Well, good question. To be honest, I don't know. Yet you're probably right with your guesswork. In general, the German "See" is always a great amount of water, which is completely sourrounded by soil. As the Nordsee and Ostsee are almost entirely demarcated by soil, it may be the reason why we call it "See".
What is the closest language to English?
Well it's so strange because you do say "Wattenmeer"... ;)
Could you give me the German translations?
Pacific Ocean
Atlantic Ocean
Indian Ocean
Arctic Ocean
Mediterranean Sea
Adriatic Sea
Black Sea
Red Sea
Java Sea
Barents Sea
Dead Sea
Could you give me the German translations?
Pacific Ocean
Atlantic Ocean
Indian Ocean
Arctic Ocean
Mediterranean Sea
Adriatic Sea
Black Sea
Red Sea
Java Sea
Barents Sea
Dead Sea
Right, as I mentioned before in an other topic, German is at least as strange as English.
Okay:
Pazifischer Ozean
Atlantischer Ozean
Indischer Ozean
Nordpolarmeer
Mittelmeer
Adria
Schwarzes Meer
Rotes Meer
???
Barentssee
Totes Meer
Where actually is the java sea situated?
If you want to look such things up I put forward
dict.leo.org
Okay:
Pazifischer Ozean
Atlantischer Ozean
Indischer Ozean
Nordpolarmeer
Mittelmeer
Adria
Schwarzes Meer
Rotes Meer
???
Barentssee
Totes Meer
Where actually is the java sea situated?
If you want to look such things up I put forward
dict.leo.org
In Dutch:
Pacific Ocean = Stille Zuidzee
Atlantic Ocean = Atlantische Oceaan
Indian Ocean = Indische Oceaan
Arctic Ocean = Noordelijke IJszee
Mediterranean Sea = Middelandsezee
Adriatic Sea = Adriatischezee
Black Sea = Zwarte zee
Red Sea = Rode zee
Java Sea = Javazee
Barents Sea = Barentszzee
Dead Sea = Dode zee
I've looked up the German trabslation of Java sea and its 'Javasee'
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bild:Java_sea.jpg
Pacific Ocean = Stille Zuidzee
Atlantic Ocean = Atlantische Oceaan
Indian Ocean = Indische Oceaan
Arctic Ocean = Noordelijke IJszee
Mediterranean Sea = Middelandsezee
Adriatic Sea = Adriatischezee
Black Sea = Zwarte zee
Red Sea = Rode zee
Java Sea = Javazee
Barents Sea = Barentszzee
Dead Sea = Dode zee
I've looked up the German trabslation of Java sea and its 'Javasee'
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bild:Java_sea.jpg
=>German is at least as strange as English.<=
Well I must say that compared to the "normal" Germanic languages ,German has a rather hard but more regular grammer (clear rules few exceptions) which is great. :)
Well I must say that compared to the "normal" Germanic languages ,German has a rather hard but more regular grammer (clear rules few exceptions) which is great. :)
someone mentioned the "th" sound coming from the vikings.
well, in danish, thursday is "torsdag", which comes from the god, "thor". in danish, torsdag is pronounced "tårsdag". there are other weekdays too: onsdag (wednesday) onsdag comes from the god Odin. fredag (friday) is from the god named Frej. i am quite sure about this.
well, in danish, thursday is "torsdag", which comes from the god, "thor". in danish, torsdag is pronounced "tårsdag". there are other weekdays too: onsdag (wednesday) onsdag comes from the god Odin. fredag (friday) is from the god named Frej. i am quite sure about this.
sander, i think that the scandinavian grammer is easier than the german. danish only has to "sexes". german has three: maskulinum, femeninum and neutrum. i think that's the way you spell it. also, the scandinavian languages use one word for "at være" (to have) which is "har". had is "havde". that's the way it goes for all the words like to be, to see, to do, to find, to explain, to die etc etc...
Note to all , Wodan and Odin are the same person.
Thomas,
I agree, if had to make catogories ,I'd say that the Scandanavian languages would fall into "Normal".
German has indeed 3 genders (masc./fem./neut.) and Danish has two but certain dialects of Norwegian do have 3 genders.And a language like English is genderless! :)
Thomas,
I agree, if had to make catogories ,I'd say that the Scandanavian languages would fall into "Normal".
German has indeed 3 genders (masc./fem./neut.) and Danish has two but certain dialects of Norwegian do have 3 genders.And a language like English is genderless! :)
The "th" sounds in English are an unusual sound that many none native speakers seem to find difficult to pronounce, replacing think with "sink" and them with "zem". It seems odd that after filling England wth a whole load of place names ending in thwaite and thorpe (e.g. Bassenthwaite and Scunthorpe) this sound should be abandoned in the Viking's native countries.
