Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Learning the basics

How to Learn Any Language in 1 Hour or how to choose the language you are going to study wisely or how to learn to know any language in 1 hour

Finnish has 21 (26 with the foreign ones) phonemes, Swedish 35 and English some 45 - all depending on dialect
Russian has some 44 and French 38. Or something like that.
Chinese has something between 24 and 64, depending on dialect and who's counting ;-)
It's more the tones that's the problem with Chinese pronunciation than phonemes.

Six Lines of Gold

The apple is red.            Mollë është i kuq.
It is John’s apple.           Ajo është mollë e Gjonit.
I give John the apple.     Unë jap Gjoni mollë.
We give him the apple.   Ne u japim atë mollë.
He gives it to John.        Ai ia jep atë të Gjonit.
She gives it to him.        Ajo i jep atij.

I don't give John the apple. Unë nuk jap Gjoni mollë.

I must give it to him.      Unë duhet të jap atij.
I want to give it to her.   Unë dua të jap atë që e saj.

apple - molla
to be - është
red - i kuq
it - ajo
John - John (Gjon)
I - unë
give - jap
not - nuk
we - ne
he - ai
him - atë
to - te
she - ajo
must - duhet të
want - dua (Unë dua të, ju doni të, ai/ajo do të...)

- verbs are conjugated in gender and number
- there is gender
- negation is pretty straight forward
- SVO
- simple noun cases
- auxiliary verbs të + verb

Written in Latin letters, the same vowels as Finnish minus some. The consonants: wetter than the Finnish and then there's a bunch of sibilants...
So, the problem is going to be - to some extent - c, ç, gj, q, x, xh, z and zh. Not big problems, though. I already know most of them. Need to practice the "xëxh y zëzh" and "gjëegjëza shqipe" (Albanian riddles) :-D (gjëegjëza is pronounced a bit like dieu in adieu repeated twice + zuh and shqipe a little like sheep, but with c in the middle, so it's a bit like skip but sh-c-eep... I'm thinking "bye-byezah sheep".) But then some Albanians say gj and q as sibilants... I wonder if that's a difference between Gheg and Tosk? One thing to find out.

100 most used words in written English
the-
of - e
and - dhe
a - një
to - te
in - në
is - është
you - ju
that - se
it - ajo
he - ai
was - u
for - për
on - më
are - janë
as - si
with - me
his - e tij
they - ata
I - unë
at - në
be - të
this - kjo
have - kam
from - nga
or - ose
one - një
had - kishte
by - nga
word - fjalë
but - por
not - nuk
what - çfarë
all - të gjithë
were - u
we - ne
when - kur
your - juaj
can - mund
say - them
there - atje
use - përdorim
an - një
each - çdo
which - që
she - ajo
do - do
how - si
their - e tyre
if - në qoftë se
will - do të
up - lart
other - tjetër
about - për
out - nga
many - shumë
then - pastaj
them - ata
these - këto
so - kështu
some - disa
her - e saj
would - do
make - të
like - si
him - atë
into - në
time - kohë
has - ka
look - vështrim
two - dy
more - më shumë
write - shkruaj
go - shkoj
see - shih
number - numër
no - jo
way - mënyrë
could - mund të
people - njerëz
my - time
than - se
first - i parë
water - ujë
been - qenë
call - thirrje
who - që
oil - vaj
its - i saj
now - tani
find - gjej
long - gjatë
down - poshtë
day - ditë
did - u
get - merrni
come - vijnë
make - bërë
may - mund
part - pjesë

BTW, it might be difficult to find interesting articles in Albanian, but here's the Albanian Wikipedia.

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