Polyglotism & Linguistics

Hi, i'm Aamnah. I speak English, Urdu, and Punjabi. Learning French, Arabic and Italian. Also interested in German, Spanish, and Chinese. (en, ur, pa, fr, ar, it, de, es, zh) This is a blog about learning languages, multilingual life, understanding languages and the love of understanding.

[languageramblings]

Quoique vs quoi que / Quelque vs quel que

These two pairs can be easy to mix up since they only differ by a space, but since their meanings are quite different, it’s important to know how to distinguish them. 

Quoique vs quoi que 

Quoique is a subordinating conjunction which means the same thing as bien que, and it is followed by the subjunctive mood.  

Quoiqu'elle fasse tout pour lui, il la traite mal. = Even though / Although she does everything for him, he treats her badly. 

Quoiqu'il soit malade, il sera présent à la réunion. = Even though / Although he’s sick, he’ll be present at the meeting.

Quoi que is a double relative pronoun which approximately means ‘whatever…’ and is also followed by the subjunctive mood. 

Quoi qu'elle fasse pour lui, il la traite mal. = Whatever she does for him, he treats her badly. (compare with the example above — they look very similar but they are not identical)

Quoi qu'il dise, nous le croyons. = Whatever he says, we believe him. 

Quelque vs quel que 

Quelque has a few different usages, including 'some’ (quelques livres = some books) or 'about’ (quelques trois personnes = about three people), but the usage that is most likely be to confused with quel que is a more literary usage where quelque means as/so in an adverbial sense and is followed by the subjunctive mood. 

Quelque souriant qu'il soit, il te déteste. = As cheerful/happy as he is, he hates you. 

Quelque intelligents qu'ils soient, ils ne réussiront pas. = As intelligent as they are, they won’t succeed. 

Quel que is again a double relative pronoun followed by the subjunctive, and means approximately “whatever … may be.” Quel also agrees in gender and number with the noun that follows the verb, becoming quels, quelle, or quelles.

Quels que soient ses sourires, il te déteste. = Whatever his smiles may be, he hates you. 

Quelle que soit votre décision, je viendrai. = Whatever your decision may be, I’ll come.

Further reading/resources: 

Quoique / quoique: one two three

Quelque / quel que: one two   

[languageoclock]

just language people things

heated discussions about the definition of “fluent”

wrong keyboard

not being able to choose what language to watch a movie/tv series in

talking shit about people right in front of them

changing your Facebook language settings every day

peeling of the translation sticker on food packaging so you can read it in the original language

knowing the same Disney song in 4 different languages

multilingual shopping list

eavesdropping on people in public places who think their conversation is a secret

unconcious code mixing

talking to yourself in the mirror because you can’t pronounce something right

all you want for Christmas is books

getting excited about new grammar

clicking “no” when Google asks “do you want to translate this page?”

can only remember the word in the wrong language

lending your phone to someone but they can’t understand your system language

your parents/friends have no idea what you’re actually reading about

false friends

knowing more about what is going on overseas than in your home country because you don’t watch the news in your native language

[polyglotfrog]

Heeeeelllooooo this is me.

[polyglotlinguist-blog]

Mai Dhai Band - "Sarak Sarak"

The language Mai is using is marwari. Here are the lyrics & translation (to the best of our ability, we apologize if it creates any confusion amongst native speakers):-

sarak sarak chalan reh (Wandering on the road)

Sarak sarak chalan mama chablura ba toota (As I was wandering mamoo(uncle), my chappal (shoe) broke mamoo!)

Jablura ba toota mamaliya, jablura ba toota (The chappal broke, mamoo, the chappal broke!)

Hoye, hoye Mamaliya Hoye Mamaliya, hoye X2 (Oh, oh Mamoo, oh Mamoo)

"Aray dohko mat ree jo mara raa (don't deny my call for help, you are mine)

Mamoo jee mamoo jee larti reh (mamoo jee mamoo jee listen)

mamoo jee mamoo jee larti, mari mamili bher bhadayo (my mami(aunt) keeps quarrelling with me)

mamili bher bhadayo, mamiliya, mami jee bher bhadayo (mami continues to quarrel, mamoo, she continues to quarrel)

Aray Hoye, hoye Mamaliya Hoye Mamaliya, hoye X2 (Oh, oh Mamoo, oh Mamoo)

Aray dohko mat ree jo mara raa (don't deny my call for help, you are mine)

Mamoo jee mamoo jee larti reh (mamoo jee mamoo jee, listen)

limori jee na paita (The money for the jewellery)

Limari jee na paita, mara lichman vanioun dina (The jewellery money, i gave to the lachman)

Mana lichman rani dina (I've given it to the lachman)

Hoye, hoye Mamaliya Hoye Mamaliya, hoye X2 (Oh, oh Mamoo, oh Mamoo)

"Aray dohko mat ree jo mara raa" Don't deny me this, you are a part of me!

