The polyglot/language thread!

[ROFLyoshi 1,760]

 

Would you like to share your accent?

Mine's the General Australian accent, the most popular of the three main Australian accents.

 

Apparently it's easier for Australians to pick up other accents since we have the most relaxed soft palate and least active tongue in the world, so it's simply a matter of learning to do something rather than unlearning something then learning a different thing.

 

Despite what most people think, it's not the broad accent popularised by people like Paul Hogan (Crocodile Dundee) and Steve Irwin. Only a minority of people speak like that.

Anyway, I'm the same.

[nemusd 22]

Hey there,

I speak Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian, Montenegrian (which are practically the same (before 1991, it was called Serbo-Croat), but in foreign countries it counts as different languages and raises your salary (by the way, I'm not living abroad, but I know the fact) ), English, Italian and some German. I can understand some Hungarian, Russian, Slovak, Slovenian, Macedonian, Czech, Polish, Romanian, Bulgarian, French and Spanish, but it is mostly due to the fact that 26 different nationalities live in my region of Vojvodina. 

Best regards, and have a beer on me,

Nemus

[Meg 368]

I am a native English speaker.  I have been learning Spanish but the verb tenses are difficult for me.   One odd thing I've noticed:  when I get tired, I start speaking in Spanish.  I have no idea why.

 

I understand more reading it than listening to it, partly because people talk so darn fast.  If they would slow down, I would understand more.   But I have noticed that happening in English too so maybe it's just my aging hearing.

 

My French is very basic, about at toddler level.  I can have a conversation in American Sign Language with a patient, bored person.  (again, speed is a major factor here)

 

Does programming about 12 different languages count?   I used FORTRAN to satisfy my foreign language requirement in college.

 

 

[hym 358]

I understand more reading it than listening to it, partly because people talk so darn fast.  If they would slow down, I would understand more.   But I have noticed that happening in English too so maybe it's just my aging hearing.

 

Spanish does tend to be spoken very quickly, and it tends to be a barrier to new speakers.  As I understand it, this is because most of the sounds in Spanish are formed on the tip of the tongue, whereas in English, they are formed further back the mouth (which slows down the rate at which sounds can be formed).  If it's any consolation, I have friends from Mexico who grew up speaking Spanish and still speak it proficiently today.  They still ask people to slow down from time to time.

 

I can have a conversation in American Sign Language with a patient, bored person.  (again, speed is a major factor here)

 

I had a class with an ASL instructor in it.  In listening to him talking to some ASL students before class, one of the things he mentioned was that most ASL translators are less focused on translating what is said and more focused on translating concepts because translating word for word would take too long.  He also mentioned that he has translated the entire content of speeches without ever forming a complete sentence.

[Kiiroitori 55]

Although you could consider me as a native English speaker having to live in Australia for almost all my life.. My first language was actually natively Cantonese (a dialect of Chinese), although its sad to say I don't really use it much here, so my Cantonese is not very fluent at all, my vocabulary is trash in it, but I can sort of pick up conversations. My family language is Hokien (which I have zil knowledge at all.)
It's only when I return to Malaysia, that's when I really have to make an effort to pick my Cantonese up. I also think my English isn't that good too, seeing that I'm in the bottom English class at my school (which alot of people say I shouldn't be and if only I handed in my subject change form to move up  and I'm probably the top of the class getting the highest marks in exams and assignments ). Anyway,  mandarin is probably in for me... seeing that my knowledge of Cantonese does help with some degree. 

[NMUSpidey 3,956]

I'm from Ohio/Michigan and speak English with a standard US Midwestern accent.  It doesn't translate well into speaking Japanese, as my wife loves to remind me of how horrid my accent is when I speak.  I think it's a good idea to try an emulate how native speakers speak their own language, as they generally are doing it correctly, of course.  I'll probably never sound like a native speaker here, but I'll eventually get close enough.

[ROFLyoshi 1,760]

I'm from Ohio/Michigan and speak English with a standard US Midwestern accent. It doesn't translate well into speaking Japanese, as my wife loves to remind me of how horrid my accent is when I speak. I think it's a good idea to try an emulate how native speakers speak their own language, as they generally are doing it correctly, of course. I'll probably never sound like a native speaker here, but I'll eventually get close enough.

