Re: So it is true...


Thomas Widmann <twid@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:m33bla4ohi.fsf@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> "Paul J Kriha" <paul.nospam.kriha@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> writes:
>
> > Seán O'Leathlóbhair <jwlawler@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
> > news:1133517371.229965.4140@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> >>
> >> How does the level of difference compare to the Scandinavian
> >> languages?
> >
> > Sorry, I don't know Scandinavian languages that well.
>
> I think it might compare to the difference between Swedish and Danish,
> or possibly between Swedish and Norwegian (since Czech and Slovak
> pronunciation is quite similar). Danish and Norwegian Bokmaal are
> closer.
>
> > The Czechoslovak people since their childhood were every day
> > passively exposed to each other's language. They don't often
> > realize the extent of the foreign vocabulary/syntax/morphology
> > they actually are familiar with.
>
> The same is true for the people of Copenhagen -- until the late 1980s,
> there was only one Danish TV channel but two Swedish ones, so most
> people there were heavily exposed to Swedish.

In the old Czechoslovakia it was even more difficult to avoid
learning the other language. As soon as you listened to radio
news or watched TV you were getting half the newscasts
and half the plays in the other language.

> Since then, the number
> of Danish TV channels has exploded, and it is said that young people
> of Copenhagen now find Swedish incomprehensible, just as many
> Jutlanders have found it all along.
>
> > I can converse in Czech with Slovaks who speak Slovak in a mixed
> > group without too many problems, occasionally I have to query a more
> > unusual word. When I read a Slovak book I don't have the immediate
> > help from somebody in the group and I find it significantly more
> > difficult and tiring.
>
> On the other hand, if you're reading a book, you can consult a
> dictionary.

I have never seen a SK-CZ dictionary in my life. No doubt they
do exist and are used by serious professionals/translators.

Having to use a dictionary while reading a novel would
seriously hamper my enjoyment of it. I am willing to use
one only when I read books written in the language I know
well or am in a process of learning.

> If you talking, the problem might be decoding the other
> party's speech.

I encounter that problem when listening to an unusual
dialect of English or listening to a conversation in very
noisy environment. I don't have that problem listening to
any dialects of Slovak. I may not know what a particular
word or a phrase meant but I know precisely what the
person said and when I ask about it I can repeat it while
it still rings in my ears.

pjk

> > [...]
> > I cannot write Slovak, I've never learned the Slovak orthography
> > and the morphology is often a double Dutch to me.
>
> The same is very true for most Scandinavians.
>
> /Thomas
> --
> Thomas Widmann twid@xxxxxxxxxxx http://www.twid.bibulus.org
> Flat 0/1, 57 Rose Street, Garnethill, Glasgow G3 6SF, Scotland, EU

.

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