[italian-desperating]

Misc sites

Grammar

Conjugating

Verbix

Writing

Lang-8  - practice writing and receive corrections from native speakers

Comprehension

Listening

Podcasts & Music

Harry Potter: listen to the beginning of Harry Potter read in  60+ languages 

Lyrics Training: gives you tools to  improve your listening comprehension of popular music around the world and to practice your pronunciation. 

Foreign Language Music

Lyrics Training: this is a REALLY FUN way to practice listening

European radio stations streaming live

Videos

Ted: there are thousands of videos available for free.  Besides subtitles, there is an ‘interactive transcript’ of each talk so that you can read along while you listen.

Vimeo’s Staff Picks: The staff of Vimeo chooses their favorite uploads from a variety of genres such as Animation, Time Lapse, and Music Videos.  The videos are usually shorter than typical TV programs and movies.

Dramafever: watch TV in Chinese, Korean, Spanish, Japanese, and English (they have like one or two in Portuguese as well)

Look at videos trending on youtube by country

Yabla:  Watch videos in your target language

Wikitongues: A youtube channel featuring speakers of a wide variety of languages (they have a tumblr too!)

TV streaming live

Reading

Newsela: presents world news articles at your level of language proficiency. If you sign up for a paid subscription, they have tools you can use to track your progress, check your comprehension, and practice writing.

The Polyglot Project: Library with foreign books that lets you translate while reading.

Transparent Language Blogs: occasionally has interesting articles about various languages

Alexa - Top websites by country: useful in finding advanced content in your target language

Interlinear books: foreign language books with the english translations below

Read Grimm’s fairytales in other languages

Global Language Online - material drawn from radio, newspaper etc. 

Vocabulary

Tatoeba - find a sentence that uses your word

Languagehelpers.com - Translation, language facts, and information about some scripts

Course sites

Duolingo (Latin American Spanish, French, German, Brazilian Portuguese, Italian, Dutch, Irish, Danish, Swedish, Turkish, Norwegian (Bokmål), Ukrainian, and Esperanto)

BBC Languages: Not very in depth but offers quite a few small European languages such as Manx, Luxembourgish, and Guernésiais

Learn A Language (18 languages)

Conjuguemos (French, German, Italian, Latin, Portuguese, Spanish)

L-lingo (21 languages)

101languages (167 languages)

mylanguages.org: offers a huge variety of languages; introductory/beginner level

SayJack - Chinese, Japanese, and Korean

mylanguages.org - offers a huge variety of languages; introductory/beginner level

Languagepod101 (31 languages)

My Languages (95 languages)

Open Culture

Surface Languages (43 languages)

Lingualia (Spanish)

Linguanaut (16 languages)

OmniGlot (All languages [basic info for some of them])

Memrise (Various languages) (flashcard system)

Babbel

Foreign Service Institute Language Courses

Peace Corps Language Courses

Innovative Language Learning: Youtube channels teaching over 30 languages

Language partners sites

Livemocha (Various languages)

Polyglotclub

Sharedtalk

Interpals (specify in your profile you only look for language exchange because there can be some creeps in this one)

Couchsurfing

Students of the World Penpals - Correspond in your target language with a native speaker 

Speaking

Forvo - listen to words pronounced by native speakers

Testing

Rate your foreign language fluency

App

Duolingo: This is one of the most well know websites/apps for langauge learning. It’s great for basics and beginning grammar. It can also be fun because you can earn points to buy extra lessons like flirting!

Busuu:  Another well known vocabulary learning resource, Busuu is great because you can learn in order of A1, A2, B1, B2. I prefer Busuu over Duolingo mainly for that reason. Busuu has tons of super useful everyday vocabulary, and also phrases are taught, which can be a lot better than singular words.                              

Fluentu:  Fluentu is an app where you can view videos in your target language with subtitles. They are divided by level which makes it really easy!

Memrise:  Memrise is by far one of my favorite apps to use for language. It has many different decks of words/phrases, and each word/phrase comes up at certain times to make sure you remember them. My favorite is the conjugations! Conjugations has been the hardest thing for me with my french, and this app has helped make it so much easier for me.

Podcasts (Apple app):  This is a basic app, and it’s not really specific to language learning, but listening to podcasts is so helpful when it comes to listening comprehension. My favorite for french is News in Slow French, One Thing In A French Day, and CoffeeBreak French.

HelloTalk: It’s a really clean app that allows you to speak with people learning a language you know that, if you want, also knows your target language. It has so many helpful tools like in-app translation and you can also set up a language exchange where you text in the first language for a certain amount of words, then the other, you actually speak in the first language, and then the second.

