#AtoZChallenge: L is for LOGOPHILIC LINGUIST

47 Comments#AtoZChallenge 2015, Language, Writing/Blogging
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“Favourite Words” is my theme. (Not all of them – keeping it mild 😉 )
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#AtoZChallenge: L is for loquacious
Day 12, April 14

#AtoZCHALLENGE 2015: L is for Logophilic Linguist #dogladysden Click To Tweet

TWO FOR ONE SPECIAL!

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As mentioned during the Great Theme Reveal, language holds a special fascination for me. There’s nothing like a well-placed, elegant word to attract attention.

Even as a child, my vocabulary was extensive and people said I sounded like a miniature adult. I also grew up bilingual, German/English and was blessed with an ear for foreign tongues.

At school in Switzerland, a Guatemalan housemate taught me some Spanish (most of it forgotten now), and French was a favourite subject.


Hubby and me on our wedding dayItalian came to me by way of Hubby, who immigrated to Canada from Italy in 1970, shortly before we met. 

We despised each other at first, which is kind of funny, considering our upcoming 42nd anniversary in August.

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For a change of pace, I’m offering a verbal lesson in foreign languages today:


French/Français:
Bonjour mes amis    German/Deutsch: Guten Tag Freunde    
Italian/Italiano: Buon giorno amici   Spanish/Español: Buenos dias amigos
Greek/Elliniká [ελληνικά]: Kali̱méra fíloi [Καλημέρα φίλοι]

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Do you speak any foreign languages? Which ones?
Is there one you would like to learn?
(I gave up on Greek, but would like to expand my knowledge of Italian and Spanish)

Looking forward to your comments!

Debbie

Photo credits: LOGOPHILIA from flickr.com / LINGUIST from commons.wikimedia.org

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47 thoughts on “#AtoZChallenge: L is for LOGOPHILIC LINGUIST

  1. I wish I spoke a foreign language it is on my lazy bucket list. I would like to learn Spanish and at the moment simply trying to say I LOVE YOU in Polish is a task LOL my current partner is Polish and it’s not an easy language to learn.

    1. Spanish is a popular language with many dialects. I’d like to expand my knowledge of it as well. Great term – “lazy bucket list”! 😀
      It would be difficult to learn Polish. This video might help:

  2. Logophilic isn’t a word you hear every day – I knew you’d come up with some unusual ones while you were doing this challenge.
    I know all the important things such as going for a walk, food, etc in Spanish as well as English. I can also spell many of them in English – which is quite good for a dog! This came about when my bipeds were trying to have conversations without me getting excited about these things when I was an adolescent.

    1. You are amazing, Clowie! 🙂 To be bilingual and also able to spell in English is quite an accomplishment.
      So clever of you.
      My Dalmatian understood phrases in English, German and Italian but she never learned how to spell.
      Glad you enjoyed today’s word.

  3. That was so much fun, Debbie. Loved your mini language lesson and hearing your voice! You are great to learn so many languages like that. I only know French having lived in Montreal in my 20’s for 7 years and having worked many years for the Federal Govt here in Ottawa. I’d like to learn some other languages. Spanish and Italian look like they’d be fun to learn. I know a few words and I enjoyed taking Latin in high school. I had a teacher who was really keen about Latin which helped. I took a German course in Montreal once years ago. I thought it was a real bonus that the class were all French so I got two languages for the price of one. I don’t remember any German now though. Sigh. If you don’t use it, you lose it as they say!

    1. Not that great, Cathy; The German was by accident of birth and it’s the only other language I’m fluent in. I can get by in French and to a lesser degree, Italian, but have forgotten most of the Spanish. Since you do speak French and studied Latin, it should be fairly easy for you to learn Italian and Spanish. Arrivederci, amica mia. 🙂

  4. Besides English, I speak 3 Indian languages – Hindi, Gujarati and Marathi. I also learned German at University (but I would not dare to speak it now). Enjoyed your language lesson 🙂

  5. I was good at French in high school in terms of spelling; however, pronounciation was a different matter. I did study a bit of Spanish and loved that, though didn’t practice enough. I would love to learn Italian though as I think it is a lyrical-sounding language. By the way, love your wedding photo! 🙂 <3

    1. Italian is a beautiful language and the music! Don’t you just love Italian music? 🙂 Glad you liked the photo. Yup; I was still a hippie on my wedding day. Do you speak any Dutch, Elly? One of my closest friends is Dutch. Although it sounds like a cross between German and English, I find it hard to understand when she speaks it, but, can figure it out when it’s written.