Incidentally, the word "them" replaced the anglo-saxon "hem", although 'em is still widely used by English speakers.
Incidentally, the word "them" replaced the anglo-saxon "hem", although 'em is still widely used by English speakers.
At least around here in southeastern Wisconsin, though, the "th" phonemes seem rather well, prone to not being realized as their "default" forms, especially in the case of /D/. /T/ will assimilate to /s/ as [s] and when word-initial to /t/ as apparently [tT] here, but word-initial /D/ here will assimilate to just about any non-approximant consonant which isn't either labial or velar, including /T/. Furthermore, word-initial /D/ seems to be very often (inconsistently) realized as [d] or [z] here for no particular reason at all outside of formal speech (that is, in most speech), as if in very informal speech people don't need an "excuse" to change word-initial /D/ to something other than [D].
I would guess all of this is most likely due to outside influence by other languages, in this area probably primarily German, on the local English dialect. This is because there seems to be similar features, with respect to the avoidance of [D] (and also [T]) in some of the English dialects of other parts of the Upper Midwest with significant outside immigration of speakers of primarily other Germanic languages, while at the same time certain pockets such as Washington Island which had large concentrations of Icelandic-speakers historically often lack such features. This would hint at such not being originally native to the dialect(s) of English in areas of the Upper Midwest, as if it were, why would areas with significant amounts of immigrants historically who did have [D] and [T] natively (specifically Icelandic-speakers) in their own languages preserve the full use of [D] and [T]?
I would guess all of this is most likely due to outside influence by other languages, in this area probably primarily German, on the local English dialect. This is because there seems to be similar features, with respect to the avoidance of [D] (and also [T]) in some of the English dialects of other parts of the Upper Midwest with significant outside immigration of speakers of primarily other Germanic languages, while at the same time certain pockets such as Washington Island which had large concentrations of Icelandic-speakers historically often lack such features. This would hint at such not being originally native to the dialect(s) of English in areas of the Upper Midwest, as if it were, why would areas with significant amounts of immigrants historically who did have [D] and [T] natively (specifically Icelandic-speakers) in their own languages preserve the full use of [D] and [T]?
<<Out of interest, is a "th" sound used in any Scandinavian words because originally this sound only came into English from the Vikings e.g. Thursday from Thor's day. How would Norwegians or Swedes pronounce "Thor">>
Actually the "th" sounds had always been present in Old English. Indeed, proto-Germanic had "th" in many words which have survived directly in English and Scots as well as Icelandic. Many other Germanic languages seem to have dropped them in the meantime.
I had a question about why so many modern Germanic languages seem to have dropped these interdentals which I posted on unilang. I'll give you the link to my message(my username is svenska84 there). If you look down to my second message on the page you can see the proto Germanic words and the modern Icelandic and English equivalents:
http://home.unilang.org/main/forum/viewtopic.php?t=6222&highlight=
Actually the "th" sounds had always been present in Old English. Indeed, proto-Germanic had "th" in many words which have survived directly in English and Scots as well as Icelandic. Many other Germanic languages seem to have dropped them in the meantime.
I had a question about why so many modern Germanic languages seem to have dropped these interdentals which I posted on unilang. I'll give you the link to my message(my username is svenska84 there). If you look down to my second message on the page you can see the proto Germanic words and the modern Icelandic and English equivalents:
http://home.unilang.org/main/forum/viewtopic.php?t=6222&highlight=
Kirk, actually, one important note though is that English actually has *lost* the original Common Germanic /D/, whidh became /d/ in it, and that the Modern English /D/ is actually descended from the allophone [D] of Old English /T/ (descended from Common Germanic /T/), which happened to get frozen as a new phoneme /D/ during the Middle English period.
Yes, thanks for pointing that out, Travis. That's right--original /T/ was either /T/ or allophonically /D/ (intervocalically) in Old English, but the two are now mildly contrastive and as such no longer allophones, even tho they arose from underlying /T/.
It's interesting how occurrences of /D/ are so heavily clustered in function words: the, this, that, there, thence, thither, them, then, than, though. I guess some aspect of how function words were treated (stress, intonation?) caused /T/ to mutate into /D/.
As Kirk said, /T/ and /D/ are now separate phonemes, although it's hard to find minimal pairs. The only one I can think of is the function word "their" versus the surname "Thayer". Are there any others?
As Kirk said, /T/ and /D/ are now separate phonemes, although it's hard to find minimal pairs. The only one I can think of is the function word "their" versus the surname "Thayer". Are there any others?