Language Thread

[Manchuria]

그래요? ㅋㅋ

Hanja but not Hangul?.. That's pretty odd, haha, considering Hangul is pretty vital toward knowing hanja well.

Of course, if you learned Mandarin before you started learning Korean, then I guess that might make sense.

My grandma writes almost entirely in Hanja, and uses "Sino-Korean" words. I've never seen her write in Hangul, actually.

Everyone in Korea uses Sino-Korean words, haha. Sino-Korean words are just words based upon Chinese characters, mostly loanwords from China - most complex Korean vocabulary is Sino-Korean.

Are you sure?.. It's pretty much impossible to write Korean solely using hanja, especially with verbs. Does she write almost solely in Classical Chinese?

[Cill Airne]

My grandma writes almost entirely in Hanja, and uses "Sino-Korean" words. I've never seen her write in Hangul, actually.

Everyone in Korea uses Sino-Korean words, haha. Sino-Korean words are just words based upon Chinese characters, mostly loanwords from China - most complex Korean vocabulary is Sino-Korean.

Are you sure?.. It's pretty much impossible to write Korean solely using hanja, especially with verbs. Does she write almost solely in Classical Chinese?

I am well aware, and yes I am quite sure. She never speaks in Korean anymore because most people tell her that her Korean is "very old-fashioned" and hard to understand. I got her KBS World and she said she struggled to understand most of it. I have no idea how, but I think she most likely used more Chinese in her writing than native-Korean vocabulary, but as I said she doesn't speak Korean anymore and I'm mostly self-taught and I've never been able to understand her Korean.

[Cheonseon]

My grandma writes almost entirely in Hanja, and uses "Sino-Korean" words. I've never seen her write in Hangul, actually.

Everyone in Korea uses Sino-Korean words, haha. Sino-Korean words are just words based upon Chinese characters, mostly loanwords from China - most complex Korean vocabulary is Sino-Korean.

Are you sure?.. It's pretty much impossible to write Korean solely using hanja, especially with verbs. Does she write almost solely in Classical Chinese?

Hanja was still commonly used (especially by upper-class Koreans) in the early 20th century. Hangul didn't become wide-spread until the early 20th century, but from the 1900's to the 1990's it gradually got less and less used. His grandmother most likely used one of the systems used to transcribe Korean words into Hanja characters (鄕札/口訣/吏讀 | 향찰/구결/이두). It wasn't until the 1970's that Hanja stopped being taught in school. And while it's true, most Korean written with Hanja in the mid to late 20th century uses hangul mixed in, that was not always the case.

[Skeckoa]

Native languages are English and Spanish. Am learning Esperanto and Arabic. I wish to learn all the languages.

[The Felnian Colonies]

I'm learning Spanish and German, am an Anglophone, and make conlangs. I'd learn them if I had the time.

[Danbershan]

Amazing diversity here! Some very accomplished people.

I'm native in English, have known Welsh since very early childhood and would still say I am fluent, although it is a bit rusty. Boosted by some family origins in Chile I learnt Spanish during my late teens, and am not fluent but am classified as an advanced learner. I am currently learning Hindustani (Hindi/Urdu) as I'm Hindu and it's a very useful language in an appropriate area of the world.

My current plan is to go on to Sanskrit after that, as well as Tamil and Bengali, but Sanskrit's a tough language and if my path is such that scriptural study in Sanskrit isn't that vital then I imagine I'll skip it, or just learn the basics. Knowing Hindustani first will be really useful for that anyway, it may not take SO much work.

If things take my life differently, other languages that I'm very interested in are Arabic and Hebrew, and also Mandarin, of which I know the basics. Like, really basic.

[Diopolis]

I'm learning Spanish and German, am an Anglophone, and make conlangs. I'd learn them if I had the time.

Conlanging can be a lot of fun.

[Nanatsu no Tsuki]

Amazing diversity here! Some very accomplished people.

I'm native in English, have known Welsh since very early childhood and would still say I am fluent, although it is a bit rusty. Boosted by some family origins in Chile I learnt Spanish during my late teens, and am not fluent but am classified as an advanced learner. I am currently learning Hindustani (Hindi/Urdu) as I'm Hindu and it's a very useful language in an appropriate area of the world.

