#hungarian vocabulary | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

salvadorbonaparte · 5 months

Text

Duolingo Alternatives by Language

Disclaimer: I haven't used or tested all of them. All resources have different strengths, e.g. Drops being designed for vocabulary. They often aren't full alternatives for Duolingo or formal classes. I just wanted to compile resources for all languages on Duolingo to make the switch easier, especially for the less popular languages.

Feel free to also check out my collection of free textbooks

If you want a more detailed resource list for any of these languages (or perhaps one not listed here) you can send me an ask and I can see what I can do.

Arabic

AlifBee

Arabic Unlocked

Beelinguapp

Bluebird

Busuu

Clozemaster

Drops

Infinite Arabic

Ling

LinGo Play

LingQ

Mango

Mondly

Qlango

Write It! Arabic

Catalan

Bluebird

Clozemaster

Drops

Ling

LinGo Play

LingQ

LyricsTraining

Mondly

Qlango

Chinese

Bluebird

Beelinguapp

Bunpo

Busuu

Chineasy

Clozemaster

Drops

Du Chinese

Hello Chinese

HeyChina

Immersive Chinese

Infinite Chinese

Ling

Lingodeer

LinGo Play

Lingopie

LingQ

Mango

Mondly

Pleco Chinese Dictionary

Qlango

Czech

Bluebird

Clozemaster

Ling

LinGo Play

Mango

Mondly

Qlango

Danish

Babbel

Bluebird

Clozemaster

Drops

Ling

LinGo Play

Lingvist

LingQ

Mango

Mondly

Qlango

Dutch

Babbel

Bluebird

Busuu

Clozemaster

Drops

Ling

LinGo Play

Lingvist

LingQ

LyricsTraining

Mango

Mondly

Say Something in Dutch

Qlango

Esperanto

Clozemaster

Drops

Esperanto12.net

Kurso de Esperanto

LingQ

Qlango

Finnish

Bluebird

Clozemaster

Drops

Ling

LinGo Play

LingQ

LyricsTraining

Mango

Mondly

Qlango

French

Babbel

Bluebird

Beelinguapp

Bunpo

Busuu

Clozemaster

Collins French Dictionary

Conjuu

Dr French

Drops

HeyFrance

Infinite French

Lilata

Ling

Linga

Lingodeer

LinGo Play

Lingopie

Lingvist

LingQ

Listen Up

LyricsTraining

Mango

Mondly

Nextlingua

Oxford French Dictionary

Qlango

TV5MONDE

Xeropan

German

Babbel

Bluebird

Beelinguapp

Bunpo

Busuu

Clozemaster

Collins German Dictionary

Conjuu

Drops

DW Learn German

Infinite German

Ling

Linga

Lingodeer

Lingopie

LinGo Play

Lingvist

LingQ

LyricsTraining

Mango

Mondly

Nextlingua

Oxford German Dictionary

Qlango

Xeropan

Greek

Bluebird

Clozemaster

Drops

Greek Alphabet Academy

Ling

LinGo Play

LingQ

Mango

Mondly

Qlango

Write It! Greek

Guaraní

Clozemaster

Guarani Ayvu

Haitian Creole

Bluebird

Mango

Hawaiian

Drops

Mango

ʻŌlelo Online

Hebrew

Bluebird

Clozemaster

Drops

Ling

LinGo Play

LingQ

Mango

Mondly

Shepha

Write It! Hebrew

High Valyrian

Valyrian Dictionary

Hindi

Bhasha

Bluebird

Beelinguapp

Clozemaster

Drops

Hindwi Dictionary

Ling

LinGo Play

LingQ

Mango

Mondly

Qlango

Hungarian

Bluebird

Clozemaster

Drops

Ling

LinGo Play

LingQ

Mango

Mondly

Qlango

Indonesian

Babbel

Bluebird

Clozemaster

Drops

Ling

LinGo Play

LingQ

Mango

Mondly

Irish

Bluebird

Clozemaster

Collins Irish Dictionary

Drops

Easy Irish

Ling

Mango

Teanglann

Italian

Babbel

Beelinguapp

Bluebird

Bunpo

Busuu

Clozemaster

Collins Italian Dictionary

Conjuu

Drops

Infinite Italian

Ling

Linga

Lingodeer

Lingopie

LinGo Play

Lingvist

LingQ

LyricsTraining

Mango

Mondly

Nextlingua

Oxford Italian Dictionary

Qlango

Japanese

Beelinguapp

Bluebird

Bunpo

Busuu

Clozemaster

Drops

HeyJapan

Hiragana Quest

Infinite Japanese

kawaiiDungeon

Ling

Lingodeer

Lingopie

Lingvist

LingQ

LyricsTraining

Mango

Mondly

Oyomi Japanese Reader

renshuu

Takoboto Japanese Dictionary

Todaii

Qlango

Write It! Japanese

Klingon

boQwl! Klingon Language

Klingon Translator

Write It! Klingon

Korean

Beelinguapp

Bluebird

Bunpo

Busuu

Clozemaster

Drops

Hangul Quest

HeyKorea

Infinite Korean

Ling

LinGo Play

Lingopie

Lingodeer

Lingvist

LingQ

Mango

Mondly

Qlango

Write It! Korean

Latin

Bluebird

Cattus

Clozemaster

Collins Latin Dictionary

Grammaticus Maximus

Latinia

Legentibus

LingQ

Mango

Mondly

Perdisco

Qlango

Vice Verba

Navajo

Navajo Language Renaissance

Navajo Language Program

Speak Navajo

Norwegian

Babbel

Bluebird

Clozemaster

Drops

Ling

LinGo Play

Lingvist

LingQ

Mango

Mondly

Mjolnir Norwegian

Norskappen

Qlango

Polish

Babbel

Bluebird

Busuu

Clozemaster

Drops

Ling

LinGo Play

Lingvist

LingQ

LyricsTraining

Mango

Mondly

Qlango

Portuguese

Babbel

Beelinguapp

Bluebird

Bunpo

Busuu

Clozemaster

Collins Portuguese Dictionary

Drops

Infinite Portuguese

Ling

Lingodeer

Lingopie

LinGo Play

Lingvist

LingQ

LyricsTraining

Mango

Mondly

Nextlingua

Qlango

Romanian

Bluebird

Clozemaster

Drops

Ling

LinGo Play

LingQ

Mango

Mondly

Qlango

Russian

Babbel

Bluebird

Beelinguapp

Busuu

Clozemaster

Collins Russian Dictionary

Drops

Infinite Russian

Ling

Linga

LinGo Play

Lingopie

Lingodeer

Lingvist

LingQ

Mango

Mondly

Nextlingua

Qlango

Write It! Russian

Scottish Gaelic

Bluebird

Clozemaster

Go!Gaelic

Mango

Spanish

Babbel

Beelinguapp

Bluebird

Bunpo

Busuu

Clozemaster

Collins Spanish Dictionary

ConjuGato

Conjuu

Drops

Infinite Spanish

Ling

Linga

Lingodeer

LinGo Play

Lingvist

LingQ

Listen Up

LyricsTraining

Mango

Mondly

Nextlingua

Say Something in Spanish

SpanishDict

Qlango

Xeropan

Swahili

Bluebird

Bui Bui Swahili App

Clozemaster

Drops

Ling

LinGo Play

LingQ

Mango

Nkenne

Swedish

Babbel

Beelinguapp

Bluebird

Clozemaster

Drops

Ling

LinGo Play

Lingvist

LingQ

LyricsTraining

Mango

Mondly

Qlango

Turkish

Babbel

Beelinguapp

Bluebird

Busuu

Clozemaster

Drops

Ling

LinGo Play

LingQ

LyricsTraining

Mango

Mondly

Qlango

Ukrainian

Bluebird

Clozemaster

Drops

Ling

LinGo Play

LingQ

Mango

Mondly

Mova Ukrainian

Qlango

Speak Ukrainian

Vietnamese

Bluebird

Clozemaster

Collins Vietnamese Dictionary

Drops

Learn Vietnamese with Annie

Ling

Lingodeer

LinGo Play

Mango

Mondly

Welsh

BBc Cymru Fyw

Bluebird

Clozemaster

Say Something in Welsh

Yiddish

Bluebird

Clozemaster

Mango

Proste Yiddish

Roni Gal Learn Yiddish

Vaybertaytsh

Yiddish Book Center

Zulu

Bluebird

Nkenne

Bonus: Polygloss which claims to be available for all languages as long as there is another user also learning the same language

