French one of the most touched languages by English?!

Sigma   Thu Jul 28, 2005 8:04 pm GMT
Ne t'inquiete pas pour ton français >

*Ne t'inquiete pas pour ton espagnol. Désolé
nico   Thu Jul 28, 2005 8:33 pm GMT
No conoce todas las idiomas del mundo pero yo pensa que las idiomas latinas estan la "piu" bellas especialmente español y italiano.
Damian yn Albaen UK   Thu Jul 28, 2005 10:43 pm GMT
Nos da i chwi oll - gobeithio yn gysgu yn dawel heno ma. Hwyl fawr pob un! :-)
ats   Thu Jul 28, 2005 10:51 pm GMT
all these words are french

contexts, impact especially French prestigious past. Except commonly used phrases, mentioned , relatively recent impact language, deprecated affected nature. major
greg   Thu Jul 28, 2005 11:35 pm GMT
A tous ceux qui liront la traduction proposée par Adam : c'est une avalanche de contre-sens.
Adam   Fri Jul 29, 2005 12:22 am GMT
God's sake.
Adam   Fri Jul 29, 2005 12:35 am GMT
"peeps know are "Iechyd da" (pronounced more often than not as "Yacky da" by the English...way off beam!)"

Are you telling me that the Scots know how to pronounce it? Is it some sort of Celtic brotherhood?

I reckon about 90% of the people in the world's can't pronounce Welsh. I mean, just look at the names of towns in Wales -

Pwllheli. Llangollen. Aberystwyth. Ffos-y-ffin. Ffrwd-fâl. Ffynnongroyw. Pontrhydfendygaid. Melincwrt. Rhosllannerchrugog. Cwmtwrch Uchaf. Ynysybwl.

But my favourite Welsh placename has to be Llanhyfryddawelllehynafolybarcudprindanfygythiadtrienusyrhafnauole.

"A Welsh village called Llanfynydd is applying to change its name to Llanhyfryddawelllehynafolybarcudprindanfygythiadtrienusyrhafnauole in protest against the installation of wind farms. The new name will be the longest placename in Britain and apparently means: "A quiet beautiful village, an historic place with rare Kite under threat from wretched blades".

http://www.adamsmith.org/blog/archives/000462.php

That beats the previous British record - Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwyll-llantysiliogogogoch.

It means "The church of St. Mary in the hollow of white hazel trees near the rapid whirlpool by St. Tysilio's of the red cave"
Adam   Fri Jul 29, 2005 12:44 am GMT
I know how to pronounce "Pwllheli", because there is a Butlin's there that I used to go to every year.

it is "per-thelly."
Gjones2   Fri Jul 29, 2005 6:25 am GMT
>No conoce todas las idiomas del mundo pero yo pensa que las idiomas latinas estan la "piu" bellas especialmente español y italiano. [Nico]

Estoy de acuerdo. Creo que el italiano es el más hermoso de todos los idiomas (desde luego, depende de quien lo hable).

[I agree. I believe that Italian is the most beautiful of all languages (of course, it depends on who speaks it).]
Gjones2   Fri Jul 29, 2005 6:38 am GMT
>"Llanhyfryddawelllehynafolybarcudprindanfygythiadtrienusyrhafnauole" [Adam]

That Welsh name is longer than what's sometimes reputed to be the world's shortest short story (The Dinosaur by Augusto Monterroso). Here it is in its entirety:

"Cuando despertó, el dinosaurio todavía estaba allí."

One possible translation: "When he awoke, the dinosaur was still there." Don't ask me what it means. :-)
Damian yn yr Albaen   Fri Jul 29, 2005 7:46 am GMT
**Pwllheli - it is "per-thelly."**

ADAM:
Way way off beam, mate! ... nothing like it......you're taking the piss here aren't you....a Taff would laugh in your face.

The "-thelly" bit...as a Sassenach you'd say it to rhyme with belly wouldn't you? Aye? I thought so.....

LL in Welsh......simply place tip of tongue behind the front of your top teeth and blow out very gently. Result...the Welsh LL.

Iechydwriaeth.....as my Welsh mate Andrew says. A Welsh bloke with a Scottish name...now that's what I would call the Celtic brotherhood, ADAM. It's a shame you have the same name as the "First Man".....it gives you some sort of exalted status. :-(

Andrew lives in a small village called Llanfairmathafarneithaf..have a bash at that, ADAM the Sais. Of course there's a Celtic brotherhood, dumbwit. It's not just Welsh places names your English brethren fuck up....you ought to hear what a pig's ear they make of that fair wee place just across the Firth in the Kingdom of Fife...Auchtermuchty.

ADAM...you're priceless!....don't ever change. :-)
Damian in Edinburgh   Fri Jul 29, 2005 12:48 pm GMT
I got it wrong according to my mate Andy!

ADAM...I'm sorry!

Corrigendum:

Pwllheli....it's the "Pwll" bit that has the Welsh LL sound. The "heli" bit does rhyme with "belly" apparently.

As I say to get the sound right place tip of tongue against the centre of your top teeth, between teeth and palate, and blow. Then you can't help get the dead right sound. It helps if you have a good supply of saliva but be careful not to expel it at the same time! Welsh people are not in the habit of showering others as they talk. :-)
Lazar   Fri Jul 29, 2005 9:42 pm GMT
<<That Welsh name is longer than what's sometimes reputed to be the world's shortest short story (The Dinosaur by Augusto Monterroso). Here it is in its entirety:

"Cuando despertó, el dinosaurio todavía estaba allí.">>

Actually I think Ernest Hemingway holds the record for the shortest story:

"For sale. Baby shoes. Never worn."
Someone   Sat Jul 30, 2005 12:01 am GMT
“and when people actually speak, the percentage of Germanic words is quite high”


What do you know about “everyday English” Since when is that a sample or linguistic comparison among languages ? Who cares about a farmer’s everyday vocabulary, or a redneck, a junkie, an academician, a prostitute, a president (not Bush)

It doesn’t matter if English common words have Chinese, Zambian or Greek origin, or the words in “everyday English” are saxon. It doesn’t make a difference. A language is an unitarium, a total indivisible. And you like it or not, 70 % of English is of Romance origin.

For example, in Romanian the most common words are Slavic. (Da=Yes)( Iubile=Love)etc. But Romanian is still the closest language on earth to Classical latin.

Ok ? Don’t preach that cr@p with “everyday English” or 763 used words…unless you’re in the kindergarten or playing poker with your inmates.

Just because you spend most of the time in a small “anglo-saxon room” doesn’t mean that the other 9 “Romance rooms” don’t exist. English is a predominant Latin House. English overall is a Saxon compromise and a Romance wannabe…if not a mutant who speaks Romance and thinks Saxon…
Travis   Sat Jul 30, 2005 12:43 am GMT
Someone, do you have the least understanding of the difference between the literary language and the spoken language is? When you can "70 % of English is of Romance origin", you mean more like "70 percent of the words in the average dictionary are of Romance origin". The question though is how much do these words, overall, actually get used in most actual speech, as a very large portion of the vocabulary of English rarely gets used by most individuals at all, being primarily technical and or literary in nature. It's very clear that a significant amount of these words are generally not used in most speech, or otherwise why would it often be not looked well upon to have one's speech be overly Romance in nature, even when the same words are normally used very often in writing? This alone indicates that there is a significant disparity with respect to Romance-ness between the written language and the everyday spoken language, at least here, and not even from a linguist's point of view, but rather in the popular mind. And this is ignoring the fact that English grammar is practically purely Germanic in nature to start with, whether spoken *or* literary.