Check this out: <BR> <BR>http://www.parlo.com/en/explore/gree...s/index_en.asp

Thanks Polly Glott, very interesting! <BR>Judy ;-)

Now that's a lot of fun Thanks!

Everyone else: Look up the website. I got it from a foreign language teacher friend.

Thanks for that Polly!

Considering that the point of the www.parlo.com website is to sell foreign language "lessons" at $49 a pop (without very much content), I wonder why no one is complaining about the placement of this teaser "ad" posting? <BR>

Because it isn't a teaser ad posting <BR>It's someone sharing soemthing fun she found... hope you can understand something that innocent.

didn't somebody get slammed for something rather similar, saying "look at this" for a website called anamericaninparis.com just earlier today? <BR> <BR>maybe parlo.com is just more discrete. <BR>

My friend who's a foreign language teacher sent me the link in a website. I looked it up and thought people here would like it. I didn't even think about its connection with a profit-making internet language "school" and even if I had thought about it I wouldn't have hesitated to pass around its "freebie". RELAX!!!!

I meant she sent me the website link in an e-mail. Well, you know what I meant, right? <BR> <BR>P.S. I never heard of "Luxenbourgish" and I don't think that's a "language."

Luxembourgish (or Luxembourgeois) absolutely IS a language. <BR>

Is it similar to Dutch?

Calling Rex...Is it what used to be called Walloon?

Have we forgotten that not one of us is a mindless drone?? Surely we intelligent folk can detect a "teaser ad" when we see one, and then make up our own minds as to wether or not the site warrants further exploration. Just because someone posts one on the board does not mean we are required to "pay homage" to it, right? (By the way, I'm not critisizing the original Poster in any way, simply making a point about the few negative remarks that followed it.)

AMAZING how a little thing like this can become controversial! Who'd a thunk it?

Luxembourgish (or Letzeburgesch) is definitely NOT Walloon. It is much closer to German. For more info, see the web page http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homep...lis/lingua.htm (note no "www"). I can't even correctly spell it in its own native form - - there's apparently supposed to be an umlaut over the first "e" - - which is a diacritical that doesn't exist, nor have a phonetic equivalent in French nor German. <BR> <BR>But functionally, the country is French-speaking (especially in print), and there is close to universal fluency in English and German as well. About 30% of the people living in Luxembourg are not residents of the country. Thus, not merely a "bedroom community" but en an entire "bedroom country". <BR> <BR>Walloon is either synonymous with French or very close to it. Belgium is made up of Wallonie (French-speaking) and Vlaams ("Flemish"-speaking). Vlaams is also the word for the language, and people who live there make it clear that Vlaams and "Nederlands" (Dutch, in Dutch) are synonymous. Maybe there are some dialectic differences, but less, I am guessing than the "English" (American) spoken in say, "Jawja" and "Noo Yawk". <BR> <BR>Best wishes, <BR> <BR>Rex <BR> <BR>

Thanks for the info. I know v. little about northern Eur. languages, penname notwithstanding (name's just for fun on language-related sites -- not to be taken TOO seriously).

This is one of those threads at which I look back and think, "Wow! How did we get from "A" [Happy Valentine's Day] to "B" [Walloon linguistics]?!" Nevertheless, since we're here... <BR> <BR>I did a little research today because I had a hunch that Walloon was more drastic than, say, a "Jawjan" accent in English. I'm having trouble finding the "clincher" academic/authoritative source, but I think Walloon really is considered a language, or at least a dialect (i.e., much more than an accent). <BR> <BR>From http://users.skynet.be/bs302306/1Wallon.html (translated, however haltingly, from the French): <BR> <BR>"Walloon is part of the [language] group "d'oïl", i.e., the Romance languages of the north, of which the best-known is French... How does Walloon differ from the other "langues d'oïl"? Above all by an important Germanic contribution (in its sounds, spelling, and grammar), but also, by contrast, by a marked phonetic conservatism (Walloon has remained very close to developments which took place in the High Middle Ages)." <BR> <BR>I have a decent grasp of French and I can't understand the Walloon excerpts I found--I can only do a little *basic* pattern recognition. An example from http://www.walon.open.net.ma/hendschel.htm#eureye: <BR> <BR>"Å buro, ses camarådes transichint del vey divnu si sètch; Mossieu A n' aveut jamês stî çu k' on lome on gros mougneu, on n' l'aveut måy vèyu bin pwartant, mins tot l' minme, ci côp ci..." <BR> <BR>It looks really medieval, doesn't it? I find all this fascinating, particularly since I hope to head to Belgium in the next year or two. In case anybody cares besides me (I suspect I may be on one of my obsessive-compulsive-arcane-knowledge hunts, in which case I apologize!) here are some URLs to check out: <BR> <BR>http://users.skynet.be/bs302306/ (in French) <BR> <BR>http://www.wallonie.com/wallang/ (some broken links, but you can *hear* it here!) <BR> <BR>http://www.walon.open.net.ma/index-engl.htm <BR> <BR>http://www.vada.nl/software/files/walloon.asc <BR> <BR>Enjoy, fellow Wannabe-Linguists! <BR> <BR> - Quicksilver -