#langblr #language learning #duolingo #studyblr #studyspo

6K notes · View notes

watercolor-hearts · 2 years

Text

Racing Heart and Collapsing Lungs

“‘I didn’t want it to end like this,’ sighed Daniel, poking his hand so he didn’t have to look at Michael. All he wanted was just to disappear, so then people wouldn’t have to see him like this, useless, broken.”

So it seems like this will be my first ever English one shot. Big thing for me. I hope I can finish it tomorrow and then post it later when I'm done with all the editing. 🤞 I'm really excited about it, because writing it makes me so happy. ❤

[It will contain panic attack, hurt comfort with a lot of comfort, crying and a sad and broken Daniel with his emotional support performance coah. Also a long hug which will become some sort of cuddling, and there will be a bit of hand holding too so Daniel won't feel alone. Yeah, it's all about him and the panic attack that happens after his last F1 race. Also the realtionship between them can be platonic or romantic, it's up to you.]

#so I'm writing this story in an exercise book because it adds to the comfort #and today I finished typing it to a word document #and I was amazed how fucking limited my English vocabulary #in my head this story is so good and sweet #but I realized it's because my brain puts some Hungarian words to it when I think about it #so with the Hungarian expressions and my imagination it's a good something but when I actually read the document I feel like it's trash #like guys Grammarly says it has like 66 mistakes in it above those that I could correct #because correction for that 66 one are only shown if I payed for premium #which I won't so yeah I will continue with those mistakes #because I'm fucking stupid and I'm afraid to ask for a beta because I've had some bad experiences #I don't want writing to become something that I don't like because there's someone I ask to point out my mistakes and it causes me panic #because writing is what gives me comfort #and I don't want to think about it as something that I do so fucking bad I need someone to correct all of the stupidity in it #but I also want to write good #which is difficult because it's not my first language #and the tenses fuck me up #I've never really understood them #and now I see how bad I am 😂#I guess there are atleast two tense related mistakes in this quote #and I fucked up some words in the tags too as usual #like I want to do it well #and not good #but I don't think before I hit send...#yeah that's me #anyway #racing heart and collapsing lungs #daniel ricciardo #michael italiano #formula 1 fanfic #formula 1

0 notes

handweavers · 1 month

Text

"The relationship of textiles to writing is especially significant, not only for the cuneiform-like qualities of many patterns (preserved in a Hungarian term irásos, meaning 'written'), but also for the parallels between ink on papyrus and pigment on bark cloth. There is, in fact, little difference between the two. Such connections are implied in many textile terms. For example, the Indian full-colour painted and printed 'kalamkari' are so named from the Persian for pen, kalam; the wax for Indonesian batiks is delivered by a copper-bowled tulis, also meaning pen. The European term for hand-colouring of details on cloth is 'pencilling'. The Islamic term tiraz, originally denoting embroideries, came to encompass all textiles within this culture that carried inscriptions. And the patterns woven into the silks of Madagascar are acknowledged as a language: the Malagasy vocabulary for writing and preparing the loom are synonymous, while the finest stripes are zanatsoratra, literally children of the writing, or vowels. The study of textiles is, in fact, a branch of palaeography, in which deciphering and dating reveals the stories encapsulated in cloth 'handwriting'.

With or without inscriptions, textiles convey all kinds of 'texts': allegiances are expressed, promises are made (as in today's bank notes, whose value is purely conceptual), memories are preserved, new ideas are proposed. Records were kept in quipu (khipu) a method of knotting string used by the Incas and other ancient Andean cultures to keep accounts and communicate information, the oldest of which is some 4,600 years old. Many anthropological and ethnographical studies of textiles aim at teaching us how to read these cloth languages anew. The 'plot' is provided by the socially meaningful elements; the 'syntax' is the construction, often only revealed by the application of archaeological and conservation analyses. Equally, the most creative textiles of today exploit a vocabulary of fibres, dyes and techniques. Textiles can be prose or poetry, instructive or the most demanding of texts. The ways in which they are used - and reused - add more layers of meaning, all significant indicators of sensitivities that can be traced back to the Stone Age."

— Mary Schoeser, World Textiles

#quotes #textiles

230 notes · View notes

la-pheacienne · 21 days

Text

So I started rereading les mis, in french this time, and I'm sort of catching up to les mis letters (only sort of, for now, since I'm still at chapter 1.2.5 I think) and I do wanna talk about the title of the book because that title has fascinated me ever since I opened that book 14 years ago in its greek translation. So the greek translation of the title "les Misérables" mystified me. I think a big part of western languages have a variation of the word "misérable" in their vocabulary so the translation of the title is pretty much consistent (obviously not every western language, idk what happens with scandinavian translations or hungarian or russian for example). In greek we do not have the word "miserable" or "misery", we kind of use the word "mizeria" but only as a "western" variation of the greek word we have for misery, so we don't have the equivalent adjective. So the original greek translator needed to find a brand new adjective, in greek, to convey the meaning of the title, and honestly, what a task that is, finding the greek equivalent of probably the most iconic title in literature ever, just one word to encapsulate 1500 pages of text.

The word finally used is "Άθλιοι" (Athlioi) the plural form of "Athlios". It's an ancient greek word that is also commonly used in modern greek as is the case for a huge part of our vocabulary. So the ancient greek definition of "Athlioi" is "struggling, unhappy, wretched, miserable". In modern greek, the definition is more or less the same: "seedy, miserable, poor, terrible", except for the last word "terrible" that has an interesting connotation. The definition of "Athlioi" as terrible is an addition of modern greek. "Terrible" by itself maybe doesn't say much and it seems as a mere variation of the classic definition of Athlioi as "miserable, poor, wretched" etc. But from miserable and wretched to terrible there is an interesting leap. While "seedy, miserable, poor, terrible" are the english translations of the greek word "Athlioi" that I find on wordreference.com, I get very interesting results when I inverse the search, this time searching for the greek translation of the following english words (on wordreference or glosbe): despicable, nasty, vile, shady, appaling, loathsome, wicked, infamous, monstrous, horrible, lame, shabby, mangy, mean, vicious. You may have guessed it, all of the above are translated into "Athlios" in greek (among other words). The reason for that is that "Athlios" in modern greek has an extremely negative connotation. An "athlios" is not just a miserable wretched poor outcast. An "athlios" is a despicable human being, one that inspires disgust, one you should avoid in any case. A horrendous, vile, monstrous, hateful, creature. I am not sure if the word "Athlios" already had that definition at the time of the first greek translation (end of 19th century) but my bet is that it did, because that is what the word is primarily used for in Greece ever since I remember myself. When we use the word "Athlios" in greek now we rarely if ever talk about someone "miserable", "poor" or "wretched". We normally talk about someone or something despicable. If it's a person, 99% of the time this has a purely moral connotation aka, someone who is morally despicable. They could be a poor person, (a Thenardier type of vile individual) or they could be rich, doesn't matter really.

