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On Speaking English in BombayThe subtleties of communication in India sometimes require not just a knowledge of a different language, but a different knowledge of your own language as well, as explained by Jil Wheeler in her essay at The Morning News. The most difficult element of Bombay English to master comes from a tiny syllable—bhi or hi—that is inserted in to Hindi sentences to emphasize the word preceding it. In “red hi hat hai,” it’s the red hat (not the blue), while in “red hat hi hai,” it’s the red hat (not the shirt). The problem—if you consider it a problem, which you probably don’t, unless you tried this morning like me to catch a taxi, only, to the office itself—is that people aren’t content to simply translate bhi and hi as increased stress on the word. They also translate “bhi” or “hi” as “only” or “itself;” e.g., it’s the red hat only. You probably have no idea what I’m talking about, but anyone who has been to India does. Tags: English, Hindi, India
Essential Croatian PhrasesThis is the next installment of essential phrases from the newest additions to our Spoken World series. (Previously: Essential Dutch Phrases, Essential Irish Phrases, Essential Polish Phrases) Croatian belongs to the South Slavic family of Indo-European languages. It is related to other Slavic languages, such as Russian, Polish, Czech, Slovak, Macedonian, Slovenian, or Bulgarian. With some notable dialectal variations, it is, linguistically, the same as the languages spoken in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, and Serbia. Click on the play button below to hear each essential Croatian phrase.... More Tags: Croatian, Spoken World
Essential Polish PhrasesThis is the next installment of essential phrases from the newest additions to our Spoken World series. (Previously: Essential Dutch Phrases, Essential Thai Phrases, Essential Irish Phrases) Polish is the official language of Poland, and since the expansion of the European Union in 2004, also one of the official languages of the EU. It is spoken by more than 40 million people in Poland and neighboring countries, and is the 11th most-spoken language in the United States. Click on the play button below to hear each of the following essential Polish phrases spoken by a native speaker.... More Tags: Polish, Spoken World
Essential Irish PhrasesThis is the next installment of essential phrases from the newest additions to our Spoken World series. (Previously: Essential Dutch Phrases, Essential Thai Phrases) Irish is an Indo-European language, grouped with Welsh, Breton, Cornish, and Manx on the Celtic branch of the tree. There are many Irish dialects, and there are currently about 260,000 native, fluent speakers of Irish in the Republic of Ireland, with an additional 96,000 speakers living in Northern Ireland. Irish is spoken as the everyday native language of an area of Ireland called Gaeltacht, made up of the counties Donegal, Mayo, Galway, Kerry, Cork, and Waterford. Click on the play button below to hear each of the following essential Irish phrases spoken by a native speaker.... More Tags: Irish, Spoken World
Essential Thai PhrasesThis is the next installment of essential phrases from the newest additions to our Spoken World series. (Previously: Essential Dutch Phrases) How about we start this week with a few essential Thai phrases? Click on the play button below to hear each phrase spoken by a native speaker.... More Tags: Spoken World, Thai
Essential Dutch PhrasesLet’s kick off our sneak peak at the Spoken World series with Dutch. A few weeks ago, we gave you a few phrases in Dutch that related to Queen’s Day. While it’s useful to be able to say Er is een mooi défilé op Koninginnedag (There’s a beautiful parade on Queen’s Day) once a year, we thought you might want some more basic Dutch phrases to add to your repertoire and use year-round.... More Tags: Dutch, Spoken World
And the Emmy for “Most Impressive Multilingual Performance in a Drama” goes to… Jacob!Despite feeling bummed out to have to wait until 2010 (next decade!) for the next and final season of Lost, we were treated to an extraordinary display of multilingual talent from the no-longer-mythical Jacob character from Lost. English, Korean, Russian, Greek (sort of) and not to mention somehow interpreting those guttural moans emanating from a freshly defenestrated Locke… Jacob showed unparalleled linguistic range. Come to think of it, with all of the time travel (which hurts my brain anyway) and subtitles, maybe I CAN wait until 2010 to pick up again. (TOM) Tags: English, Greek, Korean, Russian
Spoken World SeriesWe were thrilled to have recently expanded our Spoken World series to included six new languages: Croatian, Dutch, Greek, Irish, Polish, and Thai. To show you how excited we are, we’re going to share some basic phrases in each of the six new languages here on the blog. With audio and everything! Click here for essential phrases in Dutch, Thai, Irish, Polish, Croatian, and Greek. Tags: Croatian, Dutch, Greek, Irish, Polish, Spoken World, Thai
In Thai, speak for yourselfYou might already know that in many languages, you have to change pronouns and adjectives depending on whether you’re speaking to a man or a woman. But did you know that in Thai you have to be aware of your own gender instead?... More Tags: gender, grammar, newsletter, Thai
Just off the plane and ready to fightFresh out of college and on my first trip to France, I hailed a cab at Paris’s Charles de Gaulle airport and said, in my very best French, “Please take me to the train station.” The driver gave me a look that I understood to mean, “WHAT?!”... More Tags: French, newsletter, pronunciation
Writing in HindiLearning a new language is difficult enough, and often it seems like a new or different script just complicates matters. However, writing in a beautiful script can be one of the most enjoyable aspects of learning a language. Hindi, for example, is written in an elegant and eye-catching script called Devanagari. This script is actually quite easy to learn, and once you learn it, you can pretty much pronounce any Hindi word you see. Aside from a few exceptions, Hindi is phonetic.... More Tags: Devanagari, Hindi, newsletter, writing system
Ma Mitavanim!Interesting blog piece about Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s re-election slogan. The Farsi phrase “Ma Mitavanim” means “We Can.” Sound familiar? Tags: Ahmadinejad, Farsi, Iranian election, Yes We Can
The Syrian Revival of AramaicAramaic is seeing a revival among young Syrian language learners, according to this article in The Guardian. Ilyana Barqil wears skinny jeans, boots and a fur-lined jacket, handy for keeping out the cold in the Qalamoun mountains north of Damascus. She likes TV quiz shows and American films and enjoys swimming. But this thoroughly modern Syrian teenager is also learning Aramaic, the language spoken by Jesus. Tags: aramaic, syria
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