Language practice threads

[ZLVT]

Basically, here's a place for people to tell us what languages they speak, and hopefully, a by product will be the creation of more practice threads if enough people speak a language.

Here are the ones that already exist:
Arabic
Afrikaans (and Dutch)
Chinese
Czech
Danish
Dutch (and Afrikaans)
Esperanto
French
German
Hebrew
Hungarian
Indian (generic)
Irish
Italian
Japanese
Klingon
Korean
Latin
Lojban
North Germanic (generic)
Old English
Portuguese
Russian
Scots Gaelic
Spanish
Swedish
Toki Pona
Turkish
Urdu
Volapük

So, I'll start, I speak Hungarian, and studied Latin for 4.5 yrs though I've forgotten most of it not that I knew all that much to begin with


EDIT: I'll try and add people as they comment, as long as the rate of posts is low enough. This way if any language gets say 4 people, they can start a thread:

Code: Select all

Language -forum pop - speakers
Bahasa Indonesia-1 - Pit
Finnish    - 1 - tendays, marleen
Greek      - 1 - free eye
Hindi      - 2 - aneeshm; tendays
Marathi    - 1 - aneeshm
Norwegian  - 1 - øsse
Polish     - 1 - pfm
Serbo-Croat- 1 - Eugo
Tamil      - 1 - tendays
Tagalog    - 1 - Pit


[Robin S]

This thread is pretty similar.

[Zero]

I speak Portuguese. If someone need help, here i am, rockin' like a hurricane.

[ZLVT]

Hmm, I guess, but rather this topic is designed to bring together competent speakers of languages so they can gather together and speak and eductate those willing to learn. That one is more of a probe into the general Languageness of the forum goers. Well, that's what it appears to be anyway.

[4=5]

seems like this would be a good sticky

[ZLVT]

yeah I was thinking that too, so ppl don't start language threads that already exist. In theory though, this one should stay near the top of the page as long as new ppl keep comming along.

[Zero]

ZLVT, it's Portuguese, not Portugese.

Anyway, i agree, this thread deserves a sticky. Very useful and helpful if powers of XKCD are combined. Go go Power Rangers!

[ZLVT]

Well...duh...I mean who would be dumb enough to make a mistake like that? I don't even know why you posted that. You sure your eyes weren't decieving you old-timer? [looks around furtively]

[steewi]

I speak Spanish and Chinese, but am competent reading in French and Italian, plus I can get the gist of Japanese. I wish I spoke Welsh, Basque, German and Danish, and more Russian, Arabic and Hebrew.

[ZLVT]

So... basically you speak the forum langugaes and a bit of Arabic. What a coincidence. I'll add you as arabic then, but I can take you off if you prefer.

[Øsse]

I speak Norwegian, but that's pretty close to Swedish.

[steewi]

My Arabic's not that great, ZLVT. I can read the script (as well as the jawi letters for Farsi, Urdu, etc.), but my vocab's not up there. When I say I wish I spoke more, I mean that I've done some and wish I'd done it for longer.

[ZLVT]

I speak Norwegian, but that's pretty close to Swedish.

And Danish I hear. Sorry I spelt your name in lower case but I have no upper case oe.

[ave_matthew]

I'm of no help,
I speak English and French
I know some Esperanto, Spanish, Italian and Cree (ililiimowin)

[pfm]

I speak Polish and English. I also used to speak French, but it was a very long time ago...
Also tried to learn Latin and Swedish, but didn't manage to find enough time to do it.

[aneeshm]

Marathi - mother tongue.
Hindi - as good as a second mother tongue, plus some experience with Sanskritised, or "pure" Hindi.

I can also read and write both equally fluently.

Anyone wanting any help with this, feel free to ask.

[McCaber]

I think we need a Latin thread for those of us who know the difference between a pluperfect and a perfect subjunctive...

[ZLVT]

Yeah I think I'll make a Latin thread soon, but doubt it will be speaking based, rather an education thing.

[Bobber]

I speak Danish, so you can add that to the list.
So I guess we've got the Scandinavian languages covered (fuck off Iceland, you're not part of Scandinavia )

I also speak, English, obviously and a little German.
I learned all of my German in 9th and 10th grade, so it's kind of rusty nowadays.
I can have simple conversations though, "Wo ist der Rathaus?" etc, with shitty improvised grammar.