I am not sure if the word "misérable" or the english word "miserable" have this connotation. It is one thing to be wretched and totally another thing to be despicable and loathsome. Is this very close to the french word "misérable"? "Misérable" in french primarily means "pitiful, wretched", with one mention of "despicable", it is true. In Larousse however (the classic french dictionary) I cannot find one definition of "misérable" with the "vile, despicable" connotation that the word "Athlios" has. I am sure "misérable" can be used that way, and it can be translated that way in english, but vile and despicable are not the leading definition one thinks about when they encounter the word. When we use the word "misérable"/miserable, we normally do not immediately think of a despicable, vile, loathsome individual. So this choice of title by the greek translator takes some liberties. He could have used our greek word for "pitiful", "outcast" or one particular greek word we have for "scorned" that has a particular depth because it means scorned, neglected and forgotten by society all at the same time. Or he could have went for our word for "miserable" in the sense of "unhappy". All of these could have worked well enough. But he went for "Athlioi". Why? Athlioi is the only word that has a truly negative connotation for the morality of a person, of their moral value, and the way society percieves that moral value.

I got to the chapter "The Evening of a Day of Walking" where Valjean makes his first appearence. The english translation is this:

"It was difficult to encounter a wayfarer of more wretched appearance".

Then Hugo proceeds with a description of his appearance that is particularly unsettling, to say the least. He was literally dressed in rags with iron-shod shoes and he had holes in his clothes. At the end of the description he says:

"The sweat, the heat, the journey on foot, the dust, added I know not what sordid quality to this dilapidated whole".

So that guy is 1) certainly unhappy, 2) clearly wretched, 3) has a sordid quality and 4) a dilapidated look.

It is interesting that in french, the phrase "wretched appearance" is actually "aspect misérable". It is important to note this because this is the first time that the author gives us a description of a character that encapsulates what a "Misérable" according to the title actually is. Moving along, Valjean is not accepted in any inn or house and the people force him to leave because they are horrified by 1) his appearance and mainly 2) his profile as an ex convict that makes him a "Dangerous Man". "Dangerous Man" is literally written on his passport. A pitiful creature is maybe not that loathsome by itself, but a "Dangerous Man" is definitely something that you want to stay away from.

At the chapter "The Heroism of Passive Obedience" (1.2.3) Valjean enters the bishop's house and the bishop's sister sees him and describes him like this:

"He was hideous. It was a sinister apparition."

"Mademoiselle Baptistine turned round, beheld the man entering, and half started up in terror".

"Wretched" and "pitiful" cannot cover the impact this individual had on people, on society. That man was not just deeply unhappy, in a deplorable state, wretched and pitiful. That man was appaling. That man was loathsome. That man inspired horror, disgust, and intense, bone deep hatred. It is important to note this aspect of "misérable". The fear society has for the injustice it creates is so strong that it is far easier to dehumanize these individuals by slapping the label of "despicable", "vile", "loathsome" on them. It makes their total marginalisation easier because it justifies it. People are truly disgusted by and terrorised by Valjean. For society, there is a reason why that man is in a pathetic, deplorable, "miserable" state. It's because he is truly, irrevocably, morally hideous, loathsome and nasty. He is "dangerous". He truly is a monster inside out. And that particular manifestation of social misery is nicely conveyed by the word "Athlios" in my opinion.

#les miserables #aspa reads les mis #jean valjean #les mis letters #catching up #les mis translations #lm 1.2.3 #lm 1.2.1 #les misérables #aspa rambles #long post #the brick

111 notes · View notes

beautiful-basque-country · 5 months

Text

ON BASQUE AND ITS TIES WITH GEORGIAN, ARMENIAN, AND TAMAZIGHT.

American linguist Morris Swadesh (1909-1967) created a world map of current languages according to comparative linguistics, taking into account their common origin. The lexico-statistical or glottochronological Swadesh method is based on taking 215 words in two groups of 100; key words such as personal pronouns, low numerals, parts of the body, kinship names, some action verbs, some adverbs of time and place, objects of nature, very common actions, bodily actions and questions.

Swadesh claimed that in the basic vocabulary the rate of change is so regular in languages, that he had been able to create a system of measuring the elapsed time in which two languages were related in the past and that today are separated geographically.

According to Swadesh, that basic vocabulary of 100 or 215 words changes less than 20% per millennium in each language. These variations in vocabulary leave a common ground between two or more languages related to each other, which is measured chronologically, thus establishing the time distance between a language and its more modern relatives. If the number of words with the same root between two languages in these two groups of 100 is less than or equal to 5%, it is considered a similarity by chance (the figure does not respond to anything specific, the method has many random parts), and if it is greater it would be the result of some common past.

There is a formula to know the time elapsed between the period in which the contact occurred and the current moment, and the result with Basque was the following (with the rest of the languages with which Basque has been compared by this method the result is inferior and not significant):

list 215 list 100

Northwest Circassian Caucasian:

6.62% 7.52%

Northwest Avar Caucasian:

3.80% 5.37%

Georgian, South Caucasian:

4.73% 7.52%

Rift Tamazight (northern Morocco):

6% 9.67%

Southern Tamazight (southern Morocco)

7.38% 10.86%

Many of the similarities considered good are more than questionable, since the evolution of words and languages is not taken into account, some borrowings from other languages are considered good, etc.

Nor can we forget American linguist R.L. Trask, that compared Hungarian and Basque and found in 2 hours of searching 65 similar words that could only be the result of chance, but that lead to question many investigations: this exercise tested by other researchers with other unrelated languages has given the same surprising result. R.L. Trask said “I can't understand why some linguists get so excited when they find two dozen Basque words that look like two dozen other Berber or Sumerian words.”

Basque and the languages of the Caucasus

The Caucasus is located 4,000 kilometers from Garonne-Pyrénées-Ebro where the Basques live. In the Caucasus, about 50 different peoples coexist with almost 22 languages. The main difficulty in establishing the Basque-Caucasian relationship consists of this lack of unity.

Swadesh's lexico-statistical ratio of Circassian and Georgian to Basque is 7.52%, higher than any other language in the world. The supposed contact would have occurred in the Magdalenian, about 10,000 years ago. With the rest of the languages of the Caucasus, current Basque is similar in typology (verbs, the ergative, etc.) and in the etymology of some words, but its lexical-statistical relationship with all of them is less than 5%.

There are also parallels between Basque and Georgian in syntactic aspects, such as the use of the ergative (transitive-intransitive verbs, “Nor-Nork” forms) that do not occur in any other European language, the reflexive way of making sentences such as: “I have seen my head in the mirror” (nire burua ispiluan ikusi dut), and not: “I have seen myself in the mirror”, the use of base twenty to count, etc.

But many current or recent renowned linguists are skeptical about the relationship with the Caucasian languages. Basque linguist Koldo Mitxelena (1915-1987) said that: “In summary, there are some Basque-Caucasian lexical similarities that cannot be demonstrated to be possible, but on the other hand there are a large number whose extraordinary implausibility can be demonstrated (…). Even if Basque and the Caucasian languages go back to a common origin, the number of missing intermediate links must be so high that it is to be feared that, due to not knowing them, the ancient ties of kinship will not be established."

If there is a relationship, for both Koldo Mitxelena and Xabier Kintana, it has to go back to the fifth and sixth millennia or earlier.

Basque and Armenian

Armenian linguist and Basque philologist Vahan Sarkisian, creator of the Basque-Armenian Dictionary and a Grammar of the Basque Language in his language, is the main promoter of the "Basque-Armenian theory" and the one who has done the most work in recent years on ethnolinguistic kinship between both peoples.

