What languages do you speak/are you learning?

[Quackers]

I'm pretty sure Scots was just made up to aggravate proud Britons like me.

I can understand people speaking English with a Scottish accent fine. "Scots" is the act of writing English spoken with a Scottish accent in a bizarre way which can be quite difficult to read.

 

[madviking]

I can understand people speaking English with a Scottish accent fine. "Scots" is the act of writing English spoken with a Scottish accent in a bizarre way which can be quite difficult to read.

so just like ebonics?

 

[Traitorfish]

In that people like Quackers have traditionally regarded the speaking of both as a developmental disorder to be treated through vigorous application of physical and emotional violence, yes.

 

[Mouthwash]

I just looked up Scots, and I can't imagine that it isn't some sort of hideous joke.

 

[Borachio]

I wouldn't call Rabbie Burns a hideous joke.

To A Louse, On Seeing One on a Lady's Bonnet at Church

O wad some Pow'r the giftie gie us
To see oursels as ithers see us!
It wad frae mony a blunder free us,
An' foolish notion:
What airs in dress an' gait wad lea'e us,
An' ev'n devotion!

 

[Traitorfish]

English is a joke from top to bottom, in every accent and dialect. "Hey, let's take a Low Germanic language, something like Dutch, but we'll make half the vocabulary French and the entire technical vocabulary Latin. We'll throw in some Greek and Hebrew, too, keep them on their toes." "Can we add a bunch of seemingly-random Indian loanwords to describe everyday items?" "Asian Indian or American Indian?" "Both!"

Scots, if anything, the less jokish language, because it remains very marginally more Anglic in grammar, vocabulary and phonology.

 

[Borachio]

Not only is English itself a joke, it's also been randomly messed about Belgian printers, of all people.

"Hey guys, let's introduce a few silent letters just because we think they look better. These English people already look befuddled, let's confuse them a bit more. Who knows, maybe they'll go exploring and conquer the world or something, just to get away from reading?"

Still, maybe English being a joke is really its strength?

 

[H4run]

According to some of my friends, there's no real grammar, deklinations, tenses, etc.
So e.g. if you want to say that you did something yesterday (instead of today), you just add "yesterday" to the sentence. Or if you're talking about tomorrow, then you just add tomorrow.
Apparently it's also the same with Indonesian. And google translate apparently also works pretty well between these languages, due to the lack of real grammar.

that is sound pretty cool to learn I want to learn Japanese but I think Chinese language is more widely use, and it is hard to find Japanese on aboard, if I do they already know at least English. However I think I gonna learn Japanese, as now I also pretty much surrounded by Japanese peoples.

 

[Cheezy the Wiz]

There you go. By the way, if you people think that I've made any mistake, let me know.


Native/Bilingual/Multilingual/Native-like




Fluent/Advanced




Intermediate




Beginner




Some knowledge

I'm double-listed for Russian, which should be advanced. My German knowledge should be intermediate, Arabic and Ukrainian beginner.

 

[Borachio]

I confess I have some knowledge of English. But I'm probably losing it fast.

 

[cybrxkhan]

According to some of my friends, there's no real grammar, deklinations, tenses, etc.
So e.g. if you want to say that you did something yesterday (instead of today), you just add "yesterday" to the sentence. Or if you're talking about tomorrow, then you just add tomorrow.
Apparently it's also the same with Indonesian. And google translate apparently also works pretty well between these languages, due to the lack of real grammar.

those languages still have grammar - it's just grammar that doesn't rely on inflections and other components one would find in, say, most European languages; their grammar instead rely more on things such as word order or heavier usage of specialized sentence particles

 

[Flying Pig]

I'm pretty sure Scots was just made up to aggravate proud Britons like me.

I can understand people speaking English with a Scottish accent fine. "Scots" is the act of writing English spoken with a Scottish accent in a bizarre way which can be quite difficult to read.

Scots is just English written with a Scottish accent and replacing some words with Scottish-only ones. French is just English written with a French accent and replacing some words with French-only ones. Dutch is just German written with a Dutch accent and replacing some words with Dutch-only ones. Do you see the problem?

 

[ZeletDude]

I know some French, and of course English.

 

[Civ'ed]

Dutch is just German written with a Dutch accent and replacing some words with Dutch-only ones.

inb4 Dutch is older than german

 

[gangleri2001]

You should add Slovak and list me as having some knowledge of it.

If I try hard, I can approximate Slovak fairly acceptably (as basically any Czech with sufficient exposure to it could).

Wouldn't that be intermediate?

Well,

Hebrew, and much better than common native Hebrew speakers...

My English is quite good, I'd say. It is hard for me when it comes to deep writings like in the History Forum, but mostly I'm proud of my English, and working on a fluent British accent.

And as a Capoeirista, I know some Portuguese (Brazilian of course!), but I still have a lot to learn.

A little bit of Arabic, mainly reading and basic grammar knowledge, what I remember from the 3 years of Arabic lessons at school...

