Jess Posted February 16, 2009 Report Share Posted February 16, 2009 French linguists tend to be really attached to their language and don't really like using English words... Isn't there an actual body of people whose job it is to protect against the 'anglicisation' of French - L'Académie française, or something? I major in Italian at university, and it's the same there, really. They have il computer, lo stress, il weekend, lo shopping, lo sport and lo homeless(!) Even weirder, in my opinion, is when they take English verbs and put them into Italian, complete with full conjugations - chattare (to chat), being the obvious example. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barbara Posted February 16, 2009 Report Share Posted February 16, 2009 Ireland is bilingual, but because we don't have any clear barriers between both languages, people tend to mix them. The radio station I listen to has a presenter who uses English and Irish in the same sentence. It's not confusing at all because it all makes sense, funnily enough. I'm guessing it makes sense to you because you know both languages. I don't think it would make sense to me. I've heard someone talk Irish once and I didn't understand a word of it. Is Irish hard to learn? French linguists tend to be really attached to their language and don't really like using English words... Isn't there an actual body of people whose job it is to protect against the 'anglicisation' of French - L'Académie française, or something? I major in Italian at university, and it's the same there, really. They have il computer, lo stress, il weekend, lo shopping, lo sport and lo homeless(!) Even weirder, in my opinion, is when they take English verbs and put them into Italian, complete with full conjugations - chattare (to chat), being the obvious example. Yes, I was referring to L'Académie française but I wrote French linguists because I wasn't sure English speakers would know what I was talking about. Dutch people use some English verbs too but Dutch is also a Germanic language unlike Italian. So it's not that weird. But in French, you also use English words like le shopping, le week-end, le stress etc. Spanish also uses English words but they sometimes add a few letters (special -> especial, sports -> deporte). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barbara Posted February 16, 2009 Report Share Posted February 16, 2009 Sorry! Double post! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lise Posted February 17, 2009 Report Share Posted February 17, 2009 NZ was settled by the British so I suppose that is why we have traditionally used British English. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jess Posted February 17, 2009 Report Share Posted February 17, 2009 Ireland is bilingual, but because we don't have any clear barriers between both languages, people tend to mix them. The radio station I listen to has a presenter who uses English and Irish in the same sentence. It's not confusing at all because it all makes sense, funnily enough. I'm guessing it makes sense to you because you know both languages. I don't think it would make sense to me. I've heard someone talk Irish and I didn't understand a word of it. s Irish hard to learn? I think the English/Irish thing is a slightly different example, though. I was talking about languages that 'borrow' words from other places because it doesn't translate well, whereas in the case of Irish/English (correct me if I'm wrong), the chances are that if you know Irish then you're gonna be bilingual (because most people speak English, too), right? So, like, I doubt you (Cal)'d even really notice the change between Irish and English unless someone pointed it out to you because both words make sense in your head. Case in point: I was taking notes today in an Italian lecture (that was being given in English) and I wrote the heading 'Differences in journalistic style', only I actually wrote 'Differences in giornalistic style', because that spelling makes more sense to me (it's not actually an Italian word, but 'giorn-' is pronouned the same as 'journ-' and is the prefix of many Italian words - giorno (day), and giornale (newspaper), for example. It made total sense in my head, it was only as I was re-reading the notes later that I noticed my mistake. Another example is that when I'm talking to one of my Italian friends on Facebook, we'll often substitute an English word for its Italian counterpart, and neither of us notice - it just fits into the sentence perfectly as if it were Italian. Needless to say, this sort of acquisition of language really interests me. It even inspired me to do some internet research, and I subsequently found the Italian version of L'Académie française - la Società Dante Alighieri. It does make me smile how both L'Académie and la Società almost automatically make the English words masculine, though, even if their strict foreign counterpart would actually be feminine - il weekend = la fine della settimana. I guess that's sexism for ya! