Post by Magniloqueu Épiqeu da Lhiun on Nov 11, 2017 17:31:38 GMT -6
Esteemed fellows of the Royal Society,
esteemed Talossans,
did you always want to learn a language that is not just spoken in Talossa? Do you want to learn a language that evolved naturally, and is not as logical as Esperanto? Or do you want to make it fun, and learn both Esperanto and a natural language? Have you not yet decided which language you want to learn?
Then you are welcome to this poll, where you can choose two out of five languages which you wish to learn. The most-chosen language will then be offered as a language course in the Royal Society, where you can -- and should -- enrol! The language course will be very interactive, and will even include Skype lessons every fortnight!
Below, a run-down of the five languages up for grabs:
Maltese
The Maltese language is spoken by around 400,000 people in Malta, an island country in Europe off the Italian and Algerian shores, which comprises three inhabited islands, namely Malta proper, Gozo (ML: Għawdex [ˈaːˤwdɛʃ]), and Comino (ML: Kemmuna [kɛˈmuːnɐ]). It is also spoken by many emigrés outside of Malta, albeit the numbers of speakers outside of Malta are unknown.
The Maltese language is, in its substrate (i.e., in its roots) and in its grammar, a Semitic language. L-ilsien Malti, also known as l-lingwa Maltija, developped from Siculo-Arabic, which belongs to the group of pre-Hilalian Arabic dialects (member of the Maghrebi Arabic family), starting some 800 years ago. It is the only Semitic language native to Europe, and the only Semitic language to be written with Latin characters. It has also been cut off completely from the development of Standard Literary Arabic, and as such, there was no “bilinguality” between Literary and Vernacular variants, which is the case with every other natively Arabic-speaking country. The Maltese language has furthermore been influenced greatly by Romance languages, as well as English, and has developped interesting mechanisms to reconcile its Semitic grammatical structure with the foreign European language patterns.
Its everyday vocabulary is, for the largest part, Semitic. More specific, and technical terms, may often draw words from Latin, Italian, English, or even French. A person who has a decent grasp of Arabic, and Romance languages, and knows of the Maltese language’s orthographical and phonetical patterns, can thus comfortable read a Maltese text and understand 50-75% of its content.
Below, you shall find the first paragraph of the Maltese Wikipedia page for Sicily (Sqallija). I have underlined non-Semitic words for your convenience:
Now, Maltese may not be a useful language, but isn’t it just cute? A descendent of Arabic, with bits and pieces of Romance languages interspersed within. I quite like this language, but I am not too advanced. I could teach potential students the basics of the language, up to everyday conversations. If you haven’t much time, but still want to scratch the surface of something unusual, and yet doable, then Maltese is for you!
Serbo-Croatian
Also known as Bosnian, Serbian, Croatian, Croato-Serbian, Serbo-Bosno-Croatian, or BCS, is a South Slavic language spoken in the former Yugoslavia. Fun fact: jug/-a/-o in BCS means “south”, therefore Jugoslavija (= Yugoslavia) means “Country of the South Slavs”.
Now, this language has a very interesting history, and even more interesting features. It has a three-by-three dialectal division. Allow me to explain what this means:
BCS is spoken, as you may have guessed, throughout Croatia, Serbia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina. However, seeing how language is always changing, and very likely to form dialects, it is conceivable that the varieties spoken within the language’s territory is not the same. Indeed, every country has a slightly-different-from-the-other standard. In Serbia, BCS is still written with a modified Cyrillic alphabet, and this is also sometimes seen in Bosnia.
There are six aspects by which a dialect of BCS can be classified, grouped into two three-aspect categories:
Now, not all combinations are possible, and there is (more or less) a standard variety for the whole region where BCS is spoken.
Let us begin with the standards. In all three countries, Shtokavian is the standard. To be more exact, the standard variety in Croatia is Ijekavian-Shtokavian. In Bosnia, Ijekavian is the standard; however, the eastern part favours Ekavian, while the western part favours Ijekavian. In Serbian, both Ijekavian and Ekavian are said to be accepted standards, but Ekavian is clearly the most-favoured variant for speakers in Serbia.
