Be Excellent To Each Other

so following from the other topic

- the absurdity of the double monarchy
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austria-Hungary
(but lost more of course AH out of germany: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kleindeutschland , house of habsburg: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Habsburg , holy roman emperors http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holy_Roman_Emperor

- the lithuanian-polian empire in the 1400s
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish-Lit ... mmonwealth
http://users.tyenet.com/kozlich/da121.htm
http://www.wodzu.tonet.pl/republika_pro ... oTNRP.html

- the beauty and power of the large civic centres like Budapest and Cracow
- the ottoman occupation
- the reasons why hungarians speak finnish
History of the finno-ugric languages http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finno-Ugric_languages
Sentence which are then same: http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/language ... 02729.html

- the role of Trams in Eastern European Transport
http://www.ltmuseumshop.co.uk/LTM/World ... urope.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trams_in_Europe
http://www.cemt.org/topics/urban/Moscow04/Bruggeman.pdf
http://hampage.hu/trams/25-os/e_index.html
http://www.escapeartist.com/efam/36/tram_travel.html

I thought this was going to be about some new band. Tch.

Interesting links though, I'll have a look later.

Nice thread

romanista, what languages can you 'do'?

In a terrifying coincidence, I'm reading a biography of famed Hapsburg Marie Antoinette at the moment. Interesting stuff, although she's only about 12 so far.

Cheers for the tram stuff. I used to work at a place that made the comfy driver's chair and control levers for the latest Helsinki trams.

Didn't know they were planning to use ground level power for the Edinburgh system either.

Depends on what you mean by 'do'

Fluently (talking with people without them knowing i'm not from that place, and discussing on internetforums etc.
Dutch, English, Italian

Reasonable (reading newspapers, talking about soccer etc)
French, German, Portuguese, Spanish

Basic (ordering drinks, negotiating about bus tariffs)
Bahasa Indonesia, Polish

Just to let people know you care (Greetings, say who you are)
Wolof (nanga def? jalmarek!), Fulani, Frisian

Man, it's depressing when peoples 10th, 11th and 12th languages are ones you've never even heard of. I can barely speak english - most of my talk is just grunts and hums.

I think those last few are only found in Star Trek.

Seriously though, top European skills romanista!

i hope you've heard from frisian, it's english closest relative? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frisian_languages

some basic west african conversation
English - Wolof (senegal etc.) - Mandinka (mali/ gambia)
How are you- Nanga def - Kori Tanante
Fine! - Jamarek - Tanante
Ik go to- Manga dem - Nka ta satewo -
the city - kibir deka bi - kono

French and German only.

English is a struggle.

so did you read up by now?

No, I got diverted into Spain and am currently in Brazil. I'm terrible for following tangents.

ah, well, brazil is interesting too, see the what doyou do link for articles by me about the japanese community in sao paolo and games .. you are not intop soccer, but alex bellos'futebol is a must read about brazil (see http://www.ofutebol.com )

The problem with different languages is when they come from completely different roots.
So French plus Spanish plus Italian is quite easy because of their common Latin roots.

I know someone who has practiced medicine (which requires colloquial and accent skills) in a slavic language an indo european language and English. They not only have 3 different roots, they have 3 different alphabets.

Hapsburg? I think I've used your restrooms.

I think that's a bad idea... the neds will soon find ways to get into the conduit and set up electrocution traps.