What's special about your language ?

[Chris_A]

Sorry, I was on my phone when I last replied.I didn't see this one.

Clearing it a bit up:
1. "Wat" means "what", but it's also used for "some" or "something".
Neem wat geld mee. → Take some money with you.
Wil je wat eten? = Wil je iets eten? → Do you want something to eat?
Note that I used different colours to mark a word-by-word translation.

2. Ik heb je een tijd niet gezien. → I did not see you for a while.
Note that the Dutch use many different verbs for what Anglophones would use "to do" or "to be".
Like "Ik zit op school" → "I am at school", which literally means "I sit on the school".

3. Houd daar rekening mee. → Keep that in mind.
This one is not word-by-word translatable though.
"Don't forget that" would be "Niet vergeten" or "Vergeet dat niet".

Wow, Dutch seems really related to German. For example "Wil je wat eten" in Dutch is the equivalent of "Willst du was essen" in German. Although the other sentences not so much. It seems Dutch is a mixture of German and English, maybe.

[dylr88]

I native language is Welsh (and also English) but I'll tell you why I think Welsh is special to me.

It defines where I'm from the country and region where I was brought up to speak, it's an ancient Celtic language and one of the world's oldest languages, it gives a sense of identity, the rythym of music the  hard strength of words, and poems associated with this ancient and surviving language is special. This language too has been oppressed, if that's the right word, in the past but unlike some other Celtic dialects/languages such as Scottish Gaelec it has managed to live and grow stronger despite Anglicisation and attempts in the past to abolish  it. Welsh may have changed since the 11th/12th century but it has modernised and is still used today.

[Mameha]

Hello! I'm Beatrice and I'm from Italy, so my native tongue is Italian. I don't know exactly what is special or amazing in this language, maybe it has a great musicality (like Spanish in my opinion). Words are spoken as they are written, but sometimes there are some couples of words that create strange sounds like "gli" "ghi" "gn", etc..

The amazing thing is the "Florentine dialect", from which arise all the basics of this language (The famous "Dante Alighieri" who wrote "La Divina Commedia" you know?).

I'm actually studying at the University of Modern Languages in Pisa (Toscana), and I face up with the linguistics studies of all the languages chosen and even with the Italian one. My native tongue is rich of words borrowed from other languages, like Latin, Greek, Frech, English, German, Arabic etc.. and we use this word even in daily dialogues.

It has not an easy grammar, it is often really difficult even for the natives in Italy. We have a lot of verb tenses and cunjunctive in disappearing, just because of the poor or the wrong use.

However, I think that the great story from which it borned, makes it a language really rich in meanings!

Now I'm dealing with the study of the birth of German and the Germans, and I find it very interesting!

Ciao compaesana! Pensavo di essere l'unica italiana rimasta qua sul forum.... xD

 

Anyway i'm Italian too and i agree with all that she said, i think that Italian is a beautiful language because it is very artistic, elegant, and has a beautiful history. It is full of different dialects depending on the region, some of them are so difficult that not all italians know them! For example i don't know most of the words of Naples dialect, and the dialect spoken in Sardinia is so difficult that some people consider it as a language apart. 

 

[sonamaa14]

I grew up in a house where there were two main languages spoken: English and Hindi. English was primarily used to talk about school and business, while hindi was used to express any emotion and to discuss philosophical topics. When my mom or dad were upset, they would always speak in hindi, which was their native tongue. When my brothers or I wanted to convince our parents about anything, then we would speak in hindi. In our home, Hindi was basically a language that was used to express heartfelt feelings and used to convince each other to do things that one might not want to do. All Bollywood movies were played without subtitles, so that the children (me and my brothers) would be challenged to learn the hindi language and to understand the hindi language. A very special characteristic of the Hindi language is that it is the basis for many other languages and dialects such as Urdu, Bengali, Gujarati, and Tamil. Learning Hindi opens up ones door to many languages and dialects. 

[Mameha]

I grew up in a house where there were two main languages spoken: English and Hindi. English was primarily used to talk about school and business, while hindi was used to express any emotion and to discuss philosophical topics. When my mom or dad were upset, they would always speak in hindi, which was their native tongue. When my brothers or I wanted to convince our parents about anything, then we would speak in hindi. In our home, Hindi was basically a language that was used to express heartfelt feelings and used to convince each other to do things that one might not want to do. All Bollywood movies were played without subtitles, so that the children (me and my brothers) would be challenged to learn the hindi language and to understand the hindi language. A very special characteristic of the Hindi language is that it is the basis for many other languages and dialects such as Urdu, Bengali, Gujarati, and Tamil. Learning Hindi opens up ones door to many languages and dialects. 

