swiss german - separate language

Guest   Wed Jan 30, 2008 8:02 am GMT
The same situation will happen ion the Spanish speaking countries. As time goes by, the differences between the Spanish variants are widening and one day they will use either English or French to communicate with each other.
Guest   Wed Jan 30, 2008 10:11 am GMT
<< The same situation will happen ion the Spanish speaking countries. As time goes by, the differences between the Spanish variants are widening and one day they will use either English or French to communicate with each other. >>

Ok, whatever makes you feel better Frenchie. It's not widening any faster than English in the world or French in Africa. Just for the record; if this changes into a French-Spanish debate, the francofiles started it based on this comment and the one before it. You sound insecure about French and need to attack Spanish...lastima.
mac   Wed Jan 30, 2008 10:28 am GMT
<< There you go again with your anti-French feeling. An Egyptian or a Syrian would tend to use French to facilitate communication between them not English and especially not Spanish. Very, very few Moroccans speak English and lots of Egyptians and Syrians speak fluent French. >>

Whao whao, slow down there Hewlett. I don't write anything or wasn't even thinking about French. Why are you so paranoid about French, huh?
I was simply telling you my experience; I have some friends from Egypt, Jordan and one from Morocco. Recently, I have also met some other Egyptians. ALL THESE PEOPLE SPEAK ENGLISH, with me and with others. The only one I know that speaks French is the the Moroccan guy, although he uses English to speak the Egyptians. Hell, I even meet two groups of Tunisians last year and all I heard them speaking was English.

Sorry if my experience ruins your idea of French among Arabs, but again, I wasn't even trying to bash French or anything. Please don't try to get defensive and start an arguement, because there is nothing to argue about. I'm not "anti French", I'm just telling you about my experiences.
Guest   Wed Jan 30, 2008 10:30 am GMT
<< lots of Egyptians and Syrians speak fluent French. >>

So what? That doesn't mean that lots of them don't speak English as well.
Yves   Wed Jan 30, 2008 3:17 pm GMT
Languages with simple phonetics are less prone to diverge, and Spanish is quite simple in that aspect, this phenomenon is well studied in linguistics. English on the other hand has many vowels which provokes it to be proner to diverge. In the English language forum you can read for example that many words are pronounced radically different depending on the country. I guess that it happens the same with French because its phonetic inventory is fairly big compared to Spanish and this leads to many changes in the dialects spoken in the different French countries. Add to that the fact that the main Francophone area is Africa, the poorest and most illiterate continent in the world, so the French speakers don't care if what they pronounce is good French or not. Hence you'll arrive to the conclusion that French is probably the fastest diverging language among the most spoken ones.
Guest   Wed Jan 30, 2008 4:11 pm GMT
<<proner to diverge>>

Yves, you're English is very good!
However, "proner" , although you got it right based on the "if it's one or two syllables, then add -er/-est" rule, "prone to" is kinda like a set phrase and requires "more prone to" and "most prone to"
Guest   Wed Jan 30, 2008 6:20 pm GMT
Guest,

You're=You are
Guest   Wed Jan 30, 2008 6:32 pm GMT
<<You're=You are >>

Ahhh yes should be "oyur", I mean "your".
see I'm rife with typos.
I was going to say something else, then changed mid-sentence but didn't go back to fix it.
I wasn't trying to be an ass, I just wanted to help him improve his English for next time he uses it.
Thanks : )
Guest   Wed Jan 30, 2008 6:51 pm GMT
The same thing happens to me sometimes;)
Bubbanator   Wed Jan 30, 2008 9:21 pm GMT
Is it me, or has this whole thread gotten WAY off-topic???
Guest   Wed Jan 30, 2008 9:50 pm GMT
Nope, I was wondering the same thing. It went from Swiss German to Arabic and while I certainly understand why (not joking, I really do), I thought maybe Josh would break it off into another thread for those who want to discuss Arabic.

