h4ppy
You sir, pineapple?
I speak English, we like to stick the letter e on the end of words. (it's fun)
What are the main characteristics of your language?
- Thread starter Lord_Sidious
- Start date
with some
sabo
My Ancestors were Vikings
Serutan said:
You forgot the Viking influence on the English Language, check these out
http://odin.bio.miami.edu/norse/words.html
Lord_Sidious
No Fun At All
Viking? What Viking?: Swedish Norwegian Danish? What?
Blasphemous
Graulich
Well, (American) English is my first language but I was born and raised here in Israel so I'll talk about Hebrew.
First of all I must warn you Hebrew has absolutely nothing to do with English, German, Spanish, Italian, French, or any other language that uses the roman alphabet (except for Turkish, iirc).
Most words (verbs and nouns for the most part) in Hebrew are based on three or four root letters that are then fit into a "structure" and can still be modified with prefixes and suffixes (applies mostly to verbs, nouns and adjectives and the rest are a bit less structured). I am told it's the same way with other Semitic languages, and I know for a fact it's the same in Arabic.
The alphabet is as follows (probably requires support for Hebrew to view properly - if it looks anything like latin or cyrrilic you're not seeing it right).
[Note that the vowels are pronounced almost exactly as in German, CH sound pronounced as in german buch]
א = Alef = A sound, E sound, sometimes other vowels.
ב = Bet = B/V sounds
ג = Gimmel = hard G sound
ד = Daled = D sound
ה = Hey = H sound, sometimes silent A sound
ו = Vav = V/O/U
ז = Zayin = Z sound
ח = Chet = CH sound
ט = Tet = hard T sound
י = Yud = I sound as pronounced in German, Y sound
כ = Kaf = CH/K
ל = Lamed = L
מ, ם = Mem = M
נ, ן = Nun = N
ס = Samech = SS sound
ע = Ayin = Throaty A sound, a'a sound, both spoken differently than I can express using a roman alfabet. Sometimes represents simple A sound.
פ, ף = Fey = P/F
צ, ץ= Tsadik = TS sound
ק = Kuf = K sound
ר = Re(i)sh = R (very similar to the German pronounciation)
ש = Shin = SH sound, sometimes SS sound
ת = Taf = T sound
(The letters with two forms have one form for starts and middles of words, and one for the end of a word. Only exception is the letter Fey where the final form of it can only make the F sound so sometimes the regular form is used at teh end of a word.)
There are little markings used to make/alter vowel sounds but I won't get into that, tehy aren't used in everyday hebrew, only for learning the language and in nacient texts.
The hebrew keyboard is just like a standard one only some of the keys have an additional marking of the hebrew characters used on them. You switch between the languages using ctrl-shift or alt-shift.
Now I'll give you a few sentances in Hebrew (translated by me from the first couple sentances of this post, before the alphabet.
"אנגלית (אמריקאית ) היא שפת האם שלי, אבל נולדתי בישראל וחייתי כאן מאז ומתמיד ולכן אני אדבר על עברית. קודם כל עליי להזהירכם כי אין כל קשר בין עברית לאנגלית, גרמנית, ספרדית, איטלקית, צרפתית או כל שפה אחרת שמשתמשת באלף-בית הרומאי (חוץ מטורכית, אם אני זוכר נכון ). רוב המילים העבריות (פעלים ושמות עצם בעיקר ) מבוססות על שלוש או ארבע אותיות שורש שמוכנסות לתוך בניין ועדיין יכולות לעבור שינוי דרך תוספת של צורן תחילי או צורן סופי (בעיקר במקרה של פעלים, שמות עצם ושמות תואר וכל השאר הם מעט פחות מסודרים.) שמעתי שזה בערך אותו הדבר בשפות שמיות אחרות, ואני יודע בוודאות שזה ככה בערבית.
להלן האלף-בית (כנראה נדרשת תמיכה בעברית בכדי לראות את האותיות נכון - אם זה אפילו דומה ללטינית או כירילית אתם כנראה לא רואים את זה נכון.)
