The Awesome Language Thread

The discussion here gave me the idea to dedicate a thread to languages. i want to encourage people to learn and teach languages. It is scientifically-proven™, that learning multiple languages as a kid is beneficial for the development of the brain, increasing complexity of cerebral gyri which is believed to be linked to intellectual capability. They get smart.

i figured it would be a good idea, since i know there are (young) parents here. Do your child a favour and teach it languages! Lots of precious languages! Chinese, Finnish, Russian, Basque.... Not only for the sake of humanity and survival of intellect, but communicational skill is also a big plus on the job market.

The discussion here gave me the idea to dedicate a thread to languages. i want to encourage people to learn and teach languages. It is scientifically-proven™, that learning multiple languages as a kid is beneficial for the development of the brain, increasing complexity of cerebral gyri which is believed to be linked to intellectual capability. They get smart.

i figured it would be a good idea, since i know there are (young) parents here. Do your child a favour and teach it languages! Lots of precious languages! Chinese, Finnish, Russian, Basque.... Not only for the sake of humanity and survival of intellect, but communicational skill is also a big plus on the job market.

http://translate.google.com/

De toute façon, la langue la plus belle du monde est le Français c'est Prouvé-Scientifiquement™! Si vous voulez que votre enfant ai du succès avec les filles, apprenez-lui le Français =)

Naah I don't know. Learnt some french too but never really grew to like it. Sure it's more beautiful than German, but that's not hard to top.

I should have a look at Basque it seems. Is it a beautiful language? Never heard anything in Basque.

Anyhow, my all-time favorite will be Finnish. Voi olla vain yksi maailman kaunein kieli! There can be only one most beautiful language of the world! (hope my spelling is right, I am terrible at finnish grammar...)

BTW, that reminds me of a film I saw once, what was it again...

I should have a look at Basque it seems. Is it a beautiful language? Never heard anything in Basque.

About Basque, i would say that this language sounds quite weird, with many k and tx. It's not particularly cute, at least for a french ear.
But what it makes this language really really charming is all the traditional stuffs around this language. Basques are proud of their culture and lands, and it's really communicative.
But monad could tell us more on it.

More generally, on the fact that we here all have different nationalities, I often think that these differences are most often neglected or ignored.
I mean, for many of you guys, it's not so easy to have a clue on where you are writing from.
And that's a pity because, at least for me, it has somewhat fascinating to play the same game with people with different culture.
Maybe I kept this curiosity because I learnt english quite late, I dunno.

Anyway. Unfa's survey is interesting. So thanks Unfa
Hm... i'm maybe off topic here. Sorry 4m.

Language has a lot to do with culture and this thread is about language and conversation, so one can hardly get off-topic.

i'm glad You brought up the point about differences and nationalities. My family moved a lot and i had the chance to experience various cultures. The downside is i didn't get the chance to get accustomed to one culture in particular; i don't "feel" my nationalities. (It may also explain my self-centered-ness.)
What's interesting is i learned there's not only cultural differences between nationalities, but also between life in a city and in a village inside the same country. Even the language differs. The language in cities is heavily influenced by the global market and international exchange, incorporating terms from other countries, while the language spoken in villages is more aboriginal.

Anyhow, my all-time favorite will be Finnish. Voi olla vain yksi maailman kaunein kieli! There can be only one most beautiful language of the world!

I laughed when I read this. Finnish pfft... on the same level as German. xD However, it's so fun to just spew out fake German words. So German wins over Finnish.

Achtung und sleishas dar mit mutten diesen desu! See what I mean. No matter how you look at it, it's funny. Thank god for German.

Hah! That sounds like German? Pfft.

Well ok it DOES, but anyhow. Let me introduce another level of awesomeness: Finnish can impersonate Japanese! An example: if you'd ask a Finn what "Sauna" would be in Japanese, the Finn would probably say "mokomaki hikimaja" which means "some kind of sweat cabin" in Finnish. At least to the Finns, who have generally few connections to Japan, this sounds particularly Japanese. There are other examples too. Like "did you break your motorbike?" -> "hajosiko kawasaki?" and some I don't remember at the moment. Isn't that just awesome?

@Rage: I like the idea of that. I have recently tried out Sauerbraten (which is, to my taste, a rather simplicistic FPS, a bit too simple actually) - anyhow, there you get a message when somebody connects from which country the player is connecting. That should be rather easy to implement, shouldn't it? I found that quite interesting... but maybe you should be able to disallow disclosure of such information by setting a cvar (meaning the client can decide whether the server is disclosing the country to the other players).

Anyhow, my all-time favorite will be Finnish. Voi olla vain yksi maailman kaunein kieli! There can be only one most beautiful language of the world!

I laughed when I read this. Finnish pfft... on the same level as German. xD However, it's so fun to just spew out fake German words. So German wins over Finnish.

Achtung und sleishas dar mit mutten diesen desu! See what I mean. No matter how you look at it, it's funny. Thank god for German.

Saksan sönkötys saattaa saada veikeitä piirteitä tuollaisilla vedoilla, mutta suomi on kuitenkin kielellisesti yksi monimuotoisimmista kielistä maailmassa. Eikä saksa voi sille mitään, vaikka kuinka yrittäisi.

