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Chung at work / Chung pri práci

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cathrynm
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junglevision.co
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910 posts - 1232 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Japanese, Finnish

 
 Message 105 of 541
23 January 2012 at 12:15pm | IP Logged 
Oh I understand. I'm still kind of monolingual too, though I think I'm close to intermediate with Japanese. If I ever pass the JLPT I'll upgrade my Japanese status here to intermediate I think.
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Chung
Diglot
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20 sounds
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Studies: Polish, Slovak, Uzbek, Turkish, Korean, Finnish

 
 Message 106 of 541
23 January 2012 at 7:40pm | IP Logged 
Kafea wrote:
Wow, that's amazing!

Do you think Estonian has much in common with Sámi? I watched an Estonian movie, "The Singing Revolution", and recognized some words. What do you think?


The common lack of vowel harmony, use of consonant gradation, a few structural similarities, and some obvious similarities in vocabulary have struck me even though the mutual intelligibility is pretty low.

See here, here and here for a few more notes comparing Estonian and Inari Saami.

In case you're interested here are 406 postulated cognates in Estonian and Saamic per the Uralic etymological database (shows the words that are hypothesized as having descended from a common ancestor i.e. no loanwords). For completeness sake, here's the database filtered to show cognates in Estonian, Finnish, Hungarian and Saamic. The number of postulated cognates goes down given the greater divergence between Hungarian and the Finno-Lappic languages.

See here for my perceived "Estonian" connection to Northern Saami.
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Chung
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 Message 107 of 541
23 January 2012 at 8:30pm | IP Logged 
hribecek wrote:
That post was a thoroughly interesting read. If I can eventually get to even half of your abilities in Slavic and Uralic languages then I'll really be very satisfied.

So now you're on to your 15th language with Northern Saami, or is the 16th? Do you count Inari as your 15th?


I don't count Inari Saami since I was dabbling in it.

hribecek wrote:
I have some follow up questions! I hope you don't find my questioning annoying, I just find people's language stories fascinating.

Which of your languages have more of the B? I'm guessing Polish, Slovak and Hungarian??


In an indirect way it feels like Slovak. See below.

hribecek wrote:
What is your strongest language after English and French?


It feels like Slovak is the one right now.

hribecek wrote:
I know you've said this before somewhere but I can't remember your answer - How much do you understand of Bulgarian, Macedonian, Belorussian and Russian, having not studied them much or at all?


It's pretty low. I can sometimes understand a headline in a newspaper in those languages and less frequently a handful of sentences or words in a randomly-selected text but that's it. I can sometimes get the gist of a situation involving basic language (somewhat better if I were watching it too so that I can use visual cues/body language to complement what I'm hearing) but again it's pretty limited. The trouble is that my knowledge of Ukrainian on one hand, and BCMS/Serbo-Croatian and Slovenian on the other has become quite rusty and thus I don't have that much of a base to understand related Eastern Slavonic and Southern Slavonic languages respectively. I've browsed through a few Russian courses but I've never learned it systematically and much of my knowledge of the "other" Slavonic languages is gleaned as part of philological interest.

hribecek wrote:
Do you ever confuse Polish and Slovak when speaking them?


Sometimes. See here.
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Chung
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 Message 108 of 541
05 February 2012 at 9:45pm | IP Logged 
FINNISH

I've just worked through Chapter 4 of "Kuulostaa hyvältä". The course's dialogue was about Jutta telling Anssi how she manages to speak Finnish despite the common view that Finnish is difficult for foreigners to learn. The main grammatical point from the dialogue was use of the nominative and partitive in copulative and existential sentences.

Continuing on the Peanuts' theme, I found on Youtube the song "Snoopy and the Red Baron" in its Finnish form or "Ressu ja Punainen Paroni". The Finnish version was performed by Kontra in the 1970s with the lyrics by Mauri "Moog" Konttinen.

