Post by Russia on Nov 29, 2011 4:15:30 GMT -5
I was just thinking, as a Linguist so I couldn't really help it, what languages do you think your characters can speak and why? You don't have to go into the absurd depth I did and believe me, I could have made it so much worse, just as far as you want to.
For instance...
Russia speaks fluent:
-Russian (natively)
-Ukrainian (because of his sister)
-Byelorussian (because of his sister)
-English (because it is a lingua franca and was necessary for trade/war/etc)
-Old East Slavic (because of headcanon reasons that Kievan Rus was his mother)
He knows snippets (I.E. nowhere near fluently) of:
-Polish (becauseI have headcanon that Russia and Poland are first-cousins of dealings with Poland all through his life)
-Lithuanian (because of dealings with Lithuania throughout life)
-Old Prussian (because he got beat up by he Teutonic Knights)
-German (because of the whole GDR fiasco)
-Old Church Slavonic (because of the Russian Orthodox Church)
-Language of the Ancient Tatars (I have no idea what it's called or if it's related to the modern Tatar language, I can't find anything on it)
He used to speak fluent French due to having looked up to France for a very long time and having good relations with him save for the whole... Napoleon fiasco. At one point in time, Russian aristocracy spoke in almost exclusively French. Now, however, his French has fallen into the dreaded level of... rusty. He cannot speak any of the languages he knows snippets of, only understand bits and pieces spoken to him... save for German, Polish and Lithuanian. He can communicate very crudely in those.
I don't want to even think about all of the nearly forgotten Slavic tongues like Rusyn and the native languages of various ethnic groups like Ingush, Georgian, Uzbek, etc... Russia! Stop being an absurd polyglot!
For instance...
Russia speaks fluent:
-Russian (natively)
-Ukrainian (because of his sister)
-Byelorussian (because of his sister)
-English (because it is a lingua franca and was necessary for trade/war/etc)
-Old East Slavic (because of headcanon reasons that Kievan Rus was his mother)
He knows snippets (I.E. nowhere near fluently) of:
-Polish (because
-Lithuanian (because of dealings with Lithuania throughout life)
-Old Prussian (because he got beat up by he Teutonic Knights)
-German (because of the whole GDR fiasco)
-Old Church Slavonic (because of the Russian Orthodox Church)
-Language of the Ancient Tatars (I have no idea what it's called or if it's related to the modern Tatar language, I can't find anything on it)
He used to speak fluent French due to having looked up to France for a very long time and having good relations with him save for the whole... Napoleon fiasco. At one point in time, Russian aristocracy spoke in almost exclusively French. Now, however, his French has fallen into the dreaded level of... rusty. He cannot speak any of the languages he knows snippets of, only understand bits and pieces spoken to him... save for German, Polish and Lithuanian. He can communicate very crudely in those.