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oldish englishness
Have taken a break from Latin, to look at Old English.
It's wonderful. And so Englishy. Half the words sound like I'm just talking in a funny accent - and then you add "ish" and "ness" to the ends of everything.
Look at this, for instance:
Incomprehensible, no?
But if I write it like this...
It's sort of like a weird mix between English, German, and weird sing-songy gibberish.
So, anyway, my new program for teaching hypothetical students lots of languages goes like this:
- English (which they should know anyway, because my hypothetical students are native speakers)
- Auslan (because sign language is awesome and gets them into a mindset of language being very weird and adaptable)
- Old English (to get a good grasp of our origins, and to learn the whole nominative-accusative-genitive-dative thing)
- ...from Old English they can then branch off into Germanic languages - as for example German
- Latin (to get a good grasp of the rest of our origins, and to add in all the extra cases like ablative)
- ...from Latin they can then branch off into Romance languages, like French
Hurrah!
For those interested, a full translation would go something like this:
"So, you children, how do you like this language?"
"We do like it a lot; but you're speaking very deeply and beyond our understanding. But speak with us at our level, that we may understand the things you're saying."
"I ask you, why are you so eager to learn?"
"So we won't be stupid like animals, that know nothing but grass and water."
"What will you be then?"
"We will be wise."
It's wonderful. And so Englishy. Half the words sound like I'm just talking in a funny accent - and then you add "ish" and "ness" to the ends of everything.
Look at this, for instance:
"Eala ge cild, hu licaþ eow þeos spræc?"
"Wel heo us licaþ; ac þearle deoplice þu spricst and ofer ure mæþ. Ac sprec wiþ us æfter urum andgiete, þat we mægen understandan þa þing þe þu spricst."
"Ic ascige eow, 'For hwy leornige ge swa geornlice?'"
"For-þæm we nyllaþ beon swa-swa stunt nietenu, þe nan þing nyton buton gærs and wæter."
"Hwæt wille ge þonne beon?"
"We willaþ wise beon."
Incomprehensible, no?
But if I write it like this...
"Eala ye child, how likath you these sprech?"
"Well heo us likath; ac thearle deeplish thou spricst and over our math. Ac sprech with us after ourum andgiete, that we mayen understandan tha thing thet thou spricst."
"Ich askey you, 'For why learny ye so yearnlish?'"
"For-them we nillath being so-so stunt nietenu, thet no thing nyton but gars and water."
"What wille ye thonne being?"
"We willath wise being."
It's sort of like a weird mix between English, German, and weird sing-songy gibberish.
So, anyway, my new program for teaching hypothetical students lots of languages goes like this:
- English (which they should know anyway, because my hypothetical students are native speakers)
- Auslan (because sign language is awesome and gets them into a mindset of language being very weird and adaptable)
- Old English (to get a good grasp of our origins, and to learn the whole nominative-accusative-genitive-dative thing)
- ...from Old English they can then branch off into Germanic languages - as for example German
- Latin (to get a good grasp of the rest of our origins, and to add in all the extra cases like ablative)
- ...from Latin they can then branch off into Romance languages, like French
Hurrah!
For those interested, a full translation would go something like this:
"So, you children, how do you like this language?"
"We do like it a lot; but you're speaking very deeply and beyond our understanding. But speak with us at our level, that we may understand the things you're saying."
"I ask you, why are you so eager to learn?"
"So we won't be stupid like animals, that know nothing but grass and water."
"What will you be then?"
"We will be wise."
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Gabrielle
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Thanks!
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But if I write it like this...
It becomes roughly as understandable as French*, give or take. Certainly an improvement, but significantly worse than merely adding a lot of "ish" and "ness". (It's still neat.)
I did a medieval banquet for a history project once. Once you learn about thorns and non-figurative seething, cookbooks are comprehensible surprisingly far back. (The websites usually included both the original text and a modernised version.)
*Though I'm taking into account there knowledge gained from the first quarter of Rosetta Stone and a lot of bilingual packaging, which may be considered cheating.
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non-figurative seething
I have never heard this term, and am pre-emptively fascinated. Explanation?
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I recommend frose*, which is pretty much scrambled eggs with fish in it. (Or pork, but I haven't had it with pork. I don't remember exactly what kind of fish I used: haddock or similar.) Surprisingly tasty.
