Return to “Polls”

Besides English, what languages do you speak?

None. I only speak English.
Total votes: 55 (24%)
German
Total votes: 47 (20%)
Dutch/Afrikaans
Total votes: 14 (6%)
Other North Germanic lang (Norwegian, Danish, Swedish, Icelandic, Faroese)
Total votes: 11 (5%)
Spanish
Total votes: 22 (9%)
Portuguese
Total votes: 4 (2%)
French
Total votes: 22 (9%)
Italian
Total votes: 4 (2%)
Other Romance lang (Romanian, Catalan, etc.)
Total votes: 3 (1%)
Greek
Russian
Total votes: 10 (4%)
Other Slavic lang (Polish, Ukrainian, Czech, Bulgarian, etc.)
Total votes: 7 (3%)
Arabic (any dialect)
Total votes: 2 (1%)
Japanese
Total votes: 9 (4%)
Korean
(No votes)
Mandarin or other Chinese dialect (Min, Wu, Yue, Cantonese, etc.)
Total votes: 4 (2%)
Tai-Kadai lang (Thai, Lao, etc.)
(No votes)
Indo-Aryan lang (Hindi/Urdu, Punjabi, Gujarati, etc.)
Total votes: 4 (2%)
Any notable Conlang (Esperanto, lojban, Interlingua, etc.)
Total votes: 2 (1%)
Other -- Let us know in the comments!
Total votes: 12 (5%)
Total votes: 233
Post

Re: What languages do you speak?

#110
Flatfingers wrote:
TheJuggler wrote:Dutch is one of English's closest relatives, second only to Frisian and Scots.
Well, if by "Scots" you mean Lallans, OK.

Scots Gaelic, not so much. :D

(I got as far as "ciamar a tha thu?" before deciding that they were just randomly throwing letters into words to troll the Sassenachs....)
I was referring to the minor dialect of English. (I don't personally consider it a language in its own right, but since some people do I thought I'd include it anyway.)

@Dinosawer: I quite agree! English is in desperate need of a spelling reform. I do worry that such a reform would cut future generations off from historical documents, though...
Limit Theory IRC
Post

Re: What languages do you speak?

#112
Dinosawer wrote:It makes learning new words in English a bit annoying.
"Oh, this word ends in gh. I wonder if I have to pronounce that as a w or as an f?" :ghost:
Sometimes I make jokes to that effect -- "His name is /thɑməs/, spelled with two 'q's and a '4'"

I should probably be glad that it's my native language. I don't know what I'd do if German orthography were as wacked as English!
Limit Theory IRC
Post

Re: What languages do you speak?

#113
English is messed up. I mean:

cough
dough
tough
plough
through

No two of those words rhyme.

Cough rhymes with goth, which sometimes rhymes with sloth, but sometimes sloth rhymes with both, which doesn't rhyme with goth or cough. Dough sounds like doe, and sometimes like do, but sometimes do rhymes with to, which sounds like too and two and doesn't rhyme with doe and dough, it rhymes with through instead. Even though dough sounds like doe, tough doesn't sound like toe; toe rhymes with doe and dough but not with tough. Plough rhymes with cow, which is spelt like tow but doesn't rhyme with tow because tow sounds like toe which rhymes with dough and not tough.
Games I like, in order of how much I like them. (Now permanent and updated regularly!)
Post

Re: What languages do you speak?

#114
DigitalDuck wrote:English is messed up. I mean:

cough
dough
tough
plough
through

No two of those words rhyme.

Cough rhymes with goth, which sometimes rhymes with sloth, but sometimes sloth rhymes with both, which doesn't rhyme with goth or cough. Dough sounds like doe, and sometimes like do, but sometimes do rhymes with to, which sounds like too and two and doesn't rhyme with doe and dough, it rhymes with through instead. Even though dough sounds like doe, tough doesn't sound like toe; toe rhymes with doe and dough but not with tough. Plough rhymes with cow, which is spelt like tow but doesn't rhyme with tow because tow sounds like toe which rhymes with dough and not tough.
What dialect of English do you speak? At least in my experience:
1. "Dough" never rhymes with "do"
2. "Cough" and "goth" definitely don't rhyme
3. "goth" and "sloth" always rhyme
4. "Sloth" never rhymes with "both"
5. "Dough" is always homophonic with "doe," never with "do"


Speaking of the intricacies of English orthography, I've noticed that there are some striking similarities between its native germanic vocabulary and the pronunciation of their German counterparts.

"Night" vs."Nacht"
"Brought" vs. "gebracht"
"Thought" vs "dachten"

Given that English's deviation from prototypical germanic phonology is due in large part to the Norman invasion (and extended isolation), this would seem to indicate that some parts of the orthography are incredibly old.
Limit Theory IRC
Post

Re: What languages do you speak?

