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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
 Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6703 days ago 9078 posts - 16473 votes  Speaks: Danish*, French, English, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Esperanto, Romanian, Catalan Studies: Afrikaans, Greek, Norwegian, Russian, Serbian, Icelandic, Latin, Irish, Lowland Scots, Indonesian, Polish, Croatian Personal Language Map | Message 33 of 42 11 September 2011 at 11:20pm | IP Logged |
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Summary for July 2011
1 July 2011 (p.312) ENG: Yes we are language nerds (at least some of us) (Answer to Kuikentje) RU: Watched a Russian TV program about the Tunguska event. ESP: Studied an excerpt from the Esperanto Jarlibro and made a wordlist with 100 words. DA: Scanned and copied postcards for my travel club for three hours and also spent time on the spam control for HTLAL (which was subjected to a major spam attack) SP: Watched "En Familia" at TVE - giving (pseudo)kisses seems to be an artform for the Spaniards ESP: Listened to Radio Verda. 2 July 2011 (p.313) Fasulye (ESP): Thanks for the link to Radio Verda 3 July 2011 (p.313) ESP: The tw persons behind Radio Verda speak extremly clearly and slowly IT: I have spent a lot of time organizing my photos, but I have also listened to some Youtube including one with Ilaria de Regis, who won a worldmaster title in Latin in 2009 - but the clip was only in Italian. ENG: Before that a string of QI's (a British quiz series with Stephen Fry), where a lady suggested that people with other languages should be taxed for using the English language. ESP: Radio Verde concedes that the main empediment for more films in Esperanto is the lack of fluently speaking actors. 5 July 2011 (p.313) ESP: I listen to one or two podcasts from Radio Verde daily. Today something about intelligent toothpaste (!?). IT: My bus-reading is currently Meridiano - Viaggio del Gusto, an Italian magazine about highbrow tourism, with a special focus on culinary experiences 6 July 2011 (p.313) IT: I have watched "Passaggio al Nord Ovest" (the Northwest Passage) at Raiuno - a series about travelling and geography and other things - one of the best things at that station. BA I: Did a wordlist in Bahasa Indonesia GR: Copied and studied a page about the island Cythera in the Byzantine and Venetian period IT: Read more of the magazine " Viaggi con Gusti" - its language is as succulent as the Italian food it describes. ENG: Watched a program at the history Channel about M.Champollion, who dechiffred the Egyption hieroglyphs using the trilingual Rosetta stone. AF: Have listened to some Afrikaans at Youtube ESP: Will listen to more Radio Verda 7 July 2011 (p.313) ENG: At last it seems that the steady stream of spam messages has been blocked IT: Watched Superquark at Raiuno with clips from Greenland, Indonesia and other places ESP: Have again studied a passage drom the Esperanto Jarlibro 2011. Comment on the -u of some finite verbal forms in Esperanto and identified them first as some kind of future, but they are actually subjunctives. Finds it weird with finite forms that don't end in -(something)s. 8 July 2011 (p.313) Kuikentje (DU): has seen bats flying around Fasulye: Thinks that I have some grammatical confusion in Esperanto 10 July 2011 (p.314) ESP: I made a confusing error in my rant about -u in Esperanto by referring to the future. The discussion is about the lack of -s in a finite verbal form, the subjunctive (or optative/volitive). But if Esperanto was totally logical, it wouldn't be fun. DU: I also find bats nice, but I have been in a bat cave in Sarawak, and the stench was overwhelming. 11 July 2011 (p.314) GER: Reference to e series about thirty or so German dialects at Youtube Fasulye (GER): Is not quite satisfied with the tratment of the Dialect of Krefeld in that series. 12 July 2011 (p.314) Platt: I have listened to 5 sections more about the German dialects, including something about Frisian (which normally isn't seen as a German dialect). In old Friesland a foreigner had allegedly three years to learn the languages, else he was killed. IT: More read in the Italian magazine "Meridiani" with the luxurious thems and the luxuriant writing style. Some examples with Italian subjunctives 15 July 2011 (p.314) LAT: I have read some Latin at the magazine Ephemeris before my trip to Rome (and Sadinia), including texts about the Romanian president Basescu and the Venezuelan ditto Chavez, plus something about Strauss-Kahn, Mona Lisa and the amount of laughing you do at different ages. Link to a picture of grinning youngsters Kuikentje: can't see the picture ENG: The picture of three grinning orangs now shown directly NO: I have watched a nature program from NRK1 about a place in Telemarka where they have got (among other things) five species of woodpeckers. Afterwards a program about chameleons. The videos on the homepage of NRK can apparently only be watched from within Norway. Tractor (NO) Has seen a program that claimed that lichens were the inspirations for the glitter we put on christmas trees. 16 July 2011 (p.315) SW: Watched a Swedish nature program about mooses (which are called 'älg' in Swedish, not to be confused with American 'elks') Vilas (IT): a few corrections to my rant about the luxuriant languge in the Italian magazine Meridiani. IT: Comment to the comment about - among other things - the Italian word "lussuoso" Fasulye IT: nice trip to Italy - and do remember that Esperanto and Italian are easy to confound. Kuikentje: "Dat is heal leuk moar dat dierke aan de rechte kant ziet dronken uut haha!! (Limburgs plat)" about the three young orangs 24 July 2011 (p.315) IT: I have returned to Denmark from Italy, where I had 1½ day in Rome and 1½ day in Olbia (Sardinia), and ont the way back I had 1½ day in Berlin. Now ready for the 96. Universal Esperanto Congress in the Bella Center of Copenhagen - I have bought the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings in Esperanto plus a Danish-Esperanto dictionary. ENG: Something about the Sardic things I read and bought in Olbia 25 July 2011 (p.315) ESP: I'm midway through the congress, but have spoken very little and not well. Have met Fasulye there. Vilas (ENG): links to stuff about the Sardic languge IT: Thanks for the links. However I didn't hear any spoken Sardic during my short stay in Olbia. ESP: I try to think in Esperanto, but I make silly errors - like using Italian 'si' instead of Esperantean 'jes'. I have participated in 2 hours of Esperanto for beginners (according to the natural method). 26 July 2011 (p.316) Fasulye (ESP): Can use a hotel computer for free for a 15 minutes period. 27 July 2011 (p.316) ESP: Back home after my trip, and midway through the conference. Participating in such a congress is the nearest thing I can get for Esperanto, which doesn't have a country of its own. Some participants were admirably fluent in the language, and there were even some 'native speakers' (i.e. people who learnt the language as children). I read the Hobbit in Esperanto during the three hour trip back to my hometown Aarhus. 28 July 2011 (p.316) ESP: My second video in Esperanto is on the air now, but I forgot a lot of accusative -n's. GER: I read 'PM Magazin - Welt des Wissens' (08.2011)' in the bus now. IT: The process of organizing my photos from Italy and Germany and writing travleogues is timeconsuming, and I'm also busy at my job. My bilingual poem collection in Sardic is nauseating - love poems have never been my favorites. I read a Lugudurian grammar at the library of Olbia and also saw a language history in Sardic, but the bookstore there didn't have it. ENG: Stephen Frye at BBC (Quis Q1) has informed me that Edison didn't invent the lightbulb (a German inventor did), and that an unknown Frenchman discovered Penicilline long before A.Fleming. 29 July 2011 (p.316) IT: I have read a magazine called "Le Stelle" (the Stars - about astronomy, of course) during a train trip DU: I had also time to read some sections of my Guide to Rome in Dutch. 31July 2011 (p.316) DA: I'm back home after a family visite, - much talk, little study. DU: However I did find time to study the word order of Dutch in subordinate phrases. Numerodix: Finds word orders in Dutch and English fluid, but not those in his native Polish (NB: my first interpretation). DU: I think that even my preliminary studies have given some rather useful clues to the wordorder in Dutch - not everything is fluid. Numerodix: Actually wrote that Dutch has disturbed his otherwise pretty clear intuitions about word order in English Faasulye: Has visited Rome as far back as in 1978, but didn't know any Italian back then. Edited by Iversen on 11 September 2011 at 11:22pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6703 days ago 9078 posts - 16473 votes Speaks: Danish*, French, English, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Esperanto, Romanian, Catalan Studies: Afrikaans, Greek, Norwegian, Russian, Serbian, Icelandic, Latin, Irish, Lowland Scots, Indonesian, Polish, Croatian Personal Language Map | Message 34 of 42 30 September 2011 at 12:37pm | IP Logged |
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Summary for August 2011
