cherry valley forever
todays bird
let's talk about Bridgerton tea, my ask is open
Alisa U Zemlji Chuda
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RMH
DEAR READER
Peter Solarz
Lint Roller? I Barely Know Her
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Andulka
Claire Keane
★
Not today Justin
d e v o n
JVL
Today's Document
tumblr dot com
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he wasn't even looking at me and he found me
seen from Germany
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@innermonologue-night
Kommen and Prefixes
to come: kommen
to get away: abkommen
to arrive: ankommen
to make do: auskommen
to receive: bekommen
to come in: einkommen
to escape: entkommen
to come here: herkommen
to come along: mitkommen
to come after: nachkommen
to decay: verkommen
to happen: vorkommen
to approach: zukommen
me in french class
what le fuck
me in japanese class: nani the fuck
me in spanish class: que the fuck
Why I love the Turkish Language
:)
There is no concept of gender. one pronoun for he/she/it and that is “o”
No difference in forms of address for married and unmarried women (hanım is used for both miss/mrs)
The suffixes. they’re so fun.
Not many rules about word order (verb usually at the end of the sentence, keep related words together… that’s basically it)
It is logical - it actually follows it’s rules 99% of the time, there’s a few exceptions, but not many.
the slang is really fun
Turkish music and poetry is fun to analyse - what got me fascinated with languages in general are how you can make different rhymes, and play with the grammar rules in different ways in other language.
The actual history of modern Turkish is amazing (hint: look at the Ataturk era).
The people who speak it. I’ve made some of the best friends in my life through my interest in Turkish. People who I otherwise would never have met or been able to talk to.
Isochrony: Different Beats for Different Linguists
Hello all! In the last podcast, Brad, Megan, and I got to discussing prosody and the concept of mora-timed languages. As not everyone following this podcast is student of linguistics, I thought it might be helpful to clarify the concept, as well as its siblings- stress-timed and syllable-timed languages, with a definitions article.
First, we need a little throwback. I’ve often talked about prosody being more important than pronunciation. Prosody is the rhythm of how one speaks- it includes which words tend to get stress, how many words one tends to say in a certain frame, and even the natural inflection that comes with declarative (normal) sentences. (Inflection is the rise and fall of your tone- it can be super important in distinguishing certain kinds of sentences, especially questions, but that is for another day.) Often your prosody, or rhythm, is actually what makes you understandable or not, rather than pronunciation, which is how close your individual sounds are.
For a simple English example, think of how frustrated many people get when they call Tech Support and are routed to a service operator in India. English is a primary language for many Indian people, so why is there so much misunderstanding between parties? Because Indian English has a very different and distinct prosody from U.S. or even British English. Most standard Englishes are stress-timed, but the majority of Indian English speakers use a syllable-timed dialect. Let’s dive into the differences.
Stress-Timed Languages
In stress-timed languages, syllables can last different lengths of time in order to indicate stress or importance. (Generally, two stressed syllables will be approximately the same length.) This is why one English sentence can have varying meanings, simply by stressing a different word. Consider this sentence:
I never said she stole my money.
This sentence has a different meaning depending on which word is stressed. There are literally 7 different interpretations. (Don’t believe me? Try it out.)
Speakers of stress-timed languages use those periodic stresses to parse language and decide (1) what is most important and (2) how to interpret the message as a whole. This can make understanding their OWN language difficult if someone speaks it using syllable timing, because their brains can’t rely on their normal systems to make sense of the message. It means they have to tune into every word, process them with just the semantics, and filter out the message. (Which, in my opinion, is all the more reason to be polite to the person on the other end of the call center line because you will probably need them to repeat things a few times to check understanding and being grumpy means they are less inclined to repeat it clearly and slowly.)
Examples of Stress-Timed Languages:
English (U.S., British, & I believe Australian dialects)
German
Russian
Danish
Swedish
Dutch
Norwegian
Thai
Faroese
Persian
(Wikipedia also cites Portuguese but I question that as pretty much all other romance languages are syllable-timed… can anyone confirm or deny?)
Syllable-Timed Languages
Instead of changing the length or emphasis put on a word, syllable-timed languages keep all of their syllables more or less even in length. This often results in a bit of a sing-song sound, with a rising and falling pitch on the syllables. These languages also don’t tend to clip their vowels as much; that is to say, all the vowels are usually pronounced in a word rather than ignored or distorted as is common in stress-timed languages.
This can often account for why people feel Spanish is wordier or spoken faster- by pronouncing every syllable, it often sounds like more words are fitting into less space or that they are saying a lot for a very simple concept. While some languages are indeed spoken faster than others, prosody often distorts our perception of the rate of speech to be faster or slower than it actually is.
Examples of Syllable-Timed Languages:
Spanish
French
Italian
Turkish
Icelandic
Welsh
Cantonese
Icelandic
Georgian
Mora-Timed Languages
**A Disclaimer** … I’m really BAD at explaining mora-timing. I’m just really starting to wrap my head around it myself. But I will do my best!