#116
Dinosawer wrote:Also
Plough - ploeg
Dough - deeg
Cough - kuch
(Dutch, but the examples you have are exactly the same in Dutch)

Interesting stuff, but I still wonder why the English people started to pronounce it so oddly in the first place :mrgreen:
Potentially Boring Geekspeak:
(Read at your own risk)

If I'm not mistaken, the Normans were francophones, and French became the language of status after they conquered England. Modern English pronunciation is a result of their French speech patterns merging with our Germanic ones. I'm not sure if it's a universal effect, but I know it's not unheard of for languages spoken in multilingual populations to start sounding like each other over time. Basque, for instance, is completely unrelated to Spanish (or any other known lang, for that matter), but the two languages sound very much alike to the untrained ear.

A lot of their lexicon was transferred to English, as well. That's why we say "cow" (germanic) when talking about the animal and "beef" (french) when talking about the meat -- it and other such meats were associated with the (French-speaking) nobility. Meanwhile, lesser meats such as chicken retained their germanic names because they were commonly enjoyed by the lower-class (English-speaking) natives.

It's fascinating :D
Limit Theory IRC
Post

Re: What languages do you speak?

#117
TheJuggler wrote: Potentially Boring Geekspeak:
(Read at your own risk)

If I'm not mistaken, the Normans were francophones, and French became the language of status after they conquered England. Modern English pronunciation is a result of their French speech patterns merging with our Germanic ones. I'm not sure if it's a universal effect, but I know it's not unheard of for languages spoken in multilingual populations to start sounding like each other over time. Basque, for instance, is completely unrelated to Spanish (or any other known lang, for that matter), but the two languages sound very much alike to the untrained ear.

A lot of their lexicon was transferred to English, as well. That's why we say "cow" (germanic) when talking about the animal and "beef" (french) when talking about the meat -- it and other such meats were associated with the (French-speaking) nobility. Meanwhile, lesser meats such as chicken retained their germanic names because they were commonly enjoyed by the lower-class (English-speaking) natives.

It's fascinating :D


now i feel like you
TheJuggler wrote: ...I think my brain is haemorrhaging.
Post

Re: What languages do you speak?

#118
TheJuggler wrote:What dialect of English do you speak? At least in my experience:
1. "Dough" never rhymes with "do"
5. "Dough" is always homophonic with "doe," never with "do"
Do on the Solfège musical scale (a.k.a. do-re-mi)
TheJuggler wrote:2. "Cough" and "goth" definitely don't rhyme
How are you pronouncing them, then?
TheJuggler wrote:3. "goth" and "sloth" always rhyme
4. "Sloth" never rhymes with "both"
Americans generally pronounce it with a short o (goth), Brits generally pronounce it with a long o (both).
Games I like, in order of how much I like them. (Now permanent and updated regularly!)
Post

Re: What languages do you speak?

#119
TheJuggler wrote: Potentially Boring Geekspeak:
(Read at your own risk)

If I'm not mistaken, the Normans were francophones, and French became the language of status after they conquered England. Modern English pronunciation is a result of their French speech patterns merging with our Germanic ones. I'm not sure if it's a universal effect, but I know it's not unheard of for languages spoken in multilingual populations to start sounding like each other over time. Basque, for instance, is completely unrelated to Spanish (or any other known lang, for that matter), but the two languages sound very much alike to the untrained ear.

A lot of their lexicon was transferred to English, as well. That's why we say "cow" (germanic) when talking about the animal and "beef" (french) when talking about the meat -- it and other such meats were associated with the (French-speaking) nobility. Meanwhile, lesser meats such as chicken retained their germanic names because they were commonly enjoyed by the lower-class (English-speaking) natives.

It's fascinating :D
I don't find this boring ;)
However, I know French and they don't pronounce gh as f or w, nor do they pronounce an o as i. :ghost:
Warning: do not ask about physics unless you really want to know about physics.
The LT IRC / Alternate link || The REKT Wiki || PUDDING
Image
Post

Re: What languages do you speak?

#120
DigitalDuck wrote:
TheJuggler wrote:2. "Cough" and "goth" definitely don't rhyme
How are you pronouncing them, then?
Cough - [ khɑf ]
Goth - [ gɑθ ]
DigitalDuck wrote:
TheJuggler wrote:3. "goth" and "sloth" always rhyme
4. "Sloth" never rhymes with "both"
Americans generally pronounce it with a short o (goth), Brits generally pronounce it with a long o (both).
Ah. This may be an example of the Cot-Caught Merger in action. I wasn't aware that you were referencing regional differences in pronunciation.
Cornflakes wrote:now i feel like you
:lol: We all have our niche, I suppose...

Edit: ninja'd by Dinosawer!
Dinosawer wrote:(french pronunciation)
...clearly showing that I have amateurish gaps in my linguistics knowledge! :shifty:
I was however speaking of English pronunciation in general, not the specific examples given earlier. Plus, the Norman conquest was roughly 1,000 years ago. The French and English spoken at the time were probably very different from their modern counterparts (though I'd have to do some research on the details). :think:
Last edited by TheJuggler on Tue Dec 30, 2014 4:20 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Limit Theory IRC

Online Now

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 10 guests

cron