Multi Language Thread.

[Adelheid]

When I was reading Villette by Charlotte Bronte, I came across quite a few French phrases. I was a little annoyed, as I don't understand French, and I had to flip to the back, where all the translations were. :blush: I was wishing I could at least understand some of it, when this idea came to me. :idea:

Since there are people of all denominations on this forum, I think it will be very interesting to learn some different languages. I don't know if there are any French here, but I know that at least we could learn some phrases of other languages from people here! How cool! :banana:

Right I think it's better to start with the basics, right? ;)

How you you say "Hello" in any language? Please put the Pronunciation there too.. like for english you would pronouce Hello as (HEA-low)

[Kaltrina]

I think this is a very cool thread. very nice idea Adelheid.
ok my mother tongue is Albanian and in Albanian Hello is "Tung" and it is pronounced the way it is written, every letter is pronounced. :)

[Jay]

What about 'people from all around the word'? Not sure what's multiligualism got to do with denomination.

Ahoj [ahoy] (think pirates ;)) - informal greeting (among friends etc.)

[volvoreta]

My first languages are Galician and Spanish. Hello is Ola, pronounced Olah (Galician) and Hola in Spanish, pronounced the same.

[RococoLocket]

Hello in Arabic is 'Marhaba' & is pronounced as written :)

[adilyoussef]

In my dilect which is Morocca Arabic, Hello is "Sallam". Pronounce ['sala:m].But as we wer collonised by Frence, some say "salut" which is a Franch word pronounced [salU:]. Notice that the 'u' is transcribed in capital because it's not pronounced like the English way. It is a little soft: a front hight rounded vowel.

[volvoreta]

Hello in Arabic is 'Marhaba' & is pronounced as written :)
In what dialect? I'd heard 'merhaba' in Turkish; in Arabic, I always heard sallam

[Themis]

My native language is German. In Austria we say " Servus" [sehr-voos] (and no, it's not meant to be insulting and nowadays it has got nothing to do with the world "slave" - because servus is slave in latin... just thought .. I should warn you ). We also say "Hallo", though. [ha-loh]

[Mark F.]

English/French here : hello is Bonjour, it actually means Good day.

[Schokokeks]

hey!

it's not my mother tongue and I speak only very little of it, but thought you might like to know how to greet someone from Sweden :)

'tjäna' is hello in Swedish, pronounced [tch-ay-na] (tch like chocolate, ay like way)

[Scatterbrain]

My native language is Finnish
Hello in Finnish would basically be "hei" (pronounced quite like hey)
Or maybe "päivää" (but that is more like "good afternoon"...)

[RococoLocket]

In what dialect? I'd heard 'merhaba' in Turkish; in Arabic, I always heard sallam

Well my family are Lebonese & Jordanian so ... that dialect. Yeah.

[adilyoussef]

In what dialect? I'd heard 'merhaba' in Turkish; in Arabic, I always heard sallam

'marhaba' usually means welcome. But the greating in all arab countries is 'sallam'.

[Nightshade]

Hello actuallty adil it is more the muslim greeting, isnt it ( it means peace :))
In egypt unless you are being formal you sort of just jump in with Izayak(Is-ay-ack) How are you?? ;)
Great thread :D

[Koa]

My native language is Finnish
Hello in Finnish would basically be "hei" (pronounced quite like hey)
Or maybe "päivää" (but that is more like "good afternoon"...)

I also heard MOI...

Nice thread for a language freak like myself (that is, someone who loves languages possibily more than anything)...

Italian here, as you might already know our hello is CIAO (well prononuced like chao if I need to say so...)

I'll add some languages that noone will probably add, that is
Hungarian: SZIA (see-a, very similar to english see ya :)) - if you say it to more than one person it becomes 'plural': SZIASZTOK (see-ah-stok) ; sometimes they say SZERVUSZ, just like SERVUS in Austria. (yeah and they make SZERVUSZTOK of it I think...). As you might have guessed by now, the sound S is written as SZ in Hungarian.
and
Russian: PRIVET (priviet, sort of) or ZDRASTVUJ, just prononuce every letter...if you manage lol. (That becomes ZDRASTVUJTE if it's plural or formal)

[Keltic Banshee]

Well, just thought I could add some lesser spoken languages to the thread (though I don't actually _speak_ any of them, I know a little bit of both...)

In Basque, you'd say "Kaixo" for hello... pronounced as written, except fo the x, which is similar to the english "sh" (I'm awful making phonetical transcriptions, I know ;) )

In Irish Gaelic (and in Scottish Gaelic as well, I think, but I am not sure) you'd say "Dia dhuit", or "Dia is Muire dhuit", meaning literally "God be with you" and "God and Mary be with you"... regarding pronunciation... pretty much as written, except for those "dh", which sound like nearly gutural "g" (Corrections very much welcome regarding this, I mean, I know more or less how to say it, but I can hardly explain it hehe)

Great thread btw :-)

[adilyoussef]

Hello actuallty adil it is more the muslim greeting, isnt it ( it means peace :))
In egypt unless you are being formal you sort of just jump in with Izayak(Is-ay-ack) How are you?? ;)
Great thread :D

Hi Night! Nice to see you back. Yes of course 'sallam' is a muslim greating indeed. But 'Izayak' in egyption dialect means 'how are you'. Most Arab countries are Muslims that's why 'sallam' is the most comen. It means peace of course.

