Language

[Fullerene]

6 minutes ago, Hillonearth said:

Basque is a really strange one – it doesn’t have any connections with any other language on the planet, in the same way that English is clearly related to Dutch and German, French to Italian and Spanish and so on.

There are some nutty theories that the Basques are descended from Atlantean survivors or relict Cro-Magnons who have continued to speak an archaic language, but a saner one is that they’ve continued to speak one of a family of languages which was formerly much more widespread but replaced elsewhere by Romance Indo-European languages  – quite possibly in Roman times since all the surrounding languages  are direct descendants of Latin.

If you want to study all the different languages of the world, the best source is children's fairy stories.  The Grimm Brothers, who are associated with collections of children's fair stories, were actually experts in linguistics and discovered an association with all the Indo-European languages with the exception of Finnish, Estonian, Hungarian and Basque.

Apparently "Eeny, Meeny, Miney, Mo" was how ancient Britons counted from one to four, or more precisely One, Two, Three, Lots!  

[ICTJohnboy]

Having lived in Spain for a couple of years I've encountered several Spaniards who don't speak a word of English. 

Not only is this unacceptable in this day and age it's the height of bad manners.

[DiegoDiego]

3 minutes ago, Fullerene said:

The Grimm Brothers, who are associated with collections of children's fair stories, were actually experts in linguistics and discovered an association with all the Indo-European languages with the exception of Finnish, Estonian, Hungarian and Basque.

Those four languages aren't Indo-European, that'll be why.

You'll often find Albanians banging on about their language. In much the same way as we like to think that everything in the world was invented by Scots, they like to claim that most English words have Albanian origins. Modern Albanian hasn't changed a great deal since Illyrian which they claim formed the basis of Greek, eventually filtering through to English. It's quite impressive when someone reels off various etymological claims until you realise how easy they are to fudge and how difficult they are to prove. For example, a commonly cited origin is that of "cup" which is a similar word in most European languages (Finnish: kuppi, Basque: kopa, Albanian, kupë). They claim that it comes from the Albanian ku+pi meaning where+drink.

[welshbairn]

4 minutes ago, ICTJohnboy said:

Having lived in Spain for a couple of years I've encountered several Spaniards who don't speak a word of English. 

Not only is this unacceptable in this day and age it's the height of bad manners.

They should ban dubbing for English language TV. That'll teach them.

[Hedgecutter]

2 hours ago, Fullerene said:

Nowadays, that is far more likely to be English - much to the annoyance of the French. 

Perhaps it's just my personal experience, but of all the foreigners I've dealt with the French are the ones that try to make communication as difficult as possible, probably because of that giant pomme frite on their shoulder. 

[Shotgun]

2 hours ago, virginton said:

They probably will, but they almost certainly won't actually use said technology to talk to some random punter in Blantyre. The ability to use a language of global communciation isn't universal; the need to do so is and will remain minimal. Which is why it will never happen. 

Increasing use is categorically not the same as having a universal language of communication though, which is what you originally claimed was just around the corner. I also note that you have quietly ditched your other, laughable claim that said language would be a weirdo combination of English, Arabic and Mandarin. 

Thanks for playing anyway. 

 

Sigh. OK, I give up. You win.

[welshbairn]

35 minutes ago, Hedgecutter said:

Perhaps it's just my personal experience, but of all the foreigners I've dealt with the French are the ones that try to make communication as difficult as possible, probably because of that giant pomme frite on their shoulder. 

I think that's mainly a Northern thing, especially Paris. Went to Marseille last year and they were very patient with my shite French and were happy speaking in English if they knew any.

[Fullerene]

4 hours ago, ICTJohnboy said:

Having lived in Spain for a couple of years I've encountered several Spaniards who don't speak a word of English. 

Not only is this unacceptable in this day and age it's the height of bad manners.

Have you tried speaking louder?

[ICTJohnboy]

19 minutes ago, Fullerene said:

Have you tried speaking louder?

 

You might not believe this but no matter how slowly, or how loudly you speak, the thick c***s just don't understand.

Spanish police have learned one phrase which they can trot out in pigeon English when required

"You need to bring an interpreter if you want to report something"

[Bold Rover]

Yes, Johnny Foreigner usually does get the gist of very loud English.

[Shotgun]

2 hours ago, Hedgecutter said:

Perhaps it's just my personal experience, but of all the foreigners I've dealt with the French are the ones that try to make communication as difficult as possible, probably because of that giant pomme frite on their shoulder. 

