Really??? Is it true?? everyone can understand written and spoken italian whitout having studied it?? and even if not neolatin speaker? this looks very strange, dear nordic friend...are you sure? you are sayng that italian could talk to chinese, ungharian, indonesian, danish or (anyway) people who speak every kind of language and beening understood?? I can't believe! I have never heard spoken italian, I know that in written form it looks similar to other languages such spanish or romanian or french, for example but they are latin language too! I have studied romanian and french for several years and traveled a lot (I visited Portugal, Romania, France, Andorra as latin country) so I know sometingh about romance language and for me it could be (sometime, not always) easy understend sometingh in written italian...but you admit that a person from Latvia (just like me) could listen an italian person talking and understand it whitout using an interpreter??? Please!! someone tell me!!! Is it really possible?? Is italian really so easy and stupid as faroese says?????
Lexical similarities between French-Spanish-Italian
As a professional I cannot in good faith participate in these ongoing discussions. Although I found some of the commentaries compelling, and at times even amusing, 'mudslinging' is not my way. At any rate, my opinion still stands; the Portuguese and Spanish languages are the most closely connected of all the Romance languages. It is the view that has been substantiated through abundant and thorough research. It is also the view that is prevalent in academia. I only encourage that you to, above all else, exercise reason in your debates. Getting angry, being condescending, and using expletives is not the academic way.
Cheers,
Prof. Scott Ridley
To my knowlegde, the only commentator's swearing or cussing in here are JGreco and guests whom use profanity as their means to make a statement.
In addition,
Cheers,
Prof. Scott Ridley
To my knowlegde, the only commentator's swearing or cussing in here are JGreco and guests whom use profanity as their means to make a statement.
In addition,
From Faroe Islands: I hat,
Danish is actually intelligible for English speakers, Danish sounds like a upbeat and quick mouth-movement form of Dutch or what have you.
Italian, Spanish and Romanians' phonetics are simple and concise, due to the fact they're genuine conservatives to the original latin intonation and amongst other things debated ad nauseam.
Danish is actually intelligible for English speakers, Danish sounds like a upbeat and quick mouth-movement form of Dutch or what have you.
Italian, Spanish and Romanians' phonetics are simple and concise, due to the fact they're genuine conservatives to the original latin intonation and amongst other things debated ad nauseam.
Of course it is not true that anyone can understand it. I am French and although it is very similar to Italian in many ways, I still had to learn at least the basics before anyone could really understand me well enough.
As with any language, you can't assume that you don't need to learn at least the basics - Italian is no exception. Easy is a subjective word...what is easy for some may be hard for others. I do agree about one thing alVanDem said though. Having been to Italy several times on business, I do think that the Italians in general tend to have this sort of arrogant attitude about themselves which can be very annoying. For example, they often think that everyone speaks and understands Italian, or at least they should. Not so at all. There are only a small number of languages pairs in the world that are greatly compatible, where you can communicate easily with the speakers of the other without ever having studied that language, Portuguese and Spanish being just one example.
What Italians themselves tend to forget is that Italy is far from being a linguistically, culturally and historically homogenous country. There are many, many differences from north to south, east to west. And don't forget either that Italy up until only a few hundred years was made up many of city/states, with different histories and languages of their own, some of which are still alive and well today. Yes, there is a standard language (modern Italian), but many Italians are still not well versed in it(although education is changing this).
As has been mentioned by some in this forum, the Italian dialects (which in some cases are really languages in their own right e.g., Sicilian, Neopolitan, and maybe Calabrese, are still firmly entrenched in the towns and villages all across Italy.
As with any language, you can't assume that you don't need to learn at least the basics - Italian is no exception. Easy is a subjective word...what is easy for some may be hard for others. I do agree about one thing alVanDem said though. Having been to Italy several times on business, I do think that the Italians in general tend to have this sort of arrogant attitude about themselves which can be very annoying. For example, they often think that everyone speaks and understands Italian, or at least they should. Not so at all. There are only a small number of languages pairs in the world that are greatly compatible, where you can communicate easily with the speakers of the other without ever having studied that language, Portuguese and Spanish being just one example.
