How many languages do you know? Which ones do you want to learn?
In high school we had to learn (Canadian) French. I found it hard and never understood how it worked. I wouldn't mind trying again or better yet, any Scandinavian language like Danish, Norwegian or Icelandic.
How about you guys?
Only English for me. I haven't been around it in forever so I doubt I could make out anything well, but when I was younger I could understand spoken Tagalog, but I couldn't speak or read it. I would like to learn it.
Allan
I am fluent (can read, write, speak) in both English and Mandarin Chinese, in addition I took 4 years of honor French is high school.
I would like to learn German some day.
Quote from: toledobass on November 04, 2007, 07:54:34 PM
Only English for me. I haven't been around it in forever so I doubt I could make out anything well, but when I was younger I could understand spoken Tagalog, but I couldn't speak or read it. I would like to learn it.
Allan
What is Tagalog?
Chinese (Mandarin, Cantonese), English, Japanese, some German, Italian, Latin, Korean, Tagalog, Thai, Spanish and very little French.
Some Japanese and some Korean.
Really loved learning to speak, read and write Japanese. It was a hobby.
Korean was too, but after moving here and being the perpetual outsider, that honeymoon ended.
I can generally communicate with my wife's family though (if she's out of the country or something), but hardly fluently.
Just English. Which is a really poor show, actually - I've always felt that a reasonably cultured English gent should be fluent in (at least) one European language.
If I had the patience and aptitude for learning languages (which I don't, if my disasterous attempt at French during my school years is anything to go by), then I'd probably want to learn Finnish, German or perhaps Italian.
I'm learning German. I took two quarters of it as an undergraduate, and have tried at various times to re-learn it and progress to fluency, but have failed. Now that I have a good deal of free time, I'm trying to put in an hour a day and finally do it. If I succeed, I'll probably learn Russian next, if not Italian. I still remember un poquito of the three years of Spanish I took in high school.
Quote from: 12tone. on November 04, 2007, 06:52:07 PM
I wouldn't mind trying again or better yet, any Scandinavian language like Danish, Norwegian or Icelandic.
Or Swedish... if you learn one of these languages well, you get plenty of knowledge of the others for free, they are such close relatives. I speak only Swedish, but I can without much effort read Norwegian or Danish newspapers. Understanding a Dane speak is a bit of a stretch though! On the other hand, Finnish and Estonian are closely related, but although my Finnish is pretty fluent, I can't really read, let alone speak, Estonian.
Funny story about languages. I used to work with a Finnish girl, and one day she was doing a crossword puzzle in a Finnish magazine. She was stuck on a clue, so I asked her to translate it and said I'd give her the answer. Then it dawned on me that the equivalent in English wouldn't fit in the puzzle grid. Doh! ;D
Quote from: Mark on November 05, 2007, 02:34:21 AM
Funny story about languages. I used to work with a Finnish girl, and one day she was doing a crossword puzzle in a Finnish magazine. She was stuck on a clue, so I asked her to translate it and said I'd give her the answer. Then it dawned on me that the equivalent in English wouldn't fit in the puzzle grid. Doh! ;D
;D
And she couldn't translate the English equivalent into Finnish, or didn't it fit either?
Quote from: matti on November 05, 2007, 02:42:14 AM
;D
And she couldn't translate the English equivalent into Finnish, or didn't it fit either?
Don't know - we just fell about laughing at my stupidity. :D
Quote from: toledobass on November 04, 2007, 07:54:34 PM
Only English for me. I haven't been around it in forever so I doubt I could make out anything well, but when I was younger I could understand spoken Tagalog, but I couldn't speak or read it. I would like to learn it.
Allan
cool! I have a friend who can speak it (says he speaks it every day with his family). Taught me a few words that I can't remember.... he was in my Japanese class (which i took for the last year of high school) and before that I took 3 years of Spanish.
