thelinguafile - Tumblr blog

[thelinguafile]

Challenge yourself to identify some seventy languages by their sound alone. Learn more about how languages sound and where they're spoken.

[thelinguafile]

Language maps for you cartography lovers

Places in the U.S. where English is not the language spoken at home

Dialects of Arabic

Slavic language distribution in Eastern Europe

[thelinguafile]

An endonym is the name for a place, site or location in the language of the people who live there. This map depicts endonyms of the countries of the world in their official or national languages.

CAN'T CONTROL MYSELF -- I'M GEEKING OUT.

[thelinguafile]

YES! Would it be anything like Lexicon Valley? More/less technical?

Hey everyone! Some of my friends and I (all linguistic graduate students) were thinking about creating a podcast about language/linguistics. It would NOT be a “How to Learn X Language” podcast or a very technical jargon-heavy show for people that were already...

[thelinguafile]

Write the Ring inscription in your native language!

NammiKisulora's Note:I'll keep updating the link in my Tolkien Related Post Collection (http://nammikisulora.tumblr.com/my-tolkien-related-posts) with every fill!

Black Speech: Ash nazg durbatulûk, ash nazg gimbatul, / Ash nazg thrakatulûk agh burzum-ishi krimpatul.

English: One ring to rule them all, one ring to find them, / One ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them

Swedish 1: En ring att sämja dem, en ring att främja den, / En ring att i mörkrets vida riken tämja dem

Swedish 2: En ring att styra dem, en ring att se dem, / En ring att fånga dem och till mörkret ge dem

Dutch: Eén Ring om allen te regeren, Eén Ring om hen te vinden, Eén Ring die hen brengen zal en in Duisternis binden

Spanish: Un Anillo para gobernarlos a todos, un Anillo para encontrarlos / un Anillo para atraerlos a todos y atarlos en las tinieblas.

Portuguese: Um Anel para a todos governar, Um Anel para encontrá-los / Um Anel para a todos trazer e na escuridão aprisioná-los.

Finnish: Yksi sormus heidät löytää, se yksi heitä hallitsee, / se yksi heidät yöhön syöksee ja pimeyteen kahlitsee

[thelinguafile]

Here’s another excellent site for language learning!

For formal lessons with professional teachers, you’ll have to pay, but you can always find other users from all over the world, who are eager to learn and teach you in exchange. This site is great for casual writing practice - you can write ‘notebook entries’ and people will correct your work - and you can chat/message other users. Many will ask if you’d like to exchange Skype addresses for some speaking practice as well.

[thelinguafile]

More Italian Things

http://matadornetwork.com/abroad/10-extraordinarily-useful-italian-phrases/ -slang and idioms

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0n4Vw6twKo -Italian hand gestures

http://italian.about.com/od/lessons/tp/italian-language-lessons.htm -Lots and lots of grammar, and if you look near the bottom, there are some fabulous links with a whole lot of information on culture

http://www.mamalisa.com/?p=824&t=ec&c=120 -children’s rhymes and songs with English translation. (pretty cool!)

http://www.italianlanguageguide.com/ - Tons of grammar, pronunciation help, and much more.

http://www.kwintessential.co.uk/resources/global-etiquette/italy-country-profile.html -Italian culture and etiquette

http://www.education.vic.gov.au/languagesonline/italian/italian.htm -This site has some activities for practice, and it has audio. I think it might be geared towards children, but adults might find it helpful too.

http://twitter.com/italianlanguage -a learning italian twitter account

[thelinguafile]

