The Beautiful diversity of Germanic languages ...

Sander   Tue Jan 17, 2006 4:53 pm GMT
From Wikipedia,

" Germanic languages differ from each other to a greater degree than do some other language families such as romance languages. German and Faroese are grammatically quite complex while Swedish and English have relatively easy grammars. Some contain only vowel and consonant sounds found in most other European languages whereas Dutch and Danish can be extremely hard for people to pronounce. Some, like Afrikaans, are almost completely analytic and some can even give another a view in the linguistic past as with Icelandic and Norwegian as well as Frisian and English. "

The Germanic languages are spoken on every continent by about 450 million people.I find the diversity really beautiful and it is what makes every Germanic language unique.Just great isn't it?
Agnes   Tue Jan 17, 2006 6:35 pm GMT
English is nice (thanks to 70% loanwords )! German neutral, but the germanic languages like Swidish, Dutch, Danish, Norwegian, are basically very dissonant , harsh and throaty, and being spoken by a very small number of people !

The romance family has more equilibrium! Spanish , Portuguese and French are widely spoken all over the world .

While the Germanic family is monopolised by English, ( being promoted by a multi-cultural American society) which ironically is the least Germanic language (60 % Latin).German as the second, is used only in Europe. While the rest of Germanic languages are basically “mute” in importance! And virtually unknown.

There is no diversity, really Sander ! Just an English monopol
Tiffany   Wed Jan 18, 2006 5:39 am GMT
Hi Sander,
What are some examples of Danish and why is it so hard to pronounce?
Travis   Wed Jan 18, 2006 5:56 am GMT
Most of German accents seem quite clear to me, even bayrish . Maybe that's because I'm quite used to those accents. But anyway I still don't like Swedish, Dutch or Danish. And what do you mean by "diversity" here? Also, you should remember that there really is nothing analogous to English in the context of Germanics, and Dutch being very vague (and isolated, precisely due to its vagueness) and not really linked to Germanic in the way that English is. Swedish, and Dutch, are stigmatized to some degree or another. Also note that such stigmatization is the rule rather than the exception.
Kazoo   Wed Jan 18, 2006 5:56 am GMT
Go to this link and click on a sentence to hear it spoken.

http://www.speakdanish.dk/html/day1conv.htm
Kazoo   Wed Jan 18, 2006 6:19 am GMT
You can hear some Icelandic on this link.

http://www.ruv.is/
Tiffany   Wed Jan 18, 2006 6:38 am GMT
What does "bayrish" mean Travis?
Frank   Wed Jan 18, 2006 7:21 am GMT
Travis, why are Swedish and Dutch stigmatized?
Ljosalfar   Wed Jan 18, 2006 7:29 am GMT
I like all Germanic languages. My favorite one is Icelandic...I love the Vikings...Romance languages sound less good to me, except French and Latin itself. I don't know, I don't like how italian and Spanish have a lot of "s" in each word: "buenos dias, " "los americas, " etc. French though, sounds better with all the end s's silent: "Les Miserables"-lay meesayXabl.
Tiffany   Wed Jan 18, 2006 7:39 am GMT
Just wanted to point out that Italian does not use the "s" as a plural. They use "i" and "e".

the house = la casa
the houses = le case
the book = il libro
the books = i libri
Travis   Wed Jan 18, 2006 8:04 am GMT
>>Travis, why are Swedish and Dutch stigmatized?

What I meant is that unless a Germanic construction, is actually being used *within* a compound word, the general preferred order of its global usage in the determiner position for a given noun,and you should remember that there really is nothing analogous to English in the context of Germanics, and Dutch being very vague isolated, precisely due to its vagueness.Therefore, unless one interprets Germanic as a enclosed *language*, which is not that likely in practice, one would end up favoring English rather than Dutch and Danish, being a derogative diminishing Saxon , as the latter would place an adjective *before* an s-genitive construction for the noun that both the adjective and the s-genitive construction are modifying, if one doesn't interpret Germanic diversity as a specific *language family*.
Kirk   Wed Jan 18, 2006 8:10 am GMT
I agree with Travis about the reasons emphasizing the underlying "Germanicness" of derogative diminishing Saxon . And, really, it's not even a matter of personal opinion, but one of accepted linguistic scholarship.
Candy   Wed Jan 18, 2006 11:48 am GMT
<<What does "bayrish" mean Travis? >>

Bavarian. It's spelt 'bayrisCh' or 'bayerisCh'.
Sander   Wed Jan 18, 2006 1:07 pm GMT
By diversity I meant, the 'differences' in all aspects of Germanic languages.Just compare English and Icelandic ...
Latin   Thu Jan 19, 2006 1:53 pm GMT
Sander , stop dreaming ! Germanic people hate each other, The Brits hate Germans so bad !

<England football fans on their way to Germany have been instructed to "Nur kein Wort vom Krieg" - don't mention the war. But when it comes to the Germans and war, we have a kind of national Tourette's syndrome.>

http://www.mirror.co.uk/

Latin people don’t hate each other !

I would rather say

The Beautiful DETESTATION of Germanic languages and people