Languages

[Rob]

I was just wondering what languages people can speak. I'm currently learning Russian i think its a great language. But i can also speak a bit of French and Spanish.

[the_ancient]

I was just wondering what languages people can speak. I'm currently learning Russian i think its a great language. But i can also speak a bit of French and Spanish.

English, English, and More English....

I refuse to learn anything else

[Gwaihir]

PHP, SQL, a bit of JavaScript, and some of the ancient languages of course, like Latin basic.

[Rob]

PHP, SQL, a bit of JavaScript, and some of the ancient languages of course, like Latin basic.

Really, where did you learn to speak PHP?

[jason]

English (obviously), American Sign Language, and a little bit of French.

Then, of course there's PHP, C++, Perl, VB, SQL, Basic, Lingo, JavaScript, ActionScript, Eiffel...

Its funny, though--I can pick up computer languages pretty easily but I have a lot of trouble learning spoken (or signed) ones.

--Jason

[homoludens]

I can say "I love you" and "get lost" (but ruder) in a variety of languages. Surely that's all you need.

I once surprised some Russians at 4AM by drunkenly singing their national anthem as they walked past (was taught it by a Russian speaking housemaster). Made a good friendship out of that.

Jason, do you know offhand whether signed or spoken languages have a higher rate of neologisms? Does it depend more on national culture?

[jason]

Jason, do you know offhand whether signed or spoken languages have a higher rate of neologisms? Does it depend more on national culture?

Hmmm...interresting question.

In ASL, if a sign doesn't exist (or the signer doesn't know what that sign is) it is customary to use fingerspelling. That can obviously get tedious (for both the signer and his audience), so it is pretty common that a signer will make up a sign on the spot, reference it to the fingerspelled term, and then continue using the sign. Some of these made up signs eventually find their way into common usage, at least on a regional level. ASL is full of regional dialects--even more so than English--because the Deaf tend to group together in smaller, somewhat isolated communities. For example, there are evidently there are more than 20 ways to wish someone a happy birthday (I know five or six of them).

Working at a college for the deaf is interesting from a linguistic perspective because we have students coming from all over the world and sharing their sign languages and dialects and influencing the campus dialect. There are signs in common use on campus that probably wouldn't be understood in the general Rochester deaf community (Rochester has the highest per capita deaf population in the US).

This doesn't really answer your question, but I'm not a linguist so I can't really say. I'd guess a large part of how words are adopted is cultural. For instance, in France L'Académie française oversees the language and what words it adopts and prevents it from becoming too Anglicized. This, I would think, would have a significant impact on the adoption of new words as compared to a language that is as dynamic as ASL (or even American English).

--Jason

[Vin DSL]

I was just wondering what languages people can speak...

I speak fluent bullsh!t... or so they say!