Russian Ebooks: Electronic Books and Literature Online

Google Books: Russian Literature in the Public Domain A listing of public domain Russian language literature, browsable online or downloadable in image PDF format, from the Google Book initiative.  Vissarion Belinsky | Anton Chekhov | Gavriil Derzhavin | Fyodor Dostoyevsky | Denis Fonvizin | Nikolai Gogol | Ivan Goncharov | Aleksandr Griboyedov | Antioch Kantemir | Nikolaj Karamzin | Ivan Krylov | Mikhail Lermontov | Nikolai Leskov |Mikhail Lomonosov | Nikolai Nekrasov | Aleksandr Ostrovsky | Aleksandr Pushkin | Aleksandr Radishchev | Aleksandr Sumarokov | Leo Tolstoy | Ivan Turgenev  Project Gutenberg: Browse By Language: Russian Project Gutenberg was the original ebook project and catalog on the web, starting well before the advent of the WWW, and paralleling the Free Software Foundation in its goals and values. It is still the largest collection of ebooks, all available in plain text and HTML, as well Plucker formats for handhelds, and in audiobook formats as well (MP3, Ogg, etc.) in a variety of languages.  Conradish.net: Russian Literature (NB: I'm not sure this site works any more, and this upsets me very much because it was one of the best I'd ever come across!) Conradish.net is built for admirers of classic Russian literature in the English-speaking world who desire to read their favorite works in the original language. Over time the corpus has grown to include the works of all major authors from the Golden Era. When you encounter a word that you don't know, position your mouse pointer over it to see its English equivalent. For a more detailed description, click on the word.  Fundamental Digital Library of Russian Literature and Folklore The Fundamental Digital Library of Russian Literature and Folklore (FEB-web) is a full-text digital resource. FEB-web accumulates information in text, audio, visual, and other forms on 11th-20th-century Russian literature, Russian folklore, and the history of Russian literary scholarship and folklore studies.  Klassika.ru Online full-text library of many classics of Russian literature in the public domain, including both prose and poetry; it also includes short biographies and portraits of the authors.  Kulichki Library of Russian Literature Online collection of Russian literature, and links to other resources on Russian literature.  Library of Russian Internet Libraries: Writers' Collections Index of Russian writers and their works online, focusing on lesser-known authors.  Litera.ru Litera.ru brings together information on the best literary Russian Internet resources: digital libraries, reviews of the book news, literary competitions and much more.  Maksim Moshkov's Library of Russian Literature Online Contains fiction, politics, technical documentation, humor, history, poetry, the PCB, Russian rock, tourism, parachute jumping, philosophy, spirituality, the paranormal, etc.  Russian Books On-Line (In English) Listing of classic Russian texts, all translated into English.  Russian Library of Classics An extensive collection of Russian literature, in Russian for the most part, with some English translations.  Russian Literature Online A collection of Russian literature, for the purpose of studying and improving knowledge of the Russian language.  Russian Virtual Library  The Russian Virtual Library ("Russkaia Virtual'naia Biblioteka", RVB) is a non-commercial humanitarian project. RVB is an academic digital library whose aim is electronic publication of both classical and contemporary works of Russian literature on the Web and CD-ROMs. All publications are based on authentic sources and provided with academic commentaries.  University of Adelaide Library: Russian literature (in English) Collection of online translations to English of classic Russian authors. 

[thelinguafile]

12 Ways to stop freezing up when you try to speak a second language

Making the shift from language classroom to real-life conversation can be hard, and it’s easy to panic/freeze up when you’re on the spot and you don’t know how to respond, or how to get people to stop switching to English with you. I got thinking recently about things that I do and that I’ve seen other fluent language learners do in order to manage this difficult situation, and ended up with the following 12 tips. 

1. Pre-think. What kinds of situations am I going to be in? What will people say/how will I respond? Basic situation ideas include: where/how you learned the language, where you’re from/what you do (and other biographic information), what you’re doing in the area and for how long, especially if you’ve travelled there to learn the language. Also think about how to describe things you’ve done recently or are planning to do. Think about who you’re going to see and what you could say to them. If a funny thing happens to you, describe it to yourself in the language, so it will be easier to tell someone else about later. This is a great time to look up how to say essential words. 

2. Re-think. When you have a conversation in the language that goes less-than-ideally, or where you had to switch languages, afterwards think about how you would have said things in the language so if the situation comes up again you are prepared. If you are trying to learn a language with few speakers around you, then you can also do this for any conversation you’ve had. This is also a good time to look stuff up. 

3. Learn filler words. Every speaker hesitates sometimes, so learn the equivalent of “ummm” and “ohh” in the language. Similarly, learn transition words/expressions like “and so”, “and then”, etc. This signals that when you don’t know what to say, it’s a content issue, not a language one, so people will be less likely to switch out of the language. 

