Languages We Speak

[Etaoin Shrdlu]

I've heard a Moroccan and Palestinian speaking English to each other, as neither could understand the other's Arabic. And I've had an interpreter give up on me when he couldn't cope with the Moroccan speaker's dialect, saying he could only do Middle Eastern ones.

But the writing system is objectively difficult, when compared with other alphabets. All those letters with multiple forms, or which look similar to others. And, of course, the lack of written vowels is a massive hindrance to a foreign learner.

 

[Pacifica]

It didn't take much time for me to recognize the letters easily, though it would perhaps be harder if I had to handwrite them. The lack of vowels is slightly more annoying, but I think I'm on the way to getting used to it.

 

[Clemens]

I've heard a Moroccan and Palestinian speaking English to each other, as neither could understand the other's Arabic. And I've had an interpreter give up on me when he couldn't cope with the Moroccan speaker's dialect, saying he could only do Middle Eastern ones.

But the writing system is objectively difficult, when compared with other alphabets. All those letters with multiple forms, or which look similar to others. And, of course, the lack of written vowels is a massive hindrance to a foreign learner.

The Maghrabi dialects are outliers. A Palestinian would have had no problem with any Middle Eastern dialect and probably not with Sudanese Arabic either.

Learning a new writing system in any language is hard if it uses different symbols than your own language. But the system itself is far simpler than any language written with the Latin alphabet that I've encountered (I don't know Finnish, but it may be a contender) in that there's very little actual "spelling," the words are written as they are pronounced and pronounced as they are written. No silent letters, no digraphs or trigraphs, no letter serving multiple duties, etc.

 

[Clemens]

It didn't take much time for me to recognize the letters easily, though it would perhaps be harder if I had to handwrite them. The lack of vowels is slightly more annoying, but I think I'm on the way to getting used to it.

Your grammar knowledge ends up filling the vowels in for you, as most words, especially verbs, fall into very predictable patterns. A word, for example, that starts with م and has و as the the fourth letter is likely a passive participle and will have vowels accordingly.

 

[Pacifica]

Now, of course, my troubles with pronunciation mean that I'll sometimes misremember whether a word has س or ص etc.

 

[Clemens]

Now, of course, my troubles with pronunciation mean that I'll sometimes misremember whether a word has س or ص etc.

Which is remarkably similar to the difference between slender and broad consonants in Irish or Scots Gaelic. Or even hard and soft in Russian, I suppose.

 

[Quasus]

sharing them on the "thread where you have to make a post every time you visit"

Cur non in proprio filo? Libenter legerem.

 

[Quasus]

Or even hard and soft in Russian, I suppose.

Nonne s durum Russicum similis est sonis qui in ceteris linguis Europaeis inveniuntur? Hi omnes non sunt pharyngalizati, annon?

 

[Quasus]

Quoad sin Arabicum, revera est quasi sonus medius inter s durum atque mollem.

 

[Pacifica]

Cur non in proprio filo?

Quia in illo filo semper aliquid scribendum est, et haec visa sunt sat idonea — ibi enim quaevis idonea sunt — nec putabam filum ei rei proprium multos esse lecturos. Ceterum iam XXXV paginas conscriptas habeo, nondum quidem relectas... Num filum proprium factura sim nescio; fortasse dum relego in novo filo per partes ponam.

 

[Quasus]

Patrius sermo est mihi Russicus. Etiam loquor, quamvis imperfecte, Lusitanice, seu Portugalice, Anglice, Francogallice. Olim Hispanice cum amico confabulari solitus sum. Ut vero Latine loquar, exercitatione opus est.

 

[Adrian]

Patrius sermo est mihi Russicus. Etiam loquor, quamvis imperfecte, Lusitanice, seu Portugalice, Anglice, Francogallice. Olim Hispanice cum amico confabulari solitus sum. Ut vero Latine loquar, exercitatione opus est.

Memoria tene amice te quoque satis bene polonice loqui.

 

[Quasus]

Vellem quidem. Non tam bene scio Polonice ut loquar.

 

[RayWiserThanBefore]

English (not too good), Indonesian, Javanese(East Java) and Melayu (almost the same as Indonesian)

 

[Noctua]

Since I'm hard of hearing, I don't really "speak" my foreign languages. In general, I'm interested in "decoding" written texts.

German is my native language, and I'm relatively advanced in English.

My French is very rusty (I studied it about 38 years ago). I can read Spanish, Italian, some Norwegian and even less Russian, and I can read the Arabic and Hebrew letters and a few words.