Quote from: Bonehelm on November 04, 2007, 09:14:31 PM
Chinese (Mandarin, Cantonese), English, Japanese, some German, Italian, Latin, Korean, Tagalog, Thai, Spanish and very little French.
you can't be serious..... i don't think that's humanly possible to know that much at your age.... you must mean "a few sentences/phrases of Japanese, German, Italian, Latin, Korean, Tagalog, Thai, Spanish, and French", right?
Quote from: matti on November 05, 2007, 02:31:02 AM
I speak only Swedish, but I can without much effort read Norwegian or Danish newspapers.
that's why it's tempting to learn one of these languages- you could learn one and then without much extra study, actually know 3! :o (it's good for bragging)
Quote from: 12tone. on November 04, 2007, 06:52:07 PM
Icelandic.
good luck with that.... not much is out there to study Icelandic
Y dinos,Greg: como andan tus estudios de español? ;) ;)
you know what, the best way to know if somone really knows the language he claims to speak, is to swear to him using the worst possible swears in that particular language.
Quote from: carlos on November 05, 2007, 03:23:49 PM
Y dinos,Greg: como andan tus estudios de español? ;) ;)
bien, hoy he conseguido de mi trabajo una revista en español gratis ...... por qué en español? No sé! ???
Creo que alguien comitió un error lol
pero sí que me está ayudando a aprender unos términos de los electrodomésticos, herramientas etc.....
hoy en día estudio más el japonés, pero el español es más accessible. O.... algunas veces estudio los ambos! Has visto el programa Héroes? Tienen subtítulos en íngles con escenas con diálogo en japonés y español :) Ni me siento como si estoy derrochando el tiempo, y eso me gusta muchisimo....... de vez en cuando no leo los subtítulos y trato de ver si puedo entender lo que dicen, pero la mayoría de las veces solo entiendo un poco :-\
Heroes is on in an hour and a half!!!! :)
(that took forever to post, i really need to work on my speed)
Quote from: MahlerTitan on November 05, 2007, 03:26:18 PM
you know what, the best way to know if somone really knows the language he claims to speak, is to swear to him using the worst possible swears in that particular language.
but what if they only know the cuss words of that language?......
anyways, i want to see Bonehelm type extensive paragraphs in the languages he claims to speak (besides the obvious ones). I'll only be able to check 2, but others will be able to check the Korean, Latin, etc.
the Thai one, i'm not sure anyone would be able to check though
Quote from: G...R...E...G... on November 05, 2007, 03:43:35 PM
but what if they only know the cuss words of that language?......
well, than it is obvious to me that he does speak that language, and he speaks it well.
Quote from: MahlerTitan on November 05, 2007, 03:44:57 PM
well, than it is obvious to me that he does speak that language, and he speaks it well.
;D
that can be useful, to say a word another person doesn't understand..hehe >:D
Français d'abord, English second, and enough Italian to understand a conversation when it's not in some dialect :P. Spanish is not hard to read, but understanding it is another matter. My daughter who speaks it fluently still has trouble sorting out the accents (Cuban, Dominican, Puerto-Rican, Mexican, the list is endless).
German is ok as long as it's an opera libretto ;D. I can recognize a sentence or family names in at least a dozen languages. But knowing it's Hungarian or Turkish doesn't give me much of an advantage...
Concerning Bonehelm, I don't see why it is impossible for him to speak all those languages to at least some rudimentary extent, at his age. It might be unlikely, but it is certainly possible.
As for me, I currently speak English, and Greek: the latter worse than I did a few years ago (due to lack of practice). Otherwise, I know a smattering of words and/or grammar rules from French and German, but my main "lingual" concern is to elevate both of them to a level of proficiency I'm satisfied with, and at the very least add Latin, and better Ancient Greek than I currently know.
Two more languages I'm significantly interested in are Japanese and Russian. :)
Quote from: Renfield on November 05, 2007, 04:21:50 PM
Concerning Bonehelm, I don't see why it is impossible for him to speak all those languages to at least some rudimentary extent, at his age. It might be unlikely, but it is certainly possible.
of course it's possible, but not likely.