My current plan is to go on to Sanskrit after that, as well as Tamil and Bengali, but Sanskrit's a tough language and if my path is such that scriptural study in Sanskrit isn't that vital then I imagine I'll skip it, or just learn the basics. Knowing Hindustani first will be really useful for that anyway, it may not take SO much work.

If things take my life differently, other languages that I'm very interested in are Arabic and Hebrew, and also Mandarin, of which I know the basics. Like, really basic.

I'd love to learn Marathi and Punjabi. But for the time being, Hindi is complicated enough.

[Conscentia]

What is your native language?

Does "native language" mean the first language I spoke, or the language I speak best? The first I spoke I believe would be Russian. The one I speak best is English.

What languages are you learning/have learned? How well do you know the language(s)?

I've not made a particular effort to learn any language. I have learnt what is useful, interesting, or happens to stick in my memory. The only languages I know well enough to have a conversation in are Russian and English.

Are there any languages particularly like? Any you dislike?

Of the living natural languages that come to mind, I especially like English, German, Italian, Spanish, and Russian. I like the latter four for aesthetic reasons, and I like English because of it's flexibility and large lexicon which draws upon many languages. I am interested in Finnish and Japanese, but I don't know enough about them to judge.

The following is likely to be quite an unpopular opinion, but I abhor French - I find it's orthography and phonology both to be especially hideous.

Of the dead natural languages that come to mind, I especially like Gothic and Latin - both for aesthetic reasons. I am interested in Summerian and Egyptian, but I don't know enough to judge them.

I know no dead languages I especially dislike.

Of the constructed languages that come to mind, I especially like Lojban, Laadan, and Kelen - all because of the unique features of their grammar, not for reasons of aesthetics. Now that I think of it, I don't like any constructed languages for aesthetic reasons. I've just never come across one that was especially aesthetically pleasing.

I know no constructed languages I especially dislike.

[Herrebrugh]

I've picked some Dutch. Its pretty ez pz and an different language. For instance I've noticed that "kanker" is 50% of the Dutch language if you go by everyday usage. I'd say 10% of the time I heard "Je moeder" coming from fucking bankers. God damn, its an entire country of trolls trolling trolls.

Interesting place and interesting language. I can definitely swear pretty well now, just have to master the rest of the language.

It depends on who you talk to. Using cancer as a swear-word is pretty much entirely unacceptable where I'm at. "Your mother" is also something I associate with annoying teens and adults acting like annoying teens.

[Skeckoa]

Of the constructed languages that come to mind, I especially like Lojban, Laadan, and Kelen - all because of the unique features of their grammar, not for reasons of aesthetics. Now that I think of it, I don't like any constructed languages for aesthetic reasons. I've just never come across one that was especially aesthetically pleasing.

Out of curiosity, would Lojban ever be learned natively? I'm not really sure, but a lot of people here are more qualified than I in answering this question.

It's grammar is so unlike any other language out there, that I'm unsure that a human brain can ever comprehend it in the same way they comprehend natural languages or even conlangs that are natural-language-like.

[Ava Ire]

I'm currently taking a Latin course.

[Ghuraba Al-Khorusani]

.

[Manchuria]

Everyone in Korea uses Sino-Korean words, haha. Sino-Korean words are just words based upon Chinese characters, mostly loanwords from China - most complex Korean vocabulary is Sino-Korean.

Are you sure?.. It's pretty much impossible to write Korean solely using hanja, especially with verbs. Does she write almost solely in Classical Chinese?

Hanja was still commonly used (especially by upper-class Koreans) in the early 20th century. Hangul didn't become wide-spread until the early 20th century, but from the 1900's to the 1990's it gradually got less and less used. His grandmother most likely used one of the systems used to transcribe Korean words into Hanja characters (鄕札/口訣/吏讀 | 향찰/구결/이두). It wasn't until the 1970's that Hanja stopped being taught in school. And while it's true, most Korean written with Hanja in the mid to late 20th century uses hangul mixed in, that was not always the case.

I'm well aware that hanja had widespread usage until the 1990s, and that hangul was seen as lowly, feminine, and unsophisticated by the Confucian elite. Hanja is still taught in schools - schools just went back and forth on whether to teach it during the 1970s. HOWEVER, this does not mean that hangul was not taught. Hangul is required for basic literacy and would be taught way before hanja.

