26 Reply by Wild Flower Soul (edited by Wild Flower Soul 15-Mar-2008 14:02:32)

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Re: European language

"there is only space for one motherlanguage in your brain. At least, that was what I always heared. Is there a new theory?"

There is.

"English would probably be best, although Esperanto was created as a language pretty much everyone in the world should be able to learn."

Esperanto is heavily based on indo-european languages (it uses their gramatic structures etc.). Other language groups (like austro-asian) will have it a lot harder to learn it.

"Culture is very important. The importance of ones mother tongue is harder to understand in large nations because their language has never bee under threat of going extinct. There are just 1 mil Estonian speakers in the world . My country was under foreign rule from 1210-1918. 700!! years of being occupied by Sweden,Denmark,Poland,Russia, the germans and templar knights."

I wouldn't really call it "occupied" (at least, not most of them). I'm making a study round the subject this year at uni (although, it's about the burgundian netherlands), and without going into detail: There's a significant difference between being occupied and having an external monarch.

God: Behold ye angels, I have created the ass.. Throughout the ages to come men and women shall grab hold of these and shout my name...

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Re: European language

It's the indo-europeans that matter anyhow. The austro-asians are just along for the ride. They and the Romantics can just kiss my Germanic behind and start learning english.

Je maintiendrai

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Re: European language

What have the romantics to do with it? yikes

God: Behold ye angels, I have created the ass.. Throughout the ages to come men and women shall grab hold of these and shout my name...

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Re: European language

Slip of the tongue! I meant Romanic. yikes

Je maintiendrai

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Re: European language

> East wrote:

> Only an englishman could have the arrogance to think his language was hard to learn; of the languages I know english has got to be the easiest one by far (including my native language), it's ridiculous how easy it is. sure you'll make a few spelling mistakes and quirky sentences but that's even normal for native speakers in any language

german is exponentially harder than english to get a decent handle on

PS ever consider that study shows british children have bad education?<


I'm sorry that you feel that my statement is arrogant, however if you take the time to google the subject you will see that what I said is well studied fact.

As for education; it takes about 2.5 years for anyone learning English, not just english children.

"So, it's defeat for you, is it? Someday I must meet a similar fate..."

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Re: European language

Indeed, some brits never manage it

The core joke of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is that of course no civilization would develop personal computers with instant remote database recovery, and then waste this technology to find good drinks.
Steve Jobs has ruined this joke.

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Re: European language

Biefstukfriet: the Romanic languages are Indo-European too, so they matter too? tongue

I'll never know if it was worth the pain, but I still loved it more than anything in the world - it was my life.

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Re: European language

Indeed, all European languages are Indo-European languages, with the exceptions of Estonian, Magyar and  Finnish (Even Basque is indo-european!)..

God: Behold ye angels, I have created the ass.. Throughout the ages to come men and women shall grab hold of these and shout my name...

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Re: European language

what about Catalan?

The core joke of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is that of course no civilization would develop personal computers with instant remote database recovery, and then waste this technology to find good drinks.
Steve Jobs has ruined this joke.

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Re: European language

Basque isn't actually an Indo-European language, strange as it may sound.

I'll never know if it was worth the pain, but I still loved it more than anything in the world - it was my life.

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Re: European language

> [RPA] Lloyd List wrote:

> Biefstukfriet: the Romanic languages are Indo-European too, so they matter too? tongue

All indo-euro languages except the Romanic ones. I made the exception for a reason you know!

Je maintiendrai

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Re: European language

Ah okay. I just read your post as if you meant the Romanic languages weren't Indo-European, sorry for the mistake.

I'll never know if it was worth the pain, but I still loved it more than anything in the world - it was my life.

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Re: European language

In europe you have mostly french and spanish having problems with english.. from my own  experiance.
I think its somehow in their heads.. they don

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Re: European language

I find english to be a lot easier as dutch tongue

What do I have to work with?

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40 Reply by Wild Flower Soul (edited by Wild Flower Soul 15-Mar-2008 16:34:43)

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Re: European language

"what about Catalan?"

Very much of an Romanic language, thus Indo-european..

"Basque isn't actually an Indo-European language, strange as it may sound."

As I said to Eltie in a PM, some lad that studies slavic languages, it seems to have connections with that group. Anyhow, it's widely disputed (as Eltie told me), so now I don't have any clue anymore tongue I'll just assume it's an isolated language...

God: Behold ye angels, I have created the ass.. Throughout the ages to come men and women shall grab hold of these and shout my name...

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Re: European language

> [RPA] Lloyd List wrote:

> Ah okay. I just read your post as if you meant the Romanic languages weren't Indo-European, sorry for the mistake,<

No problemo. smile

Je maintiendrai

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Re: European language

Yeah i guess i was thinking of basque. Im not sure. Because it could be an early indoeuropean tongue like gaelic

The core joke of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is that of course no civilization would develop personal computers with instant remote database recovery, and then waste this technology to find good drinks.
Steve Jobs has ruined this joke.

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Re: European language

I call 700 years of slavery occupation, because the entire people are slaves to another ruler.

"Whoever said the pen is mightier than the sword obviously never encountered
automatic weapons."-General Douglas MacArthur
"Cluster bombing from B-52s are very, very, accurate. The bombs are guaranteed
to always hit the ground."-USAF Ammo Troop

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Re: European language

I was being a little visicious. English should be adopted as co-national language in these countries (such as its status is in Canada, South Africa, India, and Wales). It is the de facto 2nd language anyway - so to formally get it into education, texts, street signs, official documents, etc would make sense.

3rd grade in Germany? That is interesting and a positive step. Germany is a major exporter, German is not a language outside Europe, and Germany's special relationship with France is under threat. Mostly English allows Germany to focus on communication with its major trade partners of the future - Russia, Poland, and Turkey; and allows its multinationals to compete better in China, India and America.

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Re: European language

"Yeah i guess i was thinking of basque. Im not sure. Because it could be an early indoeuropean tongue like gaelic"

Gaelic too is Indo-European wink

God: Behold ye angels, I have created the ass.. Throughout the ages to come men and women shall grab hold of these and shout my name...

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Re: European language

Yeah i said so

Man it would be sad if english became the global communication language. Says i. In english

If the Chinese really get into it they'll evolve it so fast we'll have to go to school to learn Chinese English

The core joke of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is that of course no civilization would develop personal computers with instant remote database recovery, and then waste this technology to find good drinks.
Steve Jobs has ruined this joke.

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47 Reply by [RPA] El Bekko [Ben] (edited by [RPA] El Bekko [Ben] 17-Mar-2008 01:05:40)

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Re: European language

And it'll still be better than American English tongue

"When we hang the capitalists they will sell us the rope." - Joseph Stalin
Lemming of Disappearance and

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Re: European language

Natch! Mos def!

The core joke of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is that of course no civilization would develop personal computers with instant remote database recovery, and then waste this technology to find good drinks.
Steve Jobs has ruined this joke.

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Re: European language

Please...no Chinglish...please..

and I think we should use Tolkien's Elvish, and it comes with a script, too.

Brother Simon, Keeper of Ages, Defender of Faith.
~ &#9773; Fokker

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Re: European language

American english sounds very ugly(altough I have an American accent myself). Their not even trying to pronounce the letters. It just sounds like a gooey paste of words. No character.

"Whoever said the pen is mightier than the sword obviously never encountered
automatic weapons."-General Douglas MacArthur
"Cluster bombing from B-52s are very, very, accurate. The bombs are guaranteed
to always hit the ground."-USAF Ammo Troop

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