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From: "Lenderink, dr. E." <lenderin@natlab.research.philips.com>
Subject: Re: Scandinavian (Was: Hindi etc.) Languages
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Date: Thu, 30 Jan 1997 15:04:19 GMT
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Kaare Albert Lie wrote:
> 
> >English is essentially bad Dutch with outrageously pronounced French and
> >Latin vocabulary.
> 
> >French is essentially the first syllables of Latin words spoken with a headcold.
> 

[some more "essential" definitions of languages]
 
> Thanks! This was exactly the kind of essential list I was hoping
> for! :-)
> 
> Some languages are missing, however. Can someone supplement this
> list?
> Kre Albert Lie
> kalie@sn.no

Slovenian is essentially Russian with an Italian accent.

Modern Greek is essentially classical Greek with all vowels and 
diphthongs changed to "i".

And here are two examples showing the close relationships in the 
Finno-Ugric language group:

Hungarian is essentially German with all sounds randomly shuffled.
(Really! I recall hearing Gyorgy Konrad being interviewed: For a moment
I thought he was speaking German, but when I actually listened I could
not make a word of it...!)

Finnish is essentially Swedish with all sounds randomly shuffled.

Egbert.
