Text Cut: FireboltAvis88 - Alyssa
Quote:
Originally Posted by
FireboltAvis88 
Alyssa took a look at the worksheets again when the Instructor explained to them how each syllable would possibly sound.
'Hmmm...they seem to sound almost like how we would pronounce our vowels. Especially the A.' Alyssa looked at what he had written on the board. Then she looked again and her brows furrowed. E sounded the same as AA, u sounded the same as OO. 'Man. It's not as easy as it sounds after all.' Alyssa realized before turning to the worksheets.
'Okay let's give this a try.'
Alyssa tried pronouncing the word for Ouch which was Ah-ee. "Ah-eeeeee"....'Heh...Sounds like Ow-wie.' Alyssa thought to herself even as she muffled her laugh. "Ah-eeeee....Ah-eeee."
Then she tried another word. Maybe a greeting would be nice. She searched the words in the worksheet but all she could find was It which translated into Uhff, Is which translated to mermish was Fan, Good which was Ghood, See which was Lusa and You which in mermish was EM. Looking up at the blackboard, she began formulating the pronunction of each word.
"Oo-F....F-ah-n...G-oo-d...L-oo-sah...A-m" Alyssa tried pronouncing the words. Was she right?
Alyssa then noticed similarities in some of the Mermish words written on the worksheet. Some translated into English had the same meaning. So she raised her hand.
"Sir, I noticed that some Mermish words have the same meaning when translated into English. Like for example, according to the worksheets, Uhff and Lle in the worksheet both mean It, both Eeas and Heh mean Yes, Toh and Ungh means No, Suron and Ccuuoo means Wave and Kila and Ss translates to Many." Alyssa paused looking for more similarites which she knew that there were more. But she decided that she had given enough examples.
"Uh...when do we know when to use either one?" Alyssa hoped that her question wasn't too complicated.
Listening as the students began trying out the different sounds and words. He smiled encouragingly at them. "Both of them can be used, when speaking with a merperson, it's just as if for instance I said 'yeah' instead of 'yes' it's like a slang term for the same word at times. Others can be like 'soda' and 'pop'. They'll understand which one you mean for the most part."
"Just as in different parts of a country, the language is basically the same just in warmer water it might have softer tones, where as in colder water it'll be more pronounced."
Text Cut: Bazinga - Minerva
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Bazinga
Minerva looked around the room as others talked about the different languages they spoke. She really hadn't learned another language well until recently. All she ever knew was English and American English at that, she never knew the struggle she would have here at times with the different meanings to some words. Putting up her hand Minerva said softly, "I have been trying to learn a little German recently."
Minerva thought for a moment, well couldn't it be as easy as why people speak different languages. "Sir could it be because they are in different parts of the world, so their language will originate in that part of the world just as our languages are different depending on where you travel." It seemed to be the most appropriate answer, so she hoped she was correct.
Minerva thought for a second, "Sir, learning this language seems fun and all, but if we are underwater how could we hear what the words even were. Unless we have a charm or spell to hear under water better, I would think it would be all choppy and foggy sounding." She really wasn't sure it was possible to speak under water correctly, even with a spell to breath underwater the last thing she wanted was that lake water in her mouth.
Minerva looked at her paper, which words to try. She looked around to see if others had started already. She didn't know why she felt nervous, she didn't want to do this wrong, but it was her first try. Pointing her finger to the first word she came to on the worksheet she looked down. "li, li" was that right she wondered giggling a bit at the sound. Looking at a different word Minerva said that one out loud as well. "c..ca..caatuu, caatuu, caatuu." Shaking her head she really didn't know if she was saying these right, but they sounded funny.
"An excellent language to learn!" he said brightly with a smile. "Absolutely, that is correct. That's how many of the different dialects of mermish come to play. By travels amongst the merpeople moving around the world."
Listening to her concerned question he nodded "To us perhaps it would. But most often when you or I will be under the water like in the lake, we'll use a bubble head charm or some sort of similar charm, so you'll be able to speak. Even with using gillyweed, you'll be able to speak normally as you'll be taking in the water through gills."
