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If you could learn to speak 12 languages (including your native language), which ones would you choose?
Ah, the question asks that I do it for only practical reasons?
Erk. That’s… regrettable. I’ll have to jettison languages I know (Lojban, Klingon) and would like to know in theory (Irish).
The first six, I know. (Well, kinda, as Clarissa Lohr and Kat Rectenwald can attest.)
- English. Because I am Australian, and because English, for better or worse, is the current lingua franca
- Greek. Because I am Greek. What a horrible thing it would be, for me to have restricted access to Greek culture. Or my relatives.
- German. Because of German-language scholarship, especially in my original field of historical linguistics. (And because of the heights of German culture.)
- French. Because of French-language scholarship, especially in my original field of historical linguistics. (And because of the culture, although I’m much more of a Germanophile.)
- Esperanto. Because I’ve learned a lot about other cultures and literatures through Esperanto (including Esperanto culture and literature).
- Latin. For vocabulary, literature, scholarship (yes, you heard me right, scholarship, in the Classics) and all-round cultural foundations of the West.
The next three, I only know bits of.
- Italian. Some literature, and it proved handy to know a smattering of it while vacationing in Italy.
- Russian. There’s scholarship and literature I’d have liked to have accessed, and Russians I’d have liked to have been able to talk to in their language.
- Turkish. For neighbourliness and linguistics.
The last three, I don’t really know at all.
- Albanian. For neighbourliness and linguistics.
- Armenian. To impress my wife. Hypothetically, because actually she doesn’t know much Armenian.
- Mandarin. Because China matters more and more and more in my part of the world.
Now, if fun were a criterion for the language learning (and that’s the criterion most answers have actually applied), the next six are instead:
The two other conlangs I already know:
- Lojban. It’s been fun and instructive.
- Klingon. It’s also been a lot of fun. Plus, of course, Nick Nicholas’ answer to Have you already had your “15 minutes of fame?” and if yes, would you tell us what was it?
The two other conlangs I’d like to be across more:
- Interlingua. Just like Latin, only artificial.
- Interglosa. Best designed conlang ever.
The two weird and wonderful natural languages with cultural resonance in the Anglosphere:
- Irish. How cool would that be.
- Old English. Man, I’d love to be able to contribute to se Englisc Wikipǣdia!
Would you post a map of the administrative divisions of your country you’ve (a) lived in (b) visited (c) passed through?
Magenta = lived, blue = visited, green = been through.
Greece:
Lived in Lasithi prefecture (down south) for four years; lived in Attica and Thessalonica prefectures for a couple of months apiece.
Did a tour of Crete, a few days each in Iraklion, Rethymon, Hania. Went to Greek dialectology conferences (natch) in Patras and Lesbos.
Caught the train from Athens to Salonica once.
Lots, lots more to see in Greece than I have seen.
Australia:
Lived in Launceston, Melbourne, and spent three months in Sydney.
Visited all capital cities of states and territories.
Spent a summer vacation in Merimbula as a teenager (SW NSW), and spent a few days in Toowoomba and Townsville (work) and Cairns and Broome (vacation).
Drove around Tasmania. Done lots of day trips and two–three day sojourns into central Victoria.
What does your handwriting look like?
I have already posted Nick Nicholas’ answer to What does your Greek handwriting look like?
There was a time long ago when I could write legibly. No longer.
In tribute to Ollie Bendon, via A spelling reform proposal I was rather fond of by Zeibura S. Kathau on Csak lét, I wrote a quick and then a half-heartedly neatish version.
And, much worse, these are some notes I took at work today.
My nib on my pen is playing up, but that really isn’t going to cut it as an excuse, is it…
What do languages that use other scripts call each letter of the Latin alphabet?
Greek uses French names for Latin letters, because French was the prestige Latin alphabet language: “Vitamini Ah, Vitamini Beh, Vitamini Seh” (to use fauxnetics).
Or least, they did. You will of course hear a lot more English names of Latin letters now in Athens, I expect.
Is it true that Eisenhower didn’t like Nixon?
Please don’t make me reread Ambrose; it’s a big book.
But yes.
