Language Fun

[Goolix]

We have people who speak a variety of different languages here at TR, and we like talking about them! This is the thread to post any language-related stuff. Was your favorite book translated oddly to your language? Are there any changes happening to your language? Learn something new about a foreign language? It all belongs here!

 

[K_S]

I have a smattering of other languages, but am only (semi it feels) fluent in english.

But an option thats importanr but not listed is semifluent/partial fluent.

Basically i can ask if you need help/medical attention, or need help finding something (bathroom, water, a seat its a cut and paste sentence) in asl, spanish, russian, aribic, and italian. My accent makes the poor native speakers wincesl, and theres flash cards and pictures i whip out if the medical question is answered with a yes to see if its a "call an ambulance" moment...

But that wasnt an option.

 

[Goolix]

I have a smattering of other languages, but am only (semi it feels) fluent in english.

But an option thats importanr but not listed is semifluent/partial fluent.

Basically i can ask if you need help/medical attention, or need help finding something (bathroom, water, a seat its a cut and paste sentence) in asl, spanish, russian, aribic, and italian. My accent makes the poor native speakers wincesl, and theres flash cards and pictures i whip out if the medical question is answered with a yes to see if its a "call an ambulance" moment...

But that wasnt an option.

That's pretty cool you know some ASL! I'd like to learn some myself. A friend of a friend is deaf and speaks ASL.

For my own part, I speak English and Spanish natively, and French and Russian as second languages well enough to be able to read a book with a dictionary. I know some Swedish and can read casual chats in it alright. I know some Japanese but I'm far from being able to read anything interesting in that.

Here's a fun localization detail. In "Avengers: Age of Ultron," there's a pivotal scene where the character Vision describes himself by saying simply, "I am." I watched the movie in Russian. There is no way to say just "I am" in modern Russian with a verb because "to be" is implied when you link words. The only verbs for "to be" in present tense are archaic-sounding and don't make sense for Vision's character. They decided to translate this by having him say "Ya vizhon" (I'm Vision), which loses the aspect that he just is and doesn't need to be defined by any tag.

 

[SparklingBlue]

I speak:

English (My name is SparklingBlue)--mother tongue
Spanish (Me llamo SparklingBlue)--studied for a few years; can read and translate a fair bit, but still need a dictionary
a little Japanese (Watashi wa SparklingBlue desu)--gleaned from watching anime
a little Irish Gaelic (SparklingBlue is ainm dom)--studied a little on Duolingo; hope to learn more so I can translate all those Gaelic songs on my Celtic music collection.
a little French (Je m'appelle SparklingBlue)--studied a little on Duolingo
a little Italian (Mi chiamo SparklingBlue)--gleaned from Italian dubs of anime, musical terminology and lessons on Duolingo

 

[StellarWind]

I am fluent in Hebrew and English – and translating between these two languages is what I've been doing for a living for a little over a decade now.

Otherwise I am a bit of a katamari for various bits of vocabulary in other languages, which usually find a bit of an application in terrible multi-lingual puns, if nothing else – I have yet to gather up the focus and dedication to actually properly sit down and learn another language beyond the two I am fluent in, alas. As a side note, I find the evolution and quirks of language to be fascinating, and I enjoy etymologies and points of interface between languages (such as loanwords and calques) in particular.

 

[Goolix]

I am fluent in Hebrew and English – and translating between these two languages is what I've been doing for a living for a little over a decade now.

Otherwise I am a bit of a katamari for various bits of vocabulary in other languages, which usually find a bit of an application in terrible multi-lingual puns, if nothing else – I have yet to gather up the focus and dedication to actually properly sit down and learn another language beyond the two I am fluent in, alas. As a side note, I find the evolution and quirks of language to be fascinating, and I enjoy etymologies and points of interface between languages (such as loanwords and calques) in particular.

Wow, Hebrew! That's awesome. My husband knows some Hebrew from classes in college. How did you come to learn Hebrew, is it a native language for you or did you study it?