That's so interesting...i had no idea of this, how beautiful! 

[sonamaa14]

@Mameha I just read your post about the Italian language. I spent a month in Italy and I have fallen in love with the language. I feel that the Italian language sounds beautiful and the words simply flow from the speaker. Do you still live in Italy? If so, where? I would love to know more about the Italian language and more about Italy itself. 

[Mameha]

Yes, i was born, raised and still live in Rome. I am happy everytime someone like my language  you can ask me whatever you want. Anyway wich part of Italy did you visit? 

Edited November 5, 2015 by Mameha

[DivaDee]

My native tounge is English (American), so the one thing about it is that if use the standard dialect you can easily translate your language into English, but on the other note is that English (American) is ever changing and expanding putting multiple meanings into one word or completely making up whole new words especially from the newer generations, also you have the few words that other countries don't have you can the english for that missing word and sorta fill in the blanks of your languages... 

[KelsieDee]

My native language is English. I'm having a hard time finding something special about English. I think we have a lot of words that have 2 different meaning like there, their and they're, Plain and Plane etc.

[anna3101]

What I really like about my native language (Russian), is that word order is flexible. There are no strict rules where to put which word. You can say "I  talk to my friends" or "To my friends I talk" or "Talk I to my friends", and all of them will be grammatically correct and perfectly usable, although obviously the emphasis will be a bit different.

Another flexibility that I enjoy a lot is word formation. There are multiple ways to make diminutives out of any noun - and here once again while the basic meaning stays the same, you can add nuances to the word. There is a huge amount of prefixes and suffixes that you can use with various verbs, adjectives etc, and all of this really gives you the freedom to adjust words to what you really mean.

[takibari]

The Philippines being a country with more than 7,000++ islands have many native languages. These languages are greatly influenced mostly by our trading partners within the Pacific and Asian regions, such as Japan, China, Borneo, Sumatra, Thailand, Cambodia, and other islands in the area.
Our national language today is Tagalog. This language has traces of Bahasa Indonesia and Malayan influences. But there was a point in our history where Spanish and English become our national language, too. Not surprisingly, there are words in our language that are of Spanish and English origins, too. Note that although we were under Spain for more than 300 years, the Spanish language did not flourish in the country except among the elite circle (the Friars mostly). While there was order to make Spanish the country's official language - the Friars then (priests) were sluggish in teaching Castilian to the locals as they enjoyed the power they had over the natives. Tagalog, which wasn't an official language during that time, came to light again because our national hero (Jose Rizal) started to write in this language and about the language itself (grammar etc.).

So, I guess the very beauty about Tagalog is the many influences it had to become what it is now.

[lushlala]

On 06 November 2015 at 12:49:06 AM, sonamaa14 said:

I grew up in a house where there were two main languages spoken: English and Hindi. English was primarily used to talk about school and business, while hindi was used to express any emotion and to discuss philosophical topics. When my mom or dad were upset, they would always speak in hindi, which was their native tongue. When my brothers or I wanted to convince our parents about anything, then we would speak in hindi. In our home, Hindi was basically a language that was used to express heartfelt feelings and used to convince each other to do things that one might not want to do. All Bollywood movies were played without subtitles, so that the children (me and my brothers) would be challenged to learn the hindi language and to understand the hindi language. A very special characteristic of the Hindi language is that it is the basis for many other languages and dialects such as Urdu, Bengali, Gujarati, and Tamil. Learning Hindi opens up ones door to many languages and dialects. 

@sonamaa14, I think you're truly blessed to have had this growing up. I have quite a few British Indian and Pakistani friends, who grew up in the UK and very seldom visit  those countries, yet their families made sure they learnt all these Asian languages. I really like that and strongly believe it shows their integrity as their pride in their cultural heritage. I know that this is a free world, but i just cringe when I see parents with kids who can't speak a single word of their mother  of tongue. I think it's very, very sad; but maybe that's just me IDK.

 

On 13 January 2016 at 5:36:23 PM, anna3101 said:

What I really like about my native language (Russian), is that word order is flexible. There are no strict rules where to put which word. You can say "I  talk to my friends" or "To my friends I talk" or "Talk I to my friends", and all of them will be grammatically correct and perfectly usable, although obviously the emphasis will be a bit different.

Another flexibility that I enjoy a lot is word formation. There are multiple ways to make diminutives out of any noun - and here once again while the basic meaning stays the same, you can add nuances to the word. There is a huge amount of prefixes and suffixes that you can use with various verbs, adjectives etc, and all of this really gives you the freedom to adjust words to what you really mean.