(N.B. The original scene comes from "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown!" and inspired the Royal Guardsmen's song "Snoopy and the Red Baron" which gave rise to the Finnish version.)

http://www.perunamaa.net/sarjakuvarock/moog/sanat/ei.html wrote:
RESSU JA PUNAINEN PAROONI
(Moog Konttinen 1977)

Achtung! Listojen ykkösenä on ratsumestari
Manfred von Richthofen, lempinimeltään Punainen Parooni!

Joskus vuosisadan vaihteessa,
Kirkkaalla Saksan taivaalla
Lensi sotalinnut, selässään
Ilmojen ritarit, verileikeissään.

Kiilat pois ja käynnistä! (Eins! Zwei! Drei! Vier!)
Parooni von Richthofen istuu hytissä.
Kahdeksankymmentä pudonnut on,
Mutta kolmitaso-Fokker on voittamaton.

Varmistin pois!
Ja liikkuvat taa!
Taas kaksoiskonekiväärit purtavaa saa.
Kahdeksankymmentä pokaalia
On paroonilla palkintokaapissa.

Mutta viimein löytyi sankari; (Left! Two! Three! Four!)
Pieni koira ja iso kaulahuivi.
Se lähti veriseen paroonijahtiin,
Mutta koirankoppi-Camelinsa alasammuttiin.

Varmistin pois!
Ja liikkuvat taa!
Taas kaksoiskonekiväärit purtavaa saa.
Kahdeksankymmentä pokaalia
On paroonilla palkintokaapissa.

Mutta Ressu vannoi kostoa,
Uuden koneen lahjoitti Suuri Kurpitsa.
Parooni vertas häntä eläimeen,
Mutta nauraessaan jäi tähtäimeen.

Parooni oli aivan loukussa,
Vaikka hän yritti kaikkensa.
Ressu tulitti kuin raivoten,
Kohta parooni putosi alas, savuten.

Varmistin pois!
Ja liikkuvat taa!
Taas kaksoiskonekiväärit purtavaa saa.
Kahdeksankymmentä pokaalia
On paroonilla palkintokaapissa.

Varmistin pois!
Ja liikkuvat taa!
Taas kaksoiskonekiväärit purtavaa saa.
Kahdeksankymmentä pokaalia
On paroonilla palkintokaapissa.

Vier, drei, zwei, halt!


***

NORTHERN SAAMI

I have completed Chapter 20 of Davvin 2 (i.e. the eighth chapter of this volume) and among other things was shown the negative simple past. Here is my understanding of the chapter's main point* (any misunderstandings of the material are mine alone).

* There was also a reminder that a distinct infinitive as familiar to Finns as the "3rd infinitive" (forms with -ma- e.g. Tule uimaan!) doesn't exist in Northern Saami. However this point is only of use to the Finns who are the intended audience of my version of Davvin.

1) Negative simple past ("preterite") is indicated by conjugating the negative verb and placing it before the past participle..

E.g.

Mun bohten "I came"; Mun in bohtán "I didn't come"
Son lei ruovttus "He/she was at home"; Son ii lean ruovttus "He/she wasn't at home"

Vocabulary of Chapter 20

árgi - "sensitive; shy"
badjel - "past" [when telling time]
birra - "about, around"
dadjat - "to say"
dakkár - "such a, that kind of"
dihte - "for, because of"
duostat - "to dare to do sg, to be bold enough to do sg"
duvle - "a while ago"
eará - "other"
guhkes áigái - "for a long time"
guoktelogát - "twentieth"
háliidit - "to want"
hárdit - "to tease; to give sb a hard time"
ipmirdit - "to understand"
jurddašit - "to think"
lusa - "to [sb's home]"
maŋŋit - "late"
oaidnit - "to see"
orustit - "to stop, stay over"
seammá - "the same"
suohtas - "fun, pleasure"
váivi - "sadness"

Examples of Northern Saami taken from my answers to the exercises

1. Man'ne don it boahtán ikte? - Mun in sáhttán, go mus lei oaivebávččas.
2. Gos Biera lei ikte? - Son veal'lái seaŋggas, go dat lei buohcci.
3. Goas don ožžot biilla? - Mun in ožžon biilla. Dat lea Iŋggá biila.
4. Jugaidet dii olu gáfe? - Mii eat sáhttán, go eat astan.

