Positive and negative opinions about these languages... [Archive] - The Apricity Forum: A European Cultural Community

Óttar

01-29-2011, 02:50 AM

English - World Language from Britannia and her colonies. Too Romance influenced. I wish it retained more Old English and Danish.

French - This language is ruined for me because too many assholes I know speak it. Sounds queer. It's sort of OK because it is an important language of medieval literature and ballads.

Italian - Il Renaciamento. It's cultured. I like it.

Spanish - Castellan~o is sexy when a high-class chick speaks it. It's simple and nice.

German - My adopted language. I get more confident and my mood changes when I speak it. I love to speak it any chance I get. I also like to curse in it, when I'm pissed off, which is frequently, dealing with haughty stupes. The poetry and music from the Enlightenment and the Medieval period is the best.

Portuguese - The Brazilian form sounds like shit. Learn how to pronounce a 'd' motherf***er. All that juh-ing and gjaw-ing. Otherwise Gallego is interesting and has an exotic antiquated quality about it.

Greek - Sounds like a dialect of European Spanish to the ear. It has the same kind of pleasant musical fluidity.

Russian - Makes me think of greedy whores, pimps, criminals and alcoholics.

Romanian - An interesting outlier among Romance languages. Interesting for research. If nothing else it was the language of Dracula.

Breedingvariety

01-29-2011, 08:17 AM

English- soft;
French- posh (in a good way);
Italian- playful, light hearted, poetic;
Spanish- fairy tale like;
German- firm;
Russian- clear, cold.

Talvi

01-29-2011, 12:29 PM

English - a good language. :D
French - sounds horrible, like you are talking with your mouth full of something.
Italian, Spanish, Portuguese - have never learnt these but I have the impression they are really easy to learn. Not crazy about how they sound.
German - crazy grammar
Russian - may sound good in songs, but otherwise reminds me of drunks and hooligans.

Arne

01-29-2011, 12:54 PM

English
German - crazy grammar

yes it is, somehow to a certain degree :D:D
The Problem is for me that Deutsch isn´t much common in the music scene.
I really want to hear "German Music without shitty lyrics :D)
Most People here try to sing in horrible english sometimes (Didn´t Tokio hotel tried to sang in Englisc :D)

(English)
Eald Englisc has the most native "Touch" which i´d define as my Point of View in that Case.
I heard some English speakers and some (accents) are hard to understand for me as a not native Speaker.

English for pop-rock, French for singer-songwriters and chansons, Italian for opera and romantic ballads, Spanish for marches and protest songs, German for classical hymns and metal, Portuguese for melancholic songs, Greek for epic chants, Russian for military anthems and Romanian for any folk songs including violins.

I think there´s every Reason not to think that stereotypically !
Each Country should have enough of their own Native Music and sung Music in the local Language.

Foxy

01-29-2011, 01:18 PM

English - French - sounds horrible, like you are talking with your mouth full of something.

:eek: How can a so romantic language sound horrible?

6QHjrPhNbj8

If I were a language I would be without doubt French. Unlucky I choosed to study German becouse less Italians study it.

Talvi

01-29-2011, 01:21 PM

:eek: How can a so romantic language sound horrible?

If I were a language I would be without doubt French. Unlucky I choosed to study German becouse less Italians study it.

I dont find French to be romantic, even though a lot of women think it is.
Or maybe I just dont know what real romance is. D:

Foxy

01-29-2011, 01:35 PM

I dont find French to be romantic, even though a lot of women think it is.
Or maybe I just dont know what real romance is. D:

Probably to Estonian earns it sounds different. French is the most liked language by Italians becouse it sounds sweet and a bit chic and Italians have a thing for chic sweet people.

Anyway, my answer:

English sounds cool, pretty easy-going and has lucky an easy grammar.
French as I said very romantic and chic. Italians consider it the most beautiful language and I agree, but of course I dunno how Italian sounds, maybe Italian is even better :p
Spanish I prefer it when it is a man to speak it. Very caliente, hot. Hotter than French but it lacks the finezza of French, that's why I say that it's better to hear that from a male.
Portuguese like Spanish but a bit harsher and differently from Spanish pretty hard to understand.
Romanian sounds good. In some ways it remembers me Portuguese, but Romanian has more sh and other slavic sounds, although it is not a slavic language.
German is fantastic until it is a man to speak it. Hard grammar, harsh sounds. Usually it litterally scares Romance speakers, used to sweeter sounds. So, if you speak in German to an Italian and he makes this face-> :eek: or :confused: he is probably thinking that you speak like a SS.

Comte Arnau

01-29-2011, 02:15 PM

Spanish I prefer it when it is a man to speak it. Very caliente, hot. Hotter than French but it lacks the finezza of French, that's why I say that it's better to hear that from a male.

Apparently in the past French was more of a 'male' language than today.