That's very interesting, anna3101! I find that especially interesting because I've heard that Russian is one of the hardest languages to learn. I wonder how that works in reverse; say where someone whose mother language is Russian and they have to learn a language such as English, for which the structure and syntax is so rigid.....I wonder how difficult of a transition that would be for them?

[Mameha]

@anna3101  This word order flexibility it's interesting! It happens always or there are some exceptions? In Italian you can do it too in some cases and people will anyway understand what are you saying and like russian the thing that changes is the emphasis  but we can't change order always actually or the result can be weird and awkward

@takibari I really liked what you wrote, really, it is really exciting to know the story of a places so far from here. We should thanks your national hero for letting your language remain!

[rz3300]

To be honest, I have no idea.  I cannot say that I have ever been posed such a question or anything like it.  I guess I could say that it is really difficult to learn, or so I have been told.  I cannot really say from experience of course, but if that is true then there are also some other special things about it surely.  If I had to guess I would say that it might have more words than any other language, but again I could be wrong there.

[anna3101]

On 18 January 2016, Mameha said:

@anna3101  This word order flexibility it's interesting! It happens always or there are some exceptions? In Italian you can do it too in some cases and people will anyway understand what are you saying and like russian the thing that changes is the emphasis  but we can't change order always actually or the result can be weird and awkward

You can't always change the order, there are certain accepted ways of where to put what, however, there a lot of cases when you can do so without even affecting the meaning.

Which is probably the reason why I find languages like German to be such a huge struggle. Word order is killing me

[anna3101]

On 18 January 2016, lushlala said:

That's very interesting, anna3101! I find that especially interesting because I've heard that Russian is one of the hardest languages to learn. I wonder how that works in reverse; say where someone whose mother language is Russian and they have to learn a language such as English, for which the structure and syntax is so rigid.....I wonder how difficult of a transition that would be for them?

It may be difficult to learn English for some of us, but then again, it works vice versa too For me, German is the biggest struggle. Word order. Complex words. Conjugations. Declinations. Articles. Urgh. I'm suffering, I really am. It's complicated, there's a lot of it and it feels like you will never ever be able to say a single phrase without first thinking about all endings in your head for at least a minute!

[lushlala]

On 20 January 2016 at 3:38:35 PM, anna3101 said:

It may be difficult to learn English for some of us, but then again, it works vice versa too For me, German is the biggest struggle. Word order. Complex words. Conjugations. Declinations. Articles. Urgh. I'm suffering, I really am. It's complicated, there's a lot of it and it feels like you will never ever be able to say a single phrase without first thinking about all endings in your head for at least a minute!

Oh, don't get me started on German! I have a couple of German friends and listening to them speak their language is enough to give me a headache hehe. I'm not that familiar with the language, but I have always thought it would one of the most difficult languages to learn. So I believe everything you say LOL But I bet, no I have confidence you'll do just fine. I get the feeling that your aptitude for languages is higher than most. So just keep at it and good luck getting your German to where you want it

[takibari]

On 19/01/2016, 3:00:57, Mameha said:

 

@takibari I really liked what you wrote, really, it is really exciting to know the story of a places so far from here. We should thanks your national hero for letting your language remain!

Thank you very much! I'm just proud of how our language Tagalog (also called Filipino) has evolved over the course of our history. Haha, it's not just our language that was preserved because of the writings of Dr. Jose Rizal. Actually, his writings spurred many Filipinos then into a revolution that freed our country from Spain. Prior to us being occupied by Spain, our country already has its own system of writing called 'baybayin.' It's totally different from the Tagalog that we know now today. Sadly, the ancient Filipinos didn't write on permanent things then, (mostly on leaves, bamboos) - so, these writings weren't preserved. There is a popular belief that the Spanish burn our ancient manuscripts, but many historians negate this claim. Anyhow, this was how the baybayin was supposed to look like: (Source: Ang Baybayin: The Ancient Script of the Philippines)

 

 

[Mameha]

@takibari I have a question, i'm really ignorant about this: if there is a way to write in Tagalog (like Chinese's chacacter, katakana/hiragana/kanji in Japanese, Hangoul in korean) why i never see Philipino write with it? I see you only write in Latin alphabet? (instead chinese, japanese etc write almost always in their alphabet). I don't know if this is a stupid questione but i know really not much about Tagalog!

[takibari]

28 minutes ago, Mameha said:

@takibari I have a question, i'm really ignorant about this: if there is a way to write in Tagalog (like Chinese's chacacter, katakana/hiragana/kanji in Japanese, Hangoul in korean) why i never see Philipino write with it? I see you only write in Latin alphabet? (instead chinese, japanese etc write almost always in their alphabet). I don't know if this is a stupid questione but i know really not much about Tagalog!

