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Post by Alrik on Jul 22, 2006 20:15:57 GMT
Did you know that several words in Yiddish sound very much like German words ? Actually, Yiddish (the little I know of it) appears to me like an amalgam of different languages - German was one of them. And, of course, the "source language". In one kind of dictionary I have stand a *lot* of Yiddish words that have become common German words - slightly altered, mostly.
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Post by Glance A'Lot on Jul 23, 2006 8:48:28 GMT
;D - reminds me of my father, who called Czek, my mother's native language, 'not a language but a throat disease'
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Post by Ubereil on Jul 23, 2006 10:23:42 GMT
That's Danish, not Czech Glance . Übereil
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Post by Galadriel on Jul 23, 2006 13:45:05 GMT
That's Danish, not Czech Glance . Übereil Hihi, that was dry Ubs ;D
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Post by Glance A'Lot on Jul 23, 2006 22:11:05 GMT
There are dry Scandinavians? ;D
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Post by Will (Property of Silva) on Jul 25, 2006 19:10:32 GMT
LOL that's funny.
Anyway it works similarly with English and Spanish, and probably French, we probably should ask Fille on that though. Since they all have roots in latin we get similarities. like.
Bank = banco To practice = practicar
Etc., I wonder if some of these words though came about when English and Spanish mixed. I know there is a big difference between Spanish in Mexico vs. Spanish in Spain.
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Post by Glance A'Lot on Jul 26, 2006 8:25:58 GMT
...vs. Spanish in Spain.Kastilian or Katalonian? Or... ;D It ain't that easy - all languages have their regional differences. ...and probably French, we probably should ask Fille...But in Canada they speak a dialect, or with an accent, whereas 'à Paris' the metropole od light and love, the navel of the francophone world,... KICK!{You're German Glance - and the French you learned when living in Paris is tainted with a Germanic accent!} <Ahem> - Yes, what was I about to say? Ah ja - words wandered from lamguage to language as the people wandered. This phenomen accelerates in our world, as while people do not physically travel so much (safe for some of you that live in a touristic area might get the impression when busloads of *XXX* are unloaded and swarm your country) but our minds wander in a global virtual world - and it taints our language, all of ours.
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Post by LaFille on Jul 28, 2006 0:43:39 GMT
Not too sure what the point was to ask me was... but yeah, French have a lot of words sharing roots with English and Spanish. Bank is "banque" and practice is "pratiquer", for example; knowing French and English allows to understand Spanish somewhat well too, if it's not spoken too fast. As for the Canadian French dialect... The French spoken in Quebec and the one spoken in Paris are both as different to the one spoken at the time of colonization, IMO. And the one spoken in the Canadian maritime area is probably just as different, it seems closer to the old French and English; it takes some time for Quebecers not used to it to understand and people from France even often need that one inerpretes it for them. For accents though, I think that a lot of some people's capacities with it come from their youth; one that learned several languages or imitated a lot of different accents when a kid won't have much trouble with most pronounciations and will have it easier to learn new ones.
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Post by Alrik on Jul 29, 2006 12:09:36 GMT
The basic languager fror Spanish, French, Portuguese, Italy, and I think even Romanian is Latin.
England had a rather celtic - german language basis before William The Conqueror appeared. With him, the influence of French grw - and this with latin as basis.
Frederick Bodmer wrote in his book "the loom of languages" that he considers English to be a mixtture of both, and as a result of this mixture, it is to him a "reduced" language with very simply grammar and often simple words, compared to far more ancient languages.
I can recommend that book rto anyone who's *seriously* interested in languages, despite its age.
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Post by Will (Property of Silva) on Jul 29, 2006 20:14:42 GMT
I wonder if English is a simplier language, if it has a greater facility for learning. Or even if it is a better language to convert ideas from.
Considering the native language of Eskimos, they have over a hundred words for ice.
I wonder if the more complex languages are dictated by the location they live in. This would suggest that the complexity would be ideal for that particular environment. Consequently, how well would an Eskimo speaking their native tongue describe a tropical environment.
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Post by Alrik on Jul 29, 2006 20:59:30 GMT
I think, considering how widely English is common nowadays, I think it *is* easy to learn, otherwise it wouldn't be so common.
But on the other hand ... There *were* times in ancient Europe, when Greek had the same position, and in the so-called "Middle Ages" it was Latin, And both have a more complex grammar than English.
The only language Frederick Bodmer considered as "simple" is Chinese. Not the letters, the language. The grammar, especially.
