zambothegreat

I think context is everything. If someone is pompous, it's going to come through in the writing whether they use a word like alas or not. I've always preferred simpler language, but if a writer is skilled enough to use elaborate language and make it read well, it's all good to me.

BWL's link didn't open for me either. Here's a video where a small lesson in Ubykh is taught in French: It's hard to make out what he says, but starting at 1:50, he talks about a few words that start with the letter q, which would make a "kha" sound, or something similar to that. "Courire" is jogging, "la tombe" is the grave, and "la parole" is speech. I can't make out the rest of what he says.

I can distinguish between Chinese (Mandarin/Cantonese), Japanese, Thai, Filipino, and Korean. I can recognize Russian, Spanish, Portuguese, German, and a few others. I've watched a lot of martial arts films, and I'm generally interested in Asian culture, so that's how I can distinguish between a few Asian languages.

So the Chinese equivalent is "It sounds like Heavenly Script to me"? What is Heavenly Script?

Good post. I tend to just use the Oxford comma, even when it's not a serial list. I wonder what kind of department or publisher would request that the Oxford comma not be used?

I can't think of any specifically, but I tend to have some trouble with the spelling of words that might have a pair of double letters. Something like "commission", or something like that.

Are you talking about general cases? The best way to write is to write with what you know. A person who isn't really familiar with English, will probably use embellishment in their sentences, but without really knowing it. I don't think there's anything wrong with that, as long they're making an effort to learn and to improve. If somebody is purposefully writing pompously, then yeah, that's obviously annoying.

I think Greek has less nuances and "rules" than English does. At least it seems that way to me. I think it's the same case for French, but French has a lot of weird things with verbs which are confusing to me.

It's definitely important. I used to work as a game tester, and great English grammar was a prerequisite, even though the company was based in Montreal. When you're working for an international company, great English grammar is usually a must.

I didn't think I had much of an accent when I was younger, but it turns out I sound like an idiot guido. I heard my recorded voice, and I remember feeling like crap knowing that I sounded like that. I've since been trying to sound more... intelligent

"That's the way the cookie crumbles" was one of the first ones I can remember. Needless to stay, I had no idea what that meant when I first heard it.

When I was wee lad, 6 or 7, I used to say something like "sumanagun" or "sumanab****" instead of "son of a gun/b****". I knew it was an insult, but I didn't know what it meant.

Even though English is my native tongue, I still learned quite a bit from comic books. I wasn't into books when I was a kid, because "books are for nerds", so a lot of the reading I did came from comic books, newspaper cartoons, and other things of that nature. It was mostly Marvel comics, Spiderman and X-Men.

In Greek, you'd say "red car". So we already have 3 languages where the noun follows the adjective. I don't think it's that exclusive. I know in French, it's the other way around.

In general, I'd say Russian. It sounds pretty badass. But, it really depends on who's speaking. For instance, I think Phil Anselmo has a great voice. It's a southern drawl. Also, Neil Fallon, who's from Maryland, Virginia.