Language topic

[Magnus]

why you dropped the pan-

For particularity's sake, I guess.

 

[Ariana]

Of course. Because pantoffel is a toffel for all, right.

 

[Ariana]

Knitallica - ... and toffel for all.

 

[Deleted member 7164]

The vuneni eterluk. Originally ispleteno by baba.

 

[Saapanael]

I have an oddly specific question for all Scandinavian speakers. @Dr. Eddies Wingman @SixesAlltheway and anyone else, including @LooseCannon 's girlfriend.

In many European languages, we use similar words for slippers: Pantoffel (German), pantoufle (French), pantofla (Greek), pantofi (Bulgarian), pantofola (Italian), etc. However, it seems that all Nordic languages have dropped the first syllable - toffel (Swedish), tøffel (Danish and Norwegian), tohveli (Finnish). So my question is WHY? It can't be simply because it's shorter, that would be extremely disappointing. WHY?

It's tuhvel (plural: tuhvlid) in Estonian but sounds kind of archaic. Suss/sussid is more used.

 

[The Flash]

We use terlik for these:

We use "patik" for those.

 

[Deleted member 7164]

We use patika for sneakers/running shoes.

 

[Forostar]

Thought you may be interested in this comparison (also @Perun of course)

In this video I compare two closely related languages: German and Dutch, including vocabulary, pronunciation, and grammar.

And:

This video is all about the Dutch language (or Nederlands) as it's known in Dutch. Learn all about the history and features of Dutch.

This American has many more vids like this.

 

[Saapanael]

Latvian sounds so unrefined, almost like cavemen speaking.

 

[Forostar]

 

[Lampwick 43]

So the native speaking countries such as the U.S., UK, Canada, etc. aren't even in the top 10? I find that hard to believe.

 

[LooseCannon]

Having moderated this board for 15 years, I don't.

 

[Brigantium]

Absolutely. These results don't surprise me at all.

 

[Perun]

Here's the source:

EF EPI | EF English Proficiency Index | EF United States

The 2024 edition of the EF English Proficiency Index ranks 113 countries and regions by their English skills.

www.ef.edu

You will see that they don't take countries where English is the first language into account. They're only rating people who took their EF English Proficiency test, which is targeted at non-native speakers. So no, they're not saying the Dutch speak better English than the Brits or Americans.

 

[Magnus]

You will see that they don't take countries where English is the first language into account.

Despite their 11 official languages, South Africa is an impostor here.
Not surprised, actually, considering how they won the Rugby World Cup.

 

[LooseCannon]

Despite their 11 official languages, South Africa is an impostor here.
Not surprised, actually, considering how they won the Rugby World Cup.

By...by playing better than the English in the final?

 

[Magnus]

Ah, did you watch it?
Efficient, obviously, but so ugly.

 

[Onhell]

The benefits of a bilingual brain

It's obvious that knowing more than one language can make certain things easier -- like traveling or watching movies without subtitles. But are there other advantages to having a bilingual (or multilingual) brain? Educator Mia Nacamulli details the three types of bilingual brains and shows how...

www.ted.com

 

[Forostar]

 

[The Flash]

Could alternatively use one of the languages that don't have articles at all, there are many of them.