Interrogation Tuesday: lost in translation (Responses)


1	How many languages could you hold a decent conversation in?	If you want to complain about the vagueness of the word "decent" in the above question, here's the place to do it.	What do you do differently from other speakers in your native language?	For those of you who speak more than one language (or variety of language): What's the hardest word to translate?

2	2		I have a speech impediment on my r's and l's. It sucks.	People looking at me funny when I pronounce "Minnesota" correctly.	Whose idea of "correct" do you subscribe to?
3	2	Do you mean free from profanities and dirty jokes or just an normal conversation?	I try to use my "t's" like in mountain or interesting.	All the profanities and dirty jokes	I always thought that ribaldry was a human universal, but maybe not.
4	0-1	I'm not a complainer.	My brother and I both have genius-level IQs and we talk like complete hicks because we think it's a lot more interesting than proper english.		As a linguist, I'd say that "talking like a hick" is indeed interesting, but I'll take it a step further and state that "proper English" doesn't exist.
5	0-1		Still say breefest instead of breakfast		Where are you from?
6	4	If I wake up with the blood of an unknown creature crusted around my mouth, clumps of fur in my clenched and trembling hands, and a pentagram branded into my forehead, could that mean I have cancer?	I am better than them at being pretty.	http://www.dictionaryofobscuresorrows.com/post/13817431317/zielschmerz	I'd probably get that looked at.
7	2	Consider it done.	I speak proper English. This is, if you weren't aware, pretty rare these days.	Eh. I'm pretty good with all of it.	"Proper English", as you must not have been aware, is actually not a real thing.
8	2	Decent is too subjective. If you had specified a certain sign of proficiency that would've helped. For example: How many languages can you successfully locate and use the bathroom and get back to the airport without starting a war?	I spell things the British way... and say progress with the long '"o" sound.	heritage	I'd be more impressed if you could start a war in multiple languages.
9	2	Naw, I'm good.	I don't articulate the letter t all the time (heritage, mountain, etc.) I think a lot of other people do this, though. Also, sometimes I talk in a monotone.	I'm going to say "chez", just because it doesn't translate directly. Easy to use, though.	Since this is the second time the whole "'t' in 'mountain'" thing has come up, here's a link to a paper on the subject:	http://linguistics.byu.edu/faculty/eddingtond/mountains%20in%20utah.pdf
10	2	I could hold an indecent conversation for about 3 minutes in 4 languages.	Sometimes in words like "house," "boat," etc, my [aʊ] is more like [aʏ]. (think a very Californian accent). But just on certain words.	Bay Area slang "bite, biting, bitten." Sort of like ripping off/copying something. Sort of.	You used IPA...I think I'm in love.
11	2				Ok, thanks for the effort.
12	4	decent is a pretty decent word	Aspirate the letter 's' a lot	Awkwardly enough, it's awkward	Awkwardness is such an English preoccupation.
13	2	ambiguity or vagueness?	yep	teda	Yep? Nope?
14	2		I do physical exercise	Sonic Screwdriver	I don't even know what that is.
15	6 or more	I just want to make sure this includes dialects b/c English in Scotland is not the same as English in California, or Spanish in Chile vs. in Spain, or Mom (which I can usually translate to English) compared to anyone else in any language.	spell words correctly	sassy	Well, if you're asking me to present both sides of the long-fought debate on where to draw the line between dialects and distinct languages, and then to conclude that argument with a decisive statement, you're about to be disappointed. In general, though, it's generally a matter of mutual intelligibility: if I can understand a Scot, a Minnesotan, and a Kiwi, I reckon we'd call it different varieties of the same language.
16	4	I hate having to quantify my language abilities and everything is subjective.	People where I'm from say declarative sentences with the same intonation as other people use for questions. So if I say I'm hungry people think I'm asking them whether I'm hungry.	Empalagado. We use this a lot in north west Mexico.	Just looked it up, and that seems like a fairly useful word.
17	0-1	I don't complain out loud, I just think about it until it slowly drives me to madness.. I never act on any impulses I get during that time though, luckily for you.	Well, people make fun of me for exentuating my 't's..	Hmmm the verb for "to have a crush on someone" , at least in the languages I pretend to know, there's never a good way of saying it.	Not to make fun of you, but what's "exentuating"?
18	2				You haven't given me much to work with.
19	6 or more	I would have preferred "adequate", qualified by "for survival" or "for discussing bicycle maintenance" or something.	I apparently have a nowhere accent.	Theological terms deeply rooted in Semitic and European culture are hard to translate into Polynesian languages. A lot of translators take the stupid lazy route and just transliterate.	Liar.
20	2	By decent, I'm guessing you mean not coming across as having an impediment.	Differently what I do, I know not.	LOVE. So many different meanings...	So many meanings, all of them LIES.
21	0-1			I don't qualify for any of these questions. I'm an even bigger loser than I was last week.	I still think you're pretty great. What do you think the interrogation should be on next week?
22	2		I put articles in places they don't belong (e.g. "That is so the crazy")	Translating the word "pirate" into Hmong is quite challenging	That is the weird.
23	0-1	Naw, I'm good.	I deliberately pronounce family as "fambly"	jiiku: sort of like intense, burning hatred, only worse	This jiiku, can one feel it all the time? I might have jiiku.
24	3	Consider this my complaint.	Colorahhhhdo. Not Colorado.	Awkward.	See, I still can't tell which 'a' you meant for me to hear in my head. Obligatory plug for the IPA:	http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Phonetic_Alphabet#Letters
25	2	I like that word	I say soda instead of pop	Cowpigeon	http://www.popvssoda.com/
26	2	No complaints! Today's been too great.	I pronounce things normally, but sometimes when I'm talking I'll unintentionally start to whisper random words. Haha.	In ASL, when telling stories, instead of using people's names each time, you have to pick a reference point for them or represent them with different fingers so when your telling stories with several people it can get really confusing.