What language (other than English) do you speak?

[GoktimusPrime]

From here:

No-one ever says "my brother and I" or similar in day to day conversation.

Everyone I know says "...and I" in the correct context. Either way, we're both just being anecdotal, which is a weak form of evidence. The fact is that "...and me" is only used in English when referring to yourself as the direct object to a verb or preposition. So I also hear people say "...and me" as well, but in that correct context. There's nothing wrong with saying, "and me" when used correctly, which is more likely how you would hear English speakers using it. "I" is a subject pronoun whereas "me" is an object pronoun.

Subject pronoun: "I want to buy more Transformers." correct!
Object pronoun: "Me want to buy more Transformers." incorrect!

Subject pronoun: "You and I collect Transformers." correct!
Object pronoun: "You and me collect Transformers." incorrect!

Subject pronoun: "Jetfire told I to transform." incorrect!
Object pronoun: "Jetfire told me to transform." correct!

Subject pronoun: "Between you and I, Michael Bay is a cinematic genius." incorrect!
Object pronoun: "Between you and me, Michael Bay is a cinematic genius." correct! (except for the thing about Bay )

Subject pronoun: "Sideswipe and I are twins." correct!
Object pronoun: "Sideswipe and me are twins." incorrect!

Subject pronoun: "The Space Bridge transported the Dinobots and I to Cybertron." incorrect!
Object pronoun: "The Space Bridge transported me and the Dinobots to Cybertron." correct!

How to tell?
This is what I often tell my ESL students; the same rule with subject and object pronouns consistently applies whether you're talking about just yourself or including others. Test and see how the sentence sounds with just yourself; if it works with just yourself then it's correct, otherwise it's wrong. This is called "reducing the subject" (to just the first person).

Comparative Examples
Using the object pronoun...

• "Me and my friends played Transformers Devastation."

Now reduce the subject and see how that sounds...

• "Me played Transformers Devastation."

If it sounds wrong with only yourself, then it's wrong with anyone else. So let's try the subject pronoun:

• "My friends and I played Transformers Devastation."

Now reduce the subject and see how that sounds...

• "I played Transformers Devastation."

Further examples...

• "Me and friends watched Transformers."
  "Me watched Transformers."

• "My friends and I watched Transformers."
  "I watched Transformers."

etc.

As mentioned before, there's no precedent for most Cybertronians to confuse the use of subject and object pronouns. It appears to be entirely out of character. And bear in mind that they're not even really speaking English, but rather a Cybertronian language, and it's massively unlikely (borderline impossible) that an alien language would happen to share the same rules of pronoun declension as Modern English. Many closely related West Germanic languages (of which English is a member) share the same rules as English.
e.g. the 5 first person pronoun declensions in German are: ich (nominative), mich (accusative), mir (dative), meiner (genitive) and mein (possessive). And modern European grammar has become significantly simplified since the fall of Rome. The grammatical structure of Classical European languages was far more complex than that of Modern European languages. For example, English only has one possessive adjectival first person pronoun; "my" (e.g. "This is my Transformer."). Latin has lots!
meus (magister meus optimus = "Optimus is my teacher")
meum (et quod venturum est et scietis quia nomen meum est Megatron cum dedero vindicatam meam super vos = "And you shall know my name is Megatron when I lay my vengeance upon you")
mea (potesta mea omnia est; vinci absurdum est = "My power is everything; defeat is absurd!")
meae (cathedra mea, regulae meae" = "my chair, my rules")
meam (vocem meam audit = "(whomever) hears my voice")
mihi (mens mihi camera ludaficabilis = "The mind is my playpen")
meo (meo in negotio, amici non sunt, suspecti tantum sunt = "In my business, there are no friends, only suspects")
meis (ploratus ululatusque meis auribus musica sunt = "Cries and screams are music to my ears")
As you can see, ancient languages were far more complicated than Modern languages (although more precise)! I've only listed 7 different versions of "my" in Latin. English only has ONE per declension. e.g. there is only one way to say "I," or "me," or "my" etc.