[RococoLocket]

Hi Night! Nice to see you back. Yes of course 'sallam' is a muslim greating indeed. But 'Izayak' in egyption dialect means 'how are you'. Most Arab countries are Muslims that's why 'sallam' is the most comen. It means peace of course.

Well my family aren't Muslim so that would be why they don't generally use 'Sallam' :)

[samercury]

Yeah a Language thread :p

Hello in Creole is almost like the French "Bonjour" except without the r= Bonjou it's pronounced Bon (as in good) Joo... not very informative.... :blush:
Bye

[Koa]

Well, just thought I could add some lesser spoken languages to the thread (though I don't actually _speak_ any of them, I know a little bit of both...)

In Basque, you'd say "Kaixo" for hello... pronounced as written, except fo the x, which is similar to the english "sh" (I'm awful making phonetical transcriptions, I know ;) )



So you don't speak Basque even if you are in the Basque country??? Interesting... I've always wondered about thos bilingual places... I've met 3 Basques in real life in the past year, that was so interesting :) AGUR is one of my favourite words ever :)

[subterranean]

Hello in Indonesian is "Hai", you pronounce the "ai" as in "Lie" :D

[mono]

English/French here : hello is Bonjour, it actually means Good day.
Same here, though I cannot consider myself quite fluent in French. Over the years of having no ability to practice with anyone, my conversational skills have somewhat declined, but my reading and writing abilities seem stable.
As a footnote to Mark F.'s post, most French prefer "Bonjour" as hello, especially in a formal or semi-formal manner, but in very informal conversation (such as with friends or close family), some use "Salut" (pronounced: "sal-oo") as hello. Just as in English, there seem many, many ways of greeting in French, but depending on the person you greet, as "Salut" seems strictly used in informal speech.
Interesting thread. :)

[Nightshade]

Ive thought of anotther form of hello in arabic its more gulf countries though I think. its ahlen pronounced without dilect accent in "Proper" as ah-len but I have herad it pronounced ah-laynn (as in this is not a road it is a lane. but with a drawn out n)
I cant tell you exactly what it means but Im thinking its source word is Hela wich is good, isnt it Adil, Rococo???
:D

[Monica]

In Polish it's "cześć" but I've no idea how to explain to you how to pronounce it :D You can also say sth like "hej" or now even "hello".

Try to say "cześć" and don't get discoursaged :)

[amuse]

from my 5th grade German lessons: "Guten tag" means "Good day."

[Jay]

capital T :angel: :D

[Taliesin]

What a lovely thread.

First, hello, in estonian is "Tere" (we believe that english-speaking people would write it's prononunciation teh-reh, though to us it is written as it is pronounced)

[Koa]

Yeah like...I think it's hard for us non-English to explain the prononuciation the English way...i think the best way is to use as an example an English word, like CH as in CHat...or whatever...

This forum is so incredibly international, I get to see words in language I'd never though I'd seen...and as a passionate language learner that's so wonderful to me :nod:
I'm a member of a forum about languages and linguistics and that's of course so very international as well, but I don't think there are any Estonian or Albanian speakers there, at least not natives...

[RococoLocket]

Ive thought of anotther form of hello in arabic its more gulf countries though I think. its ahlen pronounced without dilect accent in "Proper" as ah-len but I have herad it pronounced ah-laynn (as in this is not a road it is a lane. but with a drawn out n)
I cant tell you exactly what it means but Im thinking its source word is Hela wich is good, isnt it Adil, Rococo???
:D

Haha, I'll probably be "corrected" again, but I've always been told that ahlain [methinx with a language that uses it's own alphabet, the English phonetic spelling is debateable] means Welcome :) I wouldn't know about source words though i'm afraid, i'm far from fluent, although i'd love to be & intend to learn Arabic properly one day :)

[Themis]

from my 5th grade German lessons: "Guten tag" means "Good day."

That's pretty formal and in Austria we use "Grüß Gott" more often. I found a site where it's said it's pronounce like this (gruus got). I'm not sure that true, it sounds weird. I'll try to look the pronounciation up..

[Keltic Banshee]

So you don't speak Basque even if you are in the Basque country??? Interesting... I've always wondered about thos bilingual places... I've met 3 Basques in real life in the past year, that was so interesting :) AGUR is one of my favourite words ever :)

Well, the Basque Country is suppossed to be a bilingual place, but... you know, some parts are mainly Spanish-speaking areas, while others are mostly Basque-speaking. And I happen to live in one of the Spanish-speaking ones :-) I had 12 years of Basque at school, but language teaching over here is kind of... not as good as it could be, so I ended up being able to understand Basque (I can even watch the TV in Basque!) but I am completely unable of speaking :S

If you are interested in any other useful phrases in Basque, just let me know here/in a PM/in a mail ;-)

Wish you all the best,
Keltic Banshee

[Aurora Ariel]

Ni hao!Ni hao ma?Wode hen hao!Wode shi Audaliyaren!:)

[subterranean]

Wow Chinese :D

I guess the meanings of the first 2 sentences are:

Hello,

How are you doing?

