American posters are stupider, throw rocks at them.

[aneeshm]

Originally posted by LordShiva
I can get by with Bengali as well. And I know a ton of swear words in Kannada.

OK, then you win.

HTF did you know so many languages?

[chequita guevara]

He's smarter than you? Just a guess.

[LordShiva]

Originally posted by Solver

But I can read Cyrrilic

Sure ?

Yup. I was in Russia once, and I learned it by reading the signs that were in both English and Russian

[LordShiva]

Originally posted by aneeshm
HTF did you know so many languages?

Tamilian Dad, Assamese Mom, born in Calcutta, lived in Bangalore, took Hindi in school.

[aneeshm]

Originally posted by chegitz guevara
He's smarter than you? Just a guess.

Actually, even I can understand snatches of Gujarati and Punjabi. I'd guess it's the common Sanskrit root of all North Indian languages which makes them nearly inter-intelligible. Anyway, Hindi is a second language to me - first Marathi, second Hindi, third English.

I just wonder what concatenation of circumstances led to this guy knowing as many languages as he does. So many languages is rare, even by relatively high Indian standards.

[LordShiva]

I can't say I know them as well as Hindi or English, since I haven't had much of a literary experience with them. And Assamese TV and movies are hard to come by down south.

[Solver]

Originally posted by LordShiva


Yup. I was in Russia once, and I learned it by reading the signs that were in both English and Russian

They don't usually match well. The English signs say "Museum", "Exit", "Metro", "WC", etc. - The Russian ones say "Vodka", "Drugs", "Hideout", "Booze storage", etc .

[aneeshm]

Originally posted by LordShiva


Tamilian Dad, Assamese Mom, born in Calcutta, lived in Bangalore, took Hindi in school.

So it was in your formative years that you were exposed to so many? That explains it. I wonder how much more difficult it would be for you to pick up a new language now (from an unrelated language family, say Japanese).

Is Assamese part of the Indo-Aryan group? Because I've seen that words from Sanskrit can be lifted into Hindi and Marathi effortlessly, and it's the same with other similar languages. Can you do that with Assamese?

[LordShiva]

Originally posted by Solver


They don't usually match well. The English signs say "Museum", "Exit", "Metro", "WC", etc. - The Russian ones say "Vodka", "Drugs", "Hideout", "Booze storage", etc .

I mean the ones that say "Pectopah" or "Sanct Petrburg." And "Bodka" is

[Solver]

Yeah, actually, it's PECTOPAH. Hmm, always amuses me how some Cyrillic can be spelled in Latin letters, sometimes using a mix of lower and upper case. The word 3oHa being an example .

[LordShiva]

Originally posted by aneeshm
Is Assamese part of the Indo-Aryan group?

Yup - the world's Eastern-most Indo-European language

It's quite similar to Bengali (and Oriya, I believe), all three having developed from Prakrit via Magadhi Apabhramsa.

[Fake Boris]

Page four, and where is Cali?

[Provost Harrison]

Originally posted by aneeshm


So you know only one Indian script, the same as I do, but you know one non-Indian script more than me.

But just knowing Tamil and Assamese is enough to make you elite - you know one language more than the masses of India do. Most educated people in India know three languages - their own, Hindi, and English. Knowing four makes you elite. Knowing two makes you normal if you're Hindi-speaking. Knowing only one puts you below the average. Of course, going by this measure, the English speaking countries are at a disadvantage.

Drop the other languages and just speak English...it works perfectly well without any messing around learning other tongues...

[LordShiva]

Originally posted by Provost Harrison
Drop the other languages and just speak English...it works perfectly well without any messing around learning other tongues...

Well, I do speak English. But I have the other languages for backup, in case the gummint taps my phone or invents mind-readers

[Sirotnikov]

Originally posted by Solver
Yeah, actually, it's PECTOPAH. Hmm, always amuses me how some Cyrillic can be spelled in Latin letters, sometimes using a mix of lower and upper case. The word 3oHa being an example .

In hebrew that would mean slut or prostitute.