~INTRODUCTION TO THE SWEDISH LANGUAGE




Swedish is a fascinating and expressive language. It is also a melodic language, admittedly difficult to pronounce like a native because of its characteristic sing-song rhythm, but otherwise not more complicated to learn than English.
Most Swedes born after World War II do speak or understand English – many of them very well, actually – and you will probably be able to have a memorable and enjoyable stay in Sweden without any deeper knowledge of Swedish. But you will find that just a few words of Swedish will work as a wonderful door-key to the Swedes, who have a reputation of being rather reserved to strangers.
Addressing someone in his or her native language is a matter of respect, a way of showing that you play by their rules, so to speak. To learn a language means to learn to understand the culture where it is spoken and the people who speak it. In a way, to learn a language opens up a new world!


Swedish is a member of the Indo-European family, to which belong almost all European languages (with the exception of the Finnish-Ugrian, Basque, and Caucasian languages), and has many features in common with all of these.
Its closest relatives are Danish, Norwegian, and Icelandic. The latter has due to its isolation remained remarkably intact from the Viking Age and therefore is very difficult to understand for other Nordic speakers. Swedes, Norwegians, and Danes usually do not have any difficulties in communicating with each other. Even though Danish is slightly more closely related to Swedish than Norwegian, its �hot-potato-in-the-mouth� pronunciation is the main obstacle when Danes and Swedes speak with each other, whereas Norwegian in that respect is very similar to Swedish.
All in all, the differences between the languages are not very big – most Swedes would probably even find it difficult to tell whether a text was written in Norwegian or Danish. Since Swedish also is the second official language of Finland, a basic knowledge of Swedish will thus enable you to understand and make yourself understood in several countries.

Learning Swedish is facilitated by the fact that over the centuries it has borrowed thousands of words from Low German, French, and English; some very common words in English have in turn been borrowed from the Vikings. This means that many words will be familiar to you from the very beginning!!


Curious!?
Wanna learn swedish?


Here is the first lesson!



Goodmorning --- Godmorgon

Goodevening --- Godkväll

Goodnight ---- Godnatt

Hello ---- Hej,Tjena(informal)

Nice to meet you --- Trevligt att träffas

How are you? ---- Hur står det till?

Thank you --- Tack

Goodbye ---- Adjö,Hej då (informal)

See you! ---- Vi ses!






Some language links:

http://www.nordiska.su.se/komloss

http://www.skrudda.org/learnswedish/stugan.html

http://www.people.fas.harvard.edu/~arubin/swedish.html

Silke,
I love lessons on other languages! I hope you post more Swedish here, I am ready to LEARN!

Tack,
Dara!

ilocano
wee wee


Ilocano like all its sister languages, is an Austronesian language of the Philippine type spoken by about ten million people. It is a member of the Cordilleran language family which comprises the following languages of Luzon Island.

The original Ilocano homeland is in Northwest Luzon (the provinces of Ilocos Norte, Ilocos Sur, Abra, and La Union), but Ilocanos have populated many regions of the Philippines, and in many cases they predominate over the native ethnic group of the new lands to which they migrate. Such is the case in the provinces of Nueva Ecija, Pangasinan, Tarlac, and Benguet. There are also sizable communities of Ilocanos throughout the United States, most notably in HAWAII and CALIFORNIA where the language is taught in certain schools.

Because of the importance of Ilocano in Northern Luzon, it has been called the "National Language of the North." Many ethnic groups from the northern regions of the country are more at home in their second language, Ilocano, than the national language of the country, Tagalog (Pilipino). This is undoubtedly due to the historical prestige of the language and the accessibility of its speakers. There has been a national language shift, however, in the last few years due to the extensive use of Tagalog in the media and the national program to promote the Pilipino language in elementary and secondary schools. Ilocano remains a regional langauge with no political power or use in education past the early elementary years.


ILOCANO DIALECTS. Because of the remarkably stable history of the Ilocano language owing to the fact that the Ilocano people have populated much of the Kailokuan from a small homogeneous homeland, dialect diversity is minimal. The original Ilocano speaking areas (in the provinces of Ilocos Norte and Ilocos Sur) are said to speak the purest form of the language, called by Ilocanos 'nauneg nga Iloko' (deep Ilocano). However, due to the migration of the Ilocanos southward and eastward, much of northern Luzon is heavily influenced by Ilocano language and culture. La Union and Pangasinan provinces are dominated in most areas by Ilocano speakers speaking the southern dialect. The southern dialect has minimal lexical differences from the northern one, but a major phonological difference-- the addition of a high back unrounded vowel represented in the orthography by the letter 'e'. As this sound exists also in Pangasinan, we might be able to attribute this difference as a remnant left behind by ethnic Pangasinenses who are now mother tongue speakers of Ilocano.

naimbag a bigat mo----good morning
naimbag a rabiim-------good evening
mapanakon-------------i had to go
ay ayaen ka------------i love you
agyamannak------------thank you



waaaaaaaaah!!!