What languages do we speak?

[madtinker]

I have seen English (duh!) and Spanish on these boards. I myself speak Russian. What other languages do we have in the playground?

Edit: So far lots of English, Spanish, German, French, other European languages. Mandarin and some Japanese. Only about three have claimed fluency in Russian, which is my personal favorite. Keep it coming people, I didn't expect this much interest.

[Alteran]

I speak English fluently, and I know a bit of French. I was never anywhere near fluent, and I haven't taken French classes for about a year and a half. I've probably forgotten most of it by now, actually. >.>

I'd love to know more languages, but I'm not the kind of person who can learn them easily. I'm also getting older, so the chances of me ever learning one aren't very high. I'm not old, but perhaps I'm too old to become fluent in another language.

[arguskos]

English and a bit of German, here. :smallcool:

[cycoris]

English, Mandarin, and Spanish. :smallcool:

[The Extinguisher]

English, and I could probably find a bathroom in France, assuming a broad definition of bathroom.

[Cobra_Ikari]

English, with very weak Spanish due to lack of practice.

[Mauve Shirt]

I speak English, am near fluent in German, and I want to learn Arabic and/or Chinese.

[blackfox]

Fairly competent in English, reading-competent in French, can read bits of Spanish and German, and full fluency in Engineer. Screw languages. :smalltongue:

[Ravens_cry]

I think Corbin Dallas said it best.
"Lady, I only speak two languages; English and Bad English."

[arguskos]

I speak English, am near fluent in German, and I want to learn Arabic and/or Chinese.
Ah yes, thanks for reminding me, I can speak a tiny bit of Arabic. Nothing really serious, but a little bit. Enough to get by if forced, but nowhere near "fluent"

[Kneenibble]

I have large Latin, medium French, small Greek, and small Anglo-Saxon.

If there's one language I wish I could speak, it would be either Cree or Ojibway. Anybody here who can speak a native language? Native as in first-nations? I hear them spoken occasionally downtown around here.

[Jack Squat]

I only speak two languages, English and bad English.


Took some years in Spanish, and still remember enough to get by as a tourist. Need to relearn that if I'm gonna be taking a class again.

[Copacetic]

I have been taking Spanish class for about a month and I half. I could tell you the time of day(badly), the date(badly), or get your phone number(or ask for it, at any rate).

But it's a start. :smallbiggrin:

[Icewalker]

I speak English and a little Spanish, but not that much. Was enough to conjugate things and provide words when traveling Spain as tourists, but that was a few years ago and I've forgotten a bit since then.

However I do intend to learn maaaany languages, starting with some Chinese, presumably Mandarin, and Latin.

[Rutskarn]

I speak English as a primary language and a calling. I have a firm, functional grasp of Spanish.

[adanedhel9]

English fluently and Spanish near-fluently... at least it was near-fluent the last time I used it in any significant manner. I know I've lost a lot of Spanish.

I've also been able to get along in Italian and can at least get the gist of just about anything written in a Romance language (if you give me enough time).

I've been trying to teach myself Mandarin in preparation for my trip next month, but I'm having a hard time focusing on it. Ah well... immersion it is!

[Mystic Muse]

I speak english, a little german and the international language of pain for I am a ninja.

[SurlySeraph]

I speak English and French well. I understand enough Spanish to get by, though I can't speak much. I learned a bit of Arabic, but have since forgotten almost all of it.

[UltraDude]

Native English speaker, I knew some German in high school but haven't kept up. Would most like to relearn, would love to know Italian or Japanese.

[Don Julio Anejo]

Oh, you ain't seen nothin' yet till you seen a Russian plumber speak his version of Russian.. Russian NCO's and American drill sergeants aren't far behind.

But anyway. I speak English, Russian, French and Ukrainian. Although I can't write anything more complicated than "J'ai un gato dans mon pantalon" in French without sounding like a three year old who got his hands on a dictionary.

[13_CBS]

Fluent: English

Communicative fluency: Korean

Studied: Japanese, Spanish

[Mando Knight]

Speak? Well, I can only speak English fluently, but I know several phrases (as well as the basics of sentence structure, verb conjugation, etc.) in Spanish and German, as well as retaining a tiny bit of Latin from even farther back...

And I know random words and a couple phrases in Japanese, Greek, Aramaic, French, Hebrew...

[thubby]

native english speaker and i know enough spanish to get around.

[Nomrom]

I speak English as my native language, and I am also fluent in Spanish. I plan on studying Italian and Portuguese, just because they are so similar to Spanish, and it would be cool to speak four languages.

[Kroy]

American English, lolspeak, nerdspeak, Mall Native. Anybody who gets the last reference gets a cookie.

[d13]

Native Spanish speaker. Competent enough in English for you to understand what I say (write), maybe a bit more...
Reading-competent in Italian, Listening-competent in French and Latin.
Random words/sentences in German.

And... That's it xD

[golentan]

I speak fluent english, a little spanish, a handful of words in japanese. The languages I used to be able to speak but have forgotten include french, german, latin, and hindi.
I would speak fluent Krynch, but my current voicebox can't handle it (it's hard to whistle, click, make syllables, and gesture with antenna simultaneously). I can still handle the pidgin though. I have blanked this because it's probably all in my head.

[Lord Fullbladder, Master of Goblins]

I speak English and Newspeak.

[Jkoshe]

I speak english... I have a smattering of french, which serves all my needs. I'm also trying to learn gaelic and german. I'd like to learn arabic.

[Pika...]

I know English, and I am trying to forget Spanish.

I wish to learn Icelandic and Japanese one day, but sadly there is not a single place to learn another language in Central Florida. At least not in my college, and no local places offer classes. :smallfrown:

[Kallisti]

Excellent English, broken Mandarin, and just enough Latin to impress the ignorant and land me in trouble with the knowledgeable.

[UnChosenOne]

I speak Finnish as my native laguange and English.

[Dallas-Dakota]

Dutch as my native language.
Good to fluent english.
Some french.
A couple of words of german, spanish and latin.

[Bouregard]

Perfect german.
Acceptable english
enough french to make me wish for excessive use of brain bleach.

[KuReshtin]

Native Swedish speaker. Born and raised and lived there for the first 24 years of my life.

Fluent, to the point of confusing certain people with my accent, in English after having lived in Scotland for the past 10 years.