This prestigious Armenian linguist affirms that "the best promoters of this theory were neither Basques nor Armenians and, therefore, they had no direct interests in the issue. I am referring to the Englishman Edward Spencer Dodgson and the German Joseph Karst. The former knew well Basque. In Paris he began to study Armenian and quickly detected the similarities, which he initially summarized in a list of 50 words. Karst was an Armenianologist and, when he came into contact with Basque, he compared issues related to anthropology, the phonetic system, the grammar and the lexicon and extracted more than 400 similarities. (...) We understand without problems, for example, what Zabaltegi, or Ormazabal means, because it means exactly the same in Armenian. We feel at home, and that already means something. Armenian is considered an Indo-European language (Basque is the only pre-Indo-European language in all of Europe, prior to the invasions of these peoples), but if we bring to light the twenty most important regularities of the language we will see that they coincide more with Basque than with any other neighboring languages such as Georgian or Persian. And not only referring to the lexicon. In Armenian, for example, words are not formed with an initial -r, our throat has a hard time pronouncing it. The same thing happens to the Basque language, to the Basque throat.

Neither Armenian nor Basque recognize the accumulation of consonants, they are unpronounceable to us, while in other languages neighboring ours, such as Georgian, groups of up to five or six consonants are common. We could mention many other characteristics that separate us from our neighbors and bring us closer to Basque, such as the postponed article, the way of forming the plural, not to mention toponymy, which provides an enormous amount of similarities. (…) I believe that this type of coincidences - which even affect the articulation apparatus, which has a physiological nature - cannot arise from mere contact, they cannot be imported or exported. Karst said that Armenian and Basque are two varieties of the same linguistic stem (…) The only thing I would dare to say with any certainty is that perhaps in ancient times the entire area was occupied by the same ethnic-cultural element, which gave way terrain to other elements, leaving vestiges in Euskadi and Armenia, as survivors of a great and ancient civilization.”

It is curious that Armenian – which does not give any relationship with Basque through the Swadesh method – and Georgian are, apparently, more similar to Basque than to each other when they are neighboring peoples. To conclude this short summary, let's share a toponymic curiosity: in Georgia there is Mount Gorbeya (like the highest mountain in Bizkaia and Alaba), in Armenia is the sacred Mount Ararat (like the Aralar mountain range between Alaba, Gipuzkoa and Alta Navarra), and also a mountain named Gora (mountain in the language of the area and "up" in Basque). The curiosity is even greater because the Araxes River bathes Mount Aralar, and in the Armenian Mount Ararat there is a river called... Araxes.

Basque and Tamazight

Tamazight, by the Swadesh method, is not related to Arabic or Egyptian; nor with Georgian, but with Basque, as well as the Cadmitosemitic languages from which it comes. Therefore, Basque is a language that may have common elements with Georgian and Berber, but they do not have any with each other.

The percentage of lexical-statistical relationship of Swadesh of Basque with Southern Tamazight is 7.38% and with Rift Tamazight is 6% (taking the 215 words because with 100 the percentage increases). Therefore, by this method there would be a relationship or common substrate between both languages. Based on the percentage relationship, contact would have taken place about 8,000-9,000 years ago.

In Berber the names given to animals are very similar to those given in Basque. «Aker» & «iker» (billygoat), «asto» & «ezet» (donkey); They also coincide in the way of saying horse, crow, river, brother, lie, name ("Izen" and "isem"), "I" and others.

Within this analysis we must mention the Guanches, native inhabitants of the Canary Islands before the arrival of the Spaniards. From the writings found (archaeology confirms this) it is believed that the Guanches would speak a Tamazight language that, due to the isolation of the islands, would maintain a greater degree of relationship with Basque. There are those who even see Basque place names in the Canary Islands such as: Los Llanos de Aridane (Harrigane: stone peak), Argindei, Tinizara (Tinitzaha), Tajuia, Tenegia, Jedei (Iedegi) in La Palma and in Lanzarote: Masdeche (Mahats- etxe: grape-house), Haria, Orzola, Guinate (Gainate: high step), Yaiza (haitza: rock), Ajache, Tesegite, Mozaza etc.

An anecdote that is often told is that the first conquerors of the Canary Islands believed that the natives spoke Basque.

Between Basque and Tamazight the similarities are reduced to the lexical or lexicographic level, since syntactically and grammatically there does not seem to be any relationship, both in current speech and in the past; there are just similarities in verbal articulation or in the use of some particles.

Julio Caro Baroja said in this regard: “I must warn in any case that the relationship between Basque and the African languages called Hamitic is not as founded as claimed. On the contrary, the hypothesis of a relationship between Basque and the Caucasian languages, which is perhaps the one that has produced the least interest in the Peninsula, seems to be the most prudent, because it is based on linguistic, morphological and strict observations.

Koldo Mitxelena had the same opinion, and believed it was necessary to study more the relationship between Basque and the Caucasian languages which, unlike the supposed kinship with Tamazight, did cause serious doubts.

[x]

@knario47

#euskal herria #basque country #pays basque #pais vasco #euskadi #linguistics #euskera #euskara #basque #language #armenian #georgian #tamazight

92 notes · View notes

hiveswap · 3 months

Text

The hungarian language has a wide vocabulary that can be abused effectively to write the cringiest dialouge youve ever heard

#i swear it was not this bad in english

38 notes · View notes

isaksbestpillow · 1 month

Note

Do you have any favorite Finnish sayings or proverbs?

this is such a cute ask!!

finnish proverbs are pretty depressing (don't stand out, don't be too happy, don't aim too high and so on), so I'm gonna do some words and sayings instead!

first, let's establish some context for the uninitiated.

finnish is a finnic language belonging to the uralic language family. it's therefore not related to any of the major european languages, though there has been a strong swedish, baltic and russian influence in vocabulary due to centuries of swedish and russian rule. according to current research, uralic languages originated in southern or western siberia. today most uralic languages are minority languages, many of them endangered. only finnish, estonian and hungarian have full sovereignty. finland gained independence from russia in 1917. in finnish both the country and the language are called suomi.

it's spring (supposedly, we are still experiencing some arctic vibes over here), so here are a couple of things you can say when encountering certain nature's creatures! when you meet a slug: etana, etana, näytä sarves, onko huomenna pouta (slug, slug, show your tentacles, will tomorrow be a clear day). pouta is a word that means clear weather. if the slug shows its tentacles, tomorrow's gonna be a clear day. otherwise it will rain. when you meet a ladybug: lennä, lennä leppäkerttu ison kiven juureen, siellä isäs äitis keittää sulle puuroo (fly, fly ladybug to the foot of a large rock, there your dad your mom will cook porridge for you). say this to a ladybug while holding it to the air to see it off! speaking of spring, we actually have more than four seasons. they are: talvi (winter) kevättalvi (winter spring) kevät (spring) kevätkesä (spring summer) kesä (summer) syyskesä (autumn summer) syksy (autumn) syystalvi (autumn winter) here are some words specific to finnish! I hate how kalsarikännnit (being drunk at home in your underwear) always makes these lists, fuck that word and that stereotype. if I hear someone is having a kalsarikännit, I feel concerned for them, not inspired.

tarjeta: to not feel cold. this is such an essential verb in finland! roikootella: to not wear enough clothes for the weather. this actually a word in my dialect but i wish it was used by everyone because it's so useful. the tone is negative but not slut shaming. here is a conversation in my dialect using both of the aforementioned words: person 1: meinaakko nuav vaa iliman takkia roikootella? (are you going to roikootella like that without a coat?) person 2: kyllä tuala tarkenoo. (the weather out there is not cold enough for me to feel cold in this clothing.)