[שימו לב שההברות מבוטאות כמעט בדיוק כמו בגרמנית, והקול CH מבוטא כמו במילה הגרמנית buch]"
Now if read out loud that would sound like this (german spelling, all CH pronounced as in buch, ss as english S, s as english z):
"Angliet (amerikait) hie sfat ha'em scheli, awal noladeti be'yissra'el we'chayieti kan me'as umetamid we'lachen ani adaber al iwrit. Kodem kol alai le'hashirchem ki eyn kol kescher ben iwrit le'anglit, germanit, ssfaradit, italqit, zarfatit, o kol ssafa acheret schemischtameschet ba'alef-bet ha'romayi (huz me'turqit, im ani socher nachon). Rov hamilim ha'iwriot (pe'alim weschmot ezem be'iekar) mewussassot al schalosch o arba otiot schoresch schemuchnassot letoch binjan we'adayin jecholot la'awor schinui derech tossefet schel zoran tchili o zoran ssofie (be'iekar bamikre schel pe'alim, schmot ezem uschmot to'ar wecol hascha'ar hem pachot messuadrim.) Schamati sche'se be'erech oto hadawar bessafot schemiot acherot, we'ani jode'a bewadaut sche'se kacha be'arawit. Lahalan ha'alef-bet (kanir'e nidreschet tmicha be'iwrit bichdey lir'ot et ha'otiot nachon - im se afilu dome lelatinit o kirilit atem kanir'e lo ro'im et se nachon.)
Simu lew schehahawarot mewutaot kim'at bidjuk kmo begermanit, wehakol CH mewute kmo bamila hagermanit buch."
I'm dead tired (it's 3:45, I started this post almost an hour ago).
I'm not used to transliterating this way (I usually do it cause it's funny on IMs with native speakers who can undertand the idea just fine with english spelling that's way, way off the mark.) So I probably did a few things wrong... If I left any V's in, they're supposed to be W's.
G'night.
(Or as we say here, לילה טוב [leila tow])
First of all I must warn you Hebrew has absolutely nothing to do with English, German, Spanish, Italian, French, or any other language that uses the roman alphabet (except for Turkish, iirc).
Most words (verbs and nouns for the most part) in Hebrew are based on three or four root letters that are then fit into a "structure" and can still be modified with prefixes and suffixes (applies mostly to verbs, nouns and adjectives and the rest are a bit less structured). I am told it's the same way with other Semitic languages, and I know for a fact it's the same in Arabic.
The alphabet is as follows (probably requires support for Hebrew to view properly - if it looks anything like latin or cyrrilic you're not seeing it right).
[Note that the vowels are pronounced almost exactly as in German, CH sound pronounced as in german buch]
א = Alef = A sound, E sound, sometimes other vowels.
ב = Bet = B/V sounds
ג = Gimmel = hard G sound
ד = Daled = D sound
ה = Hey = H sound, sometimes silent A sound
ו = Vav = V/O/U
ז = Zayin = Z sound
ח = Chet = CH sound
ט = Tet = hard T sound
י = Yud = I sound as pronounced in German, Y sound
כ = Kaf = CH/K
ל = Lamed = L
מ, ם = Mem = M
נ, ן = Nun = N
ס = Samech = SS sound
ע = Ayin = Throaty A sound, a'a sound, both spoken differently than I can express using a roman alfabet. Sometimes represents simple A sound.
פ, ף = Fey = P/F
צ, ץ= Tsadik = TS sound
ק = Kuf = K sound
ר = Re(i)sh = R (very similar to the German pronounciation)
ש = Shin = SH sound, sometimes SS sound
ת = Taf = T sound
(The letters with two forms have one form for starts and middles of words, and one for the end of a word. Only exception is the letter Fey where the final form of it can only make the F sound so sometimes the regular form is used at teh end of a word.)
There are little markings used to make/alter vowel sounds but I won't get into that, tehy aren't used in everyday hebrew, only for learning the language and in nacient texts.
The hebrew keyboard is just like a standard one only some of the keys have an additional marking of the hebrew characters used on them. You switch between the languages using ctrl-shift or alt-shift.
Now I'll give you a few sentances in Hebrew (translated by me from the first couple sentances of this post, before the alphabet.
"אנגלית (אמריקאית ) היא שפת האם שלי, אבל נולדתי בישראל וחייתי כאן מאז ומתמיד ולכן אני אדבר על עברית. קודם כל עליי להזהירכם כי אין כל קשר בין עברית לאנגלית, גרמנית, ספרדית, איטלקית, צרפתית או כל שפה אחרת שמשתמשת באלף-בית הרומאי (חוץ מטורכית, אם אני זוכר נכון ). רוב המילים העבריות (פעלים ושמות עצם בעיקר ) מבוססות על שלוש או ארבע אותיות שורש שמוכנסות לתוך בניין ועדיין יכולות לעבור שינוי דרך תוספת של צורן תחילי או צורן סופי (בעיקר במקרה של פעלים, שמות עצם ושמות תואר וכל השאר הם מעט פחות מסודרים.) שמעתי שזה בערך אותו הדבר בשפות שמיות אחרות, ואני יודע בוודאות שזה ככה בערבית.