Also fluent in bullsh*t from having worked in tech support for the past 10 years as well.
I once convinced someone that the reason her modem (this is way back in the day) was only running at 33.6K instead of 56K was that there was a manufacturing fault where the screws had been tightened too much during production, so the data couldn't flow in at the proper speed, and that she needed to unfasten the screws by a quarter turn. :smallbiggrin:

[Lord Herman]

I'm a native Dutch speaker. I also speak English fairly well, and I can understand spoken and written German. I can also piece together French and Spanish from my knowledge of English and Latin. I speak a few words of Russian, but not enough to hold a conversation.

As for ancient languages, I'm fairly good at Latin, and I'm currently learning Medieval Latin. I've also learned some Old Irish, Middle Welsh, Old Norse, and Ancient Greek.

[Eldariel]

Finnish, English, Swedish, French, German with some Latin, Japanese, Quenya (:smallwink:), Spanish and then some even less.

[arguskos]

Finnish, English, Swedish, French, German with some Latin, Japanese, Quenya (:smallwink:), Spanish and then some even less.
...holy hell!! :smalleek: Dude! That's amazing! Are you like a translator at work or something?! Or are you just good at learning languages?

[Dumbledore lives]

I speak English with a smattering of Spanish, though I'm trying to improve on that.

[Miklus]

Danish and English. I can understand German and can probably do some turist-level French. I can also communicate with swedes and norwegians if I try hard enough.

[KuReshtin]

I can also communicate with swedes and norwegians if I try hard enough.

I've got the same with Danish. If I concentrate hard enough, and they speak slowly, I can understand Danish. Kind of. I can't ge thte hang of all those weird numbers, though. They make no sense at al.
Halvfems?

It's so much easier with Norwegian. I just speak Swedish to them, and they reply in Norwegian and we all understand each other pretty well.

[xanaphia]

English, high school level Japanese, and as much Latin as I remember from spending two weeks learning it in grade 9.

[The Vorpal Tribble]

English and Sign is about it for me, though know random smatterings of a couple dozen, from Swahili to Klingon.

batlh'ghobbogh'yiH!
The tribble that battles with honor!

[Eldariel]

...holy hell!! :smalleek: Dude! That's amazing! Are you like a translator at work or something?! Or are you just good at learning languages?

I study Linguistics. Well, Language Technology, but Linguistics is a big part of it. Interest in languages comes with territory, I suppose. Though I speak the latter 4 to a very restricted degree and my French and German, while I do have a decent command of both languages, suffer of lack of use right now.

[Freshmeat]

I know English, Dutch, French and German, although I haven't used the latter two in quite some time. I might learn Spanish one of these days.

[CurlyKitGirl]

Native English speaker; and I speak and write it extremely well.
I'm mostly fluent in French, just don't speak at me too fast; because of the French background I'm about a beginner in the other Romance languages, but I'm better when it's written down.
I know certain phrases in words in Japanese and I can even write it, but I'm rusty from a few months of non - practice and anime - watching.
I can do a little Latin and Ancient Greek; next week start my Old English lessons and of course, I'm rather fluent in the language of criticism and interpretation of literature, which expands to mostly everything else.

The last means that I can sound like I know something about everything provided I know a bit about the subject being discussed.

EDIT: I also did two years of German from when I was twelve to fourteen; but now I only really know the numbers, how to say "My name is Koorly" and some very basic words.

[Lioness]

Fluent in English, and I know enough Japanese to get by well. I also know tidbits of French I've picked up from my boyfriend.

[Ikialev]

I speak English and polish fluently, enough German for people to understand me, can force conversations in Czech/Slovakian and Croatian. Also can understand spoken (not-cyrilic) russian.
And studied a bit of Japanese, but I gave up, seeing as only benefit of this is playing imported games before Europe release date. :F

[smellie_hippie]

English and ASL (American Sign Language)

[TehSheen]

English as my primary language, and german as my secondary language. I also am currently trying to learn French, which is pretty difficult for me.

[GolemsVoice]

German as my first language, quite good English, I have studied Latin in school and remember it well enough to read or get the gist of many things, and I also have a somewhat intuitive grasp of Italian and Spanish, due to some similarities with English, German and Latin, but of course nowhere near enough to understand more than ba few words or simple sentences. I plan on learing Spanish, for I need two (living) languages for the job I plan to get.

[Illiterate Scribe]

i spek engish gud (apologies if someone has already made this joke)

[Nameless]

English and Hebrew. :I

[Dallas-Dakota]

I know English, Dutch, French and German, although I haven't used the latter two in quite some time. I might learn Spanish one of these days.
Cool, where did you learn dutch? And who do you speak/spoke it with?

I'm mostly fluent in French, just don't speak at me too fast;
Which means you won't understand regular spoken french.
There are no spaces in natively spoken french, trust me.

[SDF]

English and Arabic

I was able to get around Japan with my Japanese a few years ago, but haven't kept up on it.

Then I know bits and pieces of Spanish and Basque.

[Ilena]

I speak english and speak horse somewhat fluently, still get a few meanings messed up now and then :P

[Eldan]

Well, there's always discussion (and sometimes a little more than that) on the issue of whether or not swiss german is it's own language*. I speak a strange mixture of dialects there, the standard german learnt in school and english, all fluently. Then there's the french we were forced to learn the entire time in school, but my pronounciation is horrible and I recently found out that there's a lot of guessing and misunderstanding involved when trying to read a simple newspaper article.

*between linguists who claim it isn't, and everyone else who claims it is.

[Shades of Gray]

I speak English, a fair amount of French, less Spanish (mostly forgotten), some Latin, and I've just started Greek.

I can also read Hebrew, but have no clue what I'm reading. :smallsmile:

[Morty]

I'm fluent in Polish(duh) and English, and I know a little bit of French and, now that I"m learning it again, German. Also Latin. In the future, I hope to learn Russian and some southern Slavonic language.

[Neo Black]

I am fluent in 3 languages. The first being Spanish, second English and third Danish. But if they were to be sorted out in which I am most comfortable with it would be English just because I been speaking it for a long time, Spanish as I am Argentinian and Danish last cause the pronunciation is so wierd.

Oh and good luck learning more languages to all

Neo

[Djinn_in_Tonic]

English primarily, and...well...secondarily as well. I know a smattering of Spanish and French, but not enough to get by.

