Languages, Anyone interested? Options

[Maya]

I learnt through a topic that some people in here are interested in languages.
How about a topic where we can share our languages? I'll suggest a greeting for example and members who are interested can post their translation of it in their own languages. (In English letters plz, so that we can all pronounce it)
I'm an Arab, so I hope I can be useful as one

Good Morning

"Sabah el kheir" -----------> Arabic
" Ohayoo Gozaimus" ------> Japanese
" Bonjour" ------------------> French

Anybody interested to add to my list?

[Maya]

Now I gotta add this info about Arabic as a language. Egypt speaks Arabic, and it's the official language in here. However, what we speak is different from what we write. Meaning that we use Egyptian colloquial Arabic in speaking, but use the Standard Arabic in writing (newspapers, documents, ..etc)

Arabic Alphabet:



An example of the letters in use



Translation: Learn Arabic in Torento University.

If u wanna read more about Arabic, Click here

[deacon]

A very interesting topic you picked there Maya! I myself find languages adorable, yet I do not know many of them.

Let me add some more:

Irish gaelic, or simply irish: The original language used in Ireland. Linguistically it forms a group with Scottish gaelic and Manx, named Q-Celtic (as opposed to P-Celtic, which consists of Brythonic, Welsh and another lang. which I cannot remember at the moment). Today, due to the lengthy english occupation,irish has somewhat faded with english taking its place, especially in major cities. Yet there are still regions, called Gaeltacht, in which irish is the primary language used. There exist various dialects, the most prominant ones being Ulster, Munster and Donegal.

It is written nowadays using the latin alphabet, minus the letters q,v,w,x. In the very old days, druids would use Ogham letters, which consisted of lines and were meant to be carved at the edges of stones. You must bear in mind, though, that pronunciation rules are completely different from english, e.g. bean in irish is pronounced "ban" and means woman! (hence bean sidhe, commonly known as banshee )

These could be considered common phrases (unfortunately I cannot provide an accurate english pronunciation, because I do not remember all pronunciation rules by heart!). Also acute accents are omitted because they do not show up in this encoding

Dia dhuit - Hello (literally, "God with you" I think)
Conas ata tu? - How are you?
Slan go foill - Bye for now
Oiche mhaith, codlach samh - Goodnight, sleep well
Breithla sona dhuit - Happy birthday

I will try and figure out the way these should be pronounced

By the way, the info about the arabic language was very interesting, I am glad you wrote it! Also: I thought it was "ohayo konzai mas " in japanese, at least that's what I hear all the time in anime

[NickTheGreek]

i have already pointed out, this is a wondeful idea !

[Maya]

Oh am glad somebody else is inetersted. Like you, Deacon, I'm interested in languages, but dont know much about them. But as for " Ohayoo Gozaymasu", u can say am sure of it

Irish.. interesting. I thought Irish people forgot about their Irish and used English instead. (I have been listening to "Irish son" lately) I find it useful that you pointed out the difference in the way vowels are pronounced in the two languages. (Bean-Ban). Thank you for ur reply, that was fun (f)

Here're the Arabic equivalents of what you mentioned:

Hello: Ahlan/ Marhaba (in some Arab countries) Egyptians say hi too!
How are you: Ezayak (to a male) Ezayek (to a female)
Bye for now: Salam/Bye
Goodnight, sleep well: tesbah ala kheir (to a m.) tesbahy ala kheir (to a f.)
Happy Birthday: Kol sana wenta tayeb (to a m.) kol sana wenty tayeba (to a f.)

Now the translations mentioned above are what we Egyptians speak, not necessarily what we write. So dont expect to read that somewhere, you can just hear it.

NickTheGreek: hi !

[viv]

Nice topic Maya!
2 years ago I was searching where to go and learn Arabic. I found something but unfortunately I didn't make it....

I like Arabic a lot, so please post more...

[deacon]

Well, it is true that the Irish have almost forgotten their language. It is sad actually. The have this saying about the situation: Tir gan teanga tir gan anam which means "land without a language land without a soul". The good thing is that there seems to be a revival of the language these days as more and more want to learn Irish and Irish is about to be recognized as an official EU language. (If not already recognized).

Today's language is Quenya! While it has all characteristics of a language it has a difference from most others: it is artificial. As Esperanto or Klingon, this language was created by a linguist and not via evolution in the real world. Quenya specifically, was created by famous linguist J.R.R. Tolkien, mostly known by the fantasy novels he wrote. It's purpose was to be the language spoken by the Elves of his universe called Arda. Despite being artificial, it evolved inside the mythos (it's evolution depicting the changes made to it by Tolkien, which where numerous). But Quenya was not the only language Tolkien created.

