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German: Knabe [Nov. 14th, 2009|09:13 pm]

linguaphiles
[wakwak812]
Does anyone still call a boy Knabe, or is it only Junge now?
link5 comments|post comment

(no subject) [Nov. 14th, 2009|07:33 pm]

linguaphiles
[russianclub_ua]
Poll #1485397 About Russian
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 9

How fast can a foreigner learn Russian? (months)

link7 comments|post comment

German question [Nov. 14th, 2009|01:13 pm]

linguaphiles
[me_vs_gutenberg]
German is my mother tongue, but somehow, this one's a real puzzler for me right now.

I'm looking for the right preposition. I'm not sure which of the following is correct:

  1. Wer in einem Trollfaden kommentiert, verlängert unser Leiden.

  2. Wer auf einem Trollfaden kommentiert, verlängert unser Leiden.

  3. Wer auf einen Trollfaden kommentiert, verlängert unser Leiden.

  4. Wer einen Trollfaden kommentiert, verlängert unser Leiden.


I should really know this, but my mind is drawing a blank. Help, anyone?
link14 comments|post comment

Tea giveaway/swap [Nov. 14th, 2009|03:21 am]

teafortwo
[bkworm9]
[Tags|]
[feeling | tired]

I have some tea that I'm looking to swap/give away, is anyone interested? There's nothing wrong with any of them, I'm just interested in buying new teas and I have limited cupboard space. These are teas that other people have bought for me and while they're not really appealing to me, I'm sure others would like them!

This is what I have:

Lipton's Cinnamon Apple tea bags (17)
Bigelow's Vanilla Caramel tea bags (2)
Bigelow's Mint Medley tea bags (7)
Tazo's Calm loose tea (The canister lists a weight of 1.4 oz, and I've only brewed about two cups worth from it. No infuser.)

Feel free to request only part of what's offered (e.g. 6 of the Cinnamon Apple). I'm willing to mail to US and Canada.

Let me know if you want to do a swap, I have a few allergies/dietary restrictions but otherwise, I try to be adventurous.
link1 comment|post comment

(no subject) [Nov. 14th, 2009|01:11 am]
linguaphiles
[narfiknarfik]
Foreigners
I would like to know if Russian linguist Michail Zadornov is known to foreigners
He is a popular TV superstar in Russia and recently he invented a very interesting linguistics theory which is liked by many millions of Russian people and according to some rumours his theory is popular in Kremlin also.
He proves that the Russian language is the first language among human languages and all words have sacred meaning which is understandable if you apply his linguistic analysis
For example,

American. Who is American? American is a cowboy. What is a cow? Cow is говядина. ГОВядина is related by common root to ГОВно (shit). So "American" is a "shit-man".

see many other examples here
http://nostradamys.ru/Rus.html
link47 comments|post comment

A Post of Geriatric Proportions [Nov. 13th, 2009|08:56 pm]

thrifthorror
[kurokokoro]
Well, maybe not. But fairly good-sized. (Mostly) From a Goodwill in Montana.



( Lift yourself up into a secondhand heaven )
link36 comments|post comment

NSW merry fucken christmas [Nov. 13th, 2009|09:56 pm]

ugly_crap
[moire_the_great]
[Tags|]
[feeling | cocky]

"Some people have the 'find the pickle' Christmas tradition, my family is introducing 'find the penis.' I love it!"

( Read more... )
SPECIAL: Order ten or more of these at a time (message me first), and I'll make them for $15.00 each!
link38 comments|post comment

Creative conversation practice [Nov. 13th, 2009|09:39 pm]

linguaphiles
[lifedespitegod]
How would you get conversation practice in a language with limited access to other speakers?

I need to have my French evaluated by January for a program I'm applying to, and while I have been practicing my grammar with workbooks and my listening with podcasts, I need to get my skills in shape for actual conversation. I'm sure it'll all come back to me, but my skills are very rusty as I haven't been in a French class in years.

