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[Faith.episode.cats]

She can full Italian as Sardinia?

@Malannee

like Italian, Spanish, Catalan, Sardinian, French, Occitan, Portuguese, Romanian, etc.) are called like that because they all derive from Latin (which is widely considered a “dead” language that counts veeeeery few speakers,

So they are share the same language sorta of??

[Malannee]

@Faith.episode.cats

She can full Italian as Sardinia?

Yes.

@Faith.episode.cats

So they are share the same language sorta of??

And nope! Very different languages! Romance languages developed after the Roman Empire (where Latin was commonly spoken in ancient times) collapsed. Because the Roman Empire was so huge, when it fell it left vast regions full of people who were familiar with Latin but had no access to education. With time, and due to geographical distance, those people started developing away from Latin and eventually created their own languages. The base was the same for everyone (Latin) but distance prevented the formation of a new but whole and unique language for all.

And this is how Italian, Portuguese, Romanian, Spanish etc. came to be. But don’t make the mistake of thinking that romance languages are basically the same language. They all have different grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, dialects, etc. And another thing. If you randomly started speaking Latin to me I’d have a hard time understanding what you’re saying. This is because between Latin and––say––modern Italian there are centuries of linguistic evolution.

[Faith.episode.cats]

So they all speak differently so they don’t understand each other?? Speaking differently language?

[Malannee]

In truth, it has been estimated that speakers of different romance languages understand each other’s language to some extent. For example, as an Italian I more or less understand some Spanish, but understand less Romanian. Maybe 60% Spanish and like 10% Romanian? I’m not sure. However, without studying those languages, I’m not able to speak them. In fact I can speak 0 Spanish and 0 Romanian because I haven’t studied either.

Basically, as an Italian I can sorta make out what a Spanish or a Catalan is saying, but in no way am I able to speak Spanish or Catalan. And a similar situation virtually happens to every romance language speaker.

[Malannee]

@Malannee

And a similar situation virtually happens to every romance language speaker.

Actually, a similar situation happens to every person who’s exposed to speakers of languages from the same language family. This is why Dutch speakers can somewhat understand a little German. German and Dutch both belong to the germanic language family.

[Faith.episode.cats]

Oh okay I think I understand a bit of it

[ashleylatae]

Very helpful. Thank you

[Malannee]

I just found an easy video version of what I briefly talked about here.

@Malannee

Because the Roman Empire was so huge, when it fell it left vast regions full of people who were familiar with Latin but had no access to education. With time, and due to geographical distance, those people started developing away from Latin and eventually created their own languages. The base was the same for everyone (Latin) but distance prevented the formation of a new but whole and unique language for all.

If you’d like to watch it, the video is in this link: Romance Language Family, it’s only 3 to 4 minutes long.
@Faith.episode.cats

[Faith.episode.cats]

Thank you so much is it about Sardinian?

[Malannee]

No, not Sardinian, it’s the history of the romance languages in general. Sardinian is one of them, but the video is not specifically about Sardinian.

[Faith.episode.cats]

Oh okay, thank you so much

[Malannee]

Bump

[Faith.episode.cats]

Bump

[Malannee]

Bump!

[Grottino]

Bump

[CarbiD]

Bump🕷

[Davideogurl]

Hello, I have a question. So a hospital scene of my story is taking place in Milan. I want to know if the name of the hospital should be written in Italian or in English.

If it should be written in Italian, can anyone translate the original name into Italian?

Original

Health care, Community Hospital

[CarbiD]

There isn’t written hospital here, you can usually find the name ospedale and the rest of the name example ospedale marino

[Davideogurl]

Okay thank you! But I meant handwritten as in the language the hospital name is usual in as in Italian or English.

[Malannee]

Heya! I’m not sure which one would be ideal since the name is made up (clearly, as indicated in the guidelines).

The word health-care has many translations in Italian, and none of them make quite sense as the name of a hospital. Perhaps the only one is assistenza sanitaria but even that sounds weird as a hospital name.

And “community hospital” is a concept that we just don’t have in our language, so I’d say it’s untranslatable.

The smartest way is to leave it in English, even though in Italy hospitals have all Italian names
Have you considered changing it into something that makes more sense in the context of Italy? For example, some of the names of the hospitals in Milan are: Ospedale Niguarda Ca’ Granda, Clinica Mangiagalli, Ospedale Buzzi, Ospedale San Raffaele, Policlinico di Milano, Ospedale San Carlo Borromeo, Istituto Clinico Sant’Ambrogio… (ospedale means hospital, clinica/clinico means clinic, san/sant’ means saint).

PS. btw I’m from Milan, so if you need assistance with the city as a setting feel free to ask me!