:)

[Nightshade]

Haha, I'll probably be "corrected" again, but I've always been told that ahlain [methinx with a language that uses it's own alphabet, the English phonetic spelling is debateable] means Welcome :) I wouldn't know about source words though i'm afraid, i'm far from fluent, although i'd love to be & intend to learn Arabic properly one day :)

I am not correcting you, just correcting myself.
Actually you are probably right it is a sort of welcome but what I meant is it doesnt literaly mean welcome.

Sorry my mistake:blush: my sister who is better at these things than me says that Ahlan is welcome and marhaban means more welcome with joy, or joyful greetings.

:D

[Kaltrina]

In Polish it's "cześć" but I've no idea how to explain to you how to pronounce it :D You can also say sth like "hej" or now even "hello".

Try to say "cześć" and don't get discoursaged :)

hey Monica I'll try to help you with the pronounciation but please correct me if I'm wrong.
"cześć" is pronounced like [chesh] "ch" as in chat and "sh" as in she. hope I got it right.... :confused: :)
I love Polish, in fact I love all the languages. :D

and I wanted to tell you that in Serbian hello is "Zdravo"...try to pronounce every letter. but here in Balkans we use "ciao" a lot, like in Italian. but we write it as "qao"... :D

[Monica]

"cześć" is pronounced like [chesh] "ch" as in chat and "sh" as in she. hope I got it right.... :confused: :)
I love Polish, in fact I love all the languages. :D



you're right but you forgot about "ć" at the end. you need to pronounce that as well. there's no sound like that in English, I guess.

Serbian "zdravo" sounds like Polish "zdrowie" meaning health :)

[Kaltrina]

you're right but you forgot about "ć" at the end. you need to pronounce that as well. there's no sound like that in English, I guess.

Serbian "zdravo" sounds like Polish "zdrowie" meaning health :)

yes I did. :D . so then I guess we could add "ć" at the end which sounds also as CH in english but we can say that it's a light ch, it is not pronounced like the first one.
health in Serbian is "zdravlje" and it is pronounced as it is written...

[Keltic Banshee]

health in Serbian is "zdravlje" and it is pronounced as it is written...

Well, I know that having Spanish as mother tongue is a great disadvantage when learning others, because of the limited number of sounds we have... but I had never been so aware of it until I read that "pronuced as it is written"...

So... for those of us who can see no human way of pronouncing "zd" (or any other pair of consonants together, except for very few combination, for that matter), any hint? :confused: :goof:

Wish you all the best,

Keltic Banshee

[Jay]

Banshee, say z, say d, say zd :p
Try to think about talking quickly and pronouncing two words, one of which ends with the Z sound, the other beginning with D... sorry for the lousy example, think 'is dry'. If you pronounce it 's dry (leaving the I sound out), you'll get [zdrai]... and looky! you got 'zdr' in one word ;)

Anyone got any idea what the heck I'm on about? :D

[Themis]

@Jay: Probably. ;) But I'll just pronounce the letters like I'd do in german and I think I have got it .. more or less.

[mono]

Just out of curiosity, of so many of us who know second (and/or third, fourth . . .) languages, obviously many of you have shown incredible talents in reading and writing, especially in English as a foreign language. Speaking and comprehending language, from my experience, seems a lot different from reading and writing, and, I wondered, do all of you understand in speech and speak different languages as well as you read and write them?
In French, my conversation abilities I used to judge my skills as quite strong, but with a lack of practice, my conversation skills have declined. In fact, several weeks ago, I spoke briefly with a woman and her young daughter from Quebec; I kept up somewhat in conversation, with several mistakes, while the very adorable young girl laughed. Oddly, my reading and writing abilities have remained almost as strong as while I took courses in French, still practicing now and then.

[Nightshade]

I can hold my own in a conversation in arabic but my accent gives me away as being a 'foriegner ' my speech is sort of a garble of gulf and egyptirn phrases and accents.
I can understand written well enough to read books without the constant need for dictionaaries but write I am afraid I can not. My written grammer is attrocius. :D

[Jay]

I operate better in reading/writing than in spoken form. No matter what the language is (mostly that is :p). I could probably understand a German written text better than writing in German and I think anyone speaking German who'd happen to hear what I'm doing to the word order would probably shoot me :D. Russian seems to be the odd one as I'm better at speaking it rather than writing/reading it... I suppose it's the azbuka thing ;). Got slight problems with Slovak grammar... spoken much better though. Reading Slovak texts without problems. But then it doesn't count as it's quite similar to Czech, just ... softer.

[Koa]

I wondered, do all of you understand in speech and speak different languages as well as you read and write them?


Absolutely not... while I write in rather good English, I speak with many more insecurities and I happen to make grammar mistakes every now and then (usually not big ones), and most of all my pronounciation is atrocious... And I find it rather hard to understand a native English speaking, at least before I adapt to the single person's accent.
French uhm... I think my written/oral skills are rather even... Though the thing I can do best is reading, I read whole books in French original after not having studied French for 3/4 years! :eek: I still speak better than I thought, but then... I have good basis, 8 years of studying and it's not that different from Italian.
German...my spoken and written German were and are equally bad... Though maybe writing I can think about where the hell to put words...
Russian... I think I have more experience in speaking than in writing, but writing has the huge advantage of giving me the time to think about the case, while speaking I just realise I'm saying it wrong but I cant think of the right one quickly enough...
Spanish... it doesnt really count, but I understand a lot of what I read and quite a lot of what I hear if it's spoken slowly...however, I can barely speak or write cos I have no clue of the grammar, so as soon as I have to use a verb which is not one of those that my mind registered, I get lost. I mostly note in my mind the similarities and differences from Italian and work consequently.

