Erik, 28 hours of language lessons should be plenty to order and eat Weißwürste in a Munich Bierkeller. Even kids under the age of one can speak Bavarian hereabouts. Earnestly: Danish is closer to English than Bavarian, I admit. But I did have little problems in Denmark reading things, more understanding spoken language. There is a rumor that all the languages are hard to understand which are used to scare and drive cows (e.g., besides Bavarian, also Netherlands, Danish, Schwyzerdütsch, Texan etc.)
By the way: The tribes of the Saxons originally settled near the coast of the North Sea, around the Elbe river, partly in what is now Netherlands, partly what is now Niedersachsen (Lower Saxony). When they first arrived there, the sea retracted half a mile, and now it comes back every twelve hours to look if they are still there. Today's state of Saxony, part of the Federal Republic of Germany, has nothing in common with them except for the name, a consequence of feudal marriages. The name has to do with the indogermanic sax meaning a piece of rock (saxum in Latin), especially a stone knife, which shows how old this name must be. Later on, it signified a short, one bladed sword. In nordic langages it still exists a scissors, sax or saks. The Romans used it as a name for all kinds of pirates they encountered. Once you know the way how the languages have changed in the ages, their "construction laws", it's easier to learn a related language - that's why I have difficulties with Chinese. Peter Am 18.04.2014 17:06, schrieb Erik Christiansen: > On 18.04.14 13:26, Peter Blodow wrote: >> To be honest, translating into Bavarian would be even easier >> sometimes as Bavarian often has a concise way to express things most >> like English has (yes, Michael, Austrian and especially Tyrolian is >> linguistically a branch of Bavarian). The reason, as I see it, is that >> English and Bavarian have close common roots in Midle High German from >> which they are descendants, as opposed to today's High German which was >> composed rather artificlally, beginnig about matirn Luther's time. > Ah, I remember spending 10 weeks in München, after 28 hrs of German > lessons. Managed to converse in Hochdeutsch all of the last evening > without resorting to English, but Bayerisch pronunciation left me at the > starting post. If you did use that to shorten the translations, all the > Germans from north of the Weißwurstäquator would have just as much > trouble, wouldn't they? > > Not knowing any Middle High German, I tend to notice the similarities > between the Danish Sønderjysk dialect and English, confirmed by reading > that "Saxon" doesn't come from Sachsen, but further north, around > Schleswig. > > Once you start looking, there's commonality all over the place, though > often with a bit of vowel bending, and sometimes a systematic consonant > softening which initially camouflages the strong connection. > > Erik > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Learn Graph Databases - Download FREE O'Reilly Book "Graph Databases" is the definitive new guide to graph databases and their applications. Written by three acclaimed leaders in the field, this first edition is now available. Download your free book today! http://p.sf.net/sfu/NeoTech _______________________________________________ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
