Languages and Conlangs - An F in English? Bobby you speak English!

[Bababooey Warlock]

Whether it be fascinating facts about features of grammar or phonology, giving out resources on where to learn another language, or even wanting to resurrect Sumerian, this is a thread for you!

BASQUE:​

The basic rundown of Euskara
The details of Proto-Basque

SUMERIAN:​

Introduction to Emegir
The logography for Sumerian and Akkadian

VARIOUS OTHER LANGUAGES:​

Pirahã, the crying language of Brazil
Langfocus' video on Finnish
Siberian tongues, whether native or not
Chinese but with consonant clusters and no tones
What is the Ainu language?

As for constructed languages, Esperanto, Toki Pona, and Dothraki will have to do for now.

 

[Skeletonized Cow]

English is objectively the best language. All these attempts at reviving languages, keeping other languages from going extinct, etc. except for retaining them for translating out of old works is objectively retarded.

t. a person who can only speak English.

"Joke" aside, the letter C is actually functionally useless in English. It either makes the same sounds as S or K unless used for CH. C should just make the CH sound, and all other words with C should have S or K substituted in.

 

[sum ting wong]

"Joke" aside, the letter C is actually functionally useless in English. It either makes the same sounds as S or K unless used for CH. C should just make the CH sound, and all other words with C should have S or K substituted in.

No way, 'c' is my favorite letter, you kan sukk my kokk.

 

[Vingle]

English is objectively the best language. All these attempts at reviving languages, keeping other languages from going extinct, etc. except for retaining them for translating out of old works is objectively retarded.

Couldn't agree more, I fucking hate my mother language, it is literally not used anywhere else than the country I live in. It do piss of the nationalist people tho.

 

[Haramburger]

>mfw no qt3.14 japanese grill who wants an online friendo to practice engrish with for school

 

[MerriedxReldnahc]

I've been learning Scottish Gaelic for over a year now, primarily I was using Duolingo but they took a big steamy dump on their interface (namely they got rid of all grammar explainations for most languages, among other bad decisions) so I'm moving to other sources.

Some of what I have at the moment, might update later:

Learn online • SpeakGaelic

Find all your self-directed SpeakGaelic materials here! This is your sat-nav for your Gaelic-learning adventure.

speakgaelic.scot

LearnGaelic

LearnGaelic homepage, Cùrsaichean is goireasan do luchd-ionnsachaidh na Gàidhlig || Courses and resources for Gaelic learners

learngaelic.scot

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/live:bbc_radio_nan_gaidheal For general listening/immersion

https://dasg.ac.uk/en Digital archive of Gaelic texts and recordings

On YouTube:
Gàidhlig gu leór https://m.youtube.com/channel/UC9QhuYhWNaOkzKXz8XSzAXQ
Immersion vids, quick shorts, eSgoil lessons from a guy with the best Scottish accent

This specific BBC Alba playlist of cooking videos https://m.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLomnEwtqhZDfMmIiWbyNGYHKqPk6R5mRF
I've shared this in our YouTube cooking show thread, he's a clear speaker so even beginners can follow along pretty well.

Gaelic With Jason https://m.youtube.com/channel/UCVX7RajLZmm8i7LEuli05tw

If you don't utterly despise Peppa Pig I've found a few episodes dubbed into Gaelic:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=2wBK0fuXvyI

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=EjzHmHBX_BM

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=AWVmTKayFYI

Gaelic Wordle:

Facle - geama laitheil fhacal

Feuch gum faigh thu am facal.

facle.netlify.app

Word matching game using vocab from the Duolingo course

Cuimhne - a Gaelic memory game

Cuimhne - a Gaelic memory game

cuimhne.gordonmaloney.info

 

[Ughubughughughughughghlug]

I am fond of the Deseret alphabet. The Mormons, in an effort both to be different just to be special snowflakes and to teach English reading to immigrants, constructed their own phonemic alphabet entirely from scratch. By phonemic, that means each distinct sound of English - each phoneme - has its own symbol. Because of that, there is no such thing as spelling. Sometimes I practice writing in Deseret.

