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Germanic Pride. | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion | ( Topic Closed) |  |
| MarcoDiAngelo Tetraglot Senior Member Yugoslavia Joined 6447 days ago 208 posts - 345 votes  Speaks: Serbian*, English, Spanish, Russian Studies: Thai, Polish | Message 41 of 90 09 April 2010 at 12:41am | IP Logged | |||||
I, on the other hand, can't even concieve how a person can be "proud" (whatever that word means) of anything he haven't accomplished himself. It's just accident, are you aware of it? Let's suppose my grandfather was a mass-murderer. What on Earth do I have to do with that?? Hey, and the opposite too - if Novak Djokovic won Wimbledon, what difference does it make to me? I have to feel proud because of what? Because he speaks the same language as me? Even though we are entirely different persons? It seems to me so childish that I can't even put it into words. Edited by MarcoDiAngelo on 09 April 2010 at 12:42am 8 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| apatch3 Diglot Groupie United Kingdom Joined 6185 days ago 80 posts - 99 votes Speaks: Pashto, English* Studies: Japanese, FrenchA2 | Message 42 of 90 09 April 2010 at 12:42am | IP Logged | |||||
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My parents were immigrants who've since moved back to the country of their birth. I remain attached to the country In which I was born and raised though and plan on spending the rest of my life there, and naturally English remains my mother tongue. Hence I lack any Germanic roots whatsoever but am still a native speaker. Edited by apatch3 on 09 April 2010 at 12:43am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| tracker465 Senior Member United States Joined 5352 days ago 355 posts - 496 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish, Dutch | Message 43 of 90 09 April 2010 at 12:46am | IP Logged | |||||
I think that it is just a difference in culture, and that is something that can be explained, but not necessarily understood by someone who holds a different view. I don't watch soccer/football, but if the USA wins the World Cup (yeah right), I would feel some pride. When Bobby Fischer won at chess against the Russians, maybe I would be proud. That my ancestors are from various countries in Europe, sure I have some pride in that as well. Just a cultural difference I think. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Chung Diglot Senior Member Joined 7156 days ago 4228 posts - 8259 votes 20 sounds Speaks: English*, French Studies: Polish, Slovak, Uzbek, Turkish, Korean, Finnish | Message 44 of 90 09 April 2010 at 12:49am | IP Logged | |||||
I don't think that it's a question of pride at all as you're adhering to the principle used by comparative linguists :-) Languages are classified based on similarities in vocabulary AND grammar. The validity of a classification is usually strengthened by detection of traits which are regularly similar or regularly different from those in other languages. English is still classified as Germanic despite the large stock of Romance loanwords, its dropping of grammatical gender, and its relatively analytical typology. Basic words of Anglo-Saxon origin still remain in the language even if some of them coexist with words from other sources. English can still use ablaut to indicate changes in verb tense (think of "weak" and "strong" verbs in German and how some English verbs behave like "sing" with the related verb forms "sang" and "sung" (German "singen", "sang", "gesungen"). Change the root's vowel and you create a past tense form or a participle). In the same way, most linguists classify Hungarian as a Finno-Ugric language, even though about 80% of its lexical roots CANNOT be traced to cognates or parallels in any of the other Finno-Ugric languages. Unlike English however where some can feel "Germanic pride", many Hungarians were initially shocked and almost disgusted (and a few still are to this day) to find out that their language was most closely-related to certain languages of little-known indigenous people living in the swamps or tundra of northern Eurasia. There was little sense of "Finno-Ugric pride" despite the linguistic evidence. Many Hungarians then disputed the findings pointing to the facts that Hungarian is not mutually intelligible with Estonian, Lappish or Finnish, and that it also shows some grammatical similarities with more "manly", "prestigious" or "glorious" languages of Turks or Mongols in addition to the similarities with the Finno-Ugric languages. Lastly the relatively small share of "Finno-Ugricisms" in Hungarian lexicon (only about 20% of Hungarian roots have Finno-Ugric connections) was also used as "proof" to weaken the conclusion of Hungarian's linguistic kinship to Finno-Ugric. 5 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| MarcoDiAngelo Tetraglot Senior Member Yugoslavia Joined 6447 days ago 208 posts - 345 votes Speaks: Serbian*, English, Spanish, Russian Studies: Thai, Polish | Message 45 of 90 09 April 2010 at 12:56am | IP Logged | |||||
No, not a difference in culture. Serbia is full of such people. You have to understand that it's absolutely irrelevant to you whether USA won FIFA World Cup or not. It's all fictional. Absolutely fictional. And believe me, I know how you feel, I was there myself. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| apatch3 Diglot Groupie United Kingdom Joined 6185 days ago 80 posts - 99 votes Speaks: Pashto, English* Studies: Japanese, FrenchA2 | Message 46 of 90 09 April 2010 at 12:57am | IP Logged | |||||
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lol are we debating the legitimacy of the fifa world cup here rofl
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| MarcoDiAngelo Tetraglot Senior Member Yugoslavia Joined 6447 days ago 208 posts - 345 votes Speaks: Serbian*, English, Spanish, Russian Studies: Thai, Polish | Message 47 of 90 09 April 2010 at 1:02am | IP Logged | |||||
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No, I meant to say that "pride" is fictional, not WC. :)
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| ruskivyetr Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5481 days ago 769 posts - 962 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Spanish, Russian, Polish, Modern Hebrew | Message 48 of 90 09 April 2010 at 1:05am | IP Logged | |||||
I don't feel a strong connection with my German heritage at all. I'm only half German, and ironically the other half is Polish Jew. Not every American is Christian or Jewish. There are a LOT of different religions in America, and 60 years ago there was a huge community of Jews and smaller communities of other religions throughout America. Many Americans do not have German heritage. America is actually quite heterogeneous. It is hard to find someone who is not part X heritage and then a little Y heritage. I'm actually MORE connected to my Polish heritage regardless of whether or not I am half German and speak German. First of all, I am a practicing Jew, secondly, I don't speak with the German side of my family often, thirdly, the grandparents who are Polish are acutally from Poland whereas the grandparents who are German are third generation here. Ironically I learned my German as a child from my mother's German stepfather, so I really don't even have a connection with my heritage per say with the language. ESPECIALLY since my German heritage came from the Lower Lands and they all spoke Plattdeutsch. Making grand generalisations about the American people is not a good idea. We're so mixed, it's really hard to pinpoint anything anyone really has in common except their citizenship. If you think we're all just a Germanic people with heritage, we're not. In fact, I think that it's a minority to have any Germanic heritage. I'll look it up and see. 5 persons have voted this message useful |
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