Interesting language characteristics 3

[sleipnir214]

In thread1256-1032369, SantaMufasa posted:

Keep in mind that articles ('a','an','the') do not exist in many languages.

I knew that Russian does not support articles (and, if recall correctly, conjugation of the verb "to be" in the first-person present tense). Out of monkey curiosity, what other languages do not support articles?


Also, a lot of Romance languages do not support the neuter gender. As I studied German, which supports an explicit neuter gender, in both high school and college, this came as something of a surprise to me.

Anyone know of other interesting characteristics of languages other than English?

 

[Stella740pl]

Well, many other Slavic languages don't support articles, too. Like Ukrainian, and, if I am not mistaken, Polish an Belorussian, too. They support neuter gender, too, but it's probably not exactly what you mean.

As far as I know, Hebrew has an equivalent of "the" article, but not "a" or "an".

 

[SantaMufasa]

Another "peculiarity" about English that most other languages handle in a much improved fashion is our placement of modifiers relative to nouns: English speakers "inefficiently" place adjectives in front of nouns, causing the reader to "remember" the adjectives until you encounter the noun which the adjective(s) modify.

An example: That is an attractive, talented, precocious, articulate young woman.

In other languages, the construction would read: That is a woman young attractive, talented, precocious, articulate.

Much better to know what one is describing before one describes it (IMHO).

Mufasa
(aka Dave of Sandy, Utah, USA)

http://www.dasages.com

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[SilentAiche]

SantaMufasa,

Did you get her number telephone?

Tim

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[SantaMufasa]

Phone number? Heck, I married her !!!

Mufasa
(aka Dave of Sandy, Utah, USA)

http://www.dasages.com

Do you use Oracle and live or work in Utah, USA?
Then click here to join Utah Oracle Users Group on Tek-Tips.

 

[SilentAiche]

Well, just for that I'm not going to ask for her number.

Tim

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If you need immediate assistance, please raise your hand.[/blue]

 

[rwong]

CC may probably help with the accuracy

There is a language ( i don´t remember if it is from Indonesia or Thailand) that doesn´t have a word to deny things (Imagine that). They don´t have a "no".
The way they figure out to deny stuff is to propose something imposible to achieve,


Rick

 

[tsdragon]

Sounds like some project managers I've known.

Tracy Dryden

Meddle not in the affairs of dragons,
For you are crunchy, and good with mustard.

 

[Chacalinc]

They don´t have a "no"

This is the sales language. Some project managers have been using it too (unfortunately).

 

[CajunCenturion]

Sorry rwong, but I am not aware of that language, but I am interested in learning about it.

I do know that the Filipinos try to avoid using 'no' as they fear it may hurt your feelings, but that's not quite the same thing.

Good Luck
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[sleipnir214]

I'm wondering if the language rwong is describing has no explicit word for "no", but rather uses affixes to express negation or has an explicit word for "not".

This article states that in Irish (a.k.a. Irish Gaelic), there are no explicit words for "yes" and "no", but that when answering in the negative one repeats the questioner's verb with, if necessary, a negation of the verb. The example the page gives is that if the question is "Got milk?", the answers in Irish would take the forms "Got" for the affirmative and "Not got" for the negative.


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TANSTAAFL!!

 

[SilentAiche]

I heard about the no "no" language just recently during the television coverage of the tsunami devastation. It's an island people somewhere in that region, perhaps off Malaysia, but I don't recall their name. Hopefully this narrows it down, CC.

Tim

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If you are outside of Raleigh, raise your hand and say[/blue] [red]Ooh! Ooh![/red]

 

[sleipnir214]

This page states that Thai has no word for no. Answers in the negative take the form "not yes".


Want the best answers? Ask the best questions!

TANSTAAFL!!

 

[CajunCenturion]

I is also possible that the language in question is an agglutinative language. That means that words are built up by co-joining morphemes. In such a language, you may not have a word that means 'no', but you might have a morpheme that means no. You will affix, either pre- or post-, the negative morpheme to the root word to create the negative term.

Good Luck
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[SilentAiche]

[blue]Non-yes[/blue]?

Interesting, but cumbersome, or so it seems to not-you.

Tim

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[LFCfan]

There is a language (I'm afraid I can no longer remember which - might be Indonesian, or a language from that part of the world) where there isn't such a thing as plural (or not in all cases, or something), so they say things twice.
My parents went there on holiday once, and the "ladies and gentlemen" announcement made in the local tongue was "lady lady and gentleman gentleman".

Either that or my parents did some serious mis-hearing. They were young then, but it's always a possibility

 

[SantaMufasa]

The people and their language to which Tim (SilentAiche) refers are the Moken, sea-faring nomadic islanders that live on the islands off the coast of Thailand and Mayanmar (Burma) in the Andaman Sea. Their culture and language are distinct from those of Tailand and Mayanmar.

Among the words that are missing from their language are: "When" ("time" is not the same concept for them as it is for us; they have no notion of "time"), "Want", "Take" (to nomads, accumulating "things" is not a beneficial concept), "Good-bye", "Hello" (they have no words for greeting or farewells), and "Worry" are all missing from their language.

Mufasa
(aka Dave of Sandy, Utah, USA)

http://www.dasages.com

Do you use Oracle and live or work in Utah, USA?
Then click here to join Utah Oracle Users Group on Tek-Tips.

 

[CajunCenturion]

Thank you rwong, SilentAiche, and SantaMufasa for being instigators.

Moken does have 'no' (kan or hah) in its vocabulary. However, Moken is one of over a thousand derivatives of the Proto-Malayo-Polynesian (Austronesian) family of languages, some of which do not appear to have 'no' or 'not' in them.

This site, Austronesian Basic Vocabulary Database, provides of nice table of 'no' or 'not' in a variety of PMP languages.

Good Luck
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[SantaMufasa]

Cool, CC !

Mufasa
(aka Dave of Sandy, Utah, USA)

http://www.dasages.com

Do you use Oracle and live or work in Utah, USA?
Then click here to join Utah Oracle Users Group on Tek-Tips.

 

[rwong]

Thank you CC,

I will keep this table away from my boss.
I don´t want him to have ten thousand different ways to say ´no´... if I ask him for a salary raise

Rick