Now, why did you ask this.... why do you want me to babble on for hours? Why did you open a thread were I will end up being more verbose than ever? :D:D:D

[Koa]

Banshee, say z, say d, say zd :p
Try to think about talking quickly and pronouncing two words, one of which ends with the Z sound, the other beginning with D... sorry for the lousy example, think 'is dry'. If you pronounce it 's dry (leaving the I sound out), you'll get [zdrai]... and looky! you got 'zdr' in one word ;)

Anyone got any idea what the heck I'm on about? :D


Problem is, that explaining things this way we will never get too far... nor we would by doing it in a scientific way cos my brain refuses to learn the international phonetic language or any similar device (including the soft/hard - deaf/sounding(or whatever it's called in Englush) distinction), which anyway would be unknown to non-linguists...

Concretely referring to the quoted post... the Spanish Z is more similar to an English TH than to that zdravje thing... and the Spanish S is more like an Italian double S... I think the best way to describe that Z in zdravje is a /z/ like in English roSe...
*note: I suppose that zdravje sounds like Russian zdorovje...same meaning

One of the main reasons why I love Slavic languages is the amount of consonants that get near and become impossible to prononuce for us Romance-speakers (there is a famous Czech sentence containing no vowels...something about a needle I think...maybe... Jay?) ... I don't like the unions of vowels you find especially in Italian, they sound so bad...(example: the word aiuole)

And well for Spanish that might be even a bigger problem...all the Spanish I've ever met, even if their English was really good, couldnt prononuce /SP/: they invariably say Espanish, Espain, estupid... they dont realise, it's just their way...

[Keltic Banshee]

the Spanish Z is more similar to an English TH than to that zdravje thing... and the Spanish S is more like an Italian double S...

That was my problem... I couldn't find a way to pronounce a spanish Z in front of a d... so I guess the "simply pronounce all the letters" stuff won't work as we all come from different languages and have different ways of pronouncing them...


I think the best way to describe that Z in zdravje is a /z/ like in English roSe...

Thanks... that I could pronounce then, I think...


And well for Spanish that might be even a bigger problem...all the Spanish I've ever met, even if their English was really good, couldnt prononuce /SP/: they invariably say Espanish, Espain, estupid... they dont realise, it's just their way...

Well... according to all my teachers, I can pronounce it ;-) But well, I started learning English when I was six, so that helped a lot :-)

Well... just got myself out of bed so... time for my breakfast... and my waking up tea! :yawnb:

[Jay]

Koa, no needle :p, and would you be refering to 'strč prst skrz krk'? :D

[Koa]

possibly Jay... yeah the needle just came to my mind but I didnt know if it was related to that sentence... LOL ok, now let's all try to 'prononuce it like it's written' without losing a teeth or two in the attempt ;)

I love that lack of vowel :) It just gives me slight problems... :rolleyes:

[Insomnia]

Shokran (Thanks in Arabic)

Alhamdo lellah (Thank God in Arabic)

la moshkila (No problem in Arabic)

No te preocupe (don't worry in spanish)

[Nightshade]

hey Insomnia
what dilect/ region? Ive always said
Mafeesh moshkilla or la Ishkal :D

[Kaltrina]

I also have more problems in speaking one language, especially if I don't use it for a while but writing and reading I always remember. we Albanians (with exceptions of course) don't have problems with accent because our language has a lot letters that are difficult to pronounce, just like slavic languages but we have some extra letters that slavic languages don't have. I don't have problems with English in writing or reading it but when speaking I make some mistakes. in Serbian I read and write better, I also talk but haven't used it for a while and starting to forget words. I also talk Spanish and it is the only language that I can speak better than I can write. I've learned it from TV so that's why my speaking skills are better...
in Albanian we have letters like these: a vowel ë which is pronounced as the letters or in English "word" or as ur in "church". then we have ç which is almost the same as ch in English "chat", but only a little stronger. then gj which is the same as j in "job",
nj which doesn't exist in English, or I can't think any word with this letter but for those who know spanish this letter is the same as "ñ". (hope I got it right), xh the same as "job" but stronger.and zh, but for this one I can't find any examples in English. sorry. ok now I'll stop. wow I almost wrote a book. lol... :D

[Keltic Banshee]

No te preocupe (don't worry in spanish)

Slight correction: it would be "No te preocupes" (informal) or "No se preocupe" (formal)... ;-) But it would be understood anyway :-)

Wish you all the best,
Keltic Banshee

[Adelheid]

No chinese here? :D

Hello is pronounced in 3 words for chinese. Translated literally, it means "How are you?" They say: "Nee How Ma" But then each language has their own accent, and Chinese is hard to pronouce. ;)

[Monica]

I love learning foreign languages. With English it wasn't a big problem because I started when I was 3 and I never used to learn it by heart, suddenly I was 14 or 15 and I knew most of the important things. And now I study in English so I have a contact with it all the time. Sure, I make a lot of mistakes but I sometimes feel as if it was my native language, having been using it for so many years. I used to learn French but I always hated it. I lost 5 years learning it and I don't remember a thing. I also used to learn Greek and although I understand it a bit, I have problems with reading brcause of that funny alphabeth. I've also been learning Spanish and German and understanding is fine but saying something correct is pretty painful :) But I don't give up!