Read More

[thelinguafile]

Learning Korean - a few online resources

After two months of classes, exercises, repetitions and a lot of writing practise, I can honestly say that Korean is, hands down, the hardest language I’ve learnt. Not that I’m finished learning it, of course, but you get my point. Anyway, it was early on, when the classes had just started, that I came to realize that, in order to really learn the language, I would have to find a lot of extra material for self-study; as good as the weekly classes I attend are, they’re just not enough.

Fortunately, nowadays it is super easy to find lessons, vocab lists and all other sorts of things in any language you may want to learn on the internet (whether this material is good or not, well, this is a whole different story), so that’s where I headed.

I have to admit that, at first, it was kinda hard to find exactly what I wanted, because that search actually began way before I started the course, so I actually didn’t really know what to look for, but, little by little, I came upon language forums and Korean blogs that put me in the right path. Now, even though my learning is in its early stages, I do have a better understanding and am able to So, below, you will find a small compilation of websites that may help you along the way.

The Sogang Korean Program is one of the most recommended all through the internet. That’s actually the main reason why it made into this sort of top 5 list, because I found the first lessons, the ones on Korean sounds and alphabet, quite bad. And since pronunciation is my biggest problem so far, you may understand why I prefer other resources for that. Still, I liked the way they structured the lessons and I can tell it’ll be quite useful as soon as I get to a higher level of understanding.

Professor Oh has a few videos on her YouTube channel in which she explains the basics of Hangul pronunciation. These videos were really helpful whenever I forgot how to say a specific character or in establishing more clearly the difference between some others. She also has a couple worksheets for download.

KBS World Radio also offers Korean lessons. The best thing here is that they have the explanations in 10 different languages! The grammar explanations are brief (I love loooong explanations that cover all rules and exceptions), but they have lots of example dialogues with audio for lots of different situations.

Korean Flashcards was one of the first sites I visited and I really liked the way they organize and present information. They focus on, surprise, surprise, flashcards and also explain basic, intermediate and advanced sentences word by word. I kinda like their layout and the way content is presented, but there are no pronunciation features.

One more vocabulary resource, the Flashcard Machine is quite useful once you already know how to read Hangul, obviously.

Now, there are some other sites I visit every once in a while, but, depending on what I am after, they are a bit deficient. I also imagine that, for intermediate and advanced students, these three below are lacking. Click on the images to go the sites and, should you know some other good learning resources, share them via e-mail!

Check out more posts from this collaboration HERE. Check out the other collaborators’ blogs here. Check out The Korea Blog!

[thelinguafile]

koblinger

Please give me more (Bokmål/general Norway info) links! :D

Klar Tale (news written in simple Norwegian)

Norwegian for Beginners (five short written lessons, good for starting out with)

Acapela Text to Speech (use with Google Translate speech function to get an idea of pronunciation)

NorwegianLanguage.info (loads of resources here, worth exploring; here’s their beginners’ links section)

Grammar resource

Everyday Norwegian audio comprehension (with transcripts and exercises)

NRK internet radio (also available on iTunes; I recommend making a playlist of different stations so you can find them easily)

På Vei exercises (intended as a companion to the textbook, but the vast majority of them can be used as-is)

Links for Norwegian Learners via Apronus.com (really great site; worth checking out his Norsk Experiment diaries too)

CARLA Norwegian page (more audio as well as other stuff)

I have some more audio stuff, but most of it is saved to my computer and I’m not sure where it’s from. Will update if I find out.

Programs

Anki (really useful flashcard software; there are a few Norwegian verb lists for it and you can make your own as well)

Byki (like Anki, but with audio)

Android apps

Anki

Google Translate

Match English Norwegian

TuneIn Radio (general internet radio app, but a really nice one)

Books

???

[thelinguafile]

Лгун (“The Liar”) — a VERY short fairy tale!

From the Russian Transparent Language Blog (NB: it’s better if you click the source and read the fairy tale there - the author of the post has covered up the English translation):

I’ve mentioned before that I’m captivated by сказки (fairytales). So, let’s start out this week with a “short and sweet” example of Armenian origin.

This textbook from my college days features tales from all over the USSR в русском переводе (“in Russian translation”), and is the source for theармянская сказка we’re going to examine here. I’ve made some minor wording changes to the original, in order to make the story read more clearly (I hope!).