It is based on ideas taken from latin, finnish and propably other european languages. Its pronunciation approaches that of Italian. Words tend to get long because of the addition of suffixes to their stem. It is written using its own alphabet, called Tengwar, but oftenly latin letters are used for simplicity. Here are some example phrases commonly utilized by the Elves

Aiya! - Hello! (EYE-ya)
Aa harya melwa arin - Have a nice day (ah HAR-yah MEL-wah AHR-in)
Ma quetelye Eldarin? - Do you speak Elvish? (ma kwet-ELL-yeh ELL-dar-in)
Ma istanyel? - Do I know you? (mah iss-TAN-yell)
A harya melwa anduune - Have a nice evening. (ah HAR-yah MEL-wah an-DOO-neh)

These I found from a site I stumbled upon Note that double vowels where used where normally the acute accent would occur. (It denotes long vowels).

Enjoy!

[www.yourforum.gr]

Greek...

Hello: γεία > yia'
How are you: πως είσαι > po's i'se
Bye for now: αντίο προς το παρόν > adi'o pro's to paro'n
Goodnight, sleep well: καληνύχτα, και καλόν ύπνο > kalini'xta kai' kalo'n y'pno
Happy Birthday: χρόνια πολλά > hro'nia polla'

Have a nice day : καλή μέρα να έχεις > kali' me'ra na e'xeis
Do I know you? : σε ξέρω ? > se' xe'ro
Have a nice evening. : καλό βράδυ > kalo' bra'di

[pengiranijam]

Good job Maya... Arabic alphabet so many function.. ^_^

[hlias_gr]

Nice idea maya!

Can u also give us the colors in arabic?

[Maya]

Nice topic Maya!
2 years ago I was searching where to go and learn Arabic. I found something but unfortunately I didn't make it....

I like Arabic a lot, so please post more...

Sure, Viv, my pleasure. But can I ask u if there are any reasons behind your interest in Arabic.

Decon, that was quite informative. So is the Elvish language similar to the languages used in the novel/movie Lord of the Rings? I hear the author (also a linguist I guess) created an artificial language too. So are we talkin about the same guy?
You provided pronounciations too. I liked that one a lot:
Ma istanyel? - Do I know you? (mah iss-TAN-yell)

www.yourforum.gr, without the latin alphabet I would never know how to pronounce any of what u mentioned ty.

Syaoran and hlias_gr, ty guys. And here are the Arabic colours:

Modern standard Arabic (MSA): the written lang.
Colloquial Egyptian Arabic(CEA): the spoken language

BLUE:azraq. (azra' in CEA)
RED: ahmar
BLACK: Aswad (Eswed in CEA)
WHITE: Abyad
GREEN: Akhdar
Yellow:: Asfar
PURPLE: (mouv in CEA)
ORANGE: Bortoqaly (borto'any in CEA)
GREY: (Rosasy in CEA)

[NickTheGreek]

BLUE: μπλέ > ble'
RED: κόκκινο > ko'kino
BLACK: μαύρο > ma'vro
WHITE: άσπρο > a'spro
GREEN: πράσινo > pra'sino
Yellow:: κίτρινο > ki'trino
PURPLE: μοβ > mo'v
ORANGE: πορτοκαλί > portokali'
GREY: γκρί > gri'

P.S.
It is really amazing, Colloquial Egyptian Arabic(CEA), has many many identical words to modern Greek !

[Maya]

Interesting ! specially this Bortoqali thing, its really identical (but to the MSA) We share the same word for purple too (in CEA)? great.

How about:

You're cute
Life sux
I want a coke, plz

[NickTheGreek]

You're cute > είσαι χαριτωμένος > i'se charitome'nos ( 2 a boy ) / είσαι χαριτωμένη > i'se charitome'ni ( 2 a girl )

Life sux > η ζωή είναι χάλια > i zoi' i'ne cha'lia

I want a coke, plz > θέλω μια κόκα, παρακαλώ > the'lo mi'a ko'ka, parakalo'

[deacon]

@Maya: yes, it was created by Tolkien (I think I say so).

Note that in Lord Of The Rings, the language spoken by the Elves is Sindarin and not Quenya!
An exception is when Frodo says a famous greeting in Quenya at some point: Elen siila lummen' omentielvo which means "A star shined on the moment of our meeting". Generally, in the times of The Lord of the Rings, Quenya was used mostly for ceremonial reasons, with Sindarin being the "common Elvish".

Let's say the same using Sindarin (pronounced SIndarin)

Mae govannen: Hello (actually: well met) (MY go-VAN-nen)
Garo aur vaer: Have a nice day (GAR-oh our vire)
Garo tinnu vaer: Have a nice evening (GAR-oh TIN-noo vire)
Pedich Edhellen?: Do you speak Elvish? (PED-ick eth-EL-len, with th sounding like in "the")
Iston le?: Do I know you? (IST-on leh)

And yes, Tolkien was a linguist, you are correct Btw can you explain why is that you speak and write differently, and not speak e.g. the way you write?