sää, ilma, keli: these all mean the weather but have different connotations and uses

vilu: the feeling of being cold vilukissa: 'vilu cat', a person who is always cold halla: subzero degrees at night in the summer helle: heat of over 25 celsius degrees. one of the worst words coined by the media was seksihelle (sex helle) some ten years ago. no one does weather reporting like finnish tabloids.

kuura: frost you can see on the ground and on surfaces in autumn

routa: frost deep in the ground. routa takes longer to melt than snow so the air remains chilly even when the temperatures start to rise.

tuulenpesä: I think this is called a witch's broom in english and most other european languages, but we call them tuulenpesä, the wind's nest. it's where the wind lives!

lintukoto: literally 'bird home'. in finnish folklore, lintukoto was a place at the end of the world where birds migrated for the winter. lintukoto was populated by very small people and everything there was tiny. nowadays it refers to a place that's safe and peaceful, most often in the discourse of whether or not finland is a lintukoto.

linnunrata: literally 'bird's route', this is the finnish word for the milky way because in folklore swans would follow it to navigate themselves to lintukoto. swans were considered the holy ancestors of humans that could travel between worlds. the common swan is the national bird of finland. even today, the word for swan comes from the same root in most finno-ugric languages, meaning it has been beloved to these cultures for a very long time! it's joutsen in finnish, njukča in northern saami, juś in udmurt, etc!

ähky: the feeling of having eaten or consumed something too much. can also be figurative. ending with this because I just ate too many potato chips and have a sipsiähky now!

#asks

21 notes · View notes

dreamslangblr · 6 days

Text

Hungarian Lesson

Duolingo Section 1, Unit 1

Name Things and People

🪷🪷🪷🪷🪷🪷🪷🪷🪷🪷🪷🪷🪷🪷🪷🪷🪷🪷🪷🪷🪷🪷🪷🪷🪷🪷🪷

Vocabulary!

- Sör: Beer

- Viz: Water

- Pohár: Glass

- Bor: Wine

- Nagy: Big, It Is Big, Big One

Example Sentences!

- Egy pohár viz.

A glass of water.

- Egy kicsi pohár.

A small glass.

- Sör és bor.

Beer and wine.

- Egy pohár bor.

A glass of wine.

- A nagy autó.

The big car.

#hungarian #learning hungarian #langblr #langblog #hungarian vocabulary #languages #language learning #grammar notes #duolingo #Hungarian duolingo section 1 unit 1 #name things and people

0 notes

injouable · 11 months

Text

Was Franz Joseph as boring as he seems?

There are hudreds of different types of media dedicated to empress Elisabeth, including films, books, tv-shows and musical. And in most of them the figure of her husband Franz Joseph, who was much more important in historical and social context, is barely a piece of furniture in the backgroung. Even if his character is somehow developed, the central figure is always Elisabeth and never him. It is simply explained by the outstandind personality on the empress, that can have a lot of more or less romanticized interpretations. Compared to her, the emperor is just a boring and worthless normie, that noone would be interested in. But here are some facts about his young years showing that he also deserves some attention.

1. Just look at this twink and his tiny waist.

I'm 100% sure that he wore corsets.

2. Franz Joseph had a fenomenal memory. He never forgot names and faces and could easily memorise large vocabulary, which allowed him to learn six languages (German, French, Polish, Czech, Hungarian, Italian and a little of Latin and Greek). Also he was a really good dancer and had a talent for drawing. Here's his pencil drawing at the age of 13.

3. That little line from the musical "Feelings are forbidden for me" was actually a really big thing in his upbringing. His mentors literally didn't allow him to show any emotion to make him elaborate an iron discipline and self-control. Eventually his character became highly reserved and devoid of compation and warmth. And when he was already 17 his mother Sophie *suddenly* realized, that it all went in a wrong direction. The best solution that she came up with was to force her son to play a comedy role in a private perfomance at the court, so that he could gain more easiness in communication. Franz hated the whole idea and hated every minute on stage. But, supposingly, it did actually help him to imrove his social skills, because after that contemporaries always described him as a totally amiable and charming lad.

4. Franz Joseph became an emperor when he was 18. At that point the country was on the edge of revolution and the previous emperor, his uncle Ferdinand, decided to simply run away from Vienna refusing from the crown and left the reins of government together with a political disaster to his young nephew. Rumour has it, that when Franz Joseph returned after the transfer of power ceremony he burst into tears.

5. Two weeks later, when it was known, that austrian troops entered Hungary to suppress the rebellion and the civilian war has actually started, there was one peculiar incident. During an evening ball FJ's youngest brother Lugwig Victor accidentally cracked a mirrored door and asked the emperor to protect him from punishment. Unexpectedly Franz Joseph asked his mother, if he could smash the door completely, when there's already a crack in it. And after getting a permition he frantically and furiously shattered the glass into pieces. I didn't find any information about did he do it with some object or with bare hands, but just imagine, if he did it with bare hands.

The craziest is that it wasn't even at the imperial palace, they were on a visit to some archbishop and the man was totally pissed off by this prank.

There will be no conclusion.

#elisabeth das musical #history #19th century #musicals #historical people #franz joseph i

83 notes · View notes

religion-is-a-mental-illness · 1 day

Text

By: Eric W. Dolan

Published: Jan 3, 2022

Cognitive performance is slightly reduced among those with higher levels of celebrity worship, according to a new study published in BMC Psychology.

“Interest in the topic of celebrity worshipers spans almost two decades. From several studies, over that period, research showed a weak to moderate tendency for those who showed the strongest admiration for their favorite celebrity to have lower cognitive skills, using a variety of cognitive measures,” explained study authors Lynn E. McCutcheon, Ágnes Zsila, and Zsolt Demetrovics in a joint statement to PsyPost.

“However, most of these studies did not control for a variety of extraneous variables. The current study did control for several possibly relevant variables.”

In the study, 1,763 Hungarian adults completed a 30-word vocabulary test and a digit symbol substitution test, a validated assessment of fluid intelligence. The researchers also collected data about the participants’ self-esteem, current family income, material wealth, and highest level of education.

Celebrity worship was measured using a scientific questionnaire known as the Celebrity Attitude Scale. The scale asks participants the extent to which they agree or disagree with statements such as “I often feel compelled to learn the personal habits of my favorite celebrity,” “I am obsessed by details of my favorite celebrity’s life,” and “If I were lucky enough to meet my favorite celebrity, and he/she asked me to do something illegal as a favor I would probably do it.”

Even after controlling for demographic and socioeconomic variables, the researchers found that high scores on the Celebrity Attitude Scale were associated with lower performance on the two cognitive ability tests.

“We found a weak tendency for those who showed the strongest admiration for their favorite celebrity to have lower cognitive skills, suggesting that the earlier results were not due just to chance,” the authors of the study said. “Our results also support previous findings showing that excessive behaviors such as celebrity worshiping can possibly impair cognitive functioning, presumably due to the increased focus and energy invested in this behavior that becomes dominant in the individual’s life.”

“Although celebrity admiration seems not to be a strong precursor of poorer cognitive performance, high levels of admiration can be regarded as one contributing factor to lowered performance in tasks requiring cognitive effort, independently from education or age.”

But it is unclear whether celebrity worship is the cause or consequence of reduced cognitive ability. For example, it “may be that individuals with higher levels of cognitive skills are more likely to understand the marketing strategies behind a famous person,” and thus less vulnerable to celebrity worship, the researchers explained. But it is also possible that celebrity worship functions like an addictive behavior and requires cognitive effort to be maintained.

Previous research has found that celebrity worship is associated with addictive and problematic social media use.

