Griaß Di!

L1: German | Main: juliamccartney

[ihatecispeople]

i love it actually when nonnative speakers make mistakes that reveal how their native languages work.

lots of koreans online say they "eat" drinks which would assume they only have one word which covers the concept of consumption.

arabic immigrants in sweden (my mother included) have a hard time differentiating between "i think/i believe/my opinion is" which suggests that in arabic these different modalities of speaker agency is treated as one or at least interchangeable.

swedish speakers in english will use should/shall/have to/must with much higher nuance precision than native english speakers, to the point where they sound well awkward, because the distinction between these commands in swedish is much clearer than in english. i make mistakes between is/am/are and has/have constantly because swedish only has one pronoun covering all grammatical persons.

i've heard speakers of languages without gendered pronouns (finnish, the chinese dialects, and a tonne more) make he/she mistakes because it's hard(!!) to learn two or more gendered pronouns and when to use them correctly.

how neat is that?! it add a charm to international english usage in particular and make our appreciation of both our native languages and our learnt ones stronger...!!

[aandriskobold]

i love this! one thing i notice with a lot of people (native speakers of polish, romanian, french and others) is no differentiation between present simple (i go) and present continuous (I am going), because those languages only have one present tense to cover both. it's so lovely every time i hear it

i always think one of the most fun things about learning languages is that it teaches you how weird your own is! especially english phrasal verbs (the very different meanings of stand up, stand down, stand off, stand up to), or trying to explain the difference between being up to something and being up for something to my french friend. I love it!

[ihatecispeople]

another tag reminded me of how spanish speakers often mix up /v/ and /b/ because in panish they pronounced identically!

I wish more people had the ability to become bilingual because you're right, it makes you understand your own language at a more intimate and analytical level!!

[katakulio]

People whose native language is heavily gendered often apply gendered pronouns to English words that don't have them. For example, my Brazilian sports coach referred to my knee as "she" instead of "it". It's even more interesting when you realise that Old English did have gendered nouns, much like German, and we've essentially lost that entire element of our language.

[protoindoeuropean]

Proto-Indo-Europeans be like “*g̑n̥néh₃mi stéh₂tim” and then they take you into the middle of the steppe

[wmb-salticidae]

#proto-indo-europeans be like *word entirely composed of laryngeals* and then they take half your substrate vocabulary and migrate away

@tanadrin

[official-linguistics-post]

official linguistics post

[sometiktoksarevalid]

[strawberrus0da]

I can’t believe the German word for dessert is just aftertable

[escuerzoresucitado]

The German language has quite a few animalistic verbs:

fuchsen ("to fox") = to annoy

hechten ("to pike") = to dive

reihern ("to heron") = to puke

dackeln ("to dachshund") = to walk slowly

aalen ("to eel") = to bask

vögeln ("to bird") = to have sex

einigeln ("to hedgehog in") = to curl up

hamstern ("to hamster") = to hoard

schlängeln ("to snake") = to wriggle

stieren ("to bull") = to goggle

unken ("to toad") = to gripe, augur doom

tigern ("to tiger") - to walk tigerishly

[mapsontheweb]

Officiality of Venetian language in world

[kafkaesquetwink]

crying blood thinking about the loss of jewish linguistic diversity throughout the levant and the diaspora. dying wasting away ripping out my throat.

[german-enthusiast]

Something German I listen to during my daily commute is

The news by Deutschlandfunk.

As far as I understand, it's simply the news they share in the radio recorded and uploaded (every 30min) to Spotify, and it covers international as well as national news.

What's super nice about it (especially if you're still practicing German!) is that it's only 5 minutes long and in those five minutes:

- they give an overview at the start (short list, one sentence for each topic)

- they go through each topic, about 30-60sec each

- they give the same overview again

So you'll get an idea and keywords, then get the story, and at the end you can see if you understand more of the overview once you've heard more of the story and context!

[kragehund-est]

i hate when i send someone a meme in another language and they're like "uhm... translate? 😒" fucker i sent you a meme where 90% of the words have an english cognate and/or you don't need to know what they're saying to find it funny. can you at least TRY

[kragehund-est]

i sent this meme to 7 people, and 4 of them asked me to translate for them. i legitimately do not think that was necessary.

[vickythestrange]

[victusinveritas]

[oidheadh-con-culainn]

Can’t agree more about that duolingo post you shared, the Irish course is *terrible*. Do you have any recommendations for other places to go to learn Irish for someone with practically no knowledge of the language?