1 August 2011 (p.317) DU: with reference to my Dutch guide to Rome, Fasulye had written that she found it a good idea to 'play Dutrch tourist' and learn about a country in another language. I have not thought about it in those terms - being a Danish tourist is exotic enough. I just bought a book in Dutch about something interesting for a mere 10 €. GR: I have several times bought tourist guides in the local languages AND in translation, not least in Greece where you can find whole series of guides in a number of languages. ENG: I have found an interesting site about old languages: Early Indo-European Online. Fasulye (DU): She actually didn't think you should walk around acting like a Dutch tourist 3 August 2011 (p.317) IT: There's "The Northwest Passage" on the TV-station Raiuno, with clips about the Statue of Liberty, the Eiffel Tower and Amazonas. In the bus I have been reading about the nuragic civilisation of Sardinia, one of the most important old megalitic cultures, and later I read about this on the internet (mainly Wikipedia) - including speculative suggestions about contacts with the Sumerians. And while I was writing about this Raiuno TV switched to a program about Burkina Faso, which I visited in January. 4 August 2011 (p.317) IT: one more evening with Raiuno showing something relevant, namely Superquark. But I have also watched TV in other languages. 5 August 2011 (p.318) GER: In the bus back home from work I read "P.M: Historie". 6 August 2011 (p.318) GER: The main article in "P.M: Historie" about the perceived invincibility of Djinghis Khan's Mongol hordes in the magazine was to some degree a disappointing - it told about the bow construction, but didn't really solve the mystery. However the descriptions of the dynastic troubles after Ogadei's death were useful. BA I: I have restarted my studies of Bahasa, using a text about extinct monkeys 7 August 2011 (p.318) SW: I have been to meetings in my travel club for two days in a row, and this day I mostly spent on scanning my mothers photos from several years back. On Swedish TV I watch a program about people who study Jiddisch. NO: On Norwegian TV I watched one of their excellent nature programs and.. FR: ON TV5 International I watched a stand-up comedy show. 9 August 2011 (p.318) GER: I have visited a lot of German zoos and aquaria, so I know a fair number og animal names in German. But not nearly as many in Espeanto, Greek or Russian. I was reminded of this while reading in another thread about Fasulye's animal name project. CAT: Which reminded me of a project I read about at the Zoo in Barcelona - a new marina animal zoo should be built near the water, and the existing zoo should the concentrate on terrestrial animals exclusively. IT: In Rome there is also a new big aquarium underway (in the suburb EUR). Fasulye (GE): She has no illusions about learning all animal names in all her 8 languages 10 August 2011 (p.318) GE: A link to the homepage of Krefeld zoo (for Fasulye's project) Fasulye (GE): it is not strictly necessary to learn animal names like "Kleine Ypecaha-Ralle", "Langnasen-Blumenfledermaus", "Mexikanischer Streifensalmler" or "Pfauenaugen-Stechrochen". 11 August 2011 (p.318) Fasulye (DU): The homepages of Zoo Artis and Burger's Zoo in the Netherlands apparently don't have animal lists DU: I couldn't find those lists for any Dutch zoo I know, GER: Some German zoos had them, others not and some just for specific animals. Osnabrück zoo claimed to have a whole encyclopedia, but I couldn't find it ENG: I have watch the quiz QI with Stephen Fry, which always has unexpected information - such as "platypus" being the rightful name not of the wellknown duckbill monotreme, but of a beetle. SCO: After that some stand up from the Apollo theatre, including a man with a Scottish accent. The quote of the day: if God didn't mean us to eat animals, why did he then build them out of meat? Newyorkeric: Or in the words of Homer Simpson: If God didn't want us to eat animals, then why'd he make them so tasty? 11 August 2011 (p.319) Fasulye (DU): Has printed the zoo maps of several zoos and dicovered that Münster Zoo in Germany has a version of its homepage in Dutch. And she found the encyclopedia of the Osnabrücker zoo. GER: Thoughts about the names of inhabitants of towns - the names are not always easy to guess. In Denmark some names a derived from Mediavel and/or Latin versions of the town names. ENG: More studies of zoo homepages, looking for animal lists Fasulye (GER): Yes town names can be triclky. But the inhabitants of Osnabrück are called "Osnabrücker". 13 August 2011 (p.319) POR: I have listened to music of a Brasilian composer named Gomez, including the ouverture to the opera "The Guarany". This music is completely unknown here in Denmark - the only classical Brazilian composer known here is Heitor Villa-Lobos. Resinteralios (PORT): a couple of other Brazilian composers: Francisco Mignone e Marlos Nobre. As for "The Guaranyis" all school children have to read the book behind it, and since 1935 the radio program "A Voz do Brasil" has been playing the ouverture - so now the Brazilians have grown tired of it. PRZ_: will spend a day reading through my "guide through learning languages" ENG: Thanks to PRZ_ for the friendly words. The guide has fewer readers than my log thread because it isn't updated all the time. 15 August 2011 (p.320) DU: I have read in several places that Frisian is spoken by at least 300.000 persons, almost exclusively in the Northern part of the Netherlands. FRI: A quote claims that the number is 600.000 all in all. DU: The concept of "Town Frisian" is blutitng the picture - it is apparently something like the way the Scots speak with Scottish accent, but English words. Also a few links. Fasulye (DU): She once participated in a Dutch-speaking camp, where on person also spoke fluent Frisian. There are Frisian programs on Dutch TV. Sprachprofi: Asks whether I have written about my impressions from the Esperanto world congress in July. Chung: Is thinking about an update to the language profile of Frisian. Asks for a native speaker. Arekkusu: Has noticed that this log is closing in on the 1.000.000 eader mark Paranday: "I think those two cheetahs just pushed him over the top." Meramarina: Congratulations ENG: Yes, I have noticed the visitor count. ESP: Half a page about the Esperanto congress as an answer to Sprachprofi. Fasulye (ESP): Congratulations in Esperanto - plus some corrections and a comment to my remarks about the differences in style between Schleyer (who invented Volapük) and Zamenhof Chung: Has found some information about the state (and status) of Frisian. Quote from an investigation in the Northern Province of the Netherlands from 1980: "It was discovered that approximately 54% of the respondents considered Frisian a first language." 16 August 2011 (p.321) ENG: Quite impressive numbers for a supposedly moribund language 17 August 2011 (p.322) LAT: Something about the Gothic language and its history, including the report from a diplomat who visited Crimea in the 1560 and found the last speakers of the Gothic language. See the original at ling.everywitchway.net ENG: watched SuperQuark on raiuno while translating an obscure Swedish rock poem into first English, then Spanish. Watched QI on BBC. A few days ago a certain Rory McGrath demonstrated that he knew not only the periodical system by hard, but also a lot of scientific Latin bird names. ESP: Read some of the first of three volumes of the "Lord of the Rings" in Esperanto during a train trip to Viborg an back. Luckily the translater has kept the word 'orko', where the translator of the Hobbit had confused orks with water goblins. 18 August 2011 (p.322) ESP: I have also read Tolkien in the bus back home from my job, including the section where the great polyglot Gandalfo translates the letters on the one ring. Also a link to one of the sites where you can learn the Elwen language Quenya through English POR: … - and another where you can do it with Portuguese as your base language.. SCO: Reference to a place with texts in Scots and another one with some information about Scots - but with some badly conceived definitions of what it takes to read/speak/understand Scots. 20 August 2011 (p.322) DA: Finally I have scanned my mothers photos - a project that has taken time away from my studies IT: Raiuno has behaved splendidly, showing valuable programs for a whole evening ESP: Long day at my job - I was there until 22. And Frodo is approaching the abode of Elrond Half-Elf. I have to read on at home too, otherwise he wont reach the flames of Orodruin before Christmas. Sprachprofi (ESP): Some tips about guessing which of several possibilities from different languages is used as part of the vocabulary of Esperanto. 21 August 2011 (p.322) Fasulye: Has used my passage in Danish from the day before as language training. 