Similarly, Cherokee syllabary is not the only writing system developed by one man - Cyrillic was too - but it’s the only one developed entirely by an illiterate. Sequoyah understood the concept of reading, but didn’t know how to. Because Cherokee is constructed entirely from syllables formed from a consonant (or two consonants) and a vowel, he made his alphabet syllabic, like Deseret has no spelling in it. Used familiar-looking - pseudoLatin and paeudoGreek - symbols, allowing with some of his own device. I’ve been attempting to learn to read it, read the Cherokee Bible, but it’s difficult since it’s only good for Cherokee words, so I can’t practice with coherent thought (just drills and gibberish I have my computer generate). The Cherokee Nation had higher literacy rates than the United States within a few years of its introduction, and a printing industry.

People of Boonville California speak an argot (conlang/dialect deliberately created to exclude outsiders) called Boontling that evolved from a childhood game of slang.

Boontling Explanation

Boontling is a fun folk language native to Anderson Valley. Hear our brewmaster, Fal Allen, interview fluent Boontling speaker Rod Dewitt about where Boontli...

m.youtube.com

I feel like I actually originally saw this on Kiei Farms, maybe in Fun facts.

 

[Bababooey Warlock]

Some more links to languages, but this time it's about proto-languages (mostly):

PROTO-INDO-EUROPEAN:​

Sounds and syllables
Discussion of roots
The spoken form of PIE
Langfocus explains the Indo-European connection

BANTU LANGUAGES:​

The introduction of their proto language
Presentation of Swahili

NATIVE AMERICAN AND OCEANIC PROTO LANGUAGES:​

The ancestral language of Cherokee and Mohawk
Proto-language of a big Papuan family
The big family of native Australian languages
The language spoken by the ancestors of the Aztecs


EDIT: I wished there were more paleo-European languages besides Basque, so here are some made up sentences to show what could have been spoken. (Shown in the IPA)

1. [kumuso etarani masutawan]
2. [psakahizurdjalo vetanmkai emnitulruhko]
3. [tubu nari buhaku woseː tamk fen pikuː]
4. [iqulumri mataŋi pasaqu ŋamul hantuŋmur]
5. [sæi kæræmy tɯnɯwi jukɑhontu]

Language 1 would be some kind of agglutinative language with simple syllables, somewhat like Japanese.
Language 2 would be similar to a polysynthetic version of Finnish that eroded weak vowels to create bigger clusters.
Language 3 would be like a slightly less analytic Chinese with word final consonant clusters, vowel length, and vowel harmony, instead of tones.
Language 4 would be somewhat like Basque, but without mid vowels, some velar nasals and uvular stops, and a heavy reliance on compound words.
Language 5 would be akin to a simpler version of Turkish, with a more analytic structure.

 

[Bababooey Warlock]

Doublepost but frankly it's just a self-necro.

SINO-TIBETAN:​

The reconstructed ancestor of Chinese, Tibetan, and Burmese
An overview of Mandarin
Chinese but with consonant clusters and no tones
The basics of Lhasa Tibetan
An introduction to Burmese

OTHER ASIAN LANGUAGES:​

An obscure and conservative Korean dialect
Mongolian and its various siblings
The original Turkic language
The Nepalese language that stands out from the rest
Great Andamanese family overview
The probable source of the words Khan and Tengri

 

[Haffhart]

English is objectively the best language. All these attempts at reviving languages, keeping other languages from going extinct, etc. except for retaining them for translating out of old works is objectively retarded.

t. a person who can only speak English.

"Joke" aside, the letter C is actually functionally useless in English. It either makes the same sounds as S or K unless used for CH. C should just make the CH sound, and all other words with C should have S or K substituted in.

