Esperanto

Esperanto was developed in 1887 by Dr L.L Zamenhof who lived in the Western part of the Russian Empire. This language was developed to become a nutral international language for everyone to learn as a second language accross the globe. Zamehof's intention was not to only crate a language of equality between countries but to also resolve conflicts and bring peace.

Esperanto has acheived to become a language and there is tens of thousands throughout the world are known to speak it. There are organised groups such as the Universal Esperanto Association and has members in at least 114 countries.

This is an easy language to learn, research shows; it takes 1/3 of the time taken to learn a common studied language. The language is written phonemically (one sound= one letter) with regular grammar. When Esperanto is spoken it sounds like a siter language of Spanish or Italian. There is also Germanic roots within the language and simalar to English most words are Latin and Germanic.

Finnish in the Medieval Period

Finland was added to Catholic Sweden in the Middle Ages, prior to this, Finnish was an oral language. After this, the language of larger-scale business was Middle Low German, the language of administration was Swedish and religious activities were in Latin, leaving few possibilities for Finnish-speakers to use their mother tongue in everyday situations.
The first known example of written Finnish was found in a German travel journal dating back to c.1450: Mÿnna tachton gernast spuho somen gelen Emÿna daÿda
Modern Finnish: "Minä tahdon kernaasti puhua suomen kieltä, [mutta] en minä taida";
English: "I willingly want to speak Finnish, [but] I can't").
According to the travel journal, a Finnish bishop, was behind the above quotation.

I haven't thought of anything to write yet.. but there's a picture of will smith in the fresh prince of bel-air in the mean time :) ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Influence of the Dutch on English language

400 years ago explorer Henry Hudson sailed his ship the Halve Maen (Half Moon) along a body of water we now call the Hudson river. He did so under the auspices of the Dutch trade organisation VOC (Dutch East India Company). He, along with a crew of 20 men, founded a colony called New Amsterdam. Now, this colony is better known as New York City, the city that never sleeps, the Big Apple. But it is not just the old name of New York City that is a testament of Dutch influence in contemporary America.

The Dutch settlers following Hudson lived in small isolated communities where Dutch was the language spoken by all. Gradually the Dutch lost most of their colonies to England, and Dutch settlers were exposed to other immigrants. This resulting in the Dutch language disappearing from everyday live. However, the roots of this bit of Dutch history of the American capital, and ultimately, the entire nation, can still be found in the English language and in names of American towns or neighbourhoods. Words like apartheid, bling, dapper, mast and even Santa Claus all stem from Dutch. And places like Harlem, Brooklyn and Hoboken are named after Dutch towns. Here a few more examples with their origin. A lot of these, as you will find, have strong ties with trade and naval industries.

Gin – from jenever. A spirit drink made from juniper berries. The Dutch word for juniper is jenever .

Schoener – From schoener, a type of boat

Santa Claus– From Sinterklaas which comes from Saint Nicholas, the children's patron saint. Both in Germany and Belgium, the feast of Sinterklaas is celebrated in early December.

Skipper – from schipper, which means shipper.

Yankee – From Jan Kees, a typical Dutch personal name. It was mockingly used for the Dutch settlers in New Amsterdam

Wildebeest and Aardvark– Wildebeest from Wild Beest, whichliteralymeansWild Beast. Aardvark comesfrom aardor aarde, both meaning soil or earth, and from varken, which means pig

How Senses Affect Linguistic Communication pt 1

I used my adoration of philosophy to fuel my research into linguistics of the deaf and blind. As we generally think in words, I often wonder how blind people think, or if those who are deaf think their thoughts in hand signals. I wonder too, what people who are blind from birth see when they dream.
It's strange - when we think in words, we do not tend to visualise the word. If deaf people think in sign language, must they visualise it to think it? Does it become second nature to think that way, and they do not neccessarily need to visualise their thoughts? If blind people dream, do they dream in words, and sounds and music? If so, do they dream in touch, taste and smell too?

I plan on doing a lot more research into the linguistics of sign, specifically, but also the communication of those who can't see.
For both the blind and the deaf, how does their inabilities affect their process of language? And how to their other senses compensate for their inabilities, and their need for communication?

That weird voice thingy

First post on this thingemo, just thought I might add my input to it.

Theres a program on every windows computer called Microsoft SAM, its basically a voice modelling program, and it reads out text that's inputted into it. It can pronounce any normal properly spelled english word, except when newer words such as l33t$p3@K words, where they have to be spelt phonetically, but maybe we'll get to the point in having a language that is spelt easily enough to understand as a second language learner at first look. If a computer can't do it, then how in the world is a human supposed to do it?!

Hieroglyphics

Troughout The long history of Hieroglyphics, this system of writing utelizing ancient egyptian symbols underwent many changes.There were six primary periods during witch this ancient language was used in egypt. It is thought that from the first use of language until around 500 A.D, there were thousands of symbols used. While all these symbols were not primarily used to write hieroglyphics at the same time, the language still remains Extremely Hard To Learn.


The use of hieroglyphics were faded out during the rise of the roman empire due to its unpopularity, By the time of Napoleon's army invaded egypt in 1798 subsequently discoverd the 'rosetta stone' a year later, the system of using ancient egyptitian symbols was a thorough mystery to forieners.

The devolpment of the english language was the cause of so many anceint languages just like the egyptian hieroglyphs to die out.