User talk:Albertde

Right now, my preoccupation is about learning languages from a Native English speaker's point of view. What does that mean? If you want to learn another Indo-European language, you need to understand how English differs from other languages in that family and what some common English idioms are. In particular:


 * 1) The | Great Vowel Sound Shift, which led to a massive change in pronunciation,
 * 2) The common every day words in English come from the Germanic core because Old English was a language similar to German.
 * 3) The invasion of England by the Vikings, who shared many words but had a different grammar led to the erosion of grammatical endings like two pieces of sandpaper rubbing against each other. Words like skin, die and they come from the Vikings.
 * 4) English got a new layer of vocabulary from Norman French after the conquest of England in 1066 by William the Conqueror. Some of the words in this layer were then later disguised to make certain words look like they had been derived directly from Latin. So parfait was transformed into perfect, originally with a silent c and det became debt, with a still silent b.
 * 5) English has in more recent times indulged in massive borrowing of words from Latin and then Greek.

Some English idioms include: Albertde 20:28, 17 June 2006 (UTC)
 * I am hungry.

Hi Albertde

Sorry for not answering on Talk:Dutch/Lesson 11. I haven't been here for a while. I do not agree with what you are saying about Dutch word order. To me the two versions:


 * ik dacht dat hij komen zou
 * ik dacht dat hij zou komen

are about evenly acceptable.

There may be some regional differences. The South probably more the latter (I'm from around Dordrecht).

152.1.193.137 21:43, 22 March 2007 (UTC)

Hi Albert

I have written a new chapter Dutch/Lesson 18 to address the @#$# word order problem. I have tried to cut it up in many little bits and pieces because for Anglophones it is really a big problem. If your mother tongue is German you start from the tenth floor up rather than from the basement and a lot of differences in details immediately strike you. (I have the same with German) Also: I really have to think how exactly we do these things... I do them automatically of course. ciao Iarlagab 21:57, 14 May 2007 (UTC)

P.S. As far as north-south bias is concerned: I try to stay away from that as much as I can, because I think we speak one language within which a certain variability is an asset not a curse. Besides, who am I to decide what version of Dutch is better? Or impose that on others? But of course, I am a northerner and would need southern input to correct bias.