You could say it's the best Western or European language as English is basically all the Germanic (North European) languages fused with all the South European (Romance) languages. And all those come from Proto-Indo-European so it's somewhat like a rejoining of PIE, north and south, ice and fire at once. One of many many examples: want/voluntary

Couldn't agree more, I fucking hate my mother language, it is literally not used anywhere else than the country I live in. It do piss of the nationalist people tho.

Funny, the use of English everywhere pisses off nationalists in Anglophone countries as it fuels leftists/globalists. Those "people" say stuff like "English is cultureless and belongs to no one as it's a global tongue!" Use the same logic on French and Spanish and then run from Cubans and Congolese. "But English borrows words from everywhere". See above. Despite like thirty words from tribal languages it's still solidly European. In a few centuries the English dialects will become their own languages like how the Romance family came from Latin and then those arguments will be moot at last.

 

[MerriedxReldnahc]

Moar Gàidhlig because fuck yes:

Playlist from the 1979 TV program, Can Seo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EBVb1zbe32k&list=PL04B67DB0ABD8AAD2

Speaking our Language, 1993 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ASWXjfRCSAE&list=PL4MlWfb3Ju3qHKHnGidZm10DPVaTRes1A


Duolingo also made a slight attempt to fix the complete lack of unit notes for the course, but they're still very, very sparse. I'm curious to hear the opinions of people who are using the Japanese course though, because apparently Duo evicerated the hell out of it.

 

[Agent Abe Caprine]

I know a little Fijian thanks to trying to find out how to pronounce common words used in kava communities. Found out bula has a silent m, which I couldn't wrap my head around. Turns out the m isn't pronounced. That means all the silent letters I keep getting confused by probably aren't, either. Ni sa bula vinaka. Dua na bilo. (Hello, friend. Grab a cup.)

 

[Bababooey Warlock]

On the topic of liquids/R and L sounds in various languages, here's what I've been able to find:

Chinese mainly sticks with laterals, though some kinds of Mandarin also include a rhotic that varies between an approximant and a fricative.
Japanese only has one liquid sound that can be a simple alveolar tap or a lateral approximant, or even pronounced as a trill to convey a vulgar nuance in the Shitamachi dialect.
Korean has a liquid that is pronounced as an alveolar tap between vowels, a lateral approximant at the end of a syllable or next to another liquid, or varies between the two when word-initial.
Mongolian distinguishes between a rhotic and a lateral, though the lateral is most often realized as a fricative in the Khalkha dialect.
Several Native American languages (Nahuatl, Navajo, Zuni) only have laterals in their phonemic inventory, the opposite of the stereotype of East Asian languages not having L sounds.
Some languages lack both rhotics and laterals, akin to baby-talk in where the W sound replaces the R and L sounds.

 

[MerriedxReldnahc]

So I'm stupid (you guys knew that already) and decided to nuke all my progress in Duolingo.
I discovered the other day that there were some changes made in the Gàidhlig course and new words added to sections I passed quite a while back. Duo has made it very clear that they want to make it as hard as possible to go back and review shit, so I decided to just start from scratch, see what new words are added, and brute force my way through.

Aside from the repetition of words I already know being pretty painful, I think the course has actually improved. Gàidhlig had some interesting quirks such as adjectives being affected by the gender of the noun, and in this new course so far they're making it very clear what the gender of each noun is.

My two-year mark for studying Gàidhlig is coming up so I want to catch up to my previous point in the course by then.

 

[millais]

"Joke" aside, the letter C is actually functionally useless in English. It either makes the same sounds as S or K unless used for CH. C should just make the CH sound, and all other words with C should have S or K substituted in.

There is a precedent for this. When Afrikaans was codified as a written language to replace Dutch in South Africa, they eliminated the letter C for those exact same reasons. So you will not find the letter C in Afrikaans writing outside of people's names, place names, and other formal nouns.