Actually, come to think of it, I know a pretty decent amount of Ancient Greek as well, and, although I'm not fluent, I can translate it pretty well...and recite the opening lines of the Illiad in Ancient Greek from memory. :smallbiggrin:

[Jesse Drake]

As it's been said before, I speak English and bad English. I understand bits of Spanish and French, and some Italian, as they are all romance languages and very similar (I've never really heard the other major ones, or any of the less popular ones). And I also know a little sign language.

[Weimann]

I am a native Swedish speaker, and I have a very decent grasp on English. I can make myself understood for short periods in German as well, provided I don't get asked unexpected questions.

I WOULD say I was fluent in English, but looking at things objectively, I understand what a high requisite "fluency" actually is. I don't believe I can claim that, even if I can write out pretty good texts when I have time to think about it.

[GoC]

Fluent english and spanish.:smallcool:

[Trobby]

Hmm...how best to put this...

If languages were DnD skills, I would have full ranks in English, and 1 rank in French, German and Japanese.

German and Japanese being cross-class for me, I could really only get by with my French, and really only if I had to ask very simple questions.

[bluewind95]

I'm a native Spanish speaker and I am half-decent at speaking English. I also know a very small amount of French.

[Eon]

Fluent in English. Taking German 1 but not very good...:smallfrown:

[Sholos]

English (natively) and a moderate amount of German. Probably enough for everyday life (or at least I'd learn enough quickly), but certainly not enough for specialty discussions.

I've also got some very random Spanish, a few words of Russian (goodbye, yes, no, maybe some others?), and a very few words of Japanese (mostly from anime and a few from my Japanese literature course).

Oh, and I'm learning Java, but I don't generally speak in it. That would get annoying very quickly.

[Mephibosheth]

I'm a native English speaker. I'm conversant in German (left over from high school, one semester in college, and 1 month living in Soest in Nordrhein Westfalen), Hindi, and Urdu (I've studied both at the university level and spent 6 months living in Hyderabad, India). I could probably get by in Tamil (only 1 year of study, but it was pretty intense) and I know a few phrases in Telugu. I'm also in the process of learning Persian! Woohoo Persian!

[Castaras]

English.

Can speak a little french.

Want to learn a Scandinavian language, just because (finnish, most likely).

[Telonius]

English, some German, pig latin.

I can read some Dutch, but can't understand it when spoken.

[Winterwind]

Grew up bilingually with Polish and German, so I consider both of them my native tongues. And I'm fluent with English.

I also learnt French for a quite a while and used to be nigh-fluent in it as well; I've forgotten most of it by now, but I think it I was using it for a while again, it would all come back.

And a bit of Spanish.

[Elana]

German and common.

[Elder Tsofu]

Fluent in Swedish and English.
Understands Norwegian, although I can't speak it.
Can read a little German, and understand if people speak slowly as to a child. :smalltongue:
Can read as much Latin as German, but aiming on more when I get time.

[Quincunx]

(after a long look at Elder Tsofu's avatar) Senatus Populusque Aporna? Wait. . .no. . .(headdesk)

I only have a memory for one secondary language at a time, and as you can see, Swedish is eroding Latin's place very quickly. Doesn't mean I can do much more with it than shop for groceries or flame a n00b, though.

[Yora]

I'm completely fluent in german, and even quite good at gramtically correct german. But only because I'm a native speaker. Every time I learn about a new language, I'm more convinced that german is one of the worst codified language in the world.
"Gramatically correct" is even a stretch, as there are so many exceptions to any rules, that you can hardly call it a "gramatical system". And you can't impress us with words that have a double meaning. Under ten different meanings, you won't get our attention. Next week I start with Japanese. People say it's really hard, but I think that's mostly because they are used to learn english, I can speak german, I'm sure I can learn to speak about anything. :smallbiggrin:


"My philological studies have satisfied me that a gifted person ought to learn English (barring spelling and pronouncing) in thirty hours, French in thirty days, and German in thirty years. It seems manifest, then, that the latter tongue ought to be trimmed down and repaired. If it is to remain as it is, it ought to be gently and reverently set aside among the dead languages, for only the dead have time to learn it."

I can read some Dutch, but can't understand it when spoken.
I can read simple texts like newspapers in Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, and Dutch. Having grown up with a northern dialect of German helps a lot.

[Fostire]

Fluent in Spanish and English. I know some very basic French, and I can understand Portuguese and Italian but I can't speak them.

[Flickerdart]

English and Russian here, with a certain bare minimum of French. I've always wanted to learn German, though.

[Emlyn]

English is the main. I can write Japanese ( as long as it isn't kanji) and I can also read it, but that doesnt mean I know what I'm reading means. The joys of HS language courses...

[TRM]

English as a native language, and I like to think that I speak it at an advanced level.

Very competent in Spanish. I'm nearly fluent when I read it, but I don't understand spoken Spanish anywhere close to as well.

It's convenient that they are both Romance Languages.

I took Mandarin for a semester, but I gave up because without immersion I was getting nowhere at all. I still remember the 4 tones, and the character for romantic love, but that is about all. Sometimes, I will be talking in Spanish and accidentally use 我 instead of mi.

My fondest Mandarin memory is watching Firefly and understanding when Jayne said 懂吗 for "Understand?" I was delighted.

[CurlyKitGirl]

English as a native language, and I like to think that I speak it at an advanced level.

Very competent in Spanish. I'm nearly fluent when I read it, but I don't understand spoken Spanish anywhere close to as well.

It's convenient that they are both Romance Languages.

English isn't a Romance language. It's a Germanic language.

Any language sufficiently based on Latin in structure, grammar and semantics is called a Romance language because they're all closely related on the ROmance branch of the Indo - European family and the Romance branch's first 'growth' is the Latin.
Any country/area that was under the dominion of the Roman Empire and wasn't subsequently invaded and suffered great cultural readaptation from the Goths and Germaic peoples from the northern Central European area or another invading horde/larger cultural influence has a Romance language in the main.
France; Spain; Italy; Portugal and some other are all Romance languages.

