Languages
 

Transladyboy is a site in which the language of communication is in English. Yet there are several members whose mother tongue is not English. I have always admired people who can speak, read, and write a second, third, fourth, etc. language in addition to their mother tongue. It is even more admirable when that person also has to learn a new alphabet.

My mother tongue is English. The only other language I could ever speak with any degree of fluency is German. That's not such a great leap though as English is a Germanic language. English after all is named after the Angles, a Germanic tribe that migrated to the area of southern England from the North Sea area between present day Holland and Denmark. In fact if one listens to the dialect of the Frisians, another North Sea tribe, one would almost think he is listening to English. I only learned to speak German because I lived there for seven years. I am rapidly losing fluency in German though as I haven't spoken it in a number of years. I get the German news channel through my cable tv and as I listen to it I realize just how much I have forgotten.

I took French in school for several years and still don't know how to speak it beyond a few phrases. I did find out though that the French in France is easier to understand than the French spoken in Canada. I have been through several countries in Europe, but I don't speak any of the languages. At best I can get out a few words and phrases in the Romance languages, which are all related by their common root in Latin.

I did know some words and phrases in Greek and I still know the Greek alphabet (capital letters only). At one time I could carry on a conversation in Ukrainian although I tended to throw in a lot of Russian words. I can no longer converse in Ukrainian though and I don't remember very many words. I did manage to figure out most of the Cyrillic alphabet (again only capital letters) and that was all self taught from reading signs. That is the extent of my knowledge of Slavic languages.

I know none of the Arabic or Oriental languages. I am making a broad sweep here with oriental languages by including Turkish, Pashtu, Urdu, Chinese, Japanese, etc. I also cannot read any of these languages (except Turkish which now uses an alphabet based on the Latin alphabet, but I still don't understand the words).

So forum members share with the rest of us your experiences learning languages other than your mother tongue. This includes those whose mother tongue is English as well as all our friends who learned English, as a second language, and are comfortable enough using it to communicate with us on an English site. I find the topic of languages very fascinating and look forward to your responses.

What am I saying, and in which language?
 

Ya ssou fi le mou Ila, kali spe ra. Mi la te Yermani ka? Apo pou ei sai?

Another
 

I hope you like this one, Ila.

Some more is ready to go ;)
 

Cuántos de puede hablar en este idioma?

Quam super is?
 

Respondeo ut is iam.

My guess is Greek and something about speaking German.

And it's only a guess and not a very educated one at that. I only remember a few words of any language that I knew anything of. I was also self taught in anything I did pick up so my grasp of languages wasn't all that strong.

Greek:
Hello Ila, my friend; good afternoon. Do you speak German? Where are you from?

This one should be funny!
 

Ok, Guys... and gals of course ;)
what is written below?

compello mihi == speak to me:yes:

But, what language is it? :rolleyes:

Bionca, exsisto meus amicus. :lol:

Gwenny, vos es vere callidus :p

Hank est sic excolo :D

Ila est plenus of sapientia :cool:

I should have caught that right away. The first three expressions I ever learned were good morning, good afternoon, and good evening. I never knew how to spell them though and it always sounded like two words only. The second Greek expression I learned was how to get the required number of beer. After that it was (and pardon my spelling) Ava Kuprus - which I think translates to "long live Cyprus". It's been a long time so I can't even spell the Greek version of Cyprus using the Latin alphabet.

I 0n1y Kn0w L33T

Ila, "I think you are from Canada"
http://forum.transladyboy.com/files/7/3/9/9/28137.jpg
In Greek alphabets...

Ah, Queen of Hearts is here.

Glad to be in your Holy presence, your Ladyship:inlove:.

Any service for this humble servant, your Highness? Mizzy B?:frown:

You didn't give me a chance work on that.

Sesame.. you are really so sweet and funny.

Queen of Hearts indeed.. lol... I think you have me confused with the lovelies that populate the board just above this one.

I don't speak Spanish. If I had time I could look up the translation. Well ok I have the time I just don't have the inclination right now. I can only recognize two words in there:
hablar - I'm guessing is the infinitive of to speak
idioma - comes from the Latin root meaning one's own

Latin: Ila is full of knowledge.
(I guess my Latin isn't as bad as I thought. Of course Latin had a great influence on English)

So Sesame just how many languages do you know and what are they?

