In Mexico when something is really confusing and you don't understand a single word people say "está en Chino". I think I read somewhere "it's all Greek to me" but I don't know what that means so I figured it would be something like "está en Chino" XD so my cousin and I were wondering maybe in some distant country people think spanish is a difficult language and say something like that. In German I read a phrase (I can't remember) that translates to "it's all Greek to me" but using the word "Spanisch" instead. Could someone clear this up for me?
Thanks n_n

My abridged reactions:

LOLWHUT.
OMG.
SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEFLAILSQUEEFLAILSQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE. (repeat several times)
Hey! Science does not work like that!
LOLWHUT REDUX.
OH GOD, EPIC FAIL.

So... awesomecakes sandwiched between fail ranging from mild to epic?
There was some brilliant stuff, but... there was an *awful* lot of talking-very-fast-over-the-plotholes, and I was NOT pleased by the ending. At all. I have come up with a far, far better way of achieving the inevitable (given Catherine Tate's other commitments) which I have already expounded to sasha_lilyrat, and it involves potatoes as a metaphor for TARDIS cultivation.

Also, it is the Leaver's Ball in the quadrangle so we are going to be TORMENTED BY AWFUL CHEESY POP FROM THE LOUDSPEAKERS ALL FUCKING NIGHT D:

There's a house in my neighborhood that has a very interesting fence design, they've worked a word into it. And it's been driving me nuts because I can't read it. I was wondering if someone could tell me what language it's in and maybe what it means.
( photo here )

Hi everyone!
The question I've got for you today might seem a bit strange, but I really don't know whom else to ask: I have to write a letter to a man who happens to be a reverend. How should I address him?
Would just "Dear Sir" be Ok in this case, or should it be something different?
Thanks in advance.

Dear linguaphiles, I have a question which has been bugging me for a while. I'm curious to know where UK [presentor?] Russell Brand's accent is from, if it's identifiable? I recognize a glottal stop but I can't tie it to any area in specific.

If you want to hear an example, here is a youtube clip, scroll on to around 1:30. Any help would be appreciated!

Amigos lusófonos!

Peço ajudar-me de novo :)

Esta é uma canção (claro!) dos Clã (uma banda portuguesa) "Sangue frio" e há um momento nela que não posso perceber.

Defendes-te com uma paixão competente
E encarnas tão impunemente
A pele de um animal de sangue quente
Que ama a sangue frio

o que é que a palavra ENCARNAR significa aqui?

encarnar

v. tr.,
dar cor de carne a (imagens, etc. );
alimentar com carne (os animais de montaria);
v. int.,
ir-se convertendo em carne sã, começar a cicatrizar.

do Lat. incarnare

v. int.,
tornar-se homem, humanar-se (falando-se do Filho de Deus);
incarnar;
fig.,
tomar forma, vulto.

Bit of an odd request, but hey.

I've been doing some researching on Old Church Slavonic and in the process found out that my catalog of fonts does not cover the Glagolitic block of Unicode code points. Suffice to say it bugs me no end when I know there are characters that won't appear properly, and have gone out of my way to find some obscure stuff before. This one, however, is proving a shade elusive for some reason; I've found a few that looked like hits but don't register at the right code points for some reason.

Figured I'd throw a shot in the dark — does anybody know where to find a (preferably free, though if not then so be it) Glagolitic font that will display correctly?

Also, in trade, I can help with anyone having trouble with Chữ Nôm characters...

(crossposted to fontaddicts)

Here's a short poem I wrote. Corrections are welcome as I am still trying to get a hold of the language.

toki musi lili: pana telo oko lon tenpo pimeja

mi lukin e sewi tenpo pimeja
mi pana telo oko e mun
pilin ike li moku e mi
mi wile e jan pona

Hi all,
Pardon me if this question is sort of basic/should be obvious, but I'm really quite ignorant:

When people write by hand in Cyrillic, what form of the alphabet do they often use? I know that there is the block print Cyrillic used on computers, and that there is a Cyrillic cursive. However, is this cursive only used occasionally, or by preference, as it is with the Roman alphabet? If Cyrillic has a handwritten print variety, does it differ considerably from the type used in printed materials?

Also--does anyone know where I might find materials for learning how to write Cyrillic handwriting [for free]? A simple Google search has not proven helpful at all, and I'm sort of surprised that it would be more elusive than that. Maybe I just haven't been searching the right terms.

In any case, thanks in advance for any help! :]

You know this comic project I've been ranting about?
'Tis now online and open for business <3

Feedback would make me very happy <3

ETA: Here is the promotional blab. I am a bit useless at writing such things, but nonetheless:

Shades Of Evening is the rambling tale of a young lady who escapes from prison and the "crack team" (in nearly every sense of the word) who are sent to retrieve her. These include an enigmatic detective, a psychedelic space pirate, an embittered ex-army scientist, and an innocent young mechanic with hair like a budgie.
Along the way they encounter the various perils of zombie invasions, vampire politics (and vampire rock bands), the seedy criminal underbelly of Leng Cutting, and the mystery of the Vesperi inheritance.

And if you wish to link to the comic, just copy this bit of code anywhere that allows HTML and images:

<a href="http://vesperi.comicgen.com"><img src="http://pics.livejournal.com/kassie_opia/pic/000c5c3g"></a>

NB. The comic is rated R for violent death and sexual themes (and slash/femmeslash, but I'm prettttty sure I don't need to warn you guys about that).