What Italians themselves tend to forget is that Italy is far from being a linguistically, culturally and historically homogenous country. There are many, many differences from north to south, east to west. And don't forget either that Italy up until only a few hundred years was made up many of city/states, with different histories and languages of their own, some of which are still alive and well today. Yes, there is a standard language (modern Italian), but many Italians are still not well versed in it(although education is changing this).
As has been mentioned by some in this forum, the Italian dialects (which in some cases are really languages in their own right e.g., Sicilian, Neopolitan, and maybe Calabrese, are still firmly entrenched in the towns and villages all across Italy.
Cool!!! I discovered I can write in my native language without any problem....cool!!!!!!!! se è vero quello che dice il nostro amico faroese (isole stupende, a mio avviso, beato te che hai la fortuna di vivere lì) non ci sarà più bisogno per me e per i miei connazionali di sforzarci quando andiamo all'estero!! tutto sarà più semplice e lo stesso sarà quando riceveremo i turisti....certo quello che non capisco è tutto questo accanimento e addirittura forse odio nei confronti della nostra lingua così come non capisco il perchè del sentirsi orgogliosi del fatto che la propria lingua non si presti a facile interpretazione: questo significa isolamento culturale e comunicativo...ma l'uomo, caro amico scandinavo, è nato per comunicare e per socializzare, e il primo mezzo di comunicazione è proprio la parola...quindi io dovrei essere orgoglioso di parlare una lingua che tu definisci "stupida" perchè, a tuo avviso, compresa da tutti e che quindi dovrebbe (sempre secondo la tua logica) divenire la lingua del futuro, una sorta di esperanto....tutto di guadagnato per noi italiani :) L'unica cosa che non riesco a capire e come faccia un cinese o un turco o un armeno a comprendere quello che diciamo, tenuto conto che ho menzionato lingue appartenenti a famiglie separate e che condividono praticamente lo 0% in termini di lessico o di strutture morfologico- sintattiche...anyway
BYE BYE!!!!
BYE BYE!!!!
Italian guest, you can not write in italian, because the forum rules say that we must write in english so everyone can understand....anyway I am not sure that italian is a so stupid language and that everyone can understand it...for example I am not able to....so...am I stupid (but I don't believe so) or is faroe wrong??? please tell us!!!
Bye
Bye
<<Italian guest, you can not write in italian, because the forum rules say that we must write in english so everyone can understand>>
No, according to the rules you should not write in languages other than English in the English forum (ie not in the Languages forum). Italian Guest is free to write in any language that he pleases in the Languages forum. Et moi aussi d'ailleurs. En fait, tout le monde ! :-)
No, according to the rules you should not write in languages other than English in the English forum (ie not in the Languages forum). Italian Guest is free to write in any language that he pleases in the Languages forum. Et moi aussi d'ailleurs. En fait, tout le monde ! :-)
English speaker men take translation website on lexilogo, to undestand other language please.
Eric
ok. Italian guest can write in any language he pleases, but i did not understand what it's written in her (his) message....do you understand it, instead? if yes, please translate for me
ok. Italian guest can write in any language he pleases, but i did not understand what it's written in her (his) message....do you understand it, instead? if yes, please translate for me
<<i did not understand what it's written in her (his) message>>
Well that's the point: he was stating the fact that no, his language is not a language that anyone can understand.
The other idea I liked about his message was that *even if* Italian was really a language that anyone could understand, he did not see why that would make it stupid. Indeed, a language that anyone could understand would be such a valuable tool.
PS: I'm only translating because I agree with him and because I cared to. Next time you'll have to rely on Babelfish I'm afraid. :-P
Well that's the point: he was stating the fact that no, his language is not a language that anyone can understand.
