So let's start with Spanish:
—¡Qué tiempos, Señor! —refunfuñó el corregidor—. ¡Qué asquerosos tiempos!
Hace sólo veinte años, ¿a quién se le iba a ocurrir, ni siquiera borracho, que pudiera
haber tales profesiones? ¡Brujos! ¡Trashumantes cazadores de basiliscos! ¡Asesinos
ambulantes de dragones y utopes! ¿Geralt? ¿En tu gremio se os permite beber?
El último deseo, La saga de Geralt de Rivia
Andrzej Sapkowski
As you can see above Spanish people are very expressive. They have to use a lot of exclamation, question marks. And as a bow (of respect) towards Spanish-speaking countries that are situated in South America they also turn those upside down. What else you can see are dashes above some letters. They are not different from those without those tiny thingies ó is still o and é is e (in my tongue o and ó are not read in the same way; ó should be pronounced in the same way as u), you just have to accent them.
But my favourite thing are sentences like:
So why they complicate their lives so much? Because they were lazy in the beginning and they haven't thought about such simple thing as inversion when creating questions or adding pronouns in the begining of those. So "Eres español." (you are Spanish) is written in the same way as "¿Eres español?" (are you Spanish?).
Another official reason is that it's to show where sentences are divided, because it's not obvious where the question starts. Again calling the example for above: "¿Cómo lo sabes?, ¿tú eres español?" (How do you know? Are you Spanish?). Apparently the reader could get lost and not know that question about that knowledge is a different one from the question about nationality. Understandable... I also don't give much credit to my interlocutors.
Summing up. Spanish were not only lazy, but are also hasty (with that lovely Spanish r sounding like engine of a little bike; hey, I really like that sound) and think it's better to squeeze as much information in one sentence as possible.
Believe me, it's not :p
However Spanish is nothing when it comes to how in Norwegian dialogues are written. At first I thought I would have to cheat a little bit here, because I was afraid that the author of that short novel we read during our Norwegian classes was creative (and oblivious of the grammar rules). Yet, I checked Agatha Christie's book and it turns out that it is the way Norwegians write. But to the point.
As Spanish use dash to "open" dialogue they also do the same to separate spoken text from descriptions like "he said", "she added". Norwegian think that it's more intuitive to do so with a coma. It may work with a question, it may work with simple sentence, but I kind of see an epic fail with "Ja, ditt forhold til Karl, gjentar Vikan og tar fram notatblokka" (Yes, your relationship with Karl - repeats Vikan and takes out a notepad). Before I found out it's the way it works I had few problems with understanding who says and does what.
Of course Norwegians couldn't live without playing tricks with oblivious foreigner, who try to read aloud in their mother tounge. If you think that restaurant (same in English and Norwegian) is read simply as that - you're wrong. It should be "restaurang" with small French accent. Sometimes you also have to forget that there is a letter in a word. Forskjellige (different) should be pronounced as "forsheliye". While g is mostly forgotten to be said, nd changes into double n.
Except for this I can't really cavil. Norwegian is lovely and pretty easy language.
Last, but not least - English (speakers, who laugh they always have to be different). Whole world uses kilograms, meters and they have to stick with yards and pounds. So why it should be different in matters of language?
I could also make some quips about different spellings or vocabulary, depending near which ocean one is in a English speaking country, but then again... Spanish also developed many versions depending in which part of the world it settled. Why they can't see how easy it is in Europe? Every country has its own language. Almost every. Simple and economic ;)
Andrzej Sapkowski
As you can see above Spanish people are very expressive. They have to use a lot of exclamation, question marks. And as a bow (of respect) towards Spanish-speaking countries that are situated in South America they also turn those upside down. What else you can see are dashes above some letters. They are not different from those without those tiny thingies ó is still o and é is e (in my tongue o and ó are not read in the same way; ó should be pronounced in the same way as u), you just have to accent them.
But my favourite thing are sentences like:
"Sí, ¿cómo lo sabes?, ¿tú eres español?"4 question marks and it is still one sentence.
So why they complicate their lives so much? Because they were lazy in the beginning and they haven't thought about such simple thing as inversion when creating questions or adding pronouns in the begining of those. So "Eres español." (you are Spanish) is written in the same way as "¿Eres español?" (are you Spanish?).
