Profiles: list of languages

Discussion in 'Technical Issues & Suggestions' started by Cavesa, Apr 18, 2014.

  1. Cavesa

    Cavesa New Member

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    Native Language:
    Czech
    Advanced Languages:
    English, French
    Intermediate Languages:
    Spanish
    Basic Languages:
    German
    Ok, the forum is not friendly when it comes to adding languages to the native, advanced, intermediate and basic lists. As our Administrator suggested in a message, we should put together a list of languages that would be sufficient for most of us so that the Administrator would be spared of redoing the list one piece at a time to keep it alphabetically ordered (because now it's a mess) every week.

    So, which languages should definitely be included in the wave one, which ones do you think will be needed:
    (most of these are already there but many aren't)

    English, German, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Icelandic, Dutch
    Finnish, Hungarian
    French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Romanian, Catalan, Basque
    Russian, Polish, Czech, Slovak, Croatian, Ukrainian
    Latin, Ancient Greek, Modern Greek, Hebrew, Ancient Egyptian
    Arabic (perhaps a few options for dialects?), Persian, Turkish
    Japanese, Mandarin, Cantonese, Korean, Thai, Swahili
    Irish, Welsh, Scottish Gaelic
  2. Fasulye

    Fasulye Member VIP member

    Joined:
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    Home page:
    Native Language:
    German
    Advanced Languages:
    Dutch
    Intermediate Languages:
    French
    Basic Languages:
    Danish
    Esperanto is missing in this list of suggestions. If I have other language suggestions, I will add them in this post.
  3. Big_Dog

    Big_Dog Administrator Staff Member

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    Native Language:
    English
    Advanced Languages:
    Spanish
    Intermediate Languages:
    French, Japanese, Mandarin, Russian, Swahili, Thai
    Basic Languages:
    Korean
    I combined Cavesa's list with the existing list, then filled out the top 100 using wikipedia's most spoken languages. I updated the "native language" option to reflect this. Tomorrow I will try to update the remaining 3 lists. I will be glad to add languages after that, but they will go to the bottom of the list for the time being, because there is no easy way to sort it. There's a chance the software will get friendlier, or I will buy an add-on in the future that will make this sort of thing much easier. If that happens, I'll probably add a lot more choices, and make it easier to select languages. Anyway, here is what should be in the native language list:

    (edit - I will keep updating this list as I add more languages. It's in alphabetical order here, but the actual list you select from in your profile info might not be)

    Afrikaans
    Akkadian
    Albanian
    Amharic
    Arabic_Egyptian
    Arabic_Levantine
    Arabic_Maghrebi
    Arabic_MSA
    ASL
    Awadhi
    Azerbaijani
    Basque
    Bavarian
    Belarusian
    Bengali
    Bhojpuri
    Burmese
    Cantonese
    Catalan
    Cebuano
    Chinese_classical
    Corsican
    Croatian
    Czech
    Danish
    Dutch
    Egyptian_ancient
    English
    Esperanto
    Estonian
    Filipino
    Finnish
    French
    Fula
    Galician
    German
    Greek_ancient
    Greek_modern
    Gujarati
    Haitian_Creole
    Hakka
    Hausa
    Hebrew_clasical
    Hebrew_modern
    Hindi
    Hungarian
    Icelandic
    Igbo
    Indonesian
    Irish
    Italian
    Japanese
    Javanese
    Jin
    Kannada
    Khmer
    Korean
    Lahnda
    Lao_Isan
    Latin
    Latvian
    Lithuanian
    Maithili
    Malay
    Malayalam
    Maltese
    Mandarin
    Manx
    Marathi
    Min_Nan
    Mongolian
    Nepali
    Northern_Berber
    Norwegian
    Ojibwe
    Oriya
    Oromo
    Pashto
    Persian
    Polish
    Portuguese
    Punjabi
    Romanian
    Romansh
    Russian
    Scots
    Scottish_Gaelic
    Serbo_Croatian
    Sicilian
    Sindhi
    Slovak
    Somali
    Southern_Quechua
    Spanish
    Sundanese
    Swahili
    Swedish
    Tamil
    Tatar
    Telugu
    Thai
    Turkish
    Ukrainian
    Urdu
    Uzbek
    Vietnamese
    Welsh
    Wu
    Xiang
    Yoruba
    Last edited: Jun 12, 2014
  4. Cavesa

    Cavesa New Member

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    Native Language:
    Czech
    Advanced Languages:
    English, French
    Intermediate Languages:
    Spanish
    Basic Languages:
    German
    Nice one!
    I think Hebrew should be divided as biblical and modern just like Greek. And there is at least one htlaler who learns Akkadian but I have no clue whether he's gonna join us here or how many others need it on the list.
  5. Big_Dog

    Big_Dog Administrator Staff Member

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    Native Language:
    English
    Advanced Languages:
    Spanish
    Intermediate Languages:
    French, Japanese, Mandarin, Russian, Swahili, Thai
    Basic Languages:
    Korean
    Alright, I added those languages to the native language list, and I updated advanced languages. I'm brain-dead right now, so the last 2 lists will have to be done tomorrow.
    Cavesa likes this.
  6. Nobody

    Nobody Member

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    Native Language:
    English
    Advanced Languages:
    Korean
    Intermediate Languages:
    Chinese_classical, Mandarin
    Is there some reason Classical Chinese isn't included along side the other ancient languages? It would also be nice to see who else is learning it for the sake of seeking assistance or collaboration, and there isn't necessarily a 1:1 correlation between Mandarin learners and Classical Chinese learners.
  7. Big_Dog