Referring to the WHAT-group of dialects, Kajkavian and Chakavian are only found in Croatia (notwithstanding Slovenia). Kajkavian dialects are originally Ekavian, while Ikavian is only associated with Chakavian dialects. Thus, we have the following four dialect groups:
Ijekavian-Shtokavian (Croatian and Bosnian standard)
Ekavian-Shtokavian (Serbian standard)
Ekavian-Kajkavian (Central Croatia)
Ikavian-Chakavian (Southern and Western Croatia)
BCS is also interesting, because it is actually the only Slavic language that has a pitch accent system. That is right, BCS is a language that has tones on the stressed syllables! Now, don’t you worry; they are not as complicated as, say, Chinese, or Vietnamese. There are only two tones, which can be long or short: a falling tone, and a rising tone. And many speakers in Croatia, and virtually all speakers in Serbia, are in the process of eliminating the rising tone. So if tones are not for you, you can easily leave them out of your speech!
Now, what would I teach you? If Serbo-Croatian wins, I would teach you a great deal (intermediate level) of the Ijekavian-Shtokavian variety spoken in Croatia – a country within the EU, and with beautiful places to visit, and delicious home-made schnaps varieties to embibe!
So, what are you waiting for? Say yes to Serbo-Croatian!
Turkish
Ah, yes. The Turkish language, spoken in Turkey. The country, wherefrom my grandparents have emigrated in 1970 to Germany, the country of potatoes and punctuality.
Turkish is a very interesting language, belonging to the Turkic family. It is therefore not related to Germanic, or Romance languages. Although a common misconception due to the (formerly) large number of loan words, it is neither related to Arabic or Persian, at all.
Turkish is a very interesting language. It is a very difficult language, at that. Nearly all grammatical actions are done via suffixes, and my!, how many suffixes one word can incorporate is truly fascinating. An example I shall give with this one-word-sentence below. Before you read, I shall shortly explain what a morpheme is. It is the tiniest particle within a word that holds meaning. For example, in “he makes”, the second word (makes) comprises two morphemes, viz. make-, and -s, the latter of which conveys the meaning of “3rd person singular present tense”. Now to the sentence:For those of you who want a fascinating linguistical challenge, Turkish is what you should vote for! And, after all, the Talossan province Atatürk is named after the well-known moderniser of the Turkish language and the Turkish state. Why not get in touch with your Atatürker side, and become a bit more Talossan by learning Turkish? Sounds quirky? Welcome to Talossa!
Being a native, and a linguist-in-training, I can give you valuable insights into the workings of this language. And you can finally understand what that Crazy Dude from the Bosporus rants on about.
German
Another one of my native languages, German. Language of the people of punctuality and organisation, language of my (non-Talossan) people – although I am anything but punctual and organised. German is related to English, and there are many similarities in their respective grammatical structures, as well as their vocabularies. German was also, for a very, very long time, the language of poets and philosophers, of doctors and jurists. A highly intellectual language, with a lot of potential reading material for those who have mastered and unlocked its secrets.
The German language continuum is spoken natively in four countries, namely Germany, Switzerland, Austria, and Luxemburg. It is also spoken as a minority/regional language in the United States, Belgium, and the Netherlands. Almost all of these countries are quite prominent in the European Union, and, especially Southern Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, have a darned beautiful landscape to offer. The Yiddish Language has its roots in the German language, too!
German has many, many dialects, of which the Austro-Bavarian, as well as the Berlin-Brandenburgian, are probably the best-known varieties outside of the German-speaking regions. A short list of the most prominent dialects follows:
Do you not just want to be able to speak some German, too?
Arabic
The beast out of all the languages I am offering to teach here! It has a difficult phonology, an entirely different alphabet which is written in the opposite direction, and a different way to approach speech. The grammar is not too difficult, but there are some differences to other Western/European languages.