Quote from: matti on November 05, 2007, 02:31:02 AM
Or Swedish... if you learn one of these languages well, you get plenty of knowledge of the others for free, they are such close relatives. I speak only Swedish, but I can without much effort read Norwegian or Danish newspapers. Understanding a Dane speak is a bit of a stretch though! On the other hand, Finnish and Estonian are closely related, but although my Finnish is pretty fluent, I can't really read, let alone speak, Estonian.
Swedish is good too, but I don't have experience with either hearing it, looking at text or trying to speak it. The language that I have done a bit of study with is Icelandic. I've been listening to Icelandic radio shows and watching 'the news' from Iceland for awhile now. I love the sound of the language, how it moves. Very interesting. Also the island itself is so wonderful. Don't know about how the people there act (kind or mean).
Quote from: Mark on November 05, 2007, 12:31:54 AM
If I had the patience and aptitude for learning languages (which I don't, if my disasterous attempt at French during my school years is anything to go by), then I'd probably want to learn Finnish, German or perhaps Italian.
I found French unbearably hard. It just did not make sense. Maybe if I tried again, I could grasp a bit more.
Finnish looks good! From what I've heard (looking up people speaking languages on Youtube), Finnish looks like the harder of the five (Icelandic, Norwegian, Danish, Swedish and Finnish). Not only does the language look like a completely different language (a weird one at that) but listening to how they talk, it sounds beyond possible. But I mean they talk, so it
is possible ;D
Quote from: XB-70 Valkyrie on November 05, 2007, 02:17:51 AM
I'm learning German.
What's the difficulty on German? How long do you need to press on through the rough stages to get to 'grasp' how it works?
Quote from: 12tone. on November 05, 2007, 04:31:23 PM
Finnish looks like the harder of the five (Icelandic, Norwegian, Danish, Swedish and Finnish). Not only does the language look like a completely different language (a weird one at that) but listening to how they talk, it sounds beyond possible. But I mean they talk, so it is possible ;D
Finnish is a Finno-Ugric language, as the others you mentioned are Germanic. So you're right, it is a completely different language.
Quote from: 12tone. on November 05, 2007, 04:31:23 PM
What's the difficulty on German? How long do you need to press on through the rough stages to get to 'grasp' how it works?
Well that depends... but talking about families of languages, English is a Germanic language too. Mastering English is a major bonus for your German studies. For me, getting the genders right is difficult, but that's for the most part a cosmetic matter.
Re-read my post, guys...I said I speak fluent Chinese and English, and the rest I only know some.
Quote from: 12tone. on November 05, 2007, 04:31:23 PM
What's the difficulty on German? How long do you need to press on through the rough stages to get to 'grasp' how it works?
German has tons of grammar, although as a native English speaker, I can't say for sure whether it has more than English. However, probably the most difficult part for me is that there are few rules for determining the gender of a noun by looking at it. One must always memorize the gender (M, F, or N) with the noun, which is easier said than done. OTOH, German pronunciation rules are quite constant and the language does not have many exceptions, except possibly for words of foreign origin.
As I said, I took two quarters of it as an undergraduate. These courses meet daily, and I had a fair amount of practice speaking it, and I have a good idea of what words should sound like, inflections of phrases, and the like. I am currently reworking my way through my old
Deutch Heute textbook (1992 vintage), and am on Chapter 8 out of 14. Lately, I've been feeling a little better about the progress I've been making. Still, it is difficult to be an intermediate and maintain motivation. I don't really know enough at this point to understand much of what I hear on German internet radio, or enough to carry on much of a conversation with the native German speakers at my workplace. After a few more chapters (genitive case, adjectives, simple past tense), I should be able to converse a lot better.
I'm interested in Russian as well. Has anyone here tried to learn it?? Our native Russian speaker in our lab advises me that it is very difficult.
Yeah, but it wasn't clear whether 'some' modified all the languages mentioned afterwards or just German.
I speak English and I'm more or less fluent in Spanish. I am currently learning Italian. I would like to learn Czech (If I am going to live in Prague), and Swedish, and I wouldn't mind learning French and Portuguese.