That he didn't mention are what I know as "creole languages". These are mixtures of many languages of the world, and arose mostly in places with many different inhabitants, former slaves, for example.
He considers Sanskrit as the most complex language of the world, I think.
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Post by Elliot Kane on Jul 29, 2006 21:32:36 GMT
The growth of English as the de facto lingua franca has come about for many reasons. It began with the British Empire, then gained strength with the huge popularity of British & American films and music throughout the world.
The greatest strength of English, though, IMO, is its hybrid nature. English happily adopts any word it comes across that covers an idea or concept it does not already have, so that it grows and changes all the time. This allows for more shades of definition than any other language.
It also makes English easier to learn than many other languages (At least for Europeans), as English already has at least something in common with all of them.
Because of the way international communication systems continue to be advanced largely by English speakers, English itself continues to grow in popularity. Not least through the internet, where English seems to have a huge predominance over any other language.
English is currently the international language of science (Many shades of definition), business and air traffc control, all of which help it maintain its status. With the continuing huge influence of English language films, music & (Mainly American) culture, it seems inevitable that English will become the effective language of all international dealings sometime in the next 100 years, and the true lingua franca some time in the next 200.
'Seems' being the operative word, of course. A few centuries ago it was thought French would be the lingua franca. Much can change in the course of time...
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Post by met on Jul 29, 2006 22:51:38 GMT
I Japan you can buy cuddly plush sushi. Why, I'm not sure. You can also buy microbe plushies, in case you want to gift-wrap the flu, or syphilis NOT the ideal birthday gift, but certainly memorable! www.thinkgeek.com/geektoys/plush/6708/
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Post by met on Jul 29, 2006 22:53:12 GMT
plus if you look at the bottom you can get a Killer Rabbit and the Beast of Aargh! For those of us who already have the Black Knight with detachable arms and legs!
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Post by Alrik on Aug 3, 2006 20:03:38 GMT
From newsgroup alt.meow : Question of Abnerian : "Excuse my ignorance, but where did alt.meow originate ... And what was the original purpose of it? Is it just because it's fun to say "meow" a lot? How long has it been around?" Answer of Maximilian h. Draconis : alt.meow was first suggested by David Rosenfield in 1997, here's a clip of the post. ************************************************************************** This is a proposal to create the newsgroup alt.meow Beginning in January of 1996, a bizzare series of events led to the creation of vast amounts of "meow" spam. Several posters found it entertaining to flood various newsgroups at random with articles containing "meow meow this meow meow that," etc. Until about six weeks ago, the problem was completely out of hand. Today, there are many people who wish to discuss meow, and how it came to be, or just post meow articles in a non-malicious manner. The only such forum that exists for this purpose today is alt.fan.karl-malden.nose. As AFKMN in completely flooded with flames, people who may have questions about meowing have no easy, self-defined group for this purpose. I consider it fitting that a meow group be placed in alt.* since that is where the bulk of the meow attacks occurred (with a few exceptions - e.g. rec.pets.cats). For more information, see www.itol.com/~slforbes/meow/----------David Rosenfield (rosen...@cs.wisc.edu)------------ "Seriously, the guy will say absolutely anything which pops into his head if it serves his whims." -Barry Shein on Steve Boursey, in <x5enlsxa05....@world.std.com> www.itol.com/~slforbes/david
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Post by Alrik on Aug 4, 2006 20:07:05 GMT
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Post by Alrik on Aug 7, 2006 13:24:49 GMT
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Post by Glance A'Lot on Aug 8, 2006 13:48:10 GMT
To give you a summary of the above: A woman ordered an upgrade of her ISDN-line to a broadband DSL-Line. Required therefore is a router and a splitter, which she was delivered. The next day she got a package with additional 5 routers... The next day she got 5 packages with 10 routers each... The next day a truck came and delivered 5 pallets with a total of 496 routers... ...so a total of 552 routers while needing 1. Explanation by the provider: A mistake by a staffmember, who erroneously inserted the model number of the router (501) in the quantity field. The still remaining difference of 51 could to date not yet be explained. {The really funny thing in that context is that the provider routinely informs new customers that delivery of the router may be delayed due to temporary shortages!}
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Post by Alrik on Aug 8, 2006 22:23:55 GMT
Yeah, that's the BEST thing !
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Post by LaFille on Aug 9, 2006 0:29:25 GMT
It's cool though; she should have kept it for herself and re-sold them. ;D
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