Linqapp: It’s mainly for asking questions about the language you need help with. You can make sure something you wrote is correct and native sounding, or have someone help you translate a phrase! People respond super quickly on here.

Brainscape: This app isn’t specifically for language, and the company actually has some apps for specific languages, but it’s really great. It’s very similar to Memrise, except you can create as many decks as you want.  

Dictionary

Wordreference: the French and Spanish dictionaries are really good, the others are meh 

Lingro: “the coolest dictionary known to hombre”

Wiktionary: read articles in languages and look up words

Babla: online language dictionaries

Collins Dictionaries Online

Dictionaries for a LOT of languages

Ebooks

language.ws:  FREE PDFS and audio for thousands and thousands of language textbooks.

Project Gutenberg - Read books in your target languages 

Flashcards

Quizlet

Ankidroid

Other

Interesting blog about a guy’s experiences with 37 languages 

Culture Talk - Videos about culture

World Language Store: by products (for example, books) from around the world

Resource list:  for learning over 50 languages

Tumblr blogs for specific languages: most are inactive but may still be good resources

How I Learn Languages - pdf of the book by Hungarian polyglot Kató Lomb 

These sites are collected by numerous blogs, they made posts sharing their favorite sites and after I reblog them I will add them to this list or other lists for other languages.

25/7/2015

[classyastrology]

the signs as emotions you can’t explain

Aries: Chrysalism (the amniotic tranquility of being indoors during a thunderstorm)

Taurus: Énouement (the bitter sweetness of having arrived in the future, seeing how things turn out, but not being able to tell your past self)

Gemini: Anecdoche (a conversation in which everyone is talking, but nobody is listening)

Cancer: Mauerbauertraurigkeit (the inexplicable urge to push people away, even close friends who you really like)

Leo: Liberosis (the desire to care less about things)

Virgo: Jouska (a hypothetical conversation that you compulsively play out in your head)

Libra: Sonder (the realization that each passerby has a life as vivid and complex as your own)

Scorpio: Kuebiko (a state of exhaustion inspired by acts of senseless violence)

Sagittarius: Kenopsia (the eerie, forlorn atmosphere of a place that is usually bustling with people but is now abandoned and quiet)

Capricorn: Occhiolism (the awareness of the smallness of your perspective)

Aquarius: Onism (the frustration of being stuck in just one body, that inhabits only one place at a time)

Pisces: Altschmerz (weariness with the same old issues that you’ve always had – the same boring flaws and anxieties that you’ve been gnawing on for years) inspired by this and this

[polyglotlinguist-blog]

Visit Original Link

Poetry (ghazal) by Mirza Ghalib, sung by Tina Sani, language is Urdu

Lyrics:

ّDil-e-naadaa.n tujhe huaa kyaa hai دلِ ناداں تجھے ہوا کیا ہے Aakhir is dard ki davaa kyaa hai آخر اس درد کی دوا کیا ہے

ّDil-e-naadaa.n tujhe huaa kyaa hai دلِ ناداں تجھے ہوا کیا ہے Aakhir is dard ki davaa kyaa hai آخر اس درد کی دوا کیا ہے

ّDil-e-naadaa.n دلِ ناداں

Ham hai.n mushtaaq aur vo bezaar ہم ہیں مشتاق اور وہ بیزار Yaa ilaahii, ye maajaraa kyaa hai یاالٰہی یہ ماجرا کیا ہے

Yaa ilaahii, ye maajaraa kyaa hai یاالٰہی یہ ماجرا کیا ہے

ّDil-e-naadaa.n tujhe huaa kyaa hai دلِ ناداں تجھے ہوا کیا ہے ّDil-e-naadaa.n دلِ ناداں

Mai.n bhii muh me.n zubaan rakhtaa huu.n میں بھی منہ میں زباں رکھتا ہوں Kaash puuchho k mudda kyaa hai کاش پوچھو کہ مدعا کیا ہے

Kaash puuchho k mudda kyaa hai کاش پوچھو کہ مدعا کیا ہے

ّDil-e-naadaa.n tujhe huaa kyaa hai دلِ ناداں تجھے ہوا کیا ہے Aakhir is dard ki davaa kyaa hai آخر اس درد کی دوا کیا ہے

ّDil-e-naadaa.n دلِ ناداں

[polyglotlinguist-blog]

Days of the week in Persian فارسی

[rhysiare]

Just felt like doing some comparative linguistic work today. This is between mostly the largest Indo-European languages in Europe, with the exception of Finnish, Estonian, and Hungarian which are not part of the IE family. 

It’s interesting to see the notable relations between most of these languages though.

