How many languages do you understand?

[Japher]

Thow art a pain in the reat..?? How do you spell it? Thou?, oh I was thinking of though... duh, me is dumber than you think

geezer is an old dude, not just a dude.... dude.

chicks can be dudes too, or if they are exceptionally phat then you call them a dudette... if they are gay you don't call them anything, especially a cigarette... I mean a fag ... if you aren't sure what the dude is you call them a dudevestite.

I thought "may' was funnier. We never say "may I cut the cheese", it's always "can I cut the cheese"...

What is - What's... is that a proper contraction? I use it, as with gots... Also, why can't any American's say asked? it always comes out as axes or assed... what the hell!?

 

[sysyphus]

Dis 'ere's gohn too fer eh?

Like dose of you down dere in de states has got te learn english de proper way in de way we speaks it up here, ya noo. Up 'ere we speak de same english as like de Queen, eh?

 

[Japher]

Hoser.

Could you imagine, the Queen talking like Bob and Doug...

"I be'queff to you de title of sir, eh..."

"hehe, I's said queff, I'm such a nob..."

 

[nihilistic]

4.

If I can include computer languages, then it's somewhere like 12.

 

[allan2]

Originally posted by sysyphus


The use of grammar in the USA and that of Britain is virtually identical. Americans and Brits share well over 90% of their vocabulary. You're going to have to tread well into that before you'll convice me it's a different language.

I also recall someone getting a warning recently for use of French, the reason cited as "this is an English language forum"

I'll assume you consider you posts to be in "American", either dialect or language. If it is a language, then by the rules of the forum, you should be banned.

Then so would half the mods here, right?

I see what you're saying, but that "line" I talked about is still fuzzy. If a Norwegian says he "automatically" understands Swedish and Danish (implying, I assume, that no formal education is needed by a native Norwegian speaker to understand clearly a Swedish or Danish speaker), then how is this really different from our concept of "dialect" as far as how they relate to each other? People of different "dialects" presumably understand each other too, without training, right? At least how we think of the word "dialect"--whereas in China, IIUC, the different "dialects" actually ARE so different that understanding between them is at least very difficult, and generally requires training (again, IIUC). Why aren't they called separate languages then? Other than, that's how we choose to (arbitrarily) classify them.

I can tell you, actually, that I've run into Brits whom I have some trouble understanding sometimes, particularly if they speak fast and use a lot of vernacular. I think some Brits may likewise have trouble understanding me if I "lay back" and let it rip, the way I'd talk to my buddies here. Dialect or language? Depends on how you look at it, really.

You have a point about a lot of common vocabulary, but although spelling may be common (in most cases anyway), pronunciation isn't. Just as Spanish and Italian (or Norwegian and Swedish) may have a LOT of cognates, but slightly different pronunciations, too.

I've heard linguists talking about whether or not a separate language is at least emerging in the US--really, it seems there is no clear way of determining where that "line" is, and when it is crossed.

 

[Japher]

I think Portugese and Spanish are the same language, but then again I don't speak either one. My buddy who is from Mexico told me that Spanish people speak spanish rather weird and that he had a hard time understanding some of what he siad.

Also, my chinese friend tells me that with all the dialects of China he would be luckly to understand half of any of them.

And, my Indian friend speaks Bangali - what the heck! is there a different language for each town!

 

[MCdread]

Originally posted by Japher
I think Portugese and Spanish are the same language, but then again I don't speak either one.

For that to be true, it would require at least that native spanish speaking people understood what native portuguese speaking people say. And believe me, they don't. I think the closest language to spanish is italian, not portuguese.

 

[Japher]

I also recall someone getting a warning recently for use of French, the reason cited as "this is an English language forum"

I'll assume you consider you posts to be in "American", either dialect or language. If it is a language, then by the rules of the forum, you should be banned

What? In American "Ban - the present tense of banned" is a brand of deodorant.... but then I won't excpet any "English" people to know what that is ... just kidding..

 

[sysyphus]

Originally posted by allan2


Then so would half the mods here, right?

I see what you're saying, but that "line" I talked about is still fuzzy. If a Norwegian says he "automatically" understands Swedish and Danish (implying, I assume, that no formal education is needed by a native Norwegian speaker to understand clearly a Swedish or Danish speaker), then how is this really different from our concept of "dialect" as far as how they relate to each other? People of different "dialects" presumably understand each other too, without training, right? At least how we think of the word "dialect"--whereas in China, IIUC, the different "dialects" actually ARE so different that understanding between them is at least very difficult, and generally requires training (again, IIUC). Why aren't they called separate languages then? Other than, that's how we choose to (arbitrarily) classify them.