The way I think of mora-timed languages is this: instead of a syllable getting a certain amount of time, one has to fit the syllables they say into certain timed units. This results a syllable getting distorted in one phrase and yet possibly lengthened in another. On the podcast, Brad mentioned that I made him say the phrase “yoroshiku onegai shimasu” (a basic phrase used a lot, but is often defined as “pleased to meet you”) about 7 times one evening because I could not parse how to say it from what I was hearing on anime. This is because, while I understood how to say each and every one of those syllables, I couldn’t figure out which ones were being shortened and which ones emphasized when they were speaking at normal speed. That same yo which is a bit lengthened in saying that phrase is often clipped or blended in other words. In Japanese, it’s about fitting a certain amount of stuff (syllables, sounds, etc…) into a certain time unit (a mora) and it can take a lot of practice to get right. (Passive listening helps a LOT with this because your brain is actually better at subconsciously figuring out the rhythm than you often are consciously trying to imitate it… that said, occasionally imitating common phrases when spoken by someone more fluent than you also obviously has its merits.)
Examples of Mora-Timed Languages
Japanese
Gilbertese
Ganda
Ancient Greek
Vedic Sanskrit
What’s the take-away on this? Basically, if you are finding it difficult to understand the language you are learning even after a lot of pronunciation practice, see if the timing might be different. If it is, you may need to up your passive listening quotient as well as do some direct practice of repeating set phrases to get the rhythm down. (My TESOL professor used to recommend you take a rubber band and as you repeat phrases, pull it every time you stress a sound. I was not particularly good at this technique, but it may work for some of you!)
Here is a Youtube video that explains syllable-timed versus stress-timed languages a bit more in depth. It’s a bit dull, fair warning. Here is the Wikipedia article I used to find additional examples for each kind of timing.
Learning to dance to the rhythm of your new tongue can sometimes leave you feeling like you have two left feet, but just keep dancing and soon the two of you will waltz gracefully under the stars. Until next time, Peace out my Polyglot Peeps!
The concept of “Proper English” is prescriptivist, racist, ethnocentric, classist and ableist as shit
It’spronounced Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch
the signs as french sayings
aries: “chien qui aboie ne mord pas.” barking dogs seldom bite.
taurus: “quand il pleut, il verse.” when it rains it pours.
gemini: “il faut laisser aller le monde comme il va.” we must let the world go as it is.
cancer: “bon coeur ne peut mentir.” the heart sees farther than the head.
leo: “à coeur vaillant rien d’impossible.” nothing is impossible for a willing heart.
virgo: “il faut reculer pour mieux sauter.” one must step back to take a good leap.
libra: “il n’y a qu’un bonheur dans la vie, c’est d’aimer et d’être aimé.” there is only one happiness in life; to love and be loved.
scorpio: “la nuit porte conseil.” the night brings advice.
sagittarius: “après la pluie, le beau temps.” after rain comes sunshine.
capricorn: “il n’y a pas plus sourd que celui qui ne veut pas entendre.” no one is as deaf as the one who does not want to listen.
aquarius: “c'est l'exception qui confirme la règle.” it’s the exception that proves the rule.
pisces: “la foi est la moitié de la bataille.” faith is half the battle.
Chloe (my little sister): So jedi are like sheep? Me: …what? Chloe: Jedi. They’re like sheep. Me: How are they like sheep? Chloe: Because you say like 1 sheep but also 2 sheep. So it’s 1 jedi and 2 jedi, not jedis. Me: Ohh, then yes.
(via artemispanthar)
Could you give an example of the conditional tense in English?
I could.
Personnes vs Gens in French
Personnes and gens, both of which mean ‘people’, differ in their uses because personne is a count noun and gens a mass noun. Only personne can be preceded by a number (e.g. cinq), or the quantifiers plusieurs ‘several’, quelques ‘a few’, un certain nombre de ‘a certain number of:
Les cinq personnes (NOT *gens) qui ont mangé avec nous. The five people who ate with us.
Plusieurs personnes (NOT *gens) sont restées tout l'après-midi. Several people stayed for the whole afternoon.
By the same token, gens is preferred in contexts where ‘people’ are treated as a mass:
Les gens (NOT *personnes) n'aiment pas rester à table trop longtemps. People don’t like to spend too long over a meal.
Note: Gens can be preceded by beaucoup de 'many’, peu de 'few’, tous les 'all the’ and la plupart des 'most’.
person: so where are you from?
me: im from *inserts place here*
person: … then why do you speak *inserts language here*
me: because i want to *throws confetti*
person: …
me: …
person: alright.
me: *plays duolingo in a language im already proficient as fuck in for shits and giggles*
me: *critiques everything*
Actually the Vikings had dreadlocks so black people didn't invent the hair style
Vikings had dirty matted ass hair because ancient Europeans were a filthy people who would shit in their drinking water and wonder why they got sick
You’re both wrong.
Vikings bathed like all the damn time. It was one of the reasons for a long time you had people from the rest of Europe seeing them as untrustworthy weirdos. They carried combs on their belts because they put a lot of stock in having orderly and often elaborately braided hair. Sometimes they’d pack the braids with mud to hold them in place in battles (which their opponents, like the COMPLETELY non-bathing Romans) would mistake for dreads, but in peaceful situations they’d immediately clean it out again.
