Reply to: Gotta love learning russian

[darmstadt]

Back in 1993 I was involved in a project with the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Russian Space Agency , (IKI) which involved the transfer of an IBM midrange computer, being part of the initial planning for the International Space Station.

Based in Germany at the time I was taught Russian for several months, altough I had to translate German to Russian , I did find it took about six months to become accuostemed to the Cyrillic script and the grammer can be daunting, but dont get too hung up about this, if you simply listen to the Russian language it is very easy to pick up.

I had a marvellous time when I went to Moscow, the Russians are friendly and intelligent and were great to work with.

But do visit St Petersburg which is is achingly beautiful , so much so I went back there again a few yeas ago.

And then a few years later I was involved in transferring a couple of mainframe computers from there to Russia. Didn't bother with learning the language, just pointed at the big boxes and told them to take them away. The blokes had driven straight through from Minsk in a couple of old lorries which they loaded up and then drove straight back.

[WageSlave]

According to Wikipedia...

Hungarian is a member of the Ugric languages, a sub-group of the Finno-Ugric language family, which in turn is a branch of the Uralic languages. Connections between the Ugric and Finnic languages were noticed in the 1670s and established, along with the entire Uralic family

[AlfredJPruffock]

Aye WS

Interesting to reflect that both the Finns and the Hungararians are well known for being prone to depression, I wonder if this is a consequence of being exposed to such an odd language, well just a thought !

Pip Pip !!!

AJP

[Francko]

That's true, Alf. I believe it's also similar to Estonian. However, none of them belong to the common Indo-European family of languages. Off the top of my head I can't remember which family they belong to (and I can't be arsed to google for it), but I when I was learning Hungarian I recall something in the text book about a shared root with Persian. I'm sure Threaded can enlighten us

Yes it is, Estonian/Finnish/Hungarian come from the same root. Not latvian, though, which is closer to lithuanian.

[WageSlave]

Not so fast WS, I think you will find that Hungarian is very similar indeed to Finnish, this odd fact continues to puzzle linguistics

That's true, Alf. I believe it's also similar to Estonian. However, none of them belong to the common Indo-European family of languages. Off the top of my head I can't remember which family they belong to (and I can't be arsed to google for it), but I when I was learning Hungarian I recall something in the text book about a shared root with Persian. I'm sure Threaded can enlighten us

[AlfredJPruffock]

However, both are easy compared to Hungarian which is a complete bitch and doesn't have anything in common with other European languages!

Not so fast WS, I think you will find that Hungarian is very similar indeed to Finnish, this odd fact continues to puzzle linguistics

[steve'O]

So Mr Bond...These Spectre Agents are trying to lure you into a trap using a Soviet encryption machine called a Lektor, as revenge for the death of Dr No.........

[WageSlave]

That's a problem with slavic/eastern languages in general. They have all variations of sounds like tzzz, gzzz, tccc,sccc, jzzzz.... I can't do them as I was never able to reproduce the dutch "g".... there are limits to what sounds the human mouth can reproduce without poking....

On a more serious note, there is a sound in Polish on certain 'a' and 'e' letters (don't have the exact letter on this keyboard), which basically sounds like the 'aw' in 'prawn'. That, along with all their brz, kszy, tryzs, etc....bloody nightmare!

[WageSlave]

there are limits to what sounds the human mouth can reproduce without poking....

I find the mouth tends to make a sucking noise when it's poking.

[Francko]

I don't envy you, hyperD. It's a very interesting language, but I'm glad I left that headache behind And everything is based around the suffix, which doesn't help.

I recall they have an awkward way of pronouncing their 's', which is completely different to the Slavic languages. Koszonom szepen (sp). Szeretlek! In Polish, 's' = s and 'sz' = sh, but in Hungarian it's the opposite
Still, it's a beautiful language, particularly when created by the likes of Sandor Petofi.

That's a problem with slavic/eastern languages in general. They have all variations of sounds like tzzz, gzzz, tccc,sccc, jzzzz.... I can't do them as I was never able to reproduce the dutch "g".... there are limits to what sounds the human mouth can reproduce without poking....

[hyperD]

Yep, the s/sh and sz/s is very confusing. There's even a zs which is s, as in measure.

Mind you, as long as I have the translation for "Where's me ****ing dinner b1tch?" and "Two beers please" I'll be OK.

I haven't got round to finishing the first sentence but the 2nd one is:-

"Meg ket sort kerek"

One for the Lingual First Aid kit.

[WageSlave]

I don't envy you, hyperD. It's a very interesting language, but I'm glad I left that headache behind And everything is based around the suffix, which doesn't help.

I recall they have an awkward way of pronouncing their 's', which is completely different to the Slavic languages. Koszonom szepen (sp). Szeretlek! In Polish, 's' = s and 'sz' = sh, but in Hungarian it's the opposite
Still, it's a beautiful language, particularly when created by the likes of Sandor Petofi.

[hyperD]

However, both are easy compared to Hungarian which is a complete bitch and doesn't have anything in common with other European languages!

Yep, I'd agree with that. So far, I've managed to learn some nouns and very basic sentences. The lack of personal pronouns and gender make it very confusing.

My greatest achievement to date has been pointing at the animals in a zoo repeating their Hungarian names in an appalling accent, which has the effect of parents hurrying their little Zoltan away from the strange, retarded man.

[The Late, Great JC]

Pop had Janet up the tulipter.
I enjoyed myself very much, such a beautiful arse.
Just like Patricia.

That's almost Haiku! Post it on the Friday Poetry Corner!

[Pop]

Is that the one where John takes it up the arse from 'Pop'?

Hey hey hey. What is this I hear? Pop acting like a Mary Queen? I gonna lose my temper with you in a minute.

Pop had Janet up the tulipter. I enjoyed myself very much, such a beautiful arse. Just like Patricia.