dublin city university has asynchronous courses that run regularly on futurelearn, starting with irish 101 and going up to 208 (you might have to wait a little while for 101 to come around again because they don't all run simultaneously). they're a pretty good intro with more grammar explanations, written exercises, etc. my biggest issue with them was motivating myself to actually put the time in, because i found it tough to get through all the course in the amount of time i had available to give to them, but they're probably the best free online resource i know of, especially because they do have people there to answer questions and explain grammar

there are also various online courses on zoom etc but those tend to cost money. i do think after a certain point it's worth trying to get in an actual class (in person or online) for the conversation practice if nothing else, but something like the futurelearn courses is a good stepping stone to get going

for pure vocab, memrise has so far not fallen as far down the hole of "gamification of language apps at the expense of actual teaching" and you can make custom courses to learn vocab that you yourself actually need (e.g. lists from courses you're taking), but i know memrise is trying to push a new version of their "official" courses which may end up being at the expense of "community" courses (custom lists) so idk how long that'll last, and anyway it's more of a supplement to learning elsewhere than a way to learn in and of itself, in my experience

[ly0nstea]

Also btw every single complaint about irish pronounciation and spelling in schools would be solved if we hammered in the slender/broad distinctions early because it would become abundantly clear why this 't' has to be surrounded by 'i's and it isn't just a thing they decided to do one day and more people would be able to spell words from just hewring them and pronounciation from just reading them send tweet

[max1461]

I'm gonna reblog with some videos of people speaking various American Indian/indigenous American languages, because I think most people don't even know what they sound like. Not to be judgement of that—just, you know, I think people who want to be informed should know what they sound like!

[max1461]

Former president of the Navajo Nation, Joe Shirley, giving an address in Navajo.

[max1461]

Nora Marks Dauenhauer telling a story, "Raven and Deer", in Tlingit.

[max1461]

Albert White Hat, a well known Lakota teacher, translator, and activist, speaking Lakota.

[max1461]

This YouTube user, Grahm Wiley-Camacho, has uploaded a bunch of videos in Colville Okanagan Salish, but I'm not sure who all the speakers are.

[max1461]

Multiple people speaking Cherokee and talking about revitalization of the language.

[max1461]

This guy speaking Yucatec Maya (guest starring: adorable small child).

[max1461]

There's a ton of material in Greenlandic on YouTube, but it's hard for me to find, because the titles and other metadata are also in Greenlandic! Of course, this represents a huge win for the language, since this is a biproduct of being in vibrant use by a community of speakers. Greenlandic has been an official language of the territory of Greenland since 1979, and the sole official language since 2009.

Here are some proceedings of the Greenlandic parliament, the Inatsisartut, which are conducted in Greenlandic.

Here is a radio show in Greenlandic, from Kalaallit Nunaata Radioa.

And here is a video of Aki-Matilda Høegh-Dam, Greenlandic MP in the Danish parliament (Folketing), causing some upset by speaking in Greenlandic instead of Danish.

[max1461]

Conversation between Loran Thompson and Francis Boots in Mohawk.

[max1461]

Interview with Yup'ik elder Raphael Jimmy about qaneryaraq "words of wisdom/right living".

[official-linguistics-post]

official linguistics post

[unhonestlymirror]

"When talking about close friends, Lithuanians use the word "bičiulis", which essentially means: bee friend."

[linguistness]

💬 Linguistics Challenge 📚 - May

This challenge will teach you the basics of linguistics step-by-step over the course of 12 months.

This month, we’ll look at: pragmatics.

Each month you get a few exercises (depending on how complex the topic is), so you can take breaks in between days or use those days to revise and practice. I’ve put links to all the topics on which i made blog posts, but you’re very welcome to do your own research online.

This challenge is based on what I learned in the first semesters of my linguistic studies at uni, and it’s aimed at giving you a broad introduction and teaching you the most important concepts from several different fields of linguistics.

Throughout the month, you’ll get the chance to apply your new knowledge in some exercises and tasks. If you want, you can share your work via reblog with the tag #linguisticschallenge, i’d love to see your contributions :)

Also, feel free to follow me so you won’t miss next month’s challenge!

Inform yourself about the field of pragmatics and what it analyses.

Look at the Speech Acts by Searle & Austin. First off, look at locutionary, illocutionary, and perlocutionary acts and what they mean.

Now look at the speech act classifications, i.e. representative, expressive, directive, commissive, and declarative speech acts.

Task: Think of example sentences for each of the 5 speech act classifications

Now look at the felicity conditions of these speech acts.

Look at the Indirect Speech Acts by Searle & Austin.

Look at the inference patterns and degree of directness of indirect speech acts.

Task: Think of an example sentence and formulate a different version for each degree of directness.

Inform yourself about the Cooperative Principle & the 4 Gricean Maxims

Task: Think of some sentences that adhere to the Gricean Maxims and some that do not adhere to them

Look at the different types of implicature

Inform yourself about deixis and distance

Inform yourself about ‘face’ and politeness

Inform yourself about the basic conversation structures

If you’re quick or want to learn more, you could check out my linguistics masterpost to see if i made any new posts on this topic after creating this challenge. You could also take a look at these book tips:

Book tips:

Yule, George. “Pragmatics.” Oxford: OUP. 1996.

Brown, Penelope & Stephen C. Levinson. “Politeness: Some Universals in language usage.” Cambridge: CUP. 1987.

Grice, Paul. „Logic and Conversation”. In: P. Cole and J. Morgan. Syntax and Semantics, vol. 3 (1975), pp. 41-58.

