Language Poll

[Dus]

@Yuki & Dus: Some people find slang and dialects more of a problem than accents with British-English and Scottish-English, though admittedly even the English don't understand Scottish-English (Shows like Rab C Nesbitt, where the characters speak in heavy Scottish-English accents and dialects, actually have to be subtitled in England). The main problem is that there are over 900 different accents and dialects in the British Isles, as opposed to 12 across the US. This gives even fluent foreign speakers of English difficulty with British-English and Scottish-English, since it's so variable. Also, British-English speech is generally much faster than American-English, and Scottish-English even faster than that. (My American relatives spend half of our conversations asking me to slow down and explain what i'm saying XD). It's not that uncommon, it just takes practice.

Yay, a discussion about dialects^^
Are you Scottish, mangaluva? Where fae?
There are a lot more different dialects in the Uk because English has been spoken for a longer time there. You can actually find out where a language originated by comparing dialectification or whatever the correct term. Politics also play an important role in the evolution of dialects, Germany's dialects are as diverse as English dialects, because it used to consist of a plethora of different countries. Dutch used to be a German dialect (hence the name) but when the Netherlands became an idependeted country, they have started to develop their own standard language.
Scots has for a long time evolved separately from English until the Scottish started using Scottish English.
I also have a hard time understand dialects like Geordie or Scouse. I'm not sure you're right in saying that BE or SE is generally faster than AE. (Unless you're comparing it to the Southern drawl)
It differs hugely, both from region to region but also from class to class. The working classes talk pretty fast, be it Cockney or Glaswegian, but the posher they are the slower they speak. Really posh people speak at a much slower pace than the average American.
A fun fact: If you speak with a British accent, Americans estimate your IQ  +10 points. I remember that from a story we read in school about a Black Englishman in the States. When they saw him, they thought he was less intelligent than them, but then he opened his mouth and all of sudden he was the most intelligent man in the room.^^

[YukiNoHana]

Hey Dus, you know so much about stuff
What do you do for a living?
Also what the heck is "Bavarian"? Is it some kind of German dialect?

[Dus]

It is and so is Swabian. Actually, you cannot really curse properly in Standard German that's why I made the distinction.

[YukiNoHana]

It is and so is Swabian. Actually, you cannot really curse properly in Standard German that's why I made the distinction.

You mean there are no nasty words in Standard German??

[Dus]

Hardly any.
If you're annoyed about something, there is basically just one:
Scheiße
F*** has invaded the German language as well, but I doesn't have any of the impact it has in English (That's why Germans tend to overuse it when they speak English)
In Bavarian, I could go on for hours without repeating myself.
There are slightly more when you want to insult s.o.
Another fun fact:
"Leck mich am Arsch" (lit. lick my ass) is one of the worst insults in the German language.
If you say that to someone, they can sue you. Unless you'r Bavarian because we use this phrase to express mild astonishment.

[YukiNoHana]

Hardly any.
If you're annoyed about something, there is basically just one:
Scheiße
F*** has invaded the German language as well, but I doesn't have any of the impact it has in English (That's why Germans tend to overuse it when they speak English)
In Bavarian, I could go on for hours without repeating myself.
There are slightly more when you want to insult s.o.
Another fun fact:
"Leck mich am Arsch" (lit. lick my ass) is one of the worst insults in the German language.
If you say that to someone, they can sue you. Unless you'r Bavarian because we use this phrase to express mild astonishment.

Then you should be lucky that you're German, in the Polish language we have lots of bad words and some people are overusing them sadly, but actually most of the bad words used came originally from the Russian language.

[NotSoFluent]

I'm a native English speaker.  However, I can roughly understand French (studied for four years) as well as Latin (studied for two years).  I've taught myself a bit of Japanese on and off, but plan to take classes in Japanese in the fall.  ã

[Callid]

Hardly any.
If you're annoyed about something, there is basically just one:
Scheiße

What about "Kacke" oder "Mist" (all three of them mean "shit" in English, BTW)? It's not that bad with nouns. But there are hardly any adjectives, the only one I know is "verdammt" (damned). So, evem if you are really, really, annoyed by something, more than "Verdammte Scheiße!" is not possible...

F*** has invaded the German language as well, but I doesn't have any of the impact it has in English (That's why Germans tend to overuse it when they speak English)

Well, "hype" hasn't, but "hyping" (sometimes also the Germanized version, "verfickter") has a LOT of impact, but is (very?) seldom used. Probably more than in English, but I haven't seen it in English often enough.

In Bavarian, I could go on for hours without repeating myself.

