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Journeyer Triglot Senior Member United States tristan85.blogspot.c Joined 6872 days ago 946 posts - 1110 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, German Studies: Sign Language
| Message 33 of 60 29 January 2011 at 3:02am | IP Logged |
The name of a language can affect how I see its color, too, but not always. Norwegian is a bright red, whereas Danish is blue and Swedish is yellow. I suspect this is because of the R in Norwegian. Arabic also is quite bright red for the same reason, but not in the same way was Norwegian. (In fact, each language looks subtly different, even if its dominant color is the same as another one.)
However, German has an R in its English name, yet it is still quite a dark-toned language. And I don't think Finnish's name affects the way I perceive it as beautifully deep and clear blue - one of the only languages I can think of that is almost completely one color.
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| ellasevia Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2011 Senior Member Germany Joined 6146 days ago 2150 posts - 3229 votes Speaks: English*, German, Croatian, Greek, French, Spanish, Russian, Swedish, Portuguese, Turkish, Italian Studies: Catalan, Persian, Mandarin, Japanese, Romanian, Ukrainian
| Message 34 of 60 29 January 2011 at 3:57am | IP Logged |
paranday wrote:
I was going by the sounds of the languages, not their names. No wonder ! |
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I go by a combination of the name, sound, and how it looks when written. In the case of Luxembourgish and Xhosa, it's just based on the names because I have never heard them and haven't seen them written very much, if at all.
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| zekecoma Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5348 days ago 561 posts - 655 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish
| Message 35 of 60 29 January 2011 at 4:53am | IP Logged |
I would have to say I rather speak in German than in English. Yes English is my native
but just prefer German because I find it a beautiful language unlike any of the romantic
languages (I'm not hating).
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| strikingstar Bilingual Tetraglot Senior Member United States Joined 5177 days ago 292 posts - 444 votes Speaks: English*, Mandarin*, Cantonese, Swahili Studies: Spanish, Arabic (Written)
| Message 36 of 60 29 January 2011 at 5:02am | IP Logged |
ellasevia wrote:
I go by a combination of the name, sound, and how it looks when written. In the case of Luxembourgish and Xhosa, it's just based on the names because I have never heard them and haven't seen them written very much, if at all. |
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If you would like to hear some Xhosa, try listening to Miriam Makeba's "Click Song". In this video, she also gives a demonstration of how to execute the click sounds. I thought it was amusing. Not to mention I don't think I'll be pronouncing Xhosa anytime soon.
Edited by strikingstar on 29 January 2011 at 5:03am
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| ReneeMona Diglot Senior Member Netherlands Joined 5339 days ago 864 posts - 1274 votes Speaks: Dutch*, EnglishC2 Studies: French
| Message 37 of 60 29 January 2011 at 11:20am | IP Logged |
ellasevia wrote:
Does anyone else find certain combinations like these very pleasing, or am I going to have to resign myself to the fact that I'm just insane? |
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Not insane, just synaesthetic. ;-)
And you're right, some combinations of languages do look beautiful. I like your Korean, Swahili, Portuguese combo, but not with Malay because that would make it too yellow.
I like diverse combinations of dark and light colours, broad and narrow, sharp and soft, warm and cool, etc.
Arabic
Greek
Romanian
Italian
Vietnamese
Zulu
Czech
Indonesian
Italian
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| Journeyer Triglot Senior Member United States tristan85.blogspot.c Joined 6872 days ago 946 posts - 1110 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, German Studies: Sign Language
| Message 38 of 60 29 January 2011 at 12:06pm | IP Logged |
Ellasevia's description is also accurate for me: name, sound and how it's written all influence its overall color and personality to me. However, I've never have thought of language groups exactly, just whole lists of languages I want to learn or don't want to learn. :-)
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| Lucky Charms Diglot Senior Member Japan lapacifica.net Joined 6953 days ago 752 posts - 1711 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: German, Spanish
| Message 39 of 60 31 January 2011 at 4:27am | IP Logged |
As I'm not synesthetic, I hope Ari won't mind me stealing his template!
English, for me, is like milk. I drink it quite often without thinking about it. I used
to think it didn't really have a distinct taste (or I guess I never really considered
it at all), but lately I've become able to love and appreciate its flavor. As with
speaking English, I drink milk so often out of habit that I don't need to worry whether
my daily intake is enough, unlike others who have to consciously make sure they're
getting enough - in fact, I'm sure it would better for my health to go with other
drinks more often!
German, for me, is like vegetable juice. In a perfect world, it's what I should
be drinking, because it would be the most beneficial for me. It's not that I dislike
it, but that I'm rarely in the mood to choose it over other drinks. Once I take a sip
of it, though, I'm hooked on the taste, and resolve to start drinking it more
regularly... Sadly, it's a resolution I forget pretty quickly!
Japanese, for me, is like green tea (who saw that one coming?) At first, I wanted to
like the taste, but it was too bitter and different from any other tea I'd had before.
I had to force myself to drink it and trick myself into thinking I liked it more than I
did, partially out of gratitude to the hosts who prepared it for me (i.e. my Japanese
host family, teachers, friends, and all those who had given me their time and
encouragement so I could learn the language). I don't remember at what point I began to
actually enjoy the taste without taking pains, but one day I realized that I loved it
and was genuinely looking forward to my next cup. Finally, I settled into a phase where
it wasn't something exotic and delicious anymore; it was an effortless and habitual
part of my everyday life. The thought of a cup of green tea doesn't get me excited
anymore, but it feels comfortable, agreeable, and natural. I can't imagine my life
without it.
Persian, for me, is like an ice cream smoothie with fresh strawberries and
passionfruit: the guilty pleasure that I can trick myself into believing is healthy.
It's just exotic-sounding enough to lure me in, but the taste is nothing too
unfamiliar, albeit with a small kick. I can't decide whether it's good or bad for my
current diet to be drinking it every day, but in the meantime I keep making excuses
because I can't get enough.
Edited by Lucky Charms on 31 January 2011 at 4:37am
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| zerothinking Senior Member Australia Joined 6376 days ago 528 posts - 772 votes Speaks: English*
| Message 40 of 60 31 January 2011 at 5:43am | IP Logged |
For me it's still French. I love speaking it. I love hearing it. I love reading it. It
looks good, feels good, and sounds good.
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