i see we are showing off our language skills, so let me join in
i obviously speak 'bcs', english and german and currently i'm learning czech at university, up until last year i also studied russian but unfortunately i had to make a pause, hopefully i will be able to continue next year.
i also have a strong interest in japanese, i would love to learn it someday.

well... it can't go without me
I speak fluently for now only Bulgarian and (I hope) English I know some stuff from Turksih and Spanish but probably I'm better with Turkish. Actually I was very keen on them at a moment but now I switched to other ones.
I speak badly Serbian, even worse Croatian and some Slovenian but I'm a beginner so I understand more than I speak. But as it's abvious I wanna speak those three languages + Bosnian
And I'm also very fascinated with Albanian recently. It sounds so weird but actually that makes it cool
And in the end, if I still have time after all that stuff before, I'll try to improve my sucking Russian and German lol

I'll join in too.

I speak English, Sign Language, Hungarian, Serbian, and Macedonian.

Ah, I forgot to say which languages I speak
Aha, so croatian of course, english, italian, spanish and russian (russian still not so good)

@ D&M: since some time I've been wondering if Spanish and Italian are really so close, as I know they should have many common words but though I understand generally Spanish, I hardly understand something in Italian. So if u speak both them how close to each other can u define them?

and if u speak Croatian then u can speak pretty well Serbian,Montenegrian and Bosnian too

@ pthalo: hey what happened with your wish to study Albanian? Did u find some good music?

If we brag a bit, then I Serbian, French, English, Spanish; German and Turkish nur ein bisschen. My favorite is French.

@tedinkyyy - although those two languages are veeery close, I can imagine that those who speak spanish can't understand spoken italian so well or opposite, it's easier when you see it written. Why so? Well, I don't know maybe because italian sounds kinda harder and spanish softer (at least I consider it so) but in vocabulary of both languages you can find lots of words that are the same or similar. As for grammar, it is almost the same in both of languages, for me personally italian is slightly harder.

@ Dangerous and Moving ( oh gosh Andjela is so easier to write lol) : actually I find the sounding of Spanish better, I even used to dislike Italian some time ago but now I can say it's lovely too.I've seen written Italian and I get more of it really but still I think I understand more Portuguese (I find it even closer to Spanish).Ordering the Romanic languages :1.Spanish 2.Italian 3.Romanian 4.Portuguese 5.French. Romanian is cool too though my mum finds it like some kinda Gypsy lol

@ ina : can't u speak Bulgarian too? U said ur a half-Bulgarian.Ur probably from East Serbia,Dimitrovgrad,Pirot... I know they speak some Bulgarian dialect there.

Originally Posted by tedinkyyy

@ pthalo: hey what happened with your wish to study Albanian? Did u find some good music?

da, hvala ti

napisala sam samo jezike koje govorim dovoljno dobro. ne mogu reći da govorim albanski kada znam samo jednu reč (mire = dobro). ni ne kažem da govorim slovenski ni nemački kada sam ih zaboravila (i slovenski samo 3-4 meseci učila u 2002). ne kažem da govorim persijanski jer znam manje od 20 reči. mogu da pevam na arapskom, ali znam samo verske reči/izraze. + znam jednu versku pesmu na svahili... ali govoriti znam samo da jambo (džambo) = ćao. tako da ne mogu da kažem da znam svahili

+ govorim 2-3 varijante američkog + britanski. :P



Zaboravila sam i svoj jezik, koji napravih kada sam imala 10 godine, i to mi je mnogo žalosno jer to je nešto što ne mogu ponovo da naučim. Sećam se svoju dvoručno-azbuku i sećam se znakove za "verovati" i "dete" i zamenice, a to je sve.