“Future studies should seek further support for our suggestion that the cognitive effort invested in maintaining the absorption in a favorite celebrity may interfere with the person’s performance in tasks that require attention and other cognitive skills,” the authors told PsyPost. “Although our research does not prove that developing a powerful obsession with one’s favorite celebrity causes one to score lower on cognitive tests, it suggests that it might be wise to carefully monitor feelings for one’s favorite celebrity, keeping in mind that most celebrities are human beings who have some flaws just like average persons have.”

The study, “Celebrity worship and cognitive skills revisited: applying Cattell’s two-factor theory of intelligence in a cross-sectional study“, was published November 8, 2021.

Abstract

Background

Almost two decades of research produced mixed findings on the relationship between celebrity worship and cognitive skills. Several studies demonstrated that cognitive performance slightly decreases with higher levels of celebrity worship, while other studies found no association between these constructs. This study has two aims: (1) to extend previous research on the association between celebrity worship and cognitive skills by applying the two-factor theory of intelligence by Cattell on a relatively large sample of Hungarian adults, and (2) to investigate the explanatory power of celebrity worship and other relevant variables in cognitive performance.

Methods

A cross-sectional study design was used. Applying an online survey, a total of 1763 Hungarian adults (66.42% male, Mage = 37.22 years, SD = 11.38) completed two intelligence subtests designed to measure ability in vocabulary (Vocabulary Test) and digit symbol (Short Digit Symbol Test). Participants also completed the Celebrity Attitude Scale and the Rosenberg Self-esteem Scale. Subjective material wealth, current family income and general sociodemographics were also reported by participants.

Results

Linear regression models indicated that celebrity worship was associated with lower performance on the cognitive tests even after controlling for demographic variables, material wealth and self-esteem, although the explanatory power was limited.

Conclusions

These findings suggest that there is a direct association between celebrity worship and poorer performance on the cognitive tests that cannot be accounted for by demographic and socioeconomic factors.

#Eric W. Dolan #psychology #human psychology #celebrity worship #celebrities #intelligence #religion is a mental illness

11 notes · View notes

angelharness · 1 year

Text

Was already planning on some so this works out! Like most characters I’m writing for the first time it’ll probably take some time for me to distinguish how I characterize them, currently finding things out with him. This admittedly feels more like a character study than anything.. I’m sure I’ll get to write more explicitly romantic stuff for him at some point

WARNINGS: blood (is that even worth tagging anymore) and plenty of mentions of killing

TARHOS KOVACS / THE KNIGHT

It’s hard to imagine how he maintains any non-strictly-professional relationships, even more so when considering the romantic variety. He tends to categorize most people he meets into relatively loose classifications of enemy, associate, asset, useful, or not worthwhile. In his line of work, he’s never had those lines blurred or challenged. Meeting you means rare introspection on his part.

It’s weird to chat casually, to talk about personal or daily matters rather than the specifics of a contract or even the passing chatter over dinner with his companions. He does not ask questions and doesn’t expect you to. When answering any, though, he seems to respond curtly and explicitly matter of factly, like running down a checklist. This is not out of disinterest, it’s just the way he goes about most matters. It’s not so clear if he doesn’t enjoy talking about himself or cannot think of anything he deems worthwhile to reference.

On that note, it’s a long and maybe frustrating path of trying to get to know him. You won’t be having the traditional sort of dates in the Entity’s Realm, and communication is limited by a number of barriers; English is only Tarhos’s third language, and he has just an elementary understanding of it. All things considered, he doesn’t have a very in-depth grasp on any spoken language; he grew up speaking Hungarian but was taken too early to ever attain fluency and forced to take on Italian, learned primarily through barked orders and the background chatter of his cellmates. His English, when he chooses to use it, is even more sparse, and is very much different from the vocabulary you are more familiar with. You can attempt to teach him some, but it is unlikely he’ll hold onto anything longer than a sentence. He very honestly might establish his own system of sign language before he can make himself speak comfortably.

Your best bet for getting to know him is familiarizing yourself with and learning to read his reactions and body language. This is harder to get a grasp of without a visible face to interpret, but you’ll begin to pick up on things you hadn’t noticed before; he rolls his shoulders back and points his feet forward when he’s interested. He’ll begin to gradually look aside if he isn’t. The flexing and twitching of his fingers is somehow infinitely expressive in the absence of words.

He goes about a similar process with you—he spends more and more time just watching you and how your face changes, or the variation in your voice, in your posture. Admittedly, he can only tell so much from a facial expression; he knows the telltale signs of pain, the deep lines of anguish or outright despair. He knows the gritted, grinding teeth and furious brows of someone enraged, even the glow of satisfaction, but anything beyond that may as well be new territory to him.

One way, though, to tell that he certainly likes you is that he looks at you fairly frequently. This would seem insignificant in just about anyone else, but Tarhos looks at people only when speaking with them. Not when spoken to or at, but when he puts himself on equal footing with another person so that they may discuss. He almost regards the world and other people like a single, separate entity. He does not always immediately look away when you catch his stare, but certainly doesn’t appear that he wants his interest to be known. You might never fully know what he’s thinking, but you might be somewhere momentarily in those thoughts.

He doesn’t ever really properly hold your hand, which requires him to bend down or slant his shoulder down uncomfortably—instead, he’ll more often wrap his hand around the back of your arm. It’s a little funny, appearing as if he’s taking you prisoner rather than attempting casual affection.

At some point in his life, if not during his initial capture, he realized there would be no place for him to have a lover of any sort, and given his asocial tendencies, he thought he had come to terms with that notion. Now that he’s met you, there’s been a pretty significant shift in his outlook for the future; he’s lost in how to fit you into it, and though at first this disruption is greatly offending to him, he realizes that there is an appealing aspect to perhaps settling down. For once there is an end in sight to the torrent of still, bleeding bodies. Just understand that his decided code of chivalry is very far disconnected from the stereotypes lovingly illustrated in adventure books. He’s more acquainted with the sight of mangled meat between the silver plating of ruptured armor.

He wouldn’t have ever considered himself affectionate, at any earlier point would’ve have loudly scoffed at the term, but if you can get him out of his grungy helmet and coax him into letting you brush his hair, he’ll become insistent that you do it routinely.

Tarhos might enjoy sparring with you on occasion, but these sessions tend to become more of him fixing your form and instructing you than actual skirmishes. He repeatedly has to stop to walk over and correct your stance. He’s infinitely more knowledgeable and trained than you—it’s more than second nature, but first—it’s unrealistic you’ll ever best him, but then again, you have the eternity of the Entity’s Realm to train. He’s certainly going easy on you, otherwise you’d be wiped out in the first few moments, but there’s been a handful of times you had gotten a legitimate hit on him. You had even sent him to his knees in one instance (he was at his feet again in seconds, and you suspect he had only ever got him there, in the first place, by surprise, but it felt unspeakably good).

Will not kiss your hand unless outright asked to, sorry. It had never been customary for him, beautiful maidens with rich dresses were not the ones enlisting him to go out and kill and shed pails of blood, were certainly not being saved by him, and never did spare him glances, unless they were colorless and terrified. Even the curt shake of hands was not typical in deals between those who enlisted him. However, he’ll oblige upon your request, and soon it becomes the only way he greets you when meeting again after time apart. This seems to work better after you had talked him out of bowing to you everytime.

He finds himself on edge whenever you’re away, now, especially when in a trial. He trusts you to hold your ground and keep yourself alive, but worry is such a new feeling to him that it feels, at times, unbearable. He’s never even worried for himself—things just happened and he would soldier through it, that is how his life had always been. No threats of torture or unrelenting whips had made his stomach turn and roil like it did as he paced in your absence. Days spent in sunless, lightless cells had seemingly passed faster than the time he would await your return to the campfire, to him.