Edited by Chung on 06 February 2012 at 5:55am

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Chung
Diglot
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Studies: Polish, Slovak, Uzbek, Turkish, Korean, Finnish

 
 Message 109 of 541
19 February 2012 at 7:33am | IP Logged 
FINNISH

I've just worked through Chapter 5 of "Kuulostaa hyvältä". The course's dialogue was about Jutta showing her apartment to Anna. The main grammatical point from the dialogue was again the use of the nominative and partitive in copulative and existential sentences.

***

NORTHERN SAAMI

I have completed Chapter 21 of Davvin 2 (i.e. the ninth chapter of this volume) and among other things was introduced to adjectives, diminutives, and affirmative simple past singular for verbs whose infinitives have an odd number of syllables. Here is my understanding of the chapter's main points (any misunderstandings of the material are mine alone).

1) Verbs whose infinitives have an odd number of syllables mark affirmative simple past in singular by adding certain endings to the stem.

E.g. jorggihit "to turn"

Mun jorggihin
Don jorggihit (N.B. looks like the infinitive)
Son jorggihii

2) Adjectives often differ depending on whether they are used attributively or predicatively.

Adjectives that are used attibutively (i.e. they immediately precede the relevant noun) do not inflect...

E.g.

Dát lea ođđa dállu. "This is a new house."
Oainnátgo don ođđa dálu? "Do you see the new house?"

...while those that are used predicatively (i.e. they are complements of a sentence with "to be") are generally in nominative singular or plural.

Dállu lea ođas. "The house is new."
Dálut leat ođđasat. "The houses are new."

Furthermore, each of these two class of adjectives is often expressed with a distinct form. A glossary or reputable dictionary for Northern Saami will show adjectives as spelled in each of these classes where applicable.

E.g.

boares (attributive), boaris (predicative) "old"
ođđa (attributive), ođas (predicative) "new"
ruoná (attributive and predicative) "green" (i.e. same form attributively or predicatively)

3) Diminutives are generally formed by adding to a modified form of the noun in the accusative/genitive singular. Diminutives in turn then inflect like other nouns. In general, diminutives that have an even number of syllables in the nominative singular inflect like regular nouns whose stems have an odd number of syllables. Diminutives with an odd number of syllables in the nominative singular inflect like regular nouns whose stems have an even number of syllables.

E.g.

Even number of syllables

biergu ~ birggoš "meat ~ little (piece of) meat" (N.B. adding to bierggu made -u become -o while diphthong preceding the -o in final syllable changes. Thus **biergguš > birggoš)
dállu ~ dáloš "house ~ little house" (N.B. adding to dálu made -u become -o or **dáluš > dáloš)
guolli ~ guoláš "fish ~ little fish" (N.B. adding to guoli made -i become or **guoliš > guoláš)

Odd number of syllables

gievkkan ~ gievkkanaš "kitchen ~ kitchenette"
mohtor ~ mohtoraš "motor ~ little motor"

Vocabulary of Chapter 21

álkes (attr.), álki (pred.) - "easy"
cuovkanit - "to break down"
gávpi - "store"
geahččat - "to look at"
geahččalit - "to try"
hálbbes (attr.), hálbi (pred.) - "inexpensive"
irgi - "fiancé"
liegga (attr.), liekkas (pred.) - "warm"
mohtor - "motor"
nanu (attr.), nanus (pred.) - "sound, sturdy"
ovddit - "previous"
ruhta - "money"
unna (attr.), un'ni (pred.) - "small"
vahkku - "week"
váttes (attr.), váttis (pred.) - "difficult"
vuodjinkoarta - "driver's license"

Examples of Northern Saami taken from my answers to the exercises

1. Gii dutnje oahpahii dan?
2. Biilla mohtor cuovkanii.
3. Borgguhatgo don?
4. Mun galgen jorggihit deike.

---

For anyone following the Saamic content in this log, here's a short comedic sketch in Northern Saami from Norwegian television about a pair of lovebirds (?).

