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Post by Equivocal on Apr 22, 2023 7:00:27 GMT
...but then , what do you expect from a language which is half french , part german , part danish with loads of subcontinent words thrown in for good mix. Ah, but that's the beauty of the language, Thomas. If an Englishman speaks loudly enough, he can be understood by almost any foreigner, almost anywhere.
(with apologies for the gendering)
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Post by walterpaisley on Apr 22, 2023 7:31:43 GMT
I’m an advocate for becoming familiar with other languages because dual or multiple approaches to communication tend to assist clarity of thought… I'm currently subscribed to a "Rosetta Stone" course in order to brush up on my shockingly inadequate Spanish, and pick up a little Arabic to be of some use in our current project. "Clarity of thought" has yet to make an appearance. I wish my brain was a little more supple - both of the boys absorb new languages like a sponge.. |
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Post by thomas on Apr 22, 2023 10:47:07 GMT
I never said they did, I simply posted a fact of the number of Welsh Speakers living in Wales, i know you did , and thats why i asked you to what purpose or point are you making posting the number of welsh speakers? What relevance is it to the op? Thats all im asking?
Bit of a strange one handyman.
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Post by thomas on Apr 22, 2023 10:52:24 GMT
....but then , what do you expect from a language which is half french , part german , part danish with loads of subcontinent words thrown in for good mix.
What do we expect? What we get, I reckon — the ability to exactly describe the physical and metaphysical world for which it has become the global language for art, business and science as the pinnacle of the Indo-European language development. Nothing wrong with individuals wanting to maintain and resurrect other languages, and I’m an advocate for becoming familiar with other languages because dual or multiple approaches to communication tend to assist clarity of thought… My daughter is a linguist , fluent in german and spanish , with a smattering of gaidhlig and other languages like mandarin. Multi lingualism was once the norm , i personally think it sad how the world is becoming more and more monolingual.
Anyway , getting back to the op ,i fully support the scrapping of non welsh placenames .Im a big supporter of the celtic languages , and wish scotland would take a similar line with our native language. As you say nothing wrong with maintaining these languages , and i certainly dont understand an english language speaker feeling threatened by non english languages.
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Post by thomas on Apr 22, 2023 10:55:23 GMT
...but then , what do you expect from a language which is half french , part german , part danish with loads of subcontinent words thrown in for good mix. Ah, but that's the beauty of the language, Thomas. If an Englishman speaks loudly enough, he can be understood by almost any foreigner, almost anywhere.
(with apologies for the gendering)
you have a lot to thank those germans french and danes for equivocal.
As british english declines , its interesting watching american english take over across the world. We even have a lot of americanisms creeping into scots would you believe?
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Post by walterpaisley on Apr 22, 2023 11:02:22 GMT
My daughter is a linguist , fluent in german and spanish , with a smattering of gaidhlig and other languages like mandarin. Multi lingualism was once the norm , i personally think it sad how the world is becoming more and more monolingual. [/div][/quote] Kids are amazing. Last night I was at a neighbour's Eid bash, and chatted with their 10 year old daughter who speaks - I think - SIX languages. (My Assistant - who was largely recruited on the basis of linguistic ability - speaks 3. And STILL talks about making an "eXpresso" when she arrives every morning..) |
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Post by thomas on Apr 22, 2023 11:14:15 GMT
My daughter is a linguist , fluent in german and spanish , with a smattering of gaidhlig and other languages like mandarin. Multi lingualism was once the norm , i personally think it sad how the world is becoming more and more monolingual. They certainly are. My daughter is doing her higher spanish and german currently , before hopefully going onto glasgow or edinburgh university . She spent part of last summer in southern germany with kids from all over the world , as a guest of a german university and supported by the german government. She got on famously well with the latin american kids , and many of the kids from places like south korea and japan as well as other europeans.