Does anybody know how to change the email address your comments are sent to???

Hello all, here's another of those "How do say"'s:

I'd like the word for "hair" in as many languages as possible, transliteration/IPA included if you can. I've already got:
·Haitian Creole - cheve
·Hindi - baal/बाल
·French - cheveux
·Spanish - pelo (cabello?)
·Japanese - kami?
·Hebrew - se'ara?

If the language you know makes a distinction between head and body, feel free to include that too. Thanks!


And a bonus question: is there a word in English for 'pertaining to hair'? Like sartorially is 'pertaining to clothes,' physically pertains to something physical, etc. If there isn't, I'm going to make one, probably using one of the words I get from you guys. English has plenty of German/French/Greek/Latin in it, maybe I'll build on one of those words. Or go totally different, using the word from Swahili or Chinese or Guaraní?

Hello :)

My church is having a rather large celebration this Summer... In about a week, actually. And they want to incorporate foreign languages as part of the services. They know I've studied Arabic... But they also seem to think that 2 years of Arabic = fluent :(

Anyhow, they'd like me to translate this prayer petition into Arabic and read it during the service... Except I have to admit that, for the majority of the prayer, I could do no better than copying and pasting (and hoping) from a dictionary.

It's just one (run-on) sentence, but if anyone could help me translate this into Arabic (Standard, FusHa), or give tips on pronunciation, it would be unbelievably helpful!

(We pray) for Father Greg’s family and friends here present, and for those who are unable to be here today, in thankfulness for their devotion, support, and compassionate example.

That's all :)

Shukran!

(x-posted. A lot.)

Assuming someone has zero knowledge of linguistics, but wants to write up a conlang in a nice (accurate, concise, "professional") way, what do you tell them to read?

So, anyone heard of "Brainwave Mind Voyages Quantum Subliminal CDs: Ultrasonic Ultra-Silent Subliminal CDs"? I came across it on Amazon while looking for a Basque audio course.

While I snickered to myself when I saw it and don't plan on purchasing it myself, I have to wonder: does this crap actually work? Learning languages in your sleep that is. Because I find myself highly skeptical about the whole thing.

Anywho, just a random post to see if anyone knows anything about these folks.

I am working on a project about a park that I visited in Japan during a recent exchange program. I need to know the meaning of "ふるさとのこみち". That's how this area of the park was labeled on the sign; no kanji was used. The area in question is basically a boardwalk through a marsh, with a pseudo-historical house or mill in the middle.

( Photos )

What does ふるさとのこみち mean in this context? こみち on its own means path or lane, and ふるさと is hometown or historic village, but I'm having trouble putting them together.

Girls using boku. I thought I remember reading in every book on Japanese that boku is for boys or is boyish, but it seems even the girliest of girls will use it. Do they use it to make a statement or something? Like some kind of feminist thing?  I hear Ayumi Hamasaki use it constantly in her music, and many other female artists as well. And Ayu does have a number of feminist/girl power songs (my name's WOMEN, Real Me), so that's why I'm wondering if her using it has something to do with that.

And another thing, if it's this widely used, why do even the most recent books say it is used by boys?

I lost my entire email and MSN!!! I have no idea what my password is!!!

My new email is bina.chauhan77 @ gmail.com

Shit shit shit

Edit: My new MSN is bina_chauhan77 @ live.com. Please add. Also, apologies for my swearing.

I've long been interested in unusual media for language, and one medium that's particularly intrigued me is the sense of touch. A vision of a language has slowly been assembling in my mind: It's a language of many levels. Stroking, tapping, pressing, rubbing, scratching in various styles have meanings, when felt on particular places on your body. There are words everywhere on the body; not all words are appropriate at all times or with all people. There are different sets of words, interrelated, on face and hands and feet, and you can't use them all at once, or at least, it would be gymnastics. More often it's a language of niches (and a niche language itself), face-talk and hand-talk being different states of mind and levels of communication.

I've thought before that it was impractical to try to create such a language over the internet, since we don't have the technology to transmit touches. Recently though, I began to reconsider. I thought about my experience with the Lojban community: We've been making a language which is supposed to be a spoken language, but doing so almost entirely through text, until very recently in the language's decades long history. What we actually did was to collectively imagine what the language would be like spoken, and we did so very openly and loudly and in detail. Now we're starting to speak more, as the technology has improved, and it's really not that much different than what we imagined. I'm beginning to think it might be possible to invent a language like the one I have in mind, and bring it to life in text, with that text also clearly representing how the language is meant to feel.

So, since I had that idea, I was wondering if anyone else would be interested in exploring such a language with me, or if you have any ideas or suggestions.

Peace.

Do any of your languages, native, fluent, passing knowlege have a word for the sensation that happens when you think you are going to get one taste, and you get another? For example, in Chile (where I live), popcorn is generally eaten sweetened. Not sweet-and-salty, just sweet. In my native US, it's usually salty. The first time I ate popcorn in Chile I was totally unprepared, took a bite and got this sensation, this... something- is-wrong feeling. It's not disgust, because I don't mind sweet popcorn. But it's this weird sensation, and this period of confusion and then adjustment.

Got anything? Thanks. Also any neologisms in any language might be fun to work on.