*, some even curiously looking at the exotic animal I've even had one guy in Gibraltar ask me where's Greece

*That was until 3 years ago, I haven't been abroad since so I can't tell.

Mostly dubbed in German which is a weird language, why can't they talk like us

But we also get lots of stuff in English and lots of people speak it fairly well.
Go to any language school anywhere on this planet where you get an internationally recognized language diploma (like Cambridge Certified and such) and you will notice that half the students are from Switzerland. My almost wife is one of those, once a year she goes some-place for a week to learn a language and wherever she went, lots of students from Chocolate-Clock-Cash-Central

[Gerhard Gerber]

As for Switzerland, here we even switch to German when speaking to Germans (as opposed to Swiss German).

I heard that many times while doing the knife making course, the maker is Swiss, many German tourists as guests at the camp.

Dubbed tv shows and movies are a horror from my younger days, I simply cannot understand how anybody endures that, I would much rather watch grass grow! 

[Don Pablo]

Hei. 
Hvordan går det.

[Steinar]

Berre bra, takk som spør! 

[pomsbz]

Didn't know about this thread. I'll contribute something.

This is the Nissan Juke. Commonly celebrated as one of the ugliest cars ever made.



It's sold as a Juke here even though the word means 'cockroach' in Hebrew...

[AlephZero]

Didn't know about this thread. I'll contribute something.

This is the Nissan Juke. Commonly celebrated as one of the ugliest cars ever made.

(Image removed from quote.)

It's sold as a Juke here even though the word means 'cockroach' in Hebrew...

Not really ugly, I do like it 

[AlephZero]

Hei. 
Hvordan går det.

Going all polyglot, huh?

That's like Finnish, Norwegian, Swedish and probly Danish all in one...

 

[AlephZero]

Now I have to find my Lang Belta notebook... Sabaka!