Quote from: G...R...E...G... on November 05, 2007, 03:40:47 PM
bien, hoy he conseguido de mi trabajo una revista en español gratis ...... por qué en español? No sé! ???
Creo que alguien comitió un error lol
pero sí que me está ayudando a aprender unos términos de los electrodomésticos, herramientas etc.....
hoy en día estudio más el japonés, pero el español es más accessible. O.... algunas veces estudio los ambos! Has visto el programa Héroes? Tienen subtítulos en íngles con escenas con diálogo en japonés y español :) Ni me siento como si estoy derrochando el tiempo, y eso me gusta muchisimo....... de vez en cuando no leo los subtítulos y trato de ver si puedo entender lo que dicen, pero la mayoría de las veces solo entiendo un poco :-\
Heroes is on in an hour and a half!!!! :)
(that took forever to post, i really need to work on my speed)
Bien,Greg!. Tu español es excelente!. Un par de detalles para
tener en cuenta:
..he conseguido EN mi trabajo
comEtio, no comitio
..estudio ambos ( LOS sobra)
...como si ESTUVIERA (nó estoy)
Pero,insisto, tus progresos son notables. :D :D
I was studying Finnish but I've been fairly lax about it lately. When you study languages you need time alone to speak the words out loud repeatedly — something I can't do with other people around.
hmm, jeg taler kun tysk og engelsk, foruden dansk. Men dansk er også et vidt begreb! Selvom landet er meget lille i forhold til USA fx, er der så stor forskel i dialekterne, at en jyde og en københavner somme tider ikke forstår hinanden. For slet ikke at tale om bornholmere. ;D
Quote from: XB-70 Valkyrie on November 05, 2007, 08:37:15 PM
I'm interested in Russian as well. Has anyone here tried to learn it??
Yes, and what I found really invaluable was a six-week intensive course. At the end, I could still speak only haltingly, but it gave me an excellent foundation, and wtih subsequent practice, my Russian became quite tolerable 8)
Quote from: mikkeljs on November 06, 2007, 08:48:58 AM
hmm, jeg taler kun tysk og engelsk, foruden dansk. Men dansk er også et vidt begreb! Selvom landet er meget lille i forhold til USA fx, er der så stor forskel i dialekterne, at en jyde og en københavner somme tider ikke forstår hinanden. For slet ikke at tale om bornholmere. ;D
dude, i don't think we have any other Danish people on this forum lol
Quote from: carlos on November 06, 2007, 02:36:03 AM
Bien,Greg!. Tu español es excelente!. Un par de detalles para
tener en cuenta:
..he conseguido EN mi trabajo
comEtio, no comitio
..estudio ambos ( LOS sobra)
...como si ESTUVIERA (nó estoy)
Pero,insisto, tus progresos son notables. :D :D
gracias, Carlos, por las correciónes!
sí, yo temo que no estaba seguro de mucho que escribí :P
Quote from: Bonehelm on November 04, 2007, 09:14:31 PM
Chinese (Mandarin, Cantonese), English, Japanese, some German, Italian, Latin, Korean, Tagalog, Thai, Spanish and very little French.
Quote from: Bonehelm on November 05, 2007, 08:15:51 PM
Re-read my post, guys...I said I speak fluent Chinese and English, and the rest I only know some.
my bad..... i interpreted the "some" to mean just German instead of extending to the other languages you wrote.
ok, i get it now ;D
I speak three languages: Portuguese, German and French.
Regarding my poor English, I am ashamed, but I must say that I am even worst speaking it than writting.
Quote from: mikkeljs on November 06, 2007, 08:48:58 AM
hmm, jeg taler kun tysk og engelsk, foruden dansk. Men dansk er også et vidt begreb! Selvom landet er meget lille i forhold til USA fx, er der så stor forskel i dialekterne, at en jyde og en københavner somme tider ikke forstår hinanden. For slet ikke at tale om bornholmere. ;D
I would also eventually like to learn Danish so I can read Kierkegaard in his own language. :)
Quote from: val on November 07, 2007, 03:51:05 AM
I speak three languages: Portuguese, German and French.
