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- Nov 12, 2018
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@givemersspls Croatian. And I too will act like an expert though I wouldn't be awfully lot off the mark if I said that I knew Croatian and all its rules and nuances years ago during 2nd part of elementary school (we have 8 years of it, so that 2nd part would be like a middle school at some other educational system).
On that same example (the yes/oui one), Croatian word for it can be used in a same way. "Da" with 'a' being short means Yes while same word but with longer 'a' makes it a question. But there's a fun part here. Croatian verb for "to give" is "dati". Past simple tense (we have few past tenses as well) would be "dao"
and speakers from certain areas including where I grew up, i.e. Dalmatian background
use "da" with long 'a' instead of "dao". We actually remove 'o' in almost all situations like that and just prolong the 'a' before it, now that I think about it. And fun part about that is that we write it as "da" as well just to mess with others so there are quite a few more homonyms in Croatian that are due to regional speech, as well as homonyms, homophones and homographs that are a part of standard Croatian. And like mentioned, we can form a question just by intonation. To further mess with those that want to learn it, there are particles as well. Now that I think about it, depending on intonation of a particle, it can stress the sentence, as in "That makes sense, right." i.e. "That makes sense. OK. Noted." Fun shit.
Considering sarcasm, I may be odd here (so I can't attest to validity). I got a hang of English through written media so I couldn't sense a difference in intonation if something was said sarcasticly or not. Been using context, as I guess everyone does. Back then I didn't think, dream or talk to myself in English, just Croatian, so while reading I didn't differentiate meaning by "thought" intonation. Different story now. At that time, I started actually socialising with my peers and found out about sarcasm. I literally didn't know about it prior to highschool. I might have sensed different meaning but I had no idea it had a name. I rarely talked with others and evenlessso joked
so I didn't come in touch with it. With finding it out in two languages at similar time period and adjusting myself after every run-in with sarcasm regardless of language, I guess I skept the "sarcasm from different language" issues that others might have had. Might be wrong but in any case, I adore sarcasm now.
Now I really want to talk with someone whose native language is Mandarin Chinese and who knows Croatian just to question him about those things. How did you learn about those nuances, how did you explain it in your head, how and how often do you used shifty little language mechanics and what the fuck was wrong with you that you went and learned Croatian. So many question, so little crazy Chinese polyglots.
It seems strange thinking about how you can't change tones to make a question. At same time, I like that as a programmer but then again, I hate it as someone who loves having multiple options for doing just about anything.
Will pay some more attention tomorrow (and ongoing days) at work about intonation and tonality now that I got damn curious about all of this.
On that same example (the yes/oui one), Croatian word for it can be used in a same way. "Da" with 'a' being short means Yes while same word but with longer 'a' makes it a question. But there's a fun part here. Croatian verb for "to give" is "dati". Past simple tense (we have few past tenses as well) would be "dao"
(masculinum version, damn you Latin, I can't remember the correct English word now, femininum version being "dala")
(literal translation from Dalmatinska zagora, if interested in where it actually is search "Imotski")
Considering sarcasm, I may be odd here (so I can't attest to validity). I got a hang of English through written media so I couldn't sense a difference in intonation if something was said sarcasticly or not. Been using context, as I guess everyone does. Back then I didn't think, dream or talk to myself in English, just Croatian, so while reading I didn't differentiate meaning by "thought" intonation. Different story now. At that time, I started actually socialising with my peers and found out about sarcasm. I literally didn't know about it prior to highschool. I might have sensed different meaning but I had no idea it had a name. I rarely talked with others and evenlessso joked
(I actually can't remember an instance where I was joking around with other back then. 1st being in 3rd year of highschool. Damn, what have I become since then, a fucking dark-humor insults-as-internal-jokes-spewing sarcasm machine. To use Henry Rollins' words: "I like it. I feel good." And my friends seem to like it too.)
Now I really want to talk with someone whose native language is Mandarin Chinese and who knows Croatian just to question him about those things. How did you learn about those nuances, how did you explain it in your head, how and how often do you used shifty little language mechanics and what the fuck was wrong with you that you went and learned Croatian. So many question, so little crazy Chinese polyglots.
It seems strange thinking about how you can't change tones to make a question. At same time, I like that as a programmer but then again, I hate it as someone who loves having multiple options for doing just about anything.
Will pay some more attention tomorrow (and ongoing days) at work about intonation and tonality now that I got damn curious about all of this.