English is a Germanic language because England was invaded by various Germanic tribes in the mid - fifth century and much of the hybridised Latin - Celt language was then consumed by the language known as Anglo - Saxon (as seen in the Beowulf poem!) and had five centuries of almost unblemished Germanic influences aside from the resurgence in pure Latin brought about by the reintroduction of Christianity into England in the eight century. The Latin influences were mainly kept to education and church so the vernacular language was still almost wholly Germanic until the Norman - French invaded in 1066.
It was only under their rule that a workig lingua franca mixing the Germanic Anglo - Saxon with the Romance French (although the reason I specify Norman French is that the area of France known as Normandy was so called because the Norse Men had settled there, therefore, it was already slightly Germanicised) and Latin.
However, English does follow a mostly ROmance language grammar because English was deemed a 'subordinate' and 'vulgar' language. As such many servants spoke it, such as nurses, so while an Anglo - Norman child would grown up being taught French it's quite possible that they would have simply kept their Romantic grammar structure while incorporating more and more Anglo - Saxon words into it.
Really, you're waiting three hundred years for the first major author to start writing publicly in Middle English which is the basis for Modern English as it's spoken now. And three hundred years is more than enough time to adjust a complex Germanic grammar with many tenses and declensions for the simpler version of English we have today that only has one real remnant of the neuter gender: one/it

I could go on. But I won't.

[Yora]

I'm from Hamburg, which lies almost exactly at the point between the historic lands of Angeln and Saxony. And most traditional dialects, which are now mostly spoken by elderly rural people, are amazingly similar to english.
At some point most German dialects switched some consonats in many words, which are still found in modern Standard German. But somehow this did not happen to the northernmost dialects.
The German word for "water" is "Wasser". In northern Dialects it's "Water". "Cat" is "Katze" or "Katt". We even have and often use as word like "do", which is not usually used in Standard German.

But I think the french influence is also amazing. There are probably as many french words I allready knew from English, as there are english words I learned first in French classes. Maybe french people see it different, but I would say that english is mostly part of the germanic languages.
Even if a very weired one compared to scandinavian and northern german languages. :smallbiggrin:

[KilltheToy]

I speak English and a bit of German. I'm currently taking German II, so I know the basics. Most of them, anyways. My dream is to be as crazy fluent in German as my dad is in French.


France; Spain; Italy; Portugal and some other are all Romance languages.

You're looking for Romanian.

[CurlyKitGirl]

I'm from Hamburg, which lies almost exactly at the point between the historic lands of Angeln and Saxony. And most traditional dialects, which are now mostly spoken by elderly rural people, are amazingly similar to english.
At some point most German dialects switched some consonats in many words, which are still found in modern Standard German. But somehow this did not happen to the northernmost dialects.
The German word for "water" is "Wasser". In northern Dialects it's "Water". "Cat" is "Katze" or "Katt". We even have and often use as word like "do", which is not usually used in Standard German.

Wow, that's really interesting. My first thought was naturally 'Angles! Saxons!' and it's well known that the one hundred most common words in the ENglish language are ANglo - Saxon (and thus Germanic) in origin. They're mostly mono - or bisyllabic words to do with the home, family, every day items and animals, especially domesticated ones such as 'cow', 'beef', 'cat', 'hound', 'mother', 'house' and so on.
Perhaps that's why the dialects are so similar to English, because we (the people of Britland and elswhere) owe our language to that area.


But I think the french influence is also amazing. There are probably as many french words I allready knew from English, as there are english words I learned first in French classes. Maybe french people see it different, but I would say that english is mostly part of the germanic languages.
Even if a very weired one compared to scandinavian and northern german languages. :smallbiggrin:

As far as I remember, most words to do with leisure, the court, cuisine, law and upper class activities are generally more Romantic in origin. Byy Romantic I'm lumping Latin and French here all in one for now.
A really fun thing to do that you can generally tell which language (Old English (Anglo - Saxon), French or Latin) a word is by the number of syllables and how formal it sounds is:
Low register, mono/bisyllabic words: Old English e.g. 'ask'. (most common word, use to talk to friends and family and in every day occasions)
Medium register, bi/polysyllabic words: French e.g. 'question'. (quite a common word, slightly more formal, but still mostly every day. You can question your friends and family, but it reads and sounds slightly strange doesn't it?)
High register, polysyllabic words: Latin e.g. 'interrogate' (quite uncommon, can be used to talk to friends and family, but it sounds very strange and adds formality (generally giving the speaker a more formal tone and makes them the leader of the discussion) e.g. The child interrogated his parents as to why he didn't get any pocket money. Makes the child in charge, but adds a humoristic touch because it's clear the parents are tolerating him.

And English is definitely classed as a Germanic language.

English:
noun
4. the Germanic language of the British Isles, widespread and standard also in the U.S. and most of the British Commonwealth, historically termed Old English (c450–c1150), Middle English (c1150–c1475), and Modern English (after c1475). Abbreviation: E

Although actually, most linguists and historians and students of English would say that Early Modern English 'started' from the 1500 era. Shows the reliability of an online dictionary.

EDIT:
There are actually rough figures for roughly how many words of French and Latin were absorbed into ENglish after Hastings, but I can't quite recall.


You're looking for Romanian.

Yep. And possibly a few others.

[Eldariel]

I'm from Hamburg, which lies almost exactly at the point between the historic lands of Angeln and Saxony. And most traditional dialects, which are now mostly spoken by elderly rural people, are amazingly similar to english.
At some point most German dialects switched some consonats in many words, which are still found in modern Standard German. But somehow this did not happen to the northernmost dialects.
The German word for "water" is "Wasser". In northern Dialects it's "Water". "Cat" is "Katze" or "Katt". We even have and often use as word like "do", which is not usually used in Standard German.

But I think the french influence is also amazing. There are probably as many french words I allready knew from English, as there are english words I learned first in French classes. Maybe french people see it different, but I would say that english is mostly part of the germanic languages.
Even if a very weired one compared to scandinavian and northern german languages. :smallbiggrin:

Frankly, if we look at things through vocabulary, all indo-European languages would be of the same language family as would be Swedish and Finnish. There's been so much historical intermingling that there are copious amounts of Latin- and Greek-based words in all of the languages, along with words from the other ancient languages of the area. Really, same roots appear in virtually all of them, though they may mean slightly different things.

Language relationships are mostly defined through their structure, form and the mindset behind the language. As such, English has all the features of a Germanic language; it lacks many of the forms typical to Romance languages (most notably the verb forms like subjunctive) and there are some differences to the stress in pronunciation (though admittedly it varies between English dialects).

[Yora]

That was kind of supposed to be the point, yes.

[CurlyKitGirl]

That was kind of supposed to be the point, yes.

I know, I just got carried away and ran into one of my (possibly slightly infamous) language related tangents.

[WalkingTarget]

:smallsigh:

Sadly, I only speak English with any fluency. Took two years of Spanish in high school, but that hasn't stuck with me any more than a collection of vocabulary and some vague recollections of verb conjugation.

