Rome!!!!!!!!!

Elaboration on my last post -

I am from Philly and spent several years in Pittsburgh. The two cities are only three hundred miles apart, but here is a conversation I had once:

Pittsburgher: Where are yins going?
Me: Huh?
P: Where are yins going?
M: What yins? I don't know where they're going.
P: No. Yins. You [pointing at me] and you [pointing at my friend].

A philadelphian can replace the word "yins" with "yous". Its a bit more discriptive, but obviously wrong. In the south they say y'all. In the hillbilly territory - mountain people from west virginia to georgia - they say you'ins which is probably where the Pittsburgers got yins. Some sections say "you all" which is where the southerners got y'all.

All of these words replace the word "you" which is both plural and singular. They are bad grammar, but have been used so much that they are tolerated now. A foreigner hearing this would be totally confused as they probably had a hard time learning the usage of "you" in the first place.
 
Originally posted by Zcylen
heheheheh I Did =)
i just was very interested in the "war" between you and Alva.
i know perfectly well the differences between Spain and Portugal and i do understand the languages since am a spanish speaker too.
Did you guys realize that aaaaaaaall this began just because someone did not expressed well? =)
we all had entered war very quikly, hadn't we? =)
(actually friend of mine is studyng portuguese an school.)
and BTW, every time I play Rome is very difficult to make peace with other nations, they are willing to attack me very offen w/out any reason.
Click to expand...

I'm a peacefull person. I dont' enter wars. I just made a comment, someone said I was bad and I defend my good name :D
Studying Portuguese? Where are you from?
Do you speak Spanish? So, do you understand the meaning in a portuguese sentence?

(I never heard of that anti-roman sentiment, although Greeks are known for the opposite...)
 
Petetus, Brazilian is far more easy to speak and to understand, as it is a more "relaxed" language. Try to understand Portugal's Portuguese in the TV or something.
If you do, perfect. But you'd be the very first to admit that to me. Of course you not only speak Spanish and that having lived in Argentina you should have heard many brasilian words during your time there...

Besides, if Portuguese are like these it's not only their fault. Maybe 850+ years of tryings to do culture assimilation have done the opposite effect...
 
Studying Portuguese? Where are you from?
Do you speak Spanish? So, do you understand the meaning in a portuguese sentence?



I'm from Mexico
and actually I'm studying english and japanese and my friend is studyng german and portuguese.
sometimes he starts talking in portugese and I can "catch" most of the words.
:D
 
Originally posted by Portuguese
Besides, if Portuguese are like these it's not only their fault. Maybe 850+ years of tryings to do culture assimilation have done the opposite effect...
Click to expand...

I'm just not sure about what you mean. Who tried to assimilate who? Spain tried to assimilate Portugal?

Anyway, I was very interested by the comment on different English accents in America and the UK. America is a very spread country, as many american and south american countries are (Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, Canada). But I think all these countries, although having some different accents in different areas, don't show as much "language chaos" as Europe.

Take Spain and Portugal for example. Spanish and Portuguese are both roman languages, just like French or Italian. But they are mutations on the same variant of latin. Now consider languages (I stress: languages, not mere accents) being spoken right now in Spain. There is Galego, in the northwest of Spain, somewhat similar to portuguese, and Catala and Valencia, spoken in Catalunya and Valencia, more like a mixture of Spanish and French. And the you even have Euskera in the Basq Country (is not a different country, but a region of Spain), which has nothing to do with roman languages or Latin. Actually, I think nobody knows for sure where did it come from, probably a Celtic language, like Welsh or Irish, though very different to these.

Those are different languages, being spoken in Spain and Portugal, an area I think twenty times smaller than the US. I can't perfectly understand almost none of them (definitely not Euskera), but I can more or less manage to communicate. And I can defenitely understand every accent from the US, although I can't make a word out of Scottish.

Of course Brazilian is easier to understand than Portugal's Portuguese, but I think you missed my point. The point is that the difficulty in understanding a language for a foreigner should never be considered a good criteria in determining which language is better than the other. If any, difficulty should be considered a bad thing. Take Russian for example, or even German, or Japanese, if you want.

The game: I think it was a coincidence, all the democracies ganging up against the communisms. But the most loved/hated tipe of government (see it in the editor) might have something to do with it.
 
Originally posted by Zcylen
heheheheh I Did =)
iDid you guys realize that aaaaaaaall this began just because someone did not expressed well? =)
Click to expand...
:D

Originally posted by Zcylen
we all had entered war very quikly, hadn't we? =)
Click to expand...
Yes, we did. You guys are standing pretty on your rights around here. In the Netherlands we do have dialects as well, but nobody is furious when he is compared to another dialect.
In the West we have the very "relaxed" Dutch with loads of English words. In the North we have Frisian. That's quite not-understandable for a Dutchman. In the East you have Drenthish and Groningish. That's quite of 75% German. Then at last you have Limburgian and Brabantian. That's kind of Flemish.
But everything is Dutch (except the Frisian, that's kind of a whole other language).
But if I look around here, foreign people aren't so relaxed if someone compares them with other dialects. Different... Very different from Dutchmen.....
 
