What's your native language?

[Rafiki]

We can understand eachother fairly easily, so no reason to differentiate

[Franciscus]

Tick another one for Portuguese

[PBBoeye]

Don't most Scandinavians speak English?

The poll question is What is your native language, not 'What is your nationality', but I'm afraid that concept subconsciously comes into people's minds. Boring.

So I could see the Scandinavian languages being lumped together, as I believe they are related? Could be wrong. Same could be true of Portuguese and Spanish (the euro-version; I believe it's called Castilian).

I mean, you don't want to have a 50-option poll, folks.

[Adlertag]

Don't most Scandinavians speak English?

The poll question is What is your native language, not 'What is your nationality', but I'm afraid that concept subconsciously comes into people's minds. Boring.

So I could see the Scandinavian languages being lumped together, as I believe they are related? Could be wrong. Same could be true of Portuguese and Spanish (the euro-version; I believe it's called Castilian).

I mean, you don't want to have a 50-option poll, folks.

I think Castillan and Portuguese are different (as Argentina and Brasil are) even if they are both Roman langages...

[Henry D.]

I think Castillan and Portuguese are different (as Argentina and Brasil are) even if they are both Roman langages...

A portugese friend of mine used to claim that the relation between portugese and spanish was somewhat like between dutch and german. As most dutchmen understand german fairly well, but not vice versa, most portugese, he said, do understand spanish quite well, while most spaniards supposedly can't make head or tail out of portugese.

Since I myself speak neither, I can' vouch for that though, maybe he was just pulling my leg.

Regards, Henry

[Franciscus]

A portugese friend of mine used to claim that the relation between portugese and spanish was somewhat like between dutch and german. As most dutchmen understand german fairly well, but not vice versa, most portugese, he said, do understand spanish quite well, while most spaniards supposedly can't make head or tail out of portugese.

Since I myself speak neither, I can' vouch for that though, maybe he was just pulling my leg.

Regards, Henry

Well, speaking on behalf of the portuguese language (not portugese ), the relation between portuguese and castillian is exactly analoguous with the one between the Brasilian portuguese and the latin american version of spanish. They have certain similitarities, but they are not at all equal. The same can be said, in fact, for instance about castillian and italian languages.
In fact we portuguese have for a fact that we understand fairly well castillian (more or less true, I think) and the spanish folk tend to pretend to not understand portuguese (but it is also a known fact the aversion of nuestros hermanos toward any non-spanish language On the contrary we in Portugal usually think we can speak with ease foreign languages, usually with very interesting and perplexing results ).

[PBBoeye]

Hilarious.

[GShock]

..just wondering, but is scandinavia speaking all same language ? (finnish=norwegian=swedish)

[Rafiki]

Far from it.

Norwegian, Danish and Sweden are separate languages in the North Germanic language group, but with few enough differences that those who understand one understand the others, Danes and Swedes having the most problems in understanding each other, but quite a few Danes also have some problems understanding Norwegian. When I served on Danish patrols in Bosnia, English was the work language, and not just because there sometimes were American artillery observers on the patrols as well.

Here's an illustration from Wikipedia:



That said, Norwegian has a variety of dialects, some of which I find harder to understand than e.g. Swedish

Now, Finnish, on the other hand, is a wholly different story, since it isn't a Germanic language at all, but a Fenno-Ugric (sp?) one, like Samii and Hungarian. I.e. it has little in common with the others. OTOH, most Finns speak Swedish (I think), and there is a sizeable minority in Finland that has Swedish as their main language.

In any case, Finland itself isn't part of Scandinavia, so Finnish can't be considered a Scandinavian language in any case

[arsan]

Well, speaking on behalf of the portuguese language (not portugese ), the relation between portuguese and castillian is exactly analoguous with the one between the Brasilian portuguese and the latin american version of spanish. They have certain similitarities, but they are not at all equal. The same can be said, in fact, for instance about castillian and italian languages.
In fact we portuguese have for a fact that we understand fairly well castillian (more or less true, I think) and the spanish folk tend to pretend to not understand portuguese (but it is also a known fact the aversion of nuestros hermanos toward any non-spanish language On the contrary we in Portugal usually think we can speak with ease foreign languages, usually with very interesting and perplexing results ).

Hey!! we don´t pretend anything!! Its true!!
We Spaniards just have bad ear to other languages…
And you Portuguese speak very quickly and mumble a lot!!

