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You know you’re a language nerd when...

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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion Post Reply
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Kerrie
Senior Member
United States
justpaste.it/Kerrie2
Joined 5145 days ago

1232 posts - 1740 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Spanish

 
 Message 2305 of 3737
11 May 2012 at 1:13am | IP Logged 
Ismeme Granger wrote:
Kerrie(or anyone, really), do you know if there are very many good Spanish learning(or
reading practice)
books for the Nook(preferably free or cheap. I'm just about broke)?


I don't know about the Nook - I have a Kindle. Well, three of them, actually. But there are pdfs all over the internet, and I think the Nook reads pdfs, right?

You can also download a PDF creator and print websites (news articles, wiki articles, fan fiction, almost anything) to a PDF file and put it on your reader.


Edited by Kerrie on 11 May 2012 at 1:13am

1 person has voted this message useful



Ismeme Granger
Newbie
United States
Joined 4332 days ago

26 posts - 65 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Spanish

 
 Message 2306 of 3737
11 May 2012 at 1:15am | IP Logged 
Okay, so the original word was the same for both turtle and tortoise, but because the
Galapagos islands have so many different and unique varieties of tortoises, there is a
special word in Spanish for a Galapagos tortoise(galápago)? Do I have that right?

When you don't find it at all weird that you are discussing the origins of the word for
tortoise in Spanish with a native Russian speaker.

Edit: Yes, I had to look it up, but Nooks do read PDFs. Great idea! *gets ready to get
Spanish PDF files on to my Nook...and quite possibly things from other cool languages,
even if I don't plan to study them...*whistles innocently*

Edited by Ismeme Granger on 11 May 2012 at 1:18am

1 person has voted this message useful



espejismo
Diglot
Senior Member
Russian Federation
Joined 4801 days ago

498 posts - 905 votes 
Speaks: Russian*, English
Studies: Spanish, Greek, Azerbaijani

 
 Message 2307 of 3737
11 May 2012 at 1:56am | IP Logged 
The Spanish named the Galápagos Islands after the Spanish word for tortoise, which at the time was
'galápago'. Now they seem to use 'tortuga' regardless of whether the 'tortuga' in question dwells on land or in
water, but I guess people still understand the distinction being made by the use of 'galápago'? I'm not exactly
sure. Maybe someone who knows Spanish better can correct me.

...when you enjoy discussing things like this.

Edited by espejismo on 11 May 2012 at 4:22am

1 person has voted this message useful



Ismeme Granger
Newbie
United States
Joined 4332 days ago

26 posts - 65 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Spanish

 
 Message 2308 of 3737
11 May 2012 at 2:08am | IP Logged 
Ah. That explains why the correct spelling of Galapagos has an acute accent.

Actually, I have a question for you regarding the Russian alphabet. From what little I
can tell, each letter has a 'normal' sound and a 'special' sound. How does the soft sign
change the sound of each letter, and how do you know whether, for instance, Д is
pronounced as a 'd' or a 't'? I can read the general basics(not knowing any words except
loan words, of course), but the inconsistencies confuse me(as they would confuse an
English learner, I suppose).

When the fact that you're asking about Russian when you're not learning it does not
surprise you.
1 person has voted this message useful



Einarr
Tetraglot
Senior Member
United Kingdom
einarrslanguagelog.w
Joined 4363 days ago

118 posts - 269 votes 
Speaks: English, Bulgarian*, French, Russian
Studies: Swedish

 
 Message 2309 of 3737
12 May 2012 at 11:15am | IP Logged 
When you realize that in the process of searching your mobile phone, you say to yourself: "Hvor er min mobiltelefon?" - and that's not your native language. :D
2 persons have voted this message useful



Josquin
Heptaglot
Senior Member
Germany
Joined 4594 days ago

2266 posts - 3992 votes 
Speaks: German*, English, French, Latin, Italian, Russian, Swedish
Studies: Japanese, Irish, Portuguese, Persian

 
 Message 2310 of 3737
12 May 2012 at 1:58pm | IP Logged 
Ismeme Granger wrote:
Actually, I have a question for you regarding the Russian alphabet. From what little I
can tell, each letter has a 'normal' sound and a 'special' sound. How does the soft sign
change the sound of each letter, and how do you know whether, for instance, Д is
pronounced as a 'd' or a 't'? I can read the general basics(not knowing any words except
loan words, of course), but the inconsistencies confuse me(as they would confuse an
English learner, I suppose).

The soft sign and the soft vowels indicate that the preceding consonant has to be spoken palatalized. This means pressing the tip of the tongue against the roof of your mouth, and it sounds a little bit like an added 'y'-sound. Д is always pronounced as a 'd', only at the end of words and before unvoiced consonants it's devoiced and becomes 't'. The same is true for other voiced consonants like в. This sounds very theoretical, but it soon becomes a habit when reading Russian.

You know you're a language nerd when you give little lectures about the Russian alphabet after only a week of learning Russian.

Edited by Josquin on 12 May 2012 at 1:59pm

6 persons have voted this message useful



Ismeme Granger
Newbie
United States
Joined 4332 days ago

26 posts - 65 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Spanish

 
 Message 2311 of 3737
12 May 2012 at 7:13pm | IP Logged 
You know you're a language nerd when you didn't blink at the use of the word palatalized
in the previous post, and it actually made a lot of sense.

You know you're a language nerd when you want to read your Spanish grammar book and start
looking for examples of palatalization in Russian sentences that you don't even
understand...at the same time.
2 persons have voted this message useful



LaughingChimp
Senior Member
Czech Republic
Joined 4449 days ago

346 posts - 594 votes 
Speaks: Czech*

 
 Message 2312 of 3737
13 May 2012 at 12:24pm | IP Logged 
Josquin wrote:

The soft sign and the soft vowels indicate that the preceding consonant has to be spoken palatalized. This means pressing the tip of the tongue against the roof of your mouth, and it sounds a little bit like an added 'y'-sound.

That will give you a retroflex consonant. You must raise the middle part of the tongue to get a palatalized conosnant. It's the same movement you do for the y sound in English, palatalized consonant is basically a y and the consonant pronounced at the same time.


Edited by LaughingChimp on 13 May 2012 at 12:25pm



3 persons have voted this message useful



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