The "Did you know" thread.....

[NIN]

Originally Posted by Mal Hombre

The official name was "Landship"but it didn't catch on but "Tank" did.

Internationally too (?)

[MrInBetween]

Originally Posted by Mal Hombre

Flemish is Dutch,The People in the Frisian islands speak a language that is more akin to English than German.

When English was Old English and Frisian was Old Frisian, speakers of the two languages would have been able to understand one another without much difficulty. That doesn't mean that the English are descended from the Frisians themselves particularly, as all the Germanic languages were probably mutually intelligible in the First Millennium. Since then, the Norman Conquest has caused English to evolve closer to French (and some other things have happened), and Frisian, I understand, has moved closer to Dutch - but other Germanic languages have become even further away from ours.

[palo5]

Originally Posted by richardoe

The only language that's related to Finnish is Hungarian

It's not true, richard

Several languages are related to Finnsh

The closest are Estonian, Sámi, Karelian, Vepsian, Ludian, Votian, and Livonian

Confusing? It was for me. I'd never heard of most of them, and I thought Karelian was a dialekt

But there's more

Mordvin, Mari, Komi, Udmurt, Hanti, Mansi, and at the end comes Hungarian

Hungarian is as far from Finnish as Farsi from English, and no Finn understands a word of Hungarian, that's the truth

[Mal Hombre]

Originally Posted by NIN

Internationally too (?)

Only in the English speaking world,the Germans called them Panzerkampfwagen, Armoured Fighting Vehicles,the French Char D'Assaut Assault cars.

[palo5]

Originally Posted by Mal Hombre

Only in the English speaking world,the Germans called them Panzerkampfwagen, Armoured Fighting Vehicles,the French Char D'Assaut Assault cars.

They are known informally in several armies as "tanks" or a locally modified word, including the Russian Army

[richardoe]

Language is an odd thing. In the British and most English speaking armed forces there is a Provost Marshal, in the German forces their equivalent is called Provost Marshal!! Appparently the title doesn't translate in to German.

[MrInBetween]

Originally Posted by palo5

It's not true, richard

Several languages are related to Finnsh

Basque, however, really is a language with no known relatives, living or dead.

[palo5]

Originally Posted by richardoe

Language is an odd thing. In the British and most English speaking armed forces there is a Provost Marshal, in the German forces their equivalent is called Provost Marshal!! Appparently the title doesn't translate in to German.

Hehehe! Maybe they don't want it to

[Jeff Vader]

Originally Posted by MrInBetween

When English was Old English and Frisian was Old Frisian, speakers of the two languages would have been able to understand one another without much difficulty. That doesn't mean that the English are descended from the Frisians themselves particularly, as all the Germanic languages were probably mutually intelligible in the First Millennium. Since then, the Norman Conquest has caused English to evolve closer to French (and some other things have happened), and Frisian, I understand, has moved closer to Dutch - but other Germanic languages have become even further away from ours.

Back in the good old days when it was all point, grunt and hit each other over the head.

[savage560]

Originally Posted by palo5

It's not true, richard

Several languages are related to Finnsh

The closest are Estonian, Sámi, Karelian, Vepsian, Ludian, Votian, and Livonian

Confusing? It was for me. I'd never heard of most of them, and I thought Karelian was a dialekt

But there's more

Mordvin, Mari, Komi, Udmurt, Hanti, Mansi, and at the end comes Hungarian

Hungarian is as far from Finnish as Farsi from English, and no Finn understands a word of Hungarian, that's the truth

Again very true.Finnish & Hungarain & the other languages you mentioned are not part of the Indo-European Language Group.Like the vast majority of Euro countries speak.Even in India ,Pakistan,Iran, & Afganistan, they speak an Indo branch of this group.The language group Of Finns & Hungarians belongs to the Finno-Ugric branch of te Uralic language group.

Studdies by some asert it mybe part of the Turkic/Altaic language group or was loosely related, but evethough, esp. Hungarian shows some Turkic language traits , it is now stated it may have been from pre-Magyar settlement times in Europe.

I know a lot of Hungarians & they all tell me that they have no idea why they put their "Magarsk" in the same family as Finnish,tudom!I mean the Germanic languages compaired to America/GB English is not readlily intelligable to them who speak continental Germanic languages ,either.& we English speakers understand very little if not much at all of continental Germanic languages too!So it still ,by studdies are classified as the same language tree?With 50K Greek derivative words in English & probably more Latin based words I can see the problem.Thus I guess so is the Finno-Urgric languages the same family possible?

Spanish ,Italian,French, Potuguese etc. are more closely understood by their Latin based language speakers.Spanish & Italian are very close,in lexicon & grammar.To the point of they should'nt talk about eachother in a negative connotaton, in their respective languages!

Then the Slavic languages are even more understood by its speakers of their respective & different languages of the same family.Like they say Ukrainian to Polish & Serbo-Croatian have a lexicon that's allmost 70% the same.Similarly Russian to Bulgarian & the Serbian,(I'm sure more closly Uke to Rus to Belarus?) & their dialectual related change languages, branches of these languages approach 75% of similar lexicon.

But can they all understand eachother perfectly?No my friend,the grammar is different & so is the pronuciation.So sometines its tough a nails, to get a fast speakers drift of what the other is saying, in those related languages.But I have seen it done when they speak slowly & clearly!I guess the East ,West & South Slavic languages can be understood fairly well by each others respective language speakers,but it not allways the case?Like they say Ukrainian has a lot of South Slavic words & similar grammar ,eventhough its a E.Slavic language?

Bulgarian uses a lot of Turkish type grammar, Germans who understand Russian, say Serbs sound like they're speaking Russian without pronouncing the vowels.A lot of Slavic language speakers say Polish has a pronucitaion so hard,they call it the "French" of the Slavic language tree?