Text Cut: TakemetotheBurrow- Ella
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Originally Posted by
TakemetotheBurrow They were going to get a chance to practice now? Grin! This was going to be fun...and probably funny, considering nobody here that she knew of could speak Mermish properly besides the instructor. Heh. Bring one challenge.
Eyes glancing down at the first worksheet, Ella settled with a word she deemed to be pretty easy...hopefully. OUCH! This was something the blonde said a lot, mostly because she was quite clumsy so it seemed like a good word t know. And ouch was said like...ah-ee. Huh.
Okay and a makes the ah sound...and double e means you stretch out the e sound. Cool. She was ready to give this a go.
"Ah-ee." Okay, that wasn't so bad. "Ah-eeeeee." And then, Ella being the wonderful actress that she was, casually pretended to stub her toe and called out, "Ahhh-eeeeeeeeeee!"
Giving Ella an encouragine smile he went on to the next person who was attempting to speak the language.
Text Cut: FearlessLeader19 - Jory
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Originally Posted by
FearlessLeader19 Jory looked at the list he had in front of him. The words seemed easy enough to pronounce thanks to the assistance at the sides. "Well, let's get to work,'' he muttered.
The Puffer started at the bottom of the list. "Aye... aye... aye...'' He grinned. It sounded funny and strange because he was not used to hearing to hearing it. But he had heard it before, of course. It reminded him of the creole language spoken in the Caribbean.
"You, you...'' Had enough practice with that as he probably used it everyday. And so on Jory went, repeating some more than others. He hoped he was pronouncing them correctly.
His eyes twinkled at the boy as he attempted to say the sounds and grinned. At least they were having fun with it!
Text Cut: DecemberMoon - Eliza
Quote:
Originally Posted by
DecemberMoon The thirteen year old was pretty interested in learning other languages. She thought it might be a bit like learning Ancient Runes, since you had to learn to pronounce things and remember what they meant and all. She'd been wondering if Mermish used the same characters in their alphabet as the English language did or if they used other symbols. And do they read and write left to right like English? Or maybe they write in spirals or waves, like water? Wouldn't that be cool? And also really hard to learn... She was relieved and also slightly disappointed to see that Mermish was indeed the same characters are apparently the same orientation as English.
She didn't know much about any other languages, just a few things in Spanish, but nothing work mentioning really - so she kept quiet. It did make her feel sort of inadequate though that so many of her peers knew other languages. Perhaps she'd need to work on that...
And as far as what might be different about Mermish in different parts of the world, well she sort of just figured that water type, depth, and region would affect it just like things like regions, elevations, and history affected languages above the ground. She wished they could hear some audio tapes of the differences though so that they would be able to recognize dialects better.
She flipped through her worksheets and tried to sound out a few words in her head by using the pronunciation key, but it seemed to her there were a few sounds that overlapped each other. Did that mean there was no 'ih' sound in their language? She didn't see any combination of letters that were labeled that way. She also thought it was curious that a single i and double ii made the same long e sound. Was that a wand mistake on the board, or did they really use two versions for the same sound? And was the u for the oo sound in food the same sound as the uu for the ou sound in you? So yeah, she was a little confused, but maybe that's just how Mermished worked - duplicating the same sounds...and stuff.
She looked at her sheets again and picked another word to inspect. Liiffoo - surprise. L...eee...ff...oo. Are consonants all pronounced the same as ours? I guess? Liiffoo = leefoo. Ok.
And here's another one that's interesting. Ghaajii - beneath. She raised her hand to ask about it, "Sir, do they pronounce their consonants like we do in English? For instance the word...um... G-h-a-a-j-i-i...is that a hard G like in gut? And is the J making a G sound or that more slurrish J sound like how French sounds sometimes?" She'd really confused herself now, so she hope he understood what she meant.
"Indeed they do, the G will be a hard G as in gut, but a J will be soft not silent but like 'J' in 'Jacques' in French." Good question! "So for instance you would say in the word Ghaajii it would sound like 'G-ay-zh-ee'."
If we have quite a few responses in the morning I'll reply and have a little surprise! If not when I arrive in Iowa in the afternoon, I shall post the surprise then 