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Does anyone read neighboring languages? | ||
Tags: Linguistic relationships | Reading | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
 jeff_lindqvist Diglot Moderator SwedenRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6901 days ago 4250 posts - 5711 votes  Speaks: Swedish*, English Studies: German, Spanish, Russian, Dutch, Mandarin, Esperanto, Irish, French Personal Language Map | Message 33 of 37 27 November 2012 at 12:24am | IP Logged | ||
I'm pretty sure I've heard -ena as a variation of these one-syllable nouns, so I looked up "husena" on Google: Husen, områdena och sånt där (Finland-Swedish site) Bestämd form plural av neutrum 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Einarr Tetraglot Senior Member United Kingdom einarrslanguagelog.w Joined 4605 days ago 118 posts - 269 votes Speaks: English, Bulgarian*, French, Russian Studies: Swedish | Message 34 of 37 27 November 2012 at 10:39am | IP Logged | ||
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I have no trouble whatsoever reading Russian, Macedonian and Serbian. However, it would take a while if I would have to write something into the last two, as I have never studied them. Apart from the Slavonic languages, given the fact that I know some Danish, I find it quite easy reading Swedish and Norwegian, and because of my humble knowledge of German, Dutch seems relatively easy as well.
The strange thing is that if I have to classify them by ease of reading/understanding Russian and Macedonian will be first, together with Swedish (I do find it somewhat easier to understand than Danish sometimes, which is indeed strange) and Dutch, which by itself is a breeze to understand in its written form. On second will come Serbian and Norwegian, because of the varieties of the latter and third will be German (I will mention Spanish here, because of my knowledge of French, however, I rarely read something in it, if at all). 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Veel Tetraglot Newbie Norway Joined 4685 days ago 23 posts - 41 votes Speaks: Lithuanian*, Latvian, English, NorwegianC1 Studies: Greek, Estonian | Message 35 of 37 28 November 2012 at 1:06am | IP Logged | ||
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Has anyone experienced consolidation of one’s own native tongue through reading neighbouring languages, especially if they belong to the same language family?
Let’s say, you can encounter a verb “apnikt(i)” in both Lithuanian and Latvian languages, meaning ”to surround/beset/obsess” and “to become tedious/dull/tiresome” respectively. It’s hard to imagine how many Lithuanians are also aware of yet another existing definition of “apnikt(i)” – meaning both ”to surround, etc.” and “to become tedious”. But that’s just a tiny fraction of all the possible “re-discoveries”! Yet, how much fun do you usually have with false cognates and homographs? When I first started to learn Latvian, things seemed quite jumbled up in that language: Lithuanian ar (if) meaning “with”; koks (which, what) – a tree; kad (that) – when; bauda (a fine) – pleasure; spalva (colour) – fur; debes(i)s (cloud) – sky; ola (cave) – egg; jaut(u)s (sensitive) – cheerful; briedis (elk) – deer, but elnias (deer) – elk; veid(a)s (a face) – manner; auka (victim) – storm; ūkis (farm) – wreck; žmog(u)s (man) – bogeyman; laik(a)s (time) – time/weather; tvaik(a)s (steam) – stink; tvan(a)s (flood) – steam; plaukt(i) (to swim) – to bud… etc., not to mention various conjugations and declinations. Despite being so close to Lithuanian, learning Latvian takes a while to sort things out, but it never ceases to amaze and make me laugh out loud. I suppose, teaching at least a bit (to recognize the main differences) of neighbouring (esp. related) languages should be a must at school! For instance, a Swedish friend of mine can read any book in Norwegian or Danish and listen to them spoken without any problems, as he was taught to do so at school and went on practicing, whereas a Norwegian friend tells she daren’t read in Swedish – that’s too complicated! Why not invest money into enhancing teaching these languages at school instead of throwing good money into translation? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Medulin Tetraglot Senior Member Croatia Joined 4660 days ago 1199 posts - 2192 votes Speaks: Croatian*, English, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Norwegian, Hindi, Nepali | Message 36 of 37 28 November 2012 at 1:23am | IP Logged | ||
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I can read Slovenian. ;)
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| Leurre Bilingual Pentaglot Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5417 days ago 219 posts - 372 votes Speaks: French*, English*, Korean, Haitian Creole, SpanishC2 Studies: Japanese | Message 37 of 37 28 November 2012 at 1:27am | IP Logged | ||
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I started reading an Italian political economy textbook that I bought while on vacation,
and it's mostly transparent- literally with maybe 10 or 20 words that entirely escape my comprehension. The advantage of the romance language connection is that the languages, expressions, formulations and vocabulary really really resemble one another in certain fields (much less in others, I'm sure). Other than that, while I'm learning Japanese now, I could read some of it before (thanks to Korean, and hanja study) and while I certainly couldn't piece more than one sentence here or there together (and even then...) I could understand how the text was built; it made, and makes, so much sense. Which is why studying Japanese is so fun nowadays! 1 person has voted this message useful |
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