What is your favourite Romance language?

greg   Tue Nov 15, 2005 1:18 am GMT
Fr <bourrasque> remonte au XVIe siècle : il s'agit d'un emprunt à l'italien <b(o)(u)r(r)asca> qui provient de It (Venise ou Trieste) <bora>, du latin <boreas> du mot grec éponyme.
Tiffany   Tue Nov 15, 2005 3:19 am GMT
Are you saying "brasca" is only dialect? It must be, since I know of no word remotely close in Standard Italian meaning breeze. Breeze is "brezza".
greg   Tue Nov 15, 2005 11:43 am GMT
Je crois que <bora> est d'origine vénitienne ou triestine. Mais je n'en suis pas sûr du tout. It <b(o)(u)r(r)asca> serait dérivé de Ve/Tr <bora>. Qu'en penses-tu ?
Cro Magnon   Tue Nov 15, 2005 4:21 pm GMT
I like Spanish better than French. I don't know enough about Italian or Portuguese to say, and I don't know squat about Romanian.
Sanja   Tue Nov 15, 2005 5:33 pm GMT
"What is your favourite Romance language?"

Spanish.
Hopeful   Tue Nov 15, 2005 5:36 pm GMT
I think I will say French (since I am learning it and I am finding it very beautiful!)
I also learn Latin, but I don´t think it counts as a romance language
greg   Tue Nov 15, 2005 11:21 pm GMT
Ma langue romane "favorite" est l'ancien français.
*CarloS*   Wed Nov 16, 2005 3:13 am GMT
I like every Latin Language and I find each one unique and fascinating. =)

But... the ones I like the most are (in this order):

1. Español y Portugués
2. Français y la Limba Romana =)
3. Italiano
4. Catalán y la Langue d'OC
Tiffany   Wed Nov 16, 2005 4:17 am GMT
Greg,
Forse di sì. Non so niente dei dialetti. Comunque, la mia amica Georgia è di Trieste e le spedirò un email.

I'm learning Italian, so right now it's my favorite.
Xatufan   Sat Nov 19, 2005 11:10 pm GMT
Anyway...

Do you prefer the Romance group to other language families or groups?

I do, but I also like comparing different Germanic languages. The word "honey" in the Germanic languages really excites me:

English: honey
German: honig
Dutch: Honing
Danish, Norwegian: honning
Icelandic: hunang
Swedish: honung

Also this one:

English: milk
Afrikaans, Dutch, Low Saxon, Bokmal Norwegian: melk
Limburgish: mèlk
German: Milch
Dansk: maelk (the 'a' and the 'e' are fused, pretty exciting!)
Icelandic: mjólk
Nynorsk Norwegian: mjolk (with the crossed o)
Swedish: mjölk

But they all say that "mèlk is 't voodselriek voch wat aofgesjeie weurt oet de mèlkklere, meis tepele, vaan 't vruiwlik zoegdier, wienie dit zjus e joonk gekraoge heet".
Romanian   Sun Nov 27, 2005 4:23 pm GMT
My favourite Romance language?

I can’t decide between Italian and Argentinean Spanish.

When two Italian women speak... Italian, I can’t concentrate to understand it (any Romanian can understand Southern Italian) because my mind is captured following the rhythm and the melody of this beautiful language.

Spanish is more vibrant and dissonant, like a cello but still very harmonic and suave.

French is very elegant and too complex for my simple ears.

Portuguese, Catalan, are challenging me sometimes.

Hmm Romanian ? The melody is flat, a constant rhythm too dissonant with too Ancient and some Classical Latin words, no other West-Romance speaker can understand. Romanian sounds like some sort of weird Old Latin, with words always ending in U -UL -EM - unlike most other Romance in O.

The only advantage of speaking Romanian is that you can trace the Latin etymology of many words from other languages; (Romanian being the closest language to Classical Latin). Another advantage: Academic words in many foreign languages are just “Romanian” common words.

In other words, my very common Romanian : Inapt, pueril, banal, autodidact, etc. turn very academic in English.

I am surprised by you people, learning and being fascinated by Romanian, when most people (Spaniards, Portuguese, Italians and French, all so-called LATINS ) don’t have a clue about the Romanian Language being Romance !!! Ironically the closest to Classical Latin!!!

Well, we Romanians lived behind an imposed IRON COURTIN in a Slavic hemisphere.

But there is one thing I can never understand; (and I am pointing my finger at those so-called LATIN Europeans and LATIN Americans).

How come most of “Latin” people never heard of Romanian being Romance? Despite such an obvious name like ROMAN - ROMANIA? Did you all have IRON COURTINS in schools?
Romanian   Sun Nov 27, 2005 4:34 pm GMT
Post -scriptum

(I am not referring at you Antimooners – intellectuals with interest and knowledge in so many languages )
Easterner   Sun Nov 27, 2005 5:00 pm GMT
I can only judge those languages which I have actually heard, but I like Italian best. French sounds rather mellow, I like to listen to it, but in a certain respect it is less understandable than other Romance languages, due to its phonetics (but of course it also depends on WHO speaks it - one curious thing is I always understand women speaking it better than men, perhaps because they tend to articulate more clearly). In my very personal opinion, written French is more elegant than the spoken language I find European Spanish somewhat strange and funny with its characteristic "lisp", but I like its fast rhythm. The two most exotic Romance languages for me are those which fall furthest to each other: Portuguese and Romanian. Portuguese also has a mellow quality (I like Sting singing "Fragile" in Portuguese, and the way this particular word is pronounced, somewhat like "fragilidage" instead of "fragilidade"). Finally, I find Romanian very different from the others, it has a "je ne sais quoi" due to its Romance-Slavic word stock, and thus it often reminds me a little of Serbian, especially with regard to its speech rhythm. I also like what Romanian noted: "academic" words in other languages being used as common words, and I also like certain picturesque expressions, like "cu noaptea in cap" (literally: "with the night in his/her head") meaning "very early".
Easterner   Sun Nov 27, 2005 5:12 pm GMT
I forgot to mention I like Italian the most because it rates best on my personal scale of both melodiousness and understandability. I prefer the variety of Standard Italian spoken by Northerners, because I often find the way South Italians speak a little to loud (and at times somewhat harsh).
Easterner   Sun Nov 27, 2005 5:14 pm GMT
Erratum! Correct punctuation below:

"In my very personal opinion, written French is more elegant than the spoken language. I find European Spanish somewhat strange and funny with its characteristic "lisp", but I like its fast rhythm."