Oh ja. Vor allem im Schafkopf, wenn man dann mal wieder so ein hundsmieses, deppertes Blatt - ähm, ja.

[Akonyl]

F*** has invaded the German language as well, but I doesn't have any of the impact it has in English (That's why Germans tend to overuse it when they speak English)

Well, "hype" hasn't, but "hyping" (sometimes also the Germanized version, "verfickter") has a LOT of impact, but is (very?) seldom used. Probably more than in English, but I haven't seen it in English often enough.

if you hung around me in real life you'd hear it plenty.

[Dus]

What about "Kacke" oder "Mist" (all three of them mean "shit" in English, BTW)? It's not that bad with nouns. But there are hardly any adjectives, the only one I know is "verdammt" (damned). So, evem if you are really, really, annoyed by something, more than "Verdammte Scheiße!" is not possible...

Kacke and Mist have no shock value whatsoever, that's why I didn't include them.

Well, "hype" hasn't, but "hyping" (sometimes also the Germanized version, "verfickter") has a LOT of impact, but is (very?) seldom used. Probably more than in English, but I haven't seen it in English often enough.

You use f***ing as an adjective? Sounds even less idiomatic then verfickter if you ask me. If anything, it'd have less impact because of its oddity.
You can't use f*** in a German sentence, but it's frequently used as an exclamation.

Oh ja. Vor allem im Schafkopf, wenn man dann mal wieder so ein hundsmieses, deppertes Blatt - ähm, ja.

Aahhh...Schafkopf.. Bestes Spiel wo gibt.
Genau das ist der Nachteil vom Online-Schafkopf: Man kann seinen Unmut nicht adäquat zum Ausdruck bringen.

[NotSoFluent]

You use f***ing as an adjective? Sounds even less idiomatic then verfickter if you ask me.
You can't use f*** in a German sentence, but it's frequently used as an exclamation.

In English, "f*cking" is used for emphasizing something, usually in a negative/vulgar manner.  For example, "f*cking jerk" or "f*cking jackass" makes an insult sound nastier.  So yeah, it technically can be used as an adjective in English.  It's rude, obviously, but can be used.  I can't see "f*cking" working as an adjective in German though, like you said.

[mangaluva]

You use f***ing as an adjective? Sounds even less idiomatic then verfickter if you ask me.
You can't use f*** in a German sentence, but it's frequently used as an exclamation.

In English, "f*cking" is used for emphasizing something, usually in a negative/vulgar manner.  For example, "f*cking jerk" or "f*cking jackass" makes an insult sound nastier.  So yeah, it technically can be used as an adjective in English.  It's rude, obviously, but can be used.  I can't see "f*cking" working as an adjective in German though, like you said.

In English, the F-bomb is pretty much all-purpose. It can be used for emphasis- "F*cking rubbish" means extraordinarily rubbish, but "F*ucking brilliant" means extraordinarily brilliant (though this is subject to sarcasm). It can be a noun- someone can be a "stupid f*ck"- an adjective, a verb, anything. We can be very creative

[mangaluva]

@Yuki & Dus: Some people find slang and dialects more of a problem than accents with British-English and Scottish-English, though admittedly even the English don't understand Scottish-English (Shows like Rab C Nesbitt, where the characters speak in heavy Scottish-English accents and dialects, actually have to be subtitled in England). The main problem is that there are over 900 different accents and dialects in the British Isles, as opposed to 12 across the US. This gives even fluent foreign speakers of English difficulty with British-English and Scottish-English, since it's so variable. Also, British-English speech is generally much faster than American-English, and Scottish-English even faster than that. (My American relatives spend half of our conversations asking me to slow down and explain what i'm saying XD). It's not that uncommon, it just takes practice.

Yay, a discussion about dialects^^
Are you Scottish, mangaluva? Where fae?

I live near Edinburgh, but since I was born in Colorado, I have a really bizarre accent that's a mix of American and Scotch, which always makes people ask me where i'm from but at least means I can pronounce both Edinburgh and New Orleans correctly XD
(If I wrote like I speak, this sentance would look something like this -> 'F ah wrot li'e ah speak, 'his sen'ance'd look li'e 'his.)

There are a lot more different dialects in the Uk because English has been spoken for a longer time there. You can actually find out where a language originated by comparing dialectification or whatever the correct term. Politics also play an important role in the evolution of dialects, Germany's dialects are as diverse as English dialects, because it used to consist of a plethora of different countries. Dutch used to be a German dialect (hence the name) but when the Netherlands became an idependeted country, they have started to develop their own standard language.

