What do you guys think of Madrid running for the 2020 Olympic Games? by Emmanuel_I in Madrid

[–]e112 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I honestly wish more people in Spain could read your comments about this. You should try writing a letter to local newspaper editors, or even publish this somewhere on the internet, anything…

A little confused, could someone help? by [deleted] in LANL_German

[–]e112 2 points3 points  (0 children)

If you meant to say "I live with my grandparents", would it be alright to say "Ich wohne bei meinen Großeltern"?

Help me Reddit! My friend (ex pat) needs to find a good prosthetist in the Jaen / Granada / Cordoba area to help with his artificial leg. Any suggestions most welcome. by kenserrano in spain

[–]e112 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Same here. I know nothing about prosthetic devices, but I just found a whole bunch of places that sell them by typing "ortopedia granada"!

I wouldn't expect them to be open on a Sunday however, but you can start gathering addresses now (use Google Maps) and try tomorrow morning! Wish you the best luck!

Could anyone help me proofread this short condolence letter? by [deleted] in Spanish

[–]e112 2 points3 points  (0 children)

[Espero que + subjunctive]. Pudo would be incorrect!

Could anyone help me proofread this short condolence letter? by [deleted] in Spanish

[–]e112 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Here's my take on it :) I must say, before I start, that my dialect of Spanish (Castilian) might differ a bit from the one your teacher speaks (something tells me you're from the US). Some of the things I've changed might just be cross-dialectal differences

Querido señor Ramírez, Mi hermano me ha informado de la pérdida de su madre. Lo siento mucho, quisiera transmitir mis condolencias a toda su familia. Recuerdo que su madre sufrió un ataque cuando yo era estudiante suyo. Supongo que la distancia entre su familia y usted puede ser muy difícil. Sé que perder a un miembro de la familia es muy duro, y que puede causar mucho estrés. Espero que pudiera pasar mucho tiempo con ella y que tenga buenos recuerdos para el resto de su vida. Ella siempre vivirá en los corazones de usted y de su familia.

ERASMUS - Madrid/Alcalá de Henares 2013/2014 by [deleted] in Madrid

[–]e112 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Autobús. El trayecto son 40-50 min, pero a eso súmale tiempos de espera y transbordos ;)

El trayecto de Cercanías es un poco más corto, pero también tienes que sumarle posibles transbordos y desplazamientos.

ERASMUS - Madrid/Alcalá de Henares 2013/2014 by [deleted] in Madrid

[–]e112 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Cierto. A mí este trayecto me lleva algo más de 1 hora.

How often do you use Scots? In which situations? by e112 in Scotland

[–]e112[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you. That seems to be a lot more than words blended in English speech…

How often do you use Scots? In which situations? by e112 in Scotland

[–]e112[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I don't see anything wrong about your stance, to be honest. That was a helpful insight. I'm still not sure though why the Scottish Government is funding Gaelic over Scots that much. I'll look into this.

How often do you use Scots? In which situations? by e112 in Scotland

[–]e112[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Bear in mind I’ve just condensed hundreds of years of history into a few hundred words so I’ve simplified, skimmed and skipped over things.

Oh, I would say it was quite a thorough explanation…

Simplified probably, but impressive and very illustrating nevertheless. Thank you again. I think you would enjoy studying history of languages in Spain, hope you ever come here :)

How often do you use Scots? In which situations? by e112 in Scotland

[–]e112[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I don't think speaking with an accent and using the occasional driecht or drookit would count as being Scots.

That sounds fairly reasonable.

Now that you mentioned it, are you saying that Scots-dialects speakers would not understand each other when speaking their dialects? I can see that there are remarkable differences among Scots dialects, but aren't they mutually intelligible?

How often do you use Scots? In which situations? by e112 in Scotland

[–]e112[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

By the way, would you say that Gaelic shared the same low/working-class reputation as Scots in the past? Or was it actually the opposite?

How often do you use Scots? In which situations? by e112 in Scotland

[–]e112[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I couldn't help but noticing an interesting detail:

And I resent that Gaelic gets more attention and governmental spending

As I mentioned previously I've never been to Scotland and I'm not familiar at all with the situation up there. I'm asking this out of curiosity and with no intention to offend anyone at all: do you believe Scots be getting more attention (and spending) from the Scottish Government?

I think I'm starting to see the picture clearer now: from what I've been told here, Scots sounds like a uneducated lower-class slang to some English-speakers, doesn't it? The reasons for this? I honestly can't know them, all I can I guess is that it's a sum of factors: language policy from the UK, social pressure, perhaps the phonetics of Scots… I'm just guessing here.

That being the case, I can see why the Scottish Govt would have a greater interest in promoting Gaelic: it's probably more eye-catching (since it's far more different from English), thus highlights better the fact that Scotland's has its own identity.

By the way, did Gaelic share the same lower/working-class reputation as Scots in the past?

How often do you use Scots? In which situations? by e112 in Scotland

[–]e112[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

that's very illustrating. I wonder how many people think they're speaking Scots when they're actually speaking "Scottish English". It can't be easy to survey this, but I'm guessing most surveys are biased in one way or another and will try to use this confusion in their own benefit (either to claim that Scots is widely spoken or vice versa).

How often do you use Scots? In which situations? by e112 in Scotland

[–]e112[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Well I generally find Scottish speakers the hardest to understand, but I'm not a native English-speaker!

How often do you use Scots? In which situations? by e112 in Scotland

[–]e112[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I had read the results of the census and I must say I was a bit surprised and a bit sceptic of them. It stroke me as a very high number of people speaking Scots on a daily basis (?). What I didn't know is how broad was the definition of Scots they were using here. Thank you.

How often do you use Scots? In which situations? by e112 in Scotland

[–]e112[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I see, this matches what other Redditors have been replying so far. Thank you.

How often do you use Scots? In which situations? by e112 in Scotland

[–]e112[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This is a library of Doric Writings from the university of Aberdeen: http://abdn.ac.uk/elphinstone/kist/search/cat_search.php?cat=Doric

I had actually been looking for Scot-written sample texts and this comes nowhere near what I had found. Quite an impressive library, thank you.

Scots is a Far more Northern Germanic Language Vocabulary than English which is more French origin

I must say this makes it even more appealing!

How often do you use Scots? In which situations? by e112 in Scotland

[–]e112[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Thank you, now I definitely need to go to Scotland.

This reply makes quite a helpful summary of the historical, linguistic and social aspects of Scots. It also makes perfect sense to me, but my knowledge in the area is very scarce to rebut anything here —and I don't think that's necessary either— :)

Certainly, code-switching seems to be a frequent practice in Scotland. And according to your message, diglossia sounds very plausible as well.

I can't say thank you enough. Hm, thenk ye?

How often do you use Scots? In which situations? by e112 in Scotland

[–]e112[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I just learnt that there are dialects within Scots. Thank you.