|
 |
Icelandic and Greenlandic | ||
Tags: Greenlandic | Icelandic | ||
Share with:
| ||
 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| Veig Triglot Newbie France Joined 5927 days ago 12 posts - 14 votes Speaks: French*, English, Danish Studies: Icelandic, Greenlandic | Message 9 of 31 17 March 2008 at 9:20am | IP Logged | ||
It may be a bit late to answer, but I really can't help... Greenlandic is beyond all comparison. Yes, Greenlandic is rather logical, indeed, but with its own logic, and its structure is much different from indo-european languages' structure. It is true that Icelandic is a difficult language, but it is easier to learn than Greenlandic. For someone whose language is indo-european, the vocabulary of Icelandic is easier to learn than the one of Greenlandic, but above this, the syntax of Icelandic is much closer. I've been studying Greenlandic for almost one year, and I'm hardly able to write 2 or 3 correct sentences. Not to mention the pronounciation... 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Captain Haddock Diglot Senior Member Japan kanjicabinet.tumblr. Joined 6579 days ago 2282 posts - 2814 votes  Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: French, Korean, Ancient Greek | Message 10 of 31 17 March 2008 at 10:33am | IP Logged | ||
|
Greenlandic's probably as hard as Japanese, but at least you get too use Roman letters. :) Mind you, it'll help to learn the Canadian syllabics if you want to communicate with Canadian Inuit (who speak more-or-less a dialect of Greenlandic).
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| ChristopherB Triglot Senior Member New Zealand Joined 6127 days ago 851 posts - 1074 votes 2 sounds Speaks: English*, German, French | Message 11 of 31 17 March 2008 at 5:22pm | IP Logged | ||
|
Veig is correct.
I wouldn't be at all surprised if it were far more difficult than any Eastern Asian language. It is indeed utterly foreign. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Earle Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6126 days ago 276 posts - 276 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Norwegian, Spanish | Message 12 of 31 17 March 2008 at 11:09pm | IP Logged | ||
|
I'm frankly puzzled. The original poster speaks English and studies Spanish and Russian. The leap to either Icelandic or, especially, to Greenlandic, is a mystery. I suppose if one has acres of time on one's hands...
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| kaptengröt Tetraglot Groupie Sweden Joined 4149 days ago 92 posts - 163 votes Speaks: English*, Swedish, Faroese, Icelandic Studies: Japanese | Message 13 of 31 10 January 2013 at 6:18am | IP Logged | ||
|
Just an update in case anyone sees this in the future and wonders - I have searched pretty hard for resources in Icelandic for Greenlandic and have only found a single grammar overview, which had mistakes in it and was most likely originally in Danish, and by now I have already translated it to English and got some learners to fix the mistakes.
Actually I have found even LESS than that for Faroese, a language which is practically a dialect of Icelandic (more exists for Faroers to learn Icelandic than the other way around though). I guess Iceland doesn't care so much. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Earle Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6126 days ago 276 posts - 276 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Norwegian, Spanish | Message 14 of 31 10 January 2013 at 6:50am | IP Logged | ||
I would think that there would be more Danish sources than Icelandic, since they were both basically Danish colonies. I have an acquaintance here in the US who was born Icelandic, with some Norwegian ancestry. He's elderly and retired from a career with Icelandair and its predecessors. He says, rather bitterly, that he grew up thinking he had to ask a Dane for permission to take a shit. His words - not mine. When he was naturalized as a US citizen, he was asked if he wanted to adopt a new name. He opted for "Asp." (That name has its own history because of Shakespeare/Cleopatra/snake/suicide. In fact, one Norwegian friend referred to him as "Mr. Snake.") Anyway, I asked him why "Asp." He replied that his native name (which appears to me to be Norwegian, rather than Icelandic), would be too hard to pronounce - "Asplundh." I really couldn't reply. One of the very largest tree-trimming companies in the US is named "Asplundh." They have these big orange "bucket trucks" all over most of the US, with the name "Asplundh" on the side. However, I appreciate his concern. My family name used to be "Sjóúlfur," which can't be pronounced in English, so it became simply "Self." 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| beano Diglot Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4433 days ago 1049 posts - 2152 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Russian, Serbian, Hungarian | Message 15 of 31 10 January 2013 at 11:28am | IP Logged | ||
|
But Greenlandic people all manage to learn Danish, which must be just as alien to them as Greenlandic is to speakers of Germanic and Romance languages.
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Malek Groupie Christmas Island Joined 4154 days ago 60 posts - 76 votes | Message 16 of 31 10 January 2013 at 12:58pm | IP Logged | ||
|
I suggest using Wikipedia when looking into languages. It will tell you which family grouping they belong to and some other information.
Faroese isn't 'practically a dialect of Icelandic'. Why must smaller variants just be parts of the bigger languages? Why can't they just be seen as equals? 2 persons have voted this message useful |
|  | 
Printable version
|
| Copyright 2024 FX Micheloud - All rights reserved No part of this website may be copied by any means without my written authorization. |
