Writing of your language?

[arkiv]

Which alphabet does your language use and how many letters does it have?



My language, Spanish, has 30 letters: a, b, c, ch, d, e, f, g, h, i, j, k, l, ll, m, n, ñ, o, p, q, r, rr, s, t, u, v, w, x, y, z   
and is written in the Latin alphabet.

[False_Dmitry]

Although I'm a Brit, my adopted country is Russia, where I've lived for 16 years (in two separate bursts, including five years when it was the USSR).

Russian has 33 letters, written in the cyrillic alphabet.  Despite the initial visual unfamiliarity of that to those from latin-alphabet countries, you quickly get your head around it,  and it needn't be a barrier.  The more difficult thing for newcomers is the very intensive grammatic structure of Russian, which frankly needs to be learnt academically if you're to have any chance of getting far with it.  The ray of hope, however, is that the grammar and orthography are rigorously consistent (partly as a result of several Governmental Commissions on these matters in the C19th, who streamlined spelling, removed archaisms, and standardised spelling of many words which existed in multiple spellings).  If you have the time, aptitude and determination, you can learn Russian perfectly   There's a rich literature to enjoy and savour if you manage it!  Not only the heavyweight C19th novelists (Tolstoy, Turgenev, Dostoevsky), but the delicious sophistication of the "Silver Era" poets like Balmont, Akhmatova, and Gumilev, the modern poets like Tsetaeva & Brodsky, contemporary authors like Pelevin and Vladimir Erofeyev...  the urbane wit of "Teffi", and the fabulously unhinged surrealist humour of Daniil Kharms.

Russia also has a "parallel" language, which remains unmodernised and unreformed - "Church Slavonic".  It's a medieval language which stands in the same relation to modern Russian as Latin does to modern Italian - clearly related, but vastly different.  Once the language of official scribes and archivists, nowadays it is only used for the Liturgy - but churchmen and scholars who know it well pride themselves on being able to hold modern conversations and correspondence in it.  Church Slavonic is also used in other branches of the Orthodox faith - in Bulgaria, in Serbia, in Macedonia, in Ukraine, and some other branches of the faith.


The Kiev Psalter - an example of Church Slavonic script.  Few modern Russians could read this.

[MishaK]

Ancestral country: Serbia. Country of birth: Germany.

Serbian Cyrillic has 30 letters. See here. Serbian can also be written in Roman letters, with the addition of Đ, Ž, Ć, Č, Š, which gives you a total of 27 letters (W, X and Y don't exist and the Cyrillic letters Љ, Њ, and Џ are substituted with two letter combinations nj, lj and dž). The Cyrillic is the more elegant and simple of the two, following strictly the maxim of "write as you speak", with only one letter for each sound of the Serbian language and only one possible pronunciation for each letter. One of the fun things in Serbian is that foreign names and places are always transliterated. So, e.g., Karl-Heinz Stockhausen becomes Karl-Hajnc Štokhauzen. George Bush is Džordž Buš.

German alphabet likewise has 30 letters, though the three Umlauts Ä, Ö and Ü, and the ß are not considered part of the alphabet, so officially the alphabet has 26 letters (which are the same as in English).

For some real fun check out Sequoyah's Cherokee Alphabet. 

[Joe Barron]

The English alphabet uses the same Latin characters as Spanish, but only 26 of them: a b c d e f g h i j k l o m n o p q r s t y u v w x y z.

The problem is, we don't use them phonetically. English spelling is notoriously inconsistent, with the same letter having different sounds in different contexts, and some letters having no sound at all. What, for example, is the rule to differentiate pronuncation of tough, though, through, thought, and sough?  And we don't have a letter for our most common vowel sound, "uh."

Shaw gave the example of "ghoti," which can be pronounced as "fish," if you take the "gh" from tough, the "o" from women and the "ti" from definition.

[71 dB]

The Finnish alphabet has 28 letters:

A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, S, T, U, V, X, Y, Z, Å, Ä, Ö

Å
The "Swedish o", carried over from the Swedish alphabet and redundant in Finnish; retained especially for writing Finland-Swedish proper names.

Ä, Ö
The main peculiarities in the Finnish alphabet are the two extra vowel letters ä and ö

W
In addition, w is traditionally listed after v, although officially it is merely a variant of the latter. The "double-v" may occur natively as an archaic variant of v, but otherwise in unestablished loanwords and foreign proper names only. It occurs in some rare surnames such as Wirtanen, and in collation it is treated like v.

