En inglés, hay que hacer las cosas con voluntad!

[CarmenCarmona]

Let's see this semester, I'm gonna study Middle English...what a nuisance!

I studied Old English but I forgot almost everything...

@Perikles, what is your field of study?

[Perikles]

Originally Posted by CarmenCarmona

Let's see this semester, I'm gonna study Middle English...what a nuisance!

I studied Old English but I forgot almost everything...

@Perikles, what is your field of study?

An embarrassing question. I studied physics and maths, and gave up a PhD in atmospheric physics because it was too boring. I then proceeded with a distance-learning degree in German, with some Indo-European background. I then spent some tedious years programming computers until I gave that up to do a degree in Ancient Greek, and then I did a PhD in Greek language, studying ancient Greek ideas of etymology. I have omitted a few other minor things from all that.

[CarmenCarmona]

Originally Posted by Perikles

An embarrassing question. I studied physics and maths, and gave up a PhD in atmospheric physics because it was too boring. I then proceeded with a distance-learning degree in German, with some Indo-European background. I then spent some tedious years programming computers until I gave that up to do a degree in Ancient Greek, and then I did a PhD in Greek language, studying ancient Greek ideas of etymology. I have omitted a few other minor things from all that.

Are you satisfied now? haha and why embarrassing? it's rather kind of praiseworthy!

What do you mean with 'some Indo-European background'? (Taking into account that I know Indo-European is the alleged origin of almost all languages, except in America)

You mean you studied the influence of other languages on modern German?

[Perikles]

Originally Posted by CarmenCarmona

What do you mean with 'some Indo-European background'? (Taking into account that I know Indo-European is the alleged origin of almost all languages, except in America)

You mean you studied the influence of other languages on modern German?

I mean I studied the taxonomy of Indo-European languages and their development into the languages we have today, so I have some idea of the connections between, say, German and English, looking at things like various Germanic sound shifts, and the influence Greek had on Latin. The history of German is interesting, but I got rather involved in Middle High German poetry, so I'm really no expert here. I'm no expert anywhere really.

By the way, the Indo-European proto-language is the origin of most languages in Europe and India (duh!) not the world. Nor is it the basis of Hungarian, Turkish, Finnish nor Basque.

[CarmenCarmona]

Originally Posted by Perikles

By the way, the Indo-European proto-language is the origin of most languages in Europe and India (duh!) not the world. Nor is it the basis of Hungarian, Turkish, Finnish nor Basque.

That's why I said 'almost all languages in the world'; and except for the American continent (no le busques las 5 patas al gato!)

[Perikles]

Originally Posted by CarmenCarmona

That's why I said 'almost all languages in the world'; and except for the American continent (no le busques las 5 patas al gato!)

Ah, but it's not almost all languages. I don't have the numbers, but of the 7,000 languages in the world, let's say 3,000 in the Americas, leaving 4,000 total. I imagine fewer than 1,000 are Indo-European. Nothing like almost. I'd be interested in seeing some stats on this, by the way.

[CarmenCarmona]

Ok, one of these days when I finish my exams I'll take out my Old English notes, but I only remember that in all continents, except for America and Oceania (now that I think about it and leaving Antarctica aside!), all languages originated from Indo-European except for those four you said, or even two or three other ones more.

[Perikles]

Originally Posted by CarmenCarmona

Ok, one of these days when I finish my exams I'll take out my Old English notes, but I only remember that in all continents, except for America and Oceania (now that I think about it and leaving Antarctica aside!), all languages originated from Indo-European except for those four you said, or even two or three other ones more.

You never mentioned Oceania. Er - what about Japanese, Chinese, Thai, Korean.....?... And several hundreds of languages in Africa...? ...

Have a look here, Wiki. What you might have meant is that from the point of view of geographical area covered, the Indo-European languages cover a larger area than any other family.

[CarmenCarmona]

Originally Posted by Perikles

You never mentioned Oceania. Er - what about Japanese, Chinese, Thai, Korean.....?... And several hundreds of languages in Africa...? ...

Have a look here, Wiki. What you might have meant is that from the point of view of geographical area covered, the Indo-European languages cover a larger area than any other family.

I was adding Oceania right now and I've happened to be wrong!!

That was probably what my lecturer meant!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Language_family

at the end of that site there's a map with the main language families...

However, they are mere hypothesis, ain't they?

[Perikles]

Originally Posted by CarmenCarmona

However, they are mere hypothesis, ain't they?

Sí, pero bastante sólidas. (pl. Hypotheses)