[GoktimusPrime]

I'd like to know how many people actually know latin in Australia?

It's still taught in schools and there are several courses for it in the HSC (NSW equivalent of the VCE). Latin is compulsory in the first term of Year 7 at my school, but we don't teach it beyond that, while other schools teach it all the way up to Year 12.

Latin is still spoken in the Church. I've seen church services in Japan run in Japanese and Latin, because of all the Westerners in the church who come from different countries it's impractical to run services in 30 languages, so Latin becomes the lingua franca for non-Japanese Christians in Japan.
e.g.
P: "In nomine patris et filii et spiritus sancti; *chichi to ko to mina no yoru to, aamen. Dominus vobicum; ※shu wa minasan to tomoni."
Japanese attendees: ☆mata shisai to tomoni."
Non-Japanese speaking attendees: et cum spiritu tuo."

Latin terms and words are still widely used in many fields including medicine, law, government, literature and even everyday English. Examples of Latin words and expressions used in English (some are specialised while others aren't) include:

• ad hoc

• alias

• bona fide

• exempli gratia (e.g.)

• id est (i.e.)

• nota bene (N.B.)

• post script (P.S.)

• ante meridiem (a.m.)

• post meridieem (p.m.)

• a priori (Highbrow says this in "The Rebirth" )

• actus reus (the act of committing a crime)

• mens rea (the intention to commit a crime)

• ad hominem

• ad infinitum

• ad interim, or just interim

• ad nauseum

• addendum

• affidavit

• alibi

• alma mater

• Anno Domine (although "C.E." = Common Era is preferred now)

• Aurora Australis and the Aurora Borealis; Southern and Northern Lights

• bonus

• carpe diem (seize the day!)

• caveat emptor (let the buyer beware)

• caveat venditor (let the seller beware)

• cogito ergo sum (I think therefore I am); and just "ergo" is commonly used

• consensus

• In some countries (such as USA), a person who graduates with honours is said to have graduated magna cum laude (with great honour) or summa cum laude (with highest honour); the English words "applause" or "applaud" and just "laud" (to praise) are derived from "laude"

• de facto

• defunct(us)

• deus ex machina (god in the machine)

• dona nobis pacem (give us peace)

• e pluribus unum

• ex gratia

• exeunt (remember reading this in every Shakespearean play? )

• facsimile (the word "fax" is short for this)

• Defensor (Defender or Guardian, yes, that's why Defensor is called "Guardian" in Japan )

• gloria in excelsis deo (glory to God in the highest)

• hic (here)

• homo sapiens

• hypothesis

• in absentia

• in memoriam

• in toto

• in vitro

• ipso facto

• lux; "light" = international standard unit for measuring illumination. Another word for light in Latin is "lumen," and 1 Lux = 1 Lumen per square metre

• Magna Carta

• magnum opus (masterpiece)

• mens sana in corpore sano; "a sound mind in a sound body" - also the philosophy behind the super soldier project that created Captain America

• nil

• non compos mentis; a person who claims that vaccines cause autism is non compos mentis

• pax (peace); Orion Pax means "peaceful hunter"

• per annum

• per capita

• per se

• plus

• post mortem

• pro bono

• quid pro quo

• qui docet discit ("He who teaches learns"); motto of the NSW Teachers Federation

• semper fidelis ("always faithful"); motto of the US Marine Corps - "Semper fi! Oo-rah!"

• terra nullius

• veni vidi vici ("I came, I saw, I conquered.")

• verbatim; use this option to refine your Google search

• Aequitas (justice)

• veto

• via

• vice versa

• scientia manu et mente (motto of UNSW)

• culpam poena premit comes (motto of the NSW Police Force)

• resquiescat in pace (R.I.P.)

