Languages! Are! Weird!

This is a thread where you can talk about the etymology of certain words as well as what is so great (or horrible) about languages in particular. Nothing is stopping you from conversing about everything from grammar to spelling!

Begin the merriment of posting!

Spanish turning o into ue. Seriously I don't get it.

It turns words that would otherwise be related to its neighbors into something different.

forte > fuerte
ponte > puente
porto > puerto

edited 2nd Feb '14 6:32:22 PM by MikuruFan

German is all about the weird stuff. Between 3 genders, the number of ways to use "Sie",but weirdest of all, a thirty + letter word to describe something that cracks the top of an egg.

I'm actually rather surprised that English uses diacritics and grave markers. Makes saying the difference between crooked and crookèd more obvious. And I get to write noöne instead of having to resort to two words.

Three genders is weird now? Bunch of languages have it. -___- God knows how many languages have more varied grammar than English, which is ridiculously simple.

I like it too and sometimes I use them, but I really think they're considered archaic now. We're slowly stopping using them even on loanwords like naïveté (which was just marked wrong by my spellcheck).

Then they're all weird too. Remind me, what's Greek like?

Arabic has 12 different pronouns and a unique set of cases for each :P (quite the bugger to learn in middle school, but I wish I'd had more opportunities to practice it since then). The lack of distinct vowels might weird out new learners too, but it grows on you after a while... ideally.

English used to have Masculine, Feminine and Neuter Grammatical Genders. Sadly the only You Tube video I can find giving a half decent idea of what Old English sounds like forgoes proper grammar to be understood by a Frisian.

For instance at the start of the video he says:

"Iċ willa bycġan ān brūn cū þæt macaþ myċel meolċe." (I will 'want to' buy a brown cow that makes much milk.)

"þæt" is the Neuter article and "meolċe" is feminine. "Sēo" Would have been correct.

edited 3rd Feb '14 6:20:31 AM by Blackcoldren

Why would you actually buy a brown cow when you can just buy milk at a store for a much cheaper price, without having to prepare it?

Iċ ne cann. /shrug I don't know.

A cow usually lasts longer, and we don't know if the speaker in that sentence has the convenience of a grocery store. Then again, it's just an example of Old English.

And Japanese has about 15 different ways for first and second pronouns. Bleeh.

When I was in London, everyone kept asking what Spanish dialect I was using. When I was in New York, they thought I was Portuegese. Only the Italians recognise it right away. Oh, and it has had 3 genders ever since before the 8th century B.C.

Here, have a song.

Really? People confuse Greek with Spanish and Portuguese?

edited 3rd Feb '14 10:17:12 AM by Quag15

That's nothing. A customer at work once thought I was Irish. I had a good laugh about it, though. :)

Wait, your actually greek?

Yes. Well, half of me, anyway. The other half's German, and a dash of Scottish.

I thought you were joking with your name. I mean, your last name really isn't that long is it?

Well, it's easier to pronounce "Aniston" than "Anastasiopoulos" or however it went. :P

Also, German and sounds from other languages. Czech has its "č" letter, that's one. Polish has to resort to two, "cz". English usually needs two, "ch", unless you don't want confusion with the Celtic throat-clearing sound, then it's "tch". But German? German needs FOUR letters. Tsch.

edited 3rd Feb '14 11:06:44 AM by NotSoBadassLongcoat

It is. When my brother joined the Marines, the drill sergeants had to call him "Anapoulos" because of it.

So still being in school I got a good look at my English classes today. It seems much to his despair one of my fellow students is formerly German and is having much trouble understanding the teacher and students. I was the only one in the entire class able to understand his comments. I tried to help in understnading but there's only so much that can be done with my rather limited German vocabulary.

Huh. Did your parents give you that name because it sounds cool? Because, if I had kids, I'd want to give them a name from a different langauge, preferably Japanese , cause I think names in that langauge sound cool. Like, I'd probably name my daughter Sakura. That's not racist is it? I don't think it's racist

I got it from my grandfather, actually, and also after a duke in Roman Greece who was executed when he refused to acknowledge the Emperor Diocletian as a god.

That just makes the name cooler

Thank you. :)

Ha! You think that's bad? Try "Dakogiannakopoulos", or "Papadimitrakopoulos". There are about five ways to say "-son of", so that gets stuck as a suffix in almost every name. And since most names are either related to occupation or an ancestor's first name, they end up loooong.

edited 3rd Feb '14 12:26:27 PM by lu127