  6. I know my mother tongue and Hindi which is our national language. I learnt French at college and still try to speak it whenever I can. I would love to learn Dutch and Chinese…..I too used to have a ear for languages and prided myself in accents too. Sadly as I grow older, it is becoming harder to pick up new skills.

    1. You’re quite the linguist, too. 🙂 Dutch would likely be easier to learn than Chinese, but you’re probably right about the age factor. I tried to learn some Greek recently and that didn’t go too well either. 😛

  7. Hi Debbie,

    I love the quick foreign language lesson. I love the way good day friends sounds in different languages. French and Italian sounds so cool! By the way, I love your voice :).

    Hope you’re having a great day!

    Cori

      1. I speak Spanish but it’s more slang than it is proper. And when I’m around people I know speaks proper Spanish oh my gosh I get so intimated and a little ashamed…I’m a Hispanic, I should know how to speak it. 🙂

        1. Haha! Sounds like my husband’s Italian dialect. When he and his brother lapse into that, I can’t understand anything. I bet you could learn formal Spanish fairly easily, Corina. 🙂 Que tengas un buen día.

          1. Sounds like my in-lawas. When my sister-in-law is speaking in Spanish so my mother-in-law can understand…I’m like wait, I think I heard this :).

            Gracias Debbie. Espero que tengas un buen semana! 🙂

  8. I do love language and words. There is a lot old dialect in Georgia that I always enjoy. I would love to speak another language but I don’t. I can piecemeal read French, Spanish and German.
    I entertained two East Germans back in the early 90’s with some sort of friendship program before the wall fell. They spoke some English. I had a dictionary and rudimentary knowledge of the language. Surprisingly if the woman spoke slowly, I could make out what she was saying. There were enough commonalities in words between English and German. Granted it was not complicated ideas. We drove her husband nuts one night. We were talking about men. It was funny, he knew we were saying something but not quite what we were saying. lol.

    1. Interesting! I’d love to hear some of that old Georgia dialect. 🙂
      Funny story about the German woman and her husband. 🙂
      I remember many years ago, my Italian sister-in-law (who spoke no English) and I (who speaks some Italian, but not fluently) conversed long into the night using booze and a dictionary as our tools. The more we drank, the more fluent we became . 😀

  9. I’ve started learning both French and Italian, but didn’t make it all that far with either. I would love to be bilingual some day, though realistically I fear that ship may have already sailed!

    1. It does get harder to learn new languages as we get older. I found that out while trying to learn Greek. 😛 Didn’t happen, but French and Italian are easier. If you master one, the other should follow, because there are many similarities.

  10. Loved your audio language lesson. Cool idea! I know only English and Hindi. Learnt a few words in French when I was helping sonny boy with his French assignment 🙂

  11. This is great! I now can say this phrase in a few languages! 🙂 I can’t seem to get the pronunciation right on the last part of the German phrase though…I’ve always had trouble in foreign languages rolling my Rs/making them sound right. My French teacher used to get so annoyed with me! I will have to practice some more. 😀 Thanks for the language lesson!

    1. Glad you enjoyed the lesson, Kat. 🙂 Ah yes, the rrrolling of the rrrs is a bit of an art and easier for a native speaker. Practice should help. Thanks for visiting.

  12. Great choice for L:-) Languages can be such an ice breaker when traveling . just a few friendly words in the local language and people respond so positively. I know the scandinavian languages: Norwegian, Danish, Swedish and also English, French, Greek and a little bit of Hindi and Marathi:-)

    1. Wow! You are a Super-Linguist, Eli. 🙂 Wish I could have mastered Greek, but I think learning languages gets much harder with age. Sigh…..Hindi and Marathi must be difficult as well. Good for you!

  13. English is a foreign language… but a mandatory one. 😀 … Tried to learn Arabic… but it didn’t happen. Sadly I am not that good in languages.

  14. One – That word was a learning. Loved them!
    Two – You are so awesome. How many languages you know! Wonderful! I know Hindi and English.
    Three – The audio message was the most innovative thing to do 😀
    Four – Congratulations on your upcoming 42nd anniversary!! Wow! wow!!

