Languages I would like to learn
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What are they and why?
The two top languages I would learn* are
Xhosa
Kannada
Xhosa just sounds amazing because it is a clicking language. I can think of so many scenarios where it would be great to click** at people with 5 different clicks.
Kannada is a language of South India, a place that I enjoyed visiting and would like to get to know some more. It's also generally easier than Tamil, which seems like a pretty good qualification.
* if I had any ability to learn languages, which I really don't
** Particularly in anger. I bet arguments sound great in Xhosa households
The two top languages I would learn* are
Xhosa
Kannada
Xhosa just sounds amazing because it is a clicking language. I can think of so many scenarios where it would be great to click** at people with 5 different clicks.
Kannada is a language of South India, a place that I enjoyed visiting and would like to get to know some more. It's also generally easier than Tamil, which seems like a pretty good qualification.
* if I had any ability to learn languages, which I really don't
** Particularly in anger. I bet arguments sound great in Xhosa households
Comments
Why? Some of my forebears spoke Gaelic, so it's an ancestral language. Also, there's a mind-set associated with Gaelic which I find fascinating. There are articles written in Gaelic about aspects of history which I would struggle to find in English.
Only slightly less nerdy, I have studied Old English/Anglo-Saxon a bit.
Paid â phoeni (don't worry). Every language - even ones with rolled Rs - has some people who can't roll them.
The more important distinction in Welsh is between Rh and R. And I strongly suspect there are some dialects which don't use Rh and use R in all positions. But I digress.
I wish I could speak Welsh rather than Wenglish but it's far too difficult.
A language where something as simple as "I want cup of tea" can be 'Fi'n moyn dishgled' in one place and 'Dw i isio panad' in another is never going to be easy.
I'd like to pick up my Latin and Greek again. Haven't seriously worked on either for about 30 years, and being able to read things in the original language can give a different viewpoint.
I found Duolingo much more effective as a means to "brush up" than as a means to learn from scratch.
Mutations are never my problem. The unpredictable plurals are worse; subsidiary clauses work in an - erm - interesting way*
That and my general audio processing issues - it doesn't help when I don't know what words someone is actually using!
*she said that she was coming
Dwedodd hi ei bod hi'n mynd
Literally: "she said her being coming"
As part of the advertising blurb, they mention Navaho. That sounds interesting.
"Owen's night club does not sell parsnips and there is a dragon in the garden"
My next choice would be Italian. I think it would be wonderful to go to Italy and be able to converse freely about their art, culture and cuisine.
Sadly, I have never had much aptitude for languages other than English. Un petit peu Francais is about as good as it gets.
My DIL is Georgian and it’s a beautiful language to hear and read. My granddaughter speaks it fluently and I’d love to be able to understand what they are saying to each other. The sounds involved are like no other language.
Also - we are having a summer holiday there in 2025. 🙂
There use to be midweek Communion service at the Cathedral in Maori which I attended regularly.
The language I would like to learn is Welsh as I often teach Welsh students. But it is unlikely to happen for the reasons given above.
If I die without becoming fluent in at least one language other than English and living somewhere I use it every day I will feel like my life has been wasted.
I can't get the tones. At all. Utter failure.
I did Nat 5 through e-sgoil two years ago, when it was free, and got an A pass. I think the A pass simply reflected that I was an adult learner with good exam technique, because my Gaelic is extremely basic and I can't hold a conversation beyond pleasantries and remarks about the weather! My reading comprehension is better than my listening comprehension, though.
I'm doing Higher through e-sgoil this year, unfortunately no longer free, and really hope that at some point it "clicks".
Please forgive my ignorance, and I mean no offence. Is Gaelic Scottish or Irish? Or can it be both? I'm not sure of the proper names for those languages.
Happy learning to all!
Gaelic comes from the Welsh Gwyddel, meaning "wild", applied to the Irish. Originally a name for the Irish language. One assumes that living on a monolingual island the ancient Irish had no need for a name for their language to distinguish it from any other until they created settlements in Wales - Lleyn and Brycheiniog are both originally Irish placenames.
Gwyddel (or rather its Old Welsh predecessor) gave Irish Gaoidheal, but the dh dropped out of pronunciation giving later Irish Gael, and Gaeilge for the language. That is still the name for the Irish language in Irish. Gaelic is an Anglicanisation of Scottish Gaelic 'Gaidhlig', which is a direct cognate of Gaeilge. Like the Irish, the Scots lost the dh in pronunciation but unlike the Irish kept it in the spelling.
Complicated isn't it?
Gaul and Gallic come from Latin and are etymologically unrelated to Gwyddel and Gaelic. Welsh and Wales ultimately come from Volcae, a Celtic tribe in Gaul.
It's a common sound change. Welsh Gw- is from Brittonic W- (spelt V when names appear in Latin texts). Hence we have Gwir, true (cf Latin Verus); Gwr, man (cf Vir); Gwin, wine; Gwynt, wind.
Another fascinating (to me) fact is that English is the only European language which preerves the sound of original initial PIE* W-; other languages have changed it into F, G(w) or V. Spanish comes closest with its bilabial fricative V/B
The sound still occurs initially in other languages but always as a secondary development of another sound (e.g. French Oui, or Welsh W- from Gw via soft mutation - Gwlad (country), ei wlad (his country)) or of course borrowing from English.
*Proto Indo European, the ancestor of the European language groups Germanic, Romance, Celtic, Slavic and Greek.
German,of course, no longer uses 'werra' but 'Krieg' as the word for 'war'.
Of course there are always crossovers. The Franks were a Germanic tribe but have given their name to France and over time adopted a Latin based language.
The earlier Celtic inhabitants,some of whom are called Bretons still use a Celtic language which is akin to Welsh.
Not so much "still" as "again". Breton was a reintroduction of a Celtic language after Gaul/France had gone over to Latin - Brythonic Insular rather than Gaulish Continental Celtic. It came with Brythonic speaking migrants from SW Britain, probably in response to Westward expansion by Saxons.
That's not to say Gaulish was entirely extinct by then and it may have influenced Breton, but Breton is essentially a Brythonic - ie British - language - and indeed the only one to still carry that origin in its name for itself - Brezhoneg (compare 'Cymraeg' and 'Kernewek').