- Repeated snubs by Ike, about Nixon making VP at all, about being renominated as VP, about actually supporting Nixon’s presidential run. Culminating in the famous “shit or get off the pot” outburst by Nixon.
- Repeated jabs that Nixon had no executive experience, so he needed to be demoted to a cabinet position.
- Passive-aggressive delegation of handling Nixon to his Chief of Staff.
- Lack of any intimacy with Nixon, and inviting him to hang out with him only under sufferance.
Ike was not a party man, and Nixon was to him an imposition.
Could someone produce a rank for Cyprus based on size among European islands?
Let’s take List of islands by area – Wikipedia, and edit in the European islands. Plus or Minus.
- Great Britain. 209k [math]km^2[/math]
- Iceland 101k [math]km^2[/math]
- Ireland 84k [math]km^2[/math]
- Severny Island (Novaya Zemlya) 47k [math]km^2[/math]
- Spitsbergen 39k [math]km^2[/math]
- Yuzhny Island (Novaya Zemlya) 33k [math]km^2[/math]
- Sicily 26k [math]km^2[/math]
- Sardinia 24k [math]km^2[/math]
- Nordaustlandet 14k [math]km^2[/math]
- Cyprus 9k [math]km^2[/math]
Gramsci: Prison Notebooks
I like using the word hegemony. I like it a lot. I even made reference here recently to the hegemony of meat pies in Australia.
So I’m chatting to Janna today. Janna is not on this forum.
And Janna says, “If you want to know about hegemony, you’ve just got to read Gramsci. Prison Notebooks.”
And I say, “… I don’t read any more, babe. Just history.”
Now. Go to Google Images, and look up “Withering Look”
You got it?
Good. Because that’s what I got from Janna.
Janna then remembered that Gramsci just kept writing while he was in prison, and writing, and writing, because he had nothing better to do. Janna had not volunteered the information that Gramsci wrote THREE THOUSAND PAGES.
And bless her, Janna recommended a precis.
http://courses.justice.eku.edu/p…, linked from Wikipedia, is 800 pp. Does that count as a precis?
Suggestions about pre-reading reading welcome.
What’s your MBTI personality type?
You know, I did the 16personalities test online the other day, to see what all the fuss is about.
I still don’t get what all the fuss is about. I feel like I’d like someone to read my coffee cup and look over my palm, and tell me what it’s supposed to mean.
FWIW: ISTP:
- 64% Introverted 35% Extroverted
- 65% Observant 35% Intuitive
- 57% Thinking 43% Feeling
- 94% Prospecting 6% Judging
- 56% Turbulent 44% Assertive.
Looks pretty marginal to me. Except that I hate planning, apparently.
I dunno. Can anyone that knows me tell me if this makes sense?
Cartoons from my first BNBR
In What happened next? by Nick Nicholas on The Insurgency and My first BNBR warning by Nick Nicholas on The Insurgency, I reported an exchange between myself and Carlos Matias La Borde, and invited Quorans to speculate on what happened next. The prize for the most accurate response, and the funniest response, was a cartoon.
This is Philip Newton’s prize:
By time honoured convention in the Gallery of Awesomery, Philip is not allowed to smile. Because he lives in Germany.
Besides the two Top Writer quills on his mantelpiece (and another in his hand), there is a book apiece on Lojban, Klingon, Esperanto, and Greek. As should be obvious to all of you from the logos.
This is John Gragson’s prize:
Yes, I know full well that John is not a British barrister. But English barristers are so much cooler to draw!
No, I don’t know who the judge is, complete with gavel. I have a fair idea who the defendant is, though!
And this is an artist’s rendering of the actual incident:
Why did you learn German as a foreign language?
For my part, because all the smart kids in my school did two languages, instead of one language and Art. As you can see from Gallery of Awesomery, not doing Art has paid off.
In the eighties, the two main languages being taught in Australia were still French and German, which was a cultural inheritance from Britain. So I learnt French and German. The year after my year, French and Japanese were also offered together. I would have welcomed the challenge of Japanese in my twenties, but not, I think, in my teens.
That’s why I started. Why I continued with it was falling in love with German culture, working in a discipline that depended on German scholarship, and making excellent German-speaking friends. Which I have continued to do here.