[Dansker]

Noora,
Yeah well I understand that. So different languages, especially Finnish=)
Now THAT'S something...=)
Where are you from may I know?

Ah.
Biblical Hebrew is my passion nowadays. I think I love it! :^)
It's so... Logical... Can't explain. But it's beautiful indeed.

[ADDED=jartur]1125309946[/ADDED]
דִּבֶּר דָּבָר
for example.
Isn't it beautiful?
Without מָסוֹרָה it would be
דבר דבר
Cool

[Cavedweller]

jartur, I'd like to learn Hebrew, too, but I guess I'll have no time for it.. It's great.

[Dansker]

jartur,
That is SO beautiful...
Ahm... But... What the hack does it mean?
(דִּבֶּר דָּבָר )

Cavedweller, ah that's THE problem.
Dansker, [one] tell[s] [a] word.

[ADDED=jartur]1125324203[/ADDED]
Ah yes. It's pronounced as [dibb'er da:v'a:r], [r] is like in Deutsch or Hebrew ( alike the French one ).

[ADDED=jartur]1125324374[/ADDED]
And מָסוֹרָה is [ma:sor'a:] which word is used to call all the Biblical Hebrew points, accents, punctuation, etc. Because of masorets, who were the scientist and inventors of the system.

[ADDED=jartur]1125324606[/ADDED]
In fact מָסוֹרָה means 'legend, tradition' and these scientists were called masorets because of the word.

[Teemu]

jartur, how much languages do you speak at all?

Teemu, I'm afraid... none of 'em, you know
I DO STUDY some of 'em. But don't speak 'em. Russian is not as good as I would like it to be. English is much farther from ideal. French is as bad as dead cat. All others... I'm going to finish my Finnish grammar until New Year. Meanwhile have some Biblical Hebrew. Then back to Ancient Greek, then refresh and regain Latin. Hmm... then Spanish. Improve French. Danish, Icelandic, Swedish, Norwegian after. Then Chinese, Japanese. Tibetan, of course. Sanskrt and Pali are on the way. Vakhan just for fun. And then I suppose to die
P.S. Polsky is obligature, cuz I've bought the book laready

[Cavedweller]

jartur, you're just like me, but I myself am more concentrated on Germanic branch of Indoeuropean. I can speak English, I learn Swedish, Norwegian, Icelandic, Faroese, soon Finnish, then German, Ancient languages like Gothic, Ancient Greek, Old English, Latin (in the University)), Hebrew, Arabian, Arameic probably, Frisian, Netherlands, Mongolian, etc etc etc. I don't plan my death, however

[Teemu]

And I'm learning Finnish and Estonian now... Estonian is a bit more difficult than Finnish:horror: I'm a lunguophile, like you, jartur, Cavedweller But I'm more concentrated on languages, that are spoken in Europe (Indoeuropean and Finno-Ugric).
Of Asian languages I like only Japanese, cuz Japan is a big mystery for me After Finnish and Estonian I'd like to learn Scandinavian(especially Icelandic and Faroese) and maybe Baltic (I know Latvian a little). And
maybe then I will learn some Asian, like Chinese and Hebrew, maybe Armenian

[ADDED=Teemu]1125337999[/ADDED]
I forgot about Inuit(Greenlandic). Is anyone interested in it?

[Cavedweller]

Yes, it is very interesting as well. Take the lot of words for 'ice' and 'seal'

Unuktitut or Kalaallisut are very interesting, yeah.

And I've forgot about Nahuatl ( Aztec language ), Tzotlil ( the language of some American tribe ) and of course Tsalagi ( aka Cherokee, the language of Cherokee tribe ).

Cavedweller, I've made up some rearrangement. I suppose to die a li'l later now

[jpdfo1982]

Hi, there.

I'm Faroese, and thus I speak Faroese and Danish fluently.

In addition, I speak English and German, and am quite capable of speaking understandable Norwegian and Swedish.

The list of languages, I want to learn, is very long, but it's pretty much restriced to the I-E language family. Thus, Slovak, Ukrainian, Albanian, Armenian, Ossetic, Romanian, Spanish etc. are languages, I'd like to learn some day.

Of course, there are off-shoots to other non-I-E-languages. These include Finnish, Karelian, other small Uralic languages, Nenets, Arabic, Hebrew and maybe Greenlandic.

[Heidning]

jartur

Teemu, I'm afraid... none of 'em, you know
I DO STUDY some of 'em. But don't speak 'em.

Me too
I've learnt Swedish and Norwegian (mostly Nynorsk) and can even write them very fluently (enough for chatting in ICQ) but I can't say that I really do speak them. Also I learn German, Faroese and Afrikaans. Once I tried to learn Icelandic but I failed It is so complicated! I'm planning to begin with Spanish as well. There are other languages also I want to learn - such as Mongolian, Kiswahili, Euskara and so on - but I don't think it is possible at the moment.

And of course I learnt English at school.

[Olorwen]

Dia anseo! Help me, please. In russian language there are many answers which don't give certain information for the question (often rhymed). "-kto?- kon' v pal'to", for instance. Would you be so kind to exemplify such meaningless answers from languages you know?(Gaeilge,in particular)

[jpdfo1982]

Heidning, would you consider Icelandic to be more complicated than Faroese? I need an outside perspective.

[Heidning]

Those, who never learnt any of the languages, usually think that both are allmost the same. Or even that Faroese is more complicated, if they are acquainted a bit with Icelandic. But I see now - having tried to learn both of them - that Icelandic grammar is much more complicated. Especially verb conjugation:
For example the verb eiga:
ég á ----- eg eigi
þú átt ----- tú eigur
hann á ----- hann eigur
við eigum ----- vit eiga
þið eigið ----- tit eiga
þeir eiga ----- teir eiga
It shows very well that it's easier to learn to use verbs in Faroese than in Icelandic. Even weak aði-verbs can have soundchanges in Icelandic (kalla - köllum)! And we mustn't forget that in addition to that Icelandic verbs have full conjugation in conjunctive.
Isn't it sufficient?

[jpdfo1982]

Yes, thanks, that'll suffice.

I've always known, that Faroese is easier (well, I shouldn't speak really, since it's native to me), but it seems like the buzz isn't quite out on Faroese yet. OR it might also be why many people prefer Biblical Hebrew over Modern Hebrew or Ancient Greek over Modern Greek, the immense historical value of Icelandic. Of course, concerning the buzz, I'm trying my best, but it's not that easy being alone.

Anyway, I want to talk about another language, Slovak:

Any native speakers here? How is it compared to Russian (the only Slavic language I know something of)? What about it's great semivowels Ĺ and Ŕ? Easy or hard to learn? Etc. etc.

[Hrafn V.]

How is it [Slovak] compared to Russian (the only Slavic language I know something of)? What about it's great semivowels Ĺ and Ŕ? Easy or hard to learn?

It is close to Czech. However with a knowledge of Russian and, say, Polish you could understand that language pretty well, either spoken or written, after some "tuning", of course.
Syllabic L & R, from my point of view, are not that difficult at all, sounds of Faroese are much more sophisticated...

[jpdfo1982]

Hrafn V.

Syllabic L & R, from my point of view, are not that difficult at all, sounds of Faroese are much more sophisticated...

Really? Could you give me some examples?

And one more question: What's the difference between Czech/Slovak Ď and English J? Is Ď just a soft D?

[Hrafn V.]

Could you give me some examples?

O.K. Faroese (and Icelandic) "voiceless" b, d, g are really a pain in the ass.

Is [Czech/Slovak] Ď just a soft D?

Yes.