In 1877 a Polish eye doctor invented a language, all on his own, made out of Latin and a few other major languages, as far as vocabulary.
The "dictionary" is about one-tenth the size of ethnic languages. You make complicated words just by adding
smaller words on together –affixes. There are only 16 grammar rules.
Spelling and pronunciation are rigorously simple. One letter is always the same sound, both for vowels and consonants. The accent is always on the next-to-the-last syllable. It sounds Italian.

This would mean that no one would ever have to learn more than ONE second language, and it would be pretty easy to do, in about one year.
Learning other languages in school takes years, just for one language.

You’d think that for politics, business, and tourism Esperanto would solve everything. But only 8 million people out of six billion world population can speak it.

Think of it. It would almost make professional translators unnecessary,
except for scholarly things.

I want an audio book that I can put on my ipod that is spoken in Italian. To use for pronunciation and vocabulary.

Ideally I would like a young adult book or something that I have read before in English, like Harry Potter or The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, or something simple enough that I can guess the meaning of some parts.

It can be any book, really, just please no nonfiction or anything boring.

Please tell me either the title of it in Italian, the author, if it is different, or send me a link to the torrent, or just what I can search for to download it.

Thank you!
Thanks, Daedalus Omega!

I can’t find a good torrent site with the audio book, but at least I know the name.

Can someone maybe put a link to a place I can DL the book, not the movie?

Please? *bats eyelashes*

I’m going on a school trip to Spain, France and Italy in the spring of 2010. I’ll be taking AP Spanish next year so I’ll know Spanish. I taught myself French last year and I haven’t used it much and I don’t know one word of Italian. I don’t want to buy anything because I don’t know if I’m definitley going yet and I want to learn it over the summer.

So, first question,
Where can I learn Italian for free online? I want somewhere where I can learn grammar and vocabulary. I know that some colleges offer their language courses online for free. Which ones offer it for Italian? Where else can I learn it? I want something that goes more advance than that BBC site which is a great site but I’m not a big fan of it.

Also, what are some good sites for advanced French lessons or to just brush-up vocabulary and grammar?

Thanks!
I’ve been taking Spanish for 5 years. My Spanish teacher and I chit-chat in French occasionally.

I am bilingual (almost) English/ Spanish, and eventually want to learn at least 6 languages (French, Italian, German, Portuguese as well as my English & Spanish). As you can see, most of these are Romance or Germanic languages, so they have similar roots and vocabulary to English. I was wondering which of these would be most beneficial to learn now as a third language? I am a college student and will soon be entering the International Business/ Real Estate world. Which would be most useful for jobs and why?

Petition to revoke the independence of the United States of America
Type: Just for Fun – Outlandish Statements
Description: To the citizens of the United States of America, in the light of your failure to elect a competent President of the USA and thus to govern yourselves, we hereby give notice of the revocation of your independence, effective today.

Her Sovereign Majesty Queen Elizabeth II will resume monarchical duties over all states, commonwealths and other territories.

Except Utah, which she does not fancy.

Your new Prime Minister (The Right Honourable Tony Blair MP, for the 97.85% of you who have until now been unaware that there is a world outside your borders) will appoint a Minister for America without the need for further elections.

The House of Representatives and the Senate will be disbanded.

A questionnaire will be circulated next year to determine whether any of you noticed. To aid in the transition to a British Crown Dependency, the following rules are introduced with immediate effect:

1. You should look up "revocation" in the Oxford English Dictionary. Then look up "aluminium." Check the pronunciation guide. You will be amazed at just how wrongly you have been pronouncing it.

The letter ‘U’ will be reinstated in words such as ‘favour’ and ‘neighbour’; skipping the letter ‘U’ is nothing more than laziness on your part. Likewise, you will learn to spell ‘doughnut’ without skipping half the letters.

You will end your love affair with the letter ‘Z’ (pronounced ‘zed’ not ‘zee’) and the suffix "ize" will be replaced by the suffix "ise."

You will learn that the suffix ‘burgh’ is pronounced ‘burra’ e.g. Edinburgh. You are welcome to re-spell Pittsburgh as ‘Pittsberg’ if you can’t cope with correct pronunciation.

Generally, you should raise your vocabulary to acceptable levels. Look up “vocabulary." Using the same thirty seven words interspersed with filler noises such as "uhh", "like", and "you know" is an unacceptable and inefficient form of communication.

Look up "interspersed."

There will be no more ‘bleeps’ in the Jerry Springer show. If you’re not old enough to cope with bad language then you shouldn’t have chat shows. When you learn to develop your vocabulary, then you won’t have to use bad language as often.

2. There is no such thing as "US English." We will let Microsoft know on your behalf. The Microsoft spell-checker will be adjusted to take account of the reinstated letter ‘u’ and the elimination of "-ize."

3. You should learn to distinguish the English and Australian accents. It really isn’t that hard. English accents are not limited to cockney, upper-class twit or Mancunian (Daphne in Frasier).

You will also have to learn how to understand regional accents — Scottish dramas such as "Taggart" will no longer be broadcast with subtitles.

While we’re talking about regions, you must learn that there is no such place as Devonshire in England. The name of the county is "Devon." If you persist in calling it Devonshire, all American States will become "shires" e.g. Texasshire, Floridashire, Louisianashire.

4. Hollywood will be required occasionally to cast English actors as the good guys. Hollywood will be required to cast English actors to play English characters.

British sit-coms such as "Men Behaving Badly" or "Red Dwarf" will not be re-cast and watered down for a wishy-washy American audience who can’t cope with the humour of occasional political incorrectness. Popular British films such as the Italian Job and the Wicker Man should never be remade.

