Author Topic: Master Linguist (Read 3662 times)

Porter · « **on:** October 15, 2005, 08:22:39 AM »

I am looking for a list of languages someone would learn if they wanted to learn languages in the language family of as many people in the world as possible.

For example, the start of a list might be:

First, English, because so many people in the world speak it, even if it's not native to them.

Second Mandarin or Cantonese. So many people speak one or the other. Only one gets picked, because they are in the same family.

Third Arabic.

Fourth French (that takes care of all of the romantic languages).

Fifth

?

What would your first ten choices (in order) be?

beverly · « **Reply #1 on:** October 15, 2005, 08:43:24 AM »

How closely related are Native American languages as well as tribal African languages? Could one select one from each continent and consider it from that "family"?

kojabu · « **Reply #2 on:** October 15, 2005, 09:20:58 AM »

I don't think so Bev, but I'm not sure. I think you'd need to include at least one African clicking language and one non-clicking language.

(My prof for ling 101 can speak a clicking language, it's so cool!)

Jonathon · « **Reply #3 on:** October 15, 2005, 10:15:22 AM »

I'm not entirely sure what you're asking, Porter. You just want one language from each family, or you want the one language from each family that has the most speakers?

Africa has only three or four language families, but the Americas aren't so clear-cut. Some linguists group them in as few as three or as many as twenty or so.

This site shows the language families of the world (some of which are disputed, of course) and usually names a few prominent languages from each.

sarcasticmuppet · « **Reply #4 on:** October 15, 2005, 11:45:34 AM »

You'd want a Cyrillic and scandanavian language of some kind. Russian and Sweedish, maybe?

Jonathon · « **Reply #5 on:** October 15, 2005, 12:08:33 PM »

I think you mean Slavic, not Cyrillic. That's just the alphabet that many Slavic (and a few non-Slavic) languages are written in.

However, if you're talking about one language from each familiy, then Indo-European is already covered by Engilsh.

Mr. Anderson · « **Reply #6 on:** October 15, 2005, 08:58:59 PM »

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This site shows the language families of the world (some of which are disputed, of course) and usually names a few prominent languages from each.

You're such a nerd. Where do you find these websites?

beverly · « **Reply #7 on:** October 15, 2005, 09:11:50 PM »

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You're such a nerd.

And that's a good thing! Remember, this is Jon Boy's passion. I bet I know more than he does about the best guinea pig websites.

Cool site, Jon Boy!

Mr. Anderson · « **Reply #8 on:** October 15, 2005, 09:25:11 PM »

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You're such a nerd.

And that's a good thing! Remember, this is Jon Boy's passion. I bet I know more than he does about the best guinea pig websites.

Cool site, Jon Boy!

Jon Boy's passion is being a nerd?

I know what you mean. If he ever wanted something car-related, I'd know which direction to point him in.

Porter · « **Reply #9 on:** October 15, 2005, 09:57:19 PM »

I have never understood being passionate about cars.

Mr. Anderson · « **Reply #10 on:** October 15, 2005, 09:59:50 PM »

Much like I've never understood being passionate about linguistics, or guinea pigs, or many other things people are passionate about.

sarcasticmuppet · « **Reply #11 on:** October 15, 2005, 10:03:21 PM »

I'm passionate about Harry Potter. Different Strokes.

Mr. Anderson · « **Reply #12 on:** October 15, 2005, 10:06:21 PM »

I'm passionate about reading about snowboarding, cars, and music put out by bands like Bush, Audioslave, and Fuel. Very much unlike Jonathon. I guess he's kinda cool, anyway. If nothing else, maybe I could use him to proofread my resume, or something.

Porter · « **Reply #13 on:** October 15, 2005, 10:12:23 PM »

I wonder what it would be like to be a nerd in a non-nerd family.

sarcasticmuppet · « **Reply #14 on:** October 15, 2005, 10:14:33 PM »

My Dad: You shouldn't play D&D. It's evil.
Me: What makes you say that?
My Dad: People who play D&D are weird.

And I just stared at him. O.o

I sometimes worry about my youngest brother. He's a football/baseball/basketball/track/whatevertheheck else he feels like playing star. Plus he's popular. He played the trumpet for a year to placate me and my Bandist propaganda. I feel like telling the girls who hang around him to go away and put a shirt on. I can't convince him that he really is smart enough to take AP English, but it hardly matters becuase he can't bear to crack a non-sports content book more than once a year.

I like nerdhood just fine.

Porter · « **Reply #15 on:** October 15, 2005, 10:17:39 PM »

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People who play D&D are weird.

He's right, you know.

sarcasticmuppet · « **Reply #16 on:** October 15, 2005, 10:20:07 PM »

Absolutely. But I knew perfectly well that *I* was weird even in absence of playing D&D. I think he was in weirdness denial.

Mr. Anderson · « **Reply #17 on:** October 15, 2005, 10:34:25 PM »

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I wonder what it would be like to be a nerd in a non-nerd family.

Probably a lot like being a non-nerd in a nerd family.

Porter · « **Reply #18 on:** October 15, 2005, 11:04:44 PM »

Why would anybody want to do that?

pooka · « **Reply #19 on:** October 16, 2005, 07:53:07 AM »

While a billion people worship in Arabic, only a small percentage of them actually speak it. But knowing standard Arabic will get you by in a wide swath of geography that I've never particularly wanted to visit. Same with Chinese.

Mr. Anderson · « **Reply #20 on:** October 16, 2005, 08:17:38 AM »

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Why would anybody want to do that?

It just happens. *shrug*

Jonathon · « **Reply #21 on:** October 16, 2005, 11:11:19 AM »

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This site shows the language families of the world (some of which are disputed, of course) and usually names a few prominent languages from each.
You're such a nerd. Where do you find these websites?

There's this little thing that maybe you've heard of. It's called Google.

Pooka, don't most Middle Eastern countries just speak different dialects of Arabic? It was my understanding that it's spoken from Morocco to Iran, but the dialects are seldom mutually intelligible.

And I still want to know what Porter's original inquiry was. I'm still a bit confused.

Mr. Anderson · « **Reply #22 on:** October 16, 2005, 02:51:20 PM »

No. You're just a nerd.

sarcasticmuppet · « **Reply #23 on:** October 17, 2005, 10:26:42 AM »

A lot of supposed "Arab" countries actually speak Farsi--Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan. It might use the Arabic alphabet, but I'm pretty sure the language family is Persian.

Arabic is the language used in most of sub-saharan Africa and Mesopotamia.

I need to look at a map to be sure, though.

Jonathon · « **Reply #24 on:** October 17, 2005, 10:34:55 AM »

I think Arabic is probably still an official language in those countries, but you're right—they speak things like Farsi or Pashto or Punjabi, which are Indo-Iranian languages (ultimately part of the Indo-European familiy).