23 August 2011 (p.322) DA: New project in Danish (after my mother's photos): transferring an extra-thick issue of the magazine of my travel club to internet format. ESP: Poor Frodo has still not reached Elrond's place because I haven't read as much of the Lord book as I intended to. Some thoughts about hobbit names and their translations therein. FR: The battle between a member who considered himself a patrician for reading great books in the original languages and the rest of us as plebs because we mostly (or entirly) read other things remimnded about the poem "The Seller of Tulips" in "Gaspard de la Nuit", a collection of prose poems by the romantic French poet Aloysius (Louis) Bertrand. Paranday: My reference to the book "Gaspard de la Nuit" reminded Paranday about Vladimir Ashkenazy's recording of Ravel's piano composition of the same name. ENG: I also know that work (in three movements: Scarbo, Ondine and Le Gibet), but I have never been able to play it. Also a quote (in French) from another poem from the same period, a poem in the collection "Les Chimères" by Gerard Nerval. Fasulye (ESP): She only knows the name Frodo because one of her friend has a tomcat with that name. She is not a fan of Fantasy literature. 24 August 2011 (p.323) ESP: I don't know for sure where the name Frodo comes from, but the name Frode is of Germanic origin, and at least one legendary Danish king bore this name (according to Saxo). IT: I have finished one of the Italian magazines I bought in Rome (Focus). Its main theme was 'pirates' and one of the articles described the life of Francis Drake. However there also was a discussion of the reasons for calling the leader of the German government 'Kanzler(in)' (Chancellor). 25 August 2011 (p.323) Fasulye (ESP): Thanks for the information about the name Frodo. 27 August 2011 (p.323) Fasulye (DA/GER): A giant anteater from Krefeld zoo is going to a Danish zoo called Jesperhus 28 August 2011 (p.323) GER: Krefeld must also try to get some new animals instead of those they send to other zoos. Jesperhus is half botanical Garden, half indoor zoo, and it lies in the Northern part of Jutland. Apart from that I have attended the Medieval Festival in Horsens. I have also watched a German TV program about (and from) 'Südtirol' ('Alto Adige' in Italian), which is a bilingual area in Northern Italy which once belonged to Austria. ESP: I have finally finished the first of the three volumes of the Lord of the Rings. Gandalf has fallen into a big hole while battling with a balrog (some kind of enormous and very evil firespirit). 29 August 2011 (p.324) Fasulye (GER): Krefeld zoo won't be empty. Next year it will open a big facility for gorillas. Kuikentje: Hoi, Kuikentje is back after the summer holidays 30 August 2011 (p.324) ENG: Welcome back. Plus something about the origins of the word "hoi" 31 August 2011 (p.324) ENG: In principle I would have added a message to one of Zwlth's threads about 'great books', but to avoid more discussion I put it in my log. It is a description of my reading habits, where I normally at any time is reading one big book, sometimes two, but most of my reading consists of 'small' books (in the physical sense), magazines and printouts. Edited by Iversen on 30 September 2011 at 12:38pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6703 days ago 9078 posts - 16473 votes Speaks: Danish*, French, English, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Esperanto, Romanian, Catalan Studies: Afrikaans, Greek, Norwegian, Russian, Serbian, Icelandic, Latin, Irish, Lowland Scots, Indonesian, Polish, Croatian Personal Language Map | Message 35 of 42 14 October 2011 at 11:27am | IP Logged |
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Summary for September 2011
2 September 2011 (p.324) IT: In the bus I have read the Italian (!) magazine "BBC History", including a very interesting article about Mathilda of Canossa (known from history books and a play by Pirandello) 3 September 2011 (p.324) Sprachprofi (GER): In German you can still say the equivalent of "Going to Canossa" 4 September 2011 (p.324) POR: I'm going to read Os Lusíadas by Camões, which is a long poem from the 1500s about the exploits of Portuguese seefarers DU: I have also studied my Dutch guide to Rome GR: .. and an old printout about the use of the intenet by Greek children and youngsters BA I: And in Bahasa I continue to study short excerpts from my guides to Singapore, this time about the area Little India. 7 September 2011 (p.325) POR: I still read Camões, and I have also listened to a passage from his poem (at Librivox). POL: I have read the Polish Wikipedia article about the French mathematician Laplace RU: I have returned to my Russian history books (the one with the accents) and here I read about Djinghis Khan and his merciless hordes. Today they smashed Khorezm to smithereens Hobbema: thanks for the link to the spoken version of Os Lusíadas POR: Os Lusíades are surprisingly easy to read, apart from a few oldfashioned spellings (and some that point towards Galician) POR: Como escrevi acima, a leitura dos Lusíades é surpreendentemente fácil de um ponto de vista lingüístico, além de umas ortografias antiquadas (incluindo algumas que me faz lembrar o Galego ("polo")). RU: More Djinghis Khan. POL: I have now also read about another French mathematician: d'Alembert. GR: I have made a wordlist with around 60 words from yesterday's article about the internet. 9 September 2011 (p.325) ENG: Thinking about doing one more Youtube video. Slept instead of doing studies. Марк (RU): corrections ENG: comment concerning one Russian comma Kuikentje: Hoi, she has been to a school party. DU: Intend to finish Camões and maybe read the 2. volume of Tolkien in the upcoming weekend. The Dutch name "In de Ban van de Ring" is possible the most inept translation of the title I have seen yet. 10 September 2011 (p.326) Kuikentje (DU): Stressed after the school party. The music was definitely too hard on her. 12 September 2011 (p.326) POR: I did visit my family during the weekend, and as pplanned I finished Camões. I preferred the non-mythological parts where he writes about real exotic places. He also mentions da Gama's interpreter, a certain Monçaide. ES: I also read the 'second book' (of six), i.e. the first half of volume 2 out of 3 about the Lord of the Ring. 15 September 2011 (p.326) Fasulye (ES): Fine that I read so much in Esperanto - in two months she has only read the Journal of the Dutch Esperanto Organization and some papers for her study group. She already has enough Esperanto books at home and therefore she didn't buy any at the congress in Copenhagen. ES: Before the congress I only had dictionaries, the 'Yearbook' 2011 and some printouts, so I bought the Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. I wonder whether the Silmarillon exists in Esperanto? Fasulye (ES): It is possible to buy books through the UEA (the international Esperanto organization), link given. But nothing more by Tolkien than the two mentioned above. ES: The Silmarillon is the (posthumous) book in which Tolkien gives the big overview over the history of the world from its creation to the time of the other books. 16 September 2011 (p.326) IT: I have listened to a course in Sardic in several parts on Youtube, made by a certain Ricu Burriccu, who speaks Sardic at least some of the time. Fabrizio (IT): Ricu B's Sardinian is somewhat influenced by Italian. Fabrizio gives a link to a halfhour long item on Sardegnadigitallibrary with Argiolas Maria Efisia. And he wishes that Sardinian comes on the list of languages you can choose here at HTLAL. 17 September 2011 (p.327) IT: thanks to Fabrizio for the link. ENG: I had my 25 years jubilee reception at my job today, and my collegues gave me a big card in six languages (made using Google translate). Fasulye: congratulations 19 September 2011 (p.327) ENG: It is also worth noting that they only used languages which I know - maybe they have discovered my presence at HTLAL? 21 September 2011 (p.327) RU: I have been listening through my Tchaikovsky tapes while reading about the Mongol-Tartar invasion - which hardly is mentioned in Danish history books (because Batu Khan went back to Mongolia at the death of Ogadei Khan instead of conquering and destroying western and Northern Europe - he had reached Hungary at that point!). GR: Then I did a wordlist with around 50 Greek words from a dictionary SCO: A resume of the Russian passage … in Scots instead of plain English BA I: I studied some texts about places in Malaysia SCO: I then made some prints from the Scottish Wikipedia, but it is fairly incomplete - though I found some interesting stuff about Egypt. PLA: Then over to the Low German wikipedia to see whether it was more complete. Find even more stuff about Egypt. IC: And finally a short article about Egypt in the Icelandic wikipedia, which I supplemented with texts about the Arctic regions. Aldous (ENG): I had written that Camões had filled a large part of his Lusiadas with Greek mythology, and that this was typical for his period. Aldous points out that Camões used the Odysee as a paragon for the ventures of Portuguese sailors like da Gama. Also a comment about my comment about a certain Monçaide, who functioned as interpreter for da Gama in India. Марк: A corrected version of my latest Russian passage. He also asks what I mean by "та отложенная Европа". ENG: It should be "так отложенная Европа", and I wanted to express something like "thus letting Europe in peace/aside for a while". Марк (RU) proposes a version with a compound passive form: "таким образом, Европа была спасена от монгольского нашествия" RU: I ask whether it isn't possible to use a construction with a participle Марк (RU): "спасена" is a participle 23 September 2011 (p.328) ENG: OK, maybe the construction I wanted with a (present) particple isn't possible. (NB: the Russian compound passive contains a participle just like its English parallel does SP: I'm watching Spanish TV about Spaniards all over the world SW: I have read an old bilingual printout of the beginning of Pippi Långstrump in Swedish and Esperanto. This is definitely a great work within children's literature, but apart from this one I haven't had time lately to read thick great books. ENG: Apart from that I have mainly worked with Russian, Polish, Bahasa I and Greek the last couple of evenings Fasulye (ES): Has also read Pippi Långstrump long ago, although in German. Asks whether "Vilao Vilaltao" is "Villa Kunterbunt" from the German version. ES: It is "Villa Villekulla" in the Swedish and Danish versions, kaj Pippi's complete name is "Pippilotta Viktualia Rullegardinia Krusemynta Efraimsdotter Långstrump". 