[Themis]

Just out of curiosity, of so many of us who know second (and/or third, fourth . . .) languages, obviously many of you have shown incredible talents in reading and writing, especially in English as a foreign language. Speaking and comprehending language, from my experience, seems a lot different from reading and writing, and, I wondered, do all of you understand in speech and speak different languages as well as you read and write them?.

Well, as for English - how "very well" I can write you can see here, so I'll let you judge how good or bad I am ... but I do understand most things written in English. Reading novels I mostly don't have a problem. I believe I speak better than I write and I also think I comprehend the language pretty good.
The other language I studied would be French (unless you count latin, too, which I do not think you do..). I have been very good in writing in French but at the moment, I think I know how to speak better. At least, I did manage to survive for two weeks in Nice. ;)

[samercury]

Adelheid- How do you say goodbye in Chinese

[Adelheid]

Adelheid- How do you say goodbye in Chinese

you could say (Zai Zaen) for Goodbye. The "Z" you have to pronounce as in between Ch and Z. It's really hard to say if you haven't studied the chinese language. :D

[Koa]

But you are not Chinese Adelheid, are you? Are you learning Chinese then? Have I missed something (again)? ;)

[samercury]

Thank You...

[Adelheid]

I'm chinese enough, Koa. :D My grandparents came from china itself. ;) Then they migrated to Singapore, and my parents decided to migrate to Australia when I was 11 years old. :lol: Mixed enough too. :D

[Adelheid]

How do you say " I don't know how to speak _________" (insert language) in any language? Cause that phrase is pretty important too!!!! :lol:

[Kaltrina]

yes that is an important phrase.. :D nice thinking adelheid...
ok I'll start...
in Albanian : "Nuk di të flas shqip!" pronounciation: Nuk di are pronounced the way they are written, in të the "ë" is pronounced like er in English word were. flas is also pronounced the way it is written and shqip is probably more difficult. "sh" is pronounced as in English shoe , q is like ch in chimney. so we've got shoe + chimney + p. so when reading the underlined letters we get "Shqip" which is the translation of the word "Albanian". hope I didn't confuse you. lol :D

[Keltic Banshee]

Hey, good way of showing the pronunciation, Kaltrina! :)
In spanish, you would say "no hablo español" or "no hablo castellano" (yes, there are two ways of calling the language ^_^ we're weird hehe)... Regarding pronunciation... hard to get how to pronounce the "ñ" and the "ll" ... :S

no as in nothing
hablo as in a block
español as in escape pat gnocci l ("standard" l) (couldn't think of any other word to explain how to pronounce the "ñ"... anyone could help on that? hehe)
or
castellano as in castle terrible yard nothing

You could also add "lo siento" (I'm sorry) at the beginning of it... pronounced
lo as in love
siento as in similar enter totally

hope you can get the idea...

Wish you all the best

Keltic Banshee

[Nightshade]

In arabic 'Proper' "La Atta-Kalam al-laghah al arbiah"
which is laa to rhyme with bah sound a sheep makes (the soft version not the Baa Baa black sheep version!) Atta just as it looks now this word cant be explained because one of the consonent sounds only exsist in arabic acctually no one speeks like this its 'Proper' and thus only what politicians and what you read and write.

humm the Egyptiens would say "Ma'arafshe Araby"
ma'a sounds like ma-ah imagin starting to say matrimoney but stoping after the first ma and then just a like before a word now string them together very fast..see your getting it thats first wordish done. ra is like Raa the sungod, or like what a liitle kid thinks a lion might sound like RAAA see? then fshe is basicly F the letter followed by she.
Araby is arr like a pirate followed by be like bee.

[adilyoussef]

[ma kanndwish bi llmaghribiya] in a Morrocan Arabic dilect. 'nn' and 'll' means that there is a jemination there. Here I give the phonetic transcription.

[mono]

How do you say " I don't know hoe to speak _________" (insert language) in any language? Cause that phrase is pretty important too!!!! :lol:
In French:
"Je ne sais pas parler francais."

(pronounced: "je ne say pa parlay fronsay" ;))

[Monica]

"Nie umiem (or potrafie) mówić po polsku"

Or simply:

"Nie znam polskiego."

:D Try to pronounce it :D

[floria]

in chinese

ni hao
pronouced as "nee how"
smt like that... : )

[Nightshade]

kanndawish? adil Ive heard that somwhere I think thats how they sppek either in the very south of egypt or in Alexandria but I get those two dielects muddled alot

[samercury]

How do you say nice to meet you?