The other idea I liked about his message was that *even if* Italian was really a language that anyone could understand, he did not see why that would make it stupid. Indeed, a language that anyone could understand would be such a valuable tool.
PS: I'm only translating because I agree with him and because I cared to. Next time you'll have to rely on Babelfish I'm afraid. :-P
No matter what you say Spanish and Italian are closer to each other than to French.
Just look at the syntaxes of both Spanish and Italian and compare them to French syntax.
Here a list of words which proves how close Spanish and Italian are.
comprar/comprare vs acheter
sueñar/sognare vs rêver
bailar/ballare vs danser
llamar/chiamare vs appeller
llave/chiave vs clé
como esta/come sta vs comment-allez vous
(Yo/Io) canto vs Je chante
gato/gatto vs chat
Por favor/per favore vs s'il vous plait
suerte/sorte vs chance
cuanto/quanto vs combien
azul/azzuro vs bleu
Just look at the syntaxes of both Spanish and Italian and compare them to French syntax.
Here a list of words which proves how close Spanish and Italian are.
comprar/comprare vs acheter
sueñar/sognare vs rêver
bailar/ballare vs danser
llamar/chiamare vs appeller
llave/chiave vs clé
como esta/come sta vs comment-allez vous
(Yo/Io) canto vs Je chante
gato/gatto vs chat
Por favor/per favore vs s'il vous plait
suerte/sorte vs chance
cuanto/quanto vs combien
azul/azzuro vs bleu
Lets add Portuguese to the equation
comprar/comprare vs acheter / comprar
sueñar/sognare vs rêver / senhor (ñ, gn and nh all sound the same)
bailar/ballare vs danser / dançar
llamar/chiamare vs appeller / chamar
llave/chiave vs clé / chave
como esta/come sta vs comment-allez vous / como esta
(Yo/Io) canto vs Je chante / Eu canto
gato/gatto vs chat / gato
Por favor/per favore vs s'il vous plait / faz favor (por favor is less used)
suerte/sorte vs chance / sorte
cuanto/quanto vs combien / quanto
azul/azzuro vs bleu / azul
comprar/comprare vs acheter / comprar
sueñar/sognare vs rêver / senhor (ñ, gn and nh all sound the same)
bailar/ballare vs danser / dançar
llamar/chiamare vs appeller / chamar
llave/chiave vs clé / chave
como esta/come sta vs comment-allez vous / como esta
(Yo/Io) canto vs Je chante / Eu canto
gato/gatto vs chat / gato
Por favor/per favore vs s'il vous plait / faz favor (por favor is less used)
suerte/sorte vs chance / sorte
cuanto/quanto vs combien / quanto
azul/azzuro vs bleu / azul
Correction:
sueñar/sognare vs rêver / sonhar (ñ, gn and nh all sound the same)
sueñar/sognare vs rêver / sonhar (ñ, gn and nh all sound the same)
My inglish no so good but I try my best. This italian words was no clear for me in paragraph from 'Italian Guest'. The problem about italian for me is so many words differents, or words looks similar, but has differents meaning. For me, if paragraph was say by Italian person, I will miss alot. Any way, this italian words I dont understand:
beato, più bisogno, connazionali, sforzarci, andiamo, estero, semplice, stesso, riceveremo, capisco, accanimento, addirittura, forse, confronti, così, perchè, presti, l'uomo, nato, parola, quindi, dovrei, dovrebbe, divenire, guadagnato, capire, faccia, diciamo, tenuto, appartenenti, condividono,
beato, più bisogno, connazionali, sforzarci, andiamo, estero, semplice, stesso, riceveremo, capisco, accanimento, addirittura, forse, confronti, così, perchè, presti, l'uomo, nato, parola, quindi, dovrei, dovrebbe, divenire, guadagnato, capire, faccia, diciamo, tenuto, appartenenti, condividono,
Correction:
soñar/sognare vs rêver / sonhar (ñ, gn and nh all sound the same)
soñar/sognare vs rêver / sonhar (ñ, gn and nh all sound the same)