Levinson, Stephen C. “Pragmatics.” Cambridge: CUP. 1983.

Mey, Jacob L. “Concise Encyclopedia of Pragmatics.” Amsterdam: Elsevier. 1998.

Levinson, Stephen C. “Pragmatics.” Cambridge: CUP. 1983.

Searle, John R. & Daniel Vanderveken. “Foundations of illocutionary logic.” Cambridge: CUP. 1985.

.

Next month, we’ll look at the field of text linguistics.

(Link to last month’s challenge)

[german-enthusiast]

Scary scary German syntax... right?

The following sentence exhibits a typical mistake German-learners make: Heute ich gehe in ein Museum.

It's not conjugation ("ich gehe" is correct!), it's not declension ("ein Museum" is correct too!). The issue is "heute ich gehe". Correct would be: Heute gehe ich in ein Museum (or: Ich gehe heute in ein Museum.)

What's the rule here?

It's unfortunately not simply "there can only be one word before the verb"

German word order is so difficult be cause it is so variable. All following sentences are correct and synoymous (though emphasis shifts):

Der Opa schenkt seiner Enkelin zum Geburtstag ein Buch über Autos.

Seiner Enkelin schenkt der Opa zum Geburtstag ein Buch über Autos.

Ein Buch über Autos schenkt der Opa seiner Enkelin zum Geburtstag.

Zum Geburtstag schenkt der Opa seiner Enkelin ein Buch über Autos. All mean: The grandfather gifts his niece a book about cars for her birthday.

What do they all have in common, syntax-wise? There's only one phrase in front of the finite verb. What does this mean? A phrase is a completed (!) unit that can consist of one or more words (depending on the word class (-> noun, verb, …)) Typical word classes that can be a phrase with just one word are:

Proper nouns, plural nouns, personal pronouns, relative pronous (Lukas kocht. Busse fahren. Ich schreibe. Der Mann, der kocht, …)

Adverbs (Heute, Morgen, Bald, Dort, Darum, …) Most other word classes need additional words to form a full phrase:

adjectives need a noun and article: der blaue Ball, der freundliche Nachbar

nouns need a determiner (= article): der Mann, eine Frau, das Nachbarskind

prepositions need… stuff (often a noun phrase): auf der Mauer, in dem Glas, bei der Statue

…

A finite verb is the verb that has been changed (=conjugated) according to person, time, … All verbs that are NOT infinitive or participles are finite. ich sagte -> "sagte" is the finite verb ich bin gegangen -> "bin" is the finite verb The infinitive and the participle are called "infinite verbs" and are always pushed towards the end (but not always the very end!) of the sentence: Ich bin schon früher nach Hause gegangen als meine Freunde.

So: Before the verb (that is not the participle or infinitive) there can only be one phrase.

Since "heute" is an adverb (-> forms a full phrase on its own) and "ich" is a personal pronoun (-> forms a full phrase on its own), they can't both be in front of the verb "gehe" You have to push one of them behind the verb: Heute gehe ich in ein Museum Ich gehe heute in ein Museum.

Both of these are main clauses (Ger.: Hauptsätze), which in German exhibit "V-2 Stellung", meaning the finite verb is in the second position (after one phrase).

What happens if we push all phrases behind the finite verb?

Gehe ich heute in ein Museum? (Watch out: Gehe heute ich in ein Museum would be ungrammatical! The subject has to come in the second position)

It's a question now!

In German, question sentences (that do not start with a question word like "Was?", "Wo?", …) start with the finite verb (called "V-1 Stellung").

Questions, main clauses,… what's missing?

Dependent clauses!

The third type of sentence exhibits "V-letzt Stellung" or "V-End Stellung", meaning the finite verb is at the very end of the sentence. Ich bin gestern in ein Museum gegangen, … main clause -> V-2 Stellung … weil es dort eine interessante Ausstellung gab. dependent clause -> V-letzt Stellung If you want to practice this....

... determine if the following German sentences are correct. If not, what would be the right way to say it?

Der Zug war sehr voll.

Gestern ich war in der Schule.

Die Lehrerin mich nicht hat korrigiert.

Gehst du heute zur Arbeit?

Das Buch ich finde nicht sehr interessant.

To practice this further, translate the following sentences into German and focus on the order of words:

The boy gave the ball back to me.

I called my girlfriend because I missed her.

The girl saw her brother at the train station.

The horse, which was standing on the field, was white and black.

[max1461]

do you use any specific techniques to achieve native pronunciation/accent?

talk to native speakers as much as possible

listen to native speakers as much as possible

know linguistics so that my tongue is already loose and jiggly and not hung up on the phonological limits of my native language

I'd recommend learning to pronounce all the sounds in the IPA, even if you don't end up using the IPA, because it will just shatter the part of your brain that says "sounds must be pronounced like this because that's how we do it in English god damn it!". It's like ego death or whatever, once you can pronounce lateral fricatives you become one with the languages...