Posts by LoveUniHateExams

180

Languages, Dialects, Accents

by LoveUniHateExams in

jw
friends

just though i'd start a thread devoted to languages, dialects/sociolects and accents, with the idea being that posters can comment on any language, or dialect or accent of any language, on this thread.. any phrases, expressions or idioms that you find interesting are also welcome.

first, the subject of english accents came up on another thread.. the british isles have many different types of accent (although many of the dialects may be dying out), and if i start to take a closer look, i can't help but see 'patterns' .... in received pronunciation of standard english, the letter r is pronounced initially, between vowels, and after consonants, e.g.

red, arrow, break.

LoveUniHateExams

^^^ So that's a bit of Arabic and grammar.

Now on to Gaelic.

In Gaelic, verb forms don't change according to person (I, you, he, etc.).

Tha mi a' fuireach - I live/am living/am staying

Tha thu a' fuireach - you live/are living/are staying

Tha e a' fuireach - he ...

Tha i a' fuireach - she ...

Tha sinn a' fuireach - we ...

Tha sibh a' fuireach - you (plural or polite) ...

Tha iad a' fuireach - they ...

Verb forms in Gaelic change according to whether the sentence is a statement or question:

A bheil thu a' fuireach ann am Pàislig? - Do you live in Paisley?

Tha thu a' fuireach ann am Pàislig. - You live in Paisley.

Chan eil thu a' fuireach ann am Pàislig. - You don't live in Paisley.

Nach eil thu a' fuireach ann am Pàislig? - Don't you live in Paisley?

^^^ these verb forms are the same regardless of the person (I, you, he, etc.).

The following is a bit strange - you don't conjugate verbs in Gaelic; you conjugate prepositions.

The word for 'at' is aig in Gaelic. But to say 'at me', 'at you', etc. you don't say aig mi, aig thu ...

Aig kinda changes and is amalgamated with the pronoun. So:

agam - at me

agad - at you

aige - at him

aice - at her

againn - at us

agaibh - at you (plural/polite)

aca - at them

^^^ Weird, huh? XD

180

Languages, Dialects, Accents

by LoveUniHateExams in

jw
friends

just though i'd start a thread devoted to languages, dialects/sociolects and accents, with the idea being that posters can comment on any language, or dialect or accent of any language, on this thread.. any phrases, expressions or idioms that you find interesting are also welcome.

first, the subject of english accents came up on another thread.. the british isles have many different types of accent (although many of the dialects may be dying out), and if i start to take a closer look, i can't help but see 'patterns' .... in received pronunciation of standard english, the letter r is pronounced initially, between vowels, and after consonants, e.g.

red, arrow, break.

LoveUniHateExams

Just want to talk about grammar. English doesn't have much of it. Old English certainly did but Modern English doesn't.

So, re verbs, foreigners learn the stem of English verbs and the third person singular form.

E.g. drink, he/she drinks. The simple past tense is drank (drink being a strong verb).

Er, and that's pretty much it. Once you've learnt those forms, you're kinda good to go (although English does have continuous forms - I am drinking; I was speaking, etc.) - I drink/drank, you drink/drank, he drinks/drank, we drink, etc.

Arabic has a verb form for each person (I, you, he, etc.)

ashrab - I drink

tashrab - you (masculine singular) drink

tashrabina - you (feminine singular) drink

yashrab - he drinks

tashrab - she drinks

nashrab - we drink

tashraboona - you (masculine plural) drink

yashraboona - they (masculine plural) drink

There are also forms for they (feminine plural), they two (dual), you (feminine plural) and you two (dual) but these aren't used in everyday speech. The you and they (masculine plural) forms are used as a gender-neutral forms in everyday speech. The dual forms aren't often used - being replaced by the plural forms.

I'm a bit of a grammar geek so I love this kind of stuff.

The correct forms, using the correct prefixes and suffixes, are used for virtually every Arabic verb ...

adrus - I study

tadrus - you (m. sing.) study

tadrusina - you (f. sing.) study

yadrus - he studies

tadrus - she studies

nadrus - we study

tadrusoona - you (m. pl.) study

yadrusoona - they (m. pl.) study

There are also different forms in the past tense ...

darastu - I studied

darasta - you (m. sing.) studied

darasti - you (f. sing.) studied

darasa - he studied

darasat - she studied

darasna - we studied

darastum - you (m. pl.) studied

darasoo - they (m. pl.) studied

^^^ And that's the two main tenses in Arabic - simple present and simple past. For the future tense, you just add sa- to the present tense.

