Evidence of your search " činčila " embedded in the search results.
I recognize the animal but could remember the name so I tried to sound it out.
I know this, my first reaction was that looks a little like Czech or Slovak and it was pretty easy to figure out a borrow word. “chinchilla”
In Slovak >> činčily
The " č " might sound more like a " ch " in English or by " cz " in Polish
As I would read the word anyways.
Pretty close, you can work it out.
I don’t speak that language but was exposed to it growing up.
Interesting stuff worthy of the language thread I thought…
JO, tell Chris to install a bigger like button. That guy is amazing.
Garry, I was going to say about the same here. Spanish/English lends help to French + Portuguese, etc…
Interesting fact. The Andean decendants of the Incas in Bolivia speak Quechua, in Peru Quichua. If they had been written languages, I imagine they would be very similar, but since they were not, even though they use 95% of the same individual words, it is very difficult for them to communicate now. All attributed to differences in pronunciation, sentence structure, etc… At one time I could get by in Bolivia, but never in Peru.
Also interesting to note how many Quechua words are the same in Cambodia/Vietnam/Laos. Quite a few.
That last comment is quite interesting. There is archeological evidence of people from polynesia reaching the coast of south America and then returning to polynesia. There’s evidence of sweet potato in polynesia prior to European explorers. There also seems to have been corn in southeast Asia prior to European contact as evidenced by carvings at Angkor wat. Epic tales of history that will never be known.
In northern Manitoba and extending to the northwest is territory of the Dene people. In Siberia there are people who still speak Na-Dene. The only native language group with surviving roots in the old world.
Another interesting thing about the Dene; Navajo is a variant. Both groups share the same legend, that long ago times were hard in their northern territory, and a decision was made that part of the nation would head south in search of better land. If found they would send word for the others. Eventually the Navajo decided to send messengers back to the homeland. The messengers found their Dene relatives in the far north, and conveyed their news. After conferring the northern Dene decided to stay where they were. The messengers returned alone with their news. Both groups share the same story, but seem to have never communicated again till modern times, separated by many thousand of kilometers.
As far as spelling goes, Slavic languages are must simpler thain most other. Every letter reads how it sounds like, rarely any double letters…
But, things get complicated later on. Individual words can have up to 18 different forms that define its relation to the rest of words in a sentence. Plus in adition of singular and plural, we have a third state that expresses 2, like me and you, me and him, them two… gets complicated
Right, I think it is easier to learn Chinese than some Slavic language. A friend of mine who is good with languages worked in France. No problem. He worked in Germany, no problem either. You even couldn’t hear his was German or not. Dialect and everything. He went to Czech for a year and came back disappointed. No way he could make something out of it. So, I don’t even try besides the simple daily words.
Its not so hard to comunicate in a slavic language, learn basec vocabulary and use the words in one form and everyone will understand. But it is near inpossible to speak it correctly. Fathers wife is french. After about 20 years she came to a point where people dont think she is foregin any more.
Ha, but accenst are a whole different story! Allmost every vilage has its own. I come from a region best described as the Scotland of Slovenia dialect and social wise. But now l moved south east and here the best l can compare the accent and social customs to is redneck
Its fun thugh, you can judge where someone is from just by exchangeing a couple of words.
Lots of people are left with the impression they are fluent in a language because the people around them understand what they mean.
Most people are all to happy to forgive bad language skills if the speaker is trying hard.
I once did a language test for my employer where I had to demonstrate my English and find errors.
I was really worried because I had a hard time figuring out what was wrong with the sentences because I talk this way HA HA HA ( and I speak English as my mother tongue )…
The Scotland of Slovenia eh?
I have to know, do you sound like your famous countryman Slavoj Žižek?
Just listening to the way he rolls his R and draws out his S, I love it…
Haha that Sssss of Slavoj Žižek is a speach disorder. He is a funny guy. I specialy like the vegeterian clip, l will try to find it…
But the rough R is real. Most Slavic, or even some germanic speakers will have wery difficuld time to speak the smooth english R.
Interastingly, me and JO noticed it wuld be way easyer for both of us to comunicate with a Scotish accent. We strugled to roll the Rs to not make it sound to funny when we were in the US but when we were alone l feel we (at least l did) let go of the R smoothening some.
Here is a link to my first ever video, in Slovene.
Funny, you cant realy hear the rough R l just noticed. Check Slavoj Žižeks Slovenian interwiews, same thing. Its just when we try to speak English all hell breaks loose
Ha, by being Slovenian Scotish l ment rough language, cheapnes and distilates being the drink of choice
Here the language is smoother, with more Ü shaped sounds (hope that makes sence), people incredibly hospitable and generous and the preffered drink is wine. In generous quantitys
About Scottish. Wife had me watch quite a few episodes of Outlander during winter. It takes place in the 1700s. Scottish Highlanders fighting English redcoats and such.
What amazed me is the amount of Scottish words that are actually Swedish. Of course my brilliant mind lost most of them. I remember only two of them right away. One is “barn”. Means child in Swedish (and Scottish). Pronounced like where you store hay in Swedish but more like “bern” in Scottish.
Another is “myr”, which we have quite a lot of. Means something inbetween moss and swamp I guess. Pronounced more like “more” in Scottish.
