Precisely! My belief is that true language was invented in Blighty. Of course, Homo Erectus may have been able to communicate basic desires in the form of bestial grunting, much as the Welsh do today but there is evidence to suggest that the transition to a form of spoken language we would recognise as modern first occured in those individuals who re-colonised Britain at the end of the last Ice Age, owing to the pressing need to be able to moan about the weather.Gawdzilla wrote:One can clearly track the spread of civilization out from London to Paris, Rome, Zagreb, Vilnius, etc.Clinton Huxley wrote:I suppose one could regard all the European languages as utterly debased and throroughly bastardised versions of English. Of course most scholars will talk about "Indo-European" and "Romance languages" but I have no truck with that.
How many languages have you mangled?
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Re: How many languages have you mangled?
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Re: How many languages have you mangled?
I've got English 
Passable French, my Spanish was passable, but I've forgotten most of it having not done it for some years now, my German is good, and I really mangled a bit of Mandarin in school for a couple of years (no formal qualification in that though, unlike the others).

Passable French, my Spanish was passable, but I've forgotten most of it having not done it for some years now, my German is good, and I really mangled a bit of Mandarin in school for a couple of years (no formal qualification in that though, unlike the others).
Re: How many languages have you mangled?
I've dabbled here and there, but Hungarian is what I am most proud of.
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Re: How many languages have you mangled?
Mangled?
Only Dutch really. I tried, but I never really learned the right letter sounds and everything in the phrasebook seemed a complete mouthful, and no matter what I said in Dutch, everyone replied to me in English anyway.
I would have mangled Icelandic, but it was to hard to even bother trying more than 2-3 words in the short time I was there.
I expect I'll mangle French if I ever take my badly remembered schoolboy French to France.
I've tried learning a bit of Spanish and Croatian, but I haven't really had chance to make an arse of myself failing at either.
I managed to not mangle Welsh though. I learned it to conversational level as an adult.
Only Dutch really. I tried, but I never really learned the right letter sounds and everything in the phrasebook seemed a complete mouthful, and no matter what I said in Dutch, everyone replied to me in English anyway.
I would have mangled Icelandic, but it was to hard to even bother trying more than 2-3 words in the short time I was there.
I expect I'll mangle French if I ever take my badly remembered schoolboy French to France.
I've tried learning a bit of Spanish and Croatian, but I haven't really had chance to make an arse of myself failing at either.
I managed to not mangle Welsh though. I learned it to conversational level as an adult.
Re: How many languages have you mangled?
It seems to me, that's because mangled and unmangled Welsh are indistinguishable.Pappa wrote:I managed to not mangle Welsh though. I learned it to conversational level as an adult.
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Re: How many languages have you mangled?
beige wrote:It seems to me, that's because mangled and unmangled Welsh are indistinguishable.Pappa wrote:I managed to not mangle Welsh though. I learned it to conversational level as an adult.

I found it pretty easy to learn actually. Much easier than French. It only has 5 irregular verbs, and they have the common decency to behave the same way as each other.

Re: How many languages have you mangled?
Conversational Welsh sounds to me like a big achievement!
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Re: How many languages have you mangled?
Funny, sounds to me like a goat clearing its throat.Deersbee wrote:Conversational Welsh sounds to me like a big achievement!

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Re: How many languages have you mangled?
Plus the Welsh alphabet consists of only about ten letters.Pappa wrote:beige wrote:It seems to me, that's because mangled and unmangled Welsh are indistinguishable.Pappa wrote:I managed to not mangle Welsh though. I learned it to conversational level as an adult.
I found it pretty easy to learn actually. Much easier than French. It only has 5 irregular verbs, and they have the common decency to behave the same way as each other.Its also mostly phonetic, so once you learn the letter sounds, pronouncing the words is just a matter of saying the letters in the right order.
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Re: How many languages have you mangled?
Properly I can speak Icelandic (of course), English and Danish.
I can manage in German, Norwegian, Swedish, Faroese and French.
Would like to refresh my skills in German and French, I have been there and managed just fine but am not sure I could do it now. I forget things easily
I can manage in German, Norwegian, Swedish, Faroese and French.
Would like to refresh my skills in German and French, I have been there and managed just fine but am not sure I could do it now. I forget things easily

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Re: How many languages have you mangled?
I mangle Norwegian, and these days both my French and my German are rather mangled, too. I would like to one day learn enough Dutch pronunciation to be able to at least mangle it, and I'm working on Spanish right now, but have not reached the mangling stage yet.
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Re: How many languages have you mangled?
French
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Re: How many languages have you mangled?
Bella Fortuna wrote:Plus the Welsh alphabet consists of only about ten letters.Pappa wrote:beige wrote:It seems to me, that's because mangled and unmangled Welsh are indistinguishable.Pappa wrote:I managed to not mangle Welsh though. I learned it to conversational level as an adult.
I found it pretty easy to learn actually. Much easier than French. It only has 5 irregular verbs, and they have the common decency to behave the same way as each other.Its also mostly phonetic, so once you learn the letter sounds, pronouncing the words is just a matter of saying the letters in the right order.

a, b, c, ch, d, dd, e, f, ff, g, ng, h, i, l, ll, m, n, o, p, ph, r, rh, s, t, th, u, w, y.
Plus j for borrowed words.
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Re: How many languages have you mangled?
Ich heiße Millefleur und ich bin vierundzwanzig jahre alt. Ich habe eine groß kaninchen und sie konnen spiele tennis. Ich liebe meine kaninchen. In dem sommerferian ich spiele fußball. Ich mochte der autobus.
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Re: How many languages have you mangled?
Do letters that are actually 2 letters count?Pappa wrote:Bella Fortuna wrote:Plus the Welsh alphabet consists of only about ten letters.Pappa wrote:beige wrote:It seems to me, that's because mangled and unmangled Welsh are indistinguishable.Pappa wrote:I managed to not mangle Welsh though. I learned it to conversational level as an adult.
I found it pretty easy to learn actually. Much easier than French. It only has 5 irregular verbs, and they have the common decency to behave the same way as each other.Its also mostly phonetic, so once you learn the letter sounds, pronouncing the words is just a matter of saying the letters in the right order.
I'm watching you Fortuna. The Welsh alphabet has 28 letter:
a, b, c, ch, d, dd, e, f, ff, g, ng, h, i, l, ll, m, n, o, p, ph, r, rh, s, t, th, u, w, y.
Plus j for borrowed words.

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