The Official Languages Thread

[Rían]

Yes, some sounds, I imagine, would be pretty much impossible to pick up as an adult. It's interesting to hear the accents of my family-in-law; they went over to South America when the oldest kid was 6 and they (parents-in-law) were in their late 20's. My father-in-law speaks Spanish the best, vocabulary-wise, and his accent is quite good, but not as good as his kids, who picked up the language when they were quite young.

I'm sure my German vowel sounds weren't flawless, but I'm lucky enough to have a good ear in this area, and once fooled a Swiss storekeeper into thinking I was German when I greeted her in German as I came into her store. I doubt if I could do well with your Muslim friend's family names, tho, altho I would like to try my hand at it - it would be interesting!

I wish we could get samples of everyone's voices, since we represent quite a lot of languages here at the Moot

Another sound I picked up fairly well, and which is not in English, was the Thai "ng" at the beginning of words. It was really hard to get - very unnatural in English - but I finally got it to the satisfaction of my Thai friend.

Languages are interesting!

[Linaewen]

Originally Posted by RÃ*an

Yes, some sounds, I imagine, would be pretty much impossible to pick up as an adult. It's interesting to hear the accents of my family-in-law; they went over to South America when the oldest kid was 6 and they (parents-in-law) were in their late 20's. My father-in-law speaks Spanish the best, vocabulary-wise, and his accent is quite good, but not as good as his kids, who picked up the language when they were quite young.

That's right, kids find it much easier to pick up sounds, and languages in general. That's because their brains are still like sponges.
Sometimes it's not even articulating the sounds that's the problem, it's hearing the difference between the new sound and other ones. For example, some Spanish people have problems differentiating between 'bin' and 'bean' as they can't hear any difference.
(Btw I initially wrote the diff between 'bin' and 'been' then realised that I'm so lazy I pronounce them the same way )

Languages are interesting!

Languages are the coolest

[Rían]

Originally Posted by Linaewen

Sometimes it's not even articulating the sounds that's the problem, it's hearing the difference between the new sound and other ones. For example, some Spanish people have problems differentiating between 'bin' and 'bean' as they can't hear any difference.

This reminds me of a section in one of the HoME books where it talks about how the Elves wouldn't hear the difference between f and v, IIRC. Yes, that's a good point - you have to HEAR the difference before you can attempt to reproduce the sound.

[Earniel]

For Linaewen and the other language-minded mooters: A book we all would love to read

Do not forget to read the comments as well, they're cool too.

[Rían]

what fun!!

I was just thinking of starting a thread on expressions from different countries. I always liked the expressions talking about a person who is not too intelligent, like one brick short of a load; the lights are on but no one's home; one bagel short of a dozen; etc.

[Curubethion]

Salve! Sum Curubethion, pedes Fenwei. (Hoc est in Latino)

[Linaewen]

Originally Posted by Eärniel

For Linaewen and the other language-minded mooters: A book we all would love to read

Do not forget to read the comments as well, they're cool too.

Ah, danke Eärniel! Very interesting, and amusing, indeed. I like the Indonesian phrase "makan angin" (literally: 'to eat air') which means "to get some fresh air." Makes me think of people chewing on air. They also use the word "makan" ('to eat') in the sense of taking up a certain amount of time in "makan waktu" (literally "eats time") e.g. Perjalanan ke Bali makan waktu 6 jam- the trip to Bali took 6 hours.

[Linaewen]

Jag har just insett att jag har redan glömt min svenska. Du borde använda den mer, Nerdanel och Jon, annars så kommer jag att glömma allt!