Here's my somewhat loose translation of the sketch's Norwegian subtitles

Girl: Wow! That was awesome! Good night Aslak.
Boy: Good night.
[...]
Boy: Hold on... What the heck?!
Girl: Can I give you a hand?
Boy: Can you?
[...]
Boy: Want me to help you?
Girl: No, I can do it myself.

---

hribecek and Kafea have just finished working through a primer of Northern Saami that I created as based on hribecek's request in this post. The feedback to the course seemed positive and they both gained a reasonable understanding for using the present tense in addition to having picked up a small stock of basic vocabulary and phrases. If anyone else would like to dabble in Northern Saami using this primer, feel free to send a PM to me and we'll take it from there.

***

OTHER LANGUAGES

It is with mixed feelings that I'm currently leaning toward replacing Northern Saami as the second primary target language with at least one of Hungarian, Polish, Slovak or Ukrainian once I finish Davvin 2 in a few weeks. For Ukrainian, I'm still planning on attending a course for students at the intermediate level that starts in the fall and so I feel that I need to bring my Ukrainian sufficiently past its currently moribund mid-beginner's stage in order to attend the classes. Those other Eastern European languages aren't tied to something as tangible but I do want to get back to studying them more intensively so that I can become fluent in them as I've wanted for the longest time.

For short-term challenges/detours, I already have Latvian as a candidate since I may be visiting a friend in Latvia later this year while a modest collection of courses for Azerbaijani, Mongolian, Turkish and Uzbek is slowly coming together so that I may also act on my long-standing desire to learn more about those languages.
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Chung
Diglot
Senior Member
Joined 6906 days ago

4228 posts - 8259 votes 
20 sounds
Speaks: English*, French
Studies: Polish, Slovak, Uzbek, Turkish, Korean, Finnish

 
 Message 110 of 541
25 February 2012 at 8:02am | IP Logged 
FINNISH

I've just worked through Chapter 6 of "Kuulostaa hyvältä". The course's dialogue was about Jutta and Anssi setting a time to meet for drinks. There did not seem to be any grammatical point that got an inordinate amount of attention but there seemed to be a little bit more attention on possession (e.g. minulla on...) than other structures.

***

NORTHERN SAAMI

I have completed Chapter 22 of Davvin 2 (i.e. the tenth chapter of this volume) and among other things was introduced to the past simple affirmative in plural for verbs whose infinitives have an even or odd number of syllables (but not those "contracting" verbs with dual stems). Here is my understanding of the chapter's main points (any misunderstandings of the material are mine alone).

1) Verbs whose infinitives have an even number of syllables mark affirmative simple past in plural by adding certain endings to the stem which in turn may be modified further by applying consonant gradation or changes to vowels.

E.g. juoigat "to do yoiking"

Mii juoiggaimet
Dii juoiggaidet
Sii juige (N.B. It looks like 1st person dual in present affirmative. See 3) in Chapter 10 from "Davvin 1")

The forms for mii and dii show "weak" consonant gradation but the form for sii differs from the others by showing "strong" consonant gradation like the infinitive while its final -a becomes -e and the diphthong changes. Here it is -uo- > -u-.

E.g. vuolgit "to leave"

Mii vulggiimet
Dii vulggiidet
Sii vulge (N.B. It looks like 1st person dual in present affirmative. See 3) in Chapter 10 from "Davvin 1")

The forms for mii and dii show "weak" consonant gradation but the form for sii shows "strong" consonant gradation like the infinitive while its final -a becomes -e). The diphthongs in the forms for mii and dii change if they immediately precede the syllable divided by -ii- (e.g. mii vulggiimet) while that in the form for sii changes if the following syllable ends in -e. In this example, -uo- becomes -u- in the first syllable.