I have a decent collection of knowledge about languages, though; I all but minored in linguistics in college (edit - generally the technical/morphological end of it). Mostly it just makes me wish I had a better head for actually learning the darned things.

[Crimmy]

Native spanish speaker.
Strangely good at english ( I was already good before I started taking classes, and I don't even know where I learned it. Possibly Chrono Trigger...)

Can understand some Portugese, Italian, French, and (with problems) Brazilian portugese, Catalán ( I don't know what's the name for that language in english...)
Mostly because of the origins. I can't speak any of those.


I know, I just got carried away and ran into one of my (possibly slightly infamous) language related tangents.

You mean "Quite infamous", don't you? :smallamused:

[Zocelot]

I can read Hebrew, and speak a smattering. I'm also very fluent in French.

[madtinker]

Frankly, if we look at things through vocabulary, all indo-European languages would be of the same language family as would be Swedish and Finnish. There's been so much historical intermingling that there are copious amounts of Latin- and Greek-based words in all of the languages, along with words from the other ancient languages of the area. Really, same roots appear in virtually all of them, though they may mean slightly different things.

Language relationships are mostly defined through their structure, form and the mindset behind the language. As such, English has all the features of a Germanic language; it lacks many of the forms typical to Romance languages (most notably the verb forms like subjunctive) and there are some differences to the stress in pronunciation (though admittedly it varies between English dialects).

Russian, as far as I know, grew up rather independent of other languages until a few centuries ago, with the notable exception that much church vocabulary is related very closely to greek, as it was the eastern orthodox church that brought Christianity to the Slavs. Now they have adopted many english words. But the origins and growth of language is fascinating.

[Eldariel]

Russian, as far as I know, grew up rather independent of other languages until a few centuries ago, with the notable exception that much church vocabulary is related very closely to greek, as it was the eastern orthodox church that brought Christianity to the Slavs. Now they have adopted many english words. But the origins and growth of language is fascinating.

Oh yes, Slavic languages in general fall under this; there was surprisingly little interaction between the east and the west over the history and the cultural barrier is still visible today. I mean, there was interaction between Sweden and the eastern cultures, but that's about it; I was more referring to the Romance and Germanic languages (and Celtic languages too, I suppose, though they really got kinda trounced on over the history and so don't have such a visible effect on the vocabulary used in those parts, though the English language is littered with words with Celtic background and obviously some of them have made it over the channel too... I guess that explains why English has such a ludicrous amount of synonyms).

[madtinker]

An interesting thing my history teacher pointed out is that beef and cow are the french and german words for living animal bovine. But the rich man said beef in french and meant a dead cow, so the butler went to the peasant and said the german word cow while it was still alive. So now english distinguishes between dead and live animals because rich people spoke french and poor people spoke german. I think the same is true of swine and pork, but its a little fuzzy.

[Kneenibble]

Language relationships are mostly defined through their structure, form and the mindset behind the language. As such, English has all the features of a Germanic language; it lacks many of the forms typical to Romance languages (most notably the verb forms like subjunctive) and there are some differences to the stress in pronunciation (though admittedly it varies between English dialects).
Even modern English still has a limited subjunctive mood (such as I were), and it's funny that when (written) English was at its most Germanic in the Anglo-Saxon period, it had a distinct subjunctive mood even if it didn't inflect in quite the same clear patterns as a Latin-based subjunctive.
E.g., he is vs. he sie, we beoð vs. we beon, ic sceal vs. ic scyle.

Also, I like when CurlyKitGirl takes off on her linguistics tangents. They're always good reading.

[Don Julio Anejo]

Russian, as far as I know, grew up rather independent of other languages until a few centuries ago
Not that independent. I, for one, can understand Polish perfectly despite never living there (can't speak it though). In my experience if you listen to someone talk another Slavic language, it's going to sound like a little kid speaking your language. A couple of Polish friends I have confirm this, especially in regards to the Czechs. Most slavic languages are still closer together and easier to understand if you don't speak it than say, English and German. It's kind of like Spanish and Portuguese - all the words are there, they just sound funny.

Now they have adopted many english words.
Mostly for stuff that other languages use English words for as well. Like computer terminology. But yeah, in recent years (read: last 10-15 or so) a lot of people started using English words just because they think it's cool.

[madtinker]

Well yeah, but that is because Polish and the other Slavic languages are all, well, Slavic. I understand Polish and Bulgarian, and probably lots of others because of My Russian. I guess when I said Russian was independent I should have said Slavic.

[hawkboy772042]

I speak English fluently, Spanish at the conversational level, and some Hebrew. (I'm currently learning Hebrew right now since I live in Israel nowadays)

[AslanCross]

I speak English better than I can speak my native language. I grew up speaking English and although my Tagalog diction and vocabulary are decent, I prefer English.

I can also speak some basic conversational Nihongo.

[Morty]

I can't speak Russian yet, but what I do know is that similiarities between various Slavic languages can be very misleading when it comes down to it. In a book I have, there's a small chapter dedicated to linguistic misunderstandings between Poles and Czechs.
And I always wonder how did Finnish and Hungarian end up in the same language group.

[Atelm]

And I always wonder how did Finnish and Hungarian end up in the same

That's because both languages were once part of a root Ugric language before splitting into two separate Finnic and Ugric sections and finally both separating into their own distinct languages. (Or atleast that's how one major theory goes)

Hungarian was considerably influenced by Turkish and Altaic languages in the past, while Finnish took more influence from languages such as Swedish and Russian.

So, while they are related. The relation is extremely distant.

---

As for myself, I speak Finnish natively, am reasonably fluent in English, speak German and Swedish with varying degrees of mastery, and can read and write both of the Japanese alphabets (Hiragana and Katakana) as well as some Kanji along with knowing a few basic phrases and words due to taking a basic cource in it a year or two back.

[Johel]

French, English and Dutch, though I'm a lot less fluent in the latter.
We learned both English and Dutch in high school but since I don't practice Dutch beside small talks with the unfriendly local administration, it has degraded. My English is, because of hobbies, studies, work and subbed TV-series, a lot better.

I know a few words and sentences in Spanish, Russian, Polish, German and Italian but that hardly qualify as "speaking". A few token words of Chinese. And a lot of Japanese expressions (thanks to subbed animation). The pronunciation alone, however, would probably prevent any Japanese or Chinese to understand me :smalltongue:


Possibly Chrono Trigger
And they say video games are bad for kids... :smallwink:
Take that, traditional pedagogy !! :smallyuk:

[Sliver]

English, Russian cuz thats where I was born, Hebrew because here I live. Just what I have to know to get by huh?:smallwink:

Edit: WOW wow WOW! wait a second..

