- Nech sa páči. – Here you are. / Here you go.
- Ďakujem. – Thank you.
- Ďakujem pekne. – Thank you very much.
- Ďakujem veľmi pekne. – Thank you very much.
- Prosím. – You are welcome.
Category Archives: Archive
Slovenčina – 2014-06-30
Slovenčina – 2014-06-27
Slovenčina – 2014-06-23
Common greetings:
- Dobré ráno! – Good morning!
- Dobrý deň! – Good day! (formal “hello” that is appropriate at any time of day)
- Dobrý večer! – Good evening!
- Dobrú noc! – Good night! (before going to bed)
- Ahoj! – hello/bye (informal; when talking to one person)
- Ahojte! – informal hello/bye (informal; when talking to two or more people)
- Čau! – hello/bye (informal and more relaxed than ‘ahoj’; when talking to one person)
- Čaute! – hello/bye (same when talking to two or more people)
- Dovidenia! – goodbye (formal)
On the phone:
- Haló? – Hello?
- Prosím? – Please?
- Áno? – Yes?
Slovak – Slovenčina
OK, I’ve got to take a start in Slovak, there is no point in holding it back (there is the whole Telugu-plus-Faroese-plus-other-languages-at-the-same-time thing, but, anyway…)
Starting with the alphabet & pronunciation:
| grapheme | IPA |
|---|---|
| a | a |
| á | aː |
| ä | ɛ, æ |
| b | b |
| c | t͡s |
| č | t͡ʃ |
| d | d |
| ď | ɟ |
| dz | d͡z |
| dž | d͡ʒ |
| e | e |
| é | eː |
| f | f |
| g | ɡ |
| h | ɦ |
| ch | x |
| i | ɪ |
| í | iː |
| j | j |
| k | k |
| l | l, l̩ |
| ĺ | l̩ː |
| ľ | ʎ |
| m | m |
| n | n |
| ň | ɲ |
| o | ɔ |
| ó | ɔː |
| ô | u̯ɔ |
| p | p |
| q | kv |
| r | r, r̩ |
| ŕ | r̩ː |
| s | s |
| š | ʃ, ʂ |
| t | t |
| ť | c, tʲ |
| u | u |
| ú | uː |
| v | v |
| w | v |
| x | ks |
| y | ɪ |
| ý | iː |
| z | z |
| ž | ʒ, ʐ |
And words are stressed on the first syllable. 🙂
Føroyskt – 2014-06-17
I’m still getting the gist of Faroese orthography & pronunciation. Luckily I found a lot of words transcribed into IPA in the book “An Introduction to Modern Faroese” by W. B. Lockwood.
| Føroyskt | IPA | English |
|---|---|---|
| gakk | [gaʰkː] | to go |
| bakki | [baʰcːɪ] | cliff |
| koppur | [kɔʰpːʊɹ] | cup |
| mítt | [mʊiːʰtː] | my, mine |
| batna | [ˈbaʰtna] | to improve |
| líttli | [lʊiːʰtlɪ] | little one |
| tómur | [ˈtɔuːmʊɹ] | empty |
| óguldig | [ˈɔuːgɔldɪ] | unpaid |
| hestarnir | [ˈhɛstanɪɹ] | the horses |
| tilbiðja | [ˈtiːlˌbiːja] | to worship |
| álítandi | [ˈɔaːlʊiːtandɪ] | reliable |
| ongastaðni | [ˈɔŋgastɛaːnɪ] | nowhere |
| seyðafylgi | [ˈsɛijaˌfɪlɟɪ] | flock of sheep |
| ótespiligur | [ˈɔuːtɛspiˌliːjʊɹ] | unpleasant |
| margháttligur | [maɹˈkɔʰtlijʊɹ] | peculiar |
| uppískoyti | [ʊˈpʊʃkɔjtɪ] | addition |
| aloftast | [aˈlɔftast] | often |
| lærarinna | [lɛaɹaˈɹinːa] | teacher |
| studentur | [stuˈdɛn̥tʊɹ] | student |
| forargiligur | [fɔˈɹaɹɟɪˌliːjʊɹ] | annoying |
| forbanna | [fɔɹˈbanːa] | to curse |
| land | [land̥] | land |
Noun declension in Faroese: masculine nouns
Faroese has masculine, feminine and neuter nouns. Nouns inflect for case (nominative, accusative & dative) and definiteness (indefinite & definite).
Here goes the indefinite inflection only:
Masculine noun: armur “arm”
| Sing. | Pl. | |
|---|---|---|
| Nom. | armur | armar |
| Acc. | arm | |
| Dat. | armi | ørmum |
Masculine noun: granni “neighbour”
| Sing. | Pl. | |
|---|---|---|
| Nom. | granni | grannar |
| Acc. | granna | |
| Dat. | grannum |
From what I can see, it looks like there are two types of masculine nouns: those ending in -ur and those with other endings. The book says something about human / non-human / animate / inanimate, but I couldn’t quite understand the whole thing (the text seems to contradict the illustration, I don’t know).
Faroese pronunciation
Having a hard time finding my way through Faroese orthography. Forvo for the win.
Already learned the names of the letters. This girl helped quite a lot:
Føroyskt
After some time of consideration I decided to take on Føroyskt. I’ll be using the following material:
- Faroese A Language Course for Beginners Grammar & Textbook (with audio)
- An Introduction to Modern Faroese
- Stutt mállæra
as well as the help of a colleague who lived in the Faroe Islands for some time and is willing to somehow keep his Faroese alive. I hope my knowledge of Swedish comes in handy.
Well, that means I’ll be taking Albanian, Telugu and Faroese concurrently. Sounds a lot of fun to me 🙂