BWL

If you can tell the difference between the intonation of these four different sentences (in English), then you are not tone deaf 1.) You are sick? 2.) You are sick! 3.) Ohhhh, you are sick? 4.) Darn it! You are sick! In sentence 1 the "...sick?' part would be tone 2. In sentence 2 the "...sick!" would be tone 1 The "Ohhh...." in sentence 3 would be tone 3. And the "Darn..." in sentence 4 would be tone 4.

Bumping up this thread (Admin - If this is not allowed, feel free to remove it!) I used to live (well for 3 months anyway) in a small neighbourhood in Istanbul called Kuzguncuk on the Asian side of the Bosphorus. The area was once a Jewish and Greek enclave and there are still two synagogues, two Greek Orthodox churches, an Armenian Orthodox church and a mosque all in close proximity to each other. Most of the Ladino speakers have emigrated from Kuzguncuk but I remember being taken on a visit by local friends to the Old City on the European side of Istanbul. While walking in one of the old neighbourhoods, we overheard an elderly Turkish couple chatting in what sounded like Spanish. Turns out they were Jewish and were from one of the last families left in the area who had not emigrated to Israel or the US.

"Chipashvili" is Georgian if I'm not mistaken. I don't know if 停滯不前 is a good Chinese transliteration of its pronunciation. You can go one of two ways: either pick a set of characters that match (more or less) the pronunciation or else pick a characters that match the meaning.

Feel free to ask me any questions! Your may write in English, French, Bahasa Malaysia, Bahasa Indonesia, Tagalog, Hindi, Urdu, Turkish and Chinese. Although don't expect a 100% perfect response in Chinese (I only learned to read Chinese characters in my late 20s - early 30s and speak a very divergent dialect as my native language)

I've added a common Navajo (yes, the Native American language with the largest number of speakers) idiom for "to be clumsy or awkward" (the equivalent of the Englisn "to be all thumbs", and the French "avoir deux mains gauches"). Tʼóó bílaʼ dijool Meaning, "his or her hand is just round". There is no gender distinction in Navajo pronouns so this can be used to refer to either male or female. If you'd like a grammatical breakdown (Native American languages are very complex and you could write a thesis just to explain the phonology and morphology of Navajo, for example) I could start a new discussion because if would be a lot of info

Hi! My name is Brian and I'm with a London-based company called uTalk (formerly Eurotalk). We're specialists in language-learning apps particularly for rarer languages like Basque, Greenlandic, Scottish Gaelic, Maltese, the various Polynesian languages (Samoan, Fijian, Hawaiian, Maori), Khmer, Burmese, Javanese and even uncommon Indian languages like Gujarati and Kachchi. Feel free to check out our website for the full list of languages! https://utalk.com/en/store Our app is full of useful, everyday words and phrases divided into topics, with up to 180 hours for each language. All words and phrases are voiced by male and female native speakers (yes, imagine trying to get Greenlandic, Xhosa and Tok Pisin speakers to come record at our studio in London! When all else fails we make the extra mile - we've actually recorded speakers in the middle of the desert and in Siberia in winter! We've got enough material to make a documentary! ) The app also allows you to record yourself mimicking the native speakers' pronunciation, so you can practice until you get it right. And to make it even more fun, you get to play five increasingly challenging games to help you memorise new vocabulary. And that's not all! For a limited time, we're offering a special discount for Linguaholic forum members for a 50% discount on any language in our 140+ library! (Hint: The discount link can be reused indefinitely until the offer period of 2 weeks starting from today is up so if you feel like switching languages halfway, you can do so at the same discounted rate!) Our app works on Android, iPhone, iPad, Macs and PCs running on Windows. Already browsed through the list and found a language you'd like to learn? Well then let's proceed, all you have to do is: Follow this link to sign up, download the app and get started for a 50% discount (depending on the language and subscription type, it might be as low as $0.94 a month!): https://uta.lk/polyglots50

Hi ! My name is Brian and I've been a member of this forum for years but due to work commitments had been away. I'm back (partly due to this lockdown)! I speak English, French, Mandarin, Taiwanese fluently and have a working knowledge of Turkish, German, Hindi and Burmese. Currently learning: Arabic (Syrian dialect), Navajo, Warlpiri and Nahuatl. Yes I know, strange combination!

Glad you are feeling better! So many people are getting sick these days, it's scary. I'm in Malaysia and am staying put for a while thanks to all the craziness in the world today. I finally have time to get back to my language studies and have just published my first ebook.

Hi! thank you, the honor is mine Was terribly busy these past couple of years. How are you doing ?

I've been dabbling in Navajo and Warlpiri for a few years now. Both are quite complex and significantly different from more familiar European and Asian languages. Let me know if you want to know more!

I just found out about this amazing place in Paris: http://www.mundolingua.org/ It's a museum for languages and linguistics! For any language lover who's in Paris, this is a must-see! It's the first European museum dedicated to languages!

I vividly remember my friend from Kyoto who kept calling her mother "Okahan, Okahan!" I suppose the -san > -han and -masen>-mahen change is one of the stereotypical markers of Kansai speech.

That's a good question! Here's a rough (OK, very rough) guide: Feminine noun endings The majority of words that end in -e or -ion. Except words ending in -age, -ege, -é, or -isme (these endings often indicate masculine words) Masculine noun endings Most words with other endings are usually masculine. There are numerous exceptions, for example "la plage" and "le poète", that the above rules will work with about 80% of French nouns you will encounter. Happy Learning!

Yes that explains a lot! I've noticed a lot of words like this as well, common Japanese words written in hiragana rather than kanji. For instance, do people still write "おはようございます" and "こんにちは" with kanji? Thanks!

That's a great list! BTW do Japanese normally write "hasami" in kanji? I remember seeing it written in hiragana although I can't recall if I've ever seen the kanji.