Try to transalate that.

Ooo kaaay. Lemme try this.

"German jabbering sure may get some cute constructs in such competition, but Finnish is nonetheless language-wise one of the most versatile languages of the world. German can't do anything about it, no matter how hard it tries."

Wasn't able to find the right words for the first half sentence in English... o.O Dunno if that can even be translated literally, but did I get the message right? I'm really curious.

Hah! That sounds like German? Pfft.
@Rage: I like the idea of that. I have recently tried out Sauerbraten (which is, to my taste, a rather simplicistic FPS, a bit too simple actually) - anyhow, there you get a message when somebody connects from which country the player is connecting. That should be rather easy to implement, shouldn't it? I found that quite interesting... but maybe you should be able to disallow disclosure of such information by setting a cvar (meaning the client can decide whether the server is disclosing the country to the other players).

Yeah I like this idea too to be able to associate a nationality for each player (if he wants to). I see this as a potential incentive to talk about other things than some strict game aspects. A pervert effect could also be to develop some kind of racist conversations. But I prefer thinking that the latter effect benefit would remain marginal as compared to the former.

Technically, nationality could be an item of the set of Xonotic authentication parameters. For confidentiality reason, one could choose special options like "i'm from nowhere" or "i'm from my mummy's intimacy".
So maybe we could move this post into the suggestion thread?

If there were to be a country label on players, it should be client side. So players can choose if they want to show from which country they come from, instead of a server cvar that forces everyone to display it.

Done.

http://forums.xonotic.org/showthread.php?tid=1153

Sorry...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cz-1cBfOCc4

-------

About Basque, I can't say if you are going to like or not. It's my main language so I'm not in the perspective of non-Basque speakers.
Also, it has diferent dialects and they sound diferent. There is a "unified Basque" (euskara batua) but is not a mix of the dialects (is close to one of the dialect).
This Batua is used in schools, administration, writtings...
We use latin alphabet and we don't use "strange" characters. For example:

Gizon-emakume guztiak aske jaiotzen dira, duintasun eta eskubide berberak dituztela; eta ezaguera eta kontzientzia dutenez gero, elkarren artean senide legez jokatu beharra dute.

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.


I talk like this but being less understandable (subs in Spanish):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5wDu5q0wocc


btw, we have the best Dragon Ball dub :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aTIcv-dMyBk


P.S.: this must be my longest post (I'm improving)

[quote='monad' pid='15820' dateline='1288276374']
Sorry...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cz-1cBfOCc4
[quote]

beautiful, isn't it? Though the middle part isn't actually finnish but something like la dee doo daba doo and stuff. But I like it :o) (EVEN in case that link was intended to make fun of the finnish language)

The examples for Basque you provided do sound nice as well, though I would need to start learning that language to get to know it. To me, much of a language's beauty comes from the way people work with the language (how they express themselves, which ways the language offers to describe things and so on).

Ahahah! I found a word in the lyrics that's very similar to the place I live in. The 'Finnish' (if it is Finnish) word is 'Lännestä', where I live it's called 'Lännestad'. Maybe it's the same thing but Swedish vs Finnish versions. I found it interesting.

> Do your child a favour and teach it languages! Lots of precious languages! Chinese, Finnish, Russian, Basque....

... Esperanto, Lisp ;)

xonotic should have its own language made of sounds that don't have anything to do with any existing language. eventually people will be able to figure out what the sounds mean.

xonotic should have its own language made of sounds that don't have anything to do with any existing language. eventually people will be able to figure out what the sounds mean.

There already exist a portion of that. Not a whole language, but a good start, they are called 'roflsounds.pk3'.

Yeah, those are really cool. I played Nexuiz quite a while with these

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cz-1cBfOCc4

Yep, really beautiful, indeed.

The same music, in a slightly different style, in romanian...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=te3nb61hHJY

Sorry...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cz-1cBfOCc4

beautiful, isn't it? Though the middle part isn't actually finnish but something like la dee doo daba doo and stuff. But I like it :o) (EVEN in case that link was intended to make fun of the finnish language)

The examples for Basque you provided do sound nice as well, though I would need to start learning that language to get to know it. To me, much of a language's beauty comes from the way people work with the language (how they express themselves, which ways the language offers to describe things and so on).

Just to note, that song is old-fashioned Karelian dialect Finnish. So don't think that we all Finns speak like that. And above that, midlle of the sound means nothing (as Halogene said), it's just doo de doo de doo de doo.

If yuo want to hear "normal" modern Finnish, it's like this.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qNrWxUlo_9I

Note: This clip is from Finnish joke series "Ketonen & Myllyrinne" and this clips tells about teaching sexuality and puberty-things to teens. If you can understand what that guy tells, you'll laugh your asses off.

Aah! My ears are bleeding! Why the hell did I watch it!? I need something nice and soft to listen to so that my ears will heal!!!

bump!

UNESCO Interactive Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger (2010 edition)
The only safe places are the poles.



Basque is there :'(