Re: CHAT: Multi-Lingos

John Cowan scripsit...

> If anything, the problem is that Swedish and Norwegian differ
> so much in lexis, since lexically Norwegian is basically Danish.
> When Norwegians and Danes talk, they may have trouble
> understanding what is *said*, but generally understand what
> is *meant*; Norwegians and Swedes, vice versa.
Interesting! Now that you mention that, I do recall reading something about
that once, but I can't remember where. Quite an interesting situation!

> I think essentially all Chinese movies are subtitled.
I wouldn't know... the only Chinese movies I've ever seen in a more or less
Chinese format are kung-fu movies! One of my flatmates my freshman year at
university was from Singapore, and his friends back home used to tape him all
these kung fu flicks off the TV and mail him the videocasettes, so we'd sit
and watch them. The dialogue was always in Cantonese, and there were always 2
rows of subtitles: First Chinese and underneath that, an English translation,
which was always quite idiosyncratic and entertaining, and quite obviously
not the work of native (or even fluent!) English speakers. :-)

> Plausible.   "Bread, butter, and green cheese/Is good English
> and good Friese." Scots stands between them (though closer
> to English of course, just as West Frisian is now closer to
> Dutch).
I've heard that saying before. I gather that centuries ago the two languages
were a lot more alike than they are now, Scots having been greatly influenced
by English and West Frisian by Dutch. The Scots speaker in question said that
when talking to the Frisian people, he deliberately spoke very "braid", pure
Scots, eschewing English words and constructions that are normal in casual
speech. I have no idea what sort of similar concessions, if any, the West
Frisian speakers made.


> How about Yiddish?   It is even more flexible than English in
> absorbing vocabulary.
I actually know very little about Yiddish, though it seems like a really
interesting language from what I've read. I'd love to get a "teach yourself
yiddish" type of book, but I've never found one :-(
I would very much like to learn more about it.

Thomas