[ZLVT]

I speak Danish, so you can add that to the list.
So I guess we've got the Scandinavian languages covered (fuck off Iceland, you're not part of Scandinavia )

Well neither is Finland linguistically but they're in the nordic council and I like Iceland and it has no other friends so you'll just have to put up with them. there're only 300,000 anyway.

Well, if we take the "scandinavian 3".. more accurately perhaps the "viking 3" you all understand each other anyway so there should just be one big North Germanic thread.

[ZLVT]

Just movign it back up to the top.

also, in case you havn't noticed, the Latin thread is up and running.

[ZLVT]

The Portuguese thread is now also up and running

[ZLVT]

Irish is now also up and running

[free eye]

I speak German and Greek fluently and I am supposed to know some french since I had it for 3 years in school, but I suck miserably at it.
Ok and obviously I know some English.

[tendays]

viewtopic.php?p=71904#p71904 (by order of fluency: French, English, Portuguese, Finnish, Hindi, German, Tamil). I vaguely tried starting an "Indian languages" thread as well.

[ZLVT]

Danish is up and running

[enk]

Yep, another Dane here.

I also speak enough English to get through everyday stuff as well as academic conversations, but I'd like to learn to speak more like a native (Briton or American - I have yet to decide).

I had French for five years in school and even got an A in my final exam at high school (11 in the old Danish grade system, anyway) but I'm forgetting a lot of it

I once started studying Russian at home, but I didn't get very far. I also started studying Lojban a few months ago, but I didn't even get through the Level Zero book. Conclusion: Don't learn to speak a language if you don't have someone to talk to. (Corollary: I'd like to try Lojban again if I'm not alone ) ok, not really a corollary, but it had a cool ring to it

[Eugo]

OK, anybody for the general mix of српски, hrvatski and bosanski/бошњачки? Which are actually one language (if anyone asked me... but they didn't, so now I speak two languages more than before, without any particular effort).

For lurkers out there, these are Serbian, Croatian and Bosnian.

I'd also like to see if there may be people for Slovenian, Macedonian, Polish, and a few others where I'd be the lurker, being unable to complete a sentence but quite able to understand a lot.

Közben, szomszéd, létrehozhatünk a magyar oldalt?

[ZLVT]

"-unk egy magyar oldalt"

Persze, de nekem itt nincsen ekezetem szoval neked kell majd csinalni, and there is a thread for the discussion of serb-horvat in the "balcan langugaes, how many are there" thread. I'll update the OP in a moment

[Marleen]

I vote for Finnish.

[ZLVT]

well, maybe you and tendays can get one going, I've seen one or two finnish speakers around...

[Piper]

I have some basic german (four years at school), but would like to learn more. I'm also picking up bits and pieces of bastardised Scottish dialect and Gaelic through old songs.

[Alpha Omicron]

tlhIngan Hol vIjatlhlaH, ach lI'chugh 'oH vISovbe'.

I can speak Klingon, but I don't know if that's useful.

(Ambiguity intentional.)

[enk]

tlhIngan Hol vIjatlhlaH, ach lI'chugh 'oH vISovbe'.

That looks like one part Lojban, two parts R'lyehian. Shaken, not stirred.

[Alpha Omicron]

tlhIngan Hol vIjatlhlaH, ach lI'chugh 'oH vISovbe'.

That looks like one part Lojban, two parts R'lyehian. Shaken, not stirred.

Grammatically, Klingon resembles Native American languages. Phonologically, it is like a cross between Arabic and Swedish.

[steewi]

I'm adding an Englisclæden thread. I can't agree that it will always be grammatical, but that's why it's a practice thread.

[Eruantale]

Is there an official Tamil thread, or just Indian languages? I know a smattering of Hindi, but nothing else.

[ZLVT]

Nope, if it's not in the list up the top it doesn't exist...or at least no-one's told me, but there's use for a hindi thread if you want to start one.

[Mr_Rose]

Is there room for fictional/artificial language practice threads here?
I was thinking specifically of Quenya, but there are many others...

(I speak 'Tolkien English' rather more fluently than I speak modern English due to having first read the books when I was six, hence my interest and my tendency to write complex multi-clause sentences using slightly archaic meanings of words in common use...)

[ZLVT]

Battle of the *langs you can try here and see if anyone's interested.