Now, now, you dont have to be so polite. You know fairly well, dont pretend to be a village girl. You are the real star here.:p

I am an ignorant simpleton... stupe. I dont know any language, as such. I barely manage with gestures and pregnant Grunts.:p

Yeah ok, I really believe you.;)

What? Ila, You are making fun of me?

aiiiii weel chkees mizzzz Beeeez!

What do you make out of that?

Nope, not at all.

Latinifera Lufiana
 

Puella Volo basio :
illa women es venustus:
EGO contemplor illa per valde suspicio:

Bionca & GRH
(dea es valde sapiens) *:p*

World Peace
 

وأود ان يكون في العالم كله مرة أخرى. وأود ان يكون واحد في العالم مرة اخرى. ويجب الا يكون هناك الفرح والوئام فى كل مكان.




Some thoughts... I dont know if my Arabic adds up to anything.
So, as an extra precaution, this is what I intend to say. :p
Let the world be whole again.
Let the world be one again.
Let there be joy and harmony everywhere.

A all areithia i mewn Cymraeg 'ma?

my first language is gaelige but unfortunatly i have to speek english due to eight hundred years of english empearialism.

is a gaelige mo chead teanga ach leabhairim bearla de gra

I find your Irish accent very entertaining. Honest to God, its absolutely charming.:respect:

Was post number 8 Hebrew? Aramaic?

And your last post to Bionca and I...

Does it translate to something like "Goddesses of man?"

I'm not very good with foreign languages...The only class I ever failed in college (or my whole life for that matter) was German...But that had a lot to do with my less than stellar attendance. I studied a few years of French back in the day and it is by far my favorite spoken language, it's really beautiful. Too bad I know so little of it.

are you poking fun at my poor typing and spelling skills?

dea es valde sapiens:D

I tried to say, They are very wise goddesses.
sapiens=wise

rhythmic delivery,
Believe me, ;)
I really liked to read that.:innocent:

are you welsh

RDelivery,
Not really.
If you count the languages I have spoken in,
then, I am all these:

1. Greek
2. Hebrew
3. Latin
4. English
5. Arabic
6. Spanish

Who am I?:p

In the Netherlands the kids must learn Dutch, English, French and German in school, I hear. I speak American. But after going to Europe, you really do look at your home country different when you get back.

Jimmy Neutron
 

Elucidate please.:yes:

Latin has such grandeur
 

Effor vestri. Libero vestri animus. Impendo vestri scientia.

~ Express yourself. Free your soul. Expand your knowledge.

Love is the way
 

Amor est via gratia Deus


~Love is the way to God.

It's all Greek to me !
 

What, Sesame ? Reads like Classical Greek to me. Maybe some Latin too ?

As these are not exactly developing languages, they're only part of my murky academic past. I am however stumblingly fluent in French. German - nice easy language to learn but I have not gone very far - no real incentive. But I think it's a good point : Europeans should have access to a Translator on this Forum, and feel free to use their native tongue in expressing their opinions. I for one would enjoy unravelling their contributions - as long as they are not in Basque or Languedoc or similar obscure dialects.

Anyway keep stretching this thread - it's an interesting one -

Latin names and Tigers
 

Its only Latin Mel, I'm referring to the last two posts. I think that Latin has a grace which no other European language has. Also many words in English, French, Italian or German have their Origin in Latin. Most species have their scientific names in Latin.

In old times, upto mid 18th century, scientists whimsically referred to plants and animals with their common names. But these names were Local and varied from region to region. So two people might have been talking about the same animal unknowingly and imagine them to be different due to their fanciful local names!

This problem was solved by Carl Linnaeus (Swedish biologist) in 1758 AD. He proposed a universal naming system called binomial nomenclature. According to him each species should have a unique name and everyone should call it by that name in the scientific community. Binomial, as you can guess means two names, one personal name and one surname(family name = genus). Its very similar to human names, like in Albert Einstein, Albert is his personal name, Einstein is the family name. As a convention, this scientific name was chosen mostly from Latin words. Hence the Latin Name. Later more words are added to denote regional variations. Anyway, in a Latin name, the family name stands first and then comes the personal name. So many species can share the family name, like brothers and sisters, but there is only one personal name. Like there may be many Einsteins, but only one Albert Einstein.

