🤦 I was today years old when I realized that "ponqué" is a Spanish bastardization of "pound cake", the same way that "rompoy" is "roundpoint"/roundabout.
Sometimes you can see a word a million times before its origins just hit you, you know? Like when I was a kid, and first realized that breakfast literally means the meal that breaks your (nightly) fast.
Mind blown. 😅
Woo! Fellow linguaphile! 🎉
I studied Japanese as a teen, and some older fellows in class really struggled with word order & pronunciation. Early exposure helps!
I also had some early training in Hebrew (left-handed languages, baby!) & Latin in uni, which served me well for grad studies, though I was only allowed to sit for French in the PhD candidate exams.
Spanish has since led me to Arabic, though, because they have strong history. The journey continues! Happy trails in yours!
@MLClark That is seriously impressive!
I always had a love of languages from a very early age (I remember being about 8 and grabbing a kids book on Swahili from the library!). Later, the uncle of an ex was a missionary to the Zulus and would teach me bits of both Afrikaans and Zulu whenever he'd come back to Liverpool (though I only know things like "Hello" and "Thank you")...
(cont...)
@MLClark I drifted into Japanese as a teen after practicing Ninjutsu and fell in love with the culture, so ended up studying it at Uni. Luckily I'm ok with pronunciation though Kanji was a different matter.
Which leads me to something else that may not apply to you - I also studied Art, with a focus & love of Impressionism. I often wonder whether that ties in with how I am with languages - I'm much more about the gist & nuances of something than the finer accuracy (hence the Kanji mention) 🤔
Ha! It was kendo for me. I dove deep into the culture as I befriended lovely people.
Martial arts are gateway drugs, eh? ;)
My students always want to be "perfect", but I'm always reminding them there's no such thing. Language is about the "fluid" part of fluency - and far too people miss the forest for the trees when trying to be impeccable. "Can people catch your drift?" I ask them. If so, great. That's the way to confidence and connection.
Sounds like you've found yours. :)
@MLClark I love this! ❤️ I speak French & Spanish and smatterings of Italian, German & Dutch and studied Latin in school. Part of my love of (esp European) languages is the way they interconnect.
Example - we were watching an old GBBO (Great British Bake Off) a day or two ago & they were making Langues de Chat and I was saying about 'langue' being the French for 'tongue' (lengua in Spanish, lingua in Italian), hence 'language'.
It also explains why Japanese messed me up so much 🤣