He won’t run to you and hug you and sob at your feet when you reappear, but he’s back at your side before the hazy fog of the trial can leave your system. He similarly appears to search for you first when he returns from a trial.

Pet names don’t immediately appeal to him, but if you beg him for one, he’d settle on something like ‘my treasure’ or culver. ‘My heart’ is another, but he struggles to get it out and will oftentimes just stare intensely at you, trying to force the words together, hoping maybe you’ll understand and spare him the vulnerability. It’s odd, dated, and not what would come to mind when thinking of a nickname for a lover, but he actually likes it when you refer to him as your suitor. Maybe it is its explicitness, that it serves as a declaration and can only be said wholeheartedly.

ALTRUISTIC S/O

Tarhos wouldn’t believe you to be naive or ignorant for your benevolence, only ineffective. He’s found what works best for him and scarcely strays from that; slaying carelessly, indifferent to whoever stands opposite of him and his sword. He never reprimands you, nor ever feels the need to, even if your choices may puzzle him. He decides that the world will straighten you out if it so necessary, that everyone will come to learn of its ruthlessness (however life decides to show that side of its many-faced form).

He’s aware there are less violent, distastefully bloody ways to get what he wants, but the both of you can imagine he hails from a comparatively more savage background where brutality could be called common; in his eyes, Tarhos only adapted to the cruel circumstances of the society he found himself in. Nurture and nature were equally unkind to him, a pair of twin demons. He might struggle to conceptualize the drastically different life and time you came from, but never looks down on you for your selflessness. He might, however, feel the need to look out for you, knowing how ruthlessly unforgiving the world can be at times.

Eventually might develop a greater appreciation for your abundant kindness when he finds himself on the receiving end. He’s especially appreciative if you’d offer to rub his shoulders from time or time, or help him with shedding or donning his armor. Unfortunately, with such underdeveloped interpersonal skills, his only means of expressing gratitude is extending his services to you, i.e. slaughtering an individual per your request.

Tarhos will hold back on displays of violence if you are present, but it will be strange to him and require a restraint he had never utilized before. Once he does, he realizes he’s never stopped to think before bringing down his sword on the skull of an opponent. This introspection won’t change his ways in the long run, certainly won’t sway the taste he’s acquired for killing, but he tries to be more mindful of your sensitivity to bloody matters.

#dbd x reader #dbd imagine #dead by daylight x reader #the knight x reader #x reader #reader imagines #horror imagines #reader imagine #horror x reader #tarhos kovacs x reader #dbd the knight x reader #reader insert

243 notes · View notes

mosquito-queen · 1 year

Text

yelena knows the formation of fist and fight to break kate in half. she knows the weight required to snap bone, to rupture vital organs, she knows how to take the kill shot. but kate’s hands are on her in a way that she doesn’t know how to reciprocate: soft, wanting, asking… no, begging. it makes her want to run. intimacy isn’t in the vocabulary of her body. but the way kate stares up through thick lashes makes her want to learn a new language. what’s one more anyways?

except this script is in the same language family as violence - just a different font. because kate is dragging her nails down yelena’s back, tacking into her shoulder, whining. but yelena’s brain is stuttering danger, is confused how she can flex her fingers over kate’s throat in a way that makes her arch towards yelena instead of away. because how can the way kate’s hands twist up in her hair, the way kate sinks teeth to bruise her shoulder, the way their bodies tear into the other not warrant suffering? does it even matter the protolanguage when kate soothes every wound with a soft mouth? hurt written in cursive.

yelena knows the formation of fist and fight to break kate in half. she knows the weight required to snap bone, to rupture vital organs, she knows how to take the kill shot. her resolve has never wavered. she knows her hands are capable of a 8.7 magnitude earthquake, knows they can rearrange the topography of a body like some unholy apocalypse. her hands have never wavered. except now. except when kate says please.

and she buckles. because no one has ever waited for her answer. because she’s a weapon, a tool, a means to an end. never a person. never anything more. always nothing. just the weaker version of a machine. kate does something, something she’ll never have words for. something that escapes russian, and hungarian, and english, and everything else drilled into her. instead, she finds an outlet in something older, something ancestral and forgotten: she cries. tastes salt instead of the familiar metallic of blood. and kate. oh god, and kate. she goes to hold yelena. but learning a new language is hard and yelena uses her first word for comfort.

hostility wraps snug, familiar, fits perfect between tongue and teeth. she shoves back from kate, away from the girl that knows adoration, and comfort, and belonging. the girl that wants her to be something. she pushes away from the potential of kate saying: none of this was real. because yelena has tried to learn care before. and it turned out to be a synonym of agony. she’s standing now, backing away. kate is slowly mirroring, hands up like yelena is something feral, something that needs a soft tone and soothing and, and and what is love but another word for cage?

she goes out the window.

#something ouchie #bishova #bishlova #kate x yelena #yelena belova #kate bishop

126 notes · View notes

mariacallous · 19 days

Text

The diplomatic dispute between two of Europe’s most closely intertwined nations shows how Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine has created new political and ideological fault lines in Central Europe.

In early March, the historian and founder of Czech-Slovak seminars at the Technical University of Liberec, Jan Rychlik, made a pretty well-established and consensual point: “Considering the vocabulary is 80 per cent identical, and the rest of the words are not exactly identical but mutually intelligible, there cannot be a situation where Czechs and Slovaks do not understand each other.”

Yet just a few days later, the two countries’ leaders appeared to be speaking very different languages.

On March 6, Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala announced the suspension of the joint intergovernmental consultations held on a regular basis with Slovakia, including the next one that was originally planned for the month of April.

“Our place is in the Western community of nations,” Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavsky said in explaining the move. “The reason why we cancelled the intergovernmental consultations is that our views on the Russian aggression against Ukraine are radically different.”

Swiftly cast as an unprecedented move in the modern history of the two countries that split peacefully over 30 years ago, Prague’s decision to keep its distance from the new populist government of Robert Fico came less than two weeks after an uneasy Visegrad Group summit in the Czech capital saw Central European leaders scramble to agree to disagree on how to support Ukraine.

For Czechs, who along with Poland have pursued a clear policy of military and political support for Kyiv, the last straw appeared to have been the meeting between Slovakia’s pro-Russian foreign minister, Juraj Blanar, with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov during a diplomatic forum in Turkey a few days before.

Tensions between the two sister nations had been growing for months since the political comeback last October of Robert Fico, elected on a – slightly misleading – pledge not to provide “a single bullet” to Ukraine, stop all military aid and push for a diplomatic solution to the conflict rather than help Kyiv fight back against Russia’s invasion.

Despite obvious differences, the two governments initially tried to smooth the relationship. “The fact that we have different foreign policy stands on some matters is nothing unusual. We respect each other’s right to mould an independent foreign policy,” Lipavsky said after holding talks with his Slovak counterpart in November – followed by a meeting between the prime ministers Fiala and Fico later that month. But the gap soon proved too wide.

Reversing Bratislava’s previous stance on the war to mimic Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s self-declared “sovereigntist and pacifist” foreign policy, Fico went all-out to criticise Western support for Kyiv and EU sanctions against Russia, deplore the “demonisation” of Vladimir Putin, minimise the impact of the war in Kyiv, and blame Ukrainian neo-Nazis for starting the conflict.

“Without communication, there will never be a diplomatic solution, and without a diplomatic solution, no wars will end,” Blanar argued during his face-to-face with Lavrov, who incidentally is on the EU sanctions list, while Fico said the meeting showed Slovakia could proudly conduct a “balanced” foreign policy.

