Everybody I know thinks that listening to "Satellite" and her other songs would be an excellent alternative to waterboarding.
If you could change a language ...
- Thread starter Mango Elephant
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Borachio
Way past lunacy
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The better my English became, the more "British" my accent became. Don't ask me which one it is, it's probably a nonexistent one that horribly embarrasses me as a foreigner trying to hard (Lena Meyer-Landrut English), but still. And I'm fond of glottal stops
Link to video.
This is German-English. Obviously. One of my nephews is married to a German woman who speaks very very like this.
They seem to have their own version of glottal stops. Somewhat. It's difficult to define exactly.
Daedwartin
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I think English can be summed up as this:
Firstly, It takes a massive amount of its grammar structure from Germanic Languages, while stealing the rest from wherever. It has a predominately French vocab, though the words have corrupted.
Secondly, It borrows words from pretty much all languages. Having been the main language of the British Empire (ruled a lot of land, meaning lots of interaction with other language speakers) and the USA (a very heavy immigrant tradition, which meant a large portion of people didn't know English, and used their own native language quite a bit caused words to migrate in, and in fact, before the internet, it was believed that US English and UK English probably would within a century or 2 be different languages. sometimes it seems its going happen anyways.) helped cause it to absorb words like a sponge. a good example is Tsunami. It is Japanese for harbor wave. it also is the name for waves cause by a earthquake that was underwater, or was caused by a landslide (the landslide ones can be much larger. largest known tsunami was in Alaska and was caused by a landslide...it was over 1000 feet high...from the start. it would have been devastating had it not been in a small bay.) tsunamis when they get close to land tend to get real big in height, but one could be in the middle of the tsunami on the high seas, and not know it (on the high seas, they are only a few meters tall, but can be up to a hundred miles long. they get all big like they do near shore...or harbor, because the front part slows down do to friction, but the parts behind it haven't yet slowed down. Because the fishermen wouldn't even notice the wave until they return to harbor, they called it a harbor wave, Tsunami. its also fitting we use the Japanese word to refer to them, because they have the highest amount of recorded tsunamis anywhere, because of the amount they received over history. so as a result, tsunami is also the English word for said waves.
Thirdly, it is the main language of three very powerful nations, all economically and militarily. The US is both, and has a thousand dialects of English (seems that way.) Canada doesn't have as large a population or economy, but its still a powerhouse in both. The Canadians were once labeled Stormtroopers, BY THE GERMANS DURING WW2. They have a the 10th largest economy. And if you can threaten Canada, That means you can threaten the USA, which will be forced to react accordingly and to your detriment. UK has the sixth largest economy, and while it isn't as militarily powerful as it once was, its still very powerful, and their words are backed by nuclear weapons. and they are allied with Canada and the US. Because all three languages have multi-dialects in their own nation, this means the language does not have a central authority to maintain the language. in fact, the USA doesn't have a official language, making maintaining the language impossible.
Fourthly, the extreme number of regional and organizational dialects (the US military itself has its own dialect, as a side effect of the the dialects. they wanted everyone to be able to understand with ease what people are saying, so they had no choice but to create a military dialect. it was easier than choosing one i can imagine, and politically easier to achieve.) means that the grammar system beyond being most Germanic is shot to hell. It can be simple, when it wants to be. I sum it up as this: X when y is w, unless b is c or v, but if q is o or m, then r.
all in all. English is borg-ish, but without something to keep it orderly.
Firstly, It takes a massive amount of its grammar structure from Germanic Languages, while stealing the rest from wherever. It has a predominately French vocab, though the words have corrupted.
Secondly, It borrows words from pretty much all languages. Having been the main language of the British Empire (ruled a lot of land, meaning lots of interaction with other language speakers) and the USA (a very heavy immigrant tradition, which meant a large portion of people didn't know English, and used their own native language quite a bit caused words to migrate in, and in fact, before the internet, it was believed that US English and UK English probably would within a century or 2 be different languages. sometimes it seems its going happen anyways.) helped cause it to absorb words like a sponge. a good example is Tsunami. It is Japanese for harbor wave. it also is the name for waves cause by a earthquake that was underwater, or was caused by a landslide (the landslide ones can be much larger. largest known tsunami was in Alaska and was caused by a landslide...it was over 1000 feet high...from the start. it would have been devastating had it not been in a small bay.) tsunamis when they get close to land tend to get real big in height, but one could be in the middle of the tsunami on the high seas, and not know it (on the high seas, they are only a few meters tall, but can be up to a hundred miles long. they get all big like they do near shore...or harbor, because the front part slows down do to friction, but the parts behind it haven't yet slowed down. Because the fishermen wouldn't even notice the wave until they return to harbor, they called it a harbor wave, Tsunami. its also fitting we use the Japanese word to refer to them, because they have the highest amount of recorded tsunamis anywhere, because of the amount they received over history. so as a result, tsunami is also the English word for said waves.
