The Official Languages Thread

[Jonathan]

Don't know yet. Maybe I'll give a round of beer in the Teacup thread. Or perhaps I'll spend the day spamming in Swedish in this thread

[Lótiel]

Originally posted by Lalaith

But I realized that most of the Austrians don't know any rules. When I listed to some presentations lately, I noticed that there were loads of grammar mistakes. How embarrassing for native speakers.

I realized the same thing when I visited friends in Vienna a couple of months ago. I was struggeling tom remember german grammar to try and speak corect, but all the Austrians I met spoke with a bad grammar. It´s of course different with the countryside people in Austria, many of them have a strong dialect, but the people I met spoke "proper" german.

I also share appartment with a girl from Salzburg, and when we speak german together she has as many grammarmistakes as I do.

[Lótiel]

Originally posted by Jonathan
[B]Another nice poem is Viktor Rydberg's Tomten. It's a long poem, but many Swedes know the first verse.

Midvinternattens köld är hård,
stjärnorna gnistra och glimma.
Alla sova i enslig gård
djupt under midnattstimma.
Månen vandrar sin tysta ban,
snön lyser vit på fur och gran,
snön lyser vit på taken.
endast tomten är vaken.

Nydelig dikt! I´ve never heard it before, but it reminded me of one of my favourite christmas carols: Midt i vintern. It´s a swedish carol, but it doesn´t seem to be very well known. Two of my other favourites are O, helga natt(swedish, and much better version of Oh holy night) and Gläns över sjö och strand. It may seem a bit strange that my favourite carols are swedish, but my mother grew up in Stockholm. Pluss, the songs are beautiful!

[Linaewen]

Originally posted by Baby-K

Lin, dis 'n plesier (die aansluitings), ek hoop jy sal dit van nut vind. Ek het ook 'n ander een gevind wat jou mooi sal help met die vraag wat jy gevra het oor die Afrikaanse uitroepe, maar ke het ongelukkig vergeet om die webtuiste se adres the hou, so ek sal eers weer moet gaan soek.

Are you telling me I have to translate that word by word? Oh, ok. *Commences looking up 'Lin'.*

Lalaith, whoa, that's a LOT of tenses! And I thought the 4 German cases would be hard! All the more reason for you to learn Chinese, you don't have to do anything to verbs or nouns, either for tense or plural of anything. Same with Cambodian and Indonesian, re the verb inflections.

Jon, is today the day for our Swedish spamming?

[Earniel]

Originally posted by jerseydevil
Well I think you would not use it as an offense. Jonathan on the other hand....

Thank you, yank. *pats JD on the head*

[jerseydevil]

Originally posted by Eärniel
Thank you, yank. *pats JD on the head*

You are asking for it with that. And at least Yank is usually used more as a term of endearment or in a more friendly fashion like among buddies by europeans than yankee seesm to be.

As for patting me on the head - you really need to rethink that one there. Just a warning. I may take back my permitting you to use yankee and yank.

But I shouldn't be too upset. We're the most powerful country in the world and we all know that Europeans just call us Yank and Yankee out of jealousy.

Oh - and how is the EU Constitution doing?

[Linaewen]

Originally posted by jerseydevil
As for patting me on the head - you really need to rethink that one there. Just a warning. I may take back my permitting you to use yankee and yank.

Men jag får andvända det, eller hur? Äsch, mitt ordbok verkar inte.

Translation:
But I can use it, right? Damnit, my dictionary's not working. Well, hopefully these don't need to be checked.

[Lalaith]

Originally posted by Baby-K
Lai, in Afrikaans your Anniversary would be your 'herdenking'.

Thanks! I'll complete my list.


Jon, first TACK.


Happy Anniversary!

[jerseydevil]

Originally posted by Linaewen
Men jag får andvända det, eller hur? Äsch, mitt ordbok verkar inte.

Translation:
But I can use it, right? Damnit, my dictionary's not working. Well, hopefully these don't need to be checked.

I seriously doubt it. You make fun of New Jersey too much.

[Jonathan]

I will be busy today, going skating in the afternoon and studying in the evening. So there will probably not be much Swedish spamming today I'm afraid.