@tedinkyyy - yes, I find romanian fascinating! As I said it's so different from other romance langauges and it has lot of slavic influences, I was fascinated when I found out that they also say ''da'' for yes
As for my list of romance languages it goes like this: 1. Italian 2. Spanish 3. Romanian 4. French 5. Portuguese
And btw, pls call me AnGela then, if there's no Đ i like G the most instead of it... I really dislike when ppl write Andjela or Andela, dunno why

ok,ok Anđela but I'll probably use more g because for đ I have to switch to the other keyboard and some letters and signs there are on another buttons and u know it's annoying.
oh I didn't suppose Romanians say da too Now I understand why the students of Romanain here study also crkovnoslavjanski. As I know in Albanian there are very little Slavic influences too.
Hmm as I see our lists are quite similar but the weird thing with me is that as if it's for countries Italy is first and I don't like Spain too much, I prefer the Latinoamercan countries to it

Unfortunately I don't know much about albanian language...
Well I also prefer Italy as country tho I was really enchanted by Spain when I visited it. And I prefer real spanish (castellano) tho latinamerican version are also nice, especially spanish spoken in Argentina, it sounds so cute, as if they were singing!

Since I am quite fond of this subforum, I thought I should use an appropriate Avatar. (Jako volim stripove!)

Originally Posted by Dangerous & Moving

In future I'd like to learn greek (I have no idea how could I miss such beautiful language till now, I'm saying this cos I discovered it recently)

If you listen to some really good songs, you will love it even more! But I don't know which styles you prefer. I hope you don't like "skyladiko" style, which means "dog music". It's almost equivalent to "Turbo-Folk".

Originally Posted by Dangerous & Moving

romanian (this one also fascinates me because it's so different of all romance languages)

Yes, I agree, a Romance language with many Slavic words and a very Balkan syntax - plus the suffixed article, which is also a characteristic of Bulgarian and Albanian.

Originally Posted by Dangerous & Moving

and hebrew (so beautiful language)

Ha, I started learning Hebrew very recently, both ancient and modern. But I haven't finished even the first chapter. The only phrase I can utter is "šalom, barux ha’ba l’israˀel!" (Hello, welcome to Israel!) I love the alphabet and the rich history of the language on the whole.

Miki444, thanks for the correction! I always accept linguistic corrections with pleasure. I admit that I am still very shaky on the word order of BCS, since it is very different from the Greek one. As for upitati, I think that my choice was correct – I was telling D&M to ask me something once, not repeatedly. But if I am still wrong, please feel free to correct me.

About the term ‘BCS’: I think it is the best to use for all three languages that are, in fact, one (Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian). The story is long and, for many people, disturbing (I think especially for Croats). Nevertheless, from a linguistic point of view, they are definitely one language. There are less differences between them than there are between British English and American English. The three names are political choices, not linguistic ones.

I adopted the term ‘BCS’ after Ronelle Alexander, a linguist who has written two excellent books for learning this language (a Textbook and a Grammar with sociolinguistic commentary). I believe they are the best available in the market. Now I have started Chapter 3 (of 20). I still have a long way to go... I hope that by next summer I will be able to speak BCS, at least decently.

Originally Posted by tedinkyyy

And I'm also very fascinated with Albanian recently. It sounds so weird but actually that makes it cool

Shumë mirë, Tedinkëëë Nice point of view. This is exactly what I feel when I listen to a strange language. Although Albanian is quite exotic, it is, in a way, so close to Greek! There are many words of Greek origin (apart from medical or legal or philosophical terms etc.). And there are many expressions that have exact equivalents in Greek, word for word.

Pthalo, it’s very interesting that you also “speak” Sign Language – but which one? There are a lot of them.
I still can’t imagine how it is to form a sentence in Sign Language... how one uses verbs, adverbs, conjunctions... :O I have to read about it.

Originally Posted by Dangerous & Moving

italian sounds kinda harder and spanish softer (at least I consider it so)

Very interesting and, I also think, true. Italian has also many long vowels and long consonants! Spanish doesn't have long sounds, all are relatively short (with the exception of a double rr which is different from single r). Spanish sounds very similar to Greek. Most sounds of both languages are identical, though the speech melody is different.

