"xłp̓x̣ʷłtłpłłskʷc̓

Chagen

This is an actual word. It is part of a Salishan language. Salishan is a Native American language family. It means "He had in his possession a burchberry plant". It is thirteen consonants in a row. A very rough approximation of that in slighly more readable letters would be "chwpchwhlthlphlhlskwts" ........Yeah. Try pronouncing that. These languages are so extreme that some linguists legitmately believe that the concept of a "syllable" does not exist in them. Damn.

Nova

wut

Chagen

Languages are wide and varied.

We're really used to Indo-European ones, which are actually very odd compared to most other lang families.

Nova

As far as I'm concerned, you're speaking gibberish.

Crimson

Chewp-whil-thyl-phil-hils-skewts.

amidoinitrite?

Chagen

Cygan, it's a real word.

Neo: the "ch" is supposed be like in the german "Bach".

Nova

It may be a real word

but

that doesn't make it comprehensible

Chagen

It's apparently comprehensible to the Salish.

Indo-Euro is not the only language family in the world. What is utterly insane to one family is normal to another. That's one of the things I find fascinating about languages. You never know what insanity you might find.

Icalasari

...Zalgo? Is that you?

Chagen

Nah.

'Less Zalgo is an American Indian.

Actually, I think the Salishan langs are spoken in Canada as well.

Counterclock

It's a word to a group of people I don't give a fuck about?

Kinkajou

I thought that was Polish, given its use of the l with a strike through it (which is pronounced as /w/, for the record)

Chagen

Counter: Well, that could be construef as racist...

Kinkajou: That symbol in IPA is actually a different sound--if you've ever learned Welsh (unlikely, but hey), then it's the sound of "ll" in it.

AHR

I'm confused. Why did you mention indo-european languages twice now?

I thought it was a given that native american languages are very much not from the same roots of others.

Or am I just that super smart?

IanExMachina

^^

I made a faux pas in Wales recently.

I was sitting in a restaurant talking to my girlfriend, and this guy started coughing, he kept on going at it sounded worse and worse like he was choking.

So I I turned to him and smacked him across the back.

Turned out he was just speaking Welsh.

Counterclock

Construed you mean?

Also, I don't care if people call me a racist because I can't be bothered to learn what looks to be a stupid language, doesn't mean I am a racist though.

Chagen

"I'm confused. Why did you mention indo-european languages twice now?

I thought it was a given that native american languages are very much not from the same roots of others.

Or am I just that super smart?"

Given their ubiquity, people quite often tend to judge every language by the standards of the Indo-Euro ones. I know I used to.

MillerCross

Also, I don't care if people call me a racist because I can't be bothered to learn what looks to be a stupid language, doesn't mean I am a racist though. 

welp.

Counterclock

Because an actual physical race-color of someone's skin was the thing that developed this language.

I understand perfectly these words to be true now.

Also, be honest, all of you,

How many of you even knew of this language before today?

Didn't need to know about it before, don't need to know about it today.

Still looks like a stupid language.

MillerCross

Race is more than the color of your skin.

Anyway, it's not that. the problem is that why are you posting in a topic you don't care about?

And it's not like we choose what to know in a need base. We know what we know because we seek said knowledge, either out of need, or leisure, or interest.

And welp, I don't see how a language can be stupid because it's complex as fuck. Not all races and cultures get the luck Europeans do and have a bunch of coherent languages to turn into a clusterfuck and then call it English.

Chagen

"And welp, I don't see how a language can be stupid because it's complex as fuck. Not all races and cultures get the luck Europeans do and have a bunch of coherent languages to turn into a clusterfuck and then call it English."

I have no idea if you're insulting Europeans, Non-Europeans, or both

MillerCross

I'm insulting everything. that's how i roll, baby.

Icalasari

^ So you also insult yourself?

MillerCross

Yes. 

captainbrass

ITT:Chagen is being by far the most reasonable poster. Think about that, everyone.

On-topic, my brother claims that things that are fairly basic concepts in most languages, like verbs (or something) don't exist in Chinese, although as he doesn't speak it I'm not sure what his authority is for this.

Chagen

He's wrong. All languages have verbs. Some don't have adjectives, or adverbs, or articles, or whatever, but all languages have verbs.

In fact, in Chinese, adjectives are not a seperate class. They're verbs. The Chinese say "Patricia happies" instead of "Patricia is happy".

The verbs don't conjugate at all, though. There's no distiction of past tense or future tense in the verb (just use context instead) but you can use other words to make it clear if it's needed.

Waltzy

I don't mind that I never heard about the language before, it's still hella interesting stuff. It's always been so cool to me how big the gaps are between certain languages and still knowing that they were all made by people. I also just love it because it's always going to be a huge part of a group's culture and it incites this urge to protect the history of them and stuff. /lolglossophile

This particular language reminds me of how I speculate they named the misc. dungeons in Morrowind. "30 consonants and 2 vowels, gogogo" XDDDDD

Stormtroper

The gaps between languages felt larger when I knew less about them.

^^^ Ehh, since most posters are being facetious, I don't know why that'd be important.