Eg. Tiger
Latin name: Panthera tigris.
subspecies:
Panthera tigris tigris (Royal Bengal tiger)
Panthera tigris balica (Bali tiger became extinct in 1937):no:
Panthera tigris altaica (Siberian tiger)
Panthera tigris amoyensis (South China tiger)
Panthera tigris corbetti (Indochinese tigers, Thailand, named after Jim Corbett, only 1000 left in the world!)
Panthera tigris sumatrae (Sumatra tigers, only about 500!)

Panthera pardus (Leopard)
Panthera onca (Jaguar)
Panthera leo (Lion)

Forgive me, if I bored you to hell with Latin, Linnaeus, Lions and Tigers.:p

I used to be pretty good with Italian, but its like everything else, if you don't use it, you lose it.

Elucidate please. What?
When F Scott and Hemingway and Orson Welles got famous they went to Europe, got to know the people, the languages, absorb, then when they got home it hit them in the face how rascist America was. When Malcolm X went to the middle East he said for the first time in his life he could walk down the street and not FEEL people eryeballing him. Of course it's not as bad now, but there was an episode on the Sopranos where Tony goes to Italy, everybody eats together, the kids play with the parents, there's flowers everywhere, then Tony gets back to Jersey and drives down the NJ parkway and it's chain link fences and smokestacks. People in Europe pay higher taxes but they get it back in services. The Romance languages are deeper culturally.

Aramaic too perhaps ?
 

Since I have you pegged as Ahasuerus ( although he was last identified in Mainz 400 years ago, and you do not claim knowledge of German ) Ecclesiastical Latin would be familiar ground to you. Perhaps you gave Linnaeus a helping hand. Either way, may I be so bold as to point out that you left Panthera uncia off your list. Snow Leopards are so beautiful, they deserve a mention. Next to Panthera nebulosa ( which is still a matter of hot debate in zoological circles as to whether it should be a Felis or one of the Panthera ) it is certainly one of the rarest cats.

No apologies please, Sesame, by all means bang on about Linnaeus. I'm really obsessive about nature, mammals in particular ( quite apart from Trannies, that is ! ), so I'm happy !

My native tongue is Russian.
Fluent in Ukrainian and English.
Got some basics in French and German.
Remember some words from Spanish :)

Ну и само собой немножко уроков по великому и могучему: Здорово, пацаны! Как жизнь молодая! Всем удачи :)

Basque is not a dialect. It is a language in its own right. It is unrelated to any other language currently spoken in Europe. If I remember correctly Basque is not related to any known language anywhere in the world.

Mel Asher
 

Ah, Mel, what are friends like you for?
If I miss something, please, do remind me.
But the Southeast Asian Clouded Leopard
has already got a Latin name. And its :
Neofelis nebulosa

meaning clouded new cat.
Neo = new (Greek), felis = cat (Latin)
Nebulosa = foggy (Latin)
It lives in the rainforests of SE Asia.

Panthera uncia
The magnificent snow leopard of SE Asia.
This beautiful fat-cat :p is found at a height of 10,000 feet!
(officially 5000-18,000 feet) Its home is in the Altai mountains (Russia & Mongolia), Hindu-Kush mountains (Afghanistan) and the Himalayas.
It mostly stays in the snowy heights.

Pardon me, Ila dear, for dragging the thread forcibly into the wild. :p

Latin has influenced so many languages because of the Roman conquests and settlements. A main invasion route to northern Europe was through the Rhine valley in Germany. The Romans built many settlements and fortifications throughout the Rhine valley and that is why Latin had a great influence on German. The Romans were in the British Isles for more than 400 years and that is lone of the reasons there is such a great Latin influence on English. The other reason for the Latin influence on English was the Norman conquest of the 11th century which brought a French influence to English.

French and Italian are derivitives of Latin as are the other Romance languages. They are in effect different developments of Latin created because the people, over time, changed Latin in their local areas and made the new language their own.

Much the same has happened with English and Dutch which are just two languages derived from German.

How did you arrive at this conclusion? The Romance languages developed from Latin. How does that make them culturally deeper than any other language? Don't give me the explanation that Romance languages are more romantic than other languages. The term Romance language is not used to describe the languages in the sense that romance is currently used in English. Rather the term Romance language only means that it was derived from the Romans, who spoke Latin.