להלן האלף-בית (כנראה נדרשת תמיכה בעברית בכדי לראות את האותיות נכון - אם זה אפילו דומה ללטינית או כירילית אתם כנראה לא רואים את זה נכון.)
[שימו לב שההברות מבוטאות כמעט בדיוק כמו בגרמנית, והקול CH מבוטא כמו במילה הגרמנית buch]"
Now if read out loud that would sound like this (german spelling, all CH pronounced as in buch, ss as english S, s as english z):
"Angliet (amerikait) hie sfat ha'em scheli, awal noladeti be'yissra'el we'chayieti kan me'as umetamid we'lachen ani adaber al iwrit. Kodem kol alai le'hashirchem ki eyn kol kescher ben iwrit le'anglit, germanit, ssfaradit, italqit, zarfatit, o kol ssafa acheret schemischtameschet ba'alef-bet ha'romayi (huz me'turqit, im ani socher nachon). Rov hamilim ha'iwriot (pe'alim weschmot ezem be'iekar) mewussassot al schalosch o arba otiot schoresch schemuchnassot letoch binjan we'adayin jecholot la'awor schinui derech tossefet schel zoran tchili o zoran ssofie (be'iekar bamikre schel pe'alim, schmot ezem uschmot to'ar wecol hascha'ar hem pachot messuadrim.) Schamati sche'se be'erech oto hadawar bessafot schemiot acherot, we'ani jode'a bewadaut sche'se kacha be'arawit. Lahalan ha'alef-bet (kanir'e nidreschet tmicha be'iwrit bichdey lir'ot et ha'otiot nachon - im se afilu dome lelatinit o kirilit atem kanir'e lo ro'im et se nachon.)
Simu lew schehahawarot mewutaot kim'at bidjuk kmo begermanit, wehakol CH mewute kmo bamila hagermanit buch."
I'm dead tired (it's 3:45, I started this post almost an hour ago).
I'm not used to transliterating this way (I usually do it cause it's funny on IMs with native speakers who can undertand the idea just fine with english spelling that's way, way off the mark.) So I probably did a few things wrong... If I left any V's in, they're supposed to be W's.
G'night.
(Or as we say here, לילה טוב [leila tow])
Red Threat
52ª brigata Garibaldi
Characters we don't use when he have not to write foreign words (and it happens often, today, exspecially about English 
): J, K, X, Y, W.
Pronunciation:
We use tunes, but they are written only if they are in the final vowels:
Città (city), portò (he brought), etc. As everyone can realize reading any Italian text, the most of not-monosyllabic words end with a vowel.
The standard pronunciation of the Latin alphabet vowels is the Italian one, but there are two different variations of E and O (very difficult to hear):
A = father, past
E = cat, clever
I = big, sea
O = hot, was
U = put, spoon
S is read like in the English word sun, but if it stands between two vowels (like in rosa, rose or pink) or before B, D, G it is read z, like in the English word zone.
C, G are read "hard" (cat, dog) before A, O, U (cane: dog; gatto: cat), they are read "soft" (cheese, juice) before E, I (cena: dinner; gelato: ice cream).
If C or G are pronunciated "hard" before I or E there is the H letter between the consonant and the vowel (this is the only reason why H is used in Italian), as in: chiave (key) or ghiaccio (ice).
If C or G are pronunciated "soft" before A, O or U there is the I letter between the consonant and the vowel (but it is not pronunciated, though there are some exceptions), as in: cielo (sky) or giorno (day).
QU + vowel = KW; GU + vowel = GW.
The letter Z sometimes is read "ts", sometimes "dz".
There are special sounds also: gli as in miglio (mile) like the Portuguese olho; gn as in spugna (sponge), similar to the Spanish sound of España.
Grammar:
The nouns are very simple: there are only two genders (masculine and feminine) and two numeri (numbers): singular and plural. The articles have these two genders and numeri too.
Alticles and preposition can be combined: della is the result of di (of) + la (the, singular feminine).