[greg]

The Finnish alphabet has 28 letters:

A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, S, T, U, V, X, Y, Z, Å, Ä, Ö

Å
The "Swedish o", carried over from the Swedish alphabet and redundant in Finnish; retained especially for writing Finland-Swedish proper names.

Ä, Ö
The main peculiarities in the Finnish alphabet are the two extra vowel letters ä and ö

W
In addition, w is traditionally listed after v, although officially it is merely a variant of the latter. The "double-v" may occur natively as an archaic variant of v, but otherwise in unestablished loanwords and foreign proper names only. It occurs in some rare surnames such as Wirtanen, and in collation it is treated like v.

Now, Finnish is a language I would have fun learning one day just because it's so cool! 

But are most Finnish people already fluent in English? If so, it would kind of be a waste of time when I could be learning a more useful language. 

[71 dB]

Now, Finnish is a language I would have fun learning one day just because it's so cool! 

The fun might stop when you realise how difficult language it is to learn. 

But are most Finnish people already fluent in English?

Most Finns (younger generations) can speak at least some English. Sometimes I feel I use/hear more English than Finnish thanks to Internet and American/British TV shows... 

If so, it would kind of be a waste of time when I could be learning a more useful language. 

Swedish? 

[greg]

The fun might stop when you realise how difficult language it is to learn. 

Difficulty, for me, is actually part of the fun!

Swedish? 

Seriously? I thought most Swedes know how to speak English as well.
(or are you making fun of them?) 

[Carnivorous Sheep]

I don't believe there is an alphabet for Chinese, but the pinyin romanization uses the 26 letter English alphabet with these 4 accents to help with tones: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinyin#Tones

[Archaic Torso of Apollo]

Now, Finnish is a language I would have fun learning one day just because it's so cool! 

I studied Finnish for a couple of weeks once, using a Linguaphone course. Don't remember much, but structurally it is quite fascinating, as are Finno-Ugric languages in general.

There are a bunch of F-U languages spoken in Russia, around the Volga/Urals region mainly (Udmurt, Mordvin, Mari, Komi) and in Western Siberia (Khanty, Mansi - the closest languages to Hungarian).

[False_Dmitry]

There are a bunch of F-U languages spoken in Russia

Yes, you can hear "F-U" at any of Moscow's markets...  almost every second word    And from taxi-drivers if you offer less than they wanted

[71 dB]

Difficulty, for me, is actually part of the fun!

I see. Finnish language offers difficulty.

Seriously? I thought most Swedes know how to speak English as well.
(or are you making fun of them?) 

Yes they do I suppose but why not learn a language anyway?

Finns always make fun of Swedish people.   

[Beetzart]

Arabic has 28 letters (from right to left):

أ ب ت ث ج ح خ د ذ ر ز س ش ص ض ط ظ ع غ ف ق ك ل  م ن ه و ي

Arabic is very difficult to learn, but it has the greatest Calligraphy:



http://alshurafa.net/wp-content/uploads/2008/01/bird-on-pillar.jpg

http://ic.ucsc.edu/~langdale/arth139/alhambra%2017.jpg

[(poco) Sforzando]

Now, Finnish is a language I would have fun learning one day just because it's so cool! 

But are most Finnish people already fluent in English? If so, it would kind of be a waste of time when I could be learning a more useful language. 

While visiting Amsterdam about 20+ years ago, I was invited to dinner at a friend's family, and I casually expressed the idea (en anglais) that it might be interesting to learn Dutch. "Why bother?" replied my host. "It's a minor language."

As for Finnish, I traveled to Helsinki on business a few years after that, and addressed a group of about 60 businessmen, introducing one of my company's products. I was expected to speak in English and of course did so, and with my hosts for the trip I spoke English at all times. I didn't pick up a word of Finnish the whole time I was there.

[(poco) Sforzando]

The English alphabet uses the same Latin characters as Spanish, but only 26 of them: a b c d e f g h i j k l o m n o p q r s t y u v w x y z.

The problem is, we don't use them phonetically. English spelling is notoriously inconsistent, with the same letter having different sounds in different contexts, and some letters having no sound at all. What, for example, is the rule to differentiate pronuncation of tough, though, through, thought, and sough?  And we don't have a letter for our most common vowel sound, "uh."

Shaw gave the example of "ghoti," which can be pronounced as "fish," if you take the "gh" from tough, the "o" from women and the "ti" from definition.

This is a commonly expressed point of view, but it's not altogether true. English spelling is obviously not as regular as Spanish or Italian, yet it's far from anarchic. Take your "ti" from "definition": that ti spelling for the sh sound immediately identifies the word as being of French origin, along with nation, station, and numerous others. An F sound spelled as Ph, as well as an S spelled as Ps, indicates an etymology from Greek (physics, psychology, psalm). If I saw "ghoti" as an actual word, I would assume a borrowing from Hindi.