'I speak Spanish to God, Italian to women, French to men and German to my horse.' Charles V

I guess the times of the Louises in Versailles must have spoiled that association. :p

Foxy

01-30-2011, 07:46 AM

Apparently in the past French was more of a 'male' language than today.

'I speak Spanish to God, Italian to women, French to men and German to my horse.' Charles V

I guess the times of the Louises in Versailles must have spoiled that association. :p

In Italy we say that French is the language of love, Spanish of passion, English of business and German is the language to speak to dogs (when you are training them). :D But personally I like German. The only languages that I don't like are Scandinavian languages becouse I heard them and they have no character for me. Just ugly. I save maybe Islandese.

Finsterer Streiter

01-30-2011, 02:49 PM

What do you think, in positive and negative, about these European languages?

English
Worldwide standard language. Boring, lacks of cases, syntax variations and complexity to write more highbrow things accurately. When languages are computer progamming languages, English is like BASIC: Easy but surface.

French
Sounds like a gag to German ears. Vulgar Latin multiply raped by Frankish tribes created shatterpated pronunciation.

Italian
Sounds hysteric and overly emotional, like an infinite wave of negligible charivari. Yet better than French.

Spanish
Like Italian language without sounding hysteric and overly emotional. Pretty much an acceptable language to hear when it comes to Romanic languages. Natives speak too fast for Germans but the melody of the language is alright.

German
One of the most advanced and complex languages on earth. Versatile and profound, with multitudinous means to express and shape informations, feelings, opinions and other content. Should be the worldwide standard language but the average IQ of the world population is too low to handle and learn the many cases, elements and syntax variations. German doesn't sound melodic or charming but languages are no fashion contest. The job of a language is to create and to pass all types of information and German gives you the most tools and options at your disposal. Provided that you can handle them.

Portuguese
rofl. Add the negative aspects of Italian to the negative aspects of French and subtract the positive aspects of Spanish.

Greek
Peculiar. Haven't heard spoken Greek often enough in my life to create an elaborate opinion.

Russian
Distant and different, sounds inscrutable and aggravating. Is more enjoyable when spoken by females.

Romanian
Never heard any examples, presumedly too unimportant to bother.

Vasconcelos

01-30-2011, 03:00 PM

Talk about being biased towards countries. My country is great, it's language is great. Other countries suck, their languages suck.

As a Portuguese I find your comments insulting, fortunetly I don't care about your opinion.

Finsterer Streiter

01-30-2011, 03:05 PM

Talk about being biased towards countries. My country is great, it's language is great. Other countries suck, their languages suck.
Like all posts above mine. There's no bias, just personal opinion.

As a Portuguese I find your comments insulting, fortunetly I don't care about your opinion.
So you waste seconds to reply to something you don't care about. Sounds reasonable.

Pallantides

01-30-2011, 03:10 PM

French - sounds horrible, like you are talking with your mouth full of something.

French is a cool language
AFx-iOADIZk

Vasconcelos

01-30-2011, 03:12 PM

Finsterer Streiter

01-30-2011, 03:14 PM

I don't care about yours because I don't even know you (nor do I want to), but doesn't mean I won't feel furstrated at a ignorant opinion of my language.
No tears, please. It's a waste of good suffering.

About bias, no comments, I'll let others judge.
I'm off.
Fair enough.

gold_fenix

01-30-2011, 03:15 PM

English: a easy language, versatil and with some grace according to those who speak
French: sound romantic and sometimes grunge
Italian: sounds very well
Spanish: is my language so i can't to give a opinion
German: a robust language and very complex
Portuguese: Spanish distorted
Greek: speak very similar to the Spaniards but with other words
Russian : distinguished and quiet
Romanian: looks as italian spoken by a russian, I like

The Ripper

01-30-2011, 03:19 PM

English
Practical, useful, flexible, easy. Perhaps a bit mundane because of its universal nature, but the different regional accents give it flavour. :)

French
I used to consider it snobby. Nowadays I find it quite pleasant.

Italian
One of my favourite languages, as long as the volume is kept within reason. :D

Spanish
A little harsher than Italian, but also pleasant.

German
Hm. What can I say. I often find German quite humorous. Pragmatisch aber nicht so schön. It used to be a lot more significant.

Portuguese
It has a peculiar sound compared to the other Latin languages, which makes it interesting. It sounds like some kind of pseudo-Slavic. :D

Greek
I know very little about Greek, unfortunately. It is still present in every language because of the impact of Greek philosophers and thinkers, of course.

