But foreign languages were his hobby. He would study his languages in a weekly schedule, three languages each day, one of these a language studied only every two weeks - i.e., 28 languages in total! But he spoke well only seven, IIRC German, French, English, Italian, Russian, Spanish and Latin.
Myself, I speak Hungarian, German and English fluently (and would write in English much better - would I check for typos and would I not forget stuff when I constantly re-draft sentences in the middle of writing...), can read French, write and speak less well (currently re-learning); and used to know Russian but forgot almost completely. *Traitor*, n. A benighted individual who perceives an illusory distinction between serving his nation and abetting the criminals who govern it.
Pax Night and day you can find me Flogging the Simian
Or, maybe there is more to it? At least anecdotically, I know that Chinese immigrants (my hometown Budapest is their European center; this will be a theme of an upcoming post of mine) find learning Hungarian is a lot harder than English or German - and for them, both Indo-European and Finno-Ugrian is totally alien. *Traitor*, n. A benighted individual who perceives an illusory distinction between serving his nation and abetting the criminals who govern it.
Unlike the Germanic, Romance, Scandinavian or Slavic languages, there is just nothing else like it! (Except Basque, right?) Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. -Voltaire
Basque, mysteriously, has no close relative at all. The world's northernmost desert wind.
You're absolutely right about the relation to Finnish, etc. But I still maintain that Hungarian is not like anything else. :) Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. -Voltaire
(the KGB was renowned for its linguistic expertise) In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes
The KGB had no idea how Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn had his manuscript published in the West - The Gulag Archipelago!
The world community is indebted to our musician - thanks Emmy.
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There is an anecdote about Enrico Fermi, the Italian nuclear physicist who also worked on the Manhattan Project. When asked about whether he believes in Martians, he answered: "Heh, of course, they are already here! They call themselves 'Hungarians'!"
Unfortunately, to understand the joke, I have to explain that during the Manhattan Project, Fermi was usually sitting at a table with five other European emigree scientists, all of them Hungarian (and most Jewish), who would often change from English into Hungarian during their debates, leaving Fermi to sit stupified. *Traitor*, n. A benighted individual who perceives an illusory distinction between serving his nation and abetting the criminals who govern it.
My favorite explanation of Basque's origins comes from my Basque friend who claims that Basques came from Atlantis. :-)
I'm in the process of adding Basque to my list of languages (joining English, Spanish, French, and smatterings of German and Swedish) though at this point I find Basque so complicated that it's hard to imagine getting much beyond the level of basic phrases!
I have my own, less flattering pet theory: They are the descendants of Neanderthals, who perished on the Iberian peninsula some 30 000 years ago... ;-) The world's northernmost desert wind.
Aye... Southeastern Europe has a lot of these (and the fools who believe it are often rabid chauvinist politicians, so it is less funny).
For example, in Hungary there is 'theory' that Sumerians were Hungarians... *Traitor*, n. A benighted individual who perceives an illusory distinction between serving his nation and abetting the criminals who govern it.
Hungarian is maybe more special than other Finno-Ugrian languages because it is separated from even its closest relatives (spoken by two small ethnics which get assimilated by Russians).
However, don't take language families that seriously; there is enough 'cross-pollination' and mixing to make the 'tracking back' of languages unreasonable beyond some length of time. For example, Hungarian borrowed heavily from (or, was born as a mixture of a Finno-Ugric and:) Turkic languages, Slavic languages, Latin, and German languages (in this order of time); and many words were newly created from old or made-up roots by the language reform movement 200 years ago. *Traitor*, n. A benighted individual who perceives an illusory distinction between serving his nation and abetting the criminals who govern it.
