Latvian

Excessum · (#1 (**permalink**))

Yes, well, there is such a language, called Latvian, spoken only by mere 1.5 mil people... if someone has really nothing to do, I can give some quotes in Latvian or help out with grammar.
And if someone wants to learn some new useless language (not that i don't like my native language, it's just that outside Latvia it is totally unrecognized) then Latvian is the way to go... some info

PS. I know some other languages as well, but I don't feel that I have mastered 100% any of them yet, so I'll just keep quiet

Kira_2009 · (#2 (**permalink**))

Quote:

Originally Posted by Excessum

Yes, well, there is such a language, called Latvian, spoken only by mere 1.5 mil people... if someone has really nothing to do, I can give some quotes in Latvian or help out with grammar.
And if someone wants to learn some new useless language (not that i don't like my native language, it's just that outside Latvia it is totally unrecognized) then Latvian is the way to go... some info

PS. I know some other languages as well, but I don't feel that I have mastered 100% any of them yet, so I'll just keep quiet

Thats cool though I have never heard of it... can u like post some of it so that I may see what it is like.

Excessum · (#3 (**permalink**))

Sure Thing:
(before continuing, I would advise you to install Batlic character encoding)

Some common expressions:

Hello! - Sveiki! ("ei" is pronounced as "ey" in "hey!", i is pronounced as "i" in india")
Thank You! - Paldies! ("a" is pronounced as in "apple", "ie" is always pronounced as in "hieroglyph"
You Are Welcome - Lūdzu ("u" as pronounced as in "you" (without the "y" part, but "ū" is stretched as when pronounced when saying "uuuu, what big muscles you have, Excessum")
I want beer - es gribu alu ("e" is wide as in "electronics" (similar as when pronouncing "s" in English language), "i" is pronounced as in "India", "a" as in "apple", and "u" as in "you"

well, pronouncing generally is quite simple, You don't have to modify the sound of the letter, just read it as it stands, not like in English where all of the vowels have many ways of pronunciation- "u" letter for instance in "under" and "united" is pronounced completely different, unlike in Latvian, where it will always sound as in the second part of the word "you", the same is with all of the other vowels. The constants are a bit more difficult, as most western languages rarely uses palatal constants: "š" is pronounced as in "shiva", "č" as in "china", but softened sounds of as "ģ", "ķ", "ļ" "ņ" "ž" are uncommon in english, so it is really hard for me to think of any examples on how to pronounce them.

Quote from Wikipedia:

Quote:

Latvian spelling has almost perfect correspondence between graphemes and phonemes. Every phoneme has its own letter so that a reader need not learn how a word is pronounced, but simply pronounce it. There are only three exceptions to this that could cause mispronunciation. The first is the letter E and its long variation Ē, which are used to write two sounds that represent the short and long versions of either [ɛ] or [a] respectively. The letter O indicates both the short and long [ɔ], and the diphthong [uɔ]. These three sounds are written as O, Ō and Uo in Latgalian, and some Latvians campaign for the adoption of this system in standard Latvian. However, the majority of Latvian linguists argue that o and ō are found only in loanwords, with the Uo sound being the only native Latvian phoneme. The digraph Uo was discarded in 1914, and the letter Ō has not been used in the official Latvian language since 1946. Likewise, the letters Ŗ and Ch were discarded in 1957, although they are still used in some varieties and by many Latvians living beyond the borders of Latvia. The letter Y is used only in the Latgalian language, where it is used to write a distinct phoneme that does not occur in other Latvian varieties. Latvian orthography consists of nine digraphs, which are written Ai, Au, Ei, Ie, Iu, Ui, Oj, Dz and Dž.

Kira_2009 · (#4 (**permalink**))

Man thats confusing

Excessum · (#5 (**permalink**))

naah, it's not, i am not quite the best teacher...

kitski · (#6 (**permalink**))

Quote:

Originally Posted by Excessum

Yes, well, there is such a language, called Latvian, spoken only by mere 1.5 mil people... if someone has really nothing to do, I can give some quotes in Latvian or help out with grammar.
And if someone wants to learn some new useless language (not that i don't like my native language, it's just that outside Latvia it is totally unrecognized) then Latvian is the way to go... some info

PS. I know some other languages as well, but I don't feel that I have mastered 100% any of them yet, so I'll just keep quiet

latvian..yeah it sounds cool..i have been there actually..a class trip..i'm from a baltic country.from estonia..hope you know it.