Yet Arabic is a very diverse language, with each Arabic-speaking country using a different variety of Arabic. There is dissent over whether these varieties are so different that they constitute their own languages, or not. But nonetheless, it cannot be argued that the Arabic language were an insignificant one. Arabic is also quite a satisfactory language to learn. The different musical genres that the Arab countries have to offer, the cuisine, the general friendliness towards their guests, the poetry, is quite something to behold.
What is more, Arabic has – just like Talossan – a special letter for feminine words ending in -a! Isn’t that just great? Another proof that we have a connection to the Berbers, which were surely influenced by Arabs!
I, personally, do not speak the standardised variety, which is known as Modern Standard Arabic (MSA). I can teach those, who are willing, the Cairene (قاهرية Ahiriya), or the Bahraini (بحرانية Baħraniya) varieties of Arabic to a near-intermediate degree. Learners would come into contact with a lot of Arabic songs from either dialect, as well!
Vote Arabic for a more exotic cultural journey!
esteemed Talossans,
did you always want to learn a language that is not just spoken in Talossa? Do you want to learn a language that evolved naturally, and is not as logical as Esperanto? Or do you want to make it fun, and learn both Esperanto and a natural language? Have you not yet decided which language you want to learn?
Then you are welcome to this poll, where you can choose two out of five languages which you wish to learn. The most-chosen language will then be offered as a language course in the Royal Society, where you can -- and should -- enrol! The language course will be very interactive, and will even include Skype lessons every fortnight!
Below, a run-down of the five languages up for grabs:
Maltese
The Maltese language is spoken by around 400,000 people in Malta, an island country in Europe off the Italian and Algerian shores, which comprises three inhabited islands, namely Malta proper, Gozo (ML: Għawdex [ˈaːˤwdɛʃ]), and Comino (ML: Kemmuna [kɛˈmuːnɐ]). It is also spoken by many emigrés outside of Malta, albeit the numbers of speakers outside of Malta are unknown.
The Maltese language is, in its substrate (i.e., in its roots) and in its grammar, a Semitic language. L-ilsien Malti, also known as l-lingwa Maltija, developped from Siculo-Arabic, which belongs to the group of pre-Hilalian Arabic dialects (member of the Maghrebi Arabic family), starting some 800 years ago. It is the only Semitic language native to Europe, and the only Semitic language to be written with Latin characters. It has also been cut off completely from the development of Standard Literary Arabic, and as such, there was no “bilinguality” between Literary and Vernacular variants, which is the case with every other natively Arabic-speaking country. The Maltese language has furthermore been influenced greatly by Romance languages, as well as English, and has developped interesting mechanisms to reconcile its Semitic grammatical structure with the foreign European language patterns.
Its everyday vocabulary is, for the largest part, Semitic. More specific, and technical terms, may often draw words from Latin, Italian, English, or even French. A person who has a decent grasp of Arabic, and Romance languages, and knows of the Maltese language’s orthographical and phonetical patterns, can thus comfortable read a Maltese text and understand 50-75% of its content.
Below, you shall find the first paragraph of the Maltese Wikipedia page for Sicily (Sqallija). I have underlined non-Semitic words for your convenience:
Sqallija (Sicilia) hija l-ikbar gżira fil-Baħar Mediterran, flimkien mal-gżejjer minuri tal-madwar. Din il-gżira hija awtonoma però tifforma parti mill-peniżola Taljana, allura nistgħu ngħidu li tista' titqies bħala wieħed mir-reġjuni tal-Italja minkejja l-fatt li hija gżira b'kultura kemxejn differenti. Sqallija tinsab fiċ-ċentru tal-baħar Mediterran, il-gżira testendi mill-ponta tal-peniżola ta' Apennini, li hija separata biss mit-triq id-dejqa li taqsam il-lokalità ta' Messina, u tibqa' sejra lejn il-kosta tat-tramuntana tal-kontinent Afrikan.
Serbo-Croatian
Also known as Bosnian, Serbian, Croatian, Croato-Serbian, Serbo-Bosno-Croatian, or BCS, is a South Slavic language spoken in the former Yugoslavia. Fun fact: jug/-a/-o in BCS means “south”, therefore Jugoslavija (= Yugoslavia) means “Country of the South Slavs”.
