Minor European Languages - Page 3

Tolls · January 17, 2003, 05:43

If 'y' is in the last syllable of a multi-syllable word it is pronounced 'i' (as in sit)...earlier syllables would pronounce it 'uh'...if it is in a single syllable word it is pronounced 'ee'...

There are exceptions (as with any language), but this generally holds...hence:

cymru (uh)
caerdydd (ih)
pen-y-bont (ee)

...for something like Llanfair etc you have to take the individual words that make up the name to get a decent pronounciation, since it is not really a proper placename.

Gangerolf · January 17, 2003, 07:16

what's a minor language btw. less than 500 000 speakers?

Sikander · January 17, 2003, 07:27

Quote:

Originally posted by Dr Strangelove
Sooooo...... any Basque speakers show up yet?

No, there still trying to get their fuses lit in the parking lot.

Solly · January 17, 2003, 09:42

Quote:

Originally posted by Gangerolf
what's a minor language btw. less than 500 000 speakers?

You don't really need defintions. I suppose a good one would be languages that are only used in one country yet are not that country's official national language.

One of my flatmates has a grandmother who can still speak Cornish Gaelic. I think it's that anyway..

Tolls · January 17, 2003, 09:57

Cornish Gaelic I find a bit of an odd one, since it did actually die out before being resurrected by Cornish nationalists...or someone like that.

TCO · January 17, 2003, 10:14

Quote:

Originally posted by Tolls
Cornish Gaelic I find a bit of an odd one, since it did actually die out before being resurrected by Cornish nationalists...or someone like that.

That's why alot of this stuff is pretty silly. Welsh is not too far off from that either.

Solly · January 17, 2003, 10:20

Quote:

Originally posted by GP

That's why alot of this stuff is pretty silly. Welsh is not too far off from that either.

I remember arguing with a liberal friend of mine about the absolute idiocy of keeping dying languages alive. We should all speak one language, far more efficient.

But of course he was all whiny blah culture blah tradition...

TCO · January 17, 2003, 10:22

Quote:

Originally posted by Boddington's

I remember arguing with a liberal friend of mine about the absolute idiocy of keeping dying languages alive. We should all speak one language, far more efficient.

But of course he was all whiny blah culture blah tradition...

What a *****. You should have pushed him over.

Solly · January 17, 2003, 10:26

He was sat down.

Myrddin · January 17, 2003, 15:12

Quote:

Llanfairpwllgwyngerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogo

I believe that you missed 'gyllgo' in the middle

I too don't believe that penguin is derived from Welsh, but it is suggested that 'pen-gwyn' was used by sailors to describe the great auk (a large flightless bird) and so was also used when they first saw penguins

Dauphin · January 17, 2003, 15:36

Merlin, that's a suggestion I would discount unless you are a Welsh nationalist clinging to some sense of Welsh being important.

Provost Harrison · January 17, 2003, 16:34

Quote:

Originally posted by Myrddin

I believe that you missed 'gyllgo' in the middle

I too don't believe that penguin is derived from Welsh, but it is suggested that 'pen-gwyn' was used by sailors to describe the great auk (a large flightless bird) and so was also used when they first saw penguins

So I did. You must appreciate it isn't the easiest of words to type

Myrddin · January 17, 2003, 17:57

No, especially since I'm not sure what a spell-checker would do to it

However I prefer Llanarmon Dyffryn Ceiriog as my favourite-sounding place-name.

Why is it that native English speakers have a problem with rrolling rrrr sounds?

Solly · January 17, 2003, 18:05

Because there are better things to do with your tongue.

David James · January 20, 2003, 01:21

What? No one has mentionned Frisian yet? Spoken by a half a million or so in Northern Netherlands (Friesland and Groningen), NW Germany (Ost Friesland) and some islands off the west coast of Denmark...

Stew, you would start a topic like this...

TCO · January 20, 2003, 01:27

Quote:

Originally posted by David James
What? No one has mentionned Frisian yet? Spoken by a half a million or so in Northern Netherlands (Friesland and Groningen), NW Germany (Ost Friesland) and some islands off the west coast of Denmark...

Stew, you would start a topic like this...

What is it? Meester vice president?

Solly · January 21, 2003, 08:23

Hey Dave. Long time, no sy..

Bas · January 21, 2003, 08:35

Quote:

Originally posted by David James
What? No one has mentionned Frisian yet? Spoken by a half a million or so in Northern Netherlands (Friesland and Groningen), NW Germany (Ost Friesland) and some islands off the west coast of Denmark...

Stew, you would start a topic like this...

I don't think we have any Frisians here... (BTW, it's not really spoken in Groningen, just Friesland itself). I'm one quarter Frisian, but I don't speak any Frisian whatsoever.

Dr Strangelove · January 21, 2003, 09:05

Quote:

Originally posted by Sikander

No, there still trying to get their fuses lit in the parking lot.

You know, I was just thinking. A few weeks ago someone posted a link to a genetic mapping study comparing the population of Frisia, England, Wales, Scotland and the basque country. Supposedly the study efound that a gene prevalent in the Germanic Frisians was present in the English, but not in the Welsh and Basques, thus proving that in England the Celts were wiped out and that the Welsh were the only true descendents of the Celts in the British Isles. Well, wait a minute, Basque isn't Celtic at all. It's a language generally belonging to the Indo-Aryan group, but unrelated to any other currently existing language in Europe. Considering that this study may actually show that ther Welsh in the corner of Wales studied are the last descendents of a pre-Celtic culture that once existed in the British Isles.

Solly · January 21, 2003, 09:09

Which corner of Wales, south-west or north-west?

TCO · January 21, 2003, 09:12

What is it? dialect?