15 thoughts on “Brave man!”

  2. I’ve just had to Google him, it’s made me want to read more about him now, so I am.

    Nighty night Mr Zen, sweet dreams.

  7. Off thread, Zen, if I may. Bravo, there are quite a few Romanians and Ukranians here who speak Portuguese like a native. I am sure there is a stronger philological link bewtwen their languages and Portuguese than there is between Portuguese and any of the other ‘romance’ languages. Any thoughts?

    OZ

  8. Oz, Ukrainian is a Slav language, very close to Russian, no philological links that I know of. Romanian, on the other hand is a Latin language – and, I am informed, much closer to original Latin than the other derivatives, though, I am happy to say, the grammar is much simplified. It is relatively easy for Spanish, Italian and Portuguese speakers to learn Romanian, and vice versa for Romanians.

    Why Romanian has remained closer to it’s roots may have something to do with the fact that Romania is a Latin Island in a Slav sea. It has suffered remarkably little dilution from the Slavic influence – though ‘yes’ in Romanian is ‘da,’ rather than ‘si,’ and there are a small number of other discernible influences.

  9. For me Portuguese sounds like French and Italian had a child and through it into the wash with three boxes of soap. Ukrainian sounds like German spoken backwards with a cup of soap thrown into it.

  11. Bravo – Ah, that would explain it, a ‘Latin’ language against a ‘Slav’ one. The Romanians, come to think of it, are far more fluent than the Ukranians who actually speak Portuguese like a well-educated Brit rather than as a native. Mamy older Portuguese speak ‘romance’ languages such as German or French rather than English as a second language for reason of having evacuated to those countries during and following the Salazar regime.

    OZ

  14. OZ, I may have mentioned before that the Roman army was stationed on the NE extremities of the Empire and left their language there, soldiers’ Latin.

  15. Oh, soldiers’ Latin. Now we are talking something different from Oxford Latin. 😉

    OZ

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