Sharing etymological roots in pairs is particularly true when it comes to the word for "raspberry": For example, Lithuanian avietė & Latvian avene. it comes from Proto-Balto-Slavic *áwis "sheep", because to them, raspberries resembled sheep.
BINI members Maloi from Batangas and Aiah from Cebu challenge each other to guess the meaning of common phrases in their native languages Tagalog (Batangueño dialect) and Cebuano.
The current frequency of language usage on the Web (e.g. 52% of websites in English) doesn't reflect the diverse cultural and linguistic needs essential for global access, highlighting the importance of internationalization (i18n).
Fuqiao Xue, @w3c i18n activity lead, gave a comprehensive report of past and future @webi18n work, collaborating with spec and #browser#developers to address gaps, particularly for endangered scripts and #languages.
If you are into languages, you are probably familiar with those conversations with your multilingual friends: you take arbitrary elements from the languages you both speak, and randomly squeeze them together into sentences.
That is any regular Monday for the Swiss. Schwyzdüütsch, a.k.a. #Swiss German is a colorful amalgamation of German, French and Italian.
What’s a word or phrase in a language you speak that describes someone who is nervous? Not just nervous about an exam or something but like, you’re at an airport and the person next to you is shuffling anxiously not wanting to miss the boarding announcement even though it’s at least an hour away, and they just can’t stop shuffling? More a way of being.
People that have experienced language attrition of their native language, how difficult was it to relearn your language? And do you have any tips on how to overcome mental blocks and other challenges with it?
If you are learning a new language in general, which techniques work best for you that I can try?
Currently I speak my native language very poorly (about A2 level), but English pretty much fluently. I'm taking lessons and I know native fluent speakers IRL, but it really is a struggle.
Hello there, I may look like 着 but I have four different meanings depending on the context! And just to make things interesting, I even sound different! Just which one am I when you read the text? Well, it's up to you to figure that out! Har Har.
Something I love telling people is that the Mandarin euphemism for ‘being horny’ is ‘I ate your tofu / I want to eat your tofu / they ate my tofu’. I feel like we should popularize that in pop culture. Like, you hear that in TV shows (mainly Taiwanese but also sometimes mainland Chinese)
"Bilingual Mandarin and English speakers living in Singapore also showed a preference for left to right mental time mapping over right to left mental mapping. But [..] also quicker to react to future oriented pictures if the future button was located below the past button – in line with Mandarin. Indeed, this also suggests that bilinguals may have two different views of time's direction – particularly if they learn both languages from an early age. "
#emdiplomacy was a multilingual affair. An #emdiplomat who could speak several languages had a clear advantage - not the least because he could thereby show equal respect to different parties, as this example by @dbellingradt shows. (1/2)
I for one would love to set it as my display #languages in #GNOME but it is not among the choices.
Aboot that, #Firefox has #Scots available fur ye tae wale, and is the most awesome leid in the settins ye can stert yaisin richt noo! 👌 Ah dinnae find #Shetlandic though.
Updated my Infectious global playlist to about 2,300 mid-to-up-tempo songs in English and dozens of other languages, plus a sprinkling of instrumentals. Feeling accomplished and enjoying the music.
> "When I was your age.." is the number 1 thing people hate hearing in Korea.
> People will never make conversations with you ever again.
> Simple
>
> @kenjikundesu
It is similar here in the #Philippines. You don't say, “When I was your age…”, if you want to share information about your time, you say, “Back in my day…”
In English, it doesn't make any sense. However, the local language equivalent of those two phrases comes with it:
Language nuances; and
Cultural factors.
Why?
“When I was your age…” in our local languages:
Language nuances = the delivery is different; the tone; the speech; and
Cultural factors = often used to demean, look down upon, another person (the younger in this case). It implies that, “I am/We are better than you”.
However, “Back in my day…” in our local languages:
Language nuances = the delivery, tone, speech, is different, it is friendlier and open for discussion/sharing; and
2 Cultural factors = not used to look down on anyone.
In the English language, these two phrases are the same, neutral, and thus won't make sense. But not in many Asian languages and cultures.
In addition, while both Filipino and Korean cultures have a deeply embedded respect levels in languages and actions, there is no room for older people to abuse it. We won't show it to you, because again, deeply embedded respect culture. But you can guarantee we're talking behind your back, and in today's world, chatrooms.
Back in my day, in the 80s and 90s, we say, “talk to the hand” and the equivalent action is stretching our arms, showing our palms forward to your face.
Obviously, we don't do that to people older than us. We do it while we're talking about you with our friends.
Today, in the present, at least here in the Philippines, we say, “Whateva'”, with a hand gesture and facial expression. Of course, we do it behind your back, or in chatrooms.
If you're a foreigner learning an Asian language, well, like in any other country, you'll be given a free pass. But, you better learn fast, you never know when you'll be misunderstood (unless you really want to be rude).
(There are actually more nuances in Filipino languages than Korean, for this particular case. And there is a worse way, too!)
Here's a #linguistic fun fact, the #Arabic word for constitution دستور is borrowed from #Persian. And the Persian word for constitution قانون اساسي is borrowed from Arabic.
Japanese has undergone some titanic shifts. And it continues to undergo far more gradual shifts in meaning and usage. As an example, we need look no further than what the youth of Japan have done to the word egui (エグい).
A lot of us get stuck in learning Japanese or other languages. We get bogged down in the tedium of memorizing new words or studying dry grammatical explanations. Learn how sentence mining can help break you free from that drudgery and revive your love of language learning.