[samercury]

Okay This is what we have so far for "Hello"

Albanian- Tung
Galatian- Ola
Spanish- Hola
Morocca Arabic- Sallam
French- Salut
Arabic- Marhaba
Turkish- Merhaba (?)
German (Austria)- Servus, Hallo, Grüß Gott
Swedish- tjäna
Finnish- päivää, moi(?)
Egypt- Izayak
Italian- Ciao
Hungarian- Szia
Russian- Privet
Basque- Kaixo
Irish Gaelic- Dia dhuit
Creole- Bonjou
Indonesian- Hai
Polish- cześć, hej
German- Guten tag
Estonian- Tere
Chinese- Ni hao!, Ne How Ma
Serbian- Zdravo

Did I miss anything- anyone wants to add something?

[yellowfeverlime]

Hawaiian- Aloha

[samercury]

Albanian- Tung
Galatian- Ola
Spanish- Hola
Morocca Arabic- Sallam
French- Salut
Arabic- Marhaba
Turkish- Merhaba (?)
German (Austria)- Servus, Hallo, Grüß Gott
Swedish- tjäna
Finnish- päivää, moi(?)
Egypt- Izayak
Italian- Ciao
Hungarian- Szia
Russian- Privet
Basque- Kaixo
Irish Gaelic- Dia dhuit
Creole- Bonjou
Indonesian- Hai
Polish- cześć, hej
German- Guten tag
Estonian- Tere
Chinese- Ni hao!, Ne How Ma
Serbian- Zdravo
Hawaiian- Aloha

[samercury]

Is that all for the Hello?

I'll start on the "I don't know how to speak _________" tomorrow :D

[yellowfeverlime]

UMMM.... here:
AFRIKAANS goeiedag
ALBANIAN mirë dita
ALSATIAN guàtertag
AMHARIC endemen aderk
ARABIC salam / sabah el kheir / marhaba
ARMENIAN barev
AZERI salam
BAMBARA ani sogomen (morning) / ani tlé (afternoon) / ani oulà (evening)
BASQUE egunon (morning) / arratsaldeon (afternoon) / gauon (evening)
BELARUSIAN vitaju / dobraj ranicy (morning) / dzien dobry (afternoon) / viečar dobry (evening)
Прывiтанне (pryvitannie)
BENGALI sunchhen
BERBER idh-iyessbhène
BOBO ka tiana (morning) / ka sion (afternoon) / ka lima (evening)
BOSNIAN halo
BRETON demat
BULGARIAN добър ден (dóbar den) / zdrave
BURMESE mingalar pa
CATALAN bon dia / hola
CHINESE nǐ hăo
CORNISH de(th) da (good day) / myttyn da (good morning) / gorthewer da (good evening) / nos da (good night)
CORSICAN bonghjornu / salutu
CROAT bok / dobar dan
CZECH dobrý den
DANISH goddag (formal) / hej (coll.)
DUTCH goede morgen / goede middag / goede avond
(morning / afternoon / evening)
ESPERANTO bonan tagon / saluton
ESTONIAN tere / tere hommikust
good evening : tere õhtust
FANG mbolo (1 pers.) / mboloani (X pers.)
FAROESE hey
FINNISH hyvää päivää (formal) / päivää (semi formal)
moi / hei / terve
FLEMISH goede morgen / goede middag / goede avond
(morning / afternoon / evening)
FRENCH bonjour (morning) / bonsoir (evening) / salut (colloquial)
FRIULAN bondi
GALICIAN ola
GEORGIAN gamarjoba (anytime) / dila mshvidobisa (good morning)
GERMAN hallo / guten Tag (more polite)
GREEK gia / kalimera (good morning)
GUARANÍ mba'éichapa
HAITIAN CREOLE bonjou / bon swa / la rezone / alo
HEBREW shalom
HINDI namaste / namaskaar
HUNGARIAN jó napot kívánok / szia
ICELANDIC halló
INDONESIAN morning: selamat pagi
noon: selamat siang
afternoon: selamat soré
evening: selamat malam
IRISH GAELIC Dia duit
ITALIAN ciao / buongiorno (good morning)
JAPANESE konnichi wa
ohayô (gozaimasu) (more polite with "gozaimasu")
KABYLIAN azzoul
KHMER tcheripsou
KOREAN annyǒng hashimnikka / annyong haseyo
KURDISH silav
LAO sabai di
LATIN salve, ave (addressing 1 pers.) / salvete, avete (X pers.)
LATVIAN labdien
LINGALA mbote
LITHUANIAN laba diena
labas rytas (morning) / labas vakaras (evening)
LOW SAXON hallo / houje
LUXEMBOURGEOIS moien / gudde moien
MACEDONIAN dobarden
MALAGASY manao ahoana / manahoana
MALAY selamat pagi (morning) / selamat tengahari (afternoon)
selamat petang (evening) / selamat malam (after sunset)
MALTESE merhba / hello
MAORI kia ora
MONGOLIAN sain baina uu (Сайн байна уу)
MORÉ ne y yibeoogo
NORWEGIAN god dag / hei / morgn
OCCITAN bon jorn / adieu
PERSIAN salâm
POLISH dzień dobry / dobry wieczór (le soir)
PORTUGUESE bom dia (morning) / boa tarde (after 12.00) / boa noite (evening)
oi / olá
ROMANI latcho divès
ROMANIAN bună ziua
RUSSIAN Добрый день (dobrii den) / Здравствуйте (zdravstvuite)
SAMOAN talofa
SARDINIAN bona die
SCOTTISH GAELIC hallo
SERBIAN dobar dan / zdravo
SHONA mhoro (plural: mhoroi)
SINDHI acho saiin
SLOVAK dobré ráno (morning)
dobrý deň (during the day)
dobrý večer (evening)
SLOVENIAN pozdravljen (to a man) / pozdravljena (to 2 men) / pozdravljeni (to 3 men or more)
pozdravljena (to a woman) / pozdravljeni (to 2 women) / pozdravljene (to 3 women or more)
pozdravljeni (mixed group)
dobro jutro (good morning) / dober dan (good day) / dober večer (good evening)
lahko noč (good night - taking leave)
živijo (colloquial)
SOBOTA dobar dan
SPANISH buenos días / hola
SWAHILI jambo[dj] / [hu]jambo, habari za mchana?
SWEDISH god dag / hej
SWISS-GERMAN guete tog
TAGALOG magandang araw
TAHITIAN ia orana
TAMIL vanakam / kallaï vannakam (morning only)
TELUGU namaskaram
THAI สวัสดีคะ (sawatdii kha) - woman speaking
สวัสดครับี (sawatdii khrap) - man speaking
TURKISH merhaba
UDMURT dzéchbur (common form for one person)
dzéchbureś (polite form for one person or common form for two or more people)
UKRAINIAN pryvit (hi) / dobryi ranok (good morning)
dobryi den (good afternoon) / dobryi vechir (good evening)
URDU as salaamo alaikum
VIETNAMESE chào (ông, bà, cô : Mr, Mrs, Miss)
WALOON (orthographe à betchfessîs) bondjoû / ay! / Diè wåde
WELSH hylo / sut mae
WEST INDIAN CREOLE bonjou
ZULU sawubona (to one person) / sanibonani (to more than one person)