E.g. oažžut "to receive"

Mii oaččuimet
Dii oaččuidet
Sii ožžo (N.B. It looks like 1st person dual in present affirmative. See 3) in Chapter 10 from "Davvin 1")

The forms for mii and dii show "weak" consonant gradation but the form for sii differs from the others by showing "strong" consonant gradation like the infinitive while its final -u becomes -o and the diphthong changes. Here it is oa- > o-.

2) Verbs whose infinitives have an odd number of syllables mark affirmative simple past in plural by adding certain endings to the stem.

E.g. gávppašit "to do shopping"

Mii gávppašeimmet
Dii gávppašeiddet
Sii gávppašedje

The stem here is gávppašit with the final -it of the infinitive being replaced by the plural endings for the affirmative past simple tense. Neither consonant gradation nor changes to diphthongs are applied.

The verb leat "to be" conjugates somewhat irregularly from the other verbs in this class.

Mii leimmet
Dii leiddet
Sii ledje

3) The answer to the question Man guhká? "[for] how long?" takes the accusative singular. For numerals, the accusative form is indistinguishible from the nominative one but often distinct from the genitive and this differs from the tendency in nouns where the accusative and genitive are merged in one form that's often different from the nominative

E.g.

Man guhká leiddet Oslos? "How long were you (> 2) in Oslo?"
Mii leimmet doppe njeallje jagi. "We (> 2) were there for four years."

Vocabulary of Chapter 22

alde - "at the top/head of"
bivdit - "to catch" (e.g. fish)
duottar - "fell"
galbma (attr.), galmmas (pred.) - "cold"
goallut - "to be freezing"
goddit - "to catch prey, hunt"
guokteloginubbi - "twenty-second"
ihkku - "at night"
il'lá - "barely"
jahki - "year"
johttát - "to migrate"
maŋis - "behind"
mátki - "trip"
oađđit - "to sleep"
reahka - "a kind of large sled with runners and shafts that's drawn by a reindeer or snowmobile"
siida - "foraging area for reindeer"
un'nán - "slightly"

Examples of Northern Saami taken from my answers to the exercises

1. Mo dii manaidet dohko? Manaimet bussain.
2. Maid dii oinniidet? Oinniimet bohccuid.
3. Gos gáfe oaččuidet? Oaččuimet dan káfeas.
4. Gos dii oruidet? Oruimet hotellas.
5. Maid sotnabeaivve barggaidet? Čuoiggaimet.
6. Na, galle áigge lihkaidet? Lihkaimet beal logi.

---

I recently stumbled upon a beautiful song by Thomas von Sonnenberg and Ánne Máddji Heatta. It's called Iđitguovssu ("Light of Dawn") and perfect for the wee hours of the night or early morning.

Edited by Chung on 25 February 2012 at 8:14am

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Chung
Diglot
Senior Member
Joined 6906 days ago

4228 posts - 8259 votes 
20 sounds
Speaks: English*, French
Studies: Polish, Slovak, Uzbek, Turkish, Korean, Finnish

 
 Message 111 of 541
04 March 2012 at 2:21am | IP Logged 
FINNISH

I've just worked through Chapter 7 of "Kuulostaa hyvältä". The course's dialogue was about Jutta and Anssi figuring out how Jutta could travel between Tapiola (district in neighbouring Espoo) and her home in downtown Helsinki. Again there did not seem to be any grammatical point that got an inordinate amount of attention but of note for me was one of the senses of kannatta. To express "to be worthwhile", kannattaa works like an impersonal verb with the relevant person in genitive.

