| Pages in topic: < [1 2] | Poll: How many languages are spoken in your country of residence? Thread poster: ProZ.com Staff
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Fiona Kirton 
United Kingdom
Local time: 08:52
Spanish to English
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| Re: Three, possibly four | Nov 6, 2010 |
Simon Bruni wrote:
English, Welsh, Scottish Gaelic and Lowland Scots (not sure how official Scots is...) There have been attempts to revive Cornish and Manx but sadly they no longer have any native speakers. That said, there are a myriad of dialects and hundreds of different communities from around the world. I once lived in a part of London where all the signs were in Urdu and Bengali.
...possibly five - some people argue that Ulster Scots is also a distinct language.
| | | | Alison Sabedoria (X)
United Kingdom
French to English
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| At least 4 (native) | Nov 6, 2010 |
In France, French is the official language, but others are stll spoken: Basque, Breton, Catalan and Occitan.
I understand the latter two fairly well when written, much less well when spoken. Just the other day I heard the local Ambertois patois (a variant of Occitan) on the market for the first time in ages. Two elderly women were having a good chat and a laugh. Maybe I was paying just a little too much attention, because one joked with me as she passed, "We can say what we like in... See more In France, French is the official language, but others are stll spoken: Basque, Breton, Catalan and Occitan.
I understand the latter two fairly well when written, much less well when spoken. Just the other day I heard the local Ambertois patois (a variant of Occitan) on the market for the first time in ages. Two elderly women were having a good chat and a laugh. Maybe I was paying just a little too much attention, because one joked with me as she passed, "We can say what we like in patois, knowing you youngsters won't understand!" True, I didn't follow much, but it was so lovely to hear! ▲ Collapse
| | | | Yaotl Altan
Mexico
Local time: 01:52
Member (2006)
English to Spanish
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Nahuatl, Maya, Tojolabal, Tzeltal, Ñañhu, Tarasco, Zapoteco, Mixteco, Spanish
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french and english...but of course, there are all the languages of many cultural communities and it's a very large country!
There are also the official languages of the native/aboriginal populations, dene, cree, inuktitut etc.
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Rebecca Garber
Local time: 03:52
Member (2005)
German to English
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People in the US may think there is only 1, but there are many spoken commonly. From my experience, they tend to cluster in specific areas. Some cities, like Richard's, have many, while most have English, Spanish, and an Asian language.
I've yet to find a large German or Latin speaking population center; however, I work as a translator, not an interpreter, so that hasn't really affected me.
| | | | | With Richard and Rebecca | Nov 6, 2010 |
In US, American English is only official language. But this is only a facade.
In reality there are many, many languages ---- Yes as many as the number of immigrants' original countries and their tongues.
So much so that language services have to be provided by public authority in public arena, and in many cases that's mandatry (i.e. public notice such as election pamphlets, court interpreting, etc., etc., both in written material as well as verbal practice.)
In Southwe... See more In US, American English is only official language. But this is only a facade.
In reality there are many, many languages ---- Yes as many as the number of immigrants' original countries and their tongues.
So much so that language services have to be provided by public authority in public arena, and in many cases that's mandatry (i.e. public notice such as election pamphlets, court interpreting, etc., etc., both in written material as well as verbal practice.)
In Southwest region where it was historically under Spanish-Mexican rule, Spanish is spoken more often and many public notices are in that language than A-English.
But we should not forget languages spoken by original inhabitants of this Continent -- so-called American Indians.
Most of their languages have disappered, thanks to Federal government's forced integration (some call this "cultural genocide").
Nonetheless, when you visit Navajo Indians Reservation, a vast area that covers Arizona northest to New Mexico northwest, and some of Southeastern part of Utah, you will hear radio broadcasting and read newspaper of their own language.
This is by far the largest native tongue speaking population, probabally followed by the Dakotas on South Dakota, North Dakota, Minnesota, and lessor region.
Indeed America is a melting pot of languages too! ▲ Collapse
| | | | | 2, for all practical purposes | Nov 6, 2010 |
The languages you need to know to live comfortably in Puerto Rico are Spanish and English. Of course, there are many people living here who speak other languages. The ones I happen to hear most often are French, Chinese, and Polish, but that's strictly circumstantial.
"Official" languages constitute a political question. In the past 2-3 decades we went from no legislated official language to two, to one, to "who knows? who cares?" depending on the party in power. But the truth is th... See more The languages you need to know to live comfortably in Puerto Rico are Spanish and English. Of course, there are many people living here who speak other languages. The ones I happen to hear most often are French, Chinese, and Polish, but that's strictly circumstantial.