Regarding my poor English, I am ashamed, but I must say that I am even worst speaking it than writting.
don't worry, read my posts long enough and you'll get to where you've totally unlearned the language- therefore you have an excuse if you need to speak English- you can't! :D
there's several languages i've been dying to learn for a while:
Chinese (both Mandarin and Cantonese), Korean, Finnish, Russian, German, (and a little less) French and Portuguese.
The sucky thing is that you really can't become fluent in that many languages, it's not humanly possible except for unusually gifted people.... ::)
The best idea i've had, possibly, is to somehow study ALL THE TIME. Just learn 2 words every hour and repeat them again and again until they sink in, and then at the end of the day study for an hour. That'd probably be the most you could do humanly possible, but i bet it'd really get old after awhile :P
Greg, if you are serious about it and have the free time, I would suggest the Teach Yourself brand language tutors. I enjoyed working with the Finnish tutor, but I don't really have enough time to dedicate myself to it. Happily, they are much cheaper than the ridiculously-expensive Rosetta Stone series.
Quote from: Corey on November 07, 2007, 02:42:42 PM
Greg, if you are serious about it and have the free time, I would suggest the Teach Yourself brand language tutors. I enjoyed working with the Finnish tutor, but I don't really have enough time to dedicate myself to it. Happily, they are much cheaper than the ridiculously-expensive Rosetta Stone series.
I know that series! :)
A couple months ago I checked out the book for Polish in that series from the library. Of course, i don't remember a thing.... dzien dobry, not much else. Polish words seem to be some of the hardest to remember!
Quote from: Corey on November 07, 2007, 04:43:43 AM
I would also eventually like to learn Danish so I can read Kierkegaard in his own language. :)
I once made a comment on a WoW-related web-comic about Kierkegaard, the comic's artist being Danish, and she told me her father had met a man in China, once, who was fluent in Danish
just for that reason. Yet to be honest, I won't blame either him, or you if you do it, either. ;)
Quote from: Renfield on November 07, 2007, 04:40:57 PM
I once made a comment on a WoW-related web-comic about Kierkegaard, the comic's artist being Danish, and she told me her father had met a man in China, once, who was fluent in Danish just for that reason. Yet to be honest, I won't blame either him, or you if you do it, either. ;)
:) I am hoping I will be able to study it in school, as it will be easier than relying solely upon the unsteady power of my will.
Quote from: Corey on November 07, 2007, 05:22:27 PM
:) I am hoping I will be able to study it in school, as it will be easier than relying solely upon the unsteady power of my will.
Most of the existentialist movement begs to differ! ;D
(But yes, I see your point. ;))
One of the most difficult things in English is the pronunciation of the vowel sounds. It will vary with apparently no better reason than usage. As in
height - weight
slime - sliver
silver - siren
dam - dame
man - mane
bus - abuse
some - tome
wolves - women
etc :-\
Quote from: Lilas Pastia on November 07, 2007, 07:19:37 PM
One of the most difficult things in English is the pronunciation of the vowel sounds. It will vary with apparently no better reason than usage. As in
height - weight
slime - sliver
silver - siren
dam - dame
man - mane
bus - abuse
some - tome
wolves - women
etc :-\
or...
bear / wear - dear
tear - tear
etc
Quote from: Renfield on November 07, 2007, 04:40:57 PM
I once made a comment on a WoW-related web-comic
A fellow WoW refugee? :D
Quote from: Lethe on November 07, 2007, 11:45:49 PM
A fellow WoW refugee? :D
Indeed! 8)
Though I'm in it for the role-play, first and foremost;
and of course the fireballs! >:D
But then again, you probably might have reckoned I'm an RP server sort of person, from all my forum-babbling. :D You? :)
And incidentally, the person who told me about that Chinese man was Chidori, from Chronicles of the Flaming Ruby (rather than from Naruto :P).