Added to the list.

I'm a native English speaker. I have a rudimentary knowledge of Russian, and a fading knowledge of Latin.

Added to the list.

(I don't understand any Portuguese lol)

Fixed.

I forgot that I can understand Afrikaans and know a bit of Gaelic (Irish and Scottish, mostly in the "X forever" sense).
I know a lot of words in other languages I just can't hold a proper conversation in them

Added to the list.

I'm double-listed for Russian, which should be advanced. My German knowledge should be intermediate, Arabic and Ukrainian beginner.

Fixed.

I know some French, and of course English.

Added to the list.

 

[Hygro]

I forgot that I can understand Afrikaans

Hoe gaan dit vs hoe gaat het. I didn't even realize the first time I read the former that it wasn't straight up Dutch.

I object to "Scots" being considered a language.

You just can't stand Traitorfish

oh, here he comes!

English is a joke from top to bottom, in every accent and dialect. "Hey, let's take a Low Germanic language, something like Dutch, but we'll make half the vocabulary French and the entire technical vocabulary Latin. We'll throw in some Greek and Hebrew, too, keep them on their toes." "Can we add a bunch of seemingly-random Indian loanwords to describe everyday items?" "Asian Indian or American Indian?" "Both!"

Scots, if anything, the less jokish language, because it remains very marginally more Anglic in grammar, vocabulary and phonology.

 

[Kyriakos]

^Latin is in no way the bulk of the technical vocabulary in English. It only is that in fields which for one reason or other got latin to stay for the jargon (plant life/botanology would be a very good example). Other than that most technical terms seem to be Greek, including any from social, math or linguistic fields (mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, geology, democracy, politics, theory, hypothesis, metaphor, allegory, parallel, circle, trigonometry, cosmic etc etc etc).

It is also usual to have new terms formed as a clear synthesis of existing greek terms for new fields (eg ecology).

 

[Winner]

Wouldn't that be intermediate?

Hardly. I can approximate it, not speak it, definitely not without being recognized after the first sentence, giving the Slovaks a case of serious giggles

So, passively I am just below native speaker level (being born in Czechoslovakia and hearing spoken Slovak daily on TV until the age of 8, as well as spending numerous holidays in Slovakia, probably qualifies), but actively I can produce only something that to me sounds like Slovak, but is in reality a mixture of the two languages.

 

[Quackers]

Scots is just English written with a Scottish accent and replacing some words with Scottish-only ones. French is just English written with a French accent and replacing some words with French-only ones. Dutch is just German written with a Dutch accent and replacing some words with Dutch-only ones. Do you see the problem?

I never said anything about "replacing some words with Scottish-only ones". Read a Scots text. All the English words are altered to sound like a Scot is speaking it. I could do it for some of the accents around here. I hear the word "water" pronounced as "wart-AH" ocassionally where i live, I'm not gonna make up some bogus language called "Southron" based on that though.

It's politics.

 

[salty mud]

Here's a poem in Scots. It's a serious stretch to call it a different language.

Revolutioun is ragin at this minnit in time.
The weapons ir Musick Art an Dance
Musick art an dance spell MAD
In Scotland, we're aw MAD
Thir'll be nae casualties, mental nir physical
fae this non violent revelaytioun.
The definnit ootcome wull be
perched watchin waitin fir the breeze
tae pick me up in gentil flicht
ma glide across expansiv seas
this luely warm an moonlit nicht
whaur people's onlie need fir gold
gaes back tae warlds o yung, no auld,
tae watch reflectioun i the sun
in a clene new Warlt which is begun,
nae greed, nae want fir personal gayn
there is onlie luve which has nae payn.
Freedom is truth: stye free!
Scotland an its people.
Freedom.
Hope moves silently,
a braw companioun fir tae hae.

And another text

This is the storie o the birth o Jesus Christ. His mither Mary wis trystit til Joseph, but afore they war mairriet she wis fund tae be wi bairn bi the Halie Spírit. Her husband Joseph, honest man, hed nae mind tae affront her afore the warld an wis for brakkin aff their tryst hidlinweys; an sae he wis een ettlin tae dae, whan an angel o the Lord kythed til him in a draim an said til him, “Joseph, son o Dauvit, be nane feared tae tak Mary your trystit wife intil your hame; the bairn she is cairrein is o the Halie Spírit. She will beir a son, an the name ye ar tae gíe him is Jesus, for he will sauf his fowk frae their sins.”
Aa this happent at the wurd spokken bi the Lord throu the Prophet micht be fulfilled: Behaud, the virgin wil bouk an beir a son, an they will caa his name Immanuel – that is, “God wi us”.
Whan he hed waukit frae his sleep, Joseph did as the angel hed bidden him, an tuik his trystit wife hame wi him. But he bedditna wi her or she buir a son; an he caa’d the bairn Jesus.

It essentially is English, but spelt wrong.