"Official" languages constitute a political question. In the past 2-3 decades we went from no legislated official language to two, to one, to "who knows? who cares?" depending on the party in power. But the truth is that most university-educated Puerto Ricans can at least read English as well as Spanish, and most can speak and write both languages. English is taught as a second language from kindergarten or 1st grade in all public schools, and English-only private schools abound.
Spanish is certainly the first language of almost all Puerto Ricans, but lack of English is a serious barrier to getting any good job, especially in professional and academic fields.
Many Puerto Ricans say, "We speak 3 languages here: Spanish, English, and Spanglish." They're right, IMO, except that instead of "Spanglish" I would say "a Puerto Rican dialect of Spanish." It's a colorful and very efficient dialect, selecting (in most cases) the simplest way of saying something and being understood: "bill" instead of "factura," "escalator" or the hispanicized "escalador" instead of "escalera automática."
I could go on, but I'll quit with this illustration: My Mexican sister-in-law came to Puerto Rico for a visit. She had a high-school education, worked competently in Mexico as a secretary, and knew very little English. She found it easier to converse in Spanish with my University friends than with the middle- and lower-class people of our neighborhood, church, and social circle. Why? Puerto Rican Spanish is liberally sprinkled with English expressions (parking, part-time, full-time, layaway plan, ticket, bills, building, etc.) that were meaningless to her. Better-educated Puerto Ricans are more apt to know the elusive Spanish term, and more accustomed to shifting to "standard Spanish" when speaking to foreigners.
Jane ▲ Collapse
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But Canada is multicultural, so you can have all the languages of the world in one country.
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neilmac
Spain
Local time: 09:52
Spanish to English
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Simon Bruni wrote:
English, Welsh, Scottish Gaelic and Lowland Scots (not sure how official Scots is...) .
Lowland Scots is actually just a dialect, no more a language per se than Geordie or Scouse. Only a minority of native Scots actually speak read or write Gaelic, despite efforts to the contrary. There have been efforts to reinvent "Lallans", but from a cosmopolitan viewpoint the result are rather laughable, sort of like (pax, Euskadi) "Helikopteroak" in Basque.
The official language of Scotland is English.
In Spain, as far as I know there are Castilian, Euskerra, the Catalan-Valencian dichotomy (who we can leave to argue amongst themselves about which is which etc), Galician and Aragonese, not forgetting the gitano Caló.... and now I've lost count!
| | | | neilmac
Spain
Local time: 09:52
Spanish to English
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| Scots wha hae... | Nov 6, 2010 |
Fiona Kirton wrote:
[/quote]
...possibly five - some people argue that Ulster Scots is also a distinct language. [/quote]
Having shared a flat with an Ulsterman, I reckon you would only agree with that proposal if the main criterion for being defined as a language were its unintelligibility... 
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Elena Simonelli wrote: Gianluca Marras wrote:
Italian Giancluca, where do you live? Also French and German are official languages in two regions.
Slovenian is also an official language in the province of Trieste, and Sardinian is considered by many as a language in its own right too. So that makes 5!
| | | | Simon Bruni
United Kingdom
Local time: 08:52
Member (2009)
Spanish to English
Oliver Lawrence wrote: Elena Simonelli wrote: Gianluca Marras wrote:
Italian Giancluca, where do you live? Also French and German are official languages in two regions. Slovenian is also an official language in the province of Trieste, and Sardinian is considered by many as a language in its own right too. So that makes 5!
And what about Algherese (a Catalan dialect spoken in Alghero, Sardinia)? Sicilian, Veneto etc etc. are also considered (by linguists if not popularly) as seperate languages to standard Italian as they evolved seperately and are often not mutually intelligible.
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Elena Simonelli
Italy
Local time: 09:52
Member (2006)
English to Italian
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| Sardinia and Slovenia | Nov 15, 2010 |
Oliver Lawrence wrote: Elena Simonelli wrote: Gianluca Marras wrote:
Italian Giancluca, where do you live? Also French and German are official languages in two regions. Slovenian is also an official language in the province of Trieste, and Sardinian is considered by many as a language in its own right too. So that makes 5!
I consider Sardinian a language, but not an official language, since I do not think you are able to use, for instance, at the city council, pass a school exam, get official papers in Sardinian or even newpapers... while all these thing are quite normal in Spain with Catalan and Basque.
Is Slovenian used officially in such situations?
| | | | Textklick
Local time: 08:52
German to English
+ ...
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