Post #115,884
8/29/03 6:18:51 PM
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Amazing thing I just realized about Sting
Just listened to "The Wild, Wild Sea" off the The Soul Cages. I detected only three words ("moment", "sanity" and "line") in the entire song which have a Latin root. The rest is all Old English, Old German. I didn't look up every word, mind you, but that's an informed linguist's first impression.
Truly amazing.
"There's a set of rules that anything that was in the world when you were born is normal and natural. Anything invented between when you were 15 and 35 is new and revolutionary and exciting, and you'll probably get a career in it. Anything invented after you're 35 is against the natural order of things." Douglas Adams
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Post #115,943
8/30/03 1:04:20 AM
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Aiglth breath eagrhe aithacliath
-drl
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Post #115,944
8/30/03 1:07:14 AM
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He was an English teacher in a previous life... :-)
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Post #115,953
8/30/03 3:25:27 AM
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The history of English is fascinating.
Small tidbits to whet your appetite... Did you know practically all words about jurisprudence came from Norman French? And in Chirchull's famous speech "we will fight them on the beaches... etc" only the word "surrender" was not descended from OE; it, too, came from Norman French (make of that what you will!).
Wade.
Is it enough to love
Is it enough to breathe
Somebody rip my heart out
And leave me here to bleed
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Is it enough to die
Somebody save my life
I'd rather be Anything but Ordinary
Please
| -- "Anything but Ordinary" by Avril Lavigne. |
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Post #115,975
8/30/03 1:16:55 PM
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Re: The history of English is fascinating.
I pity people learning to pronounce it who are not native speakers..
Rough, cough, bough, dough, etc.
ARG!
-drl
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Post #115,977
8/30/03 1:21:37 PM
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Depends on where you're coming from.
English is easy for German and French speakers. Somewhat less easy for other Romance language speakers. Hard for Slavic speakers. Very hard for Asian languages. The reverse is true as well - Japanese is a royal bitch for English speakers to learn.
Regards,
-scott anderson
"Welcome to Rivendell, Mr. Anderson..."
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Post #115,980
8/30/03 1:33:31 PM
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On Japanese
According to a friend in the throes of, learning spoken Japanese isn't too arduous. Learning written Japanese, on the other hand...
Peter
[link|http://www.debian.org|Shill For Hire]
[link|http://www.kuro5hin.org|There is no K5 Cabal]
[link|http://guildenstern.dyndns.org|Blog]
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Post #115,981
8/30/03 1:36:39 PM
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Had the opposite opinion on spoken from college roommate :-)
But yes, written Japanese is pretty nasty too.
Regards,
-scott anderson
"Welcome to Rivendell, Mr. Anderson..."
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Post #116,190
9/1/03 9:57:12 AM
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It's more of a culture than a language.
Quite a lot in the language will not make any kind of sense if you don't learn about the culture. Of course, a lot doesn't make sense anyway, but that's akin to English's odd-spelling...
Actually, Japanese is just really different for an English speaker to learn. It is a lot more regular in its construction that English, but it's grammar is just different. And written Japanese requires a mind that has had experience at image recognition.
Wade.
Is it enough to love
Is it enough to breathe
Somebody rip my heart out
And leave me here to bleed
| |
Is it enough to die
Somebody save my life
I'd rather be Anything but Ordinary
Please
| -- "Anything but Ordinary" by Avril Lavigne. |
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Post #116,110
8/31/03 5:43:53 PM
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From someone who's been there.
Learning BASIC spoken Japanese isn't that hard.
But learning to speak like a person of your age bracket, instead of a 10 year old girl...
Well, that's a whole different difficulty. ;)
In that final hour, when each breath is a struggle to take, and you are looking back over your life's accomplishments, which memories would you treasure? The empires you built, or the joy you spread to others?
Therin lies the true measure of a man.
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Post #116,114
8/31/03 5:59:00 PM
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Re: From someone who's been there.
