American Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese are the easiest: Portuguese uses only 4 subject pronouns and Spanish 5. tu, vos are not used anymore in Brazilian and vosotros/as and its verbal forms are not used in American Spanish so these forms are archaisms in American spanish: sois, cantasteis, cantariais, cantaréis, que vosotros cantéis and so on
Languages with more than 2 forms of address?
<< American Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese are the easiest: Portuguese uses only 4 subject pronouns and Spanish 5. tu, vos are not used anymore in Brazilian and vosotros/as and its verbal forms are not used in American Spanish so these forms are archaisms in American spanish: sois, cantasteis, cantariais, cantaréis, que vosotros cantéis and so on >>
No, English is the easiest. You just use "you" for everybody.
No, English is the easiest. You just use "you" for everybody.
Don't forget that relatively speaking...English has only recently reduced the second person to a single form "you."
We were still seperating the second person "thou/ye" well into the 1700's.
I am certain this will annoy most of my fellow English lovers, but I wish we could have kept the Middle English verb system...I have always felt it is more logical than our modern grammar in the verb department.
We were still seperating the second person "thou/ye" well into the 1700's.
I am certain this will annoy most of my fellow English lovers, but I wish we could have kept the Middle English verb system...I have always felt it is more logical than our modern grammar in the verb department.
<<We were still seperating the second person "thou/ye" well into the 1700's. >>
I think that's something of an exaggeration, except in poetry and the speech of Quakers. I estimate that it died out in the 1600s.
I think that's something of an exaggeration, except in poetry and the speech of Quakers. I estimate that it died out in the 1600s.
Perhaps...
But can't it be debated that if it was found in poetry and the speech of Quakers that it was then it was still in usage ;)
But can't it be debated that if it was found in poetry and the speech of Quakers that it was then it was still in usage ;)
Sorry...I had two thoughts going at the same time.
I meant to say that if it was found in the poetry and speech of the Quakers, then can't it be debated that it was still in usage?
I meant to say that if it was found in the poetry and speech of the Quakers, then can't it be debated that it was still in usage?
In Arabic:
singular
Anta (m.) Anti (f.) = informal
Ustadd (m.) Ustadda (f.) = formal
singular
Anta (m.) Anti (f.) = informal
Ustadd (m.) Ustadda (f.) = formal
<< I wish we could have kept the Middle English verb system...I have always felt it is more logical than our modern grammar in the verb department. >>
In which ways was it more logical?
<< In Arabic:
Ustadd (m.) Ustadda (f.) = formal >>
Wow! That's very similar to Spanish Usted!
In which ways was it more logical?
<< In Arabic:
Ustadd (m.) Ustadda (f.) = formal >>
Wow! That's very similar to Spanish Usted!
My reaction to the Arabic was "You're kidding!" I wonder if "mujer" comes from Arabic too.
I don't know why, but the all inclusive you has always seen strange to me.
I like the construction of some dialects...and I say dialects because there were a whole mix of ME constructions.
"to love"
ich luve = I love
thou luvest = you (singular) love
he luveth = he loves
sche luveth = she loves
we luveth = we love
ye luveth = you (plural) love
thei luveth = they love
I like the construction of some dialects...and I say dialects because there were a whole mix of ME constructions.
"to love"
ich luve = I love
thou luvest = you (singular) love
he luveth = he loves
sche luveth = she loves
we luveth = we love
ye luveth = you (plural) love
thei luveth = they love
LOL...
I don't think so.
It looks like a lot of "th's" with of them together like that, but it really isn't all that bad.
You can find Middle English audio recordings all over the internet. Listen to them and find out...
I always thought it was interesting that we kept some features of the older versions of English but then changed the verbal system...just shows you have evolution can shape a language.
I don't think so.
It looks like a lot of "th's" with of them together like that, but it really isn't all that bad.
You can find Middle English audio recordings all over the internet. Listen to them and find out...
I always thought it was interesting that we kept some features of the older versions of English but then changed the verbal system...just shows you have evolution can shape a language.
I've just search Old English and Middle in Youtube and after watching a few people speaking them, they were lisping all the time. Does ME also has the /X/ phoneme? It sounded so.
K.T. Wrote:
">My reaction to the Arabic was "You're kidding!" I wonder if "mujer" comes from Arabic too.<"
Actually they use lembra (emphasising on the a, the -taa marbutah-) to mean woman, which one could say was borrowed from Spanish hembra.
">My reaction to the Arabic was "You're kidding!" I wonder if "mujer" comes from Arabic too.<"
Actually they use lembra (emphasising on the a, the -taa marbutah-) to mean woman, which one could say was borrowed from Spanish hembra.
This might come as a shock...but You Tube is not all that great for this sort of a thing. Most of the videos I have seen are creations of people that are not very good...
I meant go to a real site like this one:
http://academics.vmi.edu/english/audio/Audio_Index.html
http://mendota.english.wisc.edu/~agbenton/MERP/lang.html
http://geoffreychaucer.org/language/
Now these sites are concentrating on Chaucer Middle English...this is only a little taste of what we call Middle English. There were many dialects throughout its history...
I meant go to a real site like this one:
http://academics.vmi.edu/english/audio/Audio_Index.html
http://mendota.english.wisc.edu/~agbenton/MERP/lang.html
http://geoffreychaucer.org/language/
Now these sites are concentrating on Chaucer Middle English...this is only a little taste of what we call Middle English. There were many dialects throughout its history...