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You are not a real polyglot if... | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| s_allard Triglot Senior Member Canada Joined 5447 days ago 2704 posts - 5425 votes  Speaks: French*, English, Spanish Studies: Polish | Message 201 of 299 27 October 2013 at 7:49pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Unlikely as that may seem, I think that @Chung and I agree somewhat. If nationalist, ethnic or religious sentiments
are the main factors in determining the existence of a language, linguistic realities are not that important. As a very remote observer who has never heard any of these languages, I tend to rely on official or administrative recognition. If the EU, the UN, the United States government, etc. all recognize four languages, then four languages exist. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Chung Diglot Senior Member Joined 7173 days ago 4228 posts - 8259 votes 20 sounds Speaks: English*, French Studies: Polish, Slovak, Uzbek, Turkish, Korean, Finnish | Message 202 of 299 27 October 2013 at 8:03pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Where the similarity ends is how much we take politics into account when considering linguistic classification. Because we're dealing with languages, I take structural linguistics as my starting point rather than political decrees or similar.
This isn't to say that I deny different naming conventions or ignore outright the feelings of native speakers. As in the cases of job applicants it's just that I can't consciously let myself be fooled if my own analysis or experience contradict what's presented on the surface. 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| oziohume Bilingual Hexaglot Newbie Belgium Joined 4755 days ago 30 posts - 43 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish*, Catalan, Italian, French, German Studies: Dutch | Message 203 of 299 27 October 2013 at 8:16pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I think I agree with Chung in that there exist for me two separate questions.
I admit that this conventions are for me important, because languages are about people, and communication. This would mean for me that there exist separate denominations for a language such as the former Yugoslavian ones. However, although they may be separate languages, that does not mean that I would accept them in a Curriculum Vitae as separate languages, unless it was specifically required. Therefore someone speaking Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian and Montenegrin for me wouldn't apply as a polyglot. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6614 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish | Message 204 of 299 27 October 2013 at 10:39pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Well, when it comes to a CV, someone who claims fluency in Serbian and Croatian should be able to write in cyrillics (and hopefully with at least some usage that's preferable in "Serbian"), whereas someone who speaks only Croatian or Bosnian will know only the Latin alphabet.
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| tractor Tetraglot Senior Member Norway Joined 5470 days ago 1349 posts - 2292 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, English, Spanish, Catalan Studies: French, German, Latin | Message 205 of 299 27 October 2013 at 11:14pm | IP Logged | |||||
When speaking to Swedes in Norway, I don't think I adapt any more than when speaking with Norwegians from a different part of the country, at least not consciously. When in Sweden, I tend to adapt more. When speaking to Danes, I always adapt quite heavily (unless I know that they've lived in Norway for a long time). I speak a Northern Norwegian dialect, and most Danes have difficulties understanding unless I slow down and use more standardized vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| tarvos Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member China likeapolyglot.wordpr Joined 4724 days ago 5310 posts - 9399 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English, Swedish, French, Russian, German, Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Afrikaans Studies: Greek, Modern Hebrew, Spanish, Portuguese, Czech, Korean, Esperanto, Finnish | Message 206 of 299 27 October 2013 at 11:18pm | IP Logged | |||||
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What about a foreigner (like me) who happens to speak Swedish? Would you treat that the
same as a Swede or would you adapt extra strongly? 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| tractor Tetraglot Senior Member Norway Joined 5470 days ago 1349 posts - 2292 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, English, Spanish, Catalan Studies: French, German, Latin | Message 207 of 299 28 October 2013 at 12:01am | IP Logged | |||||
That would depend on your (perceived) proficiency. If you spoke native-like Swedish, you'd fall into the "Swedish category". If you spoke with an accent, you'd fall into the same "foreigners' category" as if you spoke Norwegian with an accent, and I'd adopt my language, consciously or unconsciously, according to your level. Edited by tractor on 28 October 2013 at 12:02am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
 Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6720 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 208 of 299 28 October 2013 at 10:19am | IP Logged | |||||
When I visited Norway (a place near Jotunheimen) as a child in the 60s I simply couldn't understand strong dialects, but since then I have progressed to a level where I only occasionally have problems with a certain humoristic program called "Parlamentet", which to me is the penultimate test of listening proficiency in Norwegian. The ultimate test is of course eavesdropping on young Norwegians in the street or in public transportation. The funny thing is that I haven't had more problems understanding Spanish or Portuguese spoken by people from different areas in the world, given how little time I actually have spent on conversation in those languages. Or Italian, for that matter - Sicilian is a far cry from Venetian, but even though I couldn't define the differences in a clear manner I seem to be able to adapt to the differences. So for me listening seems to be a skill where I am quite obtuse for a long time and then suddenly I understand things, even when the speakers have different dialects. But this is of course only possible because I have a solid background from a long and much more gradual learning process based on written materials. Edited by Iversen on 28 October 2013 at 10:27am 3 persons have voted this message useful |
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