If you like multilingual puns, there's a song that's just misinterpretations based on Swedish and English words that sound alike:

KRISTINA, ULRIKA, ELIN OCH FINA-KAJSA
Får vi hjälpa er diska och städa! Vi ber!
(Let us help you wash the dishes and clean up, we beg)

PASTOR JACKSON
Not a beer, I'm afraid, in store!

ULRIKA
Ja, jag står här sysslolös, det gör mig ledsen
(Yes, I'm standing here idle, it makes me sad.)

PASTOR JACKSON
Lesson from me, what for?

And the whole song is like that because they don't understand each others' languages. Very funny and a banger!

"Tänk att män som han kan finnas", from the musical "Kristina fran Duvemala". Written by the same guys behind ABBA (and Chess, if you know that one).

 

[Mirage]

For languages, I'm fluent in English (or at least pretend to be ), but I can also read and speak German at a basic level, courtesy of my mother who immigrated to the US from Germany and managed to make a little bit of it stick. I also used to be able to speak very basic Japanese when I lived in Japan, although alas, most of it has faded from disuse

Small but fun language thing! In Hawaii, we have a unique creole language called Hawaiian Pidgin, with its own accent, grammar, and slang vs standard American English. One example of how it's different from standard English is that it uses the word "one" to both literally mean one of something, but also as a substitute for the word "a", as an indefinite article. So for example...

"Eh, get one scratch ticket?" -> "Hey, want to grab a scratch ticket?"

"Eh, get one scratch ticket!" -> "Hey, get only one scratch ticket!"

Interestingly enough, German does the same exact thing, where the word "ein" can mean either literally "one" of something, or it can just mean "a" of something:

"Lass uns ein Ticket kaufen" -> "Let's buy a ticket"

"Lass uns ein Ticket kaufen" -> "Let's buy just one ticket"

I think it's pretty neat that Hawaiian Pidgin evolved (or re-evolved?) the same pattern, even though historically it's had very little interaction with other Germanic languages besides standard English.

 

[CuteBunnyGirl]

I mainly speak english and finnish, though i am studying swedish as well. I also am somewhat interested in learning latin since i think it sounds cool

 

[Goolix]

I mainly speak english and finnish, though i am studying swedish as well. I also am somewhat interested in learning latin since i think it sounds cool

I'm also studying Swedish! What are you studying Swedish for? I did it because I wanted to read some ABBA song lyrics.

Also to the Finnish speakers CuteBunnyGirl and @canisaries, I wanted to ask question. I heard that the song "Ievan Polkka" by Loituma is not in a standard Finnish dialect. I was curious to know what dialect it is in, and what makes it different from standard Finnish. Here are some samples of the lyrics:

Nuapurista kuulu se polokan tahti
Jalakani pohjii kutkutti
Ievan äiti se tyttöösä vahti
Vaan kyllähän Ieva sen jutkutti
Sillä ei meitä sillon kiellot haittaa
Kun myö tanssimme laiasta laitaan
Salivili hipput tupput tapput
Äppyt tipput hilijalleen

Ievan suu oli vehnäsellä
Ko immeiset onnee toevotti
Peä oli märkänä jokaisella
Ja viulu se vonku ja voevotti
Ei tätä poikoo märkyys haittaa
Sillon ko laskoo laiasta laitaan
Salivili hipput tupput tapput
Äppyt tipput hilijalleen

Ievan äiti se kammarissa
Virsiä veisata huijjuutti
Kun tämä poika naapurissa
Ämmän tyttöä nuijjuutti
Eikä tätä poikoo ämmät haittaa
Sillon ko laskoo laiasta laitaan
Salivili hipput tupput tapput
Äppyt tipput hilijalleen

 

[canisaries]

@Goolix I'm not good at identifying different dialects, but Ievan Polkka, according to Finnish Wikipedia, is in North Savonian dialect. It's also a folk song, so not originally "by" Loituma but rather their performance of it is the most well known.

Also, I may be able to answer the Swedish studying question too: Swedish education is mandatory in Finnish basic education due to its status as the second official language.

Here's a fun localization detail. In "Avengers: Age of Ultron," there's a pivotal scene where the character Vision describes himself by saying simply, "I am." I watched the movie in Russian. There is no way to say just "I am" in modern Russian with a verb because "to be" is implied when you link words. The only verbs for "to be" in present tense are archaic-sounding and don't make sense for Vision's character. They decided to translate this by having him say "Ya vizhon" (I'm Vision), which loses the aspect that he just is and doesn't need to be defined by any tag.