Originally posted by jerseydevil
As for patting me on the head - you really need to rethink that one there. Just a warning. I may take back my permitting you to use yankee and yank.

Barking dogs don't bite

Originally posted by Linaewen
Men jag får använda det, eller hur? Äsch, min ordbok fungerar/funkar inte.

Originally posted by Lalaith
Jon, first TACK.

Happy Anniversary!

Thanks, this day marks my 365th day as a Moot addict
Though I noticed you wrote 'John' there at first

[Linaewen]

Originally posted by jerseydevil
I seriously doubt it. You make fun of New Jersey too much.

Jag? Oh, I do not. Who's the one bothering to find out the truth about the accents? Plus, I did request that brief history of NJ...

Stackars John. Another nickname you don't like.

[Lalaith]

Originally posted by Linaewen
Lalaith, whoa, that's a LOT of tenses! And I thought the 4 German cases would be hard! All the more reason for you to learn Chinese, you don't have to do anything to verbs or nouns, either for tense or plural of anything. Same with Cambodian and Indonesian, re the verb inflections.

And that is just what we have learned yet. I think there are some more.

Yah, I seriously got to think about learning Chinese lately. I would love to do that.
And more people speak Chinese than Swedish. Hahaha.

[Linaewen]

Ok, let's see if this works.

Literally, it means 'You good', and it's the most common greeting. Pronounced 'Ni Hao' (I don't know how to show you the correct tone for that, but it sounds very odd if you get the tone wrong).

Oh, and Jag älskar New Jersey! NJ! NJ!

[jerseydevil]

Originally posted by Linaewen
Oh, and Jag älskar New Jersey! NJ! NJ!

Doesn't "älskar" mean "make love"?

[Lalaith]

Originally posted by Jonathan
Thanks, this day marks my 365th day as a Moot addict
Though I noticed you wrote 'John' there at first

Hush. Don't talk about it.
Just ignore my spelling mistake. I am not able to write correctly before I had lunch. Hush.

Lin, ni hao ma?
I love the letters.

[Jonathan]

Originally posted by jerseydevil
Doesn't "älskar" mean "make love"?

It means 'love'. It can mean 'make love' but then you will see it by looking at the context.
If 'älskar' is followed by an object (in this case NJ), it almost exclusively means 'love'. Otherwise, without any object after the verb, it can mean 'make love'.

[Linaewen]

Yeah, it's too bad you refused to change the spelling back to 'John'.

Ok, next part.

First line: Ni jiao shi me ming? = What's your name? (You call what name?)
2nd: Wo jiao Chen Mei Lian = My name is Lin Chen. (I call(ed) Chen Mei Lian)
3rd: Ni hao ma? Wo hen hao. = How are you? Good, thanks. (You good ah? I very good)

Direct translation is funny, even for easy sentences like this. By the way, this is Mandarin, though I'd much rather teach you De Jieu. Also, this is Pu Tong Hua (Universal Chinese), which has simplified writing. I learned the traditional way of writing words.

Mei Lian is my first name, and Chen my second. The Chinese place the family name in front.

[Lalaith]

Hmmm, can't we stop talking about my morning spelling errors.

I love that language. It all sounds so cute. I definitely want to learn it.
If you don't mind: I want more!

[Earniel]

Originally posted by jerseydevil
As for patting me on the head - you really need to rethink that one there. Just a warning. I may take back my permitting you to use yankee and yank.

*retracts hand*

Were I somebody else, I would have made a comment whether you wanted to be patted somewhere else then. But I won't. [insert Ruinel's little angel smiley]

Ni hao ma, Lin?
Chinese has such pretty characters.

[Linaewen]

Originally posted by Eärniel
*retracts hand*

Were I somebody else, I would have made a comment whether you wanted to be patted somewhere else then. But I won't. [insert Ruinel's little angel smiley]

Ni hao ma, Lin?
Chinese has such pretty characters.

Ja, schäm dich, Eärniel!

Wo hen hao, xie xie. Ni ne? (I'm good, thanks, and you?)

Lai, ni zai zuo shi me? = (You now do what?) (Those last two characters mean - 'what'. [First sentence]
[2nd sentence] - Wo zai wan dian nau. (I now play computer). Computer literally means 'electronic brain'.