Language anomalies

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Ricardodaforce

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So in the Italian province of Sudtirolo the predominant language is German.
In the Argentine province of Chubut there are more than 20,000 Welsh speakers.
In the Italian city of Alghero over 20% of the population speak Catalan as their first language.
I love these linguistic anomalies! Anyone know of any others that can be added to the list?
 
Wonderful! I'm fascinated by this sort of stuff.

There's another Argentine province where the predominant language is German.

New York is the centre of a study into language "ghettoisation" for want of a better word. Some languages have the last living speakers in NY.
 
In Benidorm, Spain, 45% speak English, 45% speak German and 10% speak Spanish!
 
Apparently there's a tiny mountain village in Pakistan which is entirely Welsh speaking.
I can't seem to remember the name of it even with Google's help though.

The guy who told me about it has currently gone back home to Pakistan to get married, but I'll have to ask him what it was called when he's back . . . I'm wishing I hadn't looked in here now because it's going to irritate the hell out of me until I find the answer :bang:
 
There is a village somewhere that was on one of these dangerous road program's where the main language was German. Forget where it was now though. Even the houses were old Germanaic style.
 
Lynton said:
In Benidorm, Spain, 45% speak English, 45% speak German and 10% speak Spanish!
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I was listening to a pharmacist speaking in English to some old British guy the other day. Afterwards I told her that her English was good (yes we were speaking Spanish) and she told me she'd never attended a class nor done a course. She was from Benidorm and and learned it in the street!
 
Over here, anyone who can actually speak English is an anomaly. Even the locals can't speak English properly.

At least that's what I found out when I found myself having to sign on at the local Job Centre.
 
In our house 25% of the population talks b*****ks.
 
Ian D J said:
Over here, anyone who can actually speak English is an anomaly. Even the locals can't speak English properly.

At least that's what I found out when I found myself having to sign on at the local Job Centre.
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I was going to say that most young people (under the age of about 20) seem to speak a langauge that bears some resemblance to English yet I still can't understand it!

I mean to me if I heard someone say "bear sick" I'd want to avoid it like the plague yet apparently that means "very good" :lol:
 
SarahLee said:
Apparently there's a tiny mountain village in Pakistan which is entirely Welsh speaking.
I can't seem to remember the name of it even with Google's help though.

The guy who told me about it has currently gone back home to Pakistan to get married, but I'll have to ask him what it was called when he's back . . . I'm wishing I hadn't looked in here now because it's going to irritate the hell out of me until I find the answer :bang:
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surely he was having you on?

Something like that you'd be able to find on the internet :suspect:
 
Russ77 said:
I mean to me if I heard someone say "bear sick" I'd want to avoid it like the plague yet apparently that means "very good" :lol:
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It's spelt bare not bear, and in yoof speak it means "lots" or similar.....there endeth your first lesson in youth speak!! :lol:

I really don't see the problem with it to be honest....the English language has changed constantly for hundreds of years, and "bare sick" is just a modern twist to the language like "apples and pears" was 150 years ago.
 
with cockney rhyming slang though it was kept to a very select area and everyone there understood it. This yoof speak is national and only the younguns get it.
 
Slimbert said:
It's spelt bare not bear, and in yoof speak it means "lots" or similar.....there endeth your first lesson in youth speak!! :lol:

I really don't see the problem with it to be honest....the English language has changed constantly for hundreds of years, and "bare sick" is just a modern twist to the language like "apples and pears" was 150 years ago.
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I know how it's spelt in that context but the spelling obviously isn't apparent when it's said ;)
 
joescrivens said:
with cockney rhyming slang though it was kept to a very select area and everyone there understood it. This yoof speak is national and only the younguns get it.
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People travel around a lot more than they did in the 1840's, and the internet, social media etc plays a huge part in how fast these things spread.

There's lots of theories about how CRS started, but the one I've heard the most is that it was created for collusion, so outsiders wouldn't have a clue what some of the East End locals were talking about.
 
Slimbert said:
There's lots of theories about how CRS started, but the one I've heard the most is that it was created for collusion, so outsiders wouldn't have a clue what some of the East End locals were talking about.
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That sounds about right to me :lol:

Probably one of the worst kept secrets now though
 
Slimbert said:
It's spelt bare not bear, and in yoof speak it means "lots" or similar.....there endeth your first lesson in youth speak!! :lol:

I really don't see the problem with it to be honest....the English language has changed constantly for hundreds of years, and "bare sick" is just a modern twist to the language like "apples and pears" was 150 years ago.
Click to expand...

joescrivens said:
with cockney rhyming slang though it was kept to a very select area and everyone there understood it. This yoof speak is national and only the younguns get it.
Click to expand...

The world was a lot bigger place 150 years ago though, and most folk would only know people from their own villages/towns, now with modern transport and the internet the world is a much smaller place, so this sort of youth speak spreads like wildfire
 
The derogatory term "berk" is probably of American origin - the English pronounce Berkley "Barkley" while the Americans use the (probably older English pronunciation) "Birkley". According to the Online Etymology Dictionary, the term "berk" appeared in 1936.
Sudtirol itself sounds more Germanic than Italianate.
The Argentine Welsh population is a remnant of the original silver miners.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alghero
The Argentine Germans are probably descended from post WW II escapees.
The spread of Cockney rhyming slang predates the interweb by many years!
 
It's rumoured that in the Spanish town of Torrevieja there is a community that speaks Spanish.
 
joescrivens said:
surely he was having you on?