I can tell you, actually, that I've run into Brits whom I have some trouble understanding sometimes, particularly if they speak fast and use a lot of vernacular. I think some Brits may likewise have trouble understanding me if I "lay back" and let it rip, the way I'd talk to my buddies here. Dialect or language? Depends on how you look at it, really.

You have a point about a lot of common vocabulary, but although spelling may be common (in most cases anyway), pronunciation isn't. Just as Spanish and Italian (or Norwegian and Swedish) may have a LOT of cognates, but slightly different pronunciations, too.

I've heard linguists talking about whether or not a separate language is at least emerging in the US--really, it seems there is no clear way of determining where that "line" is, and when it is crossed.

I don't quite think that "understanding" is a good judgement of whether or not two different ways of speaking are different dialects or languages.

You are right that there is no clearly defined line, but I still personally believe that American is still a dialect of English.

But I do agree with your statement that the US is "evolving" a new language, though granted some of the changes made to the language by the Americans are used by other English speaking peoples, even in the UK!

Homer Simpson's "d'oh" is now included in the Oxford dictionary.

Actually, looking at what I just wrote, I would be more inclined to say that the US is evolving English (for all english speakers), rather than developing a new language.

Incidentally, a colleague of mine made the claim that English as spoken in the USA is closer to the way English was spoken at the time of early American settlement than current British English is. The two just evolved in separate ways.

 

[Japher]

When I Mexico a few weeks ago I met some Italians who didn't understand Mexican...

Also, if I was told to "put the tram in the bonnet", I would have know idea what the heck they were talking about.

So, you have to understand someone in order to speak the same language and not just have it be a dialect? I think I can think of a lot of cases were that is not true.

I have no idea what the divides the two, but if understanding what someone else was saying is all that matters then we gots some divisions to make!

 

[cgannon64]

English, and that's it. Oh, I can also say a few sentences in French and Latin.

 

[MCdread]

Originally posted by Japher
When I Mexico a few weeks ago I met some Italians who didn't understand Mexican...

Also, if I was told to "put the tram in the bonnet", I would have know idea what the heck they were talking about.

So, you have to understand someone in order to speak the same language and not just have it be a dialect? I think I can think of a lot of cases were that is not true.

I have no idea what the divides the two, but if understanding what someone else was saying is all that matters then we gots some divisions to make!

Of course that was not the main point. It was just a detail. People here have said that because they are from a scandinavian country they can understand immediatly what people from other neighbour countries say. I meet lots of spaniards all the time, and I am yet to meet one that is capable of understanding a portuguese converation. On the other hand, all the italians and spaniards I know communicate very well among them.

Of course portuguese and spanish (castillian) are very related, but they have been evolving separately long before the two countries even existed. The accent is completelly different, there is simply nothing in common, and there are many grammatical differences as well.
What you could say is that portuguese and galician are almost the same language, and in fact they were until the end of the middle ages.

 

[Archer 007]

Originally posted by G-Man
Two, though I once studied some arabic.

No Hebrew?

I understand two. English and Spanish.

 

[cromagnon]

I can understand 4: English, Farsi, French, and Spanish.

The frustrating thing is that although I can understand French quite well, I can't speak it - spanish blurts out of my mouth every time I try to speak french.

 

[GerrardCapashen]

I speak English and French, but my French pronunciation is pretty mediocre.

 

[allan2]

Originally posted by cromagnon

The frustrating thing is that although I can understand French quite well, I can't speak it - spanish blurts out of my mouth every time I try to speak french.

"Don't say 'si', say 'oui'." --"the Inspector" from the Pink Panther cartoons (remember those?), to his sidekick

I can see how you might do this--both are Latin-based. I remember when studying French, drawing parallels in my mind to the Spanish I learned in high school. It helped me in some ways, but in other ways it probably hindered, as I didn't "hear" the language in my mind as effectively.

 

[allan2]

What the...? Double post.

 

[allan2]

Here's a question: anybody here ever DREAM in a different language? On a couple occasions I've dreamt in Spanish--including a time a few months ago, which surprised me as I hadn't been around Spanish speakers for quite a while. And I understood everything said, and was speaking it myself!

 

[naervod]

English and Spanish meet the requirements listed in the first post, although I can understand Italian, French, and German to some extent.

 

[jack merchant]

I totally identify with cromagnon here - it was pretty bad when I had to do my oral examination for French in high school and every other word coming out of my mouth was Spanish ! Should have started learning it a bit later
I have had dreams in English, but that may have had something to do with my entire study program being in English when I still studied.