Quote from: Renfield on November 08, 2007, 01:41:29 AM
Indeed! 8)
Though I'm in it for the role-play, first and foremost; and of course the fireballs! >:D
But then again, you probably might have reckoned I'm an RP server sort of person, from all my forum-babbling. :D You? :)
And incidentally, the person who told me about that Chinese man was Chidori, from Chronicles of the Flaming Ruby (rather than from Naruto :P).
Pre-TBC my guild was doing constant BGs as we weren't strong enough to do AQ content and onwards. This was nice, because we reached a point where we were polished enough to beat Naxx premades despite only having at best ZG and BG gear (eg. we could leave just one or two people defending an AB flag while we zerged enemy flags, because we knew that a) that person could hold up an attack for as long as possible with grenades/stuns/holds and b) we were experienced enough to reach them in time when they hit their "HELP ME PLX" macro). We reached a point where we were getting constant whispers from leading alliance PVE guilds for premade spaces when they weren't raiding, plus several horde PVP guilds in our battlegroup tended to desert if they came across us while in a PM. Post-TBC we went end-game content, but some of the main players (myself included) got bored, just as we were thinking about moving past Gruul's Lair, for quite a few reasons. My main is here (http://eu.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Sunstrider&n=Akkad).
Quote from: Lethe on November 08, 2007, 02:22:01 AM
Pre-TBC my guild was doing constant BGs as we weren't strong enough to do AQ content and onwards. This was nice, because we reached a point where we were polished enough to beat Naxx premades despite only having at best ZG and BG gear (eg. we could leave just one or two people defending an AB flag while we zerged enemy flags, because we knew that a) that person could hold up an attack for as long as possible with grenades/stuns/holds and b) we were experienced enough to reach them in time when they hit their "HELP ME PLX" macro). We reached a point where we were getting constant whispers from leading alliance PVE guilds for premade spaces when they weren't raiding, plus several horde PVP guilds in our battlegroup tended to desert if they came across us while in a PM. Post-TBC we went end-game content, but some of the main players (myself included) got bored, just as we were thinking about moving past Gruul's Lair, for quite a few reasons. My main is here (http://eu.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Sunstrider&n=Akkad).
:D
I spent most of my WoW time pre-TBC loitering around in Deathwing, then Defias Brotherhood when RP-PvP went live. At the moment, I'm loitering and/or guild (currently co-)leading and/or trying to teach a few people some manners (long story) in Sporeggar, happy prancing role-player Belf Mage junkie like I am. 8)
Perhaps you should give "teh role-playing realmz" a shot, though, if you're fed up with the mainstream stuff: if it weren't for RP, I'd very likely have stopped playing when even the novelty of
fireballs wore off, while this way, it's totally up to me (and my capacity to generate novelty, as it were). ;)
End of digression, everyone:
don't shoot! (Besides, I have fireballs, remember? :P)
Quote from: Renfield on November 08, 2007, 03:45:07 AM
:D
I spent most of my WoW time pre-TBC loitering around in Deathwing, then Defias Brotherhood when RP-PvP went live. At the moment, I'm loitering and/or guild (currently co-)leading and/or trying to teach a few people some manners (long story) in Sporeggar, happy prancing role-player Belf Mage junkie like I am. 8)
Perhaps you should give "teh role-playing realmz" a shot, though, if you're fed up with the mainstream stuff: if it weren't for RP, I'd very likely have stopped playing when even the novelty of fireballs wore off, while this way, it's totally up to me (and my capacity to generate novelty, as it were). ;)
End of digression, everyone: don't shoot! (Besides, I have fireballs, remember? :P)
Several friends from my guild moved on to Hellgate: London, which they harassed me into buying - if they go back to WoW they will probably do the same until I go back, although I'm not sure if I would. By far the worst thing about WoW now is how f*cking boring it is living to 60 versus 61-70. The nearest I got to RP was a macro saying /y COME... CREATURE OF HELL AND NIGHTMARE! when I opened my Speedy the turtle cage...