...et cetera, et cetera, etc.
This is just scratching the surface, but Latin words and terms are still widely used in Australia (and other countries), and there are still lots of people out there who speak Latin. It is the official language of at least one country (Vatican City). The reason why it's a dead language isn't because nobody speaks it, but because nobody speaks it as a first language. Plenty of people still speak Latin, but always as a second language. Thus Latin is still spoken today, including in Australia, as a lingua franca (there's another Latin term!), although the most common lingua franca in Australia is Lingua Anglica (English). Remember that Australia legally doesn't have an official language, English is merely our de facto lingua franca. While the Latin speaking population in Australia would be extremely small, there are more Latin speakers than there are speakers of some critically endangered Australian languages. Remember that many Australian languages have become extinct. Language extinction occurs when nobody speaks or uses the language at all, not even as a second language.

Then there's Classical Greek...

P.S.: When I was living in Japan, I was once admitted into hospital. The doctor asked me what medication I was using, and I didn't know how to say these medications in Japanese (because different countries use different names, even between countries that speak the same language; e.g. USA v Australia), so I told the doctor the names of the medications in their Latin-based scientific nomenclature, and he understood straight away!

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*「父と子と聖霊の御名によると、アーメン」 (In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, Amen)
※「主は皆さんと共に」 (The Lord by with you)
☆「また司祭と共に」 (And also with you)

[Bladestorm]

I wish I had had the opportunity to learn Latin at school (my high school only taught French).
As a geographer/geologist it would have made my university life so much easier since so much of earth science is based in latin terminology not to mention all the taxonomy and classifications.
I remember I spent a lot of time looking up latin to get the taxonomic meanings out of a lot of the fossils and fauna I used to work with while at uni.
Even in my working life we still referred to most species by their "latin" classifications rather than their standard names, since standard names can be applied to more than one species and cause ambiguity.

Personally as someone from a science background I think there is still value having it as a language our children can learn particularly if they wish to pursue the sciences.

As Gokimus experienced, even medicine rely heavily on it.
Latin isn't as "dead" as everyone assumes.

[GoktimusPrime]

Why UK linguists are fearing Brexit

[GoktimusPrime]

Comparing words from English, Korean, Japanese and Chinese (Part 3), and the first word is "Transformers."

[GoktimusPrime]

From the Pokémon Go thread...

I think you're in the vast minority of westerners if you've been pronouncing it pockemon all this time for the past 20 years. Never heard anybody say that, not sure if you're even serious.

It is a portmanteau of the words "Pocket Monsters." Pocket is pronounced "pock-et" (/ˈpɒk.ɪt/) in English (rhyming with docket and rocket), not "poke-it." Here is the original opening theme song for Pokémon. You can clearly here that it's pronounced "Pock-eh-mon," and not "Poke-ee-mon." Whoever officially transcribed the English title even placed an accent mark above the "e" to tell people where to place the stress on the word (which is very important because English, unlike Japanese, is a stressed☆ language). The accented é is the reason why we don't pronounce café as "kaffer" or résumé as "resume" (as in "resume your positions"), or touché as "touchy" etc.

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☆Although English is among few European languages which infrequently uses accent marks to tell you where to place the stress on words. I feel sorry for learners of English who must find it difficult where to place the stress on words like "extract" when it's a noun ("I read the extract") or a verb ("extract the information") etc. Whoever transliterated Pokémon has deliberately placed an accent mark on top of the "e" to explicitly avoid this confusion, so the evidence is right there above the "e."

[GoktimusPrime]

Here are some English sentences which would likely confuse the crap out of anyone attempting to learn the English language!

Say the following sentences aloud:
"An abstract concept was abstracted from nature."
"What meaning was extracted from the extract?"
"The compact car was compacted."
"Are you content with the contents?"
"Let's desert this desert."
"I am incensed with this smelly incense candle."
"Do not object to the object of my affection."
"The council refused to dispose of my refuse."
"The king subjected his subjects to poverty."
"The contractor contracted a cold."
"His accent accentuates his origin."
"The farmer could not produce any more produce."
"Do not project your project at me."
"She coordinates to find the coordinates."

And for anyone who's ever wondered how tonal languages (e.g. Chinese, Vietnamese, Thai, Swedish etc.) work, it's pretty much like this but imagine that every word is depending on changes in pitch!