4 ms·

That's really not true. Many people I know also speak English, but that doesn't mean that they somehow forget how to speak their own language. If anything, smal

by akie 7y ago

That's really not true. Many people I know also speak English, but that doesn't mean that they somehow forget how to speak their own language. If anything, small communities with an own language tend to be fiercely proud of that language, and do everything in their power to protect it [see e.g. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low_German https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low_German]. And if these languages do disappear, it tends to be because the national language is taught in schools and slowly replaces it in younger generations.

toxik 7y ago
I’m a speaker of one of the smaller languages, and every educated person I know lament the inability to express themselves without resorting to English idioms. It isn’t that they don’t exist, some people are great at my language, it’s just that something like 99% of the movies I watch, podcasts I listen to, or papers I read are in English. I simply am much better at high level English than my own language. Colloquial English not so much though.
- akie 7y ago
  Is the national language in your country English, or another language?
  - toxik 7y ago
    It is a different language, notably it's a northern Germanic language so the compatibility is fairly high. It also isn't mutually intelligible with English at all. I should maybe just say it's Swedish.
    - gerdesj 7y ago
      English started out life as a Germanic language but has changed somewhat over the last 1500 years. For example scir gerefe which becomes shire reeve and eventually sheriff. Yes, Rosco P Coltrane and company have a job title that is over 1500 years old. A shire is roughly a county in modern terms. For example Devonshire, Lanarkshire, Sir Fynwy etc in Britain. That last is Welsh. Look at words like day, tag, dag and so on in the various Germanic languages. When you see that in English, the letter g morphed into y in a lot of words, it makes sense and of course we have to allow for some rather random spelling in the past and a great vowel shift or two. I live in Yeovil which was recorded as gifle (a fork in a river) in about 900. The nearby river Yeo seems to be named after the town which is named for its location on a feature of the river ... These islands from 55 BC to 1066 AD became a revolving door to various invasions, some of which included Swedes and Danes generally as vikings, Angles, Saxons, Jutes, Italians (Romans) and any other tom, dick or harry that could find a boat and fancied duffing up a few Britons and settling down and raise a few apples and chickens! When the Northmen - Norsemen - Normans ie Duke William of Normandy turned up in 1066 they eventually did the job properly and ... eventually became English themselves and simply gave the language a bit of a twist. For example we have both Saxon and Frankish (French) words for many things eg meat: cow and beef, sheep and mutton, chicken and errr chicken, pig and pork. I think that because English has had so many influences in the past that it has developed a certain flexibility that many languages do not. It is also a relatively new language - only 1500 years old! I learned Latin at school for several years, along with French and lived in Germany for 10 years (off and on). English can be warped and twisted and generally abused and yet the meaning remains intact better than some other languages. The ultimate irony here is that I am talking about the new kid language on the block on HN!
kiney 7y ago
As someone who grew up in a low german area I can tell you it basically already died. My mothers understand the local low german. When visiting the village where she's from you can still hear some old people using it but I have a hard time understanding.

by akie 7y ago

toxik 7y ago

I’m a speaker of one of the smaller languages, and every educated person I know lament the inability to express themselves without resorting to English idioms. It isn’t that they don’t exist, some people are great at my language, it’s just that something like 99% of the movies I watch, podcasts I listen to, or papers I read are in English. I simply am much better at high level English than my own language. Colloquial English not so much though.

akie 7y ago
Is the national language in your country English, or another language?
- toxik 7y ago
  It is a different language, notably it's a northern Germanic language so the compatibility is fairly high. It also isn't mutually intelligible with English at all. I should maybe just say it's Swedish.
  - gerdesj 7y ago
    English started out life as a Germanic language but has changed somewhat over the last 1500 years. For example scir gerefe which becomes shire reeve and eventually sheriff. Yes, Rosco P Coltrane and company have a job title that is over 1500 years old. A shire is roughly a county in modern terms. For example Devonshire, Lanarkshire, Sir Fynwy etc in Britain. That last is Welsh. Look at words like day, tag, dag and so on in the various Germanic languages. When you see that in English, the letter g morphed into y in a lot of words, it makes sense and of course we have to allow for some rather random spelling in the past and a great vowel shift or two. I live in Yeovil which was recorded as gifle (a fork in a river) in about 900. The nearby river Yeo seems to be named after the town which is named for its location on a feature of the river ... These islands from 55 BC to 1066 AD became a revolving door to various invasions, some of which included Swedes and Danes generally as vikings, Angles, Saxons, Jutes, Italians (Romans) and any other tom, dick or harry that could find a boat and fancied duffing up a few Britons and settling down and raise a few apples and chickens! When the Northmen - Norsemen - Normans ie Duke William of Normandy turned up in 1066 they eventually did the job properly and ... eventually became English themselves and simply gave the language a bit of a twist. For example we have both Saxon and Frankish (French) words for many things eg meat: cow and beef, sheep and mutton, chicken and errr chicken, pig and pork. I think that because English has had so many influences in the past that it has developed a certain flexibility that many languages do not. It is also a relatively new language - only 1500 years old! I learned Latin at school for several years, along with French and lived in Germany for 10 years (off and on). English can be warped and twisted and generally abused and yet the meaning remains intact better than some other languages. The ultimate irony here is that I am talking about the new kid language on the block on HN!

kiney 7y ago

As someone who grew up in a low german area I can tell you it basically already died. My mothers understand the local low german. When visiting the village where she's from you can still hear some old people using it but I have a hard time understanding.