Something Typical

[Asso]

The study of languages and of their story and evolution is amongst the more charming things one can do.
It's an immersion in the IDIC.

[JadziaKathryn]

Finnish, like German, sounds pretty hard to learn. Mark Twain wrote a very funny essay called "The Awful German Language" about German grammar. (He was actually pretty good at German, apparently.) In English with the exception of those pesky irregular verbs it's pretty much how you arrange the words, not the words themselves that have to change. That seems faster to learn to me, at least when you're not very good at it and struggling to spit a sentence out.

This reminds me of a joke that a professor told on the first day of Making of Modern Germany. It might've been from Twain, actually. Anyway, an American woman goes with a translator to hear the great Otto von Bismarck speak. (FYI, this would be mid-late 1800s.) He begins to speak. After a minute, the woman asks her translator what Bismarck is saying. The translator doesn't respond. A couple of minutes later, she asks again. No reply. After another couple of minutes, she asks again. Finally the translator turns to her and says, "Madame, please! I am waiting for the verb!"

[Asso]

[Alelou]

Yup, I suspect that was from the Twain essay. It really is a hoot.

[blacknblue]

Ironically, we sometimes get into difficulties with English because it is becoming so widespread. English vs. Canadian vs. USA vs. Australian vs. New Zealand vs. South Africa are NOT the same languages. Or not precisely the same languages. USA English has at least four, and possibly as many as eleven or more distinct dialects. I would not be surprised to learn that Canada and Australia are in similar boats. Dunno about the smaller countries, But I can swear that the UK is chock full of people who DO NOT speak the same language that I do, not anywhere near it. And from listening, people in London don't speak the same language as people in Dublin, who don't talk like people in Aberdeen.

Then you get places like India. Ouch. I will say no more.

Other countries like China, Poland, Korea, try to use English in their labeling for trade goods. Bless their hearts. Seriously. They really do try. But is it impossible for go outside, buttonhole a passing tourist and slip them a couple bucks to proofread something?

At least people in smaller countries with more or less homogenous populations seem (my impression anyway) like they can probably communicate with each other. Even if nobody else can understand them.

Then there's Spanglish, and all the flavors thereof. Puerto Rican Spanglish vs. Mexican Spanglish vs. ...

muy enfermo...

[Asso]

Koine!

[Kevin Thomas Riley]

At least people in smaller countries with more or less homogenous populations seem (my impression anyway) like they can probably communicate with each other. Even if nobody else can understand them.

Well, there are just 9 million Swedes, but there are some dialects - or rather extreme versions of some dialects - that I really, really have a hard time understanding. After moving to the county I'm presently living in, I sometimes encounter people who I cannot understand much of what they're saying. Then I just nod and hope for the best... The thing is, as a newspaper editor, it can be a bummer!

[Alelou]

I guess this could be much worse if you were a reporter...

[Asso]

[Kevin Thomas Riley]

I guess this could be much worse if you were a reporter...

Indeed! Which I'm glad I'm not, for many various reasons...

[Alelou]

My dad's a newspaperman from WAAAAY back.

[panyasan]

At least people in smaller countries with more or less homogenous populations seem (my impression anyway) like they can probably communicate with each other. Even if nobody else can understand them.

We have two official languages, Dutch and Frysian and we are one of the smallest countries in the world. But we also have people who mix their own language with Dutch, so you get like Arab-Dutch or Turkish-Dutch or Surinam-Dutch. So times it works out, we have one writer who writes in Dutch, but has a Arab background and his Dutch is really poetic. And then we have many, many dialects...sometimes using words that have a different meaning. But the language is very much alive, when I was abroad for two years and came back I was amazed about all the new words.

[blacknblue]

I sit corrected.

[panyasan]

I sit corrected.

Well, the world is full of creative people with all kinds of languages. That is one of the reasons I like this site.

[Asso]

blacknblue, at a previous time you said: I must remember to avoid Italy. Or never to go their without an alert bodyguard. I would not escape alive.
Well! You didn't take good account of the mess of parlances we have here! Sometimes, we are incapable of understanding each other.