Russian
Russian has many negative stereotypes associated with here, but I find it fairly nice language, I would certainly like to learn it a little, seeing as it would be useful. I still think they speak a little through their teeth, though. :)

Romanian
Another peculiar language in the Latin family. Don't know too much about it. :)

Don

01-30-2011, 03:25 PM

Alius vero, qui Germanus erat, retulit, eundem Carolum Quintum dicere aliquando solitum esse; Si loqui cum Deo oporteret, se Hispanice locuturum, quod lingua Hispanorum gravitatem maiestatemque prae se ferat; si cum amicis, Italice, quod Italorum dialectus familiaris sit; si cui blandiendum esset, Gallice, quod illorum lingua nihil blandius; si cui minandum aut asperius loquendum, Germanice, quod tota eorum lingua minax, aspera sit ac vehemens"

Indeed another, who was German, related that the same Charles V sometimes used to say:

"if it was necessary to talk with God, that he would talk in Spanish, which language suggests itself for the graveness and majesty of the Spaniards; if with friends, in Italian, for the dialect of the Italians was one of familiarity; if to caress someone, in French, for no language is tenderer than theirs; if to threaten someone or to speak harshly to them, in German, for their entire language is threatening, rough and vehement"

I completely share these opinions.

Breedingvariety

01-30-2011, 03:48 PM

La Marseillaise:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqZ4GQ5ZPME

Horst Wessel Lied:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SkV1ZbU7eqs

The Star Spangled Banner:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8ONCSmBrG8

Comte Arnau

01-30-2011, 05:24 PM

Talk about being biased towards countries. My country is great, it's language is great.

I concur. To me, it'd be hard to find in other European languages the sad delicacy that some Portuguese songs can convey.

lU6zbbjiefU

Foxy

01-31-2011, 05:10 PM

I don't care about yours because I don't even know you (nor do I want to), but doesn't mean I won't feel furstrated at a ignorant opinion of my language.

About bias, no comments, I'll let others judge.
I'm off.

I like Portuguese, even if after having played Modern Warfare II when I hear Portuguese I imagine a Brasilian terrorist shotting me from an apartment.
:D

One of my favourite languages, as long as the volume is kept within reason. :D

No way. There is not way that a so vocalic language can be not so loud otherwise the other don't understand me and say: <<Pronunce clearly, we are not at mess!!>>.
Finnish is beautiful too. Am I wrong or it sounds not so different from Italian?

Don Brick

01-31-2011, 05:41 PM

I like Portuguese, even if after having played Modern Warfare II when I hear Portuguese I imagine a Brasilian terrorist shotting me from an apartment.
:D

You play video games? I can just imagine you sniping your way through a level and swearing at your opponents over the headset. Sounds kinda hot actually. :laugh:

No way. There is not way that a so vocalic language can be not so loud otherwise the other don't understand me and say: <<Pronunce clearly, we are not at mess!!>>.
Finnish is beautiful too. Am I wrong or it sounds not so different from Italian?

I´ve sometimes heard Finnish described as sounding like "weird Italian" so go figure. :D I guess you´d have to be neither a Finn or an Italian to make an "unbiased" comparison between the two, so I can´t really say. However both languages are very phonetic and often have similar vowel placements (I´m probably getting the terminology wrong here ;)) so I could imagine there perhaps being some kind of familiarity. It´s very easy for Finns to pronounce Italian, Spanish and so forth and I´d imagine the same vice versa. I actually studied Italian sporadically on my free time a couple of years ago, but I didn´t keep up with it and I´ve now forgotten most of what I had learned. :( Maybe someday I´ll take a course at university and try it again.

Non posso parlare l´Italiano molto bene ma penso è una lingua molto bella. That´s all I can do without Google translator for the moment. :D

Amapola

01-31-2011, 05:53 PM

English turns me on. Practical, wealthy, easy but still a challenge, great for literature and descriptions:

The marshes were just a long black horizontal line then, as I stopped to look after him; and the river was just another horizontal line, not nearly so broad nor yet so black; and the sky was just a row of long angry red lines and dense black lines intermixed. On the edge of the river I could faintly make out the only two black things in all the prospect that seemed to be standing upright; one of these was the beacon by which the sailors steered - like an unhooped cask upon a pole - an ugly thing when you were near it; the other a gibbet, with some chains hanging to it which had once held a pirate. The man was limping on towards this latter, as if he were the pirate come to life, and come down, and going back to hook himself up again. It gave me a terrible turn when I thought so; and as I saw the cattle lifting their heads to gaze after him, I wondered whether they thought so too. I looked all round for the horrible young man, and could see no signs of him. But, now I was frightened again, and ran home without stopping.

(Dickens)

Negative: chaotic phonetics.

French, native. I prefer occitan though.

Spanish is musical. Italian is also musical. Portuguese only to a certain extent. As far as I'm concerned, the most noticeable characteristic of the Spanish language is its music. It only takes to know a little about Spanish poetry, or poetry in the Spanish language, to "hear" its music by merely reading. You do not even have to actually hear a person talking. Let me show you with an example of a Caribbean poet (Pal Matos):

Por la encendida calle antillana,
va tembandumba de la quimbamba.
Rumba, catumba, candon de bambulas,
por la encendida calle antillana
va tembandumba de la quimbamba.