The fact that English is from (duh) England does explain how it's expanded so much there and the surrounding countries. English is a strange language, though; there are hundreds of words that are bastardizations of Dutch, German, French and Latin, and of course there is Cockney Rhyming slang, versions of which are everywhere and intended to be confusing (slang dialects like the famous Cockney one were largely developed by lower classes to make conversations difficult for the police to understand).

Scots has for a long time evolved separately from English until the Scottish started using Scottish English.
I also have a hard time understand dialects like Geordie or Scouse. I'm not sure you're right in saying that BE or SE is generally faster than AE. (Unless you're comparing it to the Southern drawl)
It differs hugely, both from region to region but also from class to class. The working classes talk pretty fast, be it Cockney or Glaswegian, but the posher they are the slower they speak. Really posh people speak at a much slower pace than the average American.

When it comes to SE and Irish-English, there are huge numbers of Gaelic and Galic words and accents mixed in, which makes SE an IE probably harder for foreigners to understand. I can also attest that we do speak much faster than the english, by and large, but english accents have a higher tendancy to drawl and run words together.

A fun fact: If you speak with a British accent, Americans estimate your IQ  +10 points. I remember that from a story we read in school about a Black Englishman in the States. When they saw him, they thought he was less intelligent than them, but then he opened his mouth and all of sudden he was the most intelligent man in the room.^^

I believe I heard Stephen K Amos telling a story like that XD But yes, an upper-class British accent does make you sound smarter, but I wouldn't think a lower-class accent would have the same effect XD Interestingly, apparently the most soothing accent to hear in a time of disaster is a Scottish accent. "Calm doon hen, it'll aw be awright..."

[Dus]

I live near Edinburgh, but since I was born in Colorado, I have a really bizarre accent that's a mix of American and Scotch, which always makes people ask me where i'm from but at least means I can pronounce both Edinburgh and New Orleans correctly XD
(If I wrote like I speak, this sentance would look something like this -> 'F ah wrot li'e ah speak, 'his sen'ance'd look li'e 'his.)

I've picked up a Scootish accent myself in Edinburgh because it is my favourite accent after all. I'm not that consistent with it but it's certainly close enough to fool Americans/Ozzies/Kiwis.

The fact that English is from (duh) England does explain how it's expanded so much there and the surrounding countries. English is a strange language, though; there are hundreds of words that are bastardizations of Dutch, German, French and Latin, and of course there is Cockney Rhyming slang, versions of which are everywhere and intended to be confusing (slang dialects like the famous Cockney one were largely developed by lower classes to make conversations difficult for the police to understand).

Basically neither Germany nor the Netherlands existed back then and the dialects the Angles and Saxons spoke is much closer to contemporary than standard German. And don't forget the Danish vikings who are responsible for words like sky,who, where, and others.
Most languages have developped some sort of slang at some point, but I think cockney is unique in the fact that it basically replaced words with completely different words.

When it comes to SE and Irish-English, there are huge numbers of Gaelic and Galic words and accents mixed in, which makes SE an IE probably harder for foreigners to understand. I can also attest that we do speak much faster than the english, by and large, but english accents have a higher tendancy to drawl and run words together.

Weeell, it depends on the variety of SE I guess. They certainly use more Gaelic words in the Highlands, the Hebrides or the Gaetacht in Ireland. I don't think they use all that many Gaelic words in the SE or Scots as spoken in Edinburgh or Glasgow. Gaelic isn't the traditional language of the Lowlands after all. Most specific Scots words are more Germanic than their English counterparts, that's why I find it fairly easy to understand. Alas, there are few people who still speak like Burns in Edinburgh.

I believe I heard Stephen K Amos telling a story like that XD But yes, an upper-class British accent does make you sound smarter, but I wouldn't think a lower-class accent would have the same effect XD Interestingly, apparently the most soothing accent to hear in a time of disaster is a Scottish accent. "Calm doon hen, it'll aw be awright..."

Maybe I've heard it from Stephen K Amos although he's far from being my favourite funny man.
I think a British lower-class accent still makes you sound smarter to a foreigner unless it's completely incomprehensible.
Personally, I'd find a Welsh accent more soothing but then again I've never been in a disastrous situation with people from all over Britain, so I can't really say who I'd be more soothed by.

Also: I think f***ing has lot less impact than f*** itself, because it has become a mere intensifier by now. Case in point "This is a big f***ing deal" (Joe Biden)

[Eve]

*checking in ^^* Nice, Japanese is still the 2nd highest ^^