That said, modern English does not provide a single letter for certain unique consonant sounds in the language - among them, the sh in ship and the zh sound in measure, and the th sounds in thin and there. (But in fact old English had unique letters for those two consonants.) We won't have a unique letter for the ch in chip, although that sound is a diphthong of t+sh, but we do have a unique letter for the j in jet, which is actually a diphthong of d+zh. J, however, was the last letter to be added to the English alphabet, and for many centuries it was not distinguished in spelling from I. So when Shylock in the First Folio asks, "Hath not a Iew eyes?" he is not referring to himself as a tree.

[MishaK]

This is a commonly expressed point of view, but it's not altogether true. [etc.]

It is somewhat true in that English never had an Académie Française or a Rechtschreibungskommision that standardized the spellings. All words were instead left more or less in their native form, whether they came from a Germanic or Latin or Greek background. It's pretty messy.

While visiting Amsterdam about 20+ years ago, I was invited to dinner at a friend's family, and I casually expressed the idea (en anglais) that it might be interesting to learn Dutch. "Why bother?" replied my host. "It's a minor language."

You should try it. I grew up 30 minutes from the Dutch border so I picked up a few Dutch expressions. Since a few months ago, by default and lack of a more competent person, I;ve had to wade through some Dutch documents and correspondence. A task, I surprisingly enjoyed quite a bit, learning the language along the way. It's a very simple language. No cases at all and no gendered nouns. All relationships are expressed by prepositions. Simpler grammar than English.

[(poco) Sforzando]

You should try it. I grew up 30 minutes from the Dutch border so I picked up a few Dutch expressions. Since a few months ago, by default and lack of a more competent person, I;ve had to wade through some Dutch documents and correspondence. A task, I surprisingly enjoyed quite a bit, learning the language along the way. It's a very simple language. No cases at all and no gendered nouns. All relationships are expressed by prepositions. Simpler grammar than English.

That was a casual wish I expressed on my sole trip to the Netherlands, which was I believe in 1988. In high school and college I studied French, Italian, and German, and I do try just for the fun of it when I can to keep up my reading in French, which was my best language. (On my last trip to France in 2004, I was surprised how much of it came back to me, even though I hadn't had a French conversation with anyone in over a decade.)

But you raise an interesting point when you mention growing up so close to the Dutch border. Anyone travelling in Europe is likely to need several languages besides their own, as national borders are so close and there are so many languages spoken. But not only is English the world's lingua franca today, but one can travel thousands of miles from Maine to Hawaii speaking only that one language. The most useful language for the average American today is probably Spanish, but Americans tend to avoid learning languages not because they're incapable of doing so, but because there is little practical need or opportunity.

[arkiv]

Although I'm a Brit, my adopted country is Russia, where I've lived for 16 years (in two separate bursts, including five years when it was the USSR).

Very interesting.  Do you know if Belarusian is similar to Russian?

[MishaK]

The most useful language for the average American today is probably Spanish, but Americans tend to avoid learning languages not because they're incapable of doing so, but because there is little practical need or opportunity.

There is also the social stigma attached to Spanish which is perceived as the language of undereducated lower class (illegal) immigrants (rather than as the language of Cervantes and Borges). That is also a big factor in dissuading many Americans from learning the language. Just like most Germans will learn English, French, Spanish, even Latin or classic Greek much sooner than they would bother learning the Turkish of their next door neighbors.

[(poco) Sforzando]

There is also the social stigma attached to Spanish which is perceived as the language of undereducated lower class (illegal) immigrants (rather than as the language of Cervantes and Borges). That is also a big factor in dissuading many Americans from learning the language. Just like most Germans will learn English, French, Spanish, even Latin or classic Greek much sooner than they would bother learning the Turkish of their next door neighbors.

I can't deny I was brought up with that perception concerning Spanish, which may be part of the reason I never studied it. But also as a would-be musician in the 1960s, the languages I chose to study were those mostly commonly used in standard Western vocal music.

Times may have changed, but the only languages available for me to learn in high school were French, Spanish, and German. When I taught at a small mid-Atlantic college in the 1980s, Russian was offered in addition to those three (and even today the department hasn't diversified beyond that). But if foreign language departments were to base their offerings on how widely a language is spoken world-wide, we'd be seeing more instruction in Mandarin Chinese, Hindi, Arabic, even Portuguese (among others), instead of focussing on the classic literary European languages that were my sole choices as a youngster.