Negative: too fast, sometimes too flat and unemotional.

Portuguese: great for music, fados, etc. Lovely language when it's sung.
Negative: a bit harsh for my taste when spoken.

Italian: lyrical, armonical and good for literature (not to mention Dante, etc...)
Negative: too sweet (like when a cake is too sugary, you need a drink of water after a while), a bit too histrionic, and absolutely dislike the intonation.

German: good for philosophy.
Negative: not pleasant to the ear, perhaps not the easiest language either.

Russian: it's exotic to me, I don't know anything about it.
Negative: dislike the intonation a foul lot, it sounds disparaging to me.

Romanian: interesting language, romance with slavic overtones.
Negative: as with Russian, I find the intonation quite contemptuous.

Greek: flat...

My favourite Germanic language is Dutch and English and my Romance, Spanish.

Foxy

02-01-2011, 12:10 AM

You play video games? I can just imagine you sniping your way through a level and swearing at your opponents over the headset. Sounds kinda hot actually. :laugh:

I´ve sometimes heard Finnish described as sounding like "weird Italian" so go figure. :D I guess you´d have to be neither a Finn or an Italian to make an "unbiased" comparison between the two, so I can´t really say. However both languages are very phonetic and often have similar vowel placements (I´m probably getting the terminology wrong here ;)) so I could imagine there perhaps being some kind of familiarity. It´s very easy for Finns to pronounce Italian, Spanish and so forth and I´d imagine the same vice versa. I actually studied Italian sporadically on my free time a couple of years ago, but I didn´t keep up with it and I´ve now forgotten most of what I had learned. :( Maybe someday I´ll take a course at university and try it again.

Non posso parlare l´Italiano molto bene ma penso è una lingua molto bella. That´s all I can do without Google translator for the moment. :D

About the question on video games... No, I don't play them, only sometimes Modern Warfare and yeah, Headshot was my favourite style.

I have heard that a language which is phonetically similar to Italian is Japanese. Actually Japanese sounds are identical to Italian, it changes only the intonation.
From what I have heard of Finnish, so for exemple this (don't ask me what they are saying)

6AhymRRxd7U

it could easily pass for a drunken Sardinian.

XyK2OnoQBy0

It starts to speak Sardinian between 0:40-1:02. :D

Guapo

02-01-2011, 12:17 AM

6AhymRRxd7U

Is she Japanese?

Foxy

02-01-2011, 12:23 AM

Is she Japanese?

She doesn't seem Finnish, but they are speaking Finnish, I think.

Comte Arnau

02-01-2011, 12:30 AM

Is she Japanese?

Wikipedia:
Ninja Bettina Elisabeth Sarasalo (born May 8, 1982 in Helsinki) is a Finnish model and singer. She has stated her exotic look is from her grandmother, who is from Russia and Sweden.

http://www.findance.com/kuvat/uutiskuvat/ninja.jpg

Guapo

02-01-2011, 12:32 AM

Wikipedia:
Ninja Bettina Elisabeth Sarasalo (born May 8, 1982 in Helsinki) is a Finnish model and singer. She has stated her exotic look is from her grandmother, who is from Russia and Sweden.

http://www.findance.com/kuvat/uutiskuvat/ninja.jpg

Ninja. Now that's a cool name. :ninja

Foxy

02-01-2011, 12:35 AM

Comte Arnau

02-01-2011, 12:43 AM

Lol. Don't say Northern eyes are chinky or they'll begin saying Southern lips are African. :p

Foxy

02-01-2011, 11:08 AM

Lol. Don't say Northern eyes are chinky or they'll begin saying Southern lips are African. :p

What do you mean? I have small lips... :D;)

Don Brick

02-03-2011, 05:19 PM

She doesn't seem Finnish, but they are speaking Finnish, I think.

Yeah like Ibex already said she´s like half-Finnish or something, I´m not even sure. Also the video you posted is kinda ironic because they´re actually making fun of her odd Finnish and incorrect choice of words which the male narrator corrects during the pauses. :D Also her accent is slightly exotic, perhaps attributed to her being a model and living abroad? I dunno. Anyway, they are speaking Finnish nonetheless even if it´s sloppy on her part. You definitely would not want to take lessons from her. :wink

Pallantides

02-03-2011, 05:26 PM

The answer:

She has stated her exotic look is from her grandmother, who is from Russia and Sweden.

Don Brick

02-03-2011, 05:48 PM

The answer:

lol I knew somebody would say this at some point! haha :D :p

Pallantides

02-03-2011, 06:04 PM

lol I knew somebody would say this at some point! haha :D :p

well she kind of said so herself...:D:tongue

Don Brick

02-03-2011, 06:24 PM

well she kind of said so herself...:D:tongue

Well she´s a total airhead bimbo so maybe that comes from her Swedish side. :D

anonymaus

02-03-2011, 06:51 PM

What do you think, in positive and negative, about these European languages?