You've got an entire lifetime to practice. My dad is German, yet by the way he speaks you wouldn't be able to notice it.

[Terring 6,473]

My native language is Hellenics (Greeks) and my English is in Lower level, but I'm going for the Proficiency on May 2014. To be honest, I would like to learn Russian too.

[Alejandro24 575]

I am a native English speaker.  I have been learning Spanish but the verb tenses are difficult for me.   One odd thing I've noticed:  when I get tired, I start speaking in Spanish.  I have no idea why.

...

 

Does programming about 12 different languages count?   I used FORTRAN to satisfy my foreign language requirement in college.

The next time with a problem of verbs conjugation, go to the RAE website (rae.es), look for the verb in the search bar and in the article at the left of the title there will be a blue button with the word conjugar, press it and you'll get a table with the conjugation of that verb.

And of course, try to be tired more frequently, if that helps to speak spanish ... Same case here, but with german.

 

Programming language? I know C, C++, C#, Basic, Matlab and I'm learning R.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

 

<snip>

 

Would you like to share your accent?

 

I speak general Canadian most of the time.  If you live in an area long enough you do tend to pick up the local argot.  Accents are a funny thing, as most of it is vocal and it is hard to share in writing.  I have an example a few posts prior.  I'd tabulate it, but this dim-bulb editor can't handle tables.

[ausa07 66]

English would be my native language, and I speak with a general but slightly broad leaning Australian accent.  But with so much US influence sometimes I might say some things American-ish.  On that note one of my friends back in Melbourne (born and raised there) speaks almost... if not just like a full blown American... yeah... far out

 

I also learned Spanish for three years and while living with my aunt (who speaks both Spanish and English).  I've forgotten a good deal of it though, seeing I have had no use for it so far.  Learning a language can be fun, but I didn't seem to appreciate it as much as I should have when I was younger.

[TekindusT 3,809]

Somebody spoke about accents? I bet you to fit so many in such a small territory:

 

 

My Catalan dialect would be mainly Barcelonese, but with a clear mix of northern features, given that my mom and grandma are from up north. The difference between west and east dialects on the map above is drammatic, up to the point that I sometimes have trouble understanding a guy I know from the west side.

 

On the other side, my Spanish accent is a kind of strange crossover, as I said in one of my previous posts. It mixes standard Spanish, Andalusian and other southern accents (spoken by the inmigration wave who came to Barcelona during the 20th century) and Catalan-influenced Spanish. It is a phenomena quite restricted to Barcelona's metro area, and it vanishes once one gets into the countryside.

 

As for English, I'm curious to know if after so many years I keep looking like a non-native to the others. I guess one never sounds like a native without being a native, but I would like to know on which degree am I.

[astronelson 339]

Accents are a funny thing, as most of it is vocal and it is hard to share in writing.

 

Yeer, s'koinda hahd't roit wiv'n aksent, no's mch es read'n' i' doh. H'ya gowin wivit, orrite?

 

Caws, i's e'en wers wen y'throw slang inta i', ye'll be hi'fer sicks, speshly wen yer ou' byon t'black stum bak'f Berk weh dey do'opn deir mawfs wen dey speek.

 

Translation: I agree with what you have written. Conveying an accent in textual form has its share of difficulties, however, those are not as great as the problems faced by the reader when presented with what may as well be randomly pressed keys. On that matter, to what degree can you decipher my attempt at transcribing my accent? I hope you are proceeding well with it.

 

Naturally, all this is exacerbated when colloquialisms are used in addition to an accent. Understanding that would be impossible, and attempts to do so would only cause confusion in anyone foolhardy enough to undertake the task, particularly in rural areas where clear pronunciation is completely disregarded.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Yes.  I now get a reference in Julius Caesar that has been sticking in my craw for about fifty years.  The term "Septentrionale" referenced in one of the Gallic Campaigns always bothered me, and now I get the impression it came from somewhere in the Pyrenees.  Thanks, my Catalan friend.  The official "Oxford" translation of that was "Northern" or "Northern stars".