Minä menen Leville hiihtolomaksi. Minun kannattaa ostaa uudet sukset.
"I am going to Levi for the ski-holiday. I-[genitive] is worthwhile to buy new-[nom. plur.] ski-[nom. plur.]"
"I am going to Levi for the winter break. It's worthwhile for me to buy (a) new (pair of) skis."

cf. täytyä "to be necessary" (impersonal verb)

Minä menen Leville hiihtolomaksi. Minun täytyy ostaa uudet sukset.
"I am going to Levi for the ski-holiday. I-[genitive] is necessary to buy new-[nom. plur.] ski-[nom. plur.]"
"I am going to Levi for the winter break. I must buy (a) new (pair of) skis."

***

NORTHERN SAAMI

I have completed Chapter 23 of Davvin 2 (i.e. the eleventh chapter of this volume) and among other things was introduced to the past simple affirmative in dual for verbs whose infinitives have an even or odd number of syllables (but not those "contracting" verbs with two stems), substantives (dis)agreement after mii and gii, shortened forms for numerals in tens or teens, and names of the months. Here is my understanding of the chapter's main points (any misunderstandings of the material are mine alone).

1) Verbs whose infinitives have an even number of syllables mark affirmative simple past in dual by adding certain endings to the stem which in turn may be modified further by applying consonant gradation or changes to vowels.

E.g. juoigat "to do yoiking"

Moai juoiggaime
Doai juoiggaide
Soai juoiggaiga


All forms here show "weak" consonant gradation and no changes to diphthongs.

E.g. vuolgit "to leave"

Moai vulggiime
Doai vulggiide
Soai vulggiiga


All forms here show "weak" consonant gradation and the presence of -ii- changes the diphthong (if applicable) of the preceding syllable. In this example, -uo- becomes -u- in the first syllable.

E.g. oažžut "to receive"

Moai oaččuime
Doai oaččuide
Soai oaččuiga


All forms here show "weak" consonant gradation and no changes to diphthongs.

2) Verbs whose infinitives have an odd number of syllables mark affirmative simple past in plural by adding certain endings to the stem.

E.g. gávppašit "to do shopping"

Moai gávppašeimme
Doai gávppašeidde
Soai gávppašeigga


The stem here is gávppaš- with the final -it of the infinitive being replaced by the plural endings for the affirmative past simple tense. Neither consonant gradation nor changes to diphthongs are applied.

The verb leat "to be" conjugates somewhat irregularly from the other verbs in this class.

Moai leimme
Doai leidde
Soai leigga


3) Substantives after Mii? "What? and Gii? "Who?" are in accusative/genitive plural even though these interrogatives are singular or the answer isn't expected to be plural.

E.g.

Mii mohtoriid? "What motor?", "What motors?"
Gii Márehiid? "Which Máret?" [*"Who Márets?"]

4) Logi or lohkái as the ending of compound numbers become lot when immediately followed by a noun.

Nummar ovccinuppelohkái / njealljelogi / njealljelogiokta "Number 19 / 40 / 41"

Ovccinuppelot biilla "19 cars"
Njealljelot jagi "40 years"
Njealljelogiokta jagi "41 years" (i.e. don't change logi to lot)

5) The names of the months in Northern Saami are calques or based on natural phenomena or reindeer domestication. The traditional calendar counted 13 months rather than the 12 which are currently used while the seasons were traditionally divided eight ways rather than four with the seasons again reflecting natural phenomena.

ođđajagimánnu "January" ("New Year's month")
guovvamánnu "February" (unknown etymology)
njukčamánnu "March" ("Swan's month" i.e. time when swans often return to Sápmi)
cuoŋománnu "April" ("hard-snow's month" i.e. snow is hard enough to walk on it without sinking)
miessemánnu "May" ("calf's month" i.e. time when reindeers start giving birth)
geassemánnu "June" (probable calque of Finnish kesäkuu "summer month")
suoidnemánnu "July" (probable calque of Finnish heinäkuu "hay month")
borgemánnu "August" ("new [reindeer] hair's month" i.e. time when they grow a new coat of fur)
čakčamánnu "September (probable calque of Finnish syyskuu "autumn month")
golggotmánnu "October" ("reindeers' rut month" i.e. mating season)
skábmamánnu "November" ("polar night's month" - i.e. the first polar night happens by the end of the month)
juovlamánnu "December" ("Christmas month" - probable calque of Finnish joulukuu)