I chose this one not only because it’s so short, but also because it features an unexpected twist. The plot involves a poor person outwitting a rich and powerful person, which is very much a шаблон (cliche) in fairytales. But stories of this type are typically heavy on нравоучение (“didactic moralizing”) — the wealthy nobleman is greedy and deceptive, and rigs a contest in order to cheat the honest peasant, yet ends up “hoist by his own petard.” Sometimes, the poor-but-honest peasant is clever enough by himself to see through the rich man’s scheme and turn the tables; other times, he’s a kindly dimwit who gets help from a brilliant wife, a precocious child, a magical talking animal, or the rich man’s own mistreated servants! But in any case, there’s a blatantly obvious moral along the lines of «Не рой чужому яму, сам в неё попадёшь» — “Don’t dig a pit/trap for someone else, you’ll fall into it yourself.”

Here, however, there’s no moralizing, no magic animals, and no Disney romance — the short tale is really just a set-up for an amusing logical conundrum. In fact, if you’re a fan of that genre of logic-puzzles where “the cannibal tribes on the remote island of Oonga-Boonga always tell the truth, and the vegetarian tribes always speak falsely,” the story’s ending may seem rather familiar…

If you need some assistance with the translation, hover your cursor over the yellow lines (without clicking) for pop-up hints — or select the yellow area with your mouse to view the English translation. As added help, there’s a glossary of selected words at the bottom of the post. (Some readers might prefer to skim through the glossary first before tackling the сказка.) And one final comment: You’ll notice that the narrative rather haphazardly switches between the past and present tense; this is simply a characteristic of oral storytelling, and there are no hard-and-fast grammar rules to fret over.

Лгун (The Liar)

Жила-была прекрасная царевна… Once upon a time there was a beautiful Tsarevna…

Было скучно царевне во дворце. Музыканты и шуты ей давно надоели! The Tsarevna was bored in the palace. She had long since gotten sick and tired of the musicians and jesters!

Однажды она посылает во все стороны своих слуг, которые кричают народу: One day she sends in all directions her servants, who shout to the folk: “Кто лучше всех солжёт, тому царевна даст золотое яблоко в награду!” “To the one who tells the best lie, the Tsarevna shall give a solid-gold apple in reward!” Стали приходить к царевне люди и рассказывать самые невероятные истории. People began coming to the Tsarevna and telling the most unbelievable stories. Приходило много людей , но их лжи не угодили царевне. Many people came, but their lies didn’t satisfy the Tsarevna. И вот пришёл наконец бедняк с большой кожаной сумкой в руке. And finally there came a pauper with a large leather bag in his hand.  “Чего тебе надо?” — спросила у него царевна. “What do you want?” — the Tsarevna asked him.

Бедный мужчина ответил: “Я пришёл получить свои деньги — ведь вымне должны сумку бриллиантов.” The poor man answered: “I’ve come to receive my money. After all — as I need hardly remind you [cough-cough] — you owe me a bag of diamonds.”

“Лгун, я тебе ничего не должна!” — удивилась она. “Liar, I don’t owe you anything!” — she said in surprise.

“Если я лгу, то дайте мне золотое яблоко,” — тихо отвечает бедняк. “If I’m lying, then give me the golden apple,” replies the pauper quietly.

Царевна думает, что она поняла его хитрость: “Нет, ты не лжёшь!” The Tsarevna thinks that she has understood his trickery: “No, you’re not lying!”

“Ну, если я не лгу, то вам надо платить долг. Наполните мою сумку бриллиантами!” “Well, if I’m not lying, then you have to pay the debt. Fill my bag with diamonds!”

Царевна рассмеялась на это, и ей пришлось отдать бедняку золотоеяблоко! The Tsarevna burst out laughing at this, and she was forced to hand over the gold apple to the pauper!  Glossary:

бедняк [gen. бедняка ] — “pauper; a penniless person”; not to be confused with бедняга, which can be used for both males and females and basically means “oh, you poor thing!”

ведь [unstressed particle] — introduces a fact of which speaker and listener are mutually aware, and can be translated with something like “since you and I both know…” or “let’s not forget, after all…” or “considering that…”, etc.

