What languages can you speak?

noise · 07-01-2010, 08:29 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheBig3KilledMyRainDog

How many people worldwide speak hungarian?

Wikipedia:

Quote:

There are about 14.5 million native speakers, of whom 9.5–10 million live in present-day Hungary. About 2.5 million speakers live outside present-day Hungary, but in areas that were part of the Kingdom of Hungary before the Treaty of Trianon (1920). Of these, the largest group lives in Transylvania, the western half of present-day Romania, where there are approximately 1.4 million Hungarians. There are large, majority Hungarian territories also in Slovakia, Serbia and Ukraine, but Hungarian speakers can also be found in Croatia, Austria, and Slovenia, as well as about a million people scattered in other parts of the world, for example there are more than a hundred thousand Hungarian speakers in the Hungarian American community in the United States.

jibber · 07-01-2010, 12:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheBig3KilledMyRainDog

This is my nightmare scenario.

How many people worldwide speak hungarian?

marrying a hungarian and moving there is your nightmare scenario? that's an oddly specific nightmare.

adidasss · 07-01-2010, 12:58 PM

What I find fascinating is that Hungarian (along with Finnish) is so different from anything else spoken in Europe they had to invent a whole language group of their own...

Plus, it sounds hilarious.

TheBig3 · 07-01-2010, 02:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by adidasss

What I find fascinating is that Hungarian (along with Finnish) is so different from anything else spoken in Europe they had to invent a whole language group of their own...

Plus, it sounds hilarious.

haven't heard it, but I believe the Basque language is also in its own language group, but its been awhile since I read that so I may be way off.

Jib - Moving to a place where I can't speak the language. Though my nightmares tend to be specific as hell.

edit: noise, where are you from originally? And how did you meet your significant other?

electricred · 07-01-2010, 02:10 PM

English and Spanish, I'm sad that the population of spanish-speaking people where I live isn't higher, just having that immersion would be great, but *sigh*, not that many in the midwest of the US. The only option to speak better, is to travel abroad and learn, or stay in class at college and get the most out of those four years.

If I could, I'd learn Japanese first, then try out Zulu, that sounds like a challenge

~~CAPTAIN CAVEMAN~~ · 07-01-2010, 07:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheBig3KilledMyRainDog

haven't heard it, but I believe the Basque language is also in its own language group, but its been awhile since I read that so I may be way off.

basque is an isolate (no family), hungarian is part of a larger family (uralic > finno-ugric > ugric > hungarian)

noise · 07-01-2010, 09:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheBig3KilledMyRainDog

noise, where are you from originally? And how did you meet your significant other?

i'm from the US (Colorado). met her there just before moving to London for grad school. then moved to Budapest after i got my degree.

Hungarian has two living relatives - Finnish and Estonian. the three are mutually unintelligible. i've been to Estonia a few times, and can't understand a word of what they say!

does the language really sound that funny? i hear words rather than just noises so it's hard to judge.

TheBig3 · 07-01-2010, 10:04 PM

Sounds like Portuguese to me.

adidasss · 07-02-2010, 11:50 AM

It sounds like gibberish!

Laurent Quinn Proper · 07-02-2010, 07:25 PM

I fluently speak English and Spanish and I know some basic Dutch and French.

07-01-2010, 12:58 PM	#143 (permalink)
adidasss Slavic gay sauce Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: Abu Dhabi Posts: 7,993	What I find fascinating is that Hungarian (along with Finnish) is so different from anything else spoken in Europe they had to invent a whole language group of their own... Plus, it sounds hilarious. __________________ “Think of what a paradise this world would be if men were kind and wise.” - Kurt Vonnegut, Cat's Cradle. Last.fm

07-01-2010, 10:04 PM	#148 (permalink)
TheBig3 killedmyraindog Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: Boston, Massachusetts Posts: 11,172	Sounds like Portuguese to me. __________________ I've moved to a new address

07-02-2010, 11:50 AM	#149 (permalink)
adidasss Slavic gay sauce Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: Abu Dhabi Posts: 7,993	It sounds like gibberish! __________________ “Think of what a paradise this world would be if men were kind and wise.” - Kurt Vonnegut, Cat's Cradle. Last.fm

07-01-2010, 02:10 PM	#145 (permalink)
electricred Groupie Join Date: Jun 2010 Posts: 2	English and Spanish, I'm sad that the population of spanish-speaking people where I live isn't higher, just having that immersion would be great, but sigh, not that many in the midwest of the US. The only option to speak better, is to travel abroad and learn, or stay in class at college and get the most out of those four years. If I could, I'd learn Japanese first, then try out Zulu, that sounds like a challenge