Michael Diglot Newbie Czech Republic Joined 6661 days ago 9 posts - 9 votes Speaks: Czech*, EnglishB2 Studies: Latin
| Message 49 of 143 15 January 2007 at 1:48pm | IP Logged |
Marc Frisch wrote:
And I don't see much logic in having 5 different declension classes (with an awful lot of exceptions) and 3 different verb conjugations (+ the many irregular verbs).
Also, the declension system in Classical Latin is already kind of degenerate with many case endings being the same (i.e. puellae can be nominative plural or genitive singular) - no wonder it didn't survive.
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In my opinion Latin has 4 verb conjugations and not many irregular verbs. And declension system is much better than (for example) German one, because in German it is degenerated (Herrn is genitive, dative and accusative singular). Latin declension system is very similar to Czech so it is not very difficult for me.
Edited by Michael on 15 January 2007 at 1:50pm
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alexptrans Pentaglot Senior Member Israel Joined 6767 days ago 208 posts - 236 votes Speaks: English, Modern Hebrew, Russian*, French, Arabic (Written) Studies: Icelandic
| Message 50 of 143 15 January 2007 at 2:00pm | IP Logged |
Michael wrote:
In my opinion Latin has 4 verb conjugations and not many irregular verbs. And declension system is much better than (for example) German one, because in German it is degenerated (Herrn is genitive, dative and accusative singular). Latin declension system is very similar to Czech so it is not very difficult for me.
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Many speakers of Slavic languages I've spoken to tend to find Latin quite easy because its declension system is very similar to what is found in modern Slavic languages.
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Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6599 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 51 of 143 23 January 2007 at 2:29pm | IP Logged |
Ethan wrote:
The most logical language is Esperanto.
However, as for natural languages I would say the most logically setup is probably Finnish. Hard, but everything is setup in a complex, but logical setup. |
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I agree about Finnish;)
Being a native speaker of Russian, I also find Latin grammar rather easy. However a friend of mine, whose mother-tongue is Russian as well, finds Latin much harder than Japanese 0_0
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Controversia Newbie United States Joined 6529 days ago 11 posts - 12 votes Speaks: Spanish*
| Message 52 of 143 23 January 2007 at 5:06pm | IP Logged |
I wont go in-depth with any language, but some things are just plain obvious:
French is not very logical. I don't find a reason that you have to add two words to a verb to make it negative. To my understanding gerunds don't have their own conjugation either.
English is the most illogical. Even before learning any nouns or verbs, people must I, you, we, etc. I'm sorry, but in every English book it says that "you" is used as plural as well, and I've never in my life heard someone say "you" when referring to more than one person. The exceptions are numerous, and it's absolutely annoying. (I already know English, but I share the pain with anyone learning this gruesome language)
Spanish is my native language, and while I agree it's pretty logical, I'm a solid believer that "it" should be a word in every language. There is no word for "it," which after learning English I find hilarious.
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Captain Haddock Diglot Senior Member Japan kanjicabinet.tumblr. Joined 6770 days ago 2282 posts - 2814 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: French, Korean, Ancient Greek
| Message 53 of 143 24 January 2007 at 5:20am | IP Logged |
Controversia wrote:
French is not very logical. I don't find a reason that you have to add two words to a verb to make it negative. To my understanding gerunds don't have their own conjugation either. |
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Technically speaking, "ne" is actually the (lone) negative in French, but it nearly always combines with a negative adverb or pronoun to express more specificity. "Pas" is just sort of the default. Many languages have some kind of verb-adverb modal agreement like this.
Although it sounds literary, it's perfectly possible to say something like "je n'ai pu venir" in French.
On the subject of English grievances, you can certainly add our habit of requiring an auxiliary verb in negative sentences to your list. :)
What did you mean about French gerunds not having their own conjugation?
Edited by Captain Haddock on 24 January 2007 at 5:21am
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dreaminjosh Diglot Newbie United States Joined 6529 days ago 32 posts - 32 votes Speaks: French, English*
| Message 54 of 143 24 January 2007 at 8:30am | IP Logged |
Controversia wrote:
I'm sorry, but in every English book it says that "you" is used as plural as well, and I've never in my life heard someone say "you" when referring to more than one person. |
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Yeah, I hate "you" as the second personal plural. It's so ambiguous. I'm a native speaker of English and I don't think I've ever heard anyone use this word in normal, everyday conversation. People where I live say "y'all"- a contraction of "you" and "all". Only people in the southern US use this though (I think). Up north and out west, people tend to say "you guys" a lot. You can say "you guys" in the south too- just so long as there aren't any ladies in the group.
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Captain Haddock Diglot Senior Member Japan kanjicabinet.tumblr. Joined 6770 days ago 2282 posts - 2814 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: French, Korean, Ancient Greek
| Message 55 of 143 24 January 2007 at 9:43am | IP Logged |
In Canada, we say "you guys" regardless of the gender of those being addressed. "Y'all" sounds hopelessly outlandish.
However, "you" is still used very frequently for the plural.
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dreaminjosh Diglot Newbie United States Joined 6529 days ago 32 posts - 32 votes Speaks: French, English*
| Message 56 of 143 24 January 2007 at 11:32am | IP Logged |
Captain Haddock wrote:
"Y'all" sounds hopelessly outlandish.
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That's a very strong opinion. I guess in Canada this would sound "outlandish"... though, I don't see what hope has to do with it.
I happen to like hearing the word, especially when females use it.
People my age (26) and under don't use it so much anymore. A lot of people just say "you all" instead of "y'all" nowadays. "You guys" just wont work with the older generation though. The response to such an addressing would be icy at best.
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