Google translate

[Westmarcher]

Or: which is the best way to paint witches?

Pain twitches? I would try a series of electrical shocks ....

[FierceKitty]

Yep, Finno-Ugric includes Magyar (Hungarian), Finnish and Estonian plus a scatter of languages spoken in the Russian Federation that I can't remember the name of. In my defence, it's forty odd years since I learned all this.

My "tell the group something they probably don't know about you" fact was that I'd written an article for a Games Workshop magazine that was translated into Magyar!

I'm told (told) that linguists insist there are similarities to Korean too which can't be coincidental.

Really.

[Techno]

Pain twitches? I would try a series of electrical shocks ....

My TENS machine, for example ?
Cheers - Phil

[Ithoriel]

I'm told (told) that linguists insist there are similarities to Korean too which can't be coincidental.

Really.

Long time since I was seriously interested in this so the revisionists may well have been revised themselves in the interim but I thought the Macro-Altaic theory which lumped Finno-Ugric, Turkish, Mongolian, Samoyed, Korean and Japanese together had been discredited. Some night when I can't get to sleep I must have a rummage on the web and update my tattered memories of all this.

Meantime I need to remain focused on all things Sumerian to focus my painting on the project in hand*.

Damn! I hear the susurration of butterfly wings. So, who makes 10mm Samoyeds?

*Edit: A quick wikipedia search suggests there is a theory that Magyar and Sumerian are related!

[Lord Kermit of Birkenhead]

Knew Hungary was fairly backward - but writing on clay tablets.

IanS 

[FierceKitty]

Knew Hungary was fairly backward - but writing on clay tablets.

IanS 

Paprika makes a very poor ink.

[Leman]

I seem to remember that the Hungarian for 'May I have a packet of cigarettes?' translates as 'Please to fondle my bum.'  Or was that a comedy sketch?

[Last Hussar]

I read that English is more difficult than you may expect, because it has so many homophones, synonyms and irregular verbs

[getagrip]

I read that English is more difficult than you may expect, because it has so many homophones, synonyms and irregular verbs

Or this:

Ghoti is a constructed word used to illustrate irregularities in English spelling. It is a respelling of the word fish, and is intended to be pronounced in the same way (/ˈfɪʃ/), using these sounds:

gh, as in tough
o, as in women
ti, as in nation

English is a vile language to learn.

Don't get me on prepositions either: You go into town on a bus in February.  Do you go uptown or downtown?

Ridiculous 

[GordonY]

it may be a vile language to learn, but all the Johnny Foreigners understand it.

Remember the Victorian maxim when dealing with the natives, "if they dont seem to understand, Shout Louder!!"

[Ithoriel]

A man is told by his father that he will never get anywhere in the world unless he can read , write and speak fluent English because not enough people speak their native language. His father tells him to go to England to learn English and not to come back until he is fluent. He is soon reading fluently but he just cannot work out the seemingly random pronunciation.

Rough and bough, row, roe and though thoroughly confuse him so he enrolls in a college course and after months and months of frustration and despair eventually thinks that he has mastered the language.

Satisfied that he has mastered the language and can return home he meets his friends on the station platform and bids them a fond farewell. He steps across to the newspaper kiosk and picks up a copy of the local paper, looks horrified, produces a pistol from his pocket and shoots himself dead.

As the friends rush to his side one glances down and reads the headline,"Fete pronounced success!"

It's OK fsn, the shaggy dog is already chewing my coat

[Last Hussar]

Come friendly bombs and rain on Slough
It is time to say "Hold, Enough!"

[fsn]

 

[OldenBUA]

The Problem with Speaking English

    Japanese eat very little fat and suffer fewer heart attacks than the Brits.
    Mexicans eat a lot of fat and suffer fewer heart attacks than the Brits.
    Chinese drink very little red wine and suffer fewer heart attacks than the Brits.
    Italians drink excessive amounts of red wine and suffer fewer heart attacks than the Brits.
    Germans drink beer and eat lots of sausages and fats and suffer fewer heart attacks than the Brits.

CONCLUSION: Eat and drink what you like. Speaking English is apparently what kills you.

Either that or it's all the shouting that's to blame.