Back to Swiss German: I think Allemanic dialects are very interesting and I'd like to hear multiple samples. I noticed the sing-song nature of some of them. It reminds me of Swedish a little. I don't mind if others disagree-I'm just considering the melody of some dialects, not grammar, not lexical similarity, etc.
Guest   Thu Jan 31, 2008 4:30 am GMT
<< Languages with simple phonetics are less prone to diverge, and Spanish is quite simple in that aspect, this phenomenon is well studied in linguistics. English on the other hand has many vowels which provokes it to be proner to diverge. In the English language forum you can read for example that many words are pronounced radically different depending on the country. I guess that it happens the same with French because its phonetic inventory is fairly big compared to Spanish and this leads to many changes in the dialects spoken in the different French countries. Add to that the fact that the main Francophone area is Africa, the poorest and most illiterate continent in the world, so the French speakers don't care if what they pronounce is good French or not. Hence you'll arrive to the conclusion that French is probably the fastest diverging language among the most spoken ones. >>

Sorry but I had comment on Yves post. This statement makes a good point and a lot of sense if you can look at it without being bias.
Hewlett   Thu Jan 31, 2008 7:54 am GMT
<< Whao whao, slow down there Hewlett. I don't write anything or wasn't even thinking about French. Why are you so paranoid about French, huh?
I was simply telling you my experience; I have some friends from Egypt, Jordan and one from Morocco. Recently, I have also met some other Egyptians. ALL THESE PEOPLE SPEAK ENGLISH, with me and with others. The only one I know that speaks French is the the Moroccan guy, although he uses English to speak the Egyptians. Hell, I even meet two groups of Tunisians last year and all I heard them speaking was English.

Sorry if my experience ruins your idea of French among Arabs, but again, I wasn't even trying to bash French or anything. Please don't try to get defensive and start an arguement, because there is nothing to argue about. I'm not "anti French", I'm just telling you about my experiences. >>

Liar! You're experiences are pure imaginations or hallucinations. Just admit that you're here to bash the French in a subtle way and you were the one who were using JLK's name who is Pro-French and suddenly he becam anti-French when you used his name. Shut up Sam, Franco, Adolfo, Invitado etc.

In my experiences, I heard a Chilean and a Cuban prefered to use English or French because of the differences between their Spanish.
Diego   Thu Jan 31, 2008 7:59 am GMT
<< Languages with simple phonetics are less prone to diverge, and Spanish is quite simple in that aspect, this phenomenon is well studied in linguistics. English on the other hand has many vowels which provokes it to be proner to diverge. In the English language forum you can read for example that many words are pronounced radically different depending on the country. I guess that it happens the same with French because its phonetic inventory is fairly big compared to Spanish and this leads to many changes in the dialects spoken in the different French countries. Add to that the fact that the main Francophone area is Africa, the poorest and most illiterate continent in the world, so the French speakers don't care if what they pronounce is good French or not. Hence you'll arrive to the conclusion that French is probably the fastest diverging language among the most spoken ones. >>

The different forms of Spanish are fast diverging from each other. Have you noticed that even educated speakers prefer to use the pecularities of the place where they came from. Yo is pronounced as Jo, another one Zho etc. Victoria is Victoria, agua is awa, españoles is ehpañoleh, eshpañolesh, epañole, etc.

In short, not even education can unify the Spanish language because of the stubborness of its speakers.
Guest   Thu Jan 31, 2008 8:03 am GMT
<< The different forms of Spanish are fast diverging from each other. Have you noticed that even educated speakers prefer to use the pecularities of the place where they came from. Yo is pronounced as Jo, another one Zho etc. Victoria is Victoria, agua is awa, españoles is ehpañoleh, eshpañolesh, epañole, etc.

In short, not even education can unify the Spanish language because of the stubborness of its speakers. >>

The comment of Diego is facutal and with basis. It's not biased and it really makes sense.