The Cantonese podcast for fans of linguistics, language lovers, and Cantonese learners. This episode discusses language families across the world, and how we know what languages are related.
Show notes and links available on the Cantonese page. Transcript below.
This podcast is also available on YouTube. Don’t forget to subscribe!
靳：啲日語曼語源呢，就經過咗啲好規則嘅音……
苗：日耳曼語言
以：噉呢個已知嘅語言，佢嘅……佢嘅語言、語源……
苗：日語曼已誅嘅議員，究竟講緊乜嘢？
以：講緊日……日語曼已知嘅議員嘅語源囉
靳：日耳曼語支嘅議……語言嘅語源
苗：日……日耳曼乳豬……乳豬嘅議員？？
[jingle]
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I type in quite a few languages.
I used to install a new software keyboard on my computer for each new language I learn, because I wanted to type like a native. I even insisted to get a UK laptop, so that I would get the same number of keys as German or Swedish keyboards. But eventually, they added up, and it got tiring to switch between them—especially since I mostly switched between Chinese and English keyboards.
I noticed that a lot of people know how to type accented characters easily on their phones—by simply switching the software keyboard—but have problems once it comes to computers.
On Windows, some people copy and paste characters from sites or ‘online keyboards’, while others resort to the ancient Alt+numbers trick (which doesn’t even work on notebook computers without keypads).
And then I discovered the Compose key, and since then, computer keyboards have never been a hurdle in my language ambitions ever again.
What is the Compose key?
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The Cantonese podcast for fans of linguistics, language lovers, and Cantonese learners. This episode discusses tone-melody matching in Cantonese lyric writing, the relationship between music and society, listening to foreign songs, and singable/poetic translation across different languages.
Show notes and links available on the Cantonese page. Transcript below.
This podcast is also available on YouTube. Don’t forget to subscribe!
三：啱音呢啲，我諗唔使好詳細解釋啦。即係大家都知道
以：係啊，大家feel到囉
靳：如果大家都feel到，係咪feudalism啊？
[dead air]
三：唉
[jingle]
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This podcast is also available on YouTube. Don’t forget to subscribe!
[jingle]
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The Cantonese podcast for fans of linguistics, language lovers, and Cantonese learners. This episode is a casual chat that goes over various language-related topics in the hosts’ daily lives, including natural language processing, machine translation, dubbing, cultural ignorance, accents, and languages in the service industry.
Show notes and links available on the Cantonese page. Transcript below.
This podcast is also available on YouTube. Don’t forget to subscribe!
[intro]
靳：可能係啲比較老嘅人啦，或者係一啲比較……即係少數族裔嘅人啦，噉佢哋會講一啲語言，噉所以嗰度啲……
三：比較少數族裔嘅人
以：比較少數族裔
靳：比較少數嘅……
三：阿生，你有少少少數族裔喎！
[jingle]
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I once thought I had a multilingual lifestyle.
That’s how I introduce my blog and YouTube channel to people anyway. As a student, I lived in a foreign language (English), and I spent some time on various language learning apps every day. I watched YouTube and Netflix in foreign languages. My commute consisted of podcasts in a different language every day.
But it wasn’t until the past few months that I realised how wrong I was.
A multilingual lifestyle isn’t a hobby, like I put it. Language learning can be a hobby, for sure, but to turn that into part of my life is to commit.
I’ve been slowly getting through the Queen’s Gambit lately, like everyone in the world, and I saw a bit of me in Beth—at least a version of me that would have existed if I had decided to make languages my lifestyle, or will exist if I make that decision now. It gave me a painful realisation.
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The Cantonese podcast for fans of linguistics, language lovers, and Cantonese learners. This episode starts with the English and Japanese loanwords in Cantonese and talks about special features of word borrowing among Chinese-influenced languages, as well as calques and the Balkan Sprachbund.
Show notes and links available on the Cantonese page. Transcript below.
This podcast is also available on YouTube. Don’t forget to subscribe!
[intro]
以：係啊係啊係啊係啊。（苗：哦，OKOK）Wiki講㗎。Wiki講一定啱㗎。
苗：哦，原來係噉。
靳：呢個係咪intro嚟㗎，我想問。
以：係啊，呢個應該係intro啊。
苗：呢個係intro喇。
[jingle]
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The Cantonese podcast for fans of linguistics, language lovers, and Cantonese learners. This language is a language-guessing game, like the Great Language Game, where two of our hosts guess Japanese, Korean, French, German, European Portuguese, Thai, Vietnamese, Swedish, Egyptian Arabic, and Polish. They explain their deductive process using phonological features.
Show notes and links available on the Cantonese page. Transcript below.
This podcast is also available on YouTube. Don’t forget to subscribe!
[Intro]
靳：深喉音啦，我哋啱啱講完內爆音，依家又講深喉音啦，係咪？
以：喂，咪玩嘢啊你，我笑點好低㗎
三：呢個……呢個節目係……合家歡節目嚟㗎呢個，係
[jingle]
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