Something like that you'd be able to find on the internet :suspect:
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:lol:
I was reading an article about it just after he told me the story. I didn't believe him either so I looked it up - I just can't remember enough about it to find the right search terms to locate it again.
Honestly, I'm not going insane . . . it's on the internet, I've seen it and I'm not hallucinating !!! (and clearly if it's on the internet it must be true :suspect:)

The story was something like it being a very isolated tiny mountain village. Hundreds of years ago a missionary from Wales went them to try to convert them to Christianity and preached to them in Welsh. It ended with him building a strong bond with the community, staying there and eventually marrying one of the villagers. Over time the villagers started to pick up bits of Welsh and with there being so little outside contact with the village it eventually became their first language.

2 weeks until he's back from Pakistan and I can ask him about it again :bang:
 
I believe there's a large place somewhere over the other side of the Atlantic (I think it's called "gudoluessay" or something like that) where many many people speak what they call English! It isn't really, though. :)
 
The words "Shufti" (not sure how you spell it) as in "have a Shufti at this" and "Bint" as in "my wife's a silly Bint" are of Arabic origin. They are direct translations for "look" and "woman".
 
Ricardodaforce said:
It's rumoured that in the Spanish town of Torrevieja there is a community that speaks Spanish.
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That's true. I went there once and found them (The 3 Spanish people that is!) . they also have a quirky habit of having prostitutes "soliciting their wares" on roundabouts...
 
Johnd2000 said:
The words "Shufti" (not sure how you spell it) as in "have a Shufti at this" and "Bint" as in "my wife's a silly Bint" are of Arabic origin. They are direct translations for "look" and "woman".
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Apparantly 18% of Spanish words are of Arabic origin too. Not surprising given the history of the country.

Lynton said:
That's true. I went there once and found them (The 3 Spanish people that is!) . they also have a quirky habit of having prostitutes "soliciting their wares" on roundabouts...
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They do that in certain parts of Alicante too.
 
Hacker said:
In our house 25% of the population talks b*****ks.
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:lol: There is one person on TP that speaks that language, packet of Jaffa`s if you can name him :D
 
Hereford... to get a job at some long standing large local employers speaking Polish is a requirement. :bonk:
 
Just wondering exactly how Lynton and Ricardoforce know so much about Torreviejan and Alicantean hookers!

I think it may be Washington DC that deems anyone carrying more than one condom to be a sex worker.
 
Nod said:
Just wondering exactly how Lynton and Ricardoforce know so much about Torreviejan and Alicantean hookers!

I think it may be Washington DC that deems anyone carrying more than one condom to be a sex worker.
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Haha sometimes I drive at night, and that's when they come out. Hard to miss, they are always dressed in all white.
 
Nikon Man said:
Hereford... to get a job at some long standing large local employers speaking Polish is a requirement. :bonk:
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Sun Valley?
 
Here's another one that I've just been thinking about. In English the two simple words "I was" can be in Spanish:
Yo era
Yo fui
Yo fuera or yo fuese (both are official and in use)
Yo estaba
Yo estuve
Yo estuviera or yo estuviese (both are official and in use)

No wonder my brain hurts from time to time!
 
In Greek, one word can have several meanings, although the emphasis (or Tonos [itself having several meanings!]) may be different. Soft, mate (as in pal) and self abuser are all "malaka" and it's also the name of a type of cheese (Cretan).
 
The Swiss have 4 official languages....does any country beat that?
 
tiler65 said:
Are any of those languages official languages in another country like the Swiss ones are (principalities apart)
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Yes, castellano is the langauge of:

Argentina
Chile
Colombia
Costa Rica
Cuba
Dominican Republic
Ecuador
El Salvador
Guatemala
Honduras
Mexico
Nicaragua
Panama
Urugua
Venezuela
Peru


Catalan is the language of Andorra.
 
Ricardodaforce said:
Here's another one that I've just been thinking about. In English the two simple words "I was" can be in Spanish:
Yo era
Yo fui
Yo fuera or yo fuese (both are official and in use)
Yo estaba
Yo estuve
Yo estuviera or yo estuviese (both are official and in use)

No wonder my brain hurts from time to time!
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That would seem to be two verbs and four tenses for each.

Italian has two verbs that could conjugate to "I was"- essere (to be) and stare (literally "to stay"), so am guessing Spanish is similar in this respect.

However, with the tenses it gets a bit closer. English has at least two past tenses with their own conjugations:

present perfect - I have been
past - I was

but doesn't really have a separately conjugated imperfect - either "I was being" (past + gerund) or "I used to be" (past of use + full infinitive) work, which makes four.

I shall stop now before I confuse myself :lol:
 
onomatopoeia said:
That would seem to be two verbs and four tenses for each.

Italian has two verbs that could conjugate to "I was"- essere (to be) and stare (literally "to stay"), so am guessing Spanish is similar in this respect.

However, with the tenses it gets a bit closer. English has at least two past tenses with their own conjugations:

present perfect - I have been
past - I was

but doesn't really have a separately conjugated imperfect - either "I was being" (past + gerund) or "I used to be" (past of use + full infinitive) work, which makes four.

I shall stop now before I confuse myself :lol:
Click to expand...


You're right, 2 different verbs that both mean "to be", ser and estar (note: The 2 are NOT interchangeable). 2 different past tenses and a subjunctive thrown in for good. Yet every one translates as "I was".
 
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