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cal Posted February 17, 2009 Report Share Posted February 17, 2009 I can't speak Irish! I know, it's very embarrassing. Only about 40% of the population can. It's not taught very well in schools here. They approach it the wrong way. I can understand some of it, like that radio program I listen to, but I wouldn't be able to have a fluent conversation with anybody. Irish should be fine to learn if you do an adult course. The courses in school weren't very good... You can hardly ever translate directly from Irish to English because it won't make sense. The Irish sentence would come out jumbled if translated into English directly. But it does make sense if both languages are mixed together because no rules apply. Irish has hundreds of tiny rules which make it very confusing, but when you alter it by mixing English with it, then the rules don't apply because the Irish section of the sentence isn't on it's own, if that makes sense. The language itself has been altered over the years to make it easier. Most kids here go to school and learn a few languages: English, Irish, and most primary schools study French, too. And then in secondary school, you continue with English, Irish, and a third language, which can be French, German, Italian, Spanish, Latin, Russian, Arabic, Greek, Japanese or some Eastern European languages. Old Irish had a lot of individual letters if I'm not mistaken (like a "c" with a dot over it etc.). But they have been dropped over the years and the Irish alphabet is shorter. I *think* there are 22 letters in the Irish alphabet, and then you'd have the alterations of the vowels, such as á, é, í, ó, ú. WOAH! I can talk! Sorry about that! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barbara Posted February 17, 2009 Report Share Posted February 17, 2009 ^ Thanks for explaining that. Needless to say, this sort of acquisition of language really interests me. It even inspired me to do some internet research, and I subsequently found the Italian version of L'Académie française - la Società Dante Alighieri. It does make me smile how both L'Académie and la Società almost automatically make the English words masculine, though, even if their strict foreign counterpart would actually be feminine - il weekend = la fine della settimana. I guess that's sexism for ya! That's not always the case in French. All the words you've mentioned are masculine in French. It's le week-end, le shopping, le stress, le sport. "Le" is masculine. One of the things I like about the English language is that you always use "the". You don't have to wonder whether the word is masculine or feminine. And the conjugation is pretty simple compared to the French conjugation (if you know what the "subjonctif" is, you'll know what I mean ). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jess Posted February 17, 2009 Report Share Posted February 17, 2009 ^ Thanks for explaining that. Needless to say, this sort of acquisition of language really interests me. It even inspired me to do some internet research, and I subsequently found the Italian version of L'Académie française - la Società Dante Alighieri. It does make me smile how both L'Académie and la Società almost automatically make the English words masculine, though, even if their strict foreign counterpart would actually be feminine - il weekend = la fine della settimana. I guess that's sexism for ya! That's not always the case in French. All the words you've mentioned are masculine in French. It's le week-end, le shopping, le stress, le sport. "Le" is masculine. One of the things I like about the English language is that you always use "the". You don't have to wonder whether the word is masculine or feminine. And the conjugation is pretty simple compared to the French conjugation (if you know what the "subjonctif" is, you'll know what I mean ). I think that's what I'm trying to say, maybe. Like, I don't know, it's il weekend (masculine), but if you were to take the literal Italian, it'd be la fine della settimana (feminine). So they've basically gone and made a word that "should" be feminine masculine, instead. I think English does have the congiuntivo (I can't think what the English word would be!), but to a lesser degree and we certainly don't define it as such - e.g. 'I was'. But, yeah, I agree, it's much simpler - although, in fairness, French (and Italian, actually) has a pattern to it that English doesn't possess. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
superman's girlfriend Posted February 17, 2009 Report Share Posted February 17, 2009 NZ was settled by the British so I suppose that is why we have traditionally used British English.Correct, but it was discovered by the Dutch You would be speaking Dutch if the British weren't so powerful... waaay back! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Posted February 17, 2009 Report Share Posted February 17, 2009 Perhaps if the legend of the Mahogany Ship on the coast at Warnambool in Victoria means anything we should be speaking Portuguese!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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