Language Learners' Library

A plain is a tree-less mostly flat-ish landscape

I’m not sure if that’s what Kurt Cobain meant, but the whole lyrics are kind of cryptic anyways.


I believe plane and plain are homophones in most English accents.

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Quod the fuck! :rofl:

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There was a Mein Herr somewhere in between :rofl:

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Today I learnt that the B sound in modern Greek is written as MP (μπ). Cool!

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English may be simpler (quicker) to learn up to intermediate level at most. (I mean, for speakers of languages of a different structure)

For advanced levels, where you really have to study the language in depth, English becomes as difficult as anything. You start to analyse structure values, stem values and the implicit meanings in outdated formulas. You also learn how to use slang intuitively instead of phrasebook-like. You learn cultural implications of using a word instead of another. The list goes on and on…
At that point, English is a hard language to learn correctly.

Is it acceptable if it’s not for style? I though it’s become a design tool and that mainstream books and media always use the horizontal lines.

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open any manga, you will not find horizontal line

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I see. It makes sense for this kind of text.
So, it’s not just design elements but real, day-to-day texts that are still written vertically?

Depends how you define intermediate and advanced, doesn’t it. I’d say English is simple for all real life applications you’d ever need. Yeah, if you’re gonna study medieval literature it’s gonna be hard but day-to-day it’s pretty simple. And those advanced levels aren’t the same type of learning anyway, when you already can think in English in your head it becomes like learning something you don’t know in your own language.

Anyway.

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I technically finished going through N1 words in my deck. Meager 10k pairs of “common” words are left.

I say technically because I rushed through it when I saw only a couple thousands left. Really rushed through it.
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Kill me.

Today’s funny word is miai: 見合い - formal marriage interview, marriage meeting; 見合い結婚 - arranged marriage. I didn’t know that one.

Also an old training film is making rounds on youtube: https://youtu.be/_NHpSaa-UmE

Oh, nihongonomori started another round of broadcasts:

@Barbanaira , are you still around sometimes?
While digging in old church records, I found something interesting, but I just don’t understand enough Latin to get it.

Did that guy accidentally shoot himself or something? Please note that the end of this entry is overlapping with the next entry.
(None of my ancestors, by the way. Just found it interesting because it stood out among the other entries.)

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Yes, I am!

At first glance, it actually does look like somebody was shot, I need to read a bit more close when I have the time.

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I suppose it’s hand-written, right?
How did they manage to make the lines overlap? :joy: :joy:
Did they add something after the initial line was written?

Exams aside, I consider intermediate the level you use at work for job-related emails and summaries, the language skills you need to watch a movie without subs or to read thrilling fiction (as opposed to complex books) etc.
Advanced, I consider the level you need to read a mainstream newspaper from start to end, to make sense of a professional project guide, to teach your non-linguistic subject in the target language, to understand quotations and dedications in books, to read poetry etc.

With a lesser bombard (a pistol?) he shot himself in the chest with two bullets while talking in the steam bath (??), something something but having received conditional absolution (?) he died immediately.

Then the NB seems to comment on it: I put these earlier remarks, since I was unable to find out the truth of the matter, but from a certain suspicion having looked into the matter in more detail and for a longer time I finally forced it into the open that he had killed himself, but …

I can’t read the rest.

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Thank you! :+1:
Let’s see if @Barbanaira can read even more of it.

I assume it’s not so easy because it is “church latin” from around 1700.

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In fact, most books in Japanese are written vertically. Probably it’s even safe to say that almost all books are.

As a consequence, the first page of books is the right-most page (assuming you’re not holding the book upside down)


Rather than vertical being unusual, it’s horizontal writing that’s relatively new, and rare in printed form. But, horizontal writing is the standard on computers, of course.

Actually, you can write the characters in any direction without losing readability. I believe that right-to-left was more common a couple hundred years ago, since that’s the direction you often see written on old horizontal signs (e.g. in temples)

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I see.
I thought that, after computers and computerized page layouts, the trend would be the horizontal line, but it seems that language and writing systems play an important role to how texts should read in any language.

@KAOSkonfused @Verrius I can read something like this. The victim is Ludwig Schmitt, son of Adam Schmitt, a stonecutter; buried in Blanckerau.

Bombartâ minori fabulans jn Hypocausto se ipsum duabus
glandibus plumbeis per pectus trajecit praeviâ tamen sub
conditione acceptâ absolutione statim mortuus es Ludovicus
Schmitt Lapicita filius legitimus Adami Schmitt ex Muis
4 vero sepultus est in Blanckerau. NB. Haec pr[ae]scripta posui quia
rei veritatem explorare nequivi tamen ex suspitione aliqua data re accura[-]
tius et exactius examinata veritatem tandem extorsi, se ipsu[m] [non] occidisse sed ut
famulus nomine Jörg[?] Laidener à quo ...occisus .......... ..... bombarta mi..... fabu[-]
lantes nesciens eam ..................
6 Mortua 7 vero sepulta Margrete Autin Joannis Aut
A Elisabethae coniugum filia legitima ex Herzell.
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It’s a 4:

and a 7

These are the parts of the records that I typically need to read, so I’m good enough at that. :wink: But I barely have any further knowlege of Latin beyond that.

“Autin” is btw simply the German female form of the surname “Aut”. These female forms with the ending ‘-in’ were in use until the 19th century. Henzell is Hainzell in Hessia. Muis is today spelled Müs.

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Intersting! In texts like these it’s always good if you know what personal names to expect.

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Forget about Latin. Whodunit, that’s what I want to know :stuck_out_tongue:

It’s very interesting to see how the tradition requires Latin for the text but the real life requires the names to be the local names. Would it be Autin in Latin grammar? Or something like Auta/Autina/Autia?
I always thought Latin wasn’t really a “language” as far as Medieval texts are concerned and that it was more of an elegant zombie construct, based on real grammar and real structure rules, but lacking ''life".

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I read for the first part

Bombartã minori fabulans in Hypocausto se ipsum duabus
glandibus plumbeis per pectus trajecit pra’viã[?] tamen sub
conditione acceptã absolutione statim mortuus est

I think the sign of the end of bombarta and accepta is an indication of syllable length (and thus of the ablative).

accepta (if that’s what it is) seems to be written over some other word.

A hypocaustum is a room with underfloor heating, but the capital letter maybe indicates some specific establishment. Local knowledge would be helpful.

Is this a catholic or protestant church?

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