25 September 2011 (p.328) RU: I have found the travelogue of a Russian merchant named Afanasia Nikitin, who made a four year long trip to India around 1475 and died on his way home. It is in old Russian with a translation into Modern Russian. The last place name in the text is "Khafa". 26 September 2011 (p.329) Aldous: it could be Caffa in the Crimea. ENG: Caffa in Crimea would be positioned near the place where Volga runs into the Black Sea, and Nikitin would have been travelling back along Volga if he had been alive, so that seems a likely solution RU: I have read some more of the travelogue, this time about his stay in Azerbaijan where we both have seen burning earth Марк: Volga runs into the Kaspian sea, not the Black one. ENG: Ouch. However I have found Caffa (now Feodosiya) in Wikipedia and checked the rivers. Volga actually turns sharply towards the East (and the Kaspian sea) at a place where Don almost meets it, but turns sharply down towards the Black See - and that fooled me. 27 September 2011 (p.329) ENG: In my newspaper I have read (in Danish) about a sentence by the European court, where the court apparently used the only aberrant (bordering on erroneous) translation among those quoted in the newspaper in its verdict against a company accused of quote manipulations. 29 September 2011 (p.329) ENG: I read the prologue to Saxo's Gesta Danorum (in Latin) a few days ago, but otherwise I have spent so much time on the music of Tchaikovsky that I couldn't read great books too. But I have worked with a Greek text about Cythera and the section of Nikitin's Russian travelogue where he stays in India. Btw. it would be more in accordance with the Russian version to spell Tchaikovsky as Tchaikovskij (Чайковский). DA: I have read a Danish science magazine Kvant at the library today, including an interesting article about traces of life in 3.700.000.000 old magnetite from Greenland. You can see that it is organical stuff because organical Carbon sucks up C12. I borrowed a Greenlandic grammar to get some feeling for the functioning of an allegedly polysynthetic language. 30 September 2011 (p.329) ENG: I have at long last added the summary for July. I would actually write the one for August, but then I discovered that I had forgotten to make one for July so I had to make that one first. Edited by Iversen on 14 October 2011 at 12:07pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6703 days ago 9078 posts - 16473 votes Speaks: Danish*, French, English, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Esperanto, Romanian, Catalan Studies: Afrikaans, Greek, Norwegian, Russian, Serbian, Icelandic, Latin, Irish, Lowland Scots, Indonesian, Polish, Croatian Personal Language Map | Message 36 of 42 17 October 2011 at 1:55pm | IP Logged |
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Summary for October 2011
3 October 2011 (p.330) ENG: I have spent 4 hour reading through a Greenlandic grammar. I wanted to see what a presumed polysynthetic language is like. And one of the things I learned is that Greenlandic is an ergative language. I have used the grammar of estrid Janussen, which is clear and understandable (if you can read Danish). However I would have have liked even more literal translations and even more examples with just one change, because then you really can see the system behind the words. Fasulye (ENG): notices that I have used two Danish grammatical terms ("grundform" and "afhængig form"). She would like a bilingual list. ENG + DA: Bilingual Danish - English list of grammatical terms (with "sætningsknude" as the last one) Fasulye: has extended the list into a list in ENG - DK - GER - NL Sentence knot = sætningsknude = Satzgefüge? = zinsknoop ENG: a miniature treatise about sentence knots (i.e. constructions consisting of "a three tier system, but the connecting word is actually a relative pronomen (rp) which - when judged on its function - clearly belong to the lowest level") Fasulye (GER): this could be called a "Satzgefüge" in German. She asks whether only relative pronomina can tie a knot. GER: There are also examples with interrogative pronouns, and besides I see some words with adverbial function as relative pronouns. With interogatives in questions you can also have knots with just two layers. 3 October 2011 (p.331) FR: Something about 'sentence knots' (noeuds de phrase) in French, with quotes from "Le Bon Usage", a grammar by M. Grevisse. ENG: "sentence knot" (ENG): 381 hits … so even in English it is a rare term. This construction - which is alive and well in English - has clearly been overlooked by the grammarians, maybe because they don't know what to do about it and believe that it will go away by itself if they just ignore it. 8 October 2011 (p.331) BA I: read some old printouts from Wikipedia about tribes on Borneo (mostly those in Sarawak), 13 October 2011 (p.331) I have spent four days in England: Norwich, Ely and some other places. However in the calm evenings I managed to find time for a wordlist of some sixty Greek words. I also used the opportunity to watch Stephen Frye's TV program 'Planet Word". 16 October 2011 (p.331) ESP: A halflong tale about my impressions from the Esperanto congress i Copenhagen 17 October 2011 (p.331) Fasulye (ESP) has made a corrected version of the report for her Esperanto group. She noticed that nothing much happened the first day, where she hadn't yet arrived 18 October 2011 (p.332) ESP: at first I couldn't see any difference between the original and the revision - but it turned out that I had compared two copies of the revision. Also a proposal for new version of a sentence which had been seriously garbled in the original (my participation in a meeting for first-time congress participants. FR: I am reading a special issue about the civilizations between Euphrat and Tigris from "Cahiers de Science et Vie" 31 October 2011 (p.332) ENG: I have just returned from a trip to Myanmar, lasting almost two weeks. I bought two small and cheap dictionaries and an old 'Teach yourself' language guide from 1988 (plus a couple of books in English about Bagan). Something about the use of contrastive exampes and about constructions with connectors in Myanma (Burmese) Newyorkeric thinks that I have written too little about the trip ENG: A picture of myself wearing a t-shirt with the Myanma alphabet. Also something about the visual aspect of that alphabet and the Thai one, and about the name of the country. I have written a long 'postcard' for the new homepage of my travel club, but it isn't visible for anyone except members who have logged in - all postcards at the old homepage were visible. Fasulye (ENG/DA): the new homepage of that club is prettier than the old one, and she can use the member presentations as Danish training materials. (NB: the issue about the visibility of my 'travel postcards' continues into November) Edited by Iversen on 11 November 2011 at 11:16am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6703 days ago 9078 posts - 16473 votes Speaks: Danish*, French, English, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Esperanto, Romanian, Catalan Studies: Afrikaans, Greek, Norwegian, Russian, Serbian, Icelandic, Latin, Irish, Lowland Scots, Indonesian, Polish, Croatian Personal Language Map | Message 37 of 42 02 January 2012 at 11:16am | IP Logged |
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Summary for November 2011