[Kaltrina]

wow Yellowfeverlime those greetings were something. where did you get all those. lol
ok now for "nice to meet you". in Albanian we say "Më vjen mirë që u njoftuam"
now you all know about ë because I've explained it so many times, but the one that I think can be difficult is the word "njoftuam". pronounciation: the letter nj,which exists in albanian, s like ñ in Spanish and it is pronounced like in English word new . the pronounciation of new is [nju] so when pronouncing nj in "njoftuam" instead of u in [nju] we say o and we get njoftuam. :D hope I explained it good. :D

[adilyoussef]

kanndawish? adil Ive heard that somwhere I think thats how they speak either in the very south of egypt or in Alexandria but I get those two dielects muddled alot

So it is close to the dialect spoken here in Morocco. It has never occured to my mind that in Egypt there is a dialect close to the one spoken here in my country. Well, I'm learning.

[yellowfeverlime]

i 4get. I'll find out though!

[yellowfeverlime]

http://www.freelang.net/expressions/hello.html

[mono]

How do you say nice to meet you?
In French there exist many, many ways to configure and say this common phrase, but the easiest (and most famous) way:

"Enchanté."

(pronounced: "on-shont-ay")

[Kaltrina]

http://www.freelang.net/expressions/hello.html
thanks yellowfeverlime. :D

Nice to meet you in Serbian : "Drago mi je".

[Taliesin]

I don't speak Estonian: Ma ei räägi eesti keelt.
We think that the english transcribation would be about:
Ma mah
ei ay
räägi - ää is pronounced a bit like there in american accent. g like in the word geek not like in word gee.
eesti - ee should be pronounced like ae in english word faery. Ti like tea, but short.
keelt - like the word "celt" but the e should be pronounced long.

Meeldiv tutvuda - pleased to meet you / to make acquaintance with you

Meeld - like meld, but e should be pronounced really long
iv - like in english live
tutvuda tut-vuh-dah

[Koa]

I don't speak italian : Non parlo italiano.
pronounce every letter.

I don't speak Russian: Ya ne govoryu po-russki
(gavaryu, with stress on the end, pa-russki, the rest how it's written)

I don't speak Hungarian: Nem bészelek magyarul
(SZ=S, so beselek.. GY is a strange sound, kinda Y...)
That was the sentence I said the most during 6 months in Hungary...millions of times...:rolleyes: It was frustratiing sometimes...


Nice to meet you:
IT : piacere di conoscerti (literally: i'm happy to know you)
prononuce C as CH in CHocolate, SC as SH

RU: ochen' priyatno

HU: hm I think I don't know...

[Nightshade]

nice to meet you in arabic????:confused:
Sa'idtoo be marie-fete-akum
maybe

[querida]

I speak a little flemmish (belgian dutch) so here are some basics:

Hello : Goiedag ('g' are pronounced like spanish 'j's if you know what I mean)
My name is... : Ik heet ... (Ik = EEK' -- like in 'speak' double ee is like a french 'é')

I'm so sorry I can't make the pronunciation clearer!! Help welcome!

[Adelheid]

Hmmm.... how do you say "Please help me" and "thank you"?

those are pretty important too! :)

in Chinese, thank you is 'xia xia' the 'a' is pronounced as- air.
Please help me is, "cer ye pang wor ma?" Looks weird, I know. ;)

[Kaltrina]

Hmmm.... how do you say "Please help me" and "thank you"?

