You know you're a language nerd when…

General discussion about learning languages
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Teango
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Re: You know you're a language nerd when…

Postby Teango » Sun May 27, 2018 11:16 pm

Neurotip wrote:
Teango wrote:Oh why, for the sake of Mezzofanti, did I have to go and look this up...?
...the Nuxalk word clhp’xwlhtlhplhhskwts’ (IPA: [xɬpʼχʷɬtʰɬpʰɬːskʷʰt͡sʼ]), meaning "he had had [in his possession] a bunchberry plant", has thirteen obstruent consonants in a row with no phonetic or phonemic vowels... [source: Wikipedia: Salishan languages] :shock: ;) :) :ugeek:

OK, now I have to admit... I knew I was a language nerd when I noticed that at stressful moments, when I was most in need of something calming and energising, I would find myself curled up once again with my well-thumbed Mithun 'The Languages of Native North America'. :oops:

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IronMike
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Re: You know you're a language nerd when…

Postby IronMike » Mon May 28, 2018 1:57 am

Neurotip wrote:I knew I was a language nerd when I noticed that at stressful moments, when I was most in need of something calming and energising, I would find myself curled up once again with my well-thumbed Mithun 'The Languages of Native North America'. :oops:

One of my favorite books!
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Re: You know you're a language nerd when…

Postby Cavesa » Mon May 28, 2018 11:08 am

When watching certain episodes of the X-files makes you google "how to learn Navajo".

And in general, tv series with people speaking other languages have this effect on you (especially when tv series streamed from certain websites lack the original subtitles for those passages) :-)
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Ásynja
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Re: You know you're a language nerd when…

Postby Ásynja » Wed May 30, 2018 1:42 am

When you love etymology so much that you unconsciously slip into the habit of thinking about the origin of any curious word you find.

*...hubo muchas guerras.....*

Oh, look, war and guerra share the same origin!

*Randomly reading some cringey message on the Internet: I love ya with all my heart, babe!*


..Mmm I wonder if he knows that heart and cœur come from the same word.
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Re: You know you're a language nerd when…

Postby luke » Wed May 30, 2018 6:42 am

Ásynja wrote:..Mmm I wonder if he knows that heart and cœur come from the same word.

And cœur and courage...
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Bilingual_monoglot
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Re: You know you're a language nerd when…

Postby Bilingual_monoglot » Tue Jun 05, 2018 3:24 am

tomgosse wrote:... when you think that no longer using words like thee and thou in everyday English is a great travesty.


When you are actively trying to revive the use of thee and thou in your high school.
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Bilingual_monoglot
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Re: You know you're a language nerd when…

Postby Bilingual_monoglot » Tue Jun 05, 2018 4:00 am

jeff_lindqvist wrote:When your language hit list changes regularly because of the people you meet at work. Even if I chose native speakers as my only method for language learning, I could still learn languages in the two digits.


This, but replace work with school. Although my languages would be limited to English, Tamil, Malay, Vietnamese, Mandarin, Cantonese, Hindi and Bengali


Also, when the only reason for you to stay in your home country is the linguistic diversity.
Also, when you go to the shop and speak to the salesman in your terrible Chinese even though everyone speaks fluent English and nobody expects you to speak Chinese because your ethnic language is Tamil.
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Re: You know you're a language nerd when…

Postby Iversen » Tue Jun 05, 2018 11:14 am

Bilingual_monoglot wrote:When you are actively trying to revive the use of thee and thou in your high school.


When thou wonderst why Bilingual-monoglot missed the opportunity to write "thou art" instead of "you are" (or even older and therefore better: Anglosaxon "þū wesst")
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Re: You know you're a language nerd when…

Postby Cainntear » Tue Jun 05, 2018 7:08 pm

Iversen wrote:
Bilingual_monoglot wrote:When you are actively trying to revive the use of thee and thou in your high school.


When thou wonderst why Bilingual-monoglot missed the opportunity to write "thou art" instead of "you are" (or even older and therefore better: Anglosaxon "þū wesst")

When thou wonderst why Iversen would encourage the use of this upstart tense naméd the present progressive.
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Re: You know you're a language nerd when…

Postby Cavesa » Sun Jun 24, 2018 8:11 pm

When the clearest symptom of being fed up with and too tired of your normal studies is the sudden urge to learn Japanese AND Mandarin instead, as it would definitely be more fun and less difficult. :-D
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