The glaswegian girls on the trip were all teaching the german ( and other kids) all the scots and gaelic words , and they were all learning the slang from each others languages. She thoroughly enjoyed the experience , as well as travelling down and visiting Austria for the day.
Never been to Germany , but from the looks of it it does look a lovely country .
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Post by Ripley on Apr 22, 2023 16:17:40 GMT
Frankly, I can't make up my mind what European language sounds worse, Dutch or Welsh... I like both. Im just surprised there is no outword show of support for the welsh. "Welsh" is an english language nickname for the british. We have all these people swearing their undying love for britian and the british on these forums and off them , but in reality , they want to nick the term british from the welsh , but none of the british language culture and customs.
It really is a strange one . A sort of schrodingers nationality .
Its a bit like the french calling modern france "gaul" , but not wanting to learn any of the gaulish language.
I think english is the worst sounding of most of the european languages i have heard. The rest all follow more or less strict rules , but english is made up on the hop.
....but then , what do you expect from a language which is half french , part german , part danish with loads of subcontinent words thrown in for good mix.
English is messy but as languages go, it's highly successful. It has borrowed words from many foreign sources, and therein lies vitality. This openness and flexibility have allowed an organic expansion of the lexicon, which in my opinion is a very good thing. By contrast, in France, the Académie Française has been trying (and not always succeeding) to keep foreign words out of French since the 17th century, as a result of which French has not grown as robust as English. The smaller vocabulary of French makes the language easier to learn, but limits expression compared to English. Sounds vary regionally in both languages so it's hard to make a direct comparison. |
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Post by Deleted on Apr 22, 2023 16:47:07 GMT
Anyway , getting back to the op ,i fully support the scrapping of non welsh placenames .Im a big supporter of the celtic languages , and wish scotland would take a similar line with our native language. As you say nothing wrong with maintaining these languages , and i certainly dont understand an english language speaker feeling threatened by non english languages.
They're not. As in, I have never encountered anyone who cared about it either way. However, when it's done just to be anti-English then it loses all of its charm and ends up looking like childish bigotry. There's literally no benefit other than to fuel division, which only benefits those foreign powers you part your cheeks to. Wales doesn't gain anything by trying to alienate themselves from the rest of the island. It's irrational. That's not to say there's anything wrong from being multilingual, but scrapping a common language is clearly going backward. |
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Post by thomas on Apr 22, 2023 21:53:47 GMT
I like both. Im just surprised there is no outword show of support for the welsh. "Welsh" is an english language nickname for the british. We have all these people swearing their undying love for britian and the british on these forums and off them , but in reality , they want to nick the term british from the welsh , but none of the british language culture and customs.
It really is a strange one . A sort of schrodingers nationality .
Its a bit like the french calling modern france "gaul" , but not wanting to learn any of the gaulish language.
I think english is the worst sounding of most of the european languages i have heard. The rest all follow more or less strict rules , but english is made up on the hop.
....but then , what do you expect from a language which is half french , part german , part danish with loads of subcontinent words thrown in for good mix.
English is messy but as languages go, it's highly successful. It has borrowed words from many foreign sources, and therein lies vitality. This openness and flexibility have allowed an organic expansion of the lexicon, which in my opinion is a very good thing. By contrast, in France, the Académie Française has been trying (and not always succeeding) to keep foreign words out of French since the 17th century, as a result of which French has not grown as robust as English. The smaller vocabulary of French makes the language easier to learn, but limits expression compared to English. Sounds vary regionally in both languages so it's hard to make a direct comparison. aye ive read the fact the english is a borrowing language ( the majority of the language today isnt anglo saxon )is in part what has made it highly succesfull.
Scottish irish and welsh all borrow from english too , as you would expect , but english is in a league of its own in that respect.
Seems strange why there was little to no celtic words in old english , to the amount that there is today when you consider we are now being told the anglo saxons came to britain and intermingled with the local celts.