The Vikings didn’t have dreads, but they were also a pretty clean group of people until they were forcibly assimilated into the rest of medieval Europe.
Thank you for laying down some history truth!
Vikings bathed once a week, and that made all of Europe think that they were stuck-up prudes. They also thought they were nuts for *gasp* WEARING AND WASHING UNDERWEAR.
The vikings bathed so much they were accused of trying to seduce woman solely based on how clean they were:
It is reported in the chronicle attributed to John of Wallingford that the Danes, thanks to their habit of combing their hair every day, of bathing every Saturday and regularly changing their clothes, were able to undermine the virtue of married women and even seduce the daughters of nobles to be their mistresses.
This cracks me up so bad. Like THESE HEATHENS ARE TRYING TO RUIN VIRTOUS WOMEN WITH THEIR CLEANLINESS!
The Nordic words for Saturday literally translate as “bathing day” or “pool day”.
Penser + Prepositions
penser que - to think that
Je pense qu’il est heureux - I think he’s happy.
(Remember that this construction takes the subjunctive if it’s a question or negative.)
Pensez-vous qu’il soit heureux? - Do you think he’s happy?
Je ne pense pas qu’il soit heureux. - I don’t think he’s happy.
penser à - to consider, to have on your mind
Je pense à mes devoirs - I’m thinking about my homework
Pensez-vous à ce qu’il a dit? - Are you thinking about what he said?
(Remember that the pronoun ‘y’ is used for this construction.)
J’y penserai avant de partir. - I will think about it before leaving.
penser de - to have an opinion on.
Tu penses quoi de ma maison? - What do you think about my house?
(Remember that the pronoun ‘en’ is used for this construction.)
Qu’en penses-tu? - What do you think about it?
Types of Japanese bowing
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Learn-Japanese-Phrases-Everyday/126983290713894
Language and Linguistics Resources
1. All sites are online and free.
2. It’s hard to separate into Languages and Linguistics because there’s a lot of overlap. Many of these sites could be on either list.
Linguistics:
World Atlas of Language Structures Online
Speech Accent Archive - listen to a paragraph read in English by speakers of other languages
List of Languages by Writing Script
List of Endangered Languages
Type the IPA
Ethnologue - Information about the languages of the world
23 Maps and Charts on Language
Endangered Languages Project
Listen to the IPA
Linguistics pdfs
Articles and videos on linguistics
Google Ngram Viewer - looks at the use of words over time
Concise Encyclopedia of the Languages of the World
Language learning:
Lang-8 - practice writing and receive corrections from native speakers
Memrise - practice vocab
Tatoeba - find a sentence that uses your word
Harry Potter - listen to the beginning of Harry Potter read in 60+ languages
A User’s Guide to the Best Swear in Every* Language (*obviously not every language. whatever buzzfeed)
Wordreference - the French and Spanish dictionaries are really good, the others are meh
BBC Languages - Not very in depth but offers quite a few small European languages such as Manx, Luxembourgish, and Guernésiais
Languagehelpers.com - Translation, language facts, and information about some scripts
Transparent Language Blogs - occasionally has interesting articles about various languages
Students of the World Penpals - Correspond in your target language with a native speaker
The Polyglot Project - Read books in your target languages; built in translation feature
mylanguages.org - offers a huge variety of languages; introductory/beginner level
SayJack - Chinese, Japanese, and Korean
Duolingo but I’m sure you all know this one XD
A-Z Index of Omniglot - SUPER informative resource especially for smaller, lesser known languages; provides information as well as LINKS to learning resources for each language
Dramafever - watch TV in Chinese, Korean, Spanish, Japanese, and English (they have like one or two in Portuguese as well)
Interesting/fun article about some interesting languages (I don’t really like their use of the word ‘bizarre’ here)
Interesting blog about a guy’s experiences with 37 languages
Look at videos trending on youtube by country
Top websites by country - useful in finding advanced content in your target language
Project Gutenberg - Read books in English, French, Dutch, and Portuguese
Yabla - Watch videos in your target language
Wikitongues - A youtube channel featuring speakers of a wide variety of languages (they have a tumblr too!)
Foreign Language Music
Forvo - listen to words pronounced by native speakers
Rate your foreign language fluency
Lingro - “the coolest dictionary known to hombre”
The world’s most multilingual countries
World Language Store - by products (for example, books) from around the world
Foreign Service Institute Language Courses
Interlinear books - foreign language books with the english translations below
Global Language Online - material drawn from radio, newspaper etc.
Resource list for learning over 50 languages
Tumblr blogs for specific languages - most are inactive but may still be good resources
Read articles in your target language!
Babla - online language dictionaries
Collins Dictionaries Online
Peace Corps Language Courses
Culture Talk - Videos about culture
Innovative Language Learning - Youtube channels teaching over 30 languages
Verbix - CONJUGATES VERBS YAY
Dictionaries for a LOT of languages
Read Grimm’s fairytales in other languages
European radio stations streaming live
TV streaming live
How I Learn Languages - pdf of the book by Hungarian polyglot Kató Lomb
Lyrics Training - this is a REALLY FUN way to practice listening