1 November 2011 (p.333) ENG: Answer to Fasulye: The new homepage of my travel club may be prettier and more modern, but so far there's less to read - the postcards were only visible for members (NB: now fixed), and there are far fewer travelogues (NB: because of problems with picture placements in Internet Explorer - not yet fixed jan 2 2012) Fasulye (ENG): Maybe there is less content, but so far she is training her Danish skills by reading our member introductions . Solfried Cristin (ENG): would like to read the 'postcard' from/about Myanmar which I mentioned Oct. 31 ENG: then I would have to translate it into English first because is is written in Danish. While waiting some members might have a look at an earlier "beretning" in Scots at the old homepage. Fasulye: has read the Scots travelogue - understands what I mean when I say that there is less content on the new homepage. Asks for a translation of the passage "... en stilling som EDB-konsulent, som jeg havnede ved et rent og skært tilfælde." 2 November 2011 (p.334) DA/GER: "som jeg havnede i ved et rent og skært tilfælde." --> "worin ich durch puren Zufall gelandet bin" DA: the Danish 'postcard' from Myanmar quoted verbatim Fasulye: would like an explanation of the word "skært" ENG: "havne i" and "skært" explained 4 November 2011 (p.334) ENG: I have been busy organizing photos and writing travelogues. But I have also read a few things: FRA: A special issue of "Sciences et Vie" about the old civilizations between Euphrates and Tigris, including an article about the cuneiforme writing system IT: Woke up early and saw something about Berlusconi and the crisis on French and Italien TV stations 7 November 2011 (p.334) Hilaya (ENG): a comment to some remarks I made after my trip to the Philippines in January 2009: "Hiligaynon, commonly known as Ilonggo is an Austronesian language. It is not a dialect. " 8 November 2011 (p.334) GR: I spent the weekend at my mother's house, watching German TV and making Greek wordlists using my trusty old Langenscheidt. And I read my guide to Athens in the bus-back-home-from -work. SP: I have listened to music by J.Turina, an excellent Spanish composer 9 November 2011 (p.335) BA I: A hyperliteral translation of a sentence from my guide to Singapore and a discussion about derivation in Bahasa Indonesia, with a speciel section on the word "kesucitaan", which my dictionary didnt have. However its meaning could be guessed from the roots "suka" and "cita". Fasulye (ESP): M.Erard's book "Babel no more" has got it own homepage now. ESP/ENG: That homepage is somewhat thin, but there is some more information at the blog of the author. 11 November 2011 (p.335) PO/RU: First stab at Polish since September, using a Polish/Russian/Danish version of a text about the zoo in Wroclaw. The rest of the evening spent on my digital photo collection - I'm making the shown picture sizes bigger because I have bought a new computer screen with more pixels across SCO: the excellent online "Scots Dictionar" has been exceedingly slow for some time, but is now as fast as when I first discovered it. 14 November 2011 (p.335) Paul Lambeth (ENG): As an Englishman based in Scotland he is happy to see somebody, especially a foreigner, taking on Scots like any other language. Would however like to hear what ramshed means in 'ah coud had baked a cake an ramshed it' means, please? ENG: it is supposed to refer to excessive, sloppy and greedy eating, but maybe it isn't as common as I thought. My paper dictionary only mentions its use as an adjective, meaning "rough", "coarse" or "unpleasant". The sentence above is also supposed to illustrate a peculiar use of past participles in Scots. Noticing that Paul Lambeth also studies Icelandic I mention the Icelandic culinary terms "skýr" and "skýrhákarl". "Skýr" is an OK fermented diary product, while "skýrhákarl" is rotten fermented sharkmeat. Paul Lambeth: Can't say whether "had baked" is correct, but in the absence of a fixed Scots written standard and without grammars you have to expermiment with Scots. More about Icelandic food and a claim that "Scots haggis tastes brilliant, as do black and white pudding. None of them sound appetising, but they're perfect." ENG: I have made a small video in Youtube about Scots and the "Scots dictionar" 15 November 2011 (p.336) ENG: Something about the cracking of the Maya writing system (and the downfall of a traditional view of Mayans as calendar fixated hippies). 16 November 2011 (p.336) LAT: I have read a number of articles from Ephemeris, including one about a cluster of dying stars in the constellation Canis Maior (found by the space telescope Herschel) and another about the sighting of a Risso's dolphin near Bardsey, Wales 17 November 2011 (p.336) Fasulye (ENG): Are those stars part of the Milky Way? Do we have gamma bursts originating in the Milky Way 18 November 2011 (p.336) ENG: The stars are less than 5000 light years away and definitely part of the Mily way. Something about gamma bursts and magnetars. Also something about the ridiculuous claim that the world would go under Nov. 11. 11 2011. OK, it didn't… ENG (and RO): Something about the Romanian 'genitival particle' (or whatever you call it), as in for instance "un rezumat al cărţii i-ar face să condamne pe loc romanul". Evidence that the language in inter doesn't adhere to the rules in the grammars. The rule nowadays seems to be that "in combinations with a 3. person pronoun in the genitive, the a-word normally accords with the owned thing, the pronoun always with the owner. And the examples with alui and alei and alor are rare and suspect." 21 November 2011 (p.336) ESP: I have participated in the annual general assembly and 'Christmas eating' of my travel club, which took place in Copenhagen. I read parts of my translation into Esperanto of Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings". However I got back home and stopped reading in the scene where poor Sam climbs up a mountain with Frodo hanging on his back. 22 November 2011 (p.336) ESP: Now both the ring and Gollum have been dropped into a volcano. I reproach Tolkien for letting his characters adopt a totally idiotic plan which could go wrong at any moment. 23 November 2011 (p.337) ENG: Hyperliteral translations of the examples in my lengthy post about the genitival a-word in Romanian. Valkyr (ROM): The grammars can't follow the evolution of the language . There are lots of supposedly correct expressions which sound wrong in the ears of a native speaker. Fasulye (ESP): She will present my corrected report in Esperanto about the congress in July in Copenhagen for her Esperanto group next day (24/11). 25 November 2011 (p.337) ESP: I have now read Tolkien volume III, apart from the cleaning operation in the Shire. And while I read it I listened to music by Ralph Vaughan-Williams. LAT: My scanner suddenly died so I had to buy and install a new one. And it is a sober one-function machine, not one of these modern all-in-one gadgets. 27 November 2011 (p.337) ESP: I have not finished Tolkien and sent those elwes and sorcerers and ringbearers across the sea to some mythical island. Aragorn and Arwen insisted on remaining in Midearth. GR: Instead I have read some more in in my Greek guidebook to Athens. ENG: I have of course also watched TV, including several programs about paleontology. It was mentioned that the shape of Neanderthals had a different shape. The general conclusion was that the Neanderthalers didn't speak and we did, and that gave us a decisive advantage. However from the facts I have seen elsewhere there is a reason to believe that the Neanderthalers could communicate, although they may have sounded like grown up babies IC: Also a program on French TV5 from Iceland, with many interviews in Icelandic - and with subtitles in Russian (my mother's cable provider has never corrected this, and I don't complain). 30 November 2011 (p.337) SP: Message from Tenerife: In my hotel in Puerto de la Cruz there are two main languages - Spanish and Finnish (there is apparently a travel group from Suomi here). Outside there are lots of Germans, and all the kiosk sell magazines galore in German so I have problems finding anything wortwhile in Spanish. But English is not a very prominent language here, at least not in this town. Fasulye (SP): is wondering whether I can switch quickly between languages as they do in her Skype group. (Answer forthcoming in December) Edited by Iversen on 03 January 2012 at 2:02pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6703 days ago 9078 posts - 16473 votes Speaks: Danish*, French, English, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Esperanto, Romanian, Catalan Studies: Afrikaans, Greek, Norwegian, Russian, Serbian, Icelandic, Latin, Irish, Lowland Scots, Indonesian, Polish, Croatian Personal Language Map | Message 38 of 42 02 January 2012 at 2:42pm | IP Logged |
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Summary for December 2011