Quote from: Lethe on November 08, 2007, 03:55:40 AM
Several friends from my guild moved on to Hellgate: London, which they harassed me into buying - if they go back to WoW they will probably do the same until I go back, although I'm not sure if I would. By far the worst thing about WoW now is how f*cking boring it is living to 60 versus 61-70. The nearest I got to RP was a macro saying /y COME... CREATURE OF HELL AND NIGHTMARE! when I opened my Speedy the turtle cage...
LOL @ Speedy the hellish turtle from nightmare. But it's the attempt that matters, isn't it? :P
And Hellgate: London, meh... Diablo II,
yes. But Hellgate seems like a semi-modernised rehash, to me. :(
Right, on-topic! Let me be on-topic, now. Unfortunately, I've nothing to add at the moment. Oh, I know, I'll go learn French, be right back. ;) ;D
Quote from: Lilas Pastia on November 07, 2007, 07:19:37 PM
One of the most difficult things in English is the pronunciation of the vowel sounds. It will vary with apparently no better reason than usage. As in
lol makes you wonder how we learned them! ;D
according to wikipedia, there's 13 monophthongs and 7 dipthongs, that's way more vowels than any language i can think of....
Quote from: G...R...E...G... on November 08, 2007, 01:39:59 PM
lol makes you wonder how we learned them! ;D
according to wikipedia, there's 13 monophthongs and 7 dipthongs, that's way more vowels than any language i can think of....
How about Greek? ;D
Quote from: Renfield on November 08, 2007, 01:53:42 PM
How about Greek? ;D
QuoteThe Greek vowel letters with their pronunciation are: <α> [a], <ε> [e̞], <η> , <ι> , <ο> [o̞], <υ> , <ω> [o̞]. There are also vowel digraphs which are phonetically monophthongal: <αι> [e̞], <ει> , <οι> , <ου> , <υι> . The three digraphs <αυ>, <ευ> and <ηυ> are pronounced [af], [e̞f] and [if] except when followed by voiced consonants or vowels, in which case they are pronounced [av], [e̞v] and [iv] respectively.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modern_Greek
doesn't look like it. Maybe Ancient Greek
Quote from: G...R...E...G... on November 08, 2007, 02:32:48 PM
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modern_Greek
doesn't look like it. Maybe Ancient Greek
Well, it's still 12 monophthongs there, and I do think there's
at least a few more in Ancient Greek, as you suggested.
So almost, in Modern Greek (and phonetically speaking, which was how I made my tally). :)
As for diphthongs, I'd like to check my dictionary for something, and I'll get back to you. ;)
I was having a beer and a pear (a good combo, I dare say) at the pier when a bear came, and oh dear, he decided to tear the sheer pier. I started to fear, and was close to a tear (and I almost felt something coming from my rear end) but managed to get to my rare car and found the right gear. Then I saw a deer! That was clearly the most scaring experience I've had yet to bare! And as an endearing ending - the pants I was wearing were clean. Weird.
Quote from: matti on November 08, 2007, 03:19:52 PM
I was having a beer and a pear (a good combo, I dare say) at the pier when a bear came, and oh dear, he decided to tear the sheer pier. I started to fear, and was close to a tear (and I almost felt something coming from my rear end) but managed to get to my rare car and found the right gear. That was clearly the most scaring experience I've had yet to bare! And as an endearing ending - the pants I was wearing were clean. Weird.
that is very queer
Quote from: G...R...E...G... on November 08, 2007, 03:21:54 PM
that is very queer
Just trying to demonstrate what we non-natives have to go through learning your queer language. :) :-[
I'm Italian native speaker, I speak English more or less. I never speak English in my daily life, just read stuff, attend classes or watch documentaries. But I'm looking forward to move to Wales for a while so maybe I'll improve my conversational skills.
I speak French, not particularly well but I can talk. I have no problems to understand written Spanish, considering the amazing similarities with Italian, but I don't speak it or understand a word of spoken Spanish.
About what did you said, is similar to what happens to argentine
politicians. They don't understand a word of spoken or writting
spanish neither.
Only Spanish and English