должен, -жна, -жны (что-нибудь кому-нибудь) — “to owe (something to someone)”

лгать/солгать (я лгу, ты лжёшь … они лгут) — “to tell a lie; to fib”

ложь [gen. лжи ] — “a lie”

надоедать/надоесть [perf. conjugates like есть , “to eat”] + кому-нибудь — “to become tiresome, boring, or annoying (for someone)” [used impersonally with dative subject]

посылать/послать [perf. пошлю, пошлёшь… пошлют ] — “to send”

приходиться/прийтись (кому-нибудь делать) — “to leave (someone) with no choice but (to do something)” [impersonal with dative subject, and generally in 3rd sing. or past neuter]

сумка — “a bag”

угождать/угодить (кому-нибудь) — “to be pleasing/satisfactory (to someone)”

[thelinguafile]

Language and Colour Terms

“In Russian, there are two different words for light blue and dark blue. Does this mean that Russian speakers think of these as ‘different’ colors, while having one word (blue) causes English speakers to think of them as the same? Maybe. Do you think of red and pink as different colors? If so, you may be under the influence of your language; after all, pink is really just light red.”

—”Does Language Influence The Way I Think?” | Betty Birner via The Linguistic Society of America (x)

[thelinguafile]

Learning any of the following languages and searching desperately for a language/culture blog to follow? Look no further.

German

Norwegian

Arabic

Greek

Pashto

Chinese

Hebrew

Polish

Danish

Hindi

Portuguese

Dari

Icelandic

Russian

Dutch

Irish

Spanish

Italian

Swedish

English

Japanese

Thai

Esperanto

Korean

Urdu

French

Latin

[thelinguafile]

For the uninitiated, this is Lexicon Valley, a really amazing podcast about language. You should all subscribe.

[thelinguafile]

How to pronounce the "click" sounds in Xhosa, one of the languages of South Africa.

(This guy is awesome!!)

[thelinguafile]

-The Atlas of Pidgin and Creole Language Structures (APiCS) Here is an interactive map of the languages.

Look at all the red dots on the Western Hemisphere. These are the languages and locales: (*not Afro-Diasporic) Download the pdf in chart format here.

LANGUAGE

LOCALE

Based on

African American English

U.S.A

Many scholars hold that Ebonics, like several English creoles, developed from contacts between nonstandard varieties of colonial English and African languages. Its exact origins continue to be debated, however, as do the relative influences of the languages involved. Ebonics is not as extensively modified as most English creoles, and it remains in several ways similar to current nonstandard dialects spoken by white Americans, especially American Southern English.

Gullah

U.S.A., Gullah Islands

English, with strong influences from West and Central African languages such as Mandinka, Wolof, Bambara, Fula, Mende, Vai, Akan, Ewe, Yoruba, Igbo, Hausa, Kongo, Umbundu and Kimbundu.

Jamaican Patois

Jamaica

English-lexified creole with West African. Not to be confused with Jamaican English nor with the Rastafarian use of English. Enslaved Africans from West and Central Africa were exposed to, learned and nativized the vernacular and dialectal forms of English spoken by their masters: British English, Scots and Hiberno-English. Jamaican Patois features a creole continuum.

San Andrés Creole English (aka “San Andrés Creole”, “Bende”, and “Islander Creole English”)

San Andres Province

Spoken by the raizales, its vocabulary originates in English language, but it has its own phonetics and many expressions from Spanish and African dialects of the Kwa languages (Twi, Ewe and Ibi languages) among others.

Nicaraguan Creole English

Nicaragua

Almost identical to Belizean Kriol

Vincentian Creole

St. Vincent and the Grenadines

English-lexified creole language

Trinidad English Creole

Trinidad

It is distinct from Tobagonian Creole, particularly at the basilectal level, and from other Lesser Antillean English creoles.  Like other Caribbean Creoles, has a primarily English-derived vocabulary, though the island formerly had a creole with a largely French lexicon until the nineteenth century saw its replacement by influence from the British. Other languages on the Island, such as Bhojpuri (which acted as a lingua franca amongst Indian immigrants), Spanish, and Chinese and a number of African languages have also influenced the language.