3 December 2011 (p.338) GER: I also like to speak several languages in a row, but here (on Tenerife) it would be silly not to use the opportunity to speak and think 100% in Spanish. I have visited Santa Cruz, whre there are relatively few foreigners, but I must look like a tourist because twice museum people have spoken to me in English before I even had said a word. ENG: But then I tell them that it would disturb my Spanish if I had to mix it with English (or German) and they accept this - but strictly speaking it wouldn't bother me to switch languages fast. FR: By the way, I have sometimes helped other tourists (or others) with improvised interpretation - with a couple of examples where one of the languages was French. CAT: And in Catalunya it is necessary to be able to switch languages when you discover that the other person doesn't speak Catalan. GER: But truly multilingual situations are rare. SP: Finally an episode from Puerto de la Cruz: I had ordered no. 43 on the posted menu in a restaurant, and the servant brought the liquor called 43. Then I had fish no. 43 with 43 and a cola. POR: I wrote the message from Tenerife in an internet café where some idiot discussed very loudly and for a long time with some relatives i Portuguese. In such a situation I'm far to likely to start listening, and then have to concentrate in order not also to start thinking in Portuguese. Fasulye (GER): In her Skype sesions they typically stick to one language for up to 30 minutes. She isn't too fond of 'kauderwelsching', i.e. shifting incessantly back and forth between languages. 4 December 2011 (p.338) GER: In a concrete situation I would normally just speak one language to a certain person, but with several persons present I enjoy having a wild mixture of languages. I'm slightly surprised that those Skype sessions aren't like that. SP: I have visited Icod and Gallachico today. In Icod I bought a number of Spanish magazines plus one little booklet in Russian about local sweets and desserts. Before Icod I had only bought "Historia" and the glossy book of Loro Parque (in the edition from 2010 to save money). GR: In History I read among other things about the Ottoman conquest of Konstantinople/Byzans, now known as Istanbul, and IT: .. an article about the Sicilian Vesper, where the local population killed as many of the French intruders as they could get hold of, and GR: .. one about a Celtic invasion of Greece and CAT: .. one about the sea-realted churches in Barcelona and SW: .. one about Central Asian mummies, mentioning the Swede Sven hedin as a pioneer in this field. 5 December 2011 (p.338) Fasulye (GER): Finds it "fürchterlich" to change languages every 5 minutes. Fast switching is not the same thing as frequent switching. GER: I mostly postpone my speaking in a language until I'm relatively comfortable with it, which includes that I can skip in and out of it - although during travels I sometimes have to speak a language before this stage. Joke: I actually thought those participiants in those Skype conversations had a small bell which every two minutes or so indicated that it was time to switch to another language. But I would not want to speak Europanto. Fasulye (ENG): So frequent switches only occur during Youtube interviews. (DU) Is there something like a Father Christmas/Sinterclaas in Denmark? 6 December 2011 (p.339) Alexander86 (ENG): "jo prefereix" should be "(Jo) prefereixo" 7 December 2011 (p.339) DU: there is nothing like the Dutch Kerstman tradition around December 5-6 in Denmark. And our Father Christmas ("Julemanden") is more or less the same as in the USA: big and fat and red with a white beard. Fasulye (GE): conclusion: there is no Nikolaus like the German one in Denmark - the "Julemand" is something different. GE: Yes, we have no 'Nicolaus und Knecht Ruprecht' here. However "Julemanden" is thought to go back to a bishop Nicolaus of Myra. Btw. Danish kids get their present on Christmans Eve 24. December. Fasulye: Her bilingual Dutch-Danish dictionary translates "Sinterklaas" with "Sankt Nikolaus", not with "Julemanden". DA: I'm back home - where my home computer refused to start. SP: In the Reina Sofia airport on Tenerife I found and bought more Spanish (and one French) magazines. Fasulye (SP): What's the name of the Spanish astronomy magazine? 8 December 2011 (p.339) SP: "Espacio - la revista del universo". And the issue I bought had articles about falling space junk, a satellite visit to Fobos (one of the moons of Mars), a comparison between two kinds of telescopes and the asteroid Lutécia (old name for Paris). FR: In "Science et Vie" I read a touching story about the Japanese satellite Hayabusa, whch got a rough beating during its meeting with the asteroid Itakowa, and all thought it ad been lost. But now it has unexpectedly turned up again and started to deliver infoirmation. ENG: Another miracle - my home computer has decided to cooperate, and luckily before I had bought a replacement for it. Fasulye (SP): Found a reference to Espacio in a Wikipedia article - but hasn't it got a homepage? She knows about "Newton" versus "Schmidt-Cassegrain" telescopes, but doesn't normally read about such technical aspects of astronomy. FR: She knows "Science et Vie" from a kiosk in Düsseldorf, but prefers "Sciences et Avenir". SP: Found a link to Espacio at the homepage of the magazine enterprise Grupo V. 10 December 2011 (p.340) DA: something about Christmas charols - including the complete text of a travesty on "Dejlig er den Himmel blå" which I wrote long ago ("Hæslig er den himmel grå"). Its common melody today was written by an amateur, in spite of several famous Danish composers having written melodies. 11 December 2011 (p.340) Fasulye (ENG): Will learn and sing the Danish version ("Glade jul, dejlige jul") of "Stille Nacht heilige Nacht" in Danish - and if her teacher likes the idea also perform the song during one of her classes in Danish. DA: Something about Meidel's melody to "Dejlig er den himmel blå" GE: Something about "Stille Nacht heilige Nacht" ENG: Coughed and sneezed and .. BA I: nevertheless studied a tekst in Indonesian about some monkeys that migrated from Asia to Afrika, where they in due time developed into humanoids, apes and other monkeys. 11 December 2011 (p.340) Fasulye (ESP): This is explained in the Neanderthal Museum in Mettman, Germany (in the Neanderthal). ESP: Me and Kilroy were there Fasulye (ESP): Who is Kilroy? 13 December 2011 (p.340) ENG: Kilroy is a fictive character who simply has been everywhere already. I have had a lot of free time the last couple of days due to a lung inflammation, but I didn't feel like studying hard. RU: I have been reading excerpts from the Russian Spivak's book about polyglots. BA I: Afterwards I studied a tekst in Bahasa Indonesia about a man named Aubrey de Grey, who believes that humans should be able to live 1000 years. ENG: This reminded me of a question in the BBC quiz QI with Stephen Fry: "who is the oldest person in the Bible?". The correct answer is not Methusalem with his 969 years, but Enoch who allegedly was transported in a chariot directly to the heavens without having to die first. Actually the chariot came once more to pick up Elijah, but he was born later than Enoch and must therefore be younger than Enoch in this moment - assuming that you can trust the Bible. SP: I also watched "Destino España" and "Buscamundos" on TVE, respectively about immigrants in Spain and Spanish emigrants in other countries. PS: how do you spell the sound made by the excessive kissing made by Spaniards when they meet each other? 14 December 2011 (p.340) Serpent (RU): Objects to my characterizing Spivak's style as 'разговорный' (i.e. conversational, but I really meant 'chatty'), and when I characterize my reading in Russian as not "безопасно" she is reminded about the scene in Harry Potter where a book tries to bite people. RU: I don't actually expect Spivak's book to bite me, but I can't be sure that I read everything correctly. Serpent (RU): proposes the formulation "читаю медленно и не очень уверенно" ('"I read slowly and not very confidently") 16 December 2011 (p.341) ENG: I have sneaked back to my job, but put a warning on the door: "Contaminated zone - contact at a distance recommended". DU: I have been reading short 'biographies' of weird and bloody rulers on a Dutch history site, for istance about Caligula and Ivan the terrible and the Ottoman Sultan Murad, who had the habit of running around in the streets at night, killing everyone he met. SW: Besides I have watched the best nature videos from the year 2011 made by amateurs, RU: .. and afterwards a program from Germany about Russian winter bathers and anglers. 18 December 2011 (p.342) SP: I still have som unread magazines from Tenerife, but now I've at least read "Cómo funciona?" ('How does it function?'), which is a cross between science and engineering. ESP: I have also received an envelope with 3 issues of "Scienca Revuo" in Esperanto (one of which turned out to be a vintage reprint from the 90s) ICE: And I have prepared a lot of bilingual prints (with Google translations) from the homepage of "Lifandi Vísindi" (Living Knowledge). Strictly spreaking I could read them without the translations, but it is nice to have those when I'm in doubt. I have actually thought about taking out a subscription of the paper version, but don't know whether it is possible (and what it would cost). 19 December 2011 (p.342) Fasulye (ESP): Would like to know how the content of "Scienca Revuo" is like, - at the congress in July they spoke more about getting new contributors than about the content. 20 December 2011 (p.342) FR: I have watched a long TV program at TV5 about the last French empress Eugénie, who was married to Napoléon III. After his downfall she fled to England, where she got a good and long relationship with queen Victoria. Napoleon III arrived there too, but died soon after, and her only son died in South Afrika during a skirmish with the Zulus. 21 December 2011 (p.342) ESP: As I have mentioned earlier there was one vintage edition(from 1995) of "Scienca Revuo" in the envelope I received. I have now read this issue and found among other things an article about "Kolektado de vortoj por belarta vortaro", i.e. the collection of vocabulary about fine arts. After that an article about a class of mathematical functions, which only would be relevant for those who already knew these functions and how to use them (count me out), plus another article about French dramatists after the 'golden age' of Corneille and Racine and Molière. 