*Re-reading it, I see that's actually where they explain seething. Of course it shows up when I stop looking.
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*is fascinated*
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And I agree, between English, German and Spanish/Italian*, you can pretty much make heads or tails of most Western European languages. You won't understand everything, but you'll get a rough idea. Add a Slavic language and you'll have most of Eastern Europe covered too. That just leaves the poor Finns, Hungarians and Turks over in a corner looking depressed.
* I'd say those two over Latin - there's something to be said for learning a living language
No wonder Esperanto never took off. It's unnecessary.
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IKR? I've been trying to use correct pronunciation (because seriously, it's so much more understandable once you get that right) but I keep accidentally lasping into German. But then, as I understand it, this is English a couple of centuries after being invaded by Germans, and just prior to us being invaded by Norse. (Welcome to England! Our culture is entirely due to whoever was invading us most recently!)
Add a Slavic language and you'll have most of Eastern Europe covered too.
Well, I'm planning on Croatian, so yay! (Not for ages, though. First I have to learn Spanish and Italian, and regain fluency in German and French. Then it's on to Croatian and at least one Scandinavian language.)
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properlyas you would any other Germanic language and the loan words like Latin, it becomes a lot more obvious how closely related it is. All European languages except Basque and Icelandic have basically spent the last 2,000 years in one huge orgy.Oh, and I put in a pre-emptive vote for Swedish. :)
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*nods*
English's current vowels are deeply stupid. Our spelling worked much better pre-shift.
Oh, and I put in a pre-emptive vote for Swedish. :)
Please, feel free to present your best argument for the superiority of Swedish over the other two.
*sits back and waits*
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Let's see.
- The Danish language is collapsing into meaningless guttural sounds.
- The Norwegian language consists of several different languages that hate each other. Also, there are Nazi zombies.
- Whereas Swedish is a beautiful language that's very easy to comprehend.
:)
For further information, I refer you to Scandinavia And The World.
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It was also funny when I once saw a text in a language I don't know written on the wall of a club I go to - I thought it looked a bit like Old English with the runic letters. It turned out those were lyrics to a Sigur Ros song. Icelandic has supposedly changed the least in the last 1000 years compared to most other European languages, so maybe that has something to do with it.
It didn't strike me as too similar to German - except in the sense that the grammar is more like that of the majority of European languages, rather than English with its (wonderful) simplified grammar (it lost the grammatical gender and most of the inflections for person, gender and tense over those centuries of Normal rule when French was the language of the ruling classes) while the pronunciation of the vowels and the "Rs" was a lot more... clearer? Harder? In any case, more similar to German or Spanish than to Modern English.
(Welcome to England! Our culture is entirely due to whoever was invading us most recently!)
Isn't it the same with everybody? And when "recently" means 1000 years ago, things aren't that bad. :)
Well, I'm planning on Croatian, so yay! (Not for ages, though. First I have to learn Spanish and Italian, and regain fluency in German and French. Then it's on to Croatian and at least one Scandinavian language.)
Excellent choice. When you learn Croatian, you will also automatically speak a bunch of other languages, like Serbo-Croatian*, Serbian, Bosnian, Montenegrin, BCS, and maybe a few more that might still arise, depending on the political developments. :p Seriously though, once you learn the whatever-anyone-wanna-calls-it language, you'll be able to understand the other South Slavic languages (Macedonian, Slovenian and probably also Bulgarian) quite well. The other Slavic languages are a different story - Russian may be tricky after that since there are so many "faux amis" pairings of words that sound the same in the two languages but mean completely different things. I am able to understand Russian or Czech somewhat, but it's only to an extent.
I'm currently learning Italian - and it's rather easy since I speak French, which I started learning at 4. I've always had much more trouble with German, with its vocabulary. Romance languages seem much easier. (I want to try Spanish, soon, too.)
*Oddly enough, Mozilla is showing that it's an incorrect spelling, which is not, which means it's treating it as a word that doesn't exist.
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I've been teaching myself through the Cambridge Latin Course, which is really spectacular. It's introduced slowly, through everyday conversations - much the way that most foreign languages are taught as if you might actually end up having conversations with people at some point. I find it a very easy way to learn Latin.
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