There are no special rules for the proposition constuction, like in German or Latin, nor there are cases (genitivus, dativus, etc.). They survive only in pronouns: a special characteristic of Italian is that pronouns can appear together with verbs in the end of them (forme enclitiche).
What is difficult about Italian are the verbs. The conjugation is very complicated, and there are four modes, like the English Conjunctive (Indicativo, Congiuntivo, Condizionale, Imperativo) and A LOT of EXCEPTIONS and irregularities, and many tempi, at least 8 (like present, past, perfect, etc.). The Italian verbs are more complicated than the Latin ones.
An example:
Give me the apple = Dà a me la mela.
But this is not a very used form, it appears poetic to Italian people. The usual form is the forma enclitica with the pronun declined in the dativ case:
Dammi la mela.
Finally, I think that Italian grammar is not VERY complicated, but surely it isn't simple.
Literature:
The Italian literature is mainly poetry. The reason is that after Dante and Petrarca since the Reinassance the Italian intellectuals thought that the novel is a lower literary genre, the true ars is made by lines, following the Latin tradition. The great Italian novelists are a few, mainly Boccaccio, Svevo, Verga, Pirandello (greater in dramas' production) and Calvino.
But we have A LOT of high-class poetry (Dante, Petrarca, they wrote in Latin also; and then Ariosto, Tasso, Marini, Foscolo, Leopardi, Ungaretti, Montale, etc...) and some long epic poems (Divina Commedia, Orlando Furioso, Gerusalemme liberata (Freed Jerusalem)).
I only say: D'Annunzio SUCKS. I hope nobody of you knows him.
PS: The original Latin letters set had X (think to words like pax or lex), and Y and Z also to translitterate Greek words. K was used for ancestral words (like Karthago). It missed W and J only, which were invented during the Middle Ages. And before the renaissance U and V were the same (the only character V was used).
): J, K, X, Y, W.Pronunciation:
We use tunes, but they are written only if they are in the final vowels:
Città (city), portò (he brought), etc. As everyone can realize reading any Italian text, the most of not-monosyllabic words end with a vowel.
The standard pronunciation of the Latin alphabet vowels is the Italian one, but there are two different variations of E and O (very difficult to hear):
A = father, past
E = cat, clever
I = big, sea
O = hot, was
U = put, spoon
S is read like in the English word sun, but if it stands between two vowels (like in rosa, rose or pink) or before B, D, G it is read z, like in the English word zone.
C, G are read "hard" (cat, dog) before A, O, U (cane: dog; gatto: cat), they are read "soft" (cheese, juice) before E, I (cena: dinner; gelato: ice cream).
If C or G are pronunciated "hard" before I or E there is the H letter between the consonant and the vowel (this is the only reason why H is used in Italian), as in: chiave (key) or ghiaccio (ice).
If C or G are pronunciated "soft" before A, O or U there is the I letter between the consonant and the vowel (but it is not pronunciated, though there are some exceptions), as in: cielo (sky) or giorno (day).
QU + vowel = KW; GU + vowel = GW.
The letter Z sometimes is read "ts", sometimes "dz".
There are special sounds also: gli as in miglio (mile) like the Portuguese olho; gn as in spugna (sponge), similar to the Spanish sound of España.
Grammar:
The nouns are very simple: there are only two genders (masculine and feminine) and two numeri (numbers): singular and plural. The articles have these two genders and numeri too.
Alticles and preposition can be combined: della is the result of di (of) + la (the, singular feminine).
There are no special rules for the proposition constuction, like in German or Latin, nor there are cases (genitivus, dativus, etc.). They survive only in pronouns: a special characteristic of Italian is that pronouns can appear together with verbs in the end of them (forme enclitiche).
What is difficult about Italian are the verbs. The conjugation is very complicated, and there are four modes, like the English Conjunctive (Indicativo, Congiuntivo, Condizionale, Imperativo) and A LOT of EXCEPTIONS and irregularities, and many tempi, at least 8 (like present, past, perfect, etc.). The Italian verbs are more complicated than the Latin ones.
An example:
Give me the apple = Dà a me la mela.
But this is not a very used form, it appears poetic to Italian people. The usual form is the forma enclitica with the pronun declined in the dativ case:
Dammi la mela.
Finally, I think that Italian grammar is not VERY complicated, but surely it isn't simple.
