“Have you seen this video?” my friend asked as he held up one of those VHS tape covers you’d commonly find at video rental stores like this one. It was the late 80s, and watching a video was one of the main rituals for us young teenage kids. Every Friday, we’d head up to the video store and pick up two or three older titles for 99 cents each. As long as rewound the VHS tapes and brought them back in by Sunday night, we were golden.
Illegal VHS tapes with Western movies were an "open secret" in Ukraine when I was a kid. There was even an underground scene of English-Russian translators who spoke over the movie to make it possible for people to understand. (It wasn't dubbing as we know it, since every line was spoken by the same person and you could still hear the original English audio in the background. It was a weird time.)
They had to disguise their voices so as not to be identified. There was one particularly excellent "dubber" with a very deep, somewhat nasal fake voice. As soon as you heard his voice in the movie, you knew you'd be in for a great time - he did accents, emotions, etc. really well and his timing was perfect.
Oh wow, same word! It's just that "seeing" came to mean "further" in Danish, I think. That makes sense, implying an active "looking" instead of just passive "seeing."
So, Danish is Germanic, and probably one of the closest cousins English has, right? I'm guessing it has borrowed from Latin through similar means by which English added those old Latin words: by being conquered by French people. When the Danish language was forming, was there similar turmoil? I know very little about this history and would love to learn more.
I don't know much about the history of the language, but I do know that the grammar is very similar to Enlgish and yes - there are many English and German words as well.
Let's just say Spanish conquistadors took a plane to France and dropped English and German dictionaries as they flew over Denmark.
(I can't vouch for my knowledge of history, geography, or technological progress, but it sounds pretty plausible to me.)
It's on my list! I'll find out. Let me know if you're interested in coauthoring something on this... no idea what exactly it'll be other than it will include something about Danish.
Yes. Too many of those are getting lost...
I miss those video stores...
I think I miss the shared ritual more than anything, you know?
That guy has 3 feet! 😅
Ha! He sure does. AI fail of the week!
Watching AI repeatedly make mistakes in images, particularly hands, feet and spelling, makes for a bit of levity.
We could all use a chuckle at our future overlords every now and then. ;-)
Check out my decidedly non-AI edit on the image. I think I fixed it! (hope that's not disappointing)
Illegal VHS tapes with Western movies were an "open secret" in Ukraine when I was a kid. There was even an underground scene of English-Russian translators who spoke over the movie to make it possible for people to understand. (It wasn't dubbing as we know it, since every line was spoken by the same person and you could still hear the original English audio in the background. It was a weird time.)
They had to disguise their voices so as not to be identified. There was one particularly excellent "dubber" with a very deep, somewhat nasal fake voice. As soon as you heard his voice in the movie, you knew you'd be in for a great time - he did accents, emotions, etc. really well and his timing was perfect.
Also, "videre" means "further" in Danish.
Just thought you should know.
Oh wow, same word! It's just that "seeing" came to mean "further" in Danish, I think. That makes sense, implying an active "looking" instead of just passive "seeing."
Video!
Yup, "to see" is "at se" in Danish. So "to watch a video" would be "at se en video."
"Videre" doesn't really have the same connotation in Danish. It's...confusing.
Illegal VHS tapes!
So, Danish is Germanic, and probably one of the closest cousins English has, right? I'm guessing it has borrowed from Latin through similar means by which English added those old Latin words: by being conquered by French people. When the Danish language was forming, was there similar turmoil? I know very little about this history and would love to learn more.
I don't know much about the history of the language, but I do know that the grammar is very similar to Enlgish and yes - there are many English and German words as well.
Let's just say Spanish conquistadors took a plane to France and dropped English and German dictionaries as they flew over Denmark.
(I can't vouch for my knowledge of history, geography, or technological progress, but it sounds pretty plausible to me.)
It's on my list! I'll find out. Let me know if you're interested in coauthoring something on this... no idea what exactly it'll be other than it will include something about Danish.
Sure. To the extent that I can offer any useful insights, I'm happy to collab.