Belizean Creole or Kriol

Belize

Derived mainly from English. Its substrate languages are the Native American language Miskito, and the various West African languages which were brought into the country by slaves. These include Akan, Igbo, and Twi.

Early Sranan

Suriname

Sranan

Suriname

Sranan Tongo’s lexicon is a fusion of English, Dutch, Portuguese and Central and West African languages. It began as a pidgin spoken primarily by African slaves in Suriname who often did not have a common African language. Sranan also became the language of communication between the slaves and the slave-owners, as the slaves were not permitted to speak Dutch. As other ethnic groups were brought to Suriname as contract workers, Sranan became a lingua franca.

Saramaccan

French Guiana and Suriname

The Saramaccan lexicon is largely drawn from Portuguese, English, Dutch, and Sub-Saharan African languages, especially Fongbe, Akan and Gbe. The African component accounts for about 5% of the total.

Nengee

French Guiana and Suriname

Louisiana Creole

Louisiana

Enslaved blacks who were native-born also began to be referred to as Creole, to distinguish them from new arrivals from Africa. Over time, the black Creoles and Africans created a French and West African hybrid language. The language consists of elements of French, Spanish, African, and Native American roots.

Haitian Creole

Haiti

Haitian Creole grammar (or syntax) has strong characteristics of African languages, while its vocabulary is mostly of French origin, with contributions from Spanish, African languages,

Guadeloupean Creole      

Guadeloupe

Mainly French-Based, but also has some vocabulary from English, Bantu languages and Amerindian languages

Martinican Creole

Martinique

Based on French, Carib and African languages with elements of English, Spanish, and Portuguese

Leeward Caribbean Creole English, also known by the names of the various islands on which it is spoken (Antiguan Creole, Saint Kitts Creole, etc.)

Antigua and Barbuda, Montserrat and Saint Kitts and Nevis.

Many Creole words are derived from English or African origins. The creole was formed when slaves owned by English planters imitated the English of their enslavers but pronounced it with their own inflections. This can be easily seen in phrases such as “Me nah go,” meaning “I am not going,” or in “Ent it?,” presumably a cognate of “Ain’t it?”

Mískito Coast Creole English

Nicaragua

Almost identical to Belizean Kriol

Media Lengua*

Ecuador

Spanish for “half language” or “in-between language”spoken in Salcedo, Ecuador, by about 1,000 people of Native American ancestry. It is usually classified as a mixed language as it combines Spanish vocabulary with a Quechua grammatical system,

Negerhollands

U.S. Virgin Islands

Superstrate language with Danish, English, French, Spanish, and African elements

Barbadian (Bajan) Creole

Barbadoes

West African substrate and an English superstrate.

Palenquero

Palenque de San Basilio, Colombia

Spanish based mixed with African bantu languages, some influences from Kongo in Democratic Republic of Congo

Creolese

Guyana

English lexified language with influences from Dutch, West African Languages, Arawakan and Carib languages, and to a lesser extent Indian languages. It is related to Paramaccan and Aluku.

Berbice Dutch

Now extinct Dutch-based and Ijaw (West African) creole language

Bahamian Creole

Bahamas

English-based, significant link between Bahamian and the Gullah language of South Carolina, as many Bahamians are descendants of slaves brought to the islands from the Gullah region after the American revolution

Papiamento

Curaçao, Bonaire  and Aruba

Derived from African Languages and either Portuguese or Spanish, with some influences from Amerindian languages, English, and Dutch

Antillean Creole

Lesser Antilles

Creole language with a vocabulary based on French. It is spoken primarily in the Lesser Antilles. Its grammar and vocabulary also include elements of Carib and African languages. Antillean Creole is related to Haitian Creole, but has a number of distinctive features; they are mutually intelligible. The language was formerly more widely spoken in the Lesser Antilles, but its number of speakers is declining in Trinidad & Tobago and Grenada. While the islands of Dominica and Saint Lucia are officially English-speaking, there are efforts in both countries to preserve the use of Antillean Creole, as well as in Trinidad & Tobago and its neighbour Venezuela. In recent decades, it has gone from being seen as a sign of lower socio-economic status, banned in school playgrounds,[3] to a mark of national pride.