Hyangchal hasn't been used for over a thousand years (not to mention, only like 25 works still exist that actually use it), and gugyeol is for rendering Chinese readable into Korean - something that doesn't make sense if his grandma doesn't know Hangul. When writing in Korean, idu in general fell largely out of favor after the 15th century in favor of using Hangul (generally mixed script), and I'm pretty sure his grandma isn't 600 years old.

Writing in Classical Chinese was what had prestige - not confusing attempts at writing Korean through a script that wasn't fit for it. Furthermore, if his grandma was so scholarly as to be an expert in writing Chinese, then it's highly unlikely she would never have learned Hangul.

[Conscentia]

Of the constructed languages that come to mind, I especially like Lojban, Laadan, and Kelen - all because of the unique features of their grammar, not for reasons of aesthetics. Now that I think of it, I don't like any constructed languages for aesthetic reasons. I've just never come across one that was especially aesthetically pleasing.

Out of curiosity, would Lojban ever be learned natively? I'm not really sure, but a lot of people here are more qualified than I in answering this question.

It's grammar is so unlike any other language out there, that I'm unsure that a human brain can ever comprehend it in the same way they comprehend natural languages or even conlangs that are natural-language-like.

Lojban could hypothetically be learned natively. Whether anyone would, I don't know. There are people who have taken it up as a second language, though I'm not aware of any of them trying to raise a child speaking Lojban. I know of one case of a linguist who spent the first three years of his son's life speaking to his son only in Klingon. IIRC, the son could speak Klingon well but preferred English so his father stopped. (The son learned English from his mother.) If a guy can raise his son to speak Klingon, I see no reason why someone couldn't raise their children to speak Lojban. It'd probably be easier as Lojban is much more developed language, and was constructed with the intention that people would learn to speak it. I think it's also grammatically simpler than Klingon, and it's phonology is definitely easier to learn then that of Klingon.

The main barrier to learning lojban is that materials for learning it don't use familiar terminology like 'noun' and 'verb', making it initially difficult to figure out what each type of word is supposed to do. Once you get past that I've heard that it's surprisingly not difficult to pick it up. Looking into it myself it, Lojban's grammar didn't seem very complicated - in-fact, IIRC, it was simpler than many of the natural languages I've looked at.

[Manchuria]

Everyone in Korea uses Sino-Korean words, haha. Sino-Korean words are just words based upon Chinese characters, mostly loanwords from China - most complex Korean vocabulary is Sino-Korean.

Are you sure?.. It's pretty much impossible to write Korean solely using hanja, especially with verbs. Does she write almost solely in Classical Chinese?

I am well aware, and yes I am quite sure. She never speaks in Korean anymore because most people tell her that her Korean is "very old-fashioned" and hard to understand. I got her KBS World and she said she struggled to understand most of it. I have no idea how, but I think she most likely used more Chinese in her writing than native-Korean vocabulary, but as I said she doesn't speak Korean anymore and I'm mostly self-taught and I've never been able to understand her Korean.

Old people will speak like old people, and people who speak using saturi will speak using saturi. I don't think anyone in Korea would say that, and especially shame her enough to the point of her not even speaking Korean anymore (what does she speak, then?).

Furthermore, all Korean dialects are mutually intelligible - even if she's from Gyeongsang-do, she shouldn't have trouble understanding Standard Korean. Heck, even if she's from Jeju-do, she shouldn't really have any problem understanding Korean due to how prevalent and dominant it is.

Korean people don't have trouble understanding people because they use Chinese loanwords - heck, some estimates put 70% of Korean vocabulary as borrowed from Chinese.

[Tamsien]

The following is likely to be quite an unpopular opinion, but I abhor French - I find it's orthography and phonology both to be especially hideous.

You're not alone on this. I find the orthography and phonology to be just.... a complete disaster for me. My mouth hates speaking French. I can read it fine but speaking it's just.... blegh.

[Major-Tom]

The following is likely to be quite an unpopular opinion, but I abhor French - I find it's orthography and phonology both to be especially hideous.

You're not alone on this. I find the orthography and phonology to be just.... a complete disaster for me. My mouth hates speaking French. I can read it fine but speaking it's just.... blegh.

Seconded.

[Cill Airne]

Hanja was still commonly used (especially by upper-class Koreans) in the early 20th century. Hangul didn't become wide-spread until the early 20th century, but from the 1900's to the 1990's it gradually got less and less used. His grandmother most likely used one of the systems used to transcribe Korean words into Hanja characters (鄕札/口訣/吏讀 | 향찰/구결/이두). It wasn't until the 1970's that Hanja stopped being taught in school. And while it's true, most Korean written with Hanja in the mid to late 20th century uses hangul mixed in, that was not always the case.

