foreing languages

[Taguhi]

I wonder how many languages do you know and how do you learn new languages?

I would like to learn Persian by myself because there are not some special courses for private person. Do you have some idea how start it? I heard that Persian is not so difficult to learn.

Best regards

Tagush

[ThornyRose]

Taguhi, I know Turkish (naturally), English, and Portuguese, though I think that if I give it time (and work), I can figure out Spanish and French very well, too. I am currently adapting to Italian (can’t call it “learning” since, depending, I understand it better than people who have been in Italy for a while – if written, of course) and learning Greek on my own (just today finished lesson 22 of 105 at work – LOL). I also poked my nose into the Arabic alphabet (and can read the stuff on the package of chocolates and biscuits produced here and exported somewhere down south), but I get confused sometimes and know I have to take a serious look into it (without the language – that is currently beyond me). I want to be able to read what it says on historical manuscripts and buildings, damn it. Is that too much to ask for?

[aurguplu]

dear taguhi,

i hapen to speak, read and write eight, and understand a few others. so i don't think it would be too arrogant on my part to advise people on language learning.

i suggest you try ann lambton's persian grammar (cambridge university press). it also has exercises. although it is called a grammar, it really is a kind of teach-yourself book.

alternatively, you might try teach yourself persian by john mace (teach yourself books, hodder and stoughton). i learned my russian from a teach yourself book, and i can recommend the series.

the standard persian-english dictionary is that of steingass. also a guy called haim wrote one, but orientalists stick to steingass. walk into any orientalist bookshop or faculty, and people will know what they are.

hope this has been of some help.

regards,

[ThornyRose]

Geez, I had a comment about Turkish and loanwords in the very drifted thread of "surnames"... Wrote my thoughts, only to come and see that the topic had been closed. I don't think we have enough material left to start a new thread, so I want to expend this here anyhow:

 

I have some thoughts about the influence of Arabic and Farsi in Turkish.

While it is true that we have undertaken re-Turkification of our language (to the point where our language is “more Turkish” than the rest), I do not feel that much resentment about it, and I certainly do not find the existence of Arabic and Farsi embarrassing. Consider: the British were not the neighbors of the Latins and the Greeks, except for being ruled briefly by the Romans, although the full-scale introduction of Latin words came much later. The British never wrote their documents in Greek and Latin. They never had court literature in these. Even so, you see many loanwords. How many sentences can you utter in English without a single word that doesn’t definitely trace back to Latin or Greek, given Old English is definite, distinct, and recorded? Very few. This is not so with Turkish with respect to Arabic and Farsi, although it is definite that there are loanwords from other languages, granted. Turks were neighbors of the people who spoke the corresponding languages. Mind you, though, it was the court that had the heaviest influence of these two – not so (or as much so) for the language of the peasantry, who have until even today preserved words of Turkish thought to have become extinct over a century ago (related to me by a teacher of mine in high school – a Turkology major, and she claims to have gone out there into the rural parts for “field work” . This may be due to the fact that the Anatolian Turks were largely illiterate for ages. Whether we should be thankful for that or not, I do not know.

Is English the poorer for it? No. Was Old English a heathen language? I highly doubt it. So, why all this banter about Turkish, ignoring the fact that most of us don’t understand Ottoman Turkish today? I can understand it if it comes from a Turk (inferiority complex?).

Turks abandoned their own writing. And they did travel huge distances to get from Mongolia to Anatolia and the Balkans. That is indeed a big deal. Even so, I can find myself understanding a few words of the Orkhon Inscriptions. That is a big deal, too.

Loanwords should have added to our wealth, but instead they were used as substitutes. Ali Shir Nevai complained about his contemporaries’ attitudes towards their mother tongue. Alas, nobody heeded him. That was cultural suicide. Is it up to us to make up for it? I do not know.

 

By the way, Ali, what languages do you know?

[Kazza]

I know only english, greek and farmenian shame on me, both my grandfathers knew six each.

 

alisuat, you know the cambrige university books you mentioned? Can you get them in the UK? I want to learn different languages with some different methods other than by going to class-it's near impossible to learn armenian over here Mind you I know of some online courses in Hyebiz but you have to pay for 'em and I'm not too happy about submitting my credit card details online.

[aurguplu]

dear thorny

the languages are english, german, french, italian, russian, arabic, and uzbek. in addition, i studied ottoman, turki (the chagatai usually called their language turki), and i can get by in azeri, turkmen, and uighur, and if forced, tatar and kazakh as well. i also know the orkhon script (with its varieties) and had read the inscriptions in the original way back (some of the readings changed since then). i also happen to know the greek alphabet, but not much of the language itself.

as someone who knows both italian and french, getting by in spanish is no problem, and as someone who knows both eglish and german, dutch isn't much of a problem, either (only the written word, though). and of course, if you know russian, written forms of other slavic languages are intelligible to some degree and i can carry out very basic conversation in another slavic language.

dear kazza

all books that i listed are available in the uk, in fact this is where i had bought all my copies. as i said, all you have to do is to walk into an orientalist bookshop, and mention the names of the books. for the dictionary, just say "steingass". it is like walking into a pub and ordering guinness. you won't get pale ale by mistake.

regards,

[Harut]

compared to my age, i'm not so bad either.

i know (speak, write, read) Armenian, English, Russian, and a little French.

i just finish the second year of French in high school.

[Taguhi]

I know English, Rusian, Armenian, Polish and Turkish. For few months I learned Uzbek, Arabic and Spanish but because of a lot of other work I wasn't able to continue it. I love to know new lenguages even some words or just "hello","how are you". It's very nice if you met someone and you can say to him something in his native language.

I would like to learn the most east lenguages

like Persian, Arabic or Hindi than maybe some European languages.

I have one friend she is just 20 years old but know Armenian, Polish, Rusian, English, Greek, Spanish, Portuges, French and Italian.

Every one would like to be so clever, isn't it.

[armeniangirl83]

i know well the language from here and i know well turkish and i know a little englsih, a littler french and also german al very little. i want to learn armenians, but here are not armenianschools.