The problem is that I can't find any sort of class or conversation group. I've checked meetup.com, craigslist, google, local university websites, etc. All I have found so far is one Alliance Francaise class that conflicts with my schedule and a tutor that charges $50/hr. My school doesn't have any regular French table or anything, either (I believe there are only a couple of French majors). I don't know any native speakers and we don't have any francophone exchange students. Even on livemocha.com I haven't found many French speakers that want to chat. It shouldn't be that hard to find places where I can practice a very common language but I'm running out of ideas!

Anyone have suggestions for me? I might hire the tutor but I can't afford more than a couple of hours.
link7 comments|post comment

The CAPSLOCK listing only adds to the beauty. [Nov. 13th, 2009|09:07 pm]

ugly_crap
[werewolf_lib]
[Tags|]

When I woke up today, I thought to myself 'Self, do you know what we need more of in this world? Accessories made from decapitated doll heads. Decapitated doll heads decorated with glitter and something that looks like the top of a blouse from 1986. On plastic cords. That's what we need.'

Well, thank god there's Etsy! There's a snip behind the cut for those of you who don't want to add to the view count or who do want to be spared from the PARAGRAPH OF CAPS that is the listing.

( Next, I'm going to wish for world peace! )
link13 comments|post comment

(no subject) [Nov. 13th, 2009|07:59 pm]

linguaphiles
[madscience]
In English, the word "play" has several unrelated meanings. For example, you can play a game, or you can play a musical instrument. German also uses the same word for both of those meanings of "play", even though it's not a cognate. Is there a word for this phenomenon?
link31 comments|post comment

Linguistic / Mythological memory of Neanderthals? [Nov. 13th, 2009|06:53 pm]

linguaphiles
[padpedpladuk]
The post below (from this blog last year) about Basque mythology sounds like it could be a cultural recollection of Neanderthals.

The very last site where Neanderthals are known to have survived is in Spain, although it was in southern Spain rather than the north where the Basques live now.

A genetic analysis done in the past year or so concluded that the Neanderthal individual that the material came from had red hair.

Basque is said to be mysteriously unrelated to any other language. I have long wondered if Basque might carry some remnants of a Neanderthal language. It is an interesting coincidence that the "Basque" called these people "Basajaun."

I'm sure many of you have heard of this before but the specifics were news to me when I ran across them this evening. Thought it was cool in a linguistic sense so I'm posting it here. Anybody know any further details about this and how it might relate to the Basque language?

Below I am quoting the post that I found interesting ...
------------
In Basque mythology, the basajaun (plural: basajaunak) were an ancient human race of stout, hairy wild men who were megalith builders.

Basajaun means "Lord of the Woods", they once dwelled in the mountains of the Basque Pyrenees of northern Spain and southern France and had knowledge of magic. The Basajaun was heavily built and about 2 to 3 meters tall. Dark reddish hair reached their knees. They were very agile, strong, hairy beings with animal characteristics.

The Basajaun watch over the forests and all wild creatures. They are rural genies, also called the Wild Lords, also considered to be the protector of flocks. When comes a storm a Basajaun will shout warnings to the shepherds; and they prevent wolves from approaching flocks. They are the first to have cultivated the earth.

Human beings obtained the right to cultivate the earth when a man won a bet with a Basajaun. He stole the seeds that the Basajun was sowing and he came back to his peoples to teach them how to produce food.
link10 comments|post comment

To the Chinese media, is Obama "aobama" or "oubama"? [Nov. 13th, 2009|06:45 pm]

linguaphiles
[dustthouart]
[Tags|, , ]
[feeling | curious]

A fascinating article in Danwei.
US President Barack Obama will make his first visit to China from November 15-18. To mark the occasion, he's changing his name.

"Obama" is transliterated in the Chinese press as 奥巴马 (àobāmǎ), but a promotional poster distributed yesterday by the US Embassy uses 欧巴马 (ōubāmǎ)... "according to Susan Stevenson, press spokesperson for the US Embassy, the US government was standardizing the Chinese translation of the president's name to clear up the current confusion between the two transliterations, and from now on it would use ōubāmǎ exclusively."

