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I should have shut my mouth -- or stopped my fingers from writing. We already argued on this, if I remember correctly, my view still hadn't changed -- sometimes I try different wiki, the Italian one for example and seriously I have to force myself to understand a simple text. If I take "Paris" on wiki, I just understand the Italian one because I know the French one and I am guessing the other version will say approximately the same -- but I'm not sure. Well, whatever, I'm not going to argue again so if someone isn't liking what I say don't slap me on the fingers (does that even make sense ?).
Also by direct translations I hope you don't mean words that look similar because still I see more resemblance in the Latin-based vocabulary of English than the Italian ones. Again, this is just me.
Are you native english?
It happens something that help us understand the other latin language is that there is vocabulary words that is not usual in our daily conversation but WE KNOW WHAT MEANS because we study our language we read books from the past how you read Sheakspeare and learn a lot of old words, old english...
For example in brazilian portuguese we use VOCÊ (you) (VOI italian) (VOUS french) (TU spanish) TU (Portugal), but we know what it means and because that we understand spanish speakers, but in the other hand if you learn portuguese like foreigner language probably you don't. Why? Because you just learn enough for communicate in usual Portuguese. Of course will help you a lot for learn other latin language but don't how if you were a native.
actually most English that looks like Portuguese is coming from old French, by the time the UK was part of France. And all Latin languages are very similar to each other...
I saw a lot of words in french that I don't kow if is from english how I put above or vice versa (vise versa is used in portuguese with the same means).
In the other hand french is the far Latin language from the other three. Portuguese, Spanish and Italian are multiunderstanding after accustoms ears how the other language speaker pronounce the letters, words, accent, but french spoken is the hardest we have to know the basic at least. Forgeting the romanian that is another history.
Are you native english?
It happens something that help us understand the other latin language is that there is vocabulary words that is not usual in our daily conversation but WE KNOW WHAT MEANS because we study our language we read books from the past how you read Sheakspeare and learn a lot of old words, old english...
For example in brazilian portuguese we use VOCÊ (you) (VOI italian) (VOUS french) (TU spanish) TU (Portugal), but we know what it means and because that we understand spanish speakers, but in the other hand if you learn portuguese like foreigner language probably you don't. Why? Because you just learn enough for communicate in usual Portuguese. Of course will help you a lot for learn other latin language but don't how if you were a native.
I should have shut my mouth -- or stopped my fingers from writing. We already argued on this, if I remember correctly, my view still hadn't changed -- sometimes I try different wiki, the Italian one for example and seriously I have to force myself to understand a simple text. If I take "Paris" on wiki, I just understand the Italian one because I know the French one and I am guessing the other version will say approximately the same -- but I'm not sure. Well, whatever, I'm not going to argue again so if someone isn't liking what I say don't slap me on the fingers (does that even make sense ?).
Also by direct translations I hope you don't mean words that look similar because still I see more resemblance in the Latin-based vocabulary of English than the Italian ones. Again, this is just me.
Just chiming in... I am a native French speaker and I've never taken Italian courses. I've always been able to decipher Italian fairly easily. Not 100% of course, but certainly enough to be able to get the gist of what a text is about. This was true even before I started learning Spanish, for which I took courses formally.
Just a few minutes ago I went on the home page of La Repubblica and I could figure out what the articles were saying very easily. And I haven't been to Italy in a few years and haven't been exposed to the language that much since.
Just chiming in... I am a native French speaker and I've never taken Italian courses. I've always been able to decipher Italian fairly easily. Not 100% of course, but certainly enough to be able to get the gist of what a text is about. This was true even before I started learning Spanish, for which I took courses formally.
Just a few minutes ago I went on the home page of La Repubblica and I could figure out what the articles were saying very easily. And I haven't been to Italy in a few years and haven't been exposed to the language that much since.
Tht's so weird that I'm the only one in this situation.
You make me so angry, each time, your words, everything, that's just so damn unfair ! You don't even know me, I love linguistics, I study English on my own, I'm able to understand Korean and some Japanese, I love other languages, phonetics, so please, don't assume anything about me. I already told you, yes, I didn't studied Italian, because I don't like it, I'm sorry, I have nothing against you or your people but I can't stand your language for some reason, so I guess that's why I don't want to "see" the apparently so obvious similarities between our languages, I don't like it in fact, languages are separate for a reason, they're unique, I don't understand people who like to say "oh all romance languages are the same or almost the same", no, French is French, French isn't similar to Italian to me, and that's it. I'm stubborn I guess or just plain stupid, I don't care, I'm tired of needing to explain myself to you, all the time when it comes to this, you're like a police of linguistics or something. Now it's okay, I won't say anything more, I'm tired and sad and confused. I would have wanted to say more, make you understand but you don't want to and I'm so, so tired of this.
"They would be the same language" is the most ridiculous thing I've ever had the displeasure of seeing.
Well, if you don't like the way italian sounds I can understand your brain wants to render it difficult to understand. No big deal.
I have the same problem with bureaucracy and comptability
I think English borrows a lot from French in the first place, which is why it doesn't look / sounds much like old German anymore. That's also why it is easier for French people to learn it and that most French are fluent in English ()
Before I studied Italian I didn't understand it, but now that I know it I have a better idea of the roman language group. For instance I can decipher Spanish or have a basic idea of the conversation. Catalan is much harder though, even if it is supposed to be a mix of Spanish and French.
But then even if English is supposed to be easy there are plenty of French people who feel much more at ease with Spanish. No one is the same, and there are also (fewer) French people who prefer the logic of German and its exotic sound.
I love English, but I'm happy to know several languages because each one of them expresses different things that are not always easy to translate in another language, and which sometimes don't exist, and in the end every language expresses different feelings.
Well, if you don't like the way italian sounds I can understand your brain wants to render it difficult to understand. No big deal.
I have the same problem with bureaucracy and comptability
I think English borrows a lot from French in the first place, which is why it doesn't look / sounds much like old German anymore. That's also why it is easier for French people to learn it and that most French are fluent in English ()
Before I studied Italian I didn't understand it, but now that I know it I have a better idea of the roman language group. For instance I can decipher Spanish or have a basic idea of the conversation. Catalan is much harder though, even if it is supposed to be a mix of Spanish and French.
But then even if English is supposed to be easy there are plenty of French people who feel much more at ease with Spanish. No one is the same, and there are also (fewer) French people who prefer the logic of German and its exotic sound.
I love English, but I'm happy to know several languages because each one of them expresses different things that are not always easy to translate in another language, and which sometimes don't exist, and in the end every language expresses different feelings.
Thank you (again), you seem to understand me a bit better than xander, I'm really not trying to be a pain in the butt, really, it's just that it's like that for me. I love German TBH, but it's a family thing I guess so that don't really count. I will always remember when in school, I took Spanish in collège, thinking that it would be easier than German -- not a good idea for me.
I love linguistics, I study English on my own, I'm able to understand Korean and some Japanese
Why? Why not use your time to learn some useful language instead? Like Spanish.
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