Re: Are "semi-creoles" widespread?

On Sep 5, 7:40 am, Xabi <jser...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On 30 ago, 21:08, Darkstar <darkstar...@xxxxxxxx> wrote:

On Aug 30, 9:54 pm, Harlan Messinger

Forget it, just look here.

If Cat. and Sp. are so different, then why do I understand nearly
everything in this passage, and it's probably just 2nd or 3rd time I
have ever seen or heard Catalan.

Because, as Antonio wrote, it is a legal text, with a structure very
similar to Spanish and other European languages.

I'll tell you my about my experience on the subject of Catalonian/
Spanish intelligibility: on Frebruary 23, 1981 there was an attempted
coup d'etat in Spain by the military; that night there was only music
in the radio and TV, no news. At that time I knew English, some
French, a bit of Italian and some Latin; my father is Spanish
monoglot. There were no news on Spanish radio and TV, but I could
sintonize a Catalonian radio station which was broadcasting news about
it. I called my father to listen to it, but after less than two
minutes he left the room frustrated because he could not make sense of
what the speaker was saying; I, on the other hand, though I did not
understand everything, I could understand the main lines.

After I had studied more Latin, French, Italian and some Portuguese, I
found Catalonian a lot easier.

I know, actually. In fact, I used to pick up Radio Espana when I was
learning Spanish. At times, it broadcasted in all the official
languages of Spain...
But again, I never claimed they were supposed to be mutually
intelligble. No 2 languages are (whether real or "artificial"), or
they would rather be dialects. The conversation quickly turned into a
fight, but what was actually happening was that I was just sincerely
wondering whether there'd be a deep hidden isomorphism between the two
languages, which would differ from just normal similarities between
any two representatives of the Romance group. But I've said that many
times already...

My only last question now is how do you conjugate "ir+infinitivo" in
Catalan, and how it came to mean past tense, and whether Catalan has
a normal Romance "haber/avoir + participle" construction.

The conclusion, which should be obvious, is that the more Latin and
Romance languagues that you know, the easier it is to understand
another Romance language (I guess the situation is similar in Slavic
languages). A monoglot Spaniard cannot understand a speech in
Catalonian, and can hardly read it. A monoglot Spaniard can understand
some spoken standard Italian or Portuguese, but it must be slowly
spoken, and he will miss many sentences. Reading Portuguese is a piece
of cake even for a monoglot Spaniard.

--
Javi


.

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