The short list of languages, from that list only, which do not make me cringe:

English
Italian
German

Foxy

02-04-2011, 08:45 PM

Yeah like Ibex already said she´s like half-Finnish or something, I´m not even sure. Also the video you posted is kinda ironic because they´re actually making fun of her odd Finnish and incorrect choice of words which the male narrator corrects during the pauses. :D Also her accent is slightly exotic, perhaps attributed to her being a model and living abroad? I dunno. Anyway, they are speaking Finnish nonetheless even if it´s sloppy on her part. You definitely would not want to take lessons from her. :wink

Actually I had supposed they were having fun of her.
First time I heard Finnish was listening this song (that I like very much :p )
RYOxy9wp9rc
and when I heard it I thought that it had something familiar. It didn't seem to me like the other Scandinavian languages and I really thought : <<It seems an Italian who's saying things without sense>>. Then I read the comments under the video and a Finnish girl had wrote that Finnish is effectively considered to sound pretty similar to Italian.

Indeed I cannot express any opinion about the way this language sounds. It's like to listen Italian. These languages sound too similar to mine in my opinion.

Finnish lacks some sounds of Italian, like lh and nh, but has vibrant R, many vowels and has got ü which is not a proper Italian sound, but exists in regional dialects. Indeed in my zone we call the "tube", in Italiano "il tubo" (pronunced tooboh), "la tub'" (pronunced tüb).

An other thing that I perceive pretty Italian is also the mobile accent of Finnish (or melodic).

Ps: looking the text I realized also other things: first, I am able to repeat the words coz the phonetic is enough similar to don't have problems, 2nd, some words have a meaning also in Italian. For exemple, when he says kulkea, well... cul che ha (pronunced kul ke ah) in Italian means "the butt she has" ahahaha!

Comte Arnau

02-05-2011, 02:18 AM

Listen to this and tell me if you think Finnish sounds like Italian. :D

8ySEwZN78nc

I think that's not standard Finnish, though.

jerney

02-05-2011, 02:46 AM

French - Has never impressed me, not a fan
Italian - Sounds very nice imo. One of the best sounding languages
Spanish - Hard for me to like it because it reminds me of Mexicans
German - One of the best languages imo. People who say it's harsh and unpleasant sounding are just haters.
Portuguese - Sounds ok from the little I've heard. Has that pseudo-slav thing going on though
Greek - Originally sounded like Spanish+pseudo-slav. Now it has its own sound I can recognize, but still sounds a bit like Spanish to me. Words are unnecessarily long
Russian - Can be nice sometimes
Romanian - Never really heard it

The Lawspeaker

02-05-2011, 04:05 AM

English.
British English is a beautiful, rich language. Both in speech and when on paper.

French
Another beautiful language.. yet impossible for me to learn.

Italian
A language with history and depending on the speaker a beautiful language. My cousin has a decent command of the language and so does her son.

Spanish
Difficult yet beautiful language with incredibly difficult vowels. I remember how Cruyff used to rape it.

German
One of the most beautiful Germanic languages (apart from my own of course which is better on paper then for using the spoken word.) The same goes for German.

Portuguese
Sounds like a weird form of Spanish to me. The Brazilian form is an insult to my ears..

Greek
All Greek to me.

Russian
Being raised in the cold war the very language still sets off alarm bells. Frankly when I see Cyrillic I always expect some uber-Marxist slogan. You can't blame me, lads, I was born and raised the Cold War.

Romanian
It seems to be a Romanche language. I haven't really had the privilege of hearing it.

Don

02-05-2011, 11:52 AM

Spanish
Difficult yet beautiful language with incredibly difficult vowels. I remember how Cruyff used to rape it.[/FONT]

Dutch and germans speaking spanish sound quite correct and congruent (at least compared to many others) since our language is hard and probably, in some way of pronuntiation and sounds, rude, and their style keeps the line, the opposite to amerindians, totally incoherent with the essence of castilian with their soft/femenine voices and cloying style I guess Amerindians were the last congruent and affine ethnic group to be taught our language of bearded and rude reconquistadores.

I guess it is something like a crazy casting director chosing Danny Devito to play the character of Conan. Dutch are better innate interpreters for the character of Castilian. Better than all mexicans, ecuadorians, and in general, all sudacas I have heard. No doubt.

iOIktx0HwWs

His pronunciation and style is propper of castilian, he even speaks, I dare to say, better than some some canarians or andalusians. Really:
reYVLb4RZjU

Comte Arnau

02-05-2011, 03:43 PM

Spanish
Difficult yet beautiful language with incredibly difficult vowels.