The Xinhua News Agency keeps an archive of transliterations, and the Mirror confirmed that, like media organizations across the mainland and in Hong Kong, Xinhua has always rendered Obama as àobāmǎ. But a former polling station volunteer told the newspaper that on Chinese versions of last year's presidential ballot in New York, Obama's name was transliterated as ōubāmǎ.
Danwei quotes from a Chinese news article:
A Mirror reporter spoke to noted ambassador and translator Guo Jiading (current vice-president of the Translators Association of China, former director of the foreign ministry's translation office, and a translator who worked with Zhou Enlai and Dengxiaoping). Guo said that Obama's full name, Barack Hussein Obama, should be pronounced bə'rɑ:k hu:'seɪn oʊ'bɑ:mə. If he were to transliterate it, he would render it as bèilākè hóusàiyīn àobāmǎ (贝拉克·侯赛因·奥巴马). "Xinhua is right. There's no problem there," Guo said.

Guo Jiading said that according to standard practice, a name transliteration that has been in use for a while cannot be casually changed; unless Xinhua changes its rendering, the Foreign Ministry will not agree to switch àobāmǎ for ōubāmǎ. He said that the transliteration of Kissinger's name was incorrect — it ought to be 基辛杰 (jīxīnjié) instead of 基辛格 (jīxīngé), but once the mistake was made, it continued to be used.


As a student of Mandarin and native speaker of American English, I find this particularly fascinating, particularly the reasoning of the quoted tranlator Guo Jiading. In Standard Mandarin, the IPA for /ao/ is ɑʊ̯; the IPA for /ou/ is oʊ. Why does he then say he would render oʊ'bɑ:mə as /aobama/? It really makes no sense to me. To me, it's like hearing someone say "Two plus two is four. Therefore, Xinhua is right to write the answer as five. There's no problem there."

Are there other transliteration conventions in languages you study that make no sense to you?

Then again, how much of transliteration is making it sound like the original pronunciation, and how much is making it sound like a word in the receiving language?
link11 comments|post comment

Russian patronymic question [Nov. 13th, 2009|05:57 pm]

linguaphiles
[graziaplena]
[Tags|]

Hi there!

In the HBO series Carnivale there is a Russian character named Lucius Belyakov, and I'm curious about the form of his daughter's and son's patronymic, since Lucius is not a traditional Russian name. I've googled Луциусович and Люциусович (and Луциусовна / Люциусовна), but got no results for any of those.

I understand that the Russian form of Lucius is most likely Lukian (лукиан or лукян) and there are 1000+ results for лукианович / лукянович (fewer for the female form), and since this is just for fun -- I'm teaching myself Cyrillic script handwriting and I want to practice -- I could always go with that. I just wanted to be as correct as possible. :)

Thanks!
link14 comments|post comment

Korean Translation Request [Nov. 13th, 2009|02:44 pm]

linguaphiles
[aladnsane]
A friend of mine found This Image and was curious about the content. I don't speak any Korean, but I thought you clever folks might be able to lend a hand?

Synopsis is OK, but a full translation would be nice, esp if it says anything interesting.

Thanks in Advance!
link2 comments|post comment

النصائح التي تخط بماء الذهب للشيخ عائض القرني .. [Nov. 13th, 2009|11:52 pm]

billarabi
[kashkool]

1

ما مضى فات , وما ذهب مات , فلا تفكر فيما مضى , فقد ذهب وانقضى ..

2

اترك المستقبل حتى يأتي ولا تهتم بالغد, لأنك إذا أصلحت يومك صلح غدك .
3

عليك بالمشي والرياضة , واجتنب الكسل والخمول , واهجر الفراغ والبطالة .

4

جدد حياتك , ونوع أساليب معيشتك , وغير من الروتين الذي تعيشه ..
5

اهجر المنبهات والإكثار من الشاي والقهوة ..
6

كرر( لاحول ولا قوةإلا بالله ) فإنها تشرح البال , وتصلح الحال , وتحمل
بها الأثقال , وترضي ذا الجلال .
7

أكثر من الإستغفار , فمعه الرزق والفرج والذرية والعلم النافع والتيسير
وحط الخطايا

8

البلاء يقرب بينك وبين الله ويعلمك الدعاء ويذهب عنك الكبر والعجب والفخر ..