Petetus, that thing of superiority is a Portuguese joke about the Spanish disability to understand us :)

I knew that things about Spain, and I can also say something about Portugal...
Portugal has today 2 different languages: Portuguese and Mirandesis (this last one is a bit ... strange in my opinion as it is only spoken in one "county" for about 10000 persons).

But Portuguese is a very funny language. You can say if a person is from the North and the South, from interior or seaside, or from Portuguese islands (Madeira and Azores).
It's written always the same way, but the accent is sooo different.
If they are from outside, it's pretty easy to say if it is from Brazil, from East Timor, from Portuguese Speaking Africa, or from other country.
Only Brazil has a differen grammar, but the accents are really different and it is rwally difficult to speak Portuguese without accent (there are persons who can... few, but they exist.).
I am from Ponte de Lima and Study in Oporto, so I speak a mixture of these 2 accents.

I think it is weird to most Americans that a so small country like Portugal (less than 100,000 Km2) can be like these, but the differences here are bigger than between a Texan and a New York boy.
 
Originally posted by Portuguese
I think it is weird to most Americans that a so small country like Portugal (less than 100,000 Km2) can be like these, but the differences here are bigger than between a Texan and a New York boy.
Click to expand...
Well, I'm not. Look to the Netherlands: even much smaller and also a few dialects.
 
Or Belgium!
 
the size of the country is not important, in mexico there was lots of dialects too before the spanish arrived.
and many words remain almost the same, like:

guanaxuatl = guanajuato
Iscuintli = escuincle
pinachtli = penacho

although the spanish became the official language, many of the words just "transformed" but sound almost the same.
some times when you cant say a word you just make it the way it sound to you.
The aztec names war unpronunciable for the spanish, just try it.
Huitchilopoztli, Coyolxauqui, Texcatlipoca, Quetzalcoatl,
I saw in FF8 they say just "quezacot"
even in Civ3 the aztec leader is "montezuma" when the name is Moctezuma from "moc".
but anyways if i had to speak german I'll sound awlful.
 
I am a Spaniard living in Belgium and I can speak Dutch, Spanish, French, English, German and Italian. I also studied Latin but that isn't spoken any more of course. :)
 
Well, I'm only 14 years old, so I haven't studied any languages yet. But I'm Dutch and I speak Dutch, English, German, French, Greek and Latin. I've also had a few words Spanish on school.
 
Portuguese, I have a Spanish/Portuguese neighbour, so if I have to know something in Portuguese I just knock at his door! ;)
I think for the moment six languages are enough, I also have my History studies at the University of Brussels and I play Basketball, I just haven't the time to study another language now, I am only 20 and have to go out and get stupid. :)
 
Zoals ik al heb gezegd, ben ik een Spanjaard, ik ben wel zelf in België geboren maar mijn beide ouders zijn in Spanje geboren. Thuis spreek ik dus hoofdzakelijk Spaans, maar ik heb al mijn studies dus in het Nederlands gedaan (of het Vlaams als je dat zo verschillend vindt van het Hollands). Buiten het huis spreek ik dus meestal wel Nederlands, alhoewel ik mijn Frans ook vaak gebruik aangezien in mijn basketbalploeg veel franstaligen zitten uit de Brusselse hoofdstad die geen Nederlands kunnen. Ik gebruik het Nederlands meer dan het Frans, ik spreek ook iets beter Nederlands dan Frans maar ik kan het Frans dus ook zeer vloeiend. Mijn Nederlands is daarentegen perfect. Hoop daarmee je vraag bantwoord te hebben.

Sorry guys for this little piece of Dutch literature, it was just to answer CivilopediaCity's question.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

PDX Firefly
Developer Diary | After the Demo
Replies
5
Views
2K
Sephi
Sephi
Squonk
Ludicrous and funnily pathetic news from your respective countries
2 3
Replies
40
Views
5K
Lexicus
Lexicus
Cheezy the Wiz
Six brainwashing techniques They're using on you right now
3 4 5
Replies
94
Views
8K
Cheezy the Wiz
Cheezy the Wiz
EQandcivfanatic
History of In the Shadow of Rome
Replies
14
Views
2K
jeps
jeps
EQandcivfanatic
A Brave New World
192 193 194
Replies
4K
Views
260K
EQandcivfanatic
EQandcivfanatic
Back
Top Bottom