Er... what? :confused:

One could mention a hundred difficult things about Spanish. But its simple set of five vowels is not one of them, frankly. (If you were Osweo and were talking about Granada Spanish, which has 9 vowels, maybe, but Standard Spanish has just five.:p)

English alone is three or four times more difficult in this aspect.

The Lawspeaker

02-05-2011, 03:45 PM

The odd thing is that we may have a language that works completely different from Spanish. Dutch and other Germanics always struggle with Latin languages.

Comte Arnau

02-05-2011, 03:52 PM

The odd thing is that we may have a language that works completely different from Spanish. Dutch and other Germanics always struggle with Latin languages.

I think you maybe were meaning vowels used for gender distinction?

Well, the funny thing is that English has 12 vowels, but none of the vowels in English corresponds exactly to the 5 vowels of Spanish. :)

The Lawspeaker

02-05-2011, 03:56 PM

I think you maybe were meaning vowels used for gender distinction?

Well, the funny thing is that English has 12 vowels, but none of the vowels in English corresponds exactly to the 5 vowels of Spanish. :)
It's just the very different structure of the language I think. For me at least learning Romanche (or Latin) languages is an impossibility. Most kids that learn French end up flunking their classes while most that learn English or German pass.

Foxy

02-05-2011, 04:01 PM

Listen to this and tell me if you think Finnish sounds like Italian. :D

8ySEwZN78nc

I think that's not standard Finnish, though.

Lol, they forgot their cousins in Italy... :eek: There's a Southern Italian band that makes music with voices. But it is so horrible that I have not the brave to post anything here.

Comte Arnau

02-05-2011, 04:07 PM

It's just the very different structure of the language I think. For me at least learning Romanche (or Latin) languages is an impossibility. Most kids that learn French end up flunking their classes while most that learn English or German pass.

Er... when it comes to structure, English is often closer to the Romance languages than to German nowadays.

I have visited twenty-three cities.
Yo he visitado veintitrés ciudades.
Ich habe dreiundzwanzig Städte besucht.

Raikaswinþs

02-05-2011, 04:09 PM

English: a fantastic language. one of my favourites. few languages are as rich and flexible being so gramatically simple and relatively easy to learn for peoples of almost any other linguistic branch

French: now this is a serious language.I have a very high opinion of the french language that can be biased due to my admiration and study of the french history and sociology and the language itself

Italian: feels confortable with it in my mouth. It just fits for a Spanish speaker to speak italian and vice versa. Our accents speaking each other´s language sound "peculiar" rather than foreign.
Also an excellent language

Spanish: Spanish is such a good language that sometimes it outcasts English as a world language. It is sintactically richer and phonetically stronger (at least the european variants) , which makes it a superior language for adressing multitudes.For poetry and literature very few can compare itself to spanish,nor for music. I say that there are a languages that can rival and be over spanish in every aspect, but maybe spanish is the most balanced

German: arguably as good as spanish for addressing multitudes and giving speeches, its richness and complecity makes it a hard rock to bite for many. for those courageous enough, it is a very rewarding experience. and a language that sounds powerful, as spanish, but whilst spanish sounds very "romanized" , german has still the barbarian feel on it.

Portuguese: the total oposite to italian. feels unconfortable in the majority of spanish speaker´s mouths.except for galicians and leonese maybe. it is beautiful and musical , one of the most lyric languages. Perfect for poetry, literature and music. It is not too difficult to penetrate through in gramatical terms. Phonetics however are a tough matter

Greek: Feels like a twim sister of spanish. even though they have very different grammar. but they have exactly the same bive on it.

Russian : A language for war, a language for drinking, a language for science, a language for the last empire on earth still standing

Romanian:It has something deeply sweet to it, although I haven´t had enough contact with it or studied it deeply. couldn´t give you a deeper opinion

Foxy

02-05-2011, 04:10 PM

Er... when it comes to structure, English is often closer to the Romance languages than to German nowadays.

I have visited twenty-three cities.
Yo he visitado veintitrés ciudades.
Ich habe dreiundzwanzig Städte besucht.

Except Sardinian, they speak at the opposite: I a city visited have!

The Lawspeaker

02-05-2011, 04:15 PM

Er... when it comes to structure, English is often closer to the Romance languages than to German nowadays.

I have visited twenty-three cities.
Yo he visitado veintitrés ciudades.
Ich habe dreiundzwanzig Städte besucht.
Then it is peculiar that we have an easy go with English ?

Ik ben in drieëntwintig steden geweest.

Comte Arnau

02-05-2011, 04:24 PM

Then it is peculiar that we have an easy go with English ?

Ik ben in drieëntwintig steden geweest.

^ It shows that the Dutch structure is close to the German one, but the English one, not really.

Except Sardinian, they speak at the opposite: I a city visited have!