 

I have a few other outstanding bits, like the camp at Samarobriva which is thought to be an ancient town near the Somme, but seems to have vanished without a trace.Yet, at one time, the Roman army had a full, formal camp (castra) there.

[KonstantinII 1,106]

 To be honest, I would like to learn Russian too.

 

Ра-сия (Russia) Ra-siya is composed of two parts

"Ra" in ancient slavic means Sun. 

"Siya" root means to shine.

 

Therefore Ра-сия means "land where the Sun shines"

 

And it is really true. Russia is located at the optimal latitude for angle Sunlight. In the south Sun is too bright and people do not like it, try to hide in shadows under trees. But in the north it is cold and people welcome it greatly, like in Russia.

 

Studies have shown that the spectrum of light which is best for growing crops occurs in the morning and afternoon in the south.  but in the north this spectrum is present all the day during summer months. This is why cabbages and pumpkins in Russia, Sweden, and Alaska are larger.

 

The ancient Slavics deified the Sun in their pagan worship. All the gods were solar. Ancient temples were in a circle.

 

It is also interesting that ancient Egyptians also worshiped "Ra" the Sun. They all come from slavic.

[TekindusT 3,809]

Yes.  I now get a reference in Julius Caesar that has been sticking in my craw for about fifty years.  The term "Septentrionale" referenced in one of the Gallic Campaigns always bothered me, and now I get the impression it came from somewhere in the Pyrenees.  Thanks, my Catalan friend.  The official "Oxford" translation of that was "Northern" or "Northern stars".

 

I would say "Septentrional" always means "north", but it's a kind of more literary way of saying it. I have heard it all my life, nevertheless. Same with south and "Meridional".

[MandelSoft 2,769]

About accents, in English, I do have a mild dutch accent, as can be heard in some of my footage on YouTube:
http://youtu.be/pyECUEa2Li4

 

Now here is what you hear the most when dutch people speak English (skip to 0:17):

http://youtu.be/x5ybgCQNSnw

 

Best,

Maarten

[Alejandro24 575]

Somebody spoke about accents? I bet you to fit so many in such a small territory:

 

 

My Catalan dialect would be mainly Barcelonese, but with a clear mix of northern features, given that my mom and grandma are from up north. The difference between west and east dialects on the map above is drammatic, up to the point that I sometimes have trouble understanding a guy I know from the west side.

 

On the other side, my Spanish accent is a kind of strange crossover, as I said in one of my previous posts. It mixes standard Spanish, Andalusian and other southern accents (spoken by the inmigration wave who came to Barcelona during the 20th century) and Catalan-influenced Spanish. It is a phenomena quite restricted to Barcelona's metro area, and it vanishes once one gets into the countryside.

 

As for English, I'm curious to know if after so many years I keep looking like a non-native to the others. I guess one never sounds like a native without being a native, but I would like to know on which degree am I.

A very small space with so many variations.

 

The case of Mexico (and this is because the mexican accent doesn't means only one kind):

 

My accent is from Occidente, western accent. The people of the rest of Mexico says that my accent sounds like a song, without counting the origins of the fresa accent. Without counting the lot of archaism of the spanish that still exists in the vocabulary.

[UndercoverNinja12 176]

I'm a native English speaker, with a standard Midwest accent I suppose, being from Ohio. I'm learning French in high school, and I'm on French 2 right now. I have a little more than basic conversation skills. I can read and write but have trouble interpreting vocal French. It all goes too fast when proficient French people speak.

[Meg 368]

 

 

I had a class with an ASL instructor in it.  In listening to him talking to some ASL students before class, one of the things he mentioned was that most ASL translators are less focused on translating what is said and more focused on translating concepts because translating word for word would take too long.  He also mentioned that he has translated the entire content of speeches without ever forming a complete sentence.

 

 

 

ASL has its own syntax which is quite different from Exact Signed English.   It also makes use of non-verbal, non-signed communication.  Imagine, for instance, non-verbally conveying "What's that?" versus "What the bleep is that?"    Most of us can do that without knowing ASL. 

