Closest language to your language.

>>Modern advances in linguistics over the last twenty five (25) years are making it it less difficult to prove. In 1966, Russian linguists found evidence of a distant relationship between Chinese and Basque, an ancient language that was once spoken in much of western Europe and the British Isles. As far back as the 1920's Edward Sapir demonstrated the relationship between Chinese and the Athabaskan group of American Indian languages. Some linguists today would extend that to include the Uto-Aztecan and Pacific Northwest Amrican Indian languages too.<<

Many a crackpot out there has claimed relationship between <such and such random language whose status genetically is not certain> and Basque, so to say that some people "found evidence of a distant relationship" between Chinese and Basque is not saying much.

Croatian: Trebate lijepo pjevati.

Serbian: Treba da lepo pevate.

Well the 'Out of Africa' theory that anthropologists have suggested would explain this phenomenon. This would make all tounges related from one (or a few more) mother tounges that were spoken in Africa at the time of the mass migration.

<<Ayer fui a la tienda y compré una manzana. Mientre yo estaba a la tienda, vi un niño que conozco e le saludé. Entonces, salía la tienda y emprendí a comer la manzana, pero empezó a llover. Corrí alla tienda y quesdé ahí por una media hora más.>>

I think this is what you're trying to say:

Ayer fuí a la tienda y compré una manzana. Mientras yo estaba en la tienda, vi un niño que conozco y le saludé. Entonces, salí de la tienda y *comenzé* a comer la manzana, pero empezó a llover. Corrí a la tienda y *me* quedé ahí por una media hora mas.

From what I understood in Italian, you are putting the past tense as
"Mientras yo estaba en la tienda, yo he visto un niño que conosco y lo he saludado"

This is equivalent to saying
"While I was at the store, I have seen a child that I knew, and I have greeted him"

While you can say it and get your point across, it sounds awkward.
"Mientras yo estaba en la tienda, vi un niño que conozco y le saludé"
Mentre ero al negozio, ho visto un ragazzo che conosco e l'ho salutato.

the closest language to my language (Brazilian Portuguese) is
Uruguayan Spanish.

JR, are you talking to me?

I was trying to illustrate the differences in verb choices between Italian and Spanish. Yes, the Italian translated word for word into Spanish would sound awkward, but it is correct Italian (spoken). Since my Italian has replaced much of my Spanish I can't correctly gauge the awkwardness in Spanish.

There is a reason I wrote, "Mientras yo estaba en la tienda, vi un niño que conozco y le saludé" and tried to stay away from a word for word translation from Italian.

Could you reword the sentence so that it sound less awkward?

Juliane Mon Sep 18, 2006 10:45 pm GMT
"the closest language to my language (Brazilian Portuguese) is
Uruguayan Spanish."

I think you forgott to mention European Portuguese which is certainly much closer to your language than Uruguaian Spanish. But after it, the closest language to yours is really Rioplatense Spanish (The Spanish spoken in Argentina and Uruguai).

Ayazid

««I think you forgott to mention European Portuguese which is certainly much closer to your language than Uruguaian Spanish.»»

Brazilian Portuguese and European Portuguese are the same language just like the Spanish spoken in Argentina is the same language as the Spanish spoken in Uruguai or in Spain.

''Brazilian Portuguese and European Portuguese are the same language ''

Yeah right, that's why every single movie and tv series from Portugal is dubbed here into Brazilian Portuguese. We don't understand A THING portuguese people say. It's because of their neglected phonetics which clips vowels and favors consonants and multiple consonant groups strange to our ears.

<<Yeah right, that's why every single movie and tv series from Portugal is dubbed here into Brazilian Portuguese>>

It is dubbed to look like it was made in Brazil and actors are Brazilian.

<<We don't understand A THING portuguese people say>>

This is because you are not Brazilian.

<< It's because of their neglected phonetics which clips vowels and favors consonants and multiple consonant groups strange to our ears.>>

A dumd comment which does not surprise me. You never heard Brazilian Portugese "neglected" phonetics that clips consonants.

Brazilian Portuguese different regional varieties are also strange to your ears? You , like others in this forum, think that there is only one accent in Brazil , the soap opera accent.

<<We don't understand A THING portuguese people say.>>

You, I believe you don't understand a thing, but do not talk like other Brazilians have the same problems you have.

dumd = dumb
Portugese =Portuguese

Tiffany:
"Mientras yo estaba en la tienda, vi un niño que conozco y le saludé"
That sentence is correct, but you had written "e le saludé" instead of "y le saludé".

However that aside (which would probably not be noticed in a conversation), I was referring to using 'haber' instead of simple past when I said it was awkward. I was just trying to stress that, while you would get your point across, saying "Yo he visto un niño que conozco" instead of "Yo ví un niño que conosco", would be awkward, though correct.

And I've yet to see a case where Italian doesn't translate word for word into Spanish (with this present situation already discussed). However I do not read much Italian and in most cases do not bother to analyze it as such, so if there are any they are not major enough that I have noticed and remembered.

I'm sorry, I just thought of some. Still, they don't go past just being awkward rather than incomprehensible.

Sorry about the "e" instead of "y" thing. I used to say "y" in Italian al the time, now everything is reversed as my Itlaian has overtaken my Spanish.

My point was that Italian uses passato prossimo (avere or essere as auxillary verb + past participle similar to pretérito perfecto compuesto) in everyday speech, not passato remoto, which is mirrors the pretérito perfecto simple used in everyday Spanish.

Thus, they do not translate word for word in terms of tenses used.

Hi Tiffany,

>>My point was that Italian uses passato prossimo (avere or essere as auxillary verb + past participle similar to pretérito perfecto compuesto) in everyday speech, not passato remoto, which is mirrors the pretérito perfecto simple used in everyday Spanish.

I completely agree with you. It is the same situation in French, which was commented in the thread "Passé simple".

The funny thing is that European Spanish is using the same tendency as Italian and French, in preferring the composed past instead of the simple tense.

Gringo

<<Brazilian Portuguese and European Portuguese are the same language just like the Spanish spoken in Argentina is the same language as the Spanish spoken in Uruguai or in Spain.>>


Yes, they are basically just 2 variants of the same language, whereas the differences between them are probably a little more pronounced in spoken language and its phonetic than in written language.