11

I thought New Zealand was a DECENT country!

by The Fall Guy in

a criminal in nz- in this case a murderer - has the right not to be identified - even after conviction?

quote: "why was grace millane’s murderer granted anonymity?

the reasons for the so-called suppression order, like the name of the killer himself, cannot be given for legal reasons.

LoveUniHateExams

New Zealand's a nice country but its authorities and institutions have been infected with social justice thinking.

Expect a right-wing, conservative government to be elected within the next 10 years.

22

Why Did Obama win the Nobel Peace Prize in 2009?

by JW_Researcher in

jw
friends

while even non-peaceful people have been awarded the peace prize (e.g.

arafat, kissinger), i am confused as to how obama could possibly have won the award one year after being the first term junior senator from illinois with zero “peace” experience (other than his ‘well-articulated’ rhetoric)..

reading the obama-pining on a couple of posts made me reexamine my view of barry’s presidency..

LoveUniHateExams

Because he's half-black.

Not properly black, but still better than being white.

3

Brexit - Fishing is the UK's 'ace in the hole'

by The Fall Guy in

i suspect that the leaders of eu countries which have large fishing fleets are seriously worried/panicking (for their own jobs!

) that the uk is going to drastically reduce/eliminate those fleets' access to the uk's rich fishing waters.. the eu knows how its rules and regulations pummeled the british fishing fleets, now it fears that it's their turn to experience the same collapse: .

"i am not sure that an agreement will be reached between now and the end of the year," mr macron said at a meeting with fishermen in paris on saturday......mr macron also said fishing rights could be a sticking point in negotiations.

LoveUniHateExams

Boris Johnson can use this as leverage during negotiations ... i.e. give us good trade deals or we'll stop you fishing in our waters.

55

Do Any Of You Still Think Trump Was Working With The Russians?

by minimus in

jw
friends

it seems some people still maintain that trump will try to get help from the russians “again”..

LoveUniHateExams

37

Who’s The Best Actor/Actress? Who Is Overrated??

by minimus in

jw
friends

one of my favorite actors is robert de niro.

some of his later movies were so so but overall i think he was outstanding.

meryl streep, i just never thought she was anything exciting yet people say she’s the best actress of all time.

LoveUniHateExams

Sorry - forgot to mention another great actor.

Morgan Freeman.

There, that's better.

68

Unwritten, congregational 'rules'

by Thetruthhurts in

what were some of yours?

the big one in our hall was no frontal hugs!

these were generally thought of as inappropriate, only side hugs should be given between sisters and brothers.

LoveUniHateExams

If you are a male and cleaning the women's restroom, someone needs to stand at the door way to warn any sister you're in there (also true for women cleaning the men's room.) - much as I loathe to agree with the WTS, they've actually got this one right.

Here's a petty, ridiculous rule my old congregation had: no sideburns past the ears. (Obviously this only applies to brothers and Spanish sisters.)

37

Who’s The Best Actor/Actress? Who Is Overrated??

by minimus in

jw
friends

one of my favorite actors is robert de niro.

some of his later movies were so so but overall i think he was outstanding.

meryl streep, i just never thought she was anything exciting yet people say she’s the best actress of all time.

LoveUniHateExams

Some of my favourite actors ...

Robert De Niro

Sigourney Weaver

Anthony Hopkins

John Hurt

Jack Nicholson

Anthony Perkins

Jamie Lee Curtis

Kurt Russell

Bill Paxton

Lance Henriksen

Jeff Goldblum

Naomi Watts

Who do I think is overrated? Will Smith - in every movie he's in, he plays Will Smith, f**k me! XD

7

Incest, Rape and Abuse in the Amish World

by cofty in

so familiar and for all the same reasons.. the amish keep to themselves.

and they’re hiding a horrifying secret....

LoveUniHateExams

This is terrible. The authorities definitely need to get on this.

It seems that groups which isolate themselves from wider society have similar problems.

There is one thing that the Amish have that the WTS doesn't. It's called rumspringa (Standard German: herumspringen - literal meaning is 'jumping around'). Apparently, teen Amish are allowed to run around and act like teenagers - parties, alcohol, teen sex, as long as they keep it on the down low, don't cause problems, use contraceptives, etc.