What gives me the chills is most of the common words are found in remote Swedish dialects about to disappear. Makes you wish you could get a glimpse of the roughnecks starting to cross the Nordic sea over 1000 years ago.
Edit: You mention the American R. It’s hard enough to produce, but I find the - deep down - about to throw up R - even harder to copy. The one used in southern Sweden, Denmark and nothern Germany. Even some in Dutch and French I guess.
You built up your accent as being something outrageous.
Yes you do have a pretty good roll on your R.
I can tell your not from up north, but truth be told I am would not be able to place it.
It does have that nice lyrical quality you hear in a lot of Italian speakers and southern French.
But I would never mistake your accent as a Pole or eastern Slav.
This raises a question of accents…
I once read that some people thought Tito was said to be a Pole because of his accent.
I have listened to him speak and I do not hear anything like a Polish accent.
I don’t know where he is from but I can hear the influence of the Latin in his speech.
Not the flat polish with hard rolling R and ch and sh sounds more in keeping with the northern Slavs.
I pick out Russian from Ukrainian by accent.
( especially singing songs like Pidminula Pidvila I am familiar with.)
I once was singing it with a native Ukrainian speaker who laughed at my funny accent and pronunciation of words… But he knew what I was singing.
One time he corrected something I said and converted it to Ukrainian.
He said butchered it so bad he was not sure what language I was trying to speak to him HA HA.
These little Georgian girls are so dam good at singing and so well practiced at the song I can not be sure of anything.
I can’t tell anything about where they are from…
The one with the darker olive complexion and hair is stunning.
You ever notice if your out drinking with a bunch of guys in a country with a tradition of men singing you all can find a song you all know the words too even if you don’t speak the same language?
I have no idea what these two are saying.
But from what I gather one is from Sweden and one Norway.( I think )
My Fin friends joke about how they sound like they have a mouth full of marbles.
The Fins get a long real good with the Estonians in conversation.
I can sometimes get a word or two of sense from a Lithuanian… ( Far far less than a Ukrainian )
You will never make the mistake of thinking these girls are Slavs.
I am interested in hearing Jan’s opinion of my comments on the Nordic folks.
Up here where I live there are so many Fin speakers the public library has a Fin section.
Very funny people the Fins, you can’t get them to make small talk and they don’t like you to be sitting too close them them.
But get some vodka out, start a roaring fire in the sauna and cut a hole in the ice to jump in the lake and everything changes HA HA.
You know…
Even when the language is English we forgive an accent that’s out of place.
Maybe we even think it is supposed to be that way.
This is a REALLY funny film.
We think these people are supposed to be Russians and yes there are some accents within Russian some might pick up.
But English Scottish and American accents don’t make you bat an eye in this film.
Its just sort of like you expect them to sound like this.
Haha, we have a lot of Fins around here to. Moved here during hard times in Finland in the 50s and 60s.
I guess Nordic folks in general are known to be a little reserved to strangers when sober (The Danish being the exception) If a stranger starts talking to to you in the street you either suspect he’s drunk or a forigner. Lot’s of akward moments with staring down the floor in public transportation, elevator etc. Also why many find extreemly outgoing refugees from down south disturbing. Most of us are not very talkative and we prefer a 1.5m distance in a normal conversation. Yes, we’re an odd bunch Lot’s of tinkerers though.
Hi guys, l stumbled upon this fascinating video today. 4 people from Poland, Slovenia, Macedonia and Russia speak their native language on a video comference. Not a word is the same, yet all understand each other about 80%.
Its probably boring for non slavic people but to me it was interesting
JO, is it the same in you, Norse and Danish?
Ha, at first I thought the mustache guy was you But then I realised he is Russian
I didn’t know Slavic languages were that similar.
Still, my guess is Scandinavian languages have even more in common. A lot of words are the same, only pronounced differently. I understand maybe 90% Norwegian and 80% Danish. Depends a lot on where you live. There are actually Swedish dialects harder to pick up.
That’s something else. Referes to “old Nordic”, from the time of Vikings, I guess. The language spoken at that time is probably similar to today’s Icelandic, due to their isolation. I may understand 10-20%
Also, and I mentioned before, but it’s amazing how many Scandinavian words pop up when you listen to a native Scott. Very interesting (to mee)
As far as I know, the highlander Gaelic was spoken in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia areas. Given the history and remoteness of the Shetlands, I am guessing it was more like Icelandic or ancient Norse.
Don, OK is from you guys spread from the US to the world like the Corona from China “ya”, actualy spelled “ja” means yes in a lot of European languages.
For some reason, and JO says he shares this fact, l find English and French most dificuld to pronounce. Speaking English is easy with a Scotish accent german, Italian, Probably Nordic too, wuld be easy to me.
dialect and social wise. But now l moved south east and here the best l can compare the accent and social customs to is redneck 
(The Danish being the exception) If a stranger starts talking to to you in the street you either suspect he’s drunk or a forigner. Lot’s of akward moments with staring down the floor in public transportation, elevator etc. Also why many find extreemly outgoing refugees from down south disturbing. Most of us are not very talkative and we prefer a 1.5m distance in a normal conversation. Yes, we’re an odd bunch 