22 December 2011 (p.342) SP: I have read a magazine named "Fotografía Fácil", 'easy photographing'. 23 December 2011 (p.342) DA: Danish word of the day: "arbejdsgiverjul" (employer's Christmas). It is employer's Christmas when December 24-26 (and New Year) fall on a weekend, where we would have time off even without Christmas. The opposite thing is "arbejdstagerjul" ("worker's Christmas"), where all the holidays fall outside weekends. That's how it will be in 2012, hurray. 28 December 2011 (p.342) DA/ENG: Back on my job because it is 'arbejdsgiverjul'. IC: I have read about the 10.000 hours' rule in Lifandi Vísindi, i.e. the observation that everybody who gets into the world elite in any field, be it sports or culture, will have spent at least 10.000 hours of hard training to get there. NO: Because most TV programs during Christmas are thorough boring, rotten and sentimental my family had the TV turned to NRK2 from Norway for much of the time, though without sound as some kind of animated painting. That channel had namely sent its employees on holiday and instead of all the normal programs they showed the whole long trip with the 'Hurtigrute' along the insanely long Norwegian coast, with detours into the famous fiords. In translation the route may be called 'the Fast route', but it takes an awful long time and the price tag is prohibitive - even for Norway which isn't a cheap travel destination. 29 December 2011 (p.342) SP: I have finished my Spanish Photo magazine and instead turned to a similar travel magazine, "Mucho Viaje". Among other things it contains 25 short texts about 25 places on the Earth and how new year is celebrated there. New word: Nocheviejas ('New Years eve(s)'). ENG: 6.000th message reached. BrunUgle (from Norway, ENG): Has been reading my log or some time and understands some of it. But finds the program about Hurtigruten boring: "It's always grey sky and grey water, or people eating breakfast." Fasulye (ENG): Has several times seen dia's or presentations of club members who travelled along the Hurtigruten in her Scandinavian Club - and she liked them, but can't take such a trip herself. ENG: to BrunUgle: the sky and the water are sometimes blue. I won't take the Transsiberian, and I won't ruin myself on a journey with Hurtigruten - I'm too impatient (and not rich enough). However.. N-NO: I have travelled several times with trains in Norway, and once I got off at Voss, took a bus down to a fiord, sailed to another fiord and took the famous Flåmbanan back to the main railway line at Myrdal. BrunUgle: impressed by seeing some New Norwegian here, she hasn't tried writing it herself for many years. Yes, Norway is pretty, and you can see that even during a short bicycle excursion near your home (if you live there). But Norway is also an expensive place, and the only consolation is that everything else seems cheap in comparison - for instance books bought via the internet. Tractor (also from Norway): Luckily you don't pay duty on books, but for other goods there is a limit at 200 kr - above that you pay duty (200 NOK approx. = 25 € or 33 US$) PS: currency conversion corrected Edited by Iversen on 03 January 2012 at 2:01pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| tractor Tetraglot Senior Member Norway Joined 5453 days ago 1349 posts - 2292 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, English, Spanish, Catalan Studies: French, German, Latin | Message 39 of 42 02 January 2012 at 4:19pm | IP Logged |
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200 NOK is only half as much: 25 € or 33 USD. The limit means that if you buy language learning materials
and the package includes a CD in addition to the books, you have to clear customs. Then you end up paying a lot more than you initially thought. Edited by tractor on 03 January 2012 at 10:39am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6703 days ago 9078 posts - 16473 votes Speaks: Danish*, French, English, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Esperanto, Romanian, Catalan Studies: Afrikaans, Greek, Norwegian, Russian, Serbian, Icelandic, Latin, Irish, Lowland Scots, Indonesian, Polish, Croatian Personal Language Map | Message 40 of 42 08 February 2012 at 4:48pm | IP Logged |
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Summary for January 2012
2 January 2012 (p.343) ENG: The log writers are extremely busy - so my log fell down to third page in just a couple of days IT: I have spent time with my 'new' tape collection - from 1991-92. 'New' is here used in the same sense as 'nuova" in Porta Nuova in Palermo, which was erected in 1587. I listened to instrumental music by Verdi (overtures etc.) GER: I listened to the traditional New Years concert from Vienna, which included a Danish piece: "Copenhagen steam train galop" by H.C. Lumbye. BA I: In a text in Indonesien I read that men with long ringfingers have more testosterone .. and they behave accordingly ENG: something about derivations in Indonesian - they are not always totally obvious. For instance "menyelamatkan" (save, rescue) contains the root "selamat" (safe, also used in greetings). 3 January 2012 (p.344) ENG: copied and studied a passage from Spivaks book about polyglots (Russian). Copied an studied a passage about the Syndagma Square in Athens from my Greek guide to Athens. Couldn't find any of the unknown words in my dictionary until it occurred to me that I was looking in a Russian-Danish dictionary. Found, copied and studied the second part of the article about men's ringfingers in Indonesian. 4 January 2012 (p.344) IC: Read something about the shorttime memory in a text from the magazine Lifandi Visindi IT: Watched Super-Quark in Italian at Raiuno, with something about the 'first' emperor Qin Shi Huang. SP: Watched Buscamundos in TVE - a program about Spaniards around the world ENG: Besides I have spent time on organizing photos on behalf of my travel club 6 January 2012 (p.344) ENG: In the evening I would have studied languages, but ended up reading a book about word counting. Learned that a word which only occurs once in a corpus is called "hapax legomena". POR: I looked up "Manaus" in Google and read a guide in Brazilian Portuguese about the place. Some words were not even in the electronical dictionary which I used for the purpose (en.bab.la). It had many good examples, but somehow a number of these didn't correspond to the translations. 7 January 2012 (p.344) DA: I actually wanted to make a video, but noise from my neighbours lair prevented that. GER: I have watched a German program about the Antartic station Neumeier III. PLATT: Afterwards Nordtour (but in High German) FR: A program in French from the Danish channel DR2 about Madagascar plus.. FR: an Attenborough film in English about Madagascar. Did you know that tenrecs can get 42 young in one litter? Flarioca (POR): Answers to some of my problems with Brasilian words in the text about Manaus. 8 January 2012 (p.344) PORT: Thanks to Flarioca - one extra question about the word manauara: does it have a form in -o ? Fasulye (GER): Liked reading about the Neumaier Station under the Alfred Wegener Institute. Has read a book by Nora Graser about a stay there. Flarioca (POR): No, like 'carioca' 'manauara' only exists in the form with -a at the end. 9 January 2012 (p.345) POR: Actually I haven't seen *carioco. Something about the etymology of "carioca" (inhabitant of Rio de Janeiro). PLATT: Listened to Frühschoppen in Low German at NDR, mostly about music. One claim: English is just a dialect of Low German. The normal claim is that it is a dialect of Frisian. NO: Watched a program about the Norwegian town Høyanger at NRK. It had earlier a thriving gymnastics tradition, mainly due to a certain Tell Teigen. Fasulye (DU): Understands my Low German writings because they resemble Dutch. 10 January 2012 (p.345) FR: A program lasting 45 program at TV5 must be seen as something of an exception, most 'programs' last 3-4 minuts there. And the theme was the island Réunion in the Indian Ocean. NO (ny): A Norwegian program about geology in Swedish television. The oldest rocks in Norway lie on the Hardangervidda near Finse and they are around 500 mio. years old. BA I: Did a wordlist in Bahasa Indonesia - not good to become too Europcentric! ENG: Watched QI i English - but it is irritating that BBC Entertainment sends the same episodes again and again. Link to an episode on Youtube where Fry imitates several kinds of Scots. I also looked up some examples of Napoletano (the dialect from Napoli in Italy) at Youtube, including one smelly affair. Tractor (NO): There is a difference between "på Finse" og "nær Finse" (= i nærheten av Finse). 