Well that was fun!
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Pigor has a degree in chemistry; I think that explains a lot.
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Based on a comment in the topic about Borat at the Kennedy Center I looked at the language makeup of Kazakhstan.
Back in the early 90’s Kazahkstan had a large population of ethnic Germans, mostly folk who had been forcibly relocated from the Volga area by Stalin. The population has since decreased markedly due to emigration.
ETA: typos and grammar
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One thing about empires like the Soviet Union, which are multi-ethnic, linguistic, religious, etc, was that they tend to be highly successful at moving vast numbers of different kinds of people around. You can say the same about the British empire, etc… I mean, just look at how many people around the old colonies claim Irish heritage, for just one example, thanks in part to the machinations of the British empire (Irish people fleeing violence/oppression at home, being sent to prison colonies, or joining the military, for a variety of reasons - but sadly, there seems to be very little of the Irish language preserved in the diaspora - one wonders if Irish communities abroad intially had some Irish language, like you see with other communities? Like… what about Springfield MA, where my ancestors settled? Given that they were from the west of Ireland, I wonder if any of them spoke Irish as their mother tongue, but shed it to fit into their new community?). It seems like the Soviet empire tended to move more people internally, but then again, we can think of the not insignificant population of Vietnamese in the former East Germany (if we agree that EG was an outpost of the Soviet Empire to a large degree).
Anyway - Empires are endless fascinating on how they rework the face of our planet again and again…
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Montserrat had a population of Irish speakers when the colonies were first started there in the 1600’s but it didn’t last for very long. The legacy though is in the accent. The mixed-race islanders continued to speak with a bit of an Irish lilt up until the evacuation of the island in the 1990s.
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That’s interesting!
When we think of people living in ethnic communities in the US, first generation folks often build up their communities often through replication of their mother tongue… My BFF’s dad came over from Austria as a very young kid (maybe 2, or maybe not even that?) and he still can speak German today (though my friend and her sister do not speak it). But I don’t think they stayed in an Austrian community, if at all, as they ended up with a farm out in California. But that’s a very common thing in US history, which as you know, you find in any major city (and some not so major)… Here locally, there are tons of folks who speak Ormo or Amharic (as well as lots of other languages thanks to the refugee center over in Clarkston). So, I see no reason like in your example there in Montserrat, Irish speaking immigrants/refugees would not have done the same. I do wonder who has written on this history… Most of the stuff I’ve read about the diaspora doesn’t focus on the Irish language (like that one book about Irish and Irish Americans trying to hold Canada hostage after the Civil War). I think the baseline assumption is that they are all English-speakers by many people? But there must be someone who has written on this topic?
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Newfoundland also had a large population of Irish speakers and the stereotypical accent reflects that, although Newfoundland Irish died out over a hundred years ago, I want to say. It’s strange that Scottish Gaelic did not suffer the same fate as quickly. There are still outposts of the Gàidhealtachd in Glengarry (Ontario) and Cape Breton Island (Nova Scotia), but no such equivalent in Newfoundland. Maybe part of this had to do with the relative prestige of Irish in Ireland versus that of Scottish Gaelic in Scotland before the highland clearances.
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Neat!!
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How to decide which one(s) to include on my “try to learn” list?
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Just 2200 languages to learn? Thankfully I’m usually free on weekends!
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Swahili! That was one of the languages Lt. Uhura mentioned that she spoke in the OS.
(I always wanted to learn Swahili because of her. 
)
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As per our conversation in the other thread, Africa has been really flattened out by European colonialism… The place where humanity literally emerged is such a vast, deep, and complex place that it’s so hard to hold that depth and complexity in your head… just the fact that there are 2200 languages spoken should give us some pause on how we think of Africa… I’m guessing it’s the most lingustically diverse place on the planet?
Also…
What a gorgeous human being she was… 
Also… isn’t she an example of the linguistic diversity of earth on Star Trek? I think Capt. Picard spoke french a couple of times… but I don’t know if Sisko ever spoke any creole?
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Xhosa (in South Africa) has a great singing tradition.
Not that I’m biased or anything!
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Grew up listening to Miriam Makeba’s version of “The Click Song.” 
Attempting to sing along will be a challenge!
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Three different clicks, and yes, they are difficult to master as an adult with no prior training in the language. But so are many aspects of other languages as well. Georgian has more letters than English, and around a half-dozen of them are multiple consonants together (dz, kh, etc.) which is fun when 3 or 4 of them come together in a word!
The way we’ve been taught to do the clicks is the Sesame Street method, where you pronounce both sides of the word, then a little faster, then a little faster, until you’re pronouncing the word without a break in the middle.
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Does anyone have any tips for getting used to Korean pronunciation? I can pronounce individual words from hangeul, but it seems like half the consonants just disappear when you start stringing words together in a sentence, and I can never figure out if I’m supposed to say the ㄹ in 닭 for example.
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I’m merely a hobbyist in Korean, but I think the ㄹ voicing when used at the tail of a syllable like that depends on the next syllable’s initial consonant. So in the case of of 닭고기 the ㄹ is voiced and the ㄱ bleeds into the next one, while in the case of 닭도리탕 the ㄹ isn’t voiced, but the ㄱ is. The ”four letter” form of syllable construction is an aspect of Hangul that I never learned very well so take this with a grain of salt.
ETA: this is actually a pretty good explainer:
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That makes sense, but whenever I listen to a Korean person say it at natural speed (I am always amazed by their speed; they say in a second what I spend ten seconds reading out), it feels like either the ㄷ or the ㄱ disappears too. I gotta stop relying on text to speech and start watching Korean dramas with Korean subtitles to get a feel for it.
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