I speak English fluently, Spanish at the conversational level, and some Hebrew. (I'm currently learning Hebrew right now since I live in Israel nowadays)

You live in Beer Sheva?! (That is how its spoken in hebrew, I know it is spelled with a B (Sheba)) Me too dude! Awesome! Going to learn at the Ben Gurion University soon..

Edit2: Damn I feel wierd re-reading this..

[snoopy13a]

I studied French in high school and Swedish in college. I don't remember much of either language although I suppose I could have held a semi-decent conversation with someone that spoke slowly years ago.

Now, they've muddled together in some forgotten corner in my brain. It is possible that a refresher course would help but it isn't really a major concern of mine.

Supposely, Norwegian and Swedish are very similiar so that speakers of each can understand each other. Danish and English are supposed to somewhat similar and they all are in the German family.

Finnish is a slavic language so it is entirely different from the rest.

[Eldariel]

Finnish is a slavic language so it is entirely different from the rest.

This is not true; Finnish has nothing to do with Slavic languages (and indeed, has more words from Germanic than from Slavic languages due to the influence of Sweden on our history). Finnish is a Finno-Ugric language, along with Estonian, Hungarian and many smaller language groups such as Sami, Karelian & co. Slavic languages frankly have more in common with Germanic languages than they have with Finno-Ugric; compared to all other languages spoken in Europe, Finno-Ugric languages are completely alien.

Rather than being based on prepositions and post-positions, almost all forms are denoted in suffixes and prefixes, and the order of the units in a sentence is almost free; that is, all the relevant information regarding the role of a word is inherent in that word and its morphemes and as such, word order isn't necessary for figuring out what's being said. There's truly a staggering amount forms for just about any words. For example, the Finnish word "talo" can be inflected in...around 1000 different ways. And "järjestelmä" ja "järjestelmällistyttämättömyydellänsäkäänköhän" are two examples of those forms; "järjestelmä" is the root and "järjestelmällistyttämättömyydellänsäkäänköhän" is the same root with half a dozen inflections applied to it (also one of the longest non-compounds you can generate in Finnish).

[Flickerdart]

This is not true; Finnish has nothing to do with Slavic languages (and indeed, has more words from Germanic than from Slavic languages due to the influence of Sweden on our history). Finnish is a Finno-Ugric language, along with Estonian, Hungarian and many smaller language groups such as Sami, Karelian & co. Slavic languages frankly have more in common with Germanic languages than they have with Finno-Ugric; compared to all other languages spoken in Europe, Finno-Ugric languages are completely alien.

Rather than being based on prepositions and post-positions, almost all forms are denoted in suffixes and prefixes, and the order of the units in a sentence is almost free; that is, all the relevant information regarding the role of a word is inherent in that word and its morphemes and as such, word order isn't necessary for figuring out what's being said. There's truly a staggering amount forms for just about any words. For example, the Finnish word "talo" can be inflected in...around 1000 different ways. And "järjestelmä" ja "järjestelmällistyttämättömyydellänsäkäänköhän" are two examples of those forms; "järjestelmä" is the root and "järjestelmällistyttämättömyydellänsäkäänköhän" is the same root with half a dozen inflections applied to it (also one of the longest non-compounds you can generate in Finnish).
Whoa. What...what does that mean?

[Eldariel]

Whoa. What...what does that mean?

"järjestelmä" means "system"

"järjestelmällistys" means...well "systemization" (it's a real form in Finnish)

"järjestelmällistyttämättömyys" is the opposite of "systemization"

"järjestelmällistyttämättömyydellään" is the opposite of "in its systemization"

"järjestelmällistyttämättömyydellänsäkään" is the opposite of "even in its systemization"

"järjestelmällistyttämättömyydellänsäkäänköhän" is the opposite of "even in its systemization" with a conditional/questioning sound to it


Btw, notice that space after "järjestelmällistyttämättömyydellänsäkäänköhän"? It's the board doing that. I guess, if there's a long enough word, the board doesn't really "get" it or something. 'cause I tried to delete the space, but there's no space to delete there.

[Fostire]

Btw, notice that space after "järjestelmällistyttämättömyydellänsäkäänköhän"? It's the board doing that. I guess, if there's a long enough word, the board doesn't really "get" it or something. 'cause I tried to delete the space, but there's no space to delete there.

The board puts spaces in long words so as to avoid page stretching.

[Jinura]

Well I speak English more or less fluently. Danish fluently since it's my native language, and currently learning french even though I'm TERRIBLE at it.

[Thufir]

I got A*s in GCSE French and German. But then I dropped both.
I'd probably be stood in good stead if I were to start learning either of them again.

I have also sung in a number of different languages. In some cases I knew what the words meant.
Sung language list: English, French, German, Latin, Spanish, Italian, Russian, Swahili, Zulu, Hungarian, Inca, Hebrew.

[Trog]

I speak English and I had over five years of French classes but most of that knowledge has faded through lack of use. I used to know a few phrases in Korean from the years of Tae Kwon Do I took when I was younger but the only part of that I now remember is how to count to 10 in Korean. I also had a smattering of Spanish, German, and Latin back in school but that's completely gone now. 'Tis hell getting old. :smalltongue:

[Blue Ghost]

I'm fluent in English and Mandarin Chinese. I took two years of French, but I've unfortunately forgotten most of it, due to having been forced to switch to Spanish instead. I miss French. :smallfrown:

[Khaeta]

I speak AMERICAN!!! :smalltongue:
I also take french, so I speak a bit of that.
I have a bunch of bilingual friends, I envy them... :smallfrown:

[Eldariel]

I speak AMERICAN!!! :smalltongue:

Now I know who you are... (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bv9yZM5PrSo#t=1m30s)

[madtinker]

Now I know who you are... (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bv9yZM5PrSo#t=1m29s)

Sooo confuuused...

[drakir_nosslin]

I currently speak Swedish and English fluently and I'm forgetting more and more of the little German I learned in School.
Oh, and I also speak Math. A universal language!

[Eldariel]

Sooo confuuused...

The key quote:
"I don't understand a word you just said! Try speaking American, it's the only language I understand."