Now, this language has a very interesting history, and even more interesting features. It has a three-by-three dialectal division. Allow me to explain what this means:
BCS is spoken, as you may have guessed, throughout Croatia, Serbia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina. However, seeing how language is always changing, and very likely to form dialects, it is conceivable that the varieties spoken within the language’s territory is not the same. Indeed, every country has a slightly-different-from-the-other standard. In Serbia, BCS is still written with a modified Cyrillic alphabet, and this is also sometimes seen in Bosnia.
There are six aspects by which a dialect of BCS can be classified, grouped into two three-aspect categories:
- The first category shall be named the WHAT-category, which shows the word for “What?” in BCS dialects; one for each dialect. The three words for “What?” are the following -
- Što? (in Serbia: Šta?), which gives the Shtokavian (štokavski) dialect its name,
- Kaj?, which gives the Kajkavian (kajkavski) dialect its name, and
- Ča?, which gives tha Chakavian (čakavski) dialect its name;
- Što? (in Serbia: Šta?), which gives the Shtokavian (štokavski) dialect its name,
- We shall call the second category the YAT-category. It defines how the Old Church Slavonic letter Yat (ѣ, or in Latin: ě) surfaced in respective dialects. The three corresponding letters to the Yat are -
- (i)je, which gives the Ijekavian (ijekavski) dialect its name,
- e, which gives the Ekavian (ekavski) dialect its name, and
- i, which gives the Ikavian (ikavski) dialect its name.
- (i)je, which gives the Ijekavian (ijekavski) dialect its name,
Now, not all combinations are possible, and there is (more or less) a standard variety for the whole region where BCS is spoken.
Let us begin with the standards. In all three countries, Shtokavian is the standard. To be more exact, the standard variety in Croatia is Ijekavian-Shtokavian. In Bosnia, Ijekavian is the standard; however, the eastern part favours Ekavian, while the western part favours Ijekavian. In Serbian, both Ijekavian and Ekavian are said to be accepted standards, but Ekavian is clearly the most-favoured variant for speakers in Serbia.
Referring to the WHAT-group of dialects, Kajkavian and Chakavian are only found in Croatia (notwithstanding Slovenia). Kajkavian dialects are originally Ekavian, while Ikavian is only associated with Chakavian dialects. Thus, we have the following four dialect groups:
Ijekavian-Shtokavian (Croatian and Bosnian standard)
Ekavian-Shtokavian (Serbian standard)
Ekavian-Kajkavian (Central Croatia)
Ikavian-Chakavian (Southern and Western Croatia)
BCS is also interesting, because it is actually the only Slavic language that has a pitch accent system. That is right, BCS is a language that has tones on the stressed syllables! Now, don’t you worry; they are not as complicated as, say, Chinese, or Vietnamese. There are only two tones, which can be long or short: a falling tone, and a rising tone. And many speakers in Croatia, and virtually all speakers in Serbia, are in the process of eliminating the rising tone. So if tones are not for you, you can easily leave them out of your speech!
Now, what would I teach you? If Serbo-Croatian wins, I would teach you a great deal (intermediate level) of the Ijekavian-Shtokavian variety spoken in Croatia – a country within the EU, and with beautiful places to visit, and delicious home-made schnaps varieties to embibe!
So, what are you waiting for? Say yes to Serbo-Croatian!
Turkish
Ah, yes. The Turkish language, spoken in Turkey. The country, wherefrom my grandparents have emigrated in 1970 to Germany, the country of potatoes and punctuality.
Turkish is a very interesting language, belonging to the Turkic family. It is therefore not related to Germanic, or Romance languages. Although a common misconception due to the (formerly) large number of loan words, it is neither related to Arabic or Persian, at all.
