|
| Thread: Facts about smaller countries |  This thread is pages long: 1 2 · «PREV |
|
Asheera
Honorable
Undefeatable Hero
Elite Assassin
|
posted January 08, 2009 04:34 PM |
|
|
Well same here.
"leu" means both lion and the Romanian currency 
"sare" means both "salt" and "jumps", etc
____________
|
|
Lexxan
Honorable
Undefeatable Hero
Unimpressed by your logic
|
|
posted January 08, 2009 04:35 PM |
|
|
Quote:
Hey, in Polish, we have words that can't be distinguished by pronunciation. They sound absolutely the same  It doesn't bother anybody since their meanings obviously differ a lot, tho. You can't really confuse a lock with a castle, even though they are both called "zamek"
Like in Dutch, Where "Slot" represents both a Lock and a Castle lol!!!!
____________
Coincidence? I think not!!!!
|
|
TheDeath
Responsible
Undefeatable Hero
with serious business
|
|
posted January 08, 2009 04:49 PM |
|
|
See? That's not unique to polish so that can't be a reason.
Anyway isn't this a bit tad off topic?
____________
The above post is subject to SIRIOUSness.
No jokes were harmed during the making of this signature.
|
|
Doomforge
Admirable
Undefeatable Hero
Retired Hero
|
|
posted January 08, 2009 05:01 PM |
|
|
doesn't beat the super-simple english though, when one word has countless meanings.
Sure it's not a big deal. But I couldn't resist ;p
____________
We reached to the stars and everything is now ours
|
|
DagothGares
Responsible
Undefeatable Hero
No gods or kings
|
|
posted January 08, 2009 05:04 PM |
|
|
Quote:
we have words that can't be distinguished by pronunciation.
Almost every language has homophones...
____________
If you have any more questions, go to Dagoth Cares.
|
|
DagothGares
Responsible
Undefeatable Hero
No gods or kings
|
|
posted January 08, 2009 05:10 PM |
|
|
Quote:
Quote:
dutch-speaking monarchy...
LOL. The Von Sachsen Coburg-Gotha's (Royal Family) are Francophone, lol!
Belgium is still a monarchy and the majority of it's people speak dutch... A dutch-speaking monarchy
____________
If you have any more questions, go to Dagoth Cares.
|
|
Doomforge
Admirable
Undefeatable Hero
Retired Hero
|
|
posted January 08, 2009 05:31 PM |
|
|
Quote:
Almost every language has homophones...
I'm well aware of it. Just Death's post made me think that he doesn't know it lol
____________
We reached to the stars and everything is now ours
|
|
TheDeath
Responsible
Undefeatable Hero
with serious business
|
|
posted January 08, 2009 05:36 PM |
|
|
No that is different. It is using the SAME word, meaning different things because of context. What I meant is that you use the same word with different TONES and mean completely different things -- context or not. These, further, can as well mean different things in context too (I have no idea). So it's like an EXTRA layer.
Think of it like this: in english it does NOT matter what tone you use (shout, whisper, 'rising', 'falling', etc etc). Now think of an identical language which, however, matters what tone you use. Isn't it more difficult?
Not to mention, if it has an unique alphabet it'll be harder to learn (since no matter where you come from, you still have to learn the alphabet).
____________
The above post is subject to SIRIOUSness.
No jokes were harmed during the making of this signature.
|
|
Minion
Legendary Hero
|
|
posted January 08, 2009 05:58 PM |
|
|
That is rather an open question really because it depends on the speakers native language.
But for native English speakers, I have heard that Hungarian and Japanese are most difficult. Finnish belongs to the same linguistic family than Hungary, so it isn't easy for foreigners either. FYI 
____________
"These friends probably started using condoms after having produced the most optimum amount of offsprings. Kudos to them for showing at least some restraint" - Tsar-ivor
|
|
Doomforge
Admirable
Undefeatable Hero
Retired Hero
|
|
posted January 08, 2009 08:07 PM |
|
|
japanese is overrated
no, it's not hard, I mean, except the confusing three alphabets, it's pretty intuitive
there is one thing I don't understand tho
A Pole can easily mime english language, even if he doesn't know a damn thing about it and heard it first time, and it doesn't sound that incorrect
An American or English, though, can never ever repeat polish words and NOT make them sound horrible, even if he hears it 20 times
I wonder why.
____________
We reached to the stars and everything is now ours
|
|
TheDeath
Responsible
Undefeatable Hero
with serious business
|
|
posted January 08, 2009 08:21 PM |
|
|
Quote:
no, it's not hard, I mean, except the confusing three alphabets, it's pretty intuitive
Japanese doesn't have an alphabet. It's not a phonetic language
Chinese has three dialects but still no alphabet. (chinese is somewhat easy, or so I've heard).
____________
The above post is subject to SIRIOUSness.