Siida gives informative summaries on the 8 seasons in English, Finnish and Northern Saami. Perhaps some ambitious souls would like to get some reading practice by juxtaposing the description in English with the version in Finnish or Northern Saami. ;-)

Vocabulary of Chapter 23

áigi - "time"
boares (attr.), boaris (pred.) - "old"
dáža - "Norwegian"
dovdat - "to know"
dulvadit - "to regulate a body of water"
easkka ládje - "recently"
girku - "church"
go - "as, like"
govva - "picture"
guoktelogigoalmmát - "twenty-third"
jallas (attr.), jal'la (pred.) - "crazy, stupid"
náitalangovva - "wedding picture"
náitalit - "to get married"
riegádanbeaivi - "birthday"
riegádit - "to be born"
seammá - "just as, same"

Examples of Northern Saami taken from my answers to the exercises

1. Máhtte ja Iŋgá finaiga Sámi Museas
2. Oinniiga doppe bohccuid.
3. Osttiiga seahkaid gávppis.
4. Leigga heajain.
5. Boraiga ađđamiid ja njuokčama.
6. Boradeigga káfeas.

----

OTHER LANGUAGES

While looking for videos and audio suitable for beginners in Turkish, I stumbled upon a large archive of videos and accompanying transcripts in lesser-taught languages hosted by Five College Center for the Study of World Languages (Five Colleges comprises a consortium of 4 colleges and 1 university in the northeastern USA). The quality of the video and audio isn't the highest in the sections meant for visitors (e.g. "Hungarian in Hungary", "Slovak in Slovakia") but should still be good for beginners looking for examples of "authentic" language in basic situations. The quality of the audio is noticeably better in the interviews that are organized under "CultureTalk". As the name implies, the interviews provide some first-hand insight into the cultures associated with the languages even if the cultural references may have become dated since the recordings were made around 2000.

It also has quite a few resources and learning plans for independent learners who want a bit of structure in their studies (look under "Mentored Courses" and "Indpendent Study" on the right) such as "Mentored Turkish".

For this team, there's plenty of useful material with some languages being demonstrated as used in common tourist situations as well as the interviews involving exchange students who talk about life and culture in their homelands. Many of the dialogues and transcripts come with English translations.

Here are the sections on languages that are being studied in the team as of now.
Croatian/Serbian, Czech, Hungarian, Slovak

There is also a lot of content in Russian as many of the exchange students from Central Asia who were interviewed (arguably unfortunately) used only Russian (with English here and there) rather than the ancestral language. Click on the following to see these interviews and the transcripts and translations.

Azerbaijan (a few interviews in English or Russian, many in Azeri)
Kazakhstan (some interviews in Russian, some in Kazakh, a few in English)
Kyrgyzstan (all in Russian as far as I could tell. No Kyrgyz :-/)
Tajikistan (all in English or Russian as far as I could tell. No Tajik :-/)
Turkmenistan (many interviews in English or Russian, a few interviews in Turkmen :-/)
Uzbekistan (a few interviews in English or Russian, many in Uzbek)

Edited by Chung on 05 March 2012 at 4:59pm

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Chung
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 Message 112 of 541
11 March 2012 at 6:57am | IP Logged 
FINNISH

I've just worked through Chapter 8 of "Kuulostaa hyvältä". The course's dialogue was about Jutta having dinner at Anna's and Kari's home. Points of grammatical interest included the imperative in 2nd person singular and plural and using the ablative on adjectives in conjunction with certain sensory verbs.