" In Paris they just simply opened their eyes and stared when we spoke to them in French! We never did succeed in making those idiots understand their own language."
~ Mark Twain

[Hillonearth]

3 hours ago, Hedgecutter said:

Perhaps it's just my personal experience, but of all the foreigners I've dealt with the French are the ones that try to make communication as difficult as possible, probably because of that giant pomme frite on their shoulder. 

It genuinely infuriates the French that their language hasn't become the world's lingua franca the way English is on the way to doing. 

It's kind of their own fault though, or certainly that of the Academie Francaise, the supreme authority on the French language who seem to want a world which speaks a perfect Parisian/Ile de France French set in aspic, and is sniffy about anything that doesn't whether it be minority languages within France like Breton, foreign versions of French like Quebecois and Walloon - even down to some regional dialects of their own language.

Meanwhile the undiscriminating old mongrel that is English happily gobbles up foreign words and constantly evolves.

[Fullerene]

18 minutes ago, Hillonearth said:

It genuinely infuriates the French that their language hasn't become the world's lingua franca the way English is on the way to doing. 

It's kind of their own fault though, or certainly that of the Academie Francaise, the supreme authority on the French language who seem to want a world which speaks a perfect Parisian/Ile de France French set in aspic, and is sniffy about anything that doesn't whether it be minority languages within France like Breton, foreign versions of French like Quebecois and Walloon - even down to some regional dialects of their own language.

Meanwhile the undiscriminating old mongrel that is English happily gobbles up foreign words and constantly evolves.

Yes it is their fault.  Initially when the Normans ruled England, the rich and powerful spoke French and it was only ordinary folk that spoke English.

However, when the rich and powerful sent their children to school and university in Paris, they were accused of speaking an inferior kind of French.  So the powers that be in England decided to drop French as their preferred language and adopt English instead.  Since it was missing a lot of words that they were use to - they just pulled in the French words - which is why English has a Germanic core (the 200 most commonly used words are all Germanic) with a thick coating of words taken from French.

Of course, the words taken from French are not spoken the way the French would speak them - which just annoys them even more.

One Frenchman said "English is easy to learn - it is just badly spoken French".

[Cardinal Richelieu]

Here's something I've always wondered. Many European languages have gendered nouns... i.e. objects are considered masculine, feminine or neutral. So when a new word comes out, how do they decide which it is? I always imagined there was a smoky committee room filled with balding politicians and linguists arguing late into night about whether Facebook should be masculine or feminine. I guess the reality is rather more mundane based on the format of the word. 

[welshbairn]

2 minutes ago, Fullerene said:

Yes it is their fault.  Initially when the Normans ruled England, the rich and powerful spoke French and it was only ordinary folk that spoke English.

However, when the rich and powerful sent their children to school and university in Paris, they were accused of speaking an inferior kind of French.  So the powers that be in England decided to drop French as their preferred language and adopt English instead.  Since it was missing a lot of words that they were use to - they just pulled in the French words - which is why English has a Germanic core (the 200 most commonly used words are all Germanic) with a thick coating of words taken from French.

Of course, the words taken from French are not spoken the way the French would speak them - which just annoys them even more.

One Frenchman said "English is easy to learn - it is just badly spoken French".

Did the Normans keep any Scandinavian words or just adopt French 100%? Weird if so. Incidentally you can still hear a version of Norman French in some of the sleazier pubs in Jersey.

 

[Miguel Sanchez]

6 minutes ago, Cardinal Richelieu said:

Here's something I've always wondered. Many European languages have gendered nouns... i.e. objects are considered masculine, feminine or neutral. So when a new word comes out, how do they decide which it is? I always imagined there was a smoky committee room filled with balding politicians and linguists arguing late into night about whether Facebook should be masculine or feminine. I guess the reality is rather more mundane based on the format of the word. 

 

[Stellaboz]

As many know, I work for a German company but it's first language is English. Today at lunch I sat with 3 Germans whom were talking in English before I arrived.
Sometimes you hear German obviously but.

[Bold Rover]

32 minutes ago, Stellaboz said:

As many know, I work for a German company but it's first language is English. Today at lunch I sat with 3 Germans whom were talking in English before I arrived.
Sometimes you hear German obviously but.

Do the Germans know how to use the apostrophe? Would they end a sentence with "but"? What about the correct use of "whom"?

[Stellaboz]

Ich Weis nicht, cunto.

[Sergeant Wilson]

8 hours ago, welshbairn said:

Another guy thinks he's talking shite.

A bit like on here, only for clever people.