11 January 2012 (p.345) ENG: I have ordered "Babel no More" from saxo.com (it shouldn't always be Amazon!), and because the shipping costs are zero above 500 DKK I also bought a Filippine dictionary, a Greenlandic grammar and a guide bok to Taiwan. Besides I have recorded and uploaded a 27 minutes long lament about the dire prospects for Danish and the downwards spiral for foreign language education in Denmark and the total lack of interest in homestudy among the pedagogical experts hee. Fasulye (ENG): liked the video because it was long and in Danish - happy about her progress in Danish, which partly can be ascribed to courses. Has already read "Babel no More". 12 January 2012 (p.346) ENG: I suspect that much of the time in evening courses is wasted on babbling in your native tongue. But as a supplement to homestudy they may serve a purpose. 13 January 2012 (p.346) ESP: Watched "Time Team" at the History Channel - something a dig near Bath. Did my own dig in a site on top of my stereo rack, where I found my Dutch guide to Rome, many homemade music sheets and printouts in a number of languages - but under all that also my papers from the Esperanto congress in Copenhagen. 16 January 2012 (p.346) DA: I have borrowed a book about languages at the library ("SprogBogen" by Jørgen Pagh, 1996) - but it is fairly thin and not very convincing. For instance the Polish writing system is characterized by a lot of 'apostrophes' (it should be diacritical signs). Later on something is written about the Serbians adopting the Cyrillic alphabet which they still use - but nowadays we can see that at least half the homepages in Serbian are written using Roman letters. ESP: I have read that the 'First book' (Unua Libro) of Esperanto was published July 26 1887 - so Esperanto can celebrate its 125. birthday later this year. BrunUgle: Does TimeTeam still exist? ENG: According to their homepage TimeTeam still make programs at Channel4 - but there is a geographical block on the latest episodes on that homepage. I watch older episodes at History Channel. 17 January 2012 (p.346) FR: I have watched a program on TV5 about the shipwreck - apparently the ship has cost 700 mio. Francs (presumably Swiss, not the small old French Francs). SW: A long program about the railway from the mining town Kiruna in Sweden to the costal town Narvik in Norway. GER: A program about the mighty queens of Ptolemäan Egypt before Cleopatra. 18 January 2012 (p.346) ENG: I have restarted my studies of Irish. I dropped them last year because the pronunciation was unpredictable (I checked my guesses with abair.ie). Now I have realized that I probably won't ever speak to ative speakers in Irish so it doesn't matter that my pronunciation is wrong. Today: something about the verbs, which have both analytical and synthetical forms. 20 January 2012 (p.346) BA I: I have studied the Indonesian Wikipedia article about grammar (not specifically the one of Indonesian). ENG: I have also read more in my TY Irish, including past tense which uses a artical "do". However it also states that verbs are quoted in 1. person singular of the present due to the lack of an infinitive. In my Collins dictionary they are quoted in a short form, which seems to be identical to the imperative singular. ENG: I also read an article about zoos in Polish - but my budding Polish has already become somewhat rusty. Ellsworth (ENG): Actually "do" isn't required to form past tense except in certain dialects like the one of Munster ENG: I checked the internet grammar "Gramadach na Gaeilge" (in German), and it states that "go" has more or less disappeared except in front of vowels. ENG: this morning a woke up to the sound of "dingdong" from my doorbell - my books from Saxo finally arrived. According to my new Lonely Planet guide to Taiwan several bus stations there are called "Ding Dong". I have also read about 100 pages of "Babel no More" during a train trip. Aloysius (ENG): Ding Dinge Dong was also the original Dutch title of the 1975 Song competition Teach-In's winner song. A "Teach-in" is some kind of a general educational forum on a complicated issue with no limits to neither a specific frame of time nor an academic topic. 23 January 2012 (p.347) DA (Synnejysk): I have visited my mother in Southern Jutland. She speaks 'normaldansk', but the dialect is still living in the countryside. I have few written sources so I have refrained from trying to learn it, but can write in it after a dose of the dialect from the homepage of the "Synnejysk Forening" (synnejysk.dk). Quote: a joke in the dialect. (Summaries in regular DA and ENG) 24 January 2012 (p.347) ENG: My computer refused to start yesterday so I spent a whole evening doig paperbased studies in my armchair. DU: Studied a passage from my Dutch guide to Rome and read afterwards most of the book extensively. BA I: Masde wordlists with words (mostly) from the Wikipedia article about grammar. Found through Google that it has been quoted verbatim by lazy bloggers and other amoral website owners. Copied and studied a snippet of Spivak's Russian polyglot book plus passages from the materials for the Esperanto universal congress 2011. I continued my studies in my antique Teach Yourself Irish, and besides I use the booklet about Irish from the German editing house Kauderwelsch as bus reading. It has hyperliteral translations: "Is fuath le hElilís caife" --> "ist verhaßt mit Eilís Kaffee" --> Eilís haßt Kaffee 25 January 2012 (p.347) EN: I tried to start my home computer, but again it shut down without warning. I have to buy a new one, and until I've done that I have to do armchair studies. SP: "Hemos cambiado" from TV is a program about immigrants in Spain. After that a program about the coldest place in Siberia, Oymyakon. RU: More Spivak. ESP: More Esperanto (the tour descriptions from the congress, including one to the brewery Carlsberg). GR: Something about the Greek Parliament "Vouli" and puclic park behind it. EN: More TY Irish. 26 January 2012 (p.348) LAT: Read someting about the first Danish 'kings' according to the Medieval chronicler Saxo - actually he states that they didn't use the title 'king' yet. Something about the sources he may have used. Also something about the Danish expression "fra "Arilds tid" ('from time immemorial') AF: I have listened to short videos at the homepage of the Capetown newspaper "Die Burger" 27 January 2012 (p.348) EN: Yesterday evening I spent almost two hours listening to violin music by Vieuxtemps and Ernst. I also did Russian, Irish and Indonesian wordlists plus some extensive reading in Saxo in Latin - there is a Danish translation, but it doesn't follow the original closely. I have still no internet accesss at home, but sitting in my comfy chair with a notestand and a tray full of printouts, magazines and books, pens in 4 colours, a heap of dictionaries to my left and my TV in front of me (with or without sound) isn't a bad study situation. I have reached a section about verbs around page 50 in my Kauderwelsch Irish. One surprise: the ordinary present of 'to be' is given as "tá" + pronoun in ALL forms - which goes straight against the teachings of Teach Yourself, where verbs in the present generally are shown with a mixture of synthetic and analytic forms. So now I have to deal with two conflicting sources. 28 January 2012 (p.348) EN: Now I have a new computer, but it will take time to install things on it. My old DOS-based database which contains the lists of my paintings, music cassettes and photos/postcards won't run on Windows 7. At least I have backups of my data. Besides I found time to read a few pages more in Saxo, made Russian wordlists with words from my history book and read several pages of printouts in Icelandic from the home page of Lifandi Visandi. Zenmonkey (ENG): You can run XP VM like "XP Virtual Machine" or "DosBox" (a dos emulator) on Windows 7 29 January 2012 (p.348) EN: I have decided to make another system for my DOS batabases - using an emulator would just prolong the agony. So even though it was Saturday I took the bus to my job, where I still have an old machine that can read DSI system, and then I transferred all my data to Excel files. In the bus I studied Kauderwelsch Irish, including the section about modal expressions. Like Russian Irish states that something is 'with you', not that you 'have' it. But Irish uses many other expressions of this kind. SP: In TVE I watched the language program "Sacalalengua" NO: Afterwards I watched "Norske Attraksjoner" on NRK1. It is a local tourism program with a humoristic twist. 30 January 2012 (p.348) BA I: I read and studied a long article about Google translate Fasulye (DU): Something about the Higgs particle, with links to "Wetenschap24" and "Sterne und Weltraum". DU: The paradox about the Higgs particle is that it is supposed to give mass to everything in the univers, but its own mass isn't known yet. 31 January 2012 (p.348) IC: Yesterday I read and studied articles from the homepage of Lifandi Visinda, including one one that states that gamers can learn to control their own dreams in the manner of lucid dreamers. Not surprising - they have internalized that if anything disturbing turns up you immediately grab the nearest gun and shoots its head off - actually a good way to deal with nightmares. Icelandic is sometimes characterized as very difficult, but its morphology is roughly the size of the German one. The problem is getting enough exposure. Edited by Iversen on 09 February 2012 at 12:46am 1 person has voted this message useful |
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