Thirdly, it is the main language of three very powerful nations, all economically and militarily. The US is both, and has a thousand dialects of English (seems that way.) Canada doesn't have as large a population or economy, but its still a powerhouse in both. The Canadians were once labeled Stormtroopers, BY THE GERMANS DURING WW2. They have a the 10th largest economy. And if you can threaten Canada, That means you can threaten the USA, which will be forced to react accordingly and to your detriment. UK has the sixth largest economy, and while it isn't as militarily powerful as it once was, its still very powerful, and their words are backed by nuclear weapons. and they are allied with Canada and the US. Because all three languages have multi-dialects in their own nation, this means the language does not have a central authority to maintain the language. in fact, the USA doesn't have a official language, making maintaining the language impossible.
Fourthly, the extreme number of regional and organizational dialects (the US military itself has its own dialect, as a side effect of the the dialects. they wanted everyone to be able to understand with ease what people are saying, so they had no choice but to create a military dialect. it was easier than choosing one i can imagine, and politically easier to achieve.) means that the grammar system beyond being most Germanic is shot to hell. It can be simple, when it wants to be. I sum it up as this: X when y is w, unless b is c or v, but if q is o or m, then r.
all in all. English is borg-ish, but without something to keep it orderly.
German has a glottal stop at the beginning of every word that starts with a vowel.
civver_764
Deity
When I was in Germany I always used to wonder how English would sound structured like German.
"Today am I very tired."
"Have you that song heard?"
"What did you yesterday do?"
I dunno I kinda like it.
"Today am I very tired."
"Have you that song heard?"
"What did you yesterday do?"
I dunno I kinda like it.
civver_764
Deity
You mean Yoda? Yeah but imagine it said in more of a normal everyday tone.
My response to somebody who said "Today am I very tired" would be, "I dunno; are you tired?"
Yoda-speak for the above sentences would be:
"Very tired today, I am."
"Heard that song, you have?" (or "Heard that song, have you?")
I'm not sure how to express the third question in Yoda-speak.
The problem is that I can't imagine Yoda actually expressing the idea in those exact words (in whatever order).
"Yesterday you did what?" is more like what he would say, but that doesn't sound right either.
Yoda is a Jedi Master. He should damn well KNOW what the other person did yesterday!
"Yesterday you did what?" is more like what he would say, but that doesn't sound right either.
Yoda is a Jedi Master. He should damn well KNOW what the other person did yesterday!
I find Irish orthography to be fairly sensible, it's a lot more true to pronunciation than English is. The trouble I've had is with words that are still rendered in the old form or based on a very specific dialect. I usually find I get the pronunciation reasonably correct just from reading it though. The grammar itself is kind of difficult because of all the idioms and the apparent inconsistent acceptance of anything that's an English calque.
I think a lot of people aren't too keen on it because of the education system where they send you off to analyse prose and poetry before you can speak the language. I hated Irish in school and it's only now after I left that I've taken any joy in the subject. All the curriculum has done is create a misplaced feeling of disdain for our national language.
I'm personally for the use/return(?) of 'youse' or 'ye' as the second person plural in English. Also the acceptance of "amn't I" in standard English because it sounds much better.
Borachio
Way past lunacy
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And doesn't this happen far too often? I'd rather they taught nothing than teach things so badly it takes years to get over it.
I hated Shakespeare at school. But actually he's tremendous. I was just introduced to him too early, before I'd learnt Modern English properly, never mind Elizabethan English.
Winner
Diverse in Unity
Winner
Diverse in Unity
A pretty funny mistranslation of a favourite Czech dish.
Anyway, the Czech accent is terrible, mostly because it doesn't really sound as a Slavic-language accent. Most Czech learners fail to grasp the importance of stress, the different qualities of English vowels, and devoice the hell out of everything. Then they are baffled why native English speakers understand "dock" when they meant to say "dog", or why they look at them with a blank expression in their faces when they pronounced "event" as EVE-ent.
Borachio
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Foreign languages are incredibly hard.
Recently, I met a 78 year old Chinese man who immigrated here from Vietnam as a boat person. What? in ~1979?
I honestly don't know how he's managed all this time. His English was much much worse than mine. Really. I had a lot of trouble understanding him.
Recently, I met a 78 year old Chinese man who immigrated here from Vietnam as a boat person. What? in ~1979?
I honestly don't know how he's managed all this time. His English was much much worse than mine. Really. I had a lot of trouble understanding him.