Oh, I quite agree. What I was trying to get at is that making yourself understood in Japanese is much, much easier than in !Kung or Hungarian, to pick two glaringly obvious examples :)
Peter
[link|http://www.debian.org|Shill For Hire]
[link|http://www.kuro5hin.org|There is no K5 Cabal]
[link|http://guildenstern.dyndns.org|Blog]
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Post #116,132
8/31/03 8:30:50 PM
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Hungarian?
You've tried Hungarian?
(It's part of a small family of langauges that includes Turkish and Finnish.)
I know one word of Hungarian (I think) - zongora, piano. I only know that one from a Tamas Vasary disk, and I know he didn't play the sousaphone.
-drl
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Post #116,167
9/1/03 3:13:45 AM
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Re: Hungarian?
Part of the Finno-Ugric language group.
I spent a fortnight there and never got much more beyond saying "cheers" and "taxi". The language was a blank to me.
Peter
[link|http://www.debian.org|Shill For Hire]
[link|http://www.kuro5hin.org|There is no K5 Cabal]
[link|http://guildenstern.dyndns.org|Blog]
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Post #116,189
9/1/03 9:53:07 AM
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Ah, the essentials.
Just enough to get drunk, and get home. ;)
In that final hour, when each breath is a struggle to take, and you are looking back over your life's accomplishments, which memories would you treasure? The empires you built, or the joy you spread to others?
Therin lies the true measure of a man.
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Post #116,713
9/5/03 3:28:02 AM
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Absolut-ley :)
Peter
[link|http://www.debian.org|Shill For Hire]
[link|http://www.kuro5hin.org|There is no K5 Cabal]
[link|http://guildenstern.dyndns.org|Blog]
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Post #116,137
8/31/03 10:22:32 PM
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One thing I noticed in Spanish...
...there's a distinct subset of the total vocabulary that men use that women don't, and vice-versa. Subtle (because it's not absolute), but noticeable.
"There's a set of rules that anything that was in the world when you were born is normal and natural. Anything invented between when you were 15 and 35 is new and revolutionary and exciting, and you'll probably get a career in it. Anything invented after you're 35 is against the natural order of things." Douglas Adams
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Post #115,978
8/30/03 1:24:06 PM
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In addition to that, consider: "Merry Mary got married."
"Mirry Miry got mirried."
"Merry Mery got merried."
"Merry Marry got married."
Etc.
"Water" is another good one for huge regional pronouncaition differences. So in addition to pronounciation rules, there are huge regional differences that make it a difficult language to pick up.
Of course, French has similar things too. Renault and Pugeot both end in the "O" sound...
Cheers,
Scott.
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Post #116,627
9/4/03 4:59:09 PM
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Renault vs. Peugeot
They aren't actually the same, just very close. Sort of "renow" vs. "peusho", thought that doesn't quite cover the difference exactly.
Another good one in French is cognac... the "gn" sound is very glottal. Longeuil (suburb of Montreal) demonstrates another sound that's very subtle, the "euil" ending. To straight english ears, it sounds like "oy", but in fact the l is in there in how you move your tongue when pronouncing it properly.
--\n-------------------------------------------------------------------\n* Jack Troughton jake at consultron.ca *\n* [link|http://consultron.ca|http://consultron.ca] [link|irc://irc.ecomstation.ca|irc://irc.ecomstation.ca] *\n* Kingston Ontario Canada [link|news://news.consultron.ca|news://news.consultron.ca] *\n-------------------------------------------------------------------
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Post #115,956
8/30/03 4:26:41 AM
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Not Old German, Actual English:
[link|http://www.lyricsdepot.com/sting-police/the-wild-wild-sea.html|http://www.lyricsdep...ild-wild-sea.html]
Peter
[link|http://www.debian.org|Shill For Hire]
[link|http://www.kuro5hin.org|There is no K5 Cabal]
[link|http://guildenstern.dyndns.org|Blog]
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