The Official Language Thread II

[Jonathan]

Oui, c'est la rivière près duquel il y a des gens qui parlent meänkieli!

Peut-être par contraste avec et une bonne traduction de "as opposed to". Et je dirais Ã* la difference de pour dire "unlike". Example: Eärniel, Ã* la difference de Nurvingiel, parle néerlandais.
Eärniel, qu'est-ce que tu pense de ces traductions?

Oui, je suis fluent en anglais, français et suédois. Je peux parler un peu d'espagnol aussi ("Puedo hablar un poco de español también")

Je ne suis pas étonné qu'une Belge et une Canadienne ont appris le français

[Earniel]

Originally Posted by Jonathan

Eärniel, ma relation avec le français est exactemment comme ça!

C'est rassurant de savoir je ne suis la seule qui a ce problème.

Originally Posted by Nurvingiel

Earniel et Jonathan, je vous comprend parfaitment a propos de la vocabulaire. Je crois que mon vocabulaire est passable pour ce que je veux dire (mais, je devais rechercher quelque mots pour ce poste!), mais je vois aussi que j'utilise beaucoup de les meme mots!

Je pense que nous trois ont presque le même niveau de connaisance de la langue française, c'est Ã* cause de ça que nous nous comprenons si bien. J'ai l'idée que si une autre personne francophone vienne ici, elle dois parler plus simple pour nous.

Earniel et Jonathan, combiens de langues parlez-vouz? Earniel, tu es fluent en neerlandais, englais, et francais n'est-ce pas? Et Jonathan, tu es fluent en suedois, englais, et francais oui?

Comme j'ai dit je ne suis pas vraiement fluent en Français mais ça va. Je connais aussi un peu d'Allemand. Surtout pas bien, c'est pire que mon Français, mais j'ai beaucoup de chance parce que l'Allemand et le Néerlandais sont proche en vocabulaire et prononciation. Puis je connais un tout petit peu de l'Espagnol, mais ça c'est seulement quelque mots et quelque conjugaisons simples. Je l'utilise presque jamais donc j'ai oublié beaucoup.

Tu as raison quand tu dit qu'avec l'Anglais on peut s'entirer presque toujours. Il y a beaucoup de monde que parle l'Anglais. Je pense que seulement 30 millions des personnes dans le monde, plus ou moins, parlent le Néerlandais. Et la Belgique est au milieu des language plus grandes, donc on dois étudier des autre languages quand nous voulons sortir de notre pays. Et en notre petit Belgique nous avons déjÃ* trois langues officielles! C'est très different dans les États Unis ou Canada, comme tu l'a dis.

Originally Posted by Jonathan

Eärniel, qu'est-ce que tu pense de ces traductions?

Je suis d'accord, mais moi, je dis plutôt 'en contraste'.

[littleadanel]

Originally Posted by Nurvingiel

*bump*

You speak Hungarian? Awesome! Finnish, Hungarian, and a language from the Ural mountains are in the same language family (which is quite small), is that right? I wouldn't mind seeing you speak Hungarian, even though I wouldn't understand it.

Aussi, s'il y a personne qui veux parler en Francais, je suis pret! Je suis aussi facher par-ce que je ne peux pas ecrire les accents par-ce que les codes "alt" ne fonctionne pas en Firefox.

I haven't been around the 'moot for ages But Nurv, you brought me back, reviving this thread...

Yes I do, because I am Hungarian. But it's no fun talking to myself!

Originally Posted by Jonathan

I think all of the Finno-Ugric languages originally come from the Ural mountains . Finnish, Hungarian and Estonian are probably the only languages of that family that are national (spoken in Finland, Hungary and Estonia). But then there are many dialects, such as Sámi and Meänkieli (in Scandinavia) and probably there's a number of Baltic dialects too.

I am learning about the Finno-Ugric languages now (or, I'm supposed to do so, but many classes have been cancelled lately because of the teacher's illness.) I should dig up my notebook...

And, and, I'm also supposed to understand all the French you three wrote... *bangs head on desk* *concentrates hard* Okay...

J'ai étudié le français pendant 4 ans, mais je l'ai quitté - pas de mon décision mieux. Dans une année, j'ai oublié beaucoup... mais je ne voulait pas oublier tout, alors maintenant j'attends un cours de français á l'université. On va voir...

Des accents - Nurv, est-ce que tu peux utiliser AltGr pour quelques des lettres? Par example, AltGr + 3, et après a, et voilá: â. Mais ce ne fonctionne pas pour ^e... J'ai é et á parçe qu'on les a en hongrois aussi, je peux écrir ç, â, ë, ä avec AltGr, mais pas è (je l'ai copié)... ça dépend du clavier, je pense.

And I don't know much about the Alt codes either. They aren't the same everywhere, anyway. It was annoying when I downloaded a Tengwar font and half of the codes for special characters didn't work. It's easier if I write them myself...

Ah, l'anglais, c'est plus facile...

[Earniel]

Bonjour, littleadanel. Je n'avais aucun idée que tu parles aussi en Français.

[Nurvingiel]

Je suis si heureux que tu as retourner Littleadanel! J'espère que tu as quelque chances a practiquer en Français. C'étais une bonne idée de l'étudire Ã* l'université.


I don't have an AltGr key on my keyboard, but I know what you're talking about. However, if I copy the character from Character Map, it will paste into Entmoot. Heh, duh.

[littleadanel]

Originally Posted by Eärniel

Bonjour, littleadanel. Je n'avais aucun idée que tu parles aussi en Français.

Très souvent, je n'ai aucun idée que j'en parle... Je comprends que je lis, mais parler... c'est le problème.

Nurv - oui, c'était une bonne idée, et un possibilité aussi - pour deux semestres, mes classes sont gratuit.

