I love languages!!some else does?

Page 2 of 2 [ 22 posts ]  Go to page Previous  1, 2


some one else loves to study languages
yes (ja,jawol,hai,oui) 100%  100%  [ 15 ]
no (nee,neine,iie,non) 0%  0%  [ 0 ]
Total votes : 15

Tim_Tex
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 2 Jul 2004
Age: 45
Gender: Male
Posts: 46,269
Location: Houston, Texas

25 Jan 2009, 10:36 pm

I took both Spanish and French in high school and college, respectively.



twoshots
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 26 Nov 2007
Age: 39
Gender: Male
Posts: 3,731
Location: Boötes void

25 Jan 2009, 10:50 pm

Interestingly, Latin had no word for yes; this is why "yes" varies so among the Romance languages, the oddest one being Romanian which has adopted the Slavic word.


_________________
* here for the nachos.


mitharatowen
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 21 Oct 2008
Gender: Male
Posts: 3,675
Location: Arizona

26 Jan 2009, 11:52 am

I'm actually a lot more into imaginary languages and codes. I guess the real ones just seem so 'mainstream' to me. I like to know things that not a lot of people know. I absolutely love codes. Always have my whole life.



Keeno
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 8 Mar 2006
Age: 50
Gender: Male
Posts: 4,875
Location: Earth

26 Jan 2009, 7:52 pm

I was looking at the Wikipedias in different languages last night. Wikipedia now has versions in 265 languages.

I was looking at Wikipedia versions in one or two of the Native American languages and found some intriguing things when looking at the geographical articles in particular e.g. the US state and country lists. In the Iñupiak language of Alaska the names of states appear to be the same as in English, apart from those with 'New' in the name which instead have the Iñupiak word for 'new'. But the name for Florida stood out - instead of an F there's this weird letter I'd never come across before and the name is Ŋlorida. Ŋ turns out to be an 'ng' sound. Why in the world do they choose an 'ng' sound to replace 'f', which does not exist in that language, when there are much closer sounds such as 'p' that do exist in the language? I mean, 'f' and 'ng' are nowhere near similar. Similarly, the word for 'flag' appears to be borrowed from English, but it is Ŋlag.

In Navajo, and their lists of countries/states, their name for the United States appears to be named after the city of Washington DC (Wááshindoon in Navajo) with a couple of extra words that must mean 'country'. Also, Wááshindoon appears to be the word for 'capital city' in Navajo. So to say Edinburgh is the capital of Scotland, they would refer to it as the "Washington of Scotland". Interesting.



twoshots
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 26 Nov 2007
Age: 39
Gender: Male
Posts: 3,731
Location: Boötes void

26 Jan 2009, 9:00 pm

I always enjoyed learning things about languages, especially phonetics, but learning actual languages usually sends me into a narcoleptic coma. Difficult to learn a language when you don't interact with other people. Know a tiny smattering of French and Japanese. Had a near flawless accent while still in the "Japanese for tourists" stage.

Two languages only - English. And bad English.


_________________
* here for the nachos.


pluto
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 26 Aug 2006
Age: 64
Gender: Male
Posts: 1,576
Location: Paisley,Scotland UK

27 Jan 2009, 6:34 pm

I find language fascinating,including etymology (the study of word origins).
The last language I started to learn was Russian,which is even more intriguing because
the Cyrillic alphabet makes you look in a new way at what you thought were familiar
letters.In Russian P=R,H=N etc.
As a Czech proverb says "Learn a new language and get a new soul"


_________________
I have lost the will to be apathetic