Originally Posted by pthalo

Zaboravila sam i svoj jezik, koji napravih kada sam imala 10 godine, i to mi je mnogo žalosno jer to je nešto što ne mogu ponovo da naučim. Sećam se svoju dvoručno-azbuku i sećam se znakove za "verovati" i "dete" i zamenice, a to je sve.

? :-/ ? Nisam razumeo o kojim jezikom je reč...
Sorry for bad word order (probably!)

Originally Posted by Dangerous & Moving

As for my list of romance languages it goes like this: 1. Italian 2. Spanish 3. Romanian 4. French 5. Portuguese

Hey, Anđela, why is Catalan missing? It's a so fascinating language! French endings, Spanish vocabulary, Portuguese vowels and Italian consonants - really! I've tried it and it's incredibly interesting. All Western Romance languages in a convenient package.

Originally Posted by tedinkyyy

As I know in Albanian there are very little Slavic influences too.

You are right. The strongest influences are from Turkish, Italian and Greek.

Guys, have a nice day all of you. I'll come back soon with a translation of a simple Serbian song, "Hladan" by EKV. Later, as I progress with the language, I'll try more difficult ones.

@Language Lover: you're right, there are many sign languages, as many different ones as there are deaf communities which traditionally had little contact with other deaf communities. I use ASL (American Sign Language), which is a distance relative of French Sign Language and is used in the united states and Canada. It does me very little good in Hungary, where I live, although knowing ASL does make it easier for me to guess what a Hungarian sign might mean, and I think I could understand somewhat if a Hungarian signed slowly with me... Deaf people (by which I mean people who are culturally Deaf and who are fluent in sign language) who speak different sign languages usually can communicate a little better than hearing people who speak different languages.

As for the language I forgot, it was also a sign language. I was ten years old and I somehow forgot English, the only language I knew at the time. I could mostly understand what people were telling me but I couldn't speak. I could write, but people would be frustrated with me writing because it was slow. My mother would tear up the things I wrote, screaming at me to speak. I would try to speak when I was home alone, which was often, but I couldn't. And I started creating my own sign language. It had an alphabet made with the fingers and also a writing system. I remember both of these still. I was fluent in this sign language I made up, and spent lots of time listening to the radio and interpreting the songs into my own private sign language for myself.

Then I met someone who knew a little ASL and she noticed that some of my signs were similar to the real ASL signs, for example "believe" was the same (which is why that is one of the few words I remember from my own sign language). By then I was eleven and I went to the library and got books and videos on ASL and learned it. I bought a dictionary and grammar book with my pocket money and later, when I was twelve and had re-learned to talk English somewhat (but still felt more comfortable in sign language), I met a native speaker of sign language whose parents were Deaf and she thought I was a native speaker too because I didn't have a hearing accent.

I am *still* more comfortable with sign language that with speech. It's easier for me to talk with my hands than it is for me to talk with my mouth and I understand better if people talk to me in sign language than if they talk to me in English (my native language :/ ), but I haven't learned more than a few words of Hungarian sign language, and finding someone I can "talk" with here seems almost impossible. :/


As for sentence formation... I can tell you how it works in ASL. It's different in every sign language but I think the basic concepts are similar. The language is three dimensional. Present tense is closer to the body, future tense is out in front, farther away future is farther away from the body, and past tense is behind you... in ASL there's a past tense marker where you indicate behind you... and a lot of words like "yesterday" and "was" are made with the hand(s) moving backwards.

There are about 12 possible "locations" where you can put a pronoun like "he" or "she", and while you're talking you might spell "John" then indicate with your eyes or by pointing to one of these locations. Then later if you want to refer to John, you just look at that location! And if you use a directional sign, going to or from that location will make John the object or the subject of the verb (depending on the direction). Basically, the sign starts in the location of the subject and moves into the direction of the object.

The signs for verbs and nouns are very similar. "chair" and "sit" are almost the same, but the noun is made with a double motion. This is very common.