No jokes were harmed during the making of this signature.
|
|
Doomforge
Admirable
Undefeatable Hero
Retired Hero
|
|
posted January 08, 2009 08:23 PM |
|
|
it's syllabary, if you want to be precise ; you know, katakana, hiragana
____________
We reached to the stars and everything is now ours
|
|
B-E-T-A
Promising
Legendary Hero
Guess Who is Back?
|
|
posted January 08, 2009 08:27 PM |
|
|
The story of Norway
Norway was divided in lots of kingdoms, but at a point a guy called Harald(later known as "hairfair") was born. He grew up to be the king of Vestfold. He fell in love with Gyda who refused to marry him before he was the king of entire Norway. He went like: "What do i do for love?" and abstained from sex and cutting his hair.
10 years later he was done with the job and cut his hair.
Apparemtly he also belived in pologamy.
Now it was the whole Norway being ruled by one over king with Jarls under them thing, which made Harald's children pretty pissed off cause "they wanted lands to rule". Well, they wouldn't be a problem thanks to old Eirik Bloodaxe(the name says it duh!) Who was the first son of Harald and his wife(In norway you were alowed to have children with others than your wife/husband) and was therefore the rightful heir to the throne. After Haralds death he became that.
Before Harald died he sent his youngest son, Harald, later known as Harald the good, to England. Later he came back to Norway to claim his right to the throne. Eirik and he splitted the land 50-50, Harald north, Eirik south, before launching wars against each other. Eirik lost mainly because of the bad season years he had in his part, while Harald had great seasonings. The people claimed that Tor and Odin was against Eirik as king because he killed his brothers, so was forced to flee the land. Eirik then went to bully the english and scootish (and I wonder why we are such good friends today!) and we did not hear more from him, except for his sons countless tries to take back Norway.
Norway did not become Christian before Tryggvason forced the entire country over, and he did. He usually came with a small army and: "Want to convert" then "No, what kind of rude awser is that?" then quite a bit of torture and finaly: "Christ can save your soul and forgive you, if you convert now" And if not we all know what happens. And that is Norway become another Christian country.
Then some time after we got the story of Olav den hellige(the holy), first kicked out of Norway and then he went back by Sweden and died in the grand battle of Stiklestad. He was then buried and several months later they dug him up. He had not rotten a bit more and his beard and hair had apparently grown too, he even smelled fresh. Declared saint and Nidarsomdommen was buildt after him. There are countless other legends/stories about this guy and many other facts I could have added, but then I would be writing a whole book so I say nothing more than what has been already said.
The next king founded Bergen.
While this was going on, the Norwegians still raided Britania to varius ekstends. Greenland was also founded and we sent ships over to America, Leiv Eriksson was the first to America as the viking he was. The reason we do not have America today is because of the fact that Nature itself is against Norway ruling the world, and therefore turns against us many times. We lost America because Nature decided we should get A VERY COLD WINTER, thus we lost contact with east greenland, who moved to America before losing contact with us... Some of the "natives" in America was really decendants of the Vikings.
But when first on stuff, we managed to do some bissare fuse with Denmark and at some point we also controlled Sweden. It ended up with Norway coming under Denmark due the king and stuff. The Black Death also arrived and litteraly wiped out humanity in Norway(3/4 of our people were wiped out), diarys found afterwards also points at the fact that small surviving groups never meet another group in their lifetime. And after that its pretty much nothing to mention til the next point we actually did someting. This was natures final blow to Norway, ripping our might to shreads(What I call the evil circle: Nature > Norway > Other nations back then > Nature). Funny thing about us Norwegians, we know exactly what ship, to which port, on which date, with which cargo/crewmembers that came with the plague to us.
2nd world war came and we where occupated for our coastline, at a point we also saved Brittanias ass due our trade fleet. They would have run out of supplies if not. We did also invent the information exchange tecnice(1 person with spesific, going to point, look for person spesific, talk about spesific then exchange), during this war. We also buried a bit of the war afterwards due who won the elections afterwards.
And we somebody figured out the was tons of Oil within in the 70'th so we become stinking rich
Also something that I just find worth mentioning is what a dennish king once said "The Norwegians is just as stuborn as the mountains they live on."
- Wroten by B-E-T-A and del_diablo
|
|
Lexxan
Honorable
Undefeatable Hero
Unimpressed by your logic
|
|
posted January 08, 2009 08:47 PM |
|
|
A fact about Small countries
You cannot spot them on any map.
____________
Coincidence? I think not!!!!
|
|
baklava
Honorable
Legendary Hero
Mostly harmless
|
|
posted January 09, 2009 01:39 PM |
|
|
Quote:
He usually came with a small army and: "Want to convert" then "No, what kind of rude awser is that?" then quite a bit of torture and finaly: "Christ can save your soul and forgive you, if you convert now" And if not we all know what happens.
So that's why black metal is so popular over there...
____________
"Let me tell you what the blues
is. When you ain't got no
money,
you got the blues."
Howlin Wolf
|
|
del_diablo
Legendary Hero
Manifest
|
|
posted January 09, 2009 02:03 PM |
|
|
Quote:
Quote:
He usually came with a small army and: "Want to convert" then "No, what kind of rude awser is that?" then quite a bit of torture and finaly: "Christ can save your soul and forgive you, if you convert now" And if not we all know what happens.
So that's why black metal is so popular over there...
Atleasts that the guess, and its not THAT popular.... Atleast inside the country
____________
|
|
|
|