Literature:
The Italian literature is mainly poetry. The reason is that after Dante and Petrarca since the Reinassance the Italian intellectuals thought that the novel is a lower literary genre, the true ars is made by lines, following the Latin tradition. The great Italian novelists are a few, mainly Boccaccio, Svevo, Verga, Pirandello (greater in dramas' production) and Calvino.
But we have A LOT of high-class poetry (Dante, Petrarca, they wrote in Latin also; and then Ariosto, Tasso, Marini, Foscolo, Leopardi, Ungaretti, Montale, etc...) and some long epic poems (Divina Commedia, Orlando Furioso, Gerusalemme liberata (Freed Jerusalem)).
I only say: D'Annunzio SUCKS. I hope nobody of you knows him.
PS: The original Latin letters set had X (think to words like pax or lex), and Y and Z also to translitterate Greek words. K was used for ancestral words (like Karthago). It missed W and J only, which were invented during the Middle Ages. And before the renaissance U and V were the same (the only character V was used).
Red Threat
52ª brigata Garibaldi
Do you know that Tolkien's Quenya (High Elvish) is based on Finnish? Be proud!crystal said:
You should continue to keep Irish alive, my friend... all the Friends of Eireann like me want it.Dr Jimbo said:
Blasphemous
Graulich
Then you don't realize their depth and extent... He may not be the most awesome writer ever, but not one other single person has ever constructed so fully a fantasy world.crystal said:Never heard of that.Anyway, I think Tolkien's works are utterly overhyped...
Blasphemous
Graulich
What makes you think Tolkien fans like the movies?crystal said:Yeah, it's quite impossible to argue with Tolkien fans. Lord of the Ring movies are also way too overrated in IMDB. This just shows the power of aggressive advertising.
I detest them, and I have taken up "Jackson must die" as a personal motto.
Have you even tried to read through the LotR and the Silmarillion?
Without that basic plunge into Arda you can be no judge of Tolkien's work.
Benderino
Loyal American Democrat
American English: Very pragmatic!
Lord_Sidious
No Fun At All
I know the American and English English in words (sidewalk-pavement) and in pronounce. And in Grammar?
Verbose
Deity
WS78 said:
Probabaly due to the phenomenon called "the double accent". Most languages stress a syllable in a specific position in a word. (If it is a language with stress and not tonal like Finnish, Italian, Japanese, Chinese, where it is really elaborate). A French, English-speaking substitute teacher in Swedish I once had (surprising combination) explained it like this:
The Swedish word for "girl" is "flicka".
English speakers will pronounce it "flícka". French speakers "flická". In Swedish it is "flícká". This prduces the kind of lilting some non-Swedes pick up on as "singing".
I have friend who met his American wife in a US college dorm. Their first meeting was after she had heard him string up Swedish swearwords in a shower with a broken thermostat. (Scalding to freezing with no warning.) He was obviously upset, but it sounded as if he was "singing" and it was "cute".
He was simply using the Swedish languages capacity for making up really long words, and they were all ugly and probabaly mostly involved the Devil. Swedes usually invoke the Devil when swearing, not that they are religious. It just feels good. ("Helvetessatansförbannadejävlaskit!" Or some such. A good language to swear in, but Finnish is better.)
Apart from that the double accent makes a difference in meaning as well: "ánden" meanse "the duck",while "ándén" means "the spirit". Room for confusion. The Norwegians do the double accent as well, and it probably wouldn't cause the Chinese much trouble.
And the alphabet is: ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ ÅÄÖ. The Swedish "U" is a bit peculiar. It is a vowel-sound I've been told is only found in Swedish, Norwegian and Japanese. (Open and pointed.)
That said:
How do you swear in your respective language?
(And will the moderator allow it?)
Lord_Sidious
No Fun At All
Verbose said:
"Eu juro, juro por Deus, juro pela vida da minha Mãe"
Translation:
"I swear, I swear by God, I swear by my Mother's life"
Milan's Warrior
Peacelord
- Joined
- Apr 8, 2004
- Messages
- 621
Italian does not have j k x y w
We use the standard qwerty keyboard, although some symbols are placed diffently
My old italian computer keyboard did not have @ or ~ you can imagine how easy it was writing emails
(you could still get them by using ASCII codes)
We use the standard qwerty keyboard, although some symbols are placed diffently
My old italian computer keyboard did not have @ or ~ you can imagine how easy it was writing emails
(you could still get them by using ASCII codes)
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