I'm well aware that hanja had widespread usage until the 1990s, and that hangul was seen as lowly, feminine, and unsophisticated by the Confucian elite. Hanja is still taught in schools - schools just went back and forth on whether to teach it during the 1970s. HOWEVER, this does not mean that hangul was not taught. Hangul is required for basic literacy and would be taught way before hanja.

Hyangchal hasn't been used for over a thousand years (not to mention, only like 25 works still exist that actually use it), and gugyeol is for rendering Chinese readable into Korean - something that doesn't make sense if his grandma doesn't know Hangul. When writing in Korean, idu in general fell largely out of favor after the 15th century in favor of using Hangul (generally mixed script), and I'm pretty sure his grandma isn't 600 years old.

Writing in Classical Chinese was what had prestige - not confusing attempts at writing Korean through a script that wasn't fit for it. Furthermore, if his grandma was so scholarly as to be an expert in writing Chinese, then it's highly unlikely she would never have learned Hangul.

I never said she doesn't know Hangul; I said I've never seen her write in Hangul.

I am well aware, and yes I am quite sure. She never speaks in Korean anymore because most people tell her that her Korean is "very old-fashioned" and hard to understand. I got her KBS World and she said she struggled to understand most of it. I have no idea how, but I think she most likely used more Chinese in her writing than native-Korean vocabulary, but as I said she doesn't speak Korean anymore and I'm mostly self-taught and I've never been able to understand her Korean.

Old people will speak like old people, and people who speak using saturi will speak using saturi. I don't think anyone in Korea would say that, and especially shame her enough to the point of her not even speaking Korean anymore (what does she speak, then?).

Furthermore, all Korean dialects are mutually intelligible - even if she's from Gyeongsang-do, she shouldn't have trouble understanding Standard Korean. Heck, even if she's from Jeju-do, she shouldn't really have any problem understanding Korean due to how prevalent and dominant it is.

Korean people don't have trouble understanding people because they use Chinese loanwords - heck, some estimates put 70% of Korean vocabulary as borrowed from Chinese.

And again, you're misunderstanding. My grandmother does not live in Korea anymore; she's lived in the United Kingdom since the 1960's. Her Korean is worse than her English anymore and, when combined with her antiquated speech, makes it difficult to understand.

[Manchuria]

I'm well aware that hanja had widespread usage until the 1990s, and that hangul was seen as lowly, feminine, and unsophisticated by the Confucian elite. Hanja is still taught in schools - schools just went back and forth on whether to teach it during the 1970s. HOWEVER, this does not mean that hangul was not taught. Hangul is required for basic literacy and would be taught way before hanja.

Hyangchal hasn't been used for over a thousand years (not to mention, only like 25 works still exist that actually use it), and gugyeol is for rendering Chinese readable into Korean - something that doesn't make sense if his grandma doesn't know Hangul. When writing in Korean, idu in general fell largely out of favor after the 15th century in favor of using Hangul (generally mixed script), and I'm pretty sure his grandma isn't 600 years old.

Writing in Classical Chinese was what had prestige - not confusing attempts at writing Korean through a script that wasn't fit for it. Furthermore, if his grandma was so scholarly as to be an expert in writing Chinese, then it's highly unlikely she would never have learned Hangul.

I never said she doesn't know Hangul; I said I've never seen her write in Hangul.

Old people will speak like old people, and people who speak using saturi will speak using saturi. I don't think anyone in Korea would say that, and especially shame her enough to the point of her not even speaking Korean anymore (what does she speak, then?).

Furthermore, all Korean dialects are mutually intelligible - even if she's from Gyeongsang-do, she shouldn't have trouble understanding Standard Korean. Heck, even if she's from Jeju-do, she shouldn't really have any problem understanding Korean due to how prevalent and dominant it is.

Korean people don't have trouble understanding people because they use Chinese loanwords - heck, some estimates put 70% of Korean vocabulary as borrowed from Chinese.

And again, you're misunderstanding. My grandmother does not live in Korea anymore; she's lived in the United Kingdom since the 1960's. Her Korean is worse than her English anymore and, when combined with her antiquated speech, makes it difficult to understand.