 

 

 

 

The next time with a problem of verbs conjugation, go to the RAE website (rae.es), look for the verb in the search bar and in the article at the left of the title there will be a blue button with the word conjugar, press it and you'll get a table with the conjugation of that verb.

 

 

 

It makes sense when I look at it in a table like that.   The trick is remembering that while I'm talking or trying to listen.

 

 

 

 

And of course, try to be tired more frequently, if that helps to speak spanish ... Same case here, but with german.

 

 

Really?   You speak german more when you are tired?   It's not just me?

[Ganaram Inukshuk 906]

Primary language: English

 

Self-chosen second languages that I considered at some point: Spanish, Russian, Arabic, Korean, Tagalog

 

Self-chosen second language that I had actual lessons on: Spanish (never got far with the lessons)

 

My would-be second language: Tagalog (born of Filipino culture, hence the Filipino flag in my previous avatar, kinda, but never had the chance to learn the Tagalog language; I hear it all the time, but it's never rubbed onto me)

 

Languages whose alphabets I know: Swedish (but not pronunciation; also has äåö), Dutch (ij was part of the alphabet), Russian (backwards letters!), Korean (partly; they have 24 letters), Greek (partly), Arabic (not a vowel symbol to be found), Spanish (ñ is quite well-known), Tagalog (ng is part of the alphabet)

 

The one language that I'd like to learn that I alluded to weeks ago by saying "I'd like to learn a second language and I think I know what to go for" in a status update: Dutch

 

The one language I'm curious about even though it's not a real language: English without the Latinate words (AKA Anglish)

 

Other curious languages: German, Afrikaans, essentially the other prominent Germanic languages

 

Programming languages: Visual Basic and C++ (Someone mentioned programming languages, right?)

 

Accent: Rarely do I ever record my own voice due to a long-standing impression that my voice sounds bleagh and that I tend to degrade G's into D's and SH's into S's. But I've more or less beaten that tendency some time ago (over a year ago), but I also feel as though that my accent has evolved in other ways as well. I've a few Youtube videos from over 1.5 years ago that does record my voice, but I'd call those outdated. I don't even know what to call my own accent... I tend to communicate better through a keyboard and my big black box than I do using my voicebox and my toothbox.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Programming languages?  I've seen and used most of the major ones and some of the odd-ball ones as well.  First language was machine language in that group.  You know, the PDP-8 only has a seven bit order code and one of them is halt and another one is a kind of macro-code, so that leaves only six processing commands.  Try doing something in that sometime. 

 

My last machine had an 18-bit order code but the upper six were modification specifiers, one was an inhibit bit, and one was the multiword instruction bit, leaving only two sets of 10-bit commands to play in.  Yes, it was a main-frame.  It even had a command that could convert grey-code to binary.  One instruction!

 

Some of the multiword commands were designed to accommodate COBOL directly.  You could use a single command to say:

 

ADD A TO B GIVING C ROUNDED ON SIZE ERROR <raise an interrupt>.  Floating point decimal with a 64 digit operand.  (No mid-course corrections needed going to Mars,)  The registers were 256-bits long plus checking bits.  Cost?  Several hundred thousand and up.  I did see a version of this machine that fit in a large tower in the research shop.  Couldn't cool it.

 

However, machine languages: Dartmouth BASIC, GW-BASIC, Visual BASIC(.NET), ALGOL-60, ALGOL-68, FORTRAN (all dialects), COBOL-60 and all subsequent, B, BCPL, C, C++, PASCAL (ugh!), PL/1, PYTHON, and a bunch of generators like SOFTOOL^TM.  Oh, and mustn't forget the Naval Electronic Laboratories International ALGOL compiler generator (NELIAC) which could produce a compiler in any language you liked.  That was the heyday of Adm. Grace Murray Hopper, the patron saint of COBOL.

 

One of the biggest apps I worked on was a huge general ledger program in COBOL-68 + JOD extensions that ran either as a batch system or a transaction processor.  Nine separate modules with about 30 report writer sections including a full audit tracer.

[Alejandro24 575]

 

 

 

And of course, try to be tired more frequently, if that helps to speak spanish ... Same case here, but with german.

