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To clarify the first bit of my last post, I can read and understand WRITTEN Catalan easily...it's the SPOKEN that I have trouble understanding. (When I re-read, it looked like I was saying I could read Catalan but didn't understand what I was reading). Puxa vida! ;-)
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As a native spanish speaker, I can read and understand Catalan almost perfectly (I can't speak it because I don't know the grammar rules, but it'd take very short time to learn them if I was interested).<BR><BR>Galician is also quite easy, due to the common latin roots. It's true that gallego and portuguese are very, very close. Wouldn't it be first galician and then portuguese?
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I'm topping this in the hopes that it may bring this great thread back into the indes where it can be found via normal search. This thread is too good to lose.
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Can this thread be found in a search? If not, why not?
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I live just outside Chester and it's common to hear Welsh spoken there.<BR>
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The Y in my name is a give-a-way. My grandparents immigrated from the Basque country to the US in 1906. My father grew up speaking Spanish. Although he could understand Basque, Spanish was the language spoken at home. My cousins still in the Pamplona area speak Basque and only speak Spanish to communicate with us. Things have changed in 100 years!!!<BR><BR>I once saw a linguistic map of the world: it showed the Basque language having a close relation to Asian languages.
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I wonder whether anyone new to Fodors has anything to add here. We haven't seen this thread active in a long, long time.
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Still a fascinating topic.
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There must be something to add here before 2004 ends.
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Well, since it is almost the end of 2004 - I always understood that the Basque language had absolutely no connection to Latin. But never heard that it had some connection to Asian languages. That is interesting.
Did read some years ago that thinking was that perhaps the Basque were originally from Egypt. Their wedge shaped heads were the same. Has anyone any info on that? One of the most interesting books I read about the Basque was "In A Hundred Graves" by Robert Laxalt. |
Gaelic is still spoken in some parts of Western Ireland and we have a TV channel and Radio in Faelic as well. It is getting a bit of a resurgence lately. I think the TV station (TG4) is a huge boost ror kids as all the cartoons are in Irish.
There is some worry though as due to the small population in Ireland and especially the small amount of Gaelic/Irish speakers it is not considered on of the EU official Languages. People are lobbying to have this recogonised as they feel it will die out and its unfair to not recogonise. Alll goverment docvuments to my knowledge must be in Irish and English and every Taoiseach (Head of state) must be abe to speak Irish. All schools teach it but the methid and books were so bad that few people in my age bracket know much past a few wprds unless they were born in an Irish Speaking area. The Aran Island would be one of many places where people speak fluent Irish in everyday life. Its funny as you forget and when someone may ask a question you get confuded trying to figure out what they are saying. Hopefully these dying languages will survive over the next century. Must take a few Irish Classes myself...My mother only taught me the bad words! |
One of the joys of this time of the year is the Christmas edition of The Economist. Where we learn that there are now "a few hundred" fluent Cornish speakers (and I'm sure I remember reading 30 years ago that the "last surviving Cornish speaker" died in hte middle of the 20th century.)
The Cornish-language revival will be helped by Lisa Simpson,(a character in a cartoon series, m'lud), joining Cornish Lib in the Christmas edition and chanting "Rydhsys rag Kernow lemmyn" ('Brits Out'). BBC Radio Cornwall now has a weekly five-minute bulletin in Cornish. 1700 people claimed in the 2001 census to apeak Manx (up from 2 in the 1960s), It has some legal standing on the Isle of Man, and is an official, though secondary, language of Tynwald - the island's Parliament, claiming to be the world's oldest. |
I hope she isnt saying 'Brits out' as the Cornish along with the Welsh are the original Brits. Should this not be 'English out' owning to their Anglo Saxon heritage.
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That Basque relation to Asian languages theory has never been proved or generally accepted. It dates from times (I believe 1920s and 1930s) when linquists were searching for relatives for non-Indo-European languages of Europe. For example at one time those language maps showed that Finno-Ugric lamguages (Hungarian, Estonian, Finnish + a few smaller ones) are related to Korean and Ainu-language spoken in Japan. Nothing could be proven.
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Did Fodors "lose" this thread? It didn't come up in a search.
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When I was in Skye, I visited the previously mentioned Gaelic College, Sabhal Mòr Ostaig. They teach ONLY in Gaelic, you have to know the language before taking classes there. I found that a sign that the 'powers that be' are serious about reviving this language. (http://www.smo.uhi.ac.uk/)
From what I've understood, all the Gaelic languages are finding renewed interest in their survival. Irish and Scottish Gaelic are the most closely related, possibly due to people traveling between the two lands over the centuries. They were the least affected by the Roman and Saxon/Viking languages as they were the most remote and most difficult to conquer (mostly due to geography!). The Welsh, Breton and Manx are also Gaelic family languages, but each went in their own direction. I think the best way to describe Manx is Welsh + Scottish Gaelic - spelling... it sounds similar, but the spelling is very different, like there was no written version for generations -- which could have been very true!!! I've been trying to (passively) teach myself Irish Gaelic over the years. I've found surprising Latin influences here and there (Scolare = student), and find it a fascinating language. Great thread, can't wait to see more!!! I love languages, especially the genealogy of words and languages throughout history... |
Can you find this thread if you do a search? (It's the old long thread, not the newer thread with the same title with five posts which was started in order to post a link to this lost thread.)
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While organizing my bookmarked sites this morning I came across this article which should be of interest to readers of this thread. Click the "listen" button to hear the program in its entirety.
excerpt: "Every month, somewhere on the globe, two languages go silent." http://www.theconnection.org/shows/2...121_b_main.asp |
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