    1. Hi Parul; Thanks, but there are other people who speak more languages than me, like Eli. 🙂 So, not that awesome…
      The audio message was fun to do and it’s the best way to illustrate pronunciation. Appreciate the good wishes – yes, 42 years is amazing, even in our minds!

  15. I’m a word monger, and I, too, just love words in a number of languages… I speak English and Italian fluently; my Spanish is good enough that I can translate FROM it, but when I speak, although I start out well enough, I end up speaking in Italian. If I’m in a conversation in one single language, either English or Italian, I’m good, but if I’m in a bilingual group, fuggheddaboudit! I’ll start speaking in Italia to the English speakers and English to the Italians; they both sound the same to me and I don’t realize I’m doing it until I see a funny look on people’s faces. And see, I can speak a little Brooklynese, too.

    1. Another fellow linguist heard from. 🙂 I know what you mean, Mary. Since I’m better at French than Italian, the Italian often comes out as French. Love the Brooklynese!

    1. Welcome to The Den, Diana. 🙂 Since your site is called “Life in German”, I figured you could speak it. Nice to meet a fellow linguist! Thanks for visiting and I’m looking forward to checking out your blog. Tschüß!

  16. I speak a very little German and even less French (which is ironic because I took that for longer than German) – I am bad at second languages. Thanks for a new word today – I didn’t know logophilic 🙂
    Tasha
    Tasha’s Thinkings | Wittegen Press | FB3X (AC)

    1. Even a few words can be helpful, sometimes. Do you travel, Tasha? Yeah; logophilic is pretty off the wall, but, it’s fun to find those. 🙂

  17. I love words and languages too. I often catch myself trying to find the root of a word.
    English is actually a “foreign” language for me, but I do see it as my other mother tongue.
    The first language I learnt was German, then came English and then French. But I did miserably in Spanish class, I did not like the teacher and my French was in the phase of consolidation. I lived in Poland for an Erasmus semester, but my lessons were too full of grammar and did not teach practical language skills… So I’d love to learn Polish correctly now.

    Viel Spaß mit A to Z!

    1. Guten Abend, Solveig. Willkommen! 😀 Nice to meet a fellow German who’s also a linguist. Polish must be difficult to learn. I find myself confusing Italian with French a lot, since I’m better at French. I imagine it would be similar with Spanish. Thanks for visiting and good luck with the A-Z. Tschüß!

  18. Wow, how cool to hear you speaking all those languages! I’m impressed. I know a little Spanish … and wish I had paid more attention in high school. I took three years of Spanish back then but it was high school and we usually smoked joints at the bus stop before school. Spanish was my first period class for three years in a row and I was more often than not stoned. Had a hard time speaking English first thing in the morning, let alone Spanish! Now that I live in Texas, I really wish I had retained more. I do know all the cuss words though… 🙂
    I took a semester of French in college but all that has left my mind.
    Your pronunciation of all the languages you demonstrated was fantastic. Girl, I could never keep up with you! 🙂

    1. It’s not really that impressive, Michele. 🙂 I was born in Germany and my mother is German, so that one’s a natural. Many Europeans speak multiple languages, all taught in schools there. Failed miserably with Greek though! 😛 That’s a completely different alphabet and I’m sure age is a factor. Easier to learn a language when you’re young. I bet speaking Spanish would be a plus where you live. You probably know more (besides the cuss words 🙂 ) than you realize.

  19. I’m too lazy to learn any new languages, but I’d like to be able to speak a few fluently.

    I do know some French–I took it in college, but have forgotten much of it.

    I do understand a bit of Spanish which is a good thing since my wife is Ecuadorian and when she gets together with her family they speak Spanish so I can get the gist of what they’re saying. I do speak a little. When we were in Ecuador I conversed some with some of my wife’s friends. She said later that they told her that I spoke Spanish very well. I don’t know about that, but I’ll accept the compliment.

    Arlee Bird
    A to Z Challenge Co-host

    1. Your wife’s family and my husband’s family have that in common, except his is Italian. 🙂 I picked up a fair bit of the language just by listening. French, Spanish and Italian all have that Latin base, so it’s easier to learn one when you already know another. Hasta la vista!