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Walker
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Joined: 24 Aug 2006
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 Posted: Tue Jun 26, 2007 10:06 am Post subject: |
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| David wrote: | | North Germanic pronunciation is the closest to English. The easiest to understand, for me at least, is Dutch because I can speak it, and Scots. |
Hej, David! Good to see you back!
How do you reckon that North Germanic pronunciation (just realized I've been spelling it "pronounciation" all this time) is the closest to English? I don't know which other language group it would be, though. Have you studied/been listening to those languages, or what?
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Porthos
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Joined: 30 Sep 2006
Posts: 1787
Location: Californië, Verenigde Staten
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| Posted: Tue Jun 26, 2007 6:13 pm Post subject: |
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| Quote: | | North Germanic pronunciation is the closest to English. The easiest to understand, for me at least, is Dutch because I can speak it, and Scots. |
How do you figure? I would think that Frisian and Scots "sound" a lot more like English than the North Germanic languages. Are you saying that English phonology is more similar to Scandanavian languages than to other West Germanic ones?
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David
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Joined: 16 Oct 2006
Posts: 180
Location: New Orleans
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| Posted: Wed Jun 27, 2007 1:25 am Post subject: |
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| Walker wrote: | | David wrote: | | North Germanic pronunciation is the closest to English. The easiest to understand, for me at least, is Dutch because I can speak it, and Scots. |
Hej, David! Good to see you back!
How do you reckon that North Germanic pronunciation (just realized I've been spelling it "pronounciation" all this time) is the closest to English? I don't know which other language group it would be, though. Have you studied/been listening to those languages, or what? |
Walker, I don't doubt your opinion, as you are a native speaker. I first read about the North Germanic pronunciation, being closest to English, somewhere online, and also in a book on the history of Enligsh(I don't recall the title). After reading this, I was as y'all are, astounded, but, after listening to some Norwegian and Swedish online, I found it very plausible....of course Danish is a bit different, very rough sounding. I am not sure about Faroese and Icelandic though. |
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Porthos
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Joined: 30 Sep 2006
Posts: 1787
Location: Californië, Verenigde Staten
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| Posted: Wed Jun 27, 2007 6:06 am Post subject: |
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| David wrote: | | Walker wrote: | | David wrote: | | North Germanic pronunciation is the closest to English. The easiest to understand, for me at least, is Dutch because I can speak it, and Scots. |
Hej, David! Good to see you back!
How do you reckon that North Germanic pronunciation (just realized I've been spelling it "pronounciation" all this time) is the closest to English? I don't know which other language group it would be, though. Have you studied/been listening to those languages, or what? |
Walker, I don't doubt your opinion, as you are a native speaker. I first read about the North Germanic pronunciation, being closest to English, somewhere online, and also in a book on the history of Enligsh(I don't recall the title). After reading this, I was as y'all are, astounded, but, after listening to some Norwegian and Swedish online, I found it very plausible....of course Danish is a bit different, very rough sounding. I am not sure about Faroese and Icelandic though. |
Have you heard Frisian and Scots? To me, the Nordic langauges sound very different, and with the exception of their syntax, seem to be very different from English in terms of vocab as well.
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David
Tech Mastermind
Joined: 16 Oct 2006
Posts: 180
Location: New Orleans
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| Posted: Wed Jun 27, 2007 7:18 am Post subject: |
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| Porthos wrote: |
Have you heard Frisian and Scots? To me, the Nordic langauges sound very different, and with the exception of their syntax, seem to be very different from English in terms of vocab as well. |
Yes, I have. Frisian actually does sound pretty close to English,,,Scots doesn't, although it does sound like Scottish English(obviously)!, it doesn't sound like any other English dialect besides Scottish English. The obvius reason for the lack of shared vocab is due to the large amount of borrowings from other languages, especially the Romance, although I'm sure you already knew that. |
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Porthos
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Joined: 30 Sep 2006
Posts: 1787
Location: Californië, Verenigde Staten
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| Posted: Wed Jun 27, 2007 6:22 pm Post subject: |
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| David wrote: | | Porthos wrote: |
Have you heard Frisian and Scots? To me, the Nordic langauges sound very different, and with the exception of their syntax, seem to be very different from English in terms of vocab as well. |
Yes, I have. Frisian actually does sound pretty close to English,,,Scots doesn't, although it does sound like Scottish English(obviously)!, it doesn't sound like any other English dialect besides Scottish English. The obvius reason for the lack of shared vocab is due to the large amount of borrowings from other languages, especially the Romance, although I'm sure you already knew that. |
Um, I'm not sure I agree. Many dialects of Scots sound about as similar to Northumbrian dialect of English as Standard English does. Scots certainly sounds a lot like English compared to the continental languages. Scots sounds nothing like RP, but neither does Frisian or Dutch.
| Quote: | | The obvius reason for the lack of shared vocab is due to the large amount of borrowings from other languages, especially the Romance, although I'm sure you already knew that |
True, but the same would apply to other West Germanic languages with regard to English. I was referring to the shared, everyday Germanic vocab between English and the Nordic languages. Although many of our common words share a common Proto-Germanic origin, the words in the North Germanic group have evolved into very different, unrecognizable forms in many cases. In other words, it's a lot easier to pick out cognates between English and Dutch/German, than it is to do the same with the Nordic languages. I can understand far more Dutch and German than the Nordic languages.
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David
Tech Mastermind
Joined: 16 Oct 2006
Posts: 180
Location: New Orleans
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| Posted: Thu Jun 28, 2007 1:55 am Post subject: |
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| Porthos, I think you misunderstood me. I share your view that Frisian/Dutch/Scots are all easier to understand than the Scandinavian languages. However, I think the phonology of Scandinavian is closer to English. |
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Porthos
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Posts: 1787
Location: Californië, Verenigde Staten
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| Posted: Thu Jun 28, 2007 1:59 am Post subject: |
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| David wrote: | | Porthos, I think you misunderstood me. I share your view that Frisian/Dutch/Scots are all easier to understand than the Scandinavian languages. However, I think the phonology of Scandinavian is closer to English. |
Maybe I haven't heard enough of the Nordic languages, because from what I've heard, I would say that Scots/Frisian/Dutch phonology are more similar to English than the Nordic ones are. Why is it that you feel otherwise? I could be wrong.
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Favorite languages = English/Spanish
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