5. You should relearn your original national anthem, "God Save The Queen", but only after fully carrying out task 1. We would not want you to get confused and give up half way through.

6. You should stop playing American "football." There are other types of football such as Rugby, Aussie Rules & Gaelic football. However proper football – which will no longer be known as soccer, is the best known, most loved and most popular. What you refer to as American "football" is not a very good game.

The 2.15% of you who are aware that there is a world outside your borders may have noticed that no one else plays "American" football. You will no longer be allowed to play it, and should instead play proper football.

Initially, it would be best if you played with the girls. It is a difficult game. Those of you brave enough will, in time, be allowed to play rugby (which is similar to American "football", but does not involve stopping for a rest every twenty seconds or wearing full kevlar body armour like nancies).

We are hoping to get together at least a US Rugby sevens side by 2008.

You should stop playing baseball. It is not reasonable to host an event called the ‘World Series’ for a game which is not played outside of North America. Since only 2.15% of you are aware that there is a world beyond your borders, your error is understandable. Instead of baseball, you will be allowed to play a girls’ game called "rounders," which is baseball without fancy team strip, oversized gloves, collector cards or hotdogs.

7. You will no longer be allowed to own or carry guns. You will no longer be allowed to own or carry anything more dangerous in public than a vegetable peeler. Because we don’t believe you are sensible enough to handle potentially dangerous items, you will require a permit if you wish to carry a vegetable peeler in public.

8. The 4th of July is no longer a public holiday. The 2nd of November will be a new national holiday, but only in Britain. It will be called "Indecisive Day."

9. All American cars are hereby banned. They are crap, and it is for your own good. When we show you German cars, you will understand what we mean.

All road intersections will be replaced with roundabouts. You will start driving on the left with immediate effect. At the same time, you will go metric with immediate effect and without the benefit of conversion tables. Roundabouts and metrication will help you understand the British sense of humour.

10. You will learn to make real chips. Those things you call ‘French fries’ are not real chips. Fries aren’t even French, they are Belgian though 97.85% of you (including the guy who discovered fries while in Europe) are not aware of a country called Belgium. Those things you insist on calling potato chips are properly called "crisps." Real chips are thick cut and fried in animal fat. The traditional accompaniment to chips is beer which should be served warm and flat.

Waitresses will be trained to be more aggressive with customers.

11. As a sign of penance 5 grams of sea salt per cup will be added to all tea made within the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, this quantity to be doubled for tea made within the city of Boston itself.

12. The cold tasteless stuff you insist on calling "beer" is not actually beer at all, it is lager . From November 1st only proper British Bitter will be referred to as "beer," and European brews of known and accepted provenance will be referred to as "Lager." The substances formerly known as "American Beer" will henceforth be referred to as "Near-Frozen Gnat’s Urine," with the exception of the product of the American Budweiser company whose product will be referred to as "Weak Near-Frozen Gnat’s Urine." This will allow true Budweiser (as manufactured for the last 1000 years in the Czech Republic) to be sold without risk of confusion.

13. From the 10th of November the UK will harmonise petrol (or "gasoline," as you will be permitted to keep calling it until the 1st of April) prices with the former USA. The UK will harmonise its prices to those of the former USA and the Former USA will, in return, adopt UK petrol prices (roughly /US gallon — get used to it).

14. You will learn to resolve personal issues without using guns, lawyers or therapists. The fact that you need so many lawyers and therapists shows that you’re not adult enough to be independent. Guns should only be handled by adults. If you’re not adult enough to sort things out without suing someone or speaking to a therapist, then you’re not grown up enough to handle a gun.

15. Please tell us who killed JFK. It’s been driving us crazy.

16. Tax collectors from Her Majesty’s Government will be with you shortly to ensure the acquisition of all revenues due (backdated to 1776).

Thank you for your co-operation.
Contact Info Website: www.fco.gov.uk
Office: Foreign & Commonwealth Office
Street: King James Street
City: London, England
haha i like it. and u never beat us in 1812 i dont know where u learned history but did we not burn down the white house and did the usa take canada now haha. it was a joke remember that dont get on ur high horses. t
yep u can say ya’ll i love that and fixing haha its cute esp when southern girls say it.
thanks to all you americans that can take a joke i really liked some of ur answers. remember this was a joke.
t

I am having an argument with friends… Please tell us if English is a richer (more vocabulary words) than French, Spanish, and/or Italian… And, is there a scientific number that backs it up?
please be exact…

.

"Latin is an ancient Indo-European language originally spoken in Latium, the region immediately surrounding Rome."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latin

The Roman empire with all its culture and language encompassed the entire Mediterranean Sea….The Romans never set foot in South America

So just because the Spanish were conquered by the Romans and then the Spanish later on conquered South America, that makes anyone born in South America a "Latino"?

Would a "Latino" consider someone from Corsica or Croatia a Latino?….Maybe even someone from Tunisia or Libya?

————

Also from that same wikipedia article…

"Italian is generally considered the purest descendant of Latin in terms of vocabulary, though Romanian more closely preserves the Classical declension system, and Sardinian is the most conservative in terms of phonology."

Hey
as you might know there is this website called freerice.com. When you answer vocabulary questions correctly you donate 20 grains of rice to the undeveloped world. I was wondering is there something similar in other languages especially in italian?

Thank you!

In my language (Italian) Raven is completely unknown. On the
vocabulary you find "Crow = Corvo" and "Raven = Corvo".
Somebody can explain to me the difference between these two9 birds? Thank you, Paolo from Rome, Italy.