Ah... well, if she left Korea when she was young and hasn't really used it for half a century, I guess that makes a lot more sense.

[Manchuria]

Indonesian - Saya tidak berbicara bahasa indonesia

Riau Malay is easy.

Makan ayam. This can mean, eating chicken, you're eating chicken, I'm eating chicken, the chicken is eating, the chicken eats, (you) eat chicken, and I think a few more but idk cannot recall at the moment.

riau malay = bahasa indonesia??

yeah... i heard there's no tense, which i like

like instead of i ate i eat i will eat if you want to be specific you can just be like i eat yesterday i eat today i eat tomorrow

nasi lemak
nasi i'm hungry

nasi kuning
nasi uduk
nasi campur
nasi liwet
nasi bakar (best!)
ayam penyet
ayam goreng

How to order food in Indonesia: Mas, tolong mas! Ya, satu porsi nasi uduk, ya makasih mas.

Or something like that.

oh man... i wish they had indonesian restaurants around where i live... i hope im rich in the future and get to visit

sen how many puppets do you have

gak tau boss~

i guess i know indonesian slang now lol

[Tamsien]

You're not alone on this. I find the orthography and phonology to be just.... a complete disaster for me. My mouth hates speaking French. I can read it fine but speaking it's just.... blegh.

Seconded.

I like Spanish, Portuguese, Romanian, and Italian... which is odd. Maybe I just like a more... 'nicer' and less 'abrasive' phonology...

Riau Malay is easy.

Makan ayam. This can mean, eating chicken, you're eating chicken, I'm eating chicken, the chicken is eating, the chicken eats, (you) eat chicken, and I think a few more but idk cannot recall at the moment.

riau malay = bahasa indonesia??

yeah... i heard there's no tense, which i like

like instead of i ate i eat i will eat if you want to be specific you can just be like i eat yesterday i eat today i eat tomorrow

There is tense but it's just very flexible. To say 'makan ayam' is still considered distinct from 'ayam makan' and is even more distinct from 'saya lagi makan ayam penyet.'

Well Riau Malay isn't Bahasa Indonesia, but rather a local Malay dialect spoken in Riau, Riau Islands, and parts of Johor. But their sentence structure is notable in that it is very simple and easy to learn, and it is considered the base structure of modern Indonesian. But actually, Indonesian is based of Classical Malay (spoken origanally in the Johor-Riau Sultanate), hence why there are some people say Indonesian sounds 'archaic' or Malay sounds 'archaic' I don't exactly remember who said who but y'know haha.

The Indonesian language is a standardized register of Malay and by extension the long standing lingua franca of the Nusantara Archipelago and Malay Peninsula.

Wikipedia handles it quite well, although more proficient (I mean, it's my native language and I'm literate and fluent and all that jazz, but not to the extent of someone who lives in Malaysia or Indonesia and can explain every rule or whatnot, heh) native speakers and linguists can explain the intricacies much better than I or Wikipedia can: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indonesian_language

oh man... i wish they had indonesian restaurants around where i live... i hope im rich in the future and get to visit

If you go to Jakarta or any big city in Indonesia I remember that there are these huge eateries in their malls that function as food courts but are notably distinct. These eateries are usually filled with traditional hawker stalls selling traditional regional Indonesian dishes from pretty much anywhere, and the prices aren't too bad either.

In Jakarta at least, the malls Kelapa Gading and Senayan City (I think) have these style of food courts. They're called Eat 'n Eat.

i guess i know indonesian slang now lol

betawi slang tho

[Barboneia]

I'm taking a Spanish class, and I'm going to have to take one next year as well.

[New haven america]

The following is likely to be quite an unpopular opinion, but I abhor French - I find it's orthography and phonology both to be especially hideous.

You're not alone on this. I find the orthography and phonology to be just.... a complete disaster for me. My mouth hates speaking French. I can read it fine but speaking it's just.... blegh.

Excluding Romanian, I personally think French is one of the worst Romance Languages.

Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, etc... All sound better and make more sense, honestly.

[Nanatsu no Tsuki]

You're not alone on this. I find the orthography and phonology to be just.... a complete disaster for me. My mouth hates speaking French. I can read it fine but speaking it's just.... blegh.

Excluding Romanian, I personally think it's one of the worst Romance Languages.

Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, etc... All sound better and make more sense, honestly.

Romanian has a lot of Slavic in it.