scott wrote:

>>> If it's an entirely different language then why are half of English 
>>> words almost the same as German?
> 
> ...and the other half are French :-)

I'm sure at least three quarters are Latin. :-P

I wonder which was bigger - the Roman empire or the British empire?

Post a reply to this message

>>>> If it's an entirely different language then why are half of English 
>>>> words almost the same as German?
>> 
>> ...and the other half are French :-)
> 
> I'm sure at least three quarters are Latin. :-P

That's because three quarters of French is Latin!

Post a reply to this message

scott wrote:
>>>>> If it's an entirely different language then why are half of English 
>>>>> words almost the same as German?
>>>
>>> ...and the other half are French :-)
>>
>> I'm sure at least three quarters are Latin. :-P
> 
> That's because three quarters of French is Latin!

Or, more exactly, three quarters of all European languages are Latin. ;-)

Post a reply to this message

On 13/07/2010 10:36 AM, Invisible wrote:
>
> I wonder which was bigger - the Roman empire or the British empire?

What were you taught in school?

-- 

Best Regards,
	Stephen

Post a reply to this message

>> I wonder which was bigger - the Roman empire or the British empire?
> 
> What were you taught in school?

Long division, mainly.

Post a reply to this message

On 13/07/2010 11:14 AM, Invisible wrote:
>>> I wonder which was bigger - the Roman empire or the British empire?
>>
>> What were you taught in school?
>
> Long division, mainly.

What about, reading, writing, history and geography?

-- 

Best Regards,
	Stephen

Post a reply to this message

Invisible wrote:
>  (For 
> French, it seems that the rule is, approximately, "ignore all consonants 
> and just emit a series of slightly varying vowels".)

Gosh.

You really need listen more French...

-- 
Vincent

Post a reply to this message

>>  (For French, it seems that the rule is, approximately, "ignore all 
>> consonants and just emit a series of slightly varying vowels".)
> 
> Gosh.
> 
> You really need listen more French...

Only if you assert that being able to speak French is important. ;-)

(For example, "le roi est mort, vive le roi" appears to be rendered 
approximately as "le wu e mo veev le wu". In other words, almost all the 
consonants removed. Kind of like anti-unix or something...)

Post a reply to this message

Invisible <voi### [at] devnull> wrote:
> I say again: the pronounciation rules are entirely different. (For
> French, it seems that the rule is, approximately, "ignore all consonants
> and just emit a series of slightly varying vowels".)

In fact, most european languages have very well-defined and predictable
pronounciation rules. If you see an unfamiliar word, you might not know what it
means but you can always pronounce it correctly. The big exception? English.
Unless you know how a particular word is pronounced, it's often a toss-up.

(and he's right, you obviously haven't heard much spoken french if you're in any
way serious in your comment :)

Post a reply to this message

Bill Pragnell wrote:

> In fact, most european languages have very well-defined and predictable
> pronounciation rules. If you see an unfamiliar word, you might not know what it
> means but you can always pronounce it correctly.

So I hear. (Obviously I can't actually verify this.)

> The big exception? English.
> Unless you know how a particular word is pronounced, it's often a toss-up.

Yeah, that's because English is a random mixture of a dozen different 
languages. ;-)

Incidentally, this is probably why I had so much trouble learning to 
read and write. I kept expecting it to be logical, and it isn't. That 
really upset me.

> (and he's right, you obviously haven't heard much spoken french if you're in any
> way serious in your comment :)

Oh, I'm not seriously suggesting that that's all you need to know to 
speak French. ;-) It just seems that the French use a lot of consonants 
that don't appear to do anything.

Post a reply to this message