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Languages changing your native language

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20 messages over 3 pages: 13  Next >>
Tyr
Senior Member
Sweden
Joined 5783 days ago

316 posts - 384 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Swedish

 
 Message 9 of 20
02 November 2010 at 12:43pm | IP Logged 
jeff_lindqvist wrote:
Tyr wrote:
Firstly- I suppose I've become more gramatically correct and started talking of 'one' being able to do things rather than 'you' being able to do things.


Are you thinking of the indefinite pronoun 'man' here?

Tyr wrote:
Secondly- My word order is a bit more archaic. 'Should I happen upon' rather than 'If I should find'.


Are you saying that 'should I happen upon' is in some way influenced by Swedish? And if so, how?


1: Yeah. Normally in English people would just use a indefinite you but this is technically a bit incorrect and odd sounding. Like you're telling a person they want to do something you want to do. Learning of man made me realise one fits so much better.
2: Its hard to explain...but in Swedish you have far more jag vill, vill jag variation whilst in English want I is really rather archaic. I've started using outdated though still technically correct word order on occasion.
1 person has voted this message useful



ReneeMona
Diglot
Senior Member
Netherlands
Joined 5336 days ago

864 posts - 1274 votes 
Speaks: Dutch*, EnglishC2
Studies: French

 
 Message 10 of 20
02 November 2010 at 2:55pm | IP Logged 
Thankfully, the influence of English on my native language has not been so strong that it has affected my syntax or grammar. I mostly have problems with my vocabulary. Very often when I'm having a discussion about something I don't regularly talk about, English words for things come up instead of the Dutch ones and I have to translate my thoughts as I'm speaking, resulting in halted speech and somewhat unnatural Dutch. I also have trouble remembering very basic words sometimes because I find that as soon as I have the word for something in my head in one language, I have great difficulty remembering the word for it in the other language. This is all very annoying and it depresses me to think that I've gotten myself into a situation where I'm not fully articulate in either Dutch or English.
1 person has voted this message useful



tritone
Senior Member
United States
reflectionsinpo
Joined 6121 days ago

246 posts - 385 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Spanish, Portuguese, French

 
 Message 11 of 20
02 November 2010 at 7:37pm | IP Logged 
Studying romance languages has changed my perception of what "real" English words are, as opposed to french or latin borrowed words. I find myself trying to avoid using too many words that are obviously french, and incorporating more uncommon english English words into my spoken/written vocabulary without sounding too weird.


Example:

Friend of mine - "Has anyone ever told you that you look like Will Smith?"

Me - "Yes, sundry other folk have told me that."


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Siberiano
Tetraglot
Senior Member
Russian Federation
one-giant-leap.Registered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 6494 days ago

465 posts - 696 votes 
Speaks: Russian*, English, ItalianC1, Spanish
Studies: Portuguese, Serbian

 
 Message 12 of 20
02 November 2010 at 9:39pm | IP Logged 
I started cyrillizing and declining the borrowed words and proper names more, in order to enrich my native language. And started seeing it very bad when people insert anglicisms in written Russian: this is both inconvenient to switch the layouts, and looks like not washing or ironing one's clothes.
1 person has voted this message useful



B-Tina
Tetraglot
Senior Member
Germany
dragonsallaroun
Joined 5528 days ago

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

 
 Message 13 of 20
03 November 2010 at 12:52am | IP Logged 
I encountered a negative effect in a way that my vocabulary in my native language started to reduce - I think this might be due to the fact that most of the books I read by now are written in a foreign language (english for the most part). In order to prevent this I try to pick up a book written or at least decently translated into German from time to time, preferably some classics.

1 person has voted this message useful



reneezelf
Triglot
Newbie
Germany
Joined 5218 days ago

6 posts - 7 votes
Speaks: Dutch*, English, German
Studies: Spanish, French, Polish

 
 Message 14 of 20
05 November 2010 at 10:45am | IP Logged 
My native language is Dutch and I live in Germany.
Because of the fact that German and Dutch are so closely related, I often translate phrases too literally into my mother tongue. Recently I told my (dutch) mother "ik heb veel om de oren", meaning "ich habe viel um die Ohren" (I´m up to my ears with work). Unfortunately in Dutch this doesn´t make any sense. This happens a lot to me!
And also my pronounciation in Dutch is influenced by German, but this is just at the beginning. When I speak Dutch for more than an hour, it disappears.

I even notice a German accent, when I speak English, which I hate!
1 person has voted this message useful



Solfrid Cristin
Heptaglot
Winner TAC 2011 & 2012
Senior Member
Norway
Joined 5335 days ago

4143 posts - 8864 votes 
Speaks: Norwegian*, Spanish, Swedish, French, English, German, Italian
Studies: Russian

 
 Message 15 of 20
05 November 2010 at 12:06pm | IP Logged 
jeff_lindqvist wrote:
Tyr wrote:


[QUOTE=Tyr]Secondly- My word order is a bit more archaic. 'Should I happen upon' rather than 'If I should find'.


Are you saying that 'should I happen upon' is in some way influenced by Swedish? And if so, how?


I know that a lot of the Norwegian immigrants to the US kept a very old fashioned use of their mother tongue. Part of it is to be expected, because when you leave for another country and stay there, you do not take part in the modernization which goes on in your homeland. But I do suspect that they were slightly old fashioned in their choice of words, even beyond what could be explained by this. Perhaps you have an unconsciuos longing for your home which taranslates into a a more archaic use of the language.

If my theory is correct (and I stress that this is just my theory, I cannot back it up by research, or by studies done) it is not exactly the foreign language itself which would cause this effect, but a longing for your home. Hence it would not be able to find that particular trait in the foreign language you are surrounded by, but it would still be the indirect cause.

Am I making any sense, or does this just sound like gibberish?
1 person has voted this message useful



pineappleboom
Groupie
United States
languageloft-ashley.
Joined 5254 days ago

66 posts - 76 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Japanese, French, Russian

 
 Message 16 of 20
09 November 2010 at 10:23pm | IP Logged 
i sometimes mix up word order. its rare but it has happened. i accidently speak with sov instead of svo


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