:confused:

The Lawspeaker

02-05-2011, 04:26 PM

^ It shows that the Dutch structure is close to the German one, but the English one, not really.

Actually.. we are the stepping stone between German and English (with Frisian being closer to English still). A lot of Dutch children actually also struggle with German grammar and it is said that "those that are good in maths can crack German grammar".

Foxy

02-05-2011, 04:31 PM

^ It shows that the Dutch structure is close to the German one, but the English one, not really.

:confused:

Sorry I had confused with Sicilian. Sicilian is a SOV language (Subject-object-verb), not Sardinian. My mistake.

In tipologia linguistica, si dice che una lingua è SOV quando le frasi seguono generalmente un ordine Soggetto Oggetto Verbo.

Questo tipo di sintassi è la più comune tra le lingue naturali ed è utilizzata nel siciliano, turco, giapponese, coreano, ungherese, mancese, mongolo, ainu, nivkh, yukaghir, itelmen, persiano, pashtu, curdo, burushaski, basco, latino, birmano, tibetano, amarico, tigrino, abkhazo, abaza, adyghe, avaro, kabardiano, sumero, accadico, elamitico, hittita, navajo, hopi, aymara, quechua, pāli, nepalese, cingalese e in gran parte delle lingue indiane.

Anyway in Italian it's possible to use both the schemes (SVO or SOV):
Ho mangiato la mela (I ate the apple)
La mela ho mangiato! (The apple, I ate), if you want to underline that it is the apple what you ate. The subject in Italian is never specified, except when you want to underline who is making the action, so the litt. translation of "la mela ho mangiato" is "the apple ate".

Foxy

02-05-2011, 04:42 PM

I think the hardest construction using simple present that a foreign can learn in Italian is "la mela ho mangiato mica la pera" with inversion of the construction + negation of 3rd degree (mica=not at all).
Or "Il caffè lo preferisco freddo" (the coffe, it I prefer cold) where the construction is OBJECT in first position like if it was the subject + ACCUSATIVE PRONOUM + VERB (INEXPRESSED SUBJECT) + ATTRIBUTE.

Same in Spanish and French I suppose.

Talvi

02-05-2011, 04:50 PM

it is said that "those that are good in maths can crack German grammar".

Now I understand why after 10 years of learning German I never got hang of the grammar.
Math was my worst subject.

The Lawspeaker

02-05-2011, 04:50 PM

Now I understand why after 10 years of learning German I never got hang of the grammar.
Math was my worst subject.
Mine too. :thumb001:

Foxy

02-05-2011, 04:52 PM

It's just the very different structure of the language I think. For me at least learning Romanche (or Latin) languages is an impossibility. Most kids that learn French end up flunking their classes while most that learn English or German pass.

Lol, the opposite happens to us. Most impressive case a Romanian girl who had moved to my school. I heard she spoke Italian perfectly, so I asked her how many years had she been in Italy. She answered me : <<Two months>>. :eek:

Vasconcelos

02-05-2011, 05:00 PM

English - I find it a rather easy-to-learn language (but it might be a biased opinion, considering I've had english classes since I was 5). British english accent(s) is(are) simply great to my hear, even if some are rather complicated to catch.
Here, in the Western corner of Europe, people usually have trouble with British English accent, and favour the American version of the language because it's way more common in the media. I rather stick to it's roots.:thumb001:

French - It sounds very fluid and pleasant (especially for music), but not very easy for us to learn properly. We can usually understand a little bit of written French without learning it, but not nearly as much as other Romance languages.
It's both associated with high-class and "arrogant emmigrants" (many Portuguese went to France in the 60s and 70s) because they usually end up talking French even when they return home. Somehow these people always swear in Portuguese even when talking in French, which just furthers their funny stereotype.

Italian - Pleasant language, not too hard to understand for us, despite some clear vocabulary differences. It does sound quite closer to Spanish than Portuguese.

Spanish - Brother language. Sounds like a Portuguese on steroids for us because it's so fast to our ears. It's still very easy to understand if spoken with a slower pace. Most people speak "Portuñol" which is pretty much Portuguese with Spanish sufixes, might sound pathetic to Spanish ears, but it gets the job done...sort of..
It's also worth noting that, from personal experience, Portuguese have an easier time with Spanish, than Spanish have with Portuguese.

German - It does sound a bit harsh to us "Hans, schnell!" (this isn't meant to be an offense). It has a stereotype of being very complex and completely impossible to understand unless you've had some sort of proper contact with it previously. Same stereotype goes with Greek and Chinese.
I still very much liked to learn it, but maybe not as much as Dutch or Swedish/Norwegian, these, however, are hard to learn simply because there are barely no places where to do it.

