Originally posted by The Nuul
Hellz no, I took it in school and hated it. But now I wish I could, more money and its not a bad lang. I had a change of heart after going to Ottawa.
Bah! Once you get to Paris or anywhere in Belgium with Quebec accent everyone will be looking at you as if you're speaking Chinese at them.
Rightly so, too.
Originally posted by Robtard
Because they're foolish snobs, or because the French differs that much from theirs?
Snobby in Paris. Other parts, people make an effort to understand.
Quebec French has a lot of expressions that the French don't. They also pronounce things differently.
Although I do agree that Quebec pronunciation sounds ugly at times and annoying. French accent from France is the sex.
For example if you want to say 'Crêpes', French French you'd say 'crep' however, Quebecois would say ''craaaip'' which can get annoying.
Same thing with 'Même'...French would say 'mem' but Quebecois would be all like ''maaim''....
EDIT - Quebecois can understand French perfectly, but not the other way around. Which IS actually understandable, I have difficulties understanding people from up north of Quebec.
Originally posted by lil bitchiness
Snobby in Paris. Other parts, people make an effort to understand.
Quebec French has a lot of expressions that the French don't. They also pronounce things differently.
Although I do agree that Quebec pronunciation sounds ugly at times and annoying. French accent from France is the sex.For example if you want to say 'Crêpes', French French you'd say 'crep' however, Quebecois would say ''craaaip'' which can get annoying.
Same thing with 'Même'...French would say 'mem' but Quebecois would be all like ''maaim''....EDIT - Quebecois can understand French perfectly, but not the other way around. Which IS actually understandable, I have difficulties understanding people from up north of Quebec.
So Quebec peeps speak French like New Jersey peeps speak English, annoyingly.
Originally posted by Symmetric Chaos
I think you're just a racist and desperately trying to justify it by hoping everyone else it.
lol
Originally posted by inimalist
there is some evidence that there may be a genetic component to being able to parse the language sounds of different languages, which would most likely fall on genetic lines.Some diseases are so genetically specific that some races are more predisposed than others, though the same thing can be said of families or people from any location really.
I agree with your thoughts though, race has no bareing on anything important to people. Unfortunatly the way we interpret race does...
Originally posted by Rogue Jedi
The answer is nothing. When all is said and done, we are all members of the human race.
lol, epic.
Originally posted by §P0oONY
A lot of them do. There is a lot of negativity towards them that's for sure, especially around sport.I've never really had any issue though. I've lived in Scotland most my life (with a full blown English accent) and I've never really seen any hostility.
Your accent doesn't seem very thick.
Originally posted by inimalist
because the difference would be in ease of learning to distinguish, for instance, the two different "th" sounds in arabic vs the one in english would be easier to "hear" as different at a very early age. In practice, it is totally unknown what this would mean in terms of differences in language development.
English has two "th" sounds.
Originally posted by Bardock42
English has two "th" sounds.
yes, but they are interchangeable as far as comprehension is concerned.
Unless you become specifically aware of it, you would never develop the ability to sort of just naturally interpret them as different.
Like, say "three" with either of the sounds, it doesn't change the word you comprehend. If someone was a native Arabic speaker, it might.
Though admittedly, its not the best example. I'm less familiar with other languages, but the tonal component of Mandarin was the specific example the article refered to iirc
Originally posted by inimalist
yes, but they are interchangeable as far as comprehension is concerned.Unless you become specifically aware of it, you would never develop the ability to sort of just naturally interpret them as different.
Like, say "three" with either of the sounds, it doesn't change the word you comprehend. If someone was a native Arabic speaker, it might.
Though admittedly, its not the best example. I'm less familiar with other languages, but the tonal component of Mandarin was the specific example the article refered to iirc
Ah okay, I see what you are talking about. If you talk about comprehension you are probably right, however many native English speakers do use them correctly naturally, indeed without ever noticing.
Though do you think it would be hard for an English speaker to use and comprehend the difference between them, cause they can at least hear them, unlike German where the "th" sound has been completely eradicated?
Are they even the same letter in Arabic as "thorn" and "eth"?
Originally posted by lil bitchiness
Well, in USA it is prevalent to be all about skin colour. While I agree that there are no 'races' per se, human race was previously organised between three great races which were: Caucasoid, Mongoloid and Negroid with no regards to skin colour whatsoever.
Where do Indo-Aryans fit in?
Originally posted by Bardock42
Ah okay, I see what you are talking about. If you talk about comprehension you are probably right, however many native English speakers do use them correctly naturally, indeed without ever noticing.
oh ya, as far as letter pronounciation goes, it is nearly different on a word by word (or at least varies depending on the letter it follows) basis. It is a serious area of current research actually, how it is the brain knows that the "s" sound after an "s" follows an "a" versus an "r", because if you look at the waveform analysis, the sounds are remarkably different.
So, words do have their local "pronounciations", which is where accents come from. The difference is that there is no change in the information the letter conveys.
Originally posted by Bardock42
Though do you think it would be hard for an English speaker to use and comprehend the difference between them, cause they can at least hear them, unlike German where the "th" sound has been completely eradicated?
Arabic is very difficult to transcribe, at least for me, because they have long and short versions of vowels that completely change the meaning of words. So ya, because the ability to parse these sounds peaks in very early childhood, it is very difficult for adults to learn it.
For instance, I could live the rest of my life in an Arabic-only environment and would likely never develop the ability of a natural speaker.
In terms of losing sounds, it might make it harder. Depending on how malliable "v" or "f" sounds are in german words, natural english speakers might mistake them for "th".
Originally posted by Bardock42
Are they even the same letter in Arabic as "thorn" and "eth"?
actually, "thorn" and "eth" use the same "th" sound too.
"thorn" and "eth" use the same mouth/lips position as the letter "f", but the tounge curls up. Words like "this", "that" or "them" have the same mouthing and reverberation as the "v" sound, only again, the tongue is up.
For the "thorn" sound, this is the letter: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E1%B9%AE%C4%81%CA%BE
For the "this" sound:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E1%B8%8E%C4%81l
Originally posted by inimalist
Arabic is very difficult to transcribe, at least for me, because they have long and short versions of vowels that completely change the meaning of words. So ya, because the ability to parse these sounds peaks in very early childhood, it is very difficult for adults to learn it.
A'yn is by far, for me, the most difficult letter to pronounce in Arabic, especially if in the middle of the word. There aren't many words like that, but words such as 'jamiya' have a'yn in the middle and I cannot get it right. I pronounce it as ''ah'' which is evidently wrong, since the sound comes from the back of the throat.
I don't know how it was with you, but I had two rows of letters, with the root on top, and then how the sound of the root ones changes depending on calligraphy...I still find it hard to pronounce certain sounds and I tend to think of myself as quite good when it comes to foreign pronunciations...