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musings on language
I watched Cinema Paradiso tonight for my film class, and yeah, it's a great film. But the more interesting aspect to me was the fact that it was all in Italian, and not just that, but - the fact that, even though I've never studied Italian in my life, I was able to read it. xD;; Though there wasn't a lot TO read. Still, just listening to the language was interesting: not only is it beautiful, but I was able to pick up a few Italian vocabulary just because of my knowledge of both French and Spanish.
It's strange, but I really feel like Italian is this mix between French and Spanish, which just doesn't make much sense to me with my limited linguistic knowledge, because that should only happen if Italy was in between Spain and France - but obviously, it's not. So now I'm extremely interested in the development of these languages, and namely, in how the FUCK did French turn out so differently? Because really, Italian is overall more similar to Spanish, from what I could catch. Quite fascinating.
And earlier today, I was out doing a few errands, and some required me to go to my college. Every Saturday there is a swap meet there, and it is run and attended mainly by Spanish speakers, though of course the vendors know English. But just because they know it, doesn't mean that I heard it that much - the only time I heard English was when I talked to them (I would've tried speaking in Spanish if I had any confidence in my ability just yet).
And just... I can't really describe the kind of contentment that I had as I walked down the rows, listening to the Spanish that I couldn't really understand around me, reading the Spanish signs... for once, I was the minority, with my white skin and the lack of language knowledge. It felt like, for those moments, that I wasn't in California, or the US, but rather another country, like Mexico, or maybe someplace more south.
The fact that that made me so happy is just a sign that... I really need to get the fuck out of here. LOL. No offense to my country, as it's a lovely place, and I'm proud to call California my home, but that just only fueled my fire for traveling. I don't know when it'll happen, but I'm going to make sure that it will.
It's strange, but I really feel like Italian is this mix between French and Spanish, which just doesn't make much sense to me with my limited linguistic knowledge, because that should only happen if Italy was in between Spain and France - but obviously, it's not. So now I'm extremely interested in the development of these languages, and namely, in how the FUCK did French turn out so differently? Because really, Italian is overall more similar to Spanish, from what I could catch. Quite fascinating.
And earlier today, I was out doing a few errands, and some required me to go to my college. Every Saturday there is a swap meet there, and it is run and attended mainly by Spanish speakers, though of course the vendors know English. But just because they know it, doesn't mean that I heard it that much - the only time I heard English was when I talked to them (I would've tried speaking in Spanish if I had any confidence in my ability just yet).
And just... I can't really describe the kind of contentment that I had as I walked down the rows, listening to the Spanish that I couldn't really understand around me, reading the Spanish signs... for once, I was the minority, with my white skin and the lack of language knowledge. It felt like, for those moments, that I wasn't in California, or the US, but rather another country, like Mexico, or maybe someplace more south.
The fact that that made me so happy is just a sign that... I really need to get the fuck out of here. LOL. No offense to my country, as it's a lovely place, and I'm proud to call California my home, but that just only fueled my fire for traveling. I don't know when it'll happen, but I'm going to make sure that it will.
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Anyway:
That's so awesome because I know exactly the feeling you're talking about. The sort of...different aura around you when everyone else is of a different culture and speaking a different language. It's -amazing-. :D I'm so glad that you're starting to like Spanish for Spanish, cause you'd said at some point that you hadn't really fallen for it yet, but it now sounds like you really actually have.
As for "how did French get this way",
not to shamelessly pimp my own shit, butI wrote a paper in high school on how the different Romance languages developed, and I THINK it's pretty straightforward (and should be readable to people who don't know any of the languages mentioned, etc). It's here if you're interested.no subject
As for why French (and Portuguese) are pronounced like mindfucks though...that I have no idea. I'm sure SOMEONE knows, though. Latin is awesome and its linguistic transformation is as well documented as one could hope for in a language so old.
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And yeah, it's coming slowly, but surely. ♥ It takes time for love to develop, but I think that there is something amazing about every language that exists, with Spanish definitely included. :)
Awesome! I'll definitely read it when I have a little more time.
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yeah, the same thing happens to me when I'm watching the Italian news broadcast we get here
I think Portuguese is more a mix of French and Spanish, but that's just me
aww cool you feeling contentment.
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to me, Italian has more of the hard consonants than Spanish does. And the speaking style is slightly different (which is why you can usually tell who's Argentinean)
random: have you seen my latest post about the Speed Racer movie trailer? I really don't know what to think.
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XD I just did a presentation on language trees and proto-language reconstruction and I used the Romance language tree to show my point. French, Spanish, and Portuguese diverged more recently (and so are actually much more closely related to each other) than these langauge did from Italian. As for the differences in French, that langauge seems to have just gone through a lot of mutations in phonology and morphology due to contact with other more Germanic languages (which Spanish and Portuguese speakers would not have eperienced as much). That's what I'm guessing. [/linguistic lesson] XD
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However, I do like my white people hair XD
If you do move, I fear we will get no more LJ posts in English x3
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Yeah, sometimes I wish I wasn't white just for the scholarships. LOL. That's kinda terrible though, oh well...
Ahaha, no, that's very unlikely. English is and always will be my native language, after all. But if I accumulate more friends who speak other languages, then I might post more often in other languages... for now, just English, pretty much. ;)
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I admit to this as well. >__> I sometimes wonder when it's too much help, but then that gets into the different race cultures and the economy so I just stop. America's too big to handle all its problems, I think. Look at Russia and the crazy that's going on there, y'know?
I still &hearts the United States tho XD
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