Portuguese - You'd be suprised to know how many different accents of (European) Portuguese there are in such a small country, some of them are rather hard to understand - notably Azorean. Foreigners usually only know Brazilian and Lisboner (mine) accents. Lisbon's does sound similar to slavic, to the point that Ucranian immigrants who are fluent in Portuguese are extremelly easy to understand...heck, easier than Northerners even (honestly).
It's possibly the slowest of all Romance languages, which is also curious because the Portuguese seem to be the saddest and less active of all Latin (or simply South European) peoples.

Greek - It sounds REALLY wierd for us, and absolutely impossible to understand. I still remember during my WoW times when our guild grouped up with Greeks and we ended up laughting when they spoke their language (most of us were British or Scandinavian). For personal reasons I'd very much like to learn it, but.....where?

Russian - Spoken russian doesn't sound very good to our ears. Always associated with either Communists and/or Eastern-Europe immigrants. Russian folk songs do sound suprisingly good.

Romanian - I honestly have barely no knowledge of this language, sadly, because if I remember correctly it's derived from the Latin language spoken in the Byzantine Empire, which I always had a strong interest in.

Comte Arnau

02-05-2011, 05:14 PM

Sorry I had confused with Sicilian. Sicilian is a SOV language (Subject-object-verb), not Sardinian. My mistake.

In tipologia linguistica, si dice che una lingua è SOV quando le frasi seguono generalmente un ordine Soggetto Oggetto Verbo.

Questo tipo di sintassi è la più comune tra le lingue naturali ed è utilizzata nel siciliano, turco, giapponese, coreano, ungherese, mancese, mongolo, ainu, nivkh, yukaghir, itelmen, persiano, pashtu, curdo, burushaski, basco, latino, birmano, tibetano, amarico, tigrino, abkhazo, abaza, adyghe, avaro, kabardiano, sumero, accadico, elamitico, hittita, navajo, hopi, aymara, quechua, pāli, nepalese, cingalese e in gran parte delle lingue indiane.

Anyway in Italian it's possible to use both the schemes (SVO or SOV):
Ho mangiato la mela (I ate the apple)
La mela ho mangiato! (The apple, I ate), if you want to underline that it is the apple what you ate. The subject in Italian is never specified, except when you want to underline who is making the action, so the litt. translation of "la mela ho mangiato" is "the apple ate".

That's what I was about to say. Is Sicilian really a SOV language, or is it just like with all other Romance languages, that a certain flexibility in order is perfectly possible? You can do that with the apple in the other too. :)

I think the hardest construction using simple present that a foreign can learn in Italian is "la mela ho mangiato mica la pera" with inversion of the construction + negation of 3rd degree (mica=not at all).
Or "Il caffè lo preferisco freddo" (the coffe, it I prefer cold) where the construction is OBJECT in first position like if it was the subject + ACCUSATIVE PRONOUM + VERB (INEXPRESSED SUBJECT) + ATTRIBUTE.

Same in Spanish and French I suppose.

Spanish: El café lo prefiero frío.
French: Le café, je le préfère froid.
Catalan: El cafè, el prefereixo fred.

In fact, you can do it in English too. It's just changing the focus.

Coffee, I prefer it cold.

Foxy

02-10-2011, 10:38 PM

That's what I was about to say. Is Sicilian really a SOV language, or is it just like with all other Romance languages, that a certain flexibility in order is perfectly possible? You can do that with the apple in the other too. :)

Spanish: El café lo prefiero frío.
French: Le café, je le préfère froid.
Catalan: El cafè, el prefereixo fred.

In fact, you can do it in English too. It's just changing the focus.

Coffee, I prefer it cold.

I think that if Sicilian is classifies as a SOV language its basic form is Subject- object- verb, quite close to Latin actually. There is a language in Italy that is constructed in the opposite way, but I remembered it was Sardinia, who knows why...

Coffee, I prefer it cold. I dunno if it is correct to say, anyway it is different from the Romance construction: you see, it lacks the pronoum at the accusative that transforms the subject in the object. In Italian this form anyway is called "Francesism" so I think that it is a form that standard Italian took from French. Other Francesism are "utilizzare" instead of "usare" (perfectly synonims, but "usare" sounds very chip), etc. etc.

Comte Arnau

02-11-2011, 12:13 AM

I think that if Sicilian is classifies as a SOV language its basic form is Subject- object- verb, quite close to Latin actually.

I've heard some say Sicilian is the closest to Latin. I find it rather funny when someone says that their variety is the closest, I don't quite understand that kind of 'competition' or if there's anything worth in being a more conservative variety than an innovative one. Specially when there was fake re-Latinization several times in History.

Coffee, I prefer it cold. I dunno if it is correct to say, anyway it is different from the Romance construction: you see, it lacks the pronoum at the accusative that transforms the subject in the object.

Hmmm, the accusative pronoun is there, only that English puts it after the verb.

Il caffè, lo preferisco freddo.
Le café, je le préfère froid.
Coffee, I prefer it cold.