Did I mention that I take every opportunity ever to link a YGO: The Abridged Series-episode, especially since the implementation of deeplinking on Youtube? I guess I should've.

[Thiel]

My birth language is Danish (duh) and I'm largely fluent in English (Though my grammar sucks.). I also speak a bit of German and I understand Swedish, Norwegian and Dutch.

[Atelm]

This is not true; Finnish has nothing to do with Slavic languages (and indeed, has more words from Germanic than from Slavic languages due to the influence of Sweden on our history). Finnish is a Finno-Ugric language, along with Estonian, Hungarian and many smaller language groups such as Sami, Karelian & co. Slavic languages frankly have more in common with Germanic languages than they have with Finno-Ugric; compared to all other languages spoken in Europe, Finno-Ugric languages are completely alien.



True, Finno-Ugric languages (along with Basque) are not even Indo-European to begin with. All other majority languages spoken in Europe are.

http://linguistics.buffalo.edu/people/faculty/dryer/dryer/map.europe.gif


The key quote:
"I don't understand a word you just said! Try speaking American, it's the only language I understand."

Did I mention that I take every opportunity ever to link a YGO: The Abridged Series-episode, especially since the implementation of deeplinking on Youtube? I guess I should've.

"You snooze, you lose, dweeb. I claim this card in the name of AMERICA!" :smallamused:

YGO the Abridged rocks. :smallbiggrin:

[madtinker]

The key quote:
"I don't understand a word you just said! Try speaking American, it's the only language I understand."

Did I mention that I take every opportunity ever to link a YGO: The Abridged Series-episode, especially since the implementation of deeplinking on Youtube? I guess I should've.

No, I understood that you were referring him to the American speaking guy. The rest of the episode had me confused. It must be an anime thing.

[Dallas-Dakota]

I find YGO abridged quite funny, and I don't watch anime. I only watched the occasional Dragonball Z when I was 7/8 orso, can't really remember.

Also, go dutch!

[The Dark Fiddler]

I speak English as my primary language. And American English, not Bad English (although others may disagree) or The Queen's English. Not much a difference, but I feel the need to point this out (or else I'll have people point out I'm misspelling color).

I speak a bit of Spanish, 3 years of classes. I can conjugate regular -ar, -er, and -ir verbs in the present, past participle (poorly), imperfect (poorly), present progressive, and past progressive (maybe). I can conjugate a few choice irregulars (ir, ser, the important ones), and I'm familiar (somewhat) with "shoe verbs" as my teacher called them (jugar, for example). I'd be able to get around in Spain or Mexico, find a hotel, restroom, etc, but that's about it.

Also, I speak ig-pay atin-lay. :smalltongue:

[Deadmeat.GW]

I speak fluently Dutch (native), French (native too, my dad), German and English with notions of Spanish and Italian :).

[Phae Nymna]

FLUENT:
-English
-Falsche Deutsche

SEMIFLUENT:
-French

WANT TO BE:
-German
-Italian
-Russian

Not very impressive... yet...

[Dallas-Dakota]

I speak fluently Dutch (native),.
Really?
You should consider coming to a meet-up sometime, they're really fun!

[Eldariel]

No, I understood that you were referring him to the American speaking guy. The rest of the episode had me confused. It must be an anime thing.

It's an anime parody. Actually, I hadn't seen an episode of Yu-Gi-Oh before I started watching the Abridged. The show inspired me to watch the whole of Yu-Gi-Oh, naturally...only to figure out that many of the Abridged jokes are unintentional comedy in the actual series.

It's pretty awesome to be making a parody of a show that would fly as a parody itself if someone marketed it as such. But yeah, in my humble opinion, Yu-Gi-Oh Abridged is pretty much the best thing internet has produced...and that's saying a lot (what with stuff like OotS too). If you haven't watched it all yet, start from the beginning (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmVGQR3NNdg)!

[Kulture]

Fluent:
English

Know a few sentences/song lyrics:
German,
Russian,
French.

Can swear in:
English, German, Russian, French, Mandarin, Sign language, Latin, Norwegian, Japanese, Pig pen code and many many more if I find my little book of foreign insults.

[WalkingTarget]

Can swear in:
English, German, Russian, French, Mandarin, Sign language, Latin, Norwegian, Japanese, Pig pen code and many many more if I find my little book of foreign insults.

Heh. This sort of fits in with my odd desire to be able to say the phrase "I'm sorry, but I don't speak [language]" or an equivalent perfectly in just about any language available. Not in a touristy kind of way, I want proper accent and everything.

[Calmness]

Spanish and English. English needs practice.

[Calamity]

Reverse of ^:

English and Spanish. Spanish needs practice. :smalltongue: Lots of it.

[Deadmeat.GW]

Really?
You should consider coming to a meet-up sometime, they're really fun!

Living in the UK atm and rather poor sadly enough otherwise I would have finished my studies and properly added Spanish and Italian to the mix :).

[OverdrivePrime]

American English, rusty German, and enough French, Spanish and Japanese to get myself into trouble. :smallbiggrin:

[Yiuel]

Native French
Half-Native* English
Fluent in Japanese and Esperanto (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Esperanto)
Some ranks in Spanish, enough to not get lost.

When I say fluent, I mean a language that I can use on a daily basis, enough to be able to work in said language.

* Half-native meaning that I have learned it when I was a toddler, but my parents are not English, I never went to school in English, and stopped using it as a socially useful language when I turned 6. So, while I never needed to learn English as a second language, I'm only half-competent.

[Altaria87]

I speak English fluently, Spanish to a good degree but not fluent, enough French to have a bit of conversation and a bit of Greek (though I can't read or write it...)
Oh, and I can say "two wars and one world cup" in German (no offence to any Germans, you're cool really)

[daggaz]

Besides the obvious (come on people, do you ALL really have to list the language that you are typing in and which is pretty much mandatory for this forum?), I speak fluent Danish and am fairly OK with Spanish.

[Altaria87]

Besides the obvious (come on people, do you ALL really have to list the language that you are typing in and which is pretty much mandatory for this forum?), I speak fluent Danish and am fairly OK with Spanish.
Yes, yes we do need to say the language we're typing, it makes us feel better. :smallbiggrin:

[Eldariel]

come on people, do you ALL really have to list the language that you are typing in and which is pretty much mandatory for this forum?

1) It can be useful to list your degree of competence in said language.
2) It's a bit weird not to list all the languages one knows when asked to list all the languages one knows.

