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Dialects you can’t understand? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| Ivana_B Triglot Newbie Croatia ivanabencic.com Joined 5424 days ago 18 posts - 18 votes Speaks: Croatian*, Serbian, English Studies: Spanish | Message 41 of 54 17 June 2009 at 3:21pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||
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I`m Croatian and I have difficulties understanding Istrian dialect (Istria is of course a part of Croatia).
Also, dialect that is spoken on some Croatian islands, like Brac or Hvar, are also a mistery to me. Not all the words are different, thought. For example: Croatian by the book: "Ja sam lud" (meaning "I`m crazy") Croatian from Hvar: "Jo son lud" Edited by Ivana_B on 17 June 2009 at 3:21pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| lifekiwi Diglot Newbie Australia Joined 5482 days ago 8 posts - 8 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: Portuguese Studies: Russian | Message 42 of 54 17 June 2009 at 10:01pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||
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Native English: I can understand all of North American, Irish, Australian, New Zealand, and South African English. I can understand Scottish English but I have trouble with Scots sometimes. Some dialects of English from England are incomprehensible to me, especially when spoken by young people. I'm fine with London accents and most of the south though (my dad is from Bournemouth).
French: I actually find the Parisian accent quite hard to understand, at least on some of the tapes we listen to. I can understand Québec French outside of regional vocab/slang. I'm not proficient enough in Russian to distinguish between accents/dialects. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| AntoniusBlock Diglot Newbie Sweden Joined 5708 days ago 31 posts - 36 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English Studies: French, Mandarin, Japanese | Message 43 of 54 17 June 2009 at 10:19pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||
Yes. The reasons that Elfdalian has never been declared an official minority language have very little to do with linguistics. It has rather more to do with the age-old can of worms known as politics, nationalism and money. Still, it seems that Elfdalian is now at least getting more and more attention from linguists from various parts of the Nordic region, which may help sway the politicians. Here is an interesting article about some of the present efforts to chart the language further. It contains a couple of written examples with translations that illustrate some rather interesting grammar structures. It also mentions that Elfdalian is a bit like a cross-over between Swedish and Icelandic, which seems like a very reasonable way of putting it, since Icelandic, Faroese and Elfdalian are the three living languages that are the closest to Old Norse. Apparently, Elfdalian was not even a part of Old Swedish but was born right out of Old Norse around 1200-1300, and has been more or less separate from Swedish up until very recently.
Indeed. The vernaculars of Närpes etc can be quite unintelligible and archaic at times. They are also not very well known in Sweden. High Swedish is pretty much the only type of Finland Swedish you get to hear in Swedish media unless they are reporting on dialects or some such.
Lol... I have actually been wondering whether they are mutually intelligible or not. Thanks very much for that info.
Indeed. There are also a few other archaic Dalcarlian vernaculars such as Orsamål that should perhaps be counted in as well. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| cordelia0507 Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5623 days ago 1473 posts - 2176 votes  Speaks: Swedish* Studies: German, Russian | Message 44 of 54 17 June 2009 at 10:39pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||
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Hi Ivana and other Balkans - What's the situation with Serbian; can you understand it completely? The whole Yugoslavian (ex) language situation is really confusing!
In the past I could swear there was ONE language called Serbocroatian (remember it simply because it's such a long and complicated name for a language) But now the language is split into two! Has something changed in the actual languge, or is it just a recognition of the countries being split? Is it true that there is a Belgrade newspaper that prints in cyrillic and latin letters on alternating days? I heard this funny story many years ago and it stuck on my mind. Why would they do that when it's surely a lot of extra trouble? Do people have different preferences, or why? (absolutely not trying to stir anything up here, I am simply interested in the language aspect, if this is sensitive ignore it and I'll delete it) Edited by cordelia0507 on 17 June 2009 at 10:41pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| Ivana_B Triglot Newbie Croatia ivanabencic.com Joined 5424 days ago 18 posts - 18 votes Speaks: Croatian*, Serbian, English Studies: Spanish | Message 45 of 54 17 June 2009 at 11:02pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||
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Hi cordelia0507.
Yes, Serbian I understand and speak perfectly. Ex-Yugoslavia had three official languages: Serbo-Croatian, Macedonian and Slovenian. Serbo-Croatian was one because they are practically the same. I guess 95 % of the words are completely the same or different in one letter. Accent is different but irrelevantly. Nothing actually changed, only now each country has it`s own languag. Croats still speak Croatian and Serbs still speak Serbian. Some Croats use Serbian words also on daily basis, especially the ones close to the Serbian border. Bosnians have Bosnian, people from Monte Negro have Montenegran (it`s new, I don`t even know how it is called :D) and they also speak Hungarian. On Kosovo they speak Albanian. Croats on the coast also speak Italian but I know nothing of Italian. I`m not sure about this newspaper in Belgrade but cyrillic lettering is totally normal in Serbia just as latinic. I have difficulties understand Slovenian and I can`t speak it at all. Macedonian is a total mistery to me - there are some similar words but completely different than anything I know. Nothing sensitive, don`t worry :) Edited by Ivana_B on 17 June 2009 at 11:13pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| cordelia0507 Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5623 days ago 1473 posts - 2176 votes Speaks: Swedish* Studies: German, Russian | Message 46 of 54 17 June 2009 at 11:44pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||
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Thanks for explaining!
I wonder what will happen when all of these countries join the EU? The language situation is already quite insane and it sounds like it won't get any better when you guys join! (hopefully soon) 
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| Ivana_B Triglot Newbie Croatia ivanabencic.com Joined 5424 days ago 18 posts - 18 votes Speaks: Croatian*, Serbian, English Studies: Spanish | Message 47 of 54 18 June 2009 at 9:10am | IP Logged | |||||||||||
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I don`t think joining in the EU will change anything in with the languages, but you never know ;)
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| janalisa Triglot Senior Member France janafadness.com/blog Joined 6675 days ago 284 posts - 466 votes Speaks: English*, French, Japanese Studies: Russian, Norwegian | Message 48 of 54 20 June 2009 at 5:29am | IP Logged | |||||||||||
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In English, I have trouble understanding thick Irish and Scottish accents. I remember once watching an Irish movie and understanding only about half of the dialogue. @@;
In Japanese, the dialects of Tohoku and Kyushu are almost incomprehensible to non-locals, and Okinawan is practically a different language. The Kansai dialect is widely understood, though, thanks to the many comedians and other stars speaking it on television. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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