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Guaraní Profile- NYT | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| Ari Heptaglot Senior Member Norway Joined 6574 days ago 2314 posts - 5695 votes  Speaks: Swedish*, English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Mandarin, Cantonese Studies: Czech, Latin, German | Message 9 of 17 15 March 2012 at 7:24am | IP Logged | |||||
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Awesome!
So from what I gather from your account and what I've read on Wikipedia, it seems Asunción might not be the best place to go if one wants to learn Guaraní. Are there other cities where Guaraní is stronger, or is it mostly rural? And what do you think is the future of the language? Will it slowly give way to Spanish, will the youth eventually feel proud of it and learn it well, or is maybe Jopara (which I understand can be seen as a creole language) the future language of Paraguay? The more I read about it, the more I want to study it. South America interests me, but linguistically it's a pretty boring place, except for Paraguay. I've got some tidying up to do in my languages, getting Spanish up to fluency and making a final push to get Mandarin and Cantonese to a place where they're easy to maintain, but soon I'll be looking for a new language. If I can find some good resources, going with Guaraní until I've got some stable basics and then living in Paraguay for six months or so sounds pretty tempting. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Jappy58 Bilingual Super Polyglot Senior Member United States Joined 4630 days ago 200 posts - 413 votes Speaks: Spanish*, Guarani*, Arabic (Levantine), Arabic (Egyptian), Arabic (Maghribi), Arabic (Written), French, English, Persian, Quechua, Portuguese Studies: Modern Hebrew | Message 10 of 17 15 March 2012 at 6:11pm | IP Logged | |||||
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At TrentBooks: I agree! I'm actually a native Paraguayan, so I was thrilled to find a thread about my native language. Anyways, I lived in Paraguay until I was eleven years old and since I moved to the U.S. I've visited my home country at least once a year.
At Ari: Asuncion is a great place to learn it, at least if you were to organize home stays. Othe than that, I would also recommend the rural areas. I visit part of my family in Ciudad del Este sometimes, and it is also reasonably common there. I know you were asking TrentBooks, But I thouyght I'd give my thoughts as well: IMO, Guarani is in a much better condition than other indigenous languages in South America. However, it is true that Spanish (and Portuguese) are having a strong influence on the youth, and there's no doubt in my mind that Guarani is at risk of succumbing to the larger languages. In my recent visits to the country, Guarani is still very strong in the rural areas, as mentioned earlier, but seems to be slowly be converting to a more Jopara situation. I've met many of the youth that are proud of the Guarani language, but also several that feel that Spanish is more worth keeping up. 4 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| TrentBooks Triglot Groupie United States TrentBooks.com Joined 4846 days ago 43 posts - 98 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Guarani Studies: Biblical Hebrew, Japanese | Message 11 of 17 15 March 2012 at 9:05pm | IP Logged | |||||
Actually, Asuncion would be a great place to learn Guarani because most of the people there speak Spanish as well. In other words, they would be able to better describe the word AND the feelings behind it. When you get in more rural areas, sometimes their Spanish is lacking and it's harder for them to describe what the word actually means. However, once you begin to get the fundamentals of Guarani, I would highly recommend moving outside of Asuncion to improve your vocabulary. You start to find truly exciting words that mean things like "an encounter of two people walking opposite directions on a pathway." You really get to see the indigenous roots shine out! As for other cities, I lived in Ciudad del Este for about 10 months and it was a great place to learn. I also lived in Concepcion for a few months, and it was arguably more "Guardango" (i.e. the scales of language fluency were tipped more toward Guarani). I never lived in Pedro Juan Caballero, but I heard it's one of the most Guardango cities in the country. Generally speaking, I believe that the northern half of Paraguay (north of Asuncion, that is) presents more opportunities for "pure" Guarani than the southern half.
That's absolutely my feeling as well. In some situations, I got the feeling that some of the youth felt self-conscious about not knowing Spanish better. I'm concerned that those wanting to "get somewhere" are going to see Guarani as less valuable, and Spanish as more valuable. True, there seemed to be a real sense of pride in the Guarani heritage and culture, but there's also a sense of caution because Spanish is the way to connect to the outside world - a trait seen as desirable for those seeking more modern living. In any case, thanks Jappy58 for confirming my thoughts! It's nice to see a native with a similar perspective. Oh, and if you're thinking of living there, Ari, I would highly, highly, recommend it. =) Edited by TrentBooks on 15 March 2012 at 9:11pm 5 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Jappy58 Bilingual Super Polyglot Senior Member United States Joined 4630 days ago 200 posts - 413 votes Speaks: Spanish*, Guarani*, Arabic (Levantine), Arabic (Egyptian), Arabic (Maghribi), Arabic (Written), French, English, Persian, Quechua, Portuguese Studies: Modern Hebrew | Message 12 of 17 17 March 2012 at 7:44pm | IP Logged | |||||
Concepcion! I can't believe I forgot about that city, I would high recommend it. When I lived there as a young one (and I also just visited last year), there was definitely a lot of Guarani being spoken around. It's also a rather nice city, IMO. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Saim Pentaglot Senior Member AustraliaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5075 days ago 124 posts - 215 votes Speaks: Serbo-Croatian, English*, Catalan, Spanish, Polish Studies: Dutch, Portuguese, Italian, Occitan, Punjabi, Urdu, Arabic (Maghribi), French, Modern Hebrew, Ukrainian, Slovenian | Message 13 of 17 17 March 2012 at 9:43pm | IP Logged | |||||
Jopará's not a Creole, AFAIK. It's just code-switching, like Hinglish in South Asia or Taglish in the Philippines. Jopara's more of a register of Paraguayan Guaraní than a distinct language. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Roman Diglot Groupie Spain Joined 5444 days ago 42 posts - 52 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, English Studies: German, Italian, French | Message 14 of 17 19 April 2012 at 11:43am | IP Logged | |||||
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I'm learning a bit of Guaraní, since I made friendship with two Paraguayans here in
Spain... I already did a basic SRS with the few words that I've found in internet. But I need someone who could pronounce correctly the words in Guaraní, because I'm afraid these friends don't know really well how to actually read them. And I need more material and perhaps some grammar practice. Any help? Someone to talk? Thanks 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
 Mae Trilingual Octoglot Pro Member Germany Joined 4983 days ago 299 posts - 499 votes Speaks: German*, SpanishC2*, Swiss-German*, FrenchC2, EnglishC2, ItalianB2, Dutch, Portuguese Studies: Russian, Swedish Personal Language Map | Message 15 of 17 19 April 2012 at 7:12pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I have learned Guarani for 3 years, and then stopped. Most of the people in Paraguay
don't speak a pure form, they speak a mix of Spanish and Guarani called "Jopara". There are beautiful poems, songs and literature in Guarani. For more information about the language, resources and even an online book store, have a look here: Guarani Ñanduti Rogue - a cool site with very useful links. They have a list of books to learn Guarani, with the possibility to order them. I have several books at home, but they cannot be compared to the language learning books we're used to buy here in Europe. Enjoy! EDIT: Here is a website with podcast to learn Guarani. Edited by Mae on 19 April 2012 at 7:39pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Roman Diglot Groupie Spain Joined 5444 days ago 42 posts - 52 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, English Studies: German, Italian, French | Message 16 of 17 20 April 2012 at 11:31am | IP Logged | |||||
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Thank you, Mae!
Yes, but if you want to undertand a Paraguayan it's best to learn it, because they go back and forth between Spanish and Guarani in a conversation... 1 person has voted this message useful |
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