Besides, we're all listing our native languages too even though many of us are born in the country listed in our location and could therefore be assumed to be natives anyways. And no harm done anyways :smalltongue:

[Mr. Mud]

Fluent:
Java
Binary,
C#
C++
Python
HTML
PHP

Know just enough to get by on:
English

:smallwink:.

[Green Bean]

English is my most fluent language, but I'm Canadian, so I know a bit of French courtesy of public school. Of course, I've spent most of my life in places where English is the primary language, so my French skills aren't great, but I can make myself understood and read at a high school level if I have a dictionary for the tougher words.

[Elves-as-People]

Fluent:
English

Some/Simple Conversation:
German (southern)
French

Scraps (in order of the quantity of scraps):
Spanish
Chinese (Mandarin)
Arabic (Ameya)
Korean
Italian
Russian
Japanese
Swedish

Not including, obviously, languages where I know 10 words or fewer.

[Tharivol123]

English, some Spanish (I remember structure and verb forms, I've just forgotten around 80% of my vocabulary in the 10 years since I last spoke it on a regular basis), and I've been learning Russian bit by bit. In the last couple years I've also picked up the language usually called Legalese, to the point my head wants to explode and I sometimes use legal terms and contract clauses in mundane life.

Edit: I will hopefully soon be working as a project manager for a company that offers translation services and language instruction courses, so there's a chance that this list will expand greatly in the near future.

[llamamushroom]

Seeing as somebody made the distinction earlier, I speak the Queen's English, Shakespeare (enough for improv games), and Mandarin.

Well, when I say "speak", I mean that I might be able to survive in China if I had access to a dictionary/phrasebook/person who speaks English. My way of putting it is that I know enough to ask where the toilet is, but not enough to comprehend the answer... at least that was before I spent a week billeted with a family in Beijing. Now I can get the gist (ish)

[Winthur]

*YGOTAS talk*

brains.

brains brains brains BRAINS brains. (I can speak Polish, English, and curse somewhat in German.)

[KuReshtin]

....I might be able to survive in China if I had access to a (snip) person who speaks English.

If I had access to a person who speaks English, I'm pretty sure I'd be able to survive in any country you'd want to send me to. :smallsmile:

Sorry. I couldn't just let that go by unnoticed. :smalltongue:

[Flabbicus]

English is my first language. I can read Hebrew but I can't translate it or understand anything beyond basic religious words. I took Latin in High School but can't remember much of the grammar and I'm on my last semester of Spanish at college.

[Mary Leathert]

Finnish is my first language. I know a lot of other Finns who read OotS but I didn't check if there are any in this topic.
Edit: Now I feel a bit stupid for not reading page 4 before I made this comment. Nice to know I'm not the only Finn here.

I study English at university as my major, and I think I'm quite fluent in it. Especially in writing it.

Other languages I know to some extent are Swedish (mandatory in Finland), German (has been some years since I last studied it), Latin (got interested in high school, but haven't found the time to continue at the university) and Japanese (I'm currently on a basic course.)

[Pigkappa]

Fluent
Italian (native)

Just enough to survive (with a bit of luck)
English
(and C++ :smallwink:)

Just a little
Latin (I knew it decently until I was forced to study that for school...)

Not enough for passing a really easy exam
French (damnit why does a guy who study Physics have to waste time for exams on this language!?)


I envy those who are native English speakers and don't really have to become fluent in another language at all costs :smallfurious: :smalltongue:

[Elves-as-People]

I envy those who are native English speakers and don't really have to become fluent in another language at all costs :smallfurious: :smalltongue:

English = Common :smallbiggrin:

[katans]

French is my native language. I'm fluent in English and German, and I understand enough Dutch to survive when not in large cities (where everybody speaks at least one of my other three languages). With enough concentration, time and imagination, I can understand basic stuff in other Romance languages (Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Romanian and so on).

Planning to learn Russian and Arabic, if I ever find the time...

[LordSintax]

English, basic conversational German and Gaelic (I can say stuff, just don't ask me to teach a graduate course on theoretical physics or conduct a light opera), and scraps of Japanese, Mandarin, Russian, and Klingon.... yes, I'm THAT guy.

The sentence in my sig is Scots Gaelic. it translates roughly as "Hold my beer and watch this."

[Elves-as-People]

Ah, I forgot to mention I'm fluent in spoken Irish (not so sure about the spelling):

Cah Whill on choc Tawrna?

[lsfreak]

English, essentially General American with one or two very minor differences.

Used to be passable in Spanish from high school. That's pretty much gone, except that the wrong words seem to sneak in when I'm trying to say something in German.
Learning German. Starting Russian next semester most likely.
Would very much like to learn Arabic, Hindi, and Koine Greek.
Would like to learn about 10 more languages just for fun.
Oh, and even if I can't speak it, I'd like to read Chinese.

[Fleeing Coward]

Fluent in English, Chinese (Mandarin) and French .
Know bits and pieces of Italian and Japanese from high school
Always wanted to learn Welsh if I ever manage to have the time.

[Cleverdan22]

My native language is English, and I can write Latin. I am oh so cultured.

[Raewyn]

Fluent in English, could probably say a few mangled sentences in French if it were an emergency.

Tangent! Can one of the beloved Russian-speaking playgrounders tell me what this says?

Али есть то место али его нет

Thanks in advance for your halp.

[Inhuman Bot]

My first language is English.

The language I know second most would be french.

I've dabbled in other languages, but the only other language I know slightly well is Russian.

[ForzaFiori]

I speak fluent English (comes from growing up in the USA) and I've had 3 years of Spanish, so I can kinda speak Spanish. I tried French for a year but writing it was too weird (it sounds like Spanish but has like 2 million extra letters that you don't say). I wanna try to learn a language with a different alphabet sometime, either Russian, Greek, or Hebrew most likely.

[Cleverdan22]

I know some Japanese from training traditional Shotokan karate for years. Most of it is useless in application, though. The language, not the martial art.

[madtinker]

Fluent in English, could probably say a few mangled sentences in French if it were an emergency.

Tangent! Can one of the beloved Russian-speaking playgrounders tell me what this says?

Али есть то место али его нет

Thanks in advance for your halp.

Hhm.. Never seen/heard the word Ali. Could be e verb form I'm not familiar with, but I flatter myself that this is unlikely. Could be a name I guess, but not a Russian one. I'll go with foreign name, feel free to correct me.

Ali is that place, his Ali is not (does not exist, he doesn't have one).