 

 

Really?   You speak german more when you are tired?   It's not just me?

 

Nope, you're not alone in that case.

[Superbacon 380]

English is my first language. My mom's first language is Spanish, although attempts to teach me much of anything useful pretty much failed. In high school I took one year of German. But most of what I learned is a distant memory now. Right now Japanese is my second language. I'm at an intermediate level with it. I still have a lot of Kanji to learn. It's my weak point.

[timmie 988]

I have no accent in English. People usually say I sound quite academic. In Dutch, I have a slight (Southern) Brabantian accent (I think the sharp I and to a lesser extent A are typical). It is difficult to call it an accent though, since the standard language in Flanders is mostly based on Brabantian. So in fact, you can say people can hear where I am from because I lack a real accent.

[Easy Bakes 253]

Im trying to learn Japanese but its tough going  for me.

[RipRap 4,400]

In total, I can speak 3 languages. Tagalog is my mother tongue, and I could speak another dialect of Filipino, thanks to my parents, who were not from the capital Manila (They were from Panay and the dialect is called Hiligaynon). English was compulsory in the Philippines, and years of education (and immgration to Canada) has made me quite a comfortable speaker of English. Recently, I took a course in elementary Japanese, so far I have learned the basics of the language (to the point where I could make formal complete sentences). Contrary to what Easy Bakes said, I'm surprised that I am quite comfortable with Japanese.

I know very basic French and Spanish. Also, I am quite interested with Korean, Chinese and Flemish.

[timmie 988]

I know very basic French and Spanish. Also, I am quite interested with Korean, Chinese and Flemish.

 

May I ask where your interest in Flemish comes from? (Actually, it's not a language, it's the variant of Dutch that's spoken in Belgium, the most important differences with the Dutch of the Netherlands are pronunciation and, to a lesser extent, vocabulary.)

[MandelSoft 2,769]

Yeah, the Flemish vocabulary is kinda different from the Dutch one (often the dutch vocabulary is less civil). We can usually understand each other, but they are different like UK English and US English. Take these examples:

 

• Stool: [NL] Stoel; [bE] Zetel
• Pleasant: [NL] Fijn; [bE] Plezant
• Irritating: [NL] Irritant; [bE] Ambetant
• Interchange: [NL] Knooppunt; [bE] Verkeerswisselaar
• Cleaning: [NL] Schoonmaken; [bE] Kuisen
• Fries: [NL] Patat; [bE] Friet
• Potatoes: [NL] Aardappelen; [bE] Patatten

So... if a Dutchie orders fries in Belgium (if they say "patat" instead of "friet"), those Flemish guys will probably be laughing quietly of this kinda silly request and may serve his fries raw if they are in a funny mood...

 

Flemish grammar is also slightly different. For instance, a dutch person "closes" a window (ik doe het raam dicht), while a flemish person "moves the window towards him" (ik doe het raam toe). Also, in dutch, if you are really sure, you say that it's "vast en zeker". In Flemish, this is however "zeker en vast".

 

Pronunciation in Flemish is also slightly different. The "g", "s" and "t" are more soft than in NL Dutch and some of the vowels are pronounced a little different. Flemish people also tend to pronounced "naturalised" English words in a dutch way, while we Dutch stick to their English pronunciation. Words like "tram", "gangster" en "tablet"

 

So that's Dutch vs. Flemish 101 for you

 

Best,
Maarten

[timmie 988]

Ah, but that's the nice thing about Flemish: while we have some other words than the Dutch, we often also use the Dutch version (we also use 'schoonmaken' or 'irritant', for example). We do have most words in common, but there are synonyms the Dutch don't know (and vice versa, of course, it's estimated that the Flemish have ca. 4000 words the Dutch don't know and the Dutch have 5000 the Flemish don't know).

 

(Tiny detail: 'tablet' is pronounced just like the English word, but 'tram', 'flat' and 'gangster' are pronounced as if they were Dutch words. Also, a 'stoel' is not 'zetel'. 'Zetel' means sofa, or as the Dutch say: 'bank'.)