Another official reason is that it's to show where sentences are divided, because it's not obvious where the question starts. Again calling the example for above: "¿Cómo lo sabes?, ¿tú eres español?" (How do you know? Are you Spanish?). Apparently the reader could get lost and not know that question about that knowledge is a different one from the question about nationality. Understandable... I also don't give much credit to my interlocutors.
Summing up. Spanish were not only lazy, but are also hasty (with that lovely Spanish r sounding like engine of a little bike; hey, I really like that sound) and think it's better to squeeze as much information in one sentence as possible.
Believe me, it's not :p
However Spanish is nothing when it comes to how in Norwegian dialogues are written. At first I thought I would have to cheat a little bit here, because I was afraid that the author of that short novel we read during our Norwegian classes was creative (and oblivious of the grammar rules). Yet, I checked Agatha Christie's book and it turns out that it is the way Norwegians write. But to the point.
Evelyn setter seg bak skrivebordet. Hun tar opp en sigarett.
- Er det i orden? spør hun og ser på Vikan.
Han har lys til å svare nei, men han nikker. Han likker ikke røyk.
- Mitt forhold til Karl, begynner Evelyn etter at hun har tent sigaretten.
- Ja, ditt forhold til Karl, gjentar Vikan og tar fram notatblokka.
Ny i Norge
Gölin Kaurin Nilsen
Gölin Kaurin Nilsen
As Spanish use dash to "open" dialogue they also do the same to separate spoken text from descriptions like "he said", "she added". Norwegian think that it's more intuitive to do so with a coma. It may work with a question, it may work with simple sentence, but I kind of see an epic fail with "Ja, ditt forhold til Karl, gjentar Vikan og tar fram notatblokka" (Yes, your relationship with Karl - repeats Vikan and takes out a notepad). Before I found out it's the way it works I had few problems with understanding who says and does what.
Of course Norwegians couldn't live without playing tricks with oblivious foreigner, who try to read aloud in their mother tounge. If you think that restaurant (same in English and Norwegian) is read simply as that - you're wrong. It should be "restaurang" with small French accent. Sometimes you also have to forget that there is a letter in a word. Forskjellige (different) should be pronounced as "forsheliye". While g is mostly forgotten to be said, nd changes into double n.
Except for this I can't really cavil. Norwegian is lovely and pretty easy language.
Last, but not least - English (speakers, who laugh they always have to be different). Whole world uses kilograms, meters and they have to stick with yards and pounds. So why it should be different in matters of language?
"Leto said something to disturb you," Ghanima said.
Jessica found herself shocked at the necessity to suppress anger. "Yes... he did."
"You don't like the fact that he knows our father as our mother knew him, and knows our mother as our father knew her," Ghanima said. "You don't like what that implies - what we may know about you."
Children of Dune
Frank Herbert
Frank Herbert
First thing noticed? There are no dashes for dialogues, only quotation marks. This gives opportunity to put part of dialogue (not a quote, which would be totally understandable) in almost any part of a longer paragraph.
Second thing is placement of comas and dots within quotes. Normal people put those outside. Let me compare it to boxes. First we have big pink box, inside of which we have slightly smaller blue and green. Let's say that the pink is a sentence, as a whole, while green and blue are parts of it (that within the quote and description for it). Coma is something that separates those two within a sentence. I would say it's a space in the pink box. Ending dot is cover of the biggest box. So why mix two different things and try to put pink cover onto smaller green box, right?
Second thing is placement of comas and dots within quotes. Normal people put those outside. Let me compare it to boxes. First we have big pink box, inside of which we have slightly smaller blue and green. Let's say that the pink is a sentence, as a whole, while green and blue are parts of it (that within the quote and description for it). Coma is something that separates those two within a sentence. I would say it's a space in the pink box. Ending dot is cover of the biggest box. So why mix two different things and try to put pink cover onto smaller green box, right?
I could also make some quips about different spellings or vocabulary, depending near which ocean one is in a English speaking country, but then again... Spanish also developed many versions depending in which part of the world it settled. Why they can't see how easy it is in Europe? Every country has its own language. Almost every. Simple and economic ;)