Hi @Mameha! Not stupid at all. If you see the picture above of 'baybayin', that's our ancient writing system. It mainly uses symbols. However, due to our being colonized by Spain, the use of 'baybayin' somehow fell into disuse. If you recall, we were under Spain for 300++ years, and so we took on the use of the Latin alphabet as taught by the Spanish during their reign in our country. So generally, the Abakada alphabet is generally an indigenized Latin alphabet of the Tagalog language. It only uses 20 letters:

Aa, Bb, Kk, Dd, Ee

Gg, Hh, Ii, Ll, Mm,

Nn, NG/ng, Oo, Pp, Rr

Ss, Tt, Uu, Ww, Yy

Although now, the modern Filipino alphabet makes use of the original 26 Latin alphabet and the Spanish Ñ and the Ng digraph of Tagalog. So, 28 all.

[Mameha]

1 minute ago, takibari said:

Hi @Mameha! Not stupid at all. If you see the picture above of 'baybayin', that's our ancient writing system. It mainly uses symbols. However, due to our being colonized by Spain, the use of 'baybayin' somehow fell into disuse. If you recall, we were under Spain for 300++ years, and so we took on the use of the Latin alphabet as taught by the Spanish during their reign in our country. So generally, the Abakada alphabet is generally an indigenized Latin alphabet of the Tagalog language. It only uses 20 letters:

Aa, Bb, Kk, Dd, Ee

Gg, Hh, Ii, Ll, Mm,

Nn, NG/ng, Oo, Pp, Rr

Ss, Tt, Uu, Ww, Yy

Ty for the explanation! I really love to see what kind of alphabet some languages use, to me it's a beautiful system of writing and since i use only latin words i find interesting and "out of ordinary" to read other alphabets  Anyway i really liked the story of tagalog! It's a pity anyway that your alphabet is kinda "lost"

[takibari]

4 minutes ago, Mameha said:

Ty for the explanation! I really love to see what kind of alphabet some languages use, to me it's a beautiful system of writing and since i use only latin words i find interesting and "out of ordinary" to read other alphabets  Anyway i really liked the story of tagalog! It's a pity anyway that your alphabet is kinda "lost"

Yeah, that was the price of colonization to us. Nevertheless, it also has some good side. Because of our history of being under so many countries (Spain, Japan, America) - we have become what we are now - including the English language being a second language to us now.

[Mameha]

5 minutes ago, takibari said:

Yeah, that was the price of colonization to us. Nevertheless, it also has some good side. Because of our history of being under so many countries (Spain, Japan, America) - we have become what we are now - including the English language being a second language to us now.

I researched on the internet Tagalog alphabet and a lot of words are (obviously) really almost the same of spanish! It would be really useful if in the future if i will be interested in tagalog (Italian and spanish are similar too)  i noticed even in comments on youtube (since i watch a lot of videos of Philipino people singing, very talented! like the singer i told you last time) that very often they mix tagalog writing and english writing, i mean in a sentence there are tagalog and english almost always! i found it really interesting actually

[takibari]

On 06/02/2016, 6:54:26, Mameha said:

I researched on the internet Tagalog alphabet and a lot of words are (obviously) really almost the same of spanish! It would be really useful if in the future if i will be interested in tagalog (Italian and spanish are similar too)  i noticed even in comments on youtube (since i watch a lot of videos of Philipino people singing, very talented! like the singer i told you last time) that very often they mix tagalog writing and english writing, i mean in a sentence there are tagalog and english almost always! i found it really interesting actually

You're quite right. There are a lot of Tagalog words that are almost the same as Spanish. First thing that comes to mind is "How are you?" = Kumusta = Como esta?

It's definitely easy to learn Tagalog, actually. As to us mixing Tagalog and English writing, well - that's because English is a SECOND language to us. It's not just in schools that we use English. If you go outside, English is widely used. Signs on the streets, notices on public places are almost always done in English. It's highly common to hear English words used in daily conversation (Ex. What's your ORDER? = Ano pong ORDER nila?) / Where's the nearest restaurant? = Saan ang pinakamalapit na restaurant dito?)

Generally, it's a common comment by foreign tourists who have visited the Philippines that foreigners need not be scared with the language barrier when coming to the Philippines. They say, if the first person to your right doesn't speak English, chances are high that the person to your left speaks English.

[Mameha]

@takibari I really, really love the fact that your language is mixed with english in this way actually, i don't know if other languages do this, but i've never heard about a language that mix english with it like Tagalog!