When I was in Lisbon last year I could realize its true: Portuguese could understand me but i have problems to understand them. Written language is a lot easier to understand. To me, the problem is the Portuguese pronunciation…
About the language relation, I think Spanish is nearer to Portuguese than to Italian but not by far. Anyway, the three are different languages, all related to Latin.
French is also a roman language but more different from the others.

Cheers!!

[Franciscus]

Hello Arsan, Iberian friend

One thing I notice when I go to Italy is that the italians usually do not understand portuguese but they usually understand very well the spanish language (at least my version of it - what we call in Portugal Portuñol. ) Some times better than english. Maybe because of past history and/or the great number of spanish tourists in Italy.

Good gaming!

[Canaris]

In fact we portuguese have for a fact that we understand fairly well castillian (more or less true, I think) and the spanish folk tend to pretend to not understand portuguese (but it is also a known fact the aversion of nuestros hermanos toward any non-spanish language :niark

Oh, I know this phenomenon. As a result I noticed after more than 30 years abroad that my (brasilian) Portugese gets more and more castillian because I have a lot more contact with people from spanish speaking countries...(como? )

[Adlertag]

Hello Arsan, Iberian friend

One thing I notice when I go to Italy is that the italians usually do not understand portuguese but they usually understand very well the spanish language (at least my version of it - what we call in Portugal Portuñol. ) Some times better than english. Maybe because of past history and/or the great number of spanish tourists in Italy.

Good gaming!

Interesting. I knew proximity between Italian and Romanian languages for example but not between Italian and Spanish...

[Castel]

Yeah, my father is from spain and he don't have much difficulties to understand, more or less, italian.

But portuguese, almost nothing.

[PBBoeye]

I have always envied Europeans and their ability to get up and visit another country so easily.

[Rafiki]

I've managed to visit three countries in one day (as in "stop and do stuff", rather than simply blasting through). Next time I visit my sister who lives in Switzerland, I plan on upping that number to 5 in one day

[PBBoeye]

Tough life there.

[Generalisimo]

And you Portuguese speak very quickly and mumble a lot!!

When I was in Lisbon last year I could realize its true: Portuguese could understand me but i have problems to understand them.
Written language is a lot easier to understand. To me, the problem is the Portuguese pronunciation…

I completelly agree with that.

[Canaris]

I completelly agree with that.

Funny, I would say the Portugese pronunciation is clearer and much better to understand than the Spanish one...
But I also think that if both sides would be more tolerant, much more could be understood...

PS: Oh, my argentinian friend...rio de la plata castellano is at least for me the Spanish which I can unterstand most easily

[Generalisimo]

Funny, I would say the Portugese pronunciation is clearer and much better to understand than the Spanish one...
But I also think that if both sides would be more tolerant, much more could be understood...

PS: Oh, my argentinian friend...rio de la plata castellano is at least for me the Spanish which I can unterstand most easily

What i meant is that i can understand portuguese much better written than when they speak. They speak too quickly most of the time and it is hard to follow them.
Anyway, i can understand a bit... and they usually can also understand me too... but i usually speak slower than a brazilian.

[FinnN]

Well, if we're allowed to be picky - 'Gaelic' is a type of Celtic language (Scotland and Ireland (and Isle of Man - Manx)) which doesn't include Brittany or Wales (or Cornwall) which are all Brythonic languages. So the category should be 'Celtic'.

Have fun
Finn

[Maj Gewi Redhawks]

I speak English. I am also Cherokee and Speak a little. Plus i speak a little Lakota.

[oi_you_nutter]

instead of native language, perhaps the poll should be the "preferred" language

me, i want it in Bristolian

int that rite me babber !

[Kal]

First post in these forums.

Just wonder... would this thread be the right place to introduce myself?? Guess so.

I'm Fernando, from Málaga, Southern Spain.

My native language? Spanish.

I quit smoking three weeks ago. I am very proud about that. I just miss smoking when I wake up every morning, the problem is that this feeling lasts all day long. leure:



Waiting for Napoleon's Campaings...



No fumo desde hace 3 semanas, 2 días y 19 horas. En este tiempo he dejado de fumar 475,93 cigarrillos y me he ahorrado 73,77 Euros

[pailleterie]

Congatulations

Felicidades sigue así