10-09-2010, 10:42 PM | #151 | ||||
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I will try to answer the OP questions about Spanish.
Spanish has 29 letters. They are the 26 of the English alphabet plus CH, LL, and Ñ. A, B, C, CH, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, LL, M, N, Ñ, O, P, Q, R, S, T, U, V, W, X, Y y Z Before 1994, words starting with CH (LL) would be sorted between words starting with C (L) and D (M). After a reform, those words are sorted like if CH and LL were not separated letters. For example, the list of the states of Mexico before 1994 was: ..., Campeche, Coahuila, Colima, Chiapas, Chihuahua, Durango, ..., etc. Now the list goes: ..., Campeche, Chiapas, Chihuahua, Coahuila, Colima, Durango, ..., etc. Quote:
One candidate I can think is "tortilla". Quote:
I have seen the word "gratis" (free as in "no cost") used a lot in the software world. I don't know if words like tortilla, tacos, burrito, etc. are known in the world or only in North America. In Spanish we pronounce all non-mute letters in words and we have full vowels. Thus I have seen that English speakers have problem with that, but maybe that's not a problem for speakers of other languages. I once met a Chinese guy who told me he couldn't pronounce the "rr" (hard r) sound. Quote:
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One quick example with English is "carpeta/carpet". "Carpeta" means "binder" in English, while "carpet" in Spanish is "alfombra". Last edited by Falcao; 10-09-2010 at 10:46 PM. Reason: spelling |
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10-10-2010, 05:22 AM | #152 | |
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Jane Austen calls childbirth "confinement". When I was a teenager myself, I remember one of my classmates asking me with a silly girly giggle whether I was "indisposed" (incommodée). I looked at her stupidly and said "No, I'm fine". In fact she wanted to know whether I had started having my periods. |
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10-10-2010, 05:28 AM | #153 | ||
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10-10-2010, 06:37 AM | #154 | |
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Fifteen! That's the joy of languages like japanese, the problems you encounter when learning their grammar are so refreshingly different. Not that english has any cases to speak of, either, now that I think about it. (well, traces like I-me, but they don't really count) |
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10-10-2010, 08:37 AM | #155 | |
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10-10-2010, 09:04 AM | #156 | |
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Also, masculine nouns have an animate / inanimate distinction, Slovenian has a dual, Croatian has traces of a dual that has spread by analogy to cases of 3 and four items as well, there is aspect to keep in mind... shudder... |
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10-10-2010, 08:14 PM | #157 |
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@HarryT AFAIR I've read that Tolkiens work on his elven languages was done with an eye on finnish grammar and the other on celtic vocabulary.
An example given to show the grammar complexity was, that wanting to express "I'm travelling from foo to bar" would be just by saying (travelprefix_departure_places_name) (arrival_places_name_arrivalsuffix) |
10-11-2010, 04:26 AM | #158 | |
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10-11-2010, 04:44 AM | #159 | ||
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Jumping on this thread late... just to comment on how similar Maori is to Hawaiian in many ways (or has that been discussed? I just read the last page ) I put the Hawaiian words in RED so we can see the similarities:
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Lots of similarities, but differences too. Every time the Maori come to speak to our kids, they (the Hawaiian kids) giggle uncontrollably at the word that sounds like "fokka." I'm not sure what that word is exactly, but it gets used a lot, let me tell you! |
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