Ah, that's interesting! I took two courses of Russian in university, so I was familiar with "be" being dropped most of the time.

As for myself, I know Finnish natively, English fluently as a second language and while I was top 5% of all final Swedish exam takers in high school (technically gymnasium but whatever), I definitely can't produce it on command anywhere near as well as I used to. I can, however, read in it pretty well. Not enough to read fiction, but enough to understand a lot of headlines shared by my Swedish friend.

I also took a few years of German when I was younger, and there was those two courses of Russian, and I also tried Spanish and French on Duolingo some years ago, though mostly just to dabble. I would consider myself someone with an interest in languages, but perhaps not a full-on hyperfixation, or I would have committed better.

I also have a Welsh friend who's very excited about learning the original language of his country and has conversations with my friend group about its linguistic quirks and vocabulary. Maybe someday when I feel like picking up a new language again, that's the one I'll focus on.

 

[Venia Silente]

Yo hablo nativo Español, although it's one of the many LatAm dialects (the *best* Spanish, just ask the dubbing community) instead of Iberian which is rather dull. English is my second best, although that's mostly reading and writing as I don't have much experience nor a solidified tone / accent on speaking and I'm pretty opinionated about English as well (diacritics and ð / þ should be a thing, for one, and y'alls really need better agglutination rules, for two).

But that's just about it in terms of languages that I can claim a degree of useful proficiency on. Faaaaaaar below in ninth place I can read, write and speak at basic level in Esperanto (and maaaaybe in Ido, haven't tested), I can read some French and Italian, and I can identify a few key sentences or questions of value in Portuguese, Japanese (thanks, anime!) and Bulgarian / other slavic languages (thanks, niche cinema!).

Small but fun language thing! In Hawaii, we have a unique creole language called Hawaiian Pidgin, with its own accent, grammar, and slang vs standard American English. One example of how it's different from standard English is that it uses the word "one" to both literally mean one of something, but also as a substitute for the word "a", as an indefinite article. So for example...

"Eh, get one scratch ticket?" -> "Hey, want to grab a scratch ticket?"

"Eh, get one scratch ticket!" -> "Hey, get only one scratch ticket!"

Interestingly enough, German does the same exact thing, where the word "ein" can mean either literally "one" of something, or it can just mean "a" of something:

"Lass uns ein Ticket kaufen" -> "Let's buy a ticket"

"Lass uns ein Ticket kaufen" -> "Let's buy just one ticket"

Curiously enough, Español has that one as well, tho it works somewhat differently because in Español the declarative article also declares gender.

"Vamos a comprar un ticket" → "Let's buy a ticket"

"Vamos a comprar un ticket" → "Let's buy one ticket" ("ticket" carries male gender in this language)

"Vamos a comprar una entrada" → "Let's buy a ticket"

"Vamos a comprar una entrada" → "Let's buy one ticket" ("entrada" carries female gender in this language)

I wonder if this is a known and named phenomenon? Wikipedia is not giving me anything.

I also have a Welsh friend who's very excited about learning the original language of his country and has conversations with my friend group about its linguistic quirks and vocabulary. Maybe someday when I feel like picking up a new language again, that's the one I'll focus on.

Welsh is something I want to get into in at least a limited manner! Since it'd be great to have my dragonmons speak in such a language. I hear it's quite great for cursing, like French.

Another language that I want to get the basics of when I can is Portuguese, if mostly to give some things a flavour of "like Español, but not exactly"-

 

[Goolix]

I wonder if this is a known and named phenomenon? Wikipedia is not giving me anything.

I don't think it has a name, but it is a known phenomenon! It is very common for indefinite articles to come from the word for 'one' in the language. In English, 'a' was originally 'an', which meant 'one'. Swedish also, 'en' ultimately comes from Old Norse 'einn' meaning one.

Yo hablo nativo Español, although it's one of the many LatAm dialects (the *best* Spanish, just ask the dubbing community)