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Demographics Poll: What is Your Native Language?

semiticgoddesssemiticgoddess Member Posts: 14,903
in General Discussion (Spoiler Warning!)
  1. Demographics Poll: What is Your Native Language?52 votes
    1. English/Dutch
      44.23%
    2. Spanish/Portuguese
        5.77%
    3. French
        7.69%
    4. German
        9.62%
    5. Russian
        3.85%
    6. Italian
        3.85%
    7. Hindi/Bengali
        1.92%
    8. Turkish/Arabic/Farsi/Lahnda
        0.00%
    9. Chinese/Japanese/Korean/Vietnamese
        0.00%
    10. Other (please specify)
      23.08%
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Comments

  • semiticgoddesssemiticgoddess Member Posts: 14,903
    If you're wondering why so many of these are European languages, it's because a previous poll found that a large majority of forumites were of European or American nationality, so I tweaked the options to get a more precise spread. I figured that listing the top languages by number of speakers globally would leave a whole bunch of people lumped into "Other."
  • StummvonBordwehrStummvonBordwehr Member, Mobile Tester Posts: 1,385
    Good to see the expansion of the demographic poll’s - wonder what can be said about the site users - besides that we are rambunctious lot...

    I am one of the mumblers aka the danes. Apparantly many find that Danish is a coarse language and that the danes have a habit of mumbling the language. I just think they are jealous of our beautiful tongue B)
  • Balrog99Balrog99 Member Posts: 7,371
    Isn't the Dutch language closer to German? Why English/Dutch?
  • lroumenlroumen Member Posts: 2,538
    50% Dutch.
    We should have been grouped with German but if you look broad enough you can go as far as English and Scandinavian languages.

    50% Bahasa Indonesian.
    Not sure where to group that
  • semiticgoddesssemiticgoddess Member Posts: 14,903
    @Balrog99: English is indeed a Germanic language, and there are a lot of sounds that English and German possess, but few other languages do. But, it's my understanding that Dutch actually sounds almost identical to English to people who speak neither language, hence my lumping Dutch in with English. When I was in Amsterdam, I couldn't read any of the local Dutch, but when I saw translations, the language seemed extremely similar. I've also heard that it's pretty easy to transition from English to Dutch or vice versa, at least compared with another language like German.

    @lroumen: Maybe I should have put Dutch alongside German. I can't change poll choices without re-creating the whole discussion, though.

    All three languages have some pretty similar sounds that few other languages possess. How many languages have both an "ih" and an "ee" sound, and both a "b" and a "v?" That sounds like a uniquely Germanic feature.

    Once again, I got thwarted by the limit of 10 choices in polls. I think Bahasa Indonesian would have fallen under the Javanese umbrella, but I removed Javanese from the poll to make room for others. I originally planned on basing the poll choices on a list of the biggest languages by number of native speakers.
  • Balrog99Balrog99 Member Posts: 7,371
    Hmmm, maybe Romance language (French, Italian, Spanish). Germanic (German, Scandinavian, Hungarian), Slavic (Russian, Polish, Romanian, Bulgar), Indian/Sri Lankan, Arabic, African, Chinese, East Asian (Japanese, Vietnamese, Korean, etc...), English & Other?
  • AedanAedan Member, Translator (NDA) Posts: 8,551
    Italian mothertongue here ;)
  • Balrog99Balrog99 Member Posts: 7,371
    semiticgod wrote: »
    @Balrog99: English is indeed a Germanic language, and there are a lot of sounds that English and German possess, but few other languages do. But, it's my understanding that Dutch actually sounds almost identical to English to people who speak neither language, hence my lumping Dutch in with English. When I was in Amsterdam, I couldn't read any of the local Dutch, but when I saw translations, the language seemed extremely similar. I've also heard that it's pretty easy to transition from English to Dutch or vice versa, at least compared with another language like German.

    @lroumen: Maybe I should have put Dutch alongside German. I can't change poll choices without re-creating the whole discussion, though.

    All three languages have some pretty similar sounds that few other languages possess. How many languages have both an "ih" and an "ee" sound, and both a "b" and a "v?" That sounds like a uniquely Germanic feature.

    Once again, I got thwarted by the limit of 10 choices in polls. I think Bahasa Indonesian would have fallen under the Javanese umbrella, but I removed Javanese from the poll to make room for others. I originally planned on basing the poll choices on a list of the biggest languages by number of native speakers.

    I took 3 years of German in college and I was pretty amazed at how many English words are based on Germanic roots. I wouldn't object to English as a Germanic language but it's also close to a Romance language as well because of French influences. Besides, I think English is likely more useful as it's own category for informational purposes.
  • Balrog99Balrog99 Member Posts: 7,371
    Actually, Portuguese might even be worthy as different enough from Spanish to be it's own category (mostly due to Brazil).
  • semiticgoddesssemiticgoddess Member Posts: 14,903
    I wanted to split that up, too, but I didn't want to take the Middle Eastern or East Asian languages off the list.
  • lroumenlroumen Member Posts: 2,538
    edited March 2019
    To half of the Dutch population German is a dialect, English is a language. :)

    I think Dutch would have been okay as "other" unless you expect a significant amount of posters for that. We are a small country and now our numbers pollute the English votes.