Turkish is a very interesting language. It is a very difficult language, at that. Nearly all grammatical actions are done via suffixes, and my!, how many suffixes one word can incorporate is truly fascinating. An example I shall give with this one-word-sentence below. Before you read, I shall shortly explain what a morpheme is. It is the tiniest particle within a word that holds meaning. For example, in “he makes”, the second word (makes) comprises two morphemes, viz. make-, and -s, the latter of which conveys the meaning of “3rd person singular present tense”. Now to the sentence:
Sentence: Talossalılaştıramadıklarımızdanmışsınız.
Morpheme: Talossa- lı- laştır- ama- dı- k- lar- (ı-) mız- dan- mış- sınız
Translation: Talossa- ORIGIN- make_into- not_able- PAST- 1_PL- NOUN_PL- (hiatus)- our- ABL- EVID- you_are
Meaning:It seems (=EVID) that you are one of (= ABL) those that we could not make into Talossans (= ORIGIN + NOUN_PL).
Morpheme: Talossa- lı- laştır- ama- dı- k- lar- (ı-) mız- dan- mış- sınız
Translation: Talossa- ORIGIN- make_into- not_able- PAST- 1_PL- NOUN_PL- (hiatus)- our- ABL- EVID- you_are
Meaning:It seems (=EVID) that you are one of (= ABL) those that we could not make into Talossans (= ORIGIN + NOUN_PL).
Being a native, and a linguist-in-training, I can give you valuable insights into the workings of this language. And you can finally understand what that Crazy Dude from the Bosporus rants on about.
German
Another one of my native languages, German. Language of the people of punctuality and organisation, language of my (non-Talossan) people – although I am anything but punctual and organised. German is related to English, and there are many similarities in their respective grammatical structures, as well as their vocabularies. German was also, for a very, very long time, the language of poets and philosophers, of doctors and jurists. A highly intellectual language, with a lot of potential reading material for those who have mastered and unlocked its secrets.
The German language continuum is spoken natively in four countries, namely Germany, Switzerland, Austria, and Luxemburg. It is also spoken as a minority/regional language in the United States, Belgium, and the Netherlands. Almost all of these countries are quite prominent in the European Union, and, especially Southern Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, have a darned beautiful landscape to offer. The Yiddish Language has its roots in the German language, too!
German has many, many dialects, of which the Austro-Bavarian, as well as the Berlin-Brandenburgian, are probably the best-known varieties outside of the German-speaking regions. A short list of the most prominent dialects follows:
- Berlin-Brandenburgian (spoken in Berlin, and Brandenburg),
- Austro-Bavarian (spoken in Bavaria, and Austria),
- Swabian (spoken in Southwestern Germany),
- Ripuarian (spoken in Western Germany, around Cologne); belongs to the Rhine Franconian dialect group – just like Pennsylvania German,
- Upper Saxon (the most hated dialect in Germany)
Do you not just want to be able to speak some German, too?
Arabic
The beast out of all the languages I am offering to teach here! It has a difficult phonology, an entirely different alphabet which is written in the opposite direction, and a different way to approach speech. The grammar is not too difficult, but there are some differences to other Western/European languages.
Yet Arabic is a very diverse language, with each Arabic-speaking country using a different variety of Arabic. There is dissent over whether these varieties are so different that they constitute their own languages, or not. But nonetheless, it cannot be argued that the Arabic language were an insignificant one. Arabic is also quite a satisfactory language to learn. The different musical genres that the Arab countries have to offer, the cuisine, the general friendliness towards their guests, the poetry, is quite something to behold.
What is more, Arabic has – just like Talossan – a special letter for feminine words ending in -a! Isn’t that just great? Another proof that we have a connection to the Berbers, which were surely influenced by Arabs!
I, personally, do not speak the standardised variety, which is known as Modern Standard Arabic (MSA). I can teach those, who are willing, the Cairene (قاهرية Ahiriya), or the Bahraini (بحرانية Baħraniya) varieties of Arabic to a near-intermediate degree. Learners would come into contact with a lot of Arabic songs from either dialect, as well!
Vote Arabic for a more exotic cultural journey!
Ve benim Duolingo-Türkçeyim oldukça zayıf.