Personal linguistic survey

[muckefuck]

Today's entertaining quiz from aadroma reminded me that I've been meaning for some time now to attempt a language survey on myself in order to generate a provisional answer to the question "So, how many languages do you know?" (As I've explained before, people don't really believe you when you say, "I'm not sure.") My skills are overwhelmingly passive and I tend to have a big gap between my reading comprehension and my listening comprehension, so I'll be separating out each pair of skills. ("N/A" means I've never had the opportunity to test those skills.) Languages are alphabetical by English-language name:

1. Afrikaans R/W: Occasionally asked to puzzle out bits for cataloging purposes. Basic understanding due to resemblance to Dutch, but often need to look up terms to get gist. L/S: N/A
2. Arabic R/W: Can puzzle out simple sentences (e.g. book titles) with help of dictionary, though I've never successfully memorised the entire alphabet. L/S: Handful of very basic phrases.
3. Aramaic R/W: Have never quite mastered Syriac script despite many attempts to use dictionary. Simple vocabulary. L/S: None.
4. Armenian R/W: Alphabet, some morphology. Could probably puzzle out simple sentences with help of dictionary/grammar, but haven't tried in years. L/S: Minimal.
5. Basque R/W: Simple vocabulary. L/S: N/A.
6. Breton R/W: Basic vocabulary, some phrases based on resemblance to Welsh. L/S: None.
7. Bulgarian R/W: Alphabet, some vocabulary. L/S: The only thing I know how to say in Bulgarian is "Russia sucks!"
8. Catalan R/W: Have read many articles, short stories, two novels. Writing skills decent. L/S: Have held my own in conversation, but nothing impressive.
9. Chinese, Cantonese R/W: Know several dialect characters/morphemes. Can puzzle out some simple texts, like song lyrics, with dictionary. L/S: Know dozen or so phrases from HK movies and basic vocabulary look food and terms of address.
10. Chinese, Mandarin R/W: Vocabulary of several hundred characters, perhaps as many as 1,000. Can read/write simple texts with difficulty, but haven't yet read more than a newspaper article. L/S: Simple conversation.
11. Czech R/W: Very simple texts with dictionary. L/S: Few polite phrases.
12. Danish [see "Scandinavian languages"]
13. Dutch (including Flemish) R/W: Can read articles, webpages. L/S: Simple phrases. Dutch spoken at natural speed still sounds bizarrely foreign to me.
14. English My second language. (My native language is Babble.)
15. Esperanto No comment!
16. Finnish R/W: Simple vocabulary. L/S: None.
17. French R/W: Articles, short stories, large stretches of novels. L/S: Basic. Once had extended conversation where I spoke English, he spoke French.
18. Gaelic (Irish and Scottish) R/W: Some simple phrases. L/S: No.
19. German My third language. I describe myself as "fluent", though my non-nativeness is obvious to native Germans.
20. Greek, Modern R/W: Some basic words, phrases. L/S: Polite expressions.
21. Hebrew R/W: Alphabet, simple vocabulary L/S: None.
22. Hungarian R/W: Can puzzle out simple sentences (e.g. titles) with help of a dictionary. L/S: Minimal listening comprehension, few polite phrases.
23. Italian R/W: Articles with help from dictionary. L/S: Very basic.
24. Japanese R/W: Have never mastered kana, must use dictionary. Have puzzled out some manga. L/S: Minimal.
25. Korean R/W: Have read, written short texts with dictionary aid. L/S: Poor listening, very basic conversation.
26. Latin R/W: Simple phrases L/S: N/A.
27. Norwegian [see "Scandinavian languages"]
28. Occitan R/W: Have read non-fiction texts, puzzled out poetry. L/S: N/A.
29. Portuguese R/W: Simple non-fiction texts. L/S: Simple phrases. In conversation, I default to Spanish.
30. Romansh: Some phrases. Own novel, but have never read more than a few pages. L/S: N/A, probably minimal.
31. Russian R/W: Have puzzled out many titles. L/S: Some simple phrases.
32. Scandinavian language R/W: Simple texts with dictionary aid. L/S: None (even Swedish, which I know slightly better than the others, sounds utterly bizarre to me spoken.)
33. Serbo-Croatian R/W: Simple vocabulary. L/S: Few polite expressions.
34. Spanish R/W: Have read short stories, articles, etc. L/S: Fair.
35. Swedish [see "Scandinavian languages"]
36. Thai R/W: Can use a dictionary with a crib sheet in hand. L/S: Few polite expressions.
37. Turkish R/W: Few simple phrases. L/S: None.
38. Ukrainian: Simple vocabulary. L/S: N/A.
39. Vietnamese R/W: Basic vocabulary. L/S: None.
40. Welsh: Have read simple texts with dictionary aid. L/S: Minimal listening, very simple conversation.
41. Yiddish R/W: Can read with difficulty, based on resemblance to German. Frequent borrowings (Hebrew/Aramaic/Slavic/etc.) always throw me for a loop. L/S: Marginal.

Almost all the languages listed are ones I've played around with at some time or another. I think I own grammars or phrase books for most of them. Other languages in this category of which I've retained hardly anything are Ainu, Albanian, Berber, Chinook, Ancient Egyptian, Hausa, Latvian, Persian, Somali and other too numerous to mention.

Now aren't you glad you asked?

Comments

[snowy-owlet.livejournal.com]

WOW!!! I am so impressed by that. You are amazing!

[aadroma.livejournal.com]

Albanian's one I've tried, sadly, without much success. There doesn't seem to be a lot of immediately availabe material for that (especially in comparison to other languages). The same goes for Tagalog, something I picked up only a little bit of thanks to an ex now datig a guy from the Phillipenes. ^_^

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

Yeah, when my older brother was looking for Tagalog polite phrases, I had the damnedest time scaring some up. As for Albanian, I never took proper advantage of a native speaker when I had her!

I am impressed

[darkphuque.livejournal.com]

I have a Liturgy book in Albanian....
I noticed no Romanian, Rom or Icelandic....
Romanian is a really beautiful language.

Re: I am impressed

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I've played with those, too. My recognition of Icelandic is worse than that for other Nordic languages, despite years of listening to Sykurmolarnir (Björk's old band). It sounds very different than it looks! It's been years since I tried anything with Romanian and my recognition was never very high; much of the most basic vocabulary is unlike the corresponding words in Italian, much less the Western Romance languages. I like Romany and actually tried to read a translation of a Woodhouse short story(!) in it, but gave up after several frustrating pages.

[bengt.livejournal.com]

Well, you don't have to feel too badly about those last few: there aren't too many texts written in Ainu or Chinook, as far as I know...