In Albanian
"thank you": Faleminderit. (it looks difficult probably but every letter is pronounced as it is)
"Please help me": Ju lutem më ndihmoni (ju = you and others as written, in "ndihmoni" the "h" is heard when pronounced)
:D
In Serbian
"thank you": Hvala (hvala = hfala)
"Please help me": Pomozite mi molim vas (in this case "v" is pronounced as it is "v")

[Koa]

Pippi Longstocking: http://efraimstochter.de/sprachendieserwelt/namen_sammelseite.shtml ;)

Thank you:
Italian:Grazie
(that z for an english speaker would be kind of a TS sound I suppose)
Hungarian: Köszönöm, short form Köszi
(hm...kinda ksnm, but you prononunce a bit of O)
Russian: спасибо = spasibo

Please help me...well that's a more tricky one, in Italian it dipends on the context and on whether it is formal or not, singular or plural...
informal: aiutami per favore
formal: mi aiuti per favore
plural: aiutatemi per favore

Russian (only in transliteration cos typing that all in cyrillic alphabet would take me a while, and I dont even know it shows on the forum...)
informal: pomogi mne pozhaluijsto
formal/plural: pomogite mne pozhaluijsto
(hard G as in "get" and zh= french J...last word reas kinda pajalusta, with french j as i said...oh well i'm sure you've heard that one before)

Of corse I have no clue about Hungarian... Uhm I'd know German, French and Spanish but I'd let natives do that... or if they dont show up, I'll tell you later before the house burns down as I am pre-heating the oven... :D

[kilted exile]

I dont speak any other languages (in fact people have occassionally wondering wether I speak english - overuse of slang). I have always gotten around the I dont speak problem by pointing to myself and saying Scotland.

[Eva Marina]

I'm not to sure about "Please help me" but I seem to remember that thank you in modern Greek is pronounced something like "efcharisto." *fetches Greek phrasebook* Yeah, the emphasis goes on the "o" like "efcharisto".

[Weeping Willow]

Well didn't see any heberw so..

Hello is Shalom or hay.

I don't speak heberw is .. - "Ani Lo Medaber Evrit".
ani as in Nit
Ev like evening

If some one wants any more pharses just ask me.. ok'!

:D...

[smilingtearz]

yeah!..Willow's the language master :D

[Weeping Willow]

Ghu??? :confused:...

[EAP]

In Urdu:

Please help me: 'Meherbani farma ka meri madad karan,' - Formal. The vernacular would go something like, 'meri madad karan' with the emphasis stripped off please.

thank you: 'shukriah,'

nice to meet you: '(aap say) mil kar khusi hui,' where 'aap say' is often dropped in casual conversation.

[beer good]

Adding to the Swedish dictionary:

Hello: "Tjäna" is pretty informal, even though it originally means "I am your humble servant" (then again, we're an informal people). "Hej" is always a safe bet, though.

I don't speak Swedish: "Jag talar inte svenska" (Yahg TAH-lar IN-te SVEN-ska)

Nice to meet you: Hmmm... I guess just "Trevligt" (TREH-vlit) will do. Or "kul att ses" (cuul at sehs) in more informal situations.

Thank you: "Tack" (most frequently used word in Swedish; also means "please". In any given transaction, this word is used at least four times.)

Please help me: "Kan du hjälpa mig" (Can doo YELP-a may), depends a lot on context though.

[RobinHood3000]

"Hello" in Rubber Duckese = "Quack."
"Please" in Rubber Duckese = "Quack."
"Thank you" in Rubber Duckese = "Quack quack." (may or may not be hyphenated, depending on formal or informal usage).

[adilyoussef]

Hmmm.... how do you say "Please help me" and "thank you"?

those are pretty important too! :)

in Chinese, thank you is 'xia xia' the 'a' is pronounced as- air.
Please help me is, "cer ye pang wor ma?" Looks weird, I know. ;)

For "Please help me" in the Moroccan dialect there is an equivalent like [awe'nni 'llah i kha'llik] عاوني الله اخليك.
For "Thank you" there are many among them [shok'ran] شكرا [I 'ttoub] اتوب ['llah i haf'dak] الله احفضك['llah i kha'llik] الله اخليك.
For "Nice to meet you" [mt'sharfin] متشرفين.

Double consonants means jamination.
' means stress.

[RobinHood3000]

Actually, I was under the impression that "Please help me" in Chinese (or at least Mandarin) was, phonetically speaking, more like "Qing ni bang mang (wuo)." The "a" is pronounced something more like a combination of the "aw" and short "o" sound.

[SleepyWitch]

That's pretty formal and in Austria we use "Grüß Gott" more often. I found a site where it's said it's pronounce like this (gruus got). I'm not sure that true, it sounds weird. I'll try to look the pronounciation up..

we use the same greeting in Soutern Germany. but in Bavarian it's pronounced like "gree-ahs goad" (like 'goat')

[smilingtearz]

Hindi and Urdu's just about the same...

Please help me: Kripya meri madad kar do..(Hindi)
Thank-You: Shukriya..
Nice to meet you: Aap se mil kar khushi hui...

[Lehfortal42]

I speak Portuguese... I mean, Brazilian Portuguese... we say "Olá!" ...or "Oi!"... (sounds like o-e) wich stand for "Hello!"... and "Hi!"... I'm glad to learn about your native languages too.