But many aren’t buying it. “[Ruling party] Smer members talk about peace, but their actions support pro-Russian narratives, including proposals for Ukraine to give up its own territory,” opposition MP Tomas Valasek argued.

The liberal opposition, along with outgoing President Zuzana Caputova and then-presidential hopeful Ivan Korcok, vocally accused the three-party coalition led by Smer of doing the Kremlin’s bidding and taking Slovakia further on the path of isolation, evidenced by its rift with its western neighbour.

“In the last 30 years, Slovakia has not threatened Europe as much as it does today,” reckons Jakub Janda, a defence analyst and head of the Prague-based European Values Center for Security Policy.

Fico – who, as irony would have it, was the one that established the intergovernmental consultations as prime minister back in 2012 with his then-counterpart Petr Necas – lashed out at the Czech government and accused Prague of sacrificing Czech-Slovak relations for ideological reasons and warmongering in Ukraine.

Multi-player dynamics

Although unique considering how closely intertwined the Czech and Slovak nations commonly are, the suspension of intergovernmental consultations should not be overblown, argue some analysts.

“Honestly, there’s a bit too much fuss on this topic. It’s not as serious as it is sometimes presented,” says Michal Vasecka, director of the Bratislava Policy Institute.

“It is unprecedented only in comparison with the exceptional relationship and high standards both countries have always had. It’s a signal that Czechia considers the Slovak government to be problematic and simply wants a standard relationship with them,” he tells BIRN.

Commenting on the rift, Czech Foreign Minister Lipavsky appeared to echo this observation: “We will certainly not summon our ambassador in Bratislava home for consultations. That would be a step that would mean that we have a fundamental crisis in relations and that is not the case,” he said, adding that Czechia and Slovakia simply “do not have that special moment in relations” right now.

Yet the immediate rift between the Czech government of Petr Fiala and Fico’s cabinet in Slovakia has revealed deeper trends at work, with Russia’s war against Ukraine working as a catalyst to spotlight political and ideological fault lines affecting the entire political class in both countries, and the region as a whole.

Nowhere was this more evident than after the Visegrad Group summit of late February, where the divisions between a Czech-Polish pro-Ukrainian hawkish axis and a Slovak-Hungarian illiberal “pacifist” line were already on full display.

After the summit, while Polish Premier Donald Tusk was received for talks by President Petr Pavel at the Prague Castle, Fico – whom Pavel had bluntly called “a disappointment even for many Slovaks” – and Orban headed for drinks and canapes with former Czech president and notorious Kremlin-accommodator Milos Zeman. The Hungarian premier also used his visit in Prague to meet with former prime minister Andrej Babis and another ex-head of state Vaclav Klaus, who himself was welcomed in Bratislava in March by Fico.

Ahead of last year’s general election, Babis, Klaus and Zeman – all vocal critics of the current Czech leadership – had openly expressed their support for Fico who, in April, went one step further in building bridges with the Czech opposition by receiving far-right agitator Jindrich Rajchl.

“Fico is clearly waiting and hoping for a change of government in Prague,” believes Michal Vasecka, hinting at next year’s parliamentary election which could see the return to power of Babis and his populist ANO party, whose shifting narrative on Ukraine bears some similarities with Fico’s own.

“Right now, the rhetoric we hear from Slovakia about peace and sovereignty and so on is something that will probably be well received by the electorate of Babis in the Czech Republic, because he feeds them the same diet,” confirms political analyst Jiri Pehe.

Which explains why the billionaire ex-premier, himself originally from Slovakia, became so directly invested in last month’s presidential campaign, travelling to Bratislava and throwing his support behind Fico ally and now-president elect Peter Pellegrini.

In contrast, Czech government officials could barely conceal their disappointment at the results. “The Czech political elite, at least those on the side of the governing coalition, are not very happy about the result of the [presidential] elections in Slovakia, simply because Pellegrini is just an extended arm of Robert Fico,” Pehe summed up on Czech Radio.

In Prague, too, officials appear to be less and less shy in showing their frustration with the Fico government. Just two days after suspending bilateral consultations, Fiala met with Slovakia’s liberal opposition leader Michal Simecka.

President Pavel, meanwhile, was quick to sign the official patronage for the 2024 Globsec Conference – a staple of Central European political and diplomatic gathering organised in Bratislava for the past 18 years and whose organisers have found themselves in Fico’s crosshairs – to be moved to Prague later this year.

Vanishing Central Europe

As far as Czech-Slovak bilateral relations go, Michal Vasecka from the Bratislava Policy Institute believes that things will likely remain as they are for now.

“The Czech government will continue supporting the Slovak opposition, and vice-versa,” he tells BIRN. “If nothing major happens, the rift could probably fade into the background for some time.”

And while there is “little risk” for the political dispute to spread to other spheres of bilateral relations and directly affect ordinary citizens, the possibility is still there, according to Vasecka, who points out that while pro-Russian sentiment is widespread in Slovakia, it is much more of a fringe phenomenon within Czech society.

“There is a real lack of trust, Czechs are viewing Slovaks with more suspicion than before. Most Czechs simply can’t understand why roughly half of Slovakia thinks the way they think, especially when it comes to anything Russia-related,” he says.

Czechia and Slovakia’s widely diverging stance on Russia shows – possibly to the dismay of some Western political commentators – that Central Europe’s shared Eastern Bloc and communist past did not lead to a homogeneous and monolithic democratic bloc created at the heart of the continent, especially considering both countries were united as one for about 80 years.

Along with Hungary, Slovakia was one of the very few EU countries to send its representative to attend Vladimir Putin’s fifth inauguration, at the beginning of May, as Russian president.

And while Czechia has been leading European-wide efforts to crack down on a Moscow-funded influence and propaganda network operating out of Prague, one of its main suspected architects, Artom Marchevsky, has found refuge in Slovakia since being added to the Czech sanctions list over a month ago.

“34 years on, Eastern Europe does not exist. The countries of the eastern half of the continent are as diverse of those of the western half of the continent,” the British historian Timothy Garton Ash argued.

“Central Europe encapsulates the divisions that we have in Europe as a whole,” he said, further making the case that the post-1989 era which followed the fall of the Berlin Wall “ended on February 24, 2022 with Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion of Europe”.

Looking at the current developments in Central Europe – and the ongoing brotherly feud between Czechia and Slovakia – this observation rings even truer.

And while acknowledging that the Visegrad Group of Central European nations “has already suffered clinical death several times before”, Michal Vasecka considers “this one to be the most serious yet”.

Testament to this growing distrust, local media Denik N reported in late April that Czechia – along with intelligence agencies from other Western countries – were carefully filtering which information to pass on to their counterparts in Slovakia for fear it might fall into the wrong hands. The clear penetration of the Hungarian intelligence services by Russia has meant for some years it is cut out of sensitive intelligence briefings by Western agencies.

Echoing Garton-Ash’s assessment, Pehe, a former advisor to Vaclav Havel, recently wrote that “it has gradually become clear that the political legacies of individual V4 countries contained more differences than what united them”, with Russia’s expansionism and the war in neighbouring Ukraine playing a key role in showcasing and exacerbating these divisions.

“If we return to [Czech writer Milan] Kundera’s central thesis, according to which Central Europe was the ‘abducted West’, current developments rather deny it,” with some governments like the ones currently in power in Hungary and Slovakia “voluntarily distancing themselves from the West”.

This leads the long-time Czech commentator to sombrely note: “The Central Europe that Kundera dreamed of and that the politicians of the first post-1989 generation wanted to revive politically is disappearing before our eyes.”

8 notes · View notes