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Post by thomas on Apr 22, 2023 21:55:19 GMT
Anyway , getting back to the op ,i fully support the scrapping of non welsh placenames .Im a big supporter of the celtic languages , and wish scotland would take a similar line with our native language. As you say nothing wrong with maintaining these languages , and i certainly dont understand an english language speaker feeling threatened by non english languages.
They're not. As in, I have never encountered anyone who cared about it either way. Thats a conversation stopper. If you dont care ,why are you on here responding to the op regarding petition to scrap non welsh placenames?
Actions speak louder than words as ever.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 23, 2023 1:10:19 GMT
They're not. As in, I have never encountered anyone who cared about it either way. However, when it's done just to be anti-English then it loses all of its charm and ends up looking like childish bigotry. There's literally no benefit other than to fuel division, which only benefits those foreign powers you part your cheeks to. Wales doesn't gain anything by trying to alienate themselves from the rest of the island. It's irrational. That's not to say there's anything wrong from being multilingual, but scrapping a common language is clearly going backward. Thats a conversation stopper. If you dont care ,why are you on here responding to the op regarding petition to scrap non welsh placenames?
Actions speak louder than words as ever.
My post is pretty clear and a direct response to your claim:
Your claim is bullshit and a direct projection of your own fears, which is why you want to see place names scrapped:
Your nationalist leaders have either been arrested or facing arrest for robbing the Scottish people blind whilst pushing a deranged nanny state, and they did all this for years because they relied on bigotry and racism toward England and the English. I get that you're desperate and want to fuel hate on this island, because that's all you have, but why would the Welsh want anything to do with the ABE grunts?
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Post by buccaneer on Apr 23, 2023 7:26:10 GMT
Frankly, I can't make up my mind what European language sounds worse, Dutch or Welsh... I like both. Im just surprised there is no outword show of support for the welsh. "Welsh" is an english language nickname for the british. We have all these people swearing their undying love for britian and the british on these forums and off them , but in reality , they want to nick the term british from the welsh , but none of the british language culture and customs.
It really is a strange one . A sort of schrodingers nationality .
Its a bit like the french calling modern france "gaul" , but not wanting to learn any of the gaulish language.
I think english is the worst sounding of most of the european languages i have heard. The rest all follow more or less strict rules , but english is made up on the hop.
....but then , what do you expect from a language which is half french , part german , part danish with loads of subcontinent words thrown in for good mix.
It must grate for someone who deeply identifies as Scottish to use the term 'English' to communicate. The beautiful language of English is lingua franca (see what I did there?) globally. Many languages are rules based. English is pattern based and has no rules where spelling is concerned. It is a fluid and dynamic language that has a sizeable and wide-ranging vocabulary that your friends the French could only dream of. According to the Global Language Monitor (2014) the English language has over 1 million words in its vocabulary, over ten times higher than the restrictive and heavily rule structured French language. Different studies will conclude different findings regarding vocab size, but almost all will conclude that the English language is a rich descriptive language that is used by many the world over. And yes, the English language is truly multicultural with its etymology, but that's another reason perhaps why it is such a beautiful language. |
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Post by om15 on Apr 23, 2023 7:58:36 GMT
English is a very good language, .... once you have mastered it that is.
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Post by thomas on Apr 23, 2023 8:28:05 GMT
Thats a conversation stopper. If you dont care ,why are you on here responding to the op regarding petition to scrap non welsh placenames?
Actions speak louder than words as ever.
My post is pretty clear and a direct response to your claim:
Your claim is bullshit and a direct projection of your own fears, which is why you want to see place names scrapped:
Your nationalist leaders have either been arrested or facing arrest for robbing the Scottish people blind whilst pushing a deranged nanny state, and they did all this for years because they relied on bigotry and racism toward England and the English. I get that you're desperate and want to fuel hate on this island, because that's all you have, but why would the Welsh want anything to do with the ABE grunts?
eh? thats a bit of an unhinged word salad off in a tangent in all directions. If you dont care about a subject dont post b4 .simples. |
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