Adjectives go after the noun, with colour coming first, then size: "house red big old there, I live there I" is a good sentence (pronouns get repeated a lot)



I've learned a tiny bit of Serbian sign language as well, a few words and also the jednoručna azbuka, though I've heard the dvoručna azbuka is more commonly used. I haven't been able to learn even the Macedonian sign language alphabet in the almost 1 year since I've been learning Macedonian, but it's not for lack of trying.

If you listen to some really good songs, you will love it even more! But I don't know which styles you prefer. I hope you don't like "skyladiko" style, which means "dog music". It's almost equivalent to "Turbo-Folk".

Right now I listen only Elena Paparizou from greek music, I'd like that someone recommends me what else is good, I can listen to all kind of music except ''Turbo - Folk'' I really can't stand that one :/

Hey, Anđela, why is Catalan missing? It's a so fascinating language! French endings, Spanish vocabulary, Portuguese vowels and Italian consonants - really! I've tried it and it's incredibly interesting. All Western Romance languages in a convenient package.

It's because I actually never heard Catalan spoken, even if I was in Barcelona, I could rarely hear people talking in Catalan :O
But seeing it written I saw it's very similar to french...

Spanish sounds very similar to Greek. Most sounds of both languages are identical, though the speech melody is different.

Oh, I was so surprised about that fact! So different languages and so similar sounds! I adore that greek and spanish ''s'' sound it's so charming (but I think only original spanish or how they call it ''castellano'' has such sounds, that's why it's my favorite) also I love greek sounds ''th'' and ''g'' - so beautiful!


Oh and I forgot! You said you haven't explored croatian music yet, well I'd like to recommend you Lvky, his songs are calmed and lyrics are like true poetry
(he sings in ikavian dialect tho) but extremely beautiful songs
here's one if you're interested to hear:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSz3CbJik0A

@ Language Lover: haha I don't speak Greek ,I know only few words so I can't judge if Albanian is close to it ( actually I speak few Albanian too ) but ur right, it sounds exotic and I finally learned to read it lol
Did u like some singers from Albania?

@ Angela: u should hear the old songs of Antique too (the ex-duo of Elena Paparizou and Nikos).I liked their songs very much.Most are in English but some have Greek versions too.Oh u may have heard them so I won't explain more .From Greece I think Anna Vissi has the best songs.She's the greatest star there in my opinion.Also in Bulgaria there was a great hit the song of Mazonakis "To Gucci forema".I loved it too.

@ pthalo : A što sam ja konačno razumela je, da ti se sviđa albanska muzika? Which singers did u like?

Hey guys, I'm going on vacation tomorrow morning, I'll be gone for about 5 weeks.
The sad part is that I'm going to be in the car all day tomorrow, bleeegh :'( ZzZzZzzz....!

Anyways, I wish you guys a happy summer and I'll be missing you!!!


BIG KISS, Maja


Cao!

OMG! 5 weeks?!?!?! Nooooooooooooooooooo
You can't leave us for 5 whole weeks! And ..besides - I am jealous! I thought my 3 weeks were a lot LOL


(being in a car for a day is nothing compared to.. how long did you say.. ? FIVE WEEKS!!!

Lepo se provedi and get a nice tan hehe

Originally Posted by Spring

OMG! 5 weeks?!?!?! Nooooooooooooooooooo
You can't leave us for 5 whole weeks! And ..besides - I am jealous! I thought my 3 weeks were a lot LOL


(being in a car for a day is nothing compared to.. how long did you say.. ? FIVE WEEKS!!!

Lepo se provedi and get a nice tan hehe

Hahaha hvala! I might check-in sometimes to see how you guys are doing
I still have that weird tan spot on my chest from my sunburn, the solarium didn't help me at all hahaha.
I'm sooo looking forward to swimming in the sea

Heyy May wish u a nice vacation in Hrvatska and many sunny emotions Cujemo se uskoro draga

P.P u can't imagine how much I'm jealous of u ...