Register  Login  Active Topics  Maps  

You know you’re a language nerd when...

  Tags: Language Geek
 Language Learning Forum : General discussion Post Reply
3737 messages over 468 pages: << Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 ... 107 ... 467 468 Next >>
karaipyhare
Tetraglot
Groupie
Paraguay
Joined 5585 days ago

74 posts - 150 votes 
Speaks: Portuguese, Spanish*, English, Guarani
Studies: German, Italian, French, Mandarin, Japanese

 
 Message 849 of 3737
19 July 2010 at 4:04pm | IP Logged 
Tally wrote:
When your idea of small talk is mentioning random facts about languages
and you are
surprised when people look at you funny.


Guilty!

Only yesterday, I was in a friend's house with all his family having dinner. There was
a baby around and everybody was laughing and mentioning her because she learned to make
the "Bronx cheer" sound, and you know.. babies... whatever they do seem funny to
adults.
So I thought it would be very enlightening and interesting for everybody to learn a bit
and I couldn't resist sharing my knowledge and so I said: you know that that sound is
very similar to the voiceless dental bilabially trilled affricate, that is: bbllrrr!
(me reproducing the sound), there's a tribe in the Amazon, the Piraha, that actually
uses it as part of they phoneme inventory. It was only discovered in 2004 because the
natives didn't utter that sound in front of the white researchers fearing they would
sound awkward and be laughed at. Besides them, there is only a handful of laguages that
use that sound.
They all stared at me like, is that a joke or was it supposed to be cool?

Well, I think not everyone possesses the virtue of appreciating the diversity of human
languages...
12 persons have voted this message useful



Kary
Groupie
Canada
Joined 6149 days ago

85 posts - 113 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: French, Spanish, German

 
 Message 850 of 3737
19 July 2010 at 8:40pm | IP Logged 
When a trip to the grocery store sends you into a (minor) panic because the translated terms on the labels don't match the terms on your flashcards.
1 person has voted this message useful



ellasevia
Super Polyglot
Winner TAC 2011
Senior Member
Germany
Joined 6142 days ago

2150 posts - 3229 votes 
Speaks: English*, German, Croatian, Greek, French, Spanish, Russian, Swedish, Portuguese, Turkish, Italian
Studies: Catalan, Persian, Mandarin, Japanese, Romanian, Ukrainian

 
 Message 851 of 3737
19 July 2010 at 8:57pm | IP Logged 
Teango wrote:
When the first thing you do when you return from holiday is flop on the sofa, kick off your weary sand-filled shoes, and log on to the forum to check through several hundred email notifications.


I also did exactly this last Thursday, despite being exhausted by a 36-hour trip!
1 person has voted this message useful



Thaorius
Diglot
Groupie
ArgentinaRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 5543 days ago

40 posts - 58 votes 
Speaks: Spanish*, EnglishB2

 
 Message 852 of 3737
19 July 2010 at 10:22pm | IP Logged 
karaipyhare wrote:
Oh yes, I could feel the thrill in your story. Was it in Buenos
Aires? That city's
great for rare old books!

Thaorius wrote:
...when, on the way to a Japanese only bookstore, you find a used
books bookshop, you
enter curiously, and ask for material in Japanese, or otherwise a foreign language that
isn't English. The store clerk shows you a few things, nothing very convincing... and
then, just as you are leaving the store, you see a kanji across the room. You take the
book off the shelf, and oh boy... jackpot. A 1965, perfectly preserved, color
illustrated
book in German about Japanese history. Annnnddd it comes with a lot of kanji! I mean,
what more could you possibly ask for, right?

(I am not, nor will I be studying German for the next 2 years or so. I am, however,
learning Japanese.)


As a matter of fact it was. And I wasn't aware of that; would you happen to know some
good stores? :)
1 person has voted this message useful



Teango
Triglot
Winner TAC 2010 & 2012
Senior Member
United States
teango.wordpress.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 5556 days ago

2210 posts - 3734 votes 
Speaks: English*, German, Russian
Studies: Hawaiian, French, Toki Pona

 
 Message 853 of 3737
20 July 2010 at 4:20pm | IP Logged 
karaipyhare wrote:
voiceless dental bilabially trilled affricate, that is: bbllrrr!
(me reproducing the sound), there's a tribe in the Amazon, the Piraha, that actually
uses it as part of they phoneme inventory.

What an amazing sound, and here's what it actually sounds like (source: UCLA Phonetics Lab Library).
4 persons have voted this message useful



karaipyhare
Tetraglot
Groupie
Paraguay
Joined 5585 days ago

74 posts - 150 votes 
Speaks: Portuguese, Spanish*, English, Guarani
Studies: German, Italian, French, Mandarin, Japanese

 
 Message 854 of 3737
20 July 2010 at 4:43pm | IP Logged 
When realizing one of your posts in this thread got 7 votes really makes your day!
3 persons have voted this message useful



B-Tina
Tetraglot
Senior Member
Germany
dragonsallaroun
Joined 5527 days ago

123 posts - 218 votes 
Speaks: German*, English, French, Polish

 
 Message 855 of 3737
20 July 2010 at 6:33pm | IP Logged 
... when people start asking you in buses in slowly, well accentuated German if you "make progress" while you are flipping through your flashcards - thinking you are a foreigner just because you bought the flashcards in the country of your target language.

2 persons have voted this message useful



johntm93
Senior Member
United States
Joined 5327 days ago

587 posts - 746 votes 
2 sounds
Speaks: English*
Studies: German, Spanish

 
 Message 856 of 3737
20 July 2010 at 9:28pm | IP Logged 
Teango wrote:
karaipyhare wrote:
voiceless dental bilabially trilled affricate, that is: bbllrrr!
(me reproducing the sound), there's a tribe in the Amazon, the Piraha, that actually
uses it as part of they phoneme inventory.

What an amazing sound, and here's what it actually sounds like (source: UCLA Phonetics Lab Library).
For some reason I'm taking a liking to this sound, I find it interesting. Probably because of it's rarity.


2 persons have voted this message useful



This discussion contains 3737 messages over 468 pages: << Prev 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 288 289 290 291 292 293 294 295 296 297 298 299 300 301 302 303 304 305 306 307 308 309 310 311 312 313 314 315 316 317 318 319 320 321 322 323 324 325 326 327 328 329 330 331 332 333 334 335 336 337 338 339 340 341 342 343 344 345 346 347 348 349 350 351 352 353 354 355 356 357 358 359 360 361 362 363 364 365 366 367 368 369 370 371 372 373 374 375 376 377 378 379 380 381 382 383 384 385 386 387 388 389 390 391 392 393 394 395 396 397 398 399 400 401 402 403 404 405 406 407 408 409 410 411 412 413 414 415 416 417 418 419 420 421 422 423 424 425 426 427 428 429 430 431 432 433 434 435 436 437 438 439 440 441 442 443 444 445 446 447 448 449 450 451 452 453 454 455 456 457 458 459 460 461 462 463 464 465 466 467 468  Next >>


Post ReplyPost New Topic Printable version Printable version

You cannot post new topics in this forum - You cannot reply to topics in this forum - You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum - You cannot create polls in this forum - You cannot vote in polls in this forum


This page was generated in 0.7344 seconds.


DHTML Menu By Milonic JavaScript
Copyright 2024 FX Micheloud - All rights reserved
No part of this website may be copied by any means without my written authorization.