    Big_Dog Administrator Staff Member

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    Native Language:
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    Advanced Languages:
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    Intermediate Languages:
    French, Japanese, Mandarin, Russian, Swahili, Thai
    Basic Languages:
    Korean
    No reason. I'll add it tonight.
  8. Big_Dog

    Big_Dog Administrator Staff Member

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    Native Language:
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    Advanced Languages:
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    Intermediate Languages:
    French, Japanese, Mandarin, Russian, Swahili, Thai
    Basic Languages:
    Korean
    I added classical Chinese to the bottom of the native language and advanced language lists, then I updated the intermediate and basic lists. So I'm done for now. I'll be glad to add additional languages to the bottom of the lists immediately. At some future date, I'll sort lists so that any languages that were added to the bottom will be in alphabetical order.
  9. nandemonai

    nandemonai New Member

    Joined:
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    1
    Native Language:
    Dutch
    Advanced Languages:
    English
    Intermediate Languages:
    Japanese
    Basic Languages:
    Lithuanian
    Lithuanian, Latvian and Estonian seems to be missing.
  10. Big_Dog

    Big_Dog Administrator Staff Member

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    Advanced Languages:
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    Intermediate Languages:
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    Basic Languages:
    Korean
    どもありがとうございました!
    Added them to the (bottom of each) list.
    nandemonai likes this.
  11. luke

    luke Member VIP member

    Joined:
    Apr 27, 2014
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    Native Language:
    English
    Intermediate Languages:
    Esperanto, French, Spanish
    When I went to an Esperanto conference, my wife started using Pig Latin with our niece. Do we need Pig Latin?
    Cainntear likes this.
  12. biTsar

    biTsar Active Member VIP member

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    "Porko latina" scores 7 hits on Google. We wouldn't want to leave anyone out ???
  13. Iversen

    Iversen Member VIP member

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    Please leave Pig Latin out...
    biTsar likes this.
  14. Big_Dog

    Big_Dog Administrator Staff Member

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    Native Language:
    English
    Advanced Languages:
    Spanish
    Intermediate Languages:
    French, Japanese, Mandarin, Russian, Swahili, Thai
    Basic Languages:
    Korean
    Anythingay ouyay aysay.
    biTsar likes this.
  15. biTsar

    biTsar Active Member VIP member

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    ONLAYSF ! :D
  16. Bob

    Bob Active Member VIP member

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    Native Language:
    English
    Intermediate Languages:
    Cebuano, Greek_ancient, Spanish
    Basic Languages:
    Filipino, French, Hebrew_clasical, Mandarin, Portuguese, Russian
    How many Filipino dialects would you like to include? :)
    To be fair, usefulness starts dropping off after the first 2.
    edit: I have no intention of studying anything but the first 2 for many years.

    # of speakers
    Tagalog22,000,000
    Cebuano21,000,000
    Ilocano7,700,000
    Hiligaynon7,000,000
    Waray-Waray3,100,000
    Kapampangan2,900,000
    Northern Bicol[12]2,500,000
    Pangasinan2,434,086
    Southern Bicol[13]1,200,000
    Chavacano1,200,000
    Meranaw1,150,000
    Maguindanao1,100,000
    Kinaray-a1,051,000
    Tausug1,022,000
    Surigaonon1,000,000
    Masbateño530,000
    Aklanon520,000
    Ibanag320,000
    Español2,000
    Last edited: May 30, 2014
    Wise owl chick and Stelle like this.
  17. Wise owl chick

    Wise owl chick Active Member

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    Native Language:
    French
    Advanced Languages:
    Dutch, German
    Intermediate Languages:
    English, Spanish
    Basic Languages:
    Italian
    What an interesting list. How different are they?
    biTsar likes this.
  18. biTsar

    biTsar Active Member VIP member

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    For some that is undoubtedly true. But even Ibanag has more speakers than many of the languages others think are just dandy to study. A language with few speakers has disadvantages but still presents inexhaustible opportunities.
  19. Bob

    Bob Active Member VIP member

    Joined:
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    Messages:
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    Native Language:
    English
    Intermediate Languages:
    Cebuano, Greek_ancient, Spanish
    Basic Languages:
    Filipino, French, Hebrew_clasical, Mandarin, Portuguese, Russian
    I'm only familiar with Cebuano, Tagalog, Waray, and Chavacano. The first three are sisters. Grammar is almost the same, and allot of Waray is Ceubano with consonant shifts. Sometimes in confusing ways.
    Cebuano: dili=not, diri=here
    Waray: dili=here

    Chavacano, baring some differences, is an uninfected form of Spanish.
    edit: oops, inflected :eek:
    I would dive more into these, but then I lose focus :p
    Last edited: May 30, 2014
  20. hrhenry

    hrhenry Member VIP member

    Joined:
    May 21, 2014
    Messages:
    51
    Native Language:
    English
    Advanced Languages:
    Catalan, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Galician
    Intermediate Languages:
    Norwegian, Turkish
    Basic Languages:
    Indonesian, Polish, Ojibwe
    What is the deciding factor for what's included in the list and what's not?

    I guess I can understand why something like Ojibwe isn't listed due to the very low number of speakers, but, say Galician, with some 3 million speakers isn't listed either.

    R.
    ==

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