I think languages are an interesting topic. So I’m curious about learning more about your mother languages. May I ask you some questions?
1. What is your native language?
2. Is it similar to English?
3. What letters do you use in your language?
4. Do you speak like you write or do you speak dialect?
5. Did you grow up bilingual?
6. Do all people in your country speak the same language or are there minority languages too? Do you have laws to protect minority languages? Are there troubles with minority languages?
7. Do you think your language is easy or difficult to learn for non-native speakers?
8. Can you show us some examples (words, phrases, sentences) from your language?
9. Are there any famous writers who write in this language?
10. How many languages do you speak?
11. What is the most beautiful language?
12. Is there anything else you want to tell us about languages?
My answers:
1. German – but the Austrian-version of German. We have the saying: “The biggest difference between Austria and Germany is the same language.” There are some differences in pronunciation, vocabulary and also grammar. The biggest difference is the vocabulary about food and cooking.
2. Yes, German and English are close relatives.
3. Basically we use the same letters like in English but we have some additional ones: the umlaute and the “scharfes s”
4. No, I speak dialect. There are a lot of different German dialects. Some are hard to understand.
5. No.
6. We have seven official minorities in Austria such as Hungarians, Slovene, Romani people. There is a law which protects them but I’m not sure if it works well or not.
There are some argues about the using of bilingual place-name signs.
7. It’s like English. Probably the biggest problem is oral language because of the dialects.
8. An apricot is “eine Aprikose” (<-- nouns always start with a capital letter) in German, but in Austria it’s called “eine Marille”. We say it like that in dialect “a Mariln”
A bike is “ein Fahrrad” or short “ein Rad” in German, in Austrian dialect we say “a Radl”. But in Swiss German it is „Velo“.
9. A lot of! The Austrian writer Elfriede Jelinek won the Nobel Prize in Literature.
10. German and English. I learned a little bit Latin but I have forgotten everything because it’s a death language and you never need it in the daily routine.
11. I like the sound of Russian language but I don’t speak Russian.
12. Languages are powerful!
1. What is your native language?
2. Is it similar to English?
3. What letters do you use in your language?
4. Do you speak like you write or do you speak dialect?
5. Did you grow up bilingual?
6. Do all people in your country speak the same language or are there minority languages too? Do you have laws to protect minority languages? Are there troubles with minority languages?
7. Do you think your language is easy or difficult to learn for non-native speakers?
8. Can you show us some examples (words, phrases, sentences) from your language?
9. Are there any famous writers who write in this language?
10. How many languages do you speak?
11. What is the most beautiful language?
12. Is there anything else you want to tell us about languages?
My answers:
1. German – but the Austrian-version of German. We have the saying: “The biggest difference between Austria and Germany is the same language.” There are some differences in pronunciation, vocabulary and also grammar. The biggest difference is the vocabulary about food and cooking.
2. Yes, German and English are close relatives.
3. Basically we use the same letters like in English but we have some additional ones: the umlaute and the “scharfes s”
4. No, I speak dialect. There are a lot of different German dialects. Some are hard to understand.
5. No.
6. We have seven official minorities in Austria such as Hungarians, Slovene, Romani people. There is a law which protects them but I’m not sure if it works well or not.
There are some argues about the using of bilingual place-name signs.
7. It’s like English. Probably the biggest problem is oral language because of the dialects.
8. An apricot is “eine Aprikose” (<-- nouns always start with a capital letter) in German, but in Austria it’s called “eine Marille”. We say it like that in dialect “a Mariln”
A bike is “ein Fahrrad” or short “ein Rad” in German, in Austrian dialect we say “a Radl”. But in Swiss German it is „Velo“.
9. A lot of! The Austrian writer Elfriede Jelinek won the Nobel Prize in Literature.
10. German and English. I learned a little bit Latin but I have forgotten everything because it’s a death language and you never need it in the daily routine.
11. I like the sound of Russian language but I don’t speak Russian.
12. Languages are powerful!