First pic is between the Latin-Romance languages. Second is between the Germanic languages. Third and fourth are between the Slavic and Baltic languages. Fifth is between two Celtic languages, as with the Finno-Ugric languages, and Albanian and Greek which are their own branches in the overarching Indo-European stream.

Some interesting things of note…

The word for sun in most of these languages revolve around the sound [sol] with some variations. Ex.) sol (Norwegian), sole (Italian), soleil (French), solèy (Haitian Creole), saulė (Lithuanian), slŭntse (Bulgarian).

Words for referring to oneself in most of these languages begin with a front vowel sound [i] or [e] or a palatal approximant [j] (mostly slavic). Ex.) eu (Romanian), já (Czech), io (Italian), ego (Greek), es (Latvian), ég (Icelandic), jag (Swedish).

The word pertaining to water in most of these languages with begins straight out with the vowel [a] or a velarised to semi-velarised sound [w], [u], or [v] usually followed by [a] or [o], even in non IE ones listed. Ex.) acqua (Italian), vaser (Yiddish), water (English), woda (Polish), vann (Norwegian), vode (Slovenian), uisce (Irish), ujë (Albanian), víz (Hungarian).

The word for ‘eye’ tends to revolve around beginning (or nearly beginning) with the sound range from [a] to [o] and containing some form of a back of the mouth consonant like [k], [g], or [h]. Ex.) oculus (Latin), akis (Lithuanian), öga (Swedish), llygad (Welsh), oko (Serbian).

The word for ‘white’ tends to involve beginning with a front consonant labial sound or a combined sound with a labial consonant [b], [p], [v], [f], [w]. Ex.) blanco (Spanish), biela (Slovak), wit (Dutch), gwyn (Welsh), hvid (Danish), baltas (Lithuanian), bardhë (Albanian). Surprisingly this is even across the Finno-Ugric languages which aren’t even Indo-European in heritage, fehér (Hungarian), valge (Estonian), valkoinen (Finnish).

The number 4, tends to begin with a front labial sound or a combined sound with such: [p], [b], [f], [v], [kw]. Ex.) catro (Galician), quatre (Catalan), pedwar (Welsh), katër (Albanian), četiri (Croatian), vier (Afrikaans), fjórir (Icelandic).  

[incapableofgivingup]

SO COOL

*rolls around in languages*

[rhysiare]

*rolls with you* Languages!!!!!!!!

[melancholicmai-deactivated20180]

Couldn’t find this on tumblr, so I saved this picture from Facebook and uploaded it on here. 

SHAILJA PATEL, FROM MIGRITUDE fireandicewillsuffice  

[redditfront]

Some examples of why the Oxford comma is generally a good idea

[trekkingwilbury-deactivated2017]

Please don’t let the Oxford comma die. If you were apathetic about it before, I think this will help you understand why it is necessary.

[topofrancais]

C'est aujourd'hui dimanche, le jour idéal pour les tâches ménagères… (remarque : on ne dit pas “faire le linge”, on dirait plutôt “faire la lessive”)

[polyglotlinguist-blog]

Most problems of the world stem from linguistic mistakes and simple misunderstanding. Don’t ever take words at face value. When you step into the zone of love, language, as we know it becomes obsolete. That which cannot be put into words can only be grasped through silence.

Most problems of the world stem from linguistic mistakes and simple misunderstanding. Don’t ever take words at face value. When you step into the zone of love, language, as we know it becomes obsolete. That which cannot be put into words can only be grasped through silence.

[baroodi-deactivated20140321]

[switches to mother tongue to talk shit about you]

[vacuumssuck]

French person: 80 French person: lol blaze it 

[forzafxrrari]

i just 5 to my knees I laughed so hard

[neuxue]

this whole post makes me want to 7 something on fire

[tsukidaisy]

i’ve had e9 of this

[dean-hanel-deactivated20181219]

THIS POST DOESN’T MAKE SENSE I DON’T GET IT AND IT MAKES ME ANGRY

[sheenaduquette]

Sweet, sweet 17tion.

[nijuukoo]

10 is making me facepalm so hard.

[deutsch-doodles]

[realxmadrid]

اللغة العربية • the Arabic language

[malitterature]

Les seuls gens vrais pour moi sont les fous, ceux qui sont fous d’envie de vivre, fous d’envie de parler, d’être sauvés, fous de désir pour tout à la fois, ceux qui ne baillent jamais et qui ne disent jamais de banalités, mais qui brûlent, brûlent, comme des feux d’artifice extraordinaires qui explosent comme des araignées dans les étoiles, et en leur centre on peut voir la lueur bleue qui éclate et tout le monde fait “Waou !

Jack Kerouac (via malitterature)