9

لا تجالس البغضاء والثقلاء والحسدة فإنهم حمى الروح , وهم حملة الأحزان..
10

إياك والذنوب , فإنها مصدر الهموم والأحزان وهي سبب النكبات وباب
المصائب والأزمات ..
11

لا تكرث من القول القبيح والكلام السيء الذي يقال فيك فإنه يؤذي قائله
ولا يؤذيك ..
12

سب أعدائك لك وشتم حسادك يساوي قيمتك لأنك أصبحت
شيئا مذكورا وشخصا مهما .
13

اعلم أن من اغتابك فقد أهدى لك حسناته وحط من سيئاتك وجعلك
مشهورا, وهذه نعمة ..
14

ابسط وجهك للناس تكسب ودهم, وألن لهم الكلام يحبوك ,
وتواضع لهم يجلوك
15

ابدأ الناس بالسلام وحيهم بالبسمة وأعرهم الإهتمام لتكن محببا
إلى قلوبهم قريبا منهم ..
16

لا تضيع عمرك في التنقل بين التخصصات والوظائف والمهن
فإن معنى هذا أنك لم تنجح في شيء .
17

كن واسع الأفق والتمس الأعذار لمن أساء إليك لتعش في سكينة
وهدوء , وإياك ومحاولة الإنتقام ..
18

لا تفرح أعدائك بغضبك وحزنك فإن هذا ما يريدون , فلا تحقق
أمانيهم الغالية في تعكير حياتك ..
19

أنت الذي تلون حياتك بنظرك إليها, فحياتك من صنع أفكارك ,
فلا تضع نظارة سوداء على عينيك ..

20

إذا وقعت في أزمة فتذكر كم أزمة مرت بك ونجاك الله منها ،

حينها تعلم أن من عافاك في الأولى سيعافيك في الثانية ..

http://i2.ytimg.com/bg/yAwJrQ0i4mrWmA_ffX33hA/105.jpg?app=bg&v=4afa1646

linkpost comment

You SMELL like POO! [Nov. 13th, 2009|01:31 pm]

thrifthorror
[neurotic_funk]
[Current Location |Los Angeles, California]
[feeling | amused]
[listening to |Chocolate Rain ~ John Mayer featuring Sherrod Small]

Goodwill: White board for $4.99





Transcription:

Kyle Smells like Lonas Slimy(?) Anal(?) Discharge.

P.S. And Poo!

This has been a public service announcement brought to you by Emily and Dylan Ellis Corp and Associates.
link23 comments|post comment

Welsh [Nov. 13th, 2009|08:38 pm]

linguaphiles
[berryswirl]
Hello, hello.

I'm looking for help with the correct pronounciation of a couple of Welsh words. A recording would be perfect, but I might be able to get by with phonetic script. Neither I nor anyone else in my class speak Welsh, which is why I could easily make something up, but nah. :D I'd rather not.

Here you go:

- Cenhinen
- Cenhinen Pedr
- Y Ddraig Goch
- Llewelyn
- Owain Glyndwr
- Eisteddfod
- Gwlwm Celtaidd
- Eryr
- Llyn Llydaw

Thank you very much in advance. I hope the spelling's correct.
link5 comments|post comment

Hello! [Nov. 13th, 2009|10:51 am]

linguaphiles
[lorol]
A friend and I are wondering what the equivalent phrase of "come as you are" is in French. Thanks!
link5 comments|post comment

I am so over that [Nov. 13th, 2009|01:26 pm]

linguaphiles
[aquatius]
[Tags|, , ]
[feeling | curious]

How do you say "I am so over that" in other languages?
link29 comments|post comment

Pure Crap [Nov. 13th, 2009|03:02 am]

ugly_crap
[bangbang_baby]
[Tags|]

Now I don't doubt that this took alot of time and energy and she is a gorgeous talented woman..but well, this still kinda looks like actual shit to me.

Queen of the Mudwasps
Photobucket

You can find this for $750 dollars and more like 8,000 DOLLARS MORE at her Etsy Store
http://www.etsy.com/shop/TheFaerieMarket?section_id=5980946
link49 comments|post comment

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