Languages

[sesame]

Amor est via gratia Deus


~Love is the way to God.

[Mel Asher]

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 -

[sesame]

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

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)
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.

[twistedone]

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

[jimnaseum]

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.

[Mel Asher]

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 !

[RedderZNZ]

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

[ila]

Originally Posted by jimnaseum

The Romance languages are deeper culturally.

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.

[sesame]

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

English derived from German? That is an insane idea! Or do you mean Germanic (Indo-European family of languages)?(thats true)

I prefer to think that English, French & German developed independantly from Latin & Indo-European family of languages.

In fact, French sounds very much like a twisted dialect of English. (no pun) Just my observation.

[Mel Asher]

Sesame - I should have know I wouldn't get away with it ! Of course the beautiful Clouded Leopard does not belong to the Panther squad, but there again neither does it belong to the Felids. The skull structure apparently has some unique features with disqualify it from both groups. So there it is all on its own as is the Cheetah. I guess from the snow, the third of your pics is one of Uncia uncia, although I would have expected lighter colouration. Got fantastic paws too - just like camels. Pics 1 and 2 are most certainly Neofelis. Beautiful animals, all three ! Admiration and Respect. So, my apologies for trying to pull that one on you !

Now back to the subject of this thread - ila, I promise I will control my urge to enthuse any more about wildlife on this thread. You are quite right. Basque is linguistically unique and quite separate from the Indo-European languages. It is certainly no dialect, and the jury is still out as to whether the Basques represent the original indigenous people inhabiting the Pyreneean ( is that the right spelling ? It looks kinda funny ) regions. Mea culpa, ila, it was sloppy word usage on my part. Hells Teeth, that's two apologies in one post ! I must be really slipping !

I have to say there seem to be some excellent porn sites of ' Latin ' origin which have been thoroughly trawled for Shemales and Trannies. ( How many times have we come across pictures of Bianca in our Web Travels ? ) By the same token there must be not a few Spanish-speaking and Portuguese-speaking Tgirls and Shemales who would, given the opportunity, take part in this Forum, but who feel excluded by language. Can this be redressed somehow ? Although I have enjoyed reading the discussion on the various origins of European languages, I think reaching out to others whose mother-tongue is not English should be given some further consideration.

[SweetCharmer]

konichiwa genki desu?

[givemets]

ok but can u guess this


volim da me jebe trandza

[petreski]

СИТЕ ВЕ САКАМ

[curiousdude]

Dear all, after having lived in Malaysia, i have been exposed to malay, (both versions spoken in malaysia as well as indonesia), thai, chinese, indian (several dialects) and some other european languages. Nevertheless, i shall gloat about being able to speak any one of the above mentioned languages. I can only manage my life, food, shopping, etc needs if i were to be stuck in these places. However, i would like to share with you the main reason why i could not learn chinese. There are 4 main dialects of chinese language (dialect but each is completely different from the other) and the official version, which is called Mandarin Chinese. In general chinese language has roughly about 2000 characters, and each character is an equivalent of a "word" in our so called western understanding. However each character has 4 inntonations (ways of reading/pronounciation). Each pronounciation would mean something completely different. Furthermore, there are four dialects - Cantonese, Hakka, Hokkien, Teo Chew, which each has 2000 characters with 4 inntonations. In order to be able to fully speak Chinese (or consider yourself to be fully able to speak chinese) the formula goes as such:

(Mandarin X 2000 characters X 4 intonations)+(cantonese X 2000 characters X 4 intonations)+(Hakka X 2000 characters X 4 intonations)+(Hokkien X 2000 characters X 4 intonations)+(Teo Chew X 2000 characters X 4 intonations) = God Knows What....

I don't really know what is the outcome of this formula, however, if i am not mistaken, the equivalent of "tea" from Japan to Greece (including all other countries in between) is "chay" or a very similar pronounciation of "cha"...

[ila]

Originally Posted by sesame

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.

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.

[ila]

Originally Posted by Mel Asher

I for one would enjoy unravelling their contributions - as long as they are not in Basque or Languedoc or similar obscure dialects.

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.