    Overall though, I think the rest of the poll is okay this way considering the limitations.
  • Rik_KirtaniyaRik_Kirtaniya Member Posts: 1,742
    আমি গর্বিত আমি বাঙালী।
  • sarevok57sarevok57 Member Posts: 6,002
    Money is my native language, you understand how to speak money, you will be very well off :)B)
  • dunbardunbar Member Posts: 1,603
    English. Fwiw, when I went out to work in South Africa I encountered the Afrikaans language which is basically Dutch (the first white settlers in SA were from the Netherlands) and found that my schoolboy German was sufficient to understand a lot of the written language as a lot of the nouns were very similar, as was the sentence structure. So I would definitely pair Dutch with German.
  • EnuhalEnuhal Member, Moderator Posts: 1,062
    I accidentally clicked on "other". My native language is German :smile:
  • lroumenlroumen Member Posts: 2,538
    Yes, it used to be a sort of colony, a refilling stop on the way to Indonesia. It is a more practical Dutch (not wanting to say simplified).
  • RaduzielRaduziel Member Posts: 4,714
    edited March 2019
    Brazilian Portuguese.

    Learned English all by myself (that's the reason I have such bad grammar).

    É nóis, mané.
  • KamigoroshiKamigoroshi Member Posts: 5,870
    Creating a generic thread about language families would do better. That way people could choose the family one's own native language is part of. There's plainly way too many major languages (not to mention hybrid ones) out there for one, single poll. Even a series of polls wouldn't be enough for them, methinks.

    As for the first language I learned? Body language. Mastered it when I was but a baby. :p
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  • semiticgoddesssemiticgoddess Member Posts: 14,903
    @chimaera: I originally intended on making them reflect the global number of native speakers, but since this forum skews European and American, I switched focus to the most widely-spoken European languages. Judging by the local language forums, I could have added Polish, but which language should I have bumped off the list to make room for Polish?

    Again, I only got to make 10 poll options, and one of them has to be "Other," leaving 9 choices.
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 0
    edited March 2019
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  • semiticgoddesssemiticgoddess Member Posts: 14,903
    @chimaera: I had wondered where to put Turkish. When I looked it up, I saw that it was a very common language, but I didn't know what to merge it with, so I lumped it in with Arabic and Farsi, under the Middle East umbrella.

    According to Wikipedia, Turkish is most closely related to a bunch of languages I've never heard of.
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 0
    edited March 2019
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  • WormkingWormking Member Posts: 60
    Indonesian
  • ArdanisArdanis Member Posts: 1,736
    Tagil rulit!!!
  • histamiinihistamiini Member Posts: 1,473
    edited March 2019
    Miksi suomen kieli ei ole vaihtoehtona?
  • lroumenlroumen Member Posts: 2,538
    edited March 2019
    Not enough options. But you are right, there are a lot of gamers in Finland (as well as Sweden and Norway).
    My Finnish colleague is a better gamer than most of my other colleagues :).
  • bob_vengbob_veng Member Posts: 2,308
    chimaera wrote: »
    But thats the thing: some are grouped by location, some by language group, and neither seems to take into account how widely spoken a language is (there aren't that many Dutch speakers in Europe compared to other languages, really).

    i immediately see the pattern, and it's the same one i'd have used - he just listed the "world languages", and combined them with other prominent languages (spanish and portugese, Indian languages: hindi and bengali...) with which they are somehow related or associated, looking at it from a general western perspective.

    the only things that potentially stick out:

    arabic should have been first in the middle east grouping, while lahnda seems unnecessary

    italian is not a world language. however, italy has a strong BG fanbase, and a whole forum section here, so it has to be included. romanian also has a subforum but it's missing. it is fairly mutually intelligible with italian from which it borrows a ton of words, in the same broader lang. group, so it could safely have been lumped with it.

    in the same way as italian, polish with an even more famous BG community should have been included (~11k posts in the forum), and it would have been best to have a west slavic group (czech also has a subforum with ~8k posts): polish, czech.

    dutch is closer to german than english. it's mutually intelligible with neighboring german dialects. so probably should have been grouped with english.

    ukranian has a subforum, and it could go along with russian.
  • semiticgoddesssemiticgoddess Member Posts: 14,903
    I never imagined this subject would generate this much discussion. Maybe I should have created a poll to determine what poll options should have been in this poll!
  • lroumenlroumen Member Posts: 2,538
    Whenever you make decisions,some people will feel left out triggering discussion. It is a natural process for creatures with language.
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