***

NORTHERN SAAMI

I have completed Chapter 24 of Davvin 2 (i.e. the twelfth chapter of this volume) and among other things was introduced to the comitative plural, the presumable "strangeness" of the object for liikot "to like" and the accusative/genitive forms of the dual personal pronouns. Here is my understanding of the chapter's main points (any misunderstandings of the material are mine alone).

1) The comitative plural is marked by the ending -iguin. The ending can set off changes to the stem under certain conditions.

a) Words with stems of an even number of syllables.

i) E.g. máhka "uncle, aunt's husband" (i.e. stem that ends in -a)

máhka ~ mágaiguin "uncle ~ with the uncles" (attach -iguin to gen./acc. sing. without additional change)

ii) E.g. siessá "aunt, father's sister" (i.e. stem that ends in )

siessá ~ siesáiguin "aunt ~ with the aunts" (attach -iguin to gen./acc. sing. without additional change)

iii) E.g. áhkku "grandmother" (i.e. stem that ends in -u)

áhkku ~ áhkuiguin "grandmother ~ with the grandmothers" (attach -iguin to gen./acc. sing. without additional change)

iv) E.g. vilbealle "male cousin" (i.e. stem that ends in -e)

vilbealle ~ vilbealiiguin "cousin ~ with the cousins" (attach -iguin to gen./acc. sing. but -iguin causes stem's final -e to become -i.)

v) E.g. eadni "mother" (i.e. stem that ends in -i)

eadni ~ etniiguin "mother ~ with the mothers" (attach -iguin to gen./acc. sing. but -ii- which bridges the stem with suffix changes the diphthong in the preceding syllable. Here ea- becomes e-.)

vi) E.g. belko "chopping block" (i.e. stem that ends in -o)

belko ~ belkkuiguin "chopping block ~ with the chopping blocks" (attach -iguin to gen./acc. sing. but -iguin causes stem's final -o to become -u.)

b) Words with stems of an odd number of syllables

E.g. beana "dog"

beana ~ beatnagiiguin "dog ~ with the dogs" (attach -iguin to gen./acc. sing. but -iguin causes stem's final -a to become -i. In other words start with beana which is beatnaga in gen./acc. sing.. To beatnaga then attach -iguin but change final -a to -i thus yielding beatnagiiguin)

2) The object of liikot "to like" is in the illative. This contrasts with the accusative marking found in other European languages.

E.g.

Mu ustit lea rikkis. Mun liikon mu ustibii. (Northern Saami)
"My friend is rich. I like my friend-[illative singular]"

A barátom gazdag. Szeretem a barátomat. (Hungarian)
"My friend is rich. I like my friend-[accusative singular]"

Moja koleżanka jest bogata. Lubię swoją koleżankę. (Polish)
"My (female) friend is rich. I like my (female) friend-[feminine accusative singular]"

3) The accusative/genitive forms of the dual personal pronouns (i.e. moai, doai, soai) are mun'no, dudno and sudno respectively. They can function like possessive pronouns (i.e. our(s), your(s), their(s)) like the other personal pronouns in accusative/genitive,

Vocabulary of Chapter 24

birget - "to get along; to earn a living"
čoahkkin - "meeting"
čohkkát - "to sit"
eara go - "anything other than"
fár'ret - "to move (house)"
fuobmát - "to notice"
gaskkas - "(from the area) between"
guldalit - "to listen to"
guoketeloginjealját - "twenty-fourth"
gursa - "course"
kántuvra - "office"
liikot - "to like"
lohkat - "to read, study"
luohkká - "class, grade"
máŋga - "many"
oahppat - "to learn"
rán'njá - "neighbour"
rivgu - "non-Saamic woman"
stoahkat - "to play"
váhnemat - "parents"
veháš - "slightly"

Examples of Northern Saami taken from my answers to the exercises

1. Leago dát dudno beana?
2. Leago dát dudno lávka?
3. Leago duot sudno skohter?
4. Leago dát dudno gievdni?
5. Leago dát sudno govva?


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