And I'm somewhat of a language freak, really. I extremely enjoy most of my linguistic classes now (am a proud second-year English major at uni)... more than it would be normal. I have taken up French again... I also learn about the Finno-Ugric language family... lush.

I'd have a question - are there any languages you'd really like to learn (if you had the time/energy/possibility etc)?

As for myself, I know I'm supposed to be focusing on French now, and I like it too... but this summer I decided that I want to learn Croatian someday. My family thought I was joking when I mentioned it to them during our holiday there... but I seriously mean it. It'd be cool to speak a neighboring country's language too.

[Gwaimir Windgem]

The Arabic language has the most beautiful alphabet I've seen. I want to learn it someday, too. After I get fluent in Russian and Portuguese, and learn French, probably.

[Jonathan]

Originally Posted by Gwaimir Windgem

The Arabic language has the most beautiful alphabet I've seen. I want to learn it someday, too. After I get fluent in Russian and Portuguese, and learn French, probably.

Arabic does have a beautiful alphabet but few languages can compete with French when it comes to euphony.
Quelle belle langue!

[Gwaimir Windgem]

That's definitely true. I love the sound of French; it has a certain...je ne sais quoi!

[Mari]

Originally Posted by Gwaimir Windgem

That's definitely true. I love the sound of French; it has a certain...je ne sais quoi!

I really don't understand why people think French is such a beautiful language, or the 'language of love'. I prefer Japanese. It has such a soft tone and you can express so many things through your choice of words and the way you pronounce them! I love Japanese
I would really like to learn Russian as well, so I can finally read the sources on the Russo-Japanese (1904-05) war myself.

[Jonathan]

Dutch-speakers don't have a say of what is beautiful about a language...




Just kidding

[Gwaimir Windgem]

Originally Posted by Jonathan

Dutch-speakers don't have a say of what is beautiful about a language...




Just kidding

I have a Slovakian friend who contends that Dutch just sounds like pigs oinking.

Speaking of my Slovakian friend, the Slavic languages are also very beautiful; for me, of course, that primarily means Russian.

Latin is also quite beautiful sounding, especially with the Italian pronunciation, or (and I may be a bit biased here ) the medieval English.

I will admit that Portuguese is not a particularly beautiful language, but it's fun; I'm rather fond of its quirks.

I'm surprised you find Japanese to be soft-sounding, Mari; it has a rather sharp sound to me.

[The last sane person]

Originally Posted by Gwaimir Windgem

I'm surprised you find Japanese to be soft-sounding, Mari; it has a rather sharp sound to me.

Sounds rather like angry geese to me...

[Nautipus]

The Japanese language to me is rather sharp and, to an extent, pretty angry sounding as well.

After I learn Arabic, I'd love to learn Turkish and Romanian, to better understand their histories.

[hectorberlioz]

Well Mari and I both understand what languages are cool, and which ones aren't.

Mari, don't listen to these foolish folks. People say that German is "harsh", yet it is quite lovely when compared to French and Italian, which are both out-of this-world wacky languages.

[The last sane person]

Originally Posted by Nautipus

The Japanese language to me is rather sharp and, to an extent, pretty angry sounding as well.

After I learn Arabic, I'd love to learn Turkish and Romanian, to better understand their histories.

Good Lord, Arabic is even worse when it comes to harshness and angry sounding. Turkish not so much, and I don't know about Romanian, but Arabic is most certainly one of the harshest languages on the ear.

[Mari]

Originally Posted by Gwaimir Windgem

I have a Slovakian friend who contends that Dutch just sounds like pigs oinking.

Speaking of my Slovakian friend, the Slavic languages are also very beautiful; for me, of course, that primarily means Russian.

Latin is also quite beautiful sounding, especially with the Italian pronunciation, or (and I may be a bit biased here ) the medieval English.

I will admit that Portuguese is not a particularly beautiful language, but it's fun; I'm rather fond of its quirks.

I'm surprised you find Japanese to be soft-sounding, Mari; it has a rather sharp sound to me.

I sooo do not sound like a pig oinking!!! I am a mad dog growling and if you're not carefull, I might just bite! Just kidding. Dutch is indeed not the most beautiful language. Lot of harsh sounds. Actually after not having spoken much Dutch for nearly a year, my throat started hurting if I spoke a -g-,-r- or a combination of them.

To me Japanese is very soft, perhaps in comparison to Dutch, but also a bit compared to English. But a lot depends on the occasion and the language used. I find that women speak softer and the less formal the conversation, the more emotion you can put in the words. I can think of several short sentences having different meanings depending on the pronounciation. In Dutch you pretty much say what you say with words.

Russian in an interesting language I would love to learn, but I can't say I think it sounds pretty

[Mari]

Originally Posted by hectorberlioz

Well Mari and I both understand what languages are cool, and which ones aren't.

Mari, don't listen to these foolish folks. People say that German is "harsh", yet it is quite lovely when compared to French and Italian, which are both out-of this-world wacky languages.

Yes, French is weird. In my brain it's completely mixed up with Japanese. When I try and speak French, Japanese comes out...
German is just fine though.
And don't worry, I'm not a good listener

[Earniel]

Right, do I kick all your butts and posts to the old and now-feeling-very-unloved Language thread of will you lot go quietly?

edit: Aaaaand, you've been kicked. Curtesy of your friendly neighbour mod.

[Nautipus]

Originally Posted by The last sane person

Good Lord, Arabic is even worse when it comes to harshness and angry sounding. Turkish not so much, and I don't know about Romanian, but Arabic is most certainly one of the harshest languages on the ear.

Romanian is a romance language, supposedly, but I dont know enough about it to make the call. Arabic to me sounds very musical, not harsh. I guess it is a matter of the personal opinion.