>What language(s) are you learning? >Share language learning experiences! >Ask questions about your target language! >Help people who want to learn a new language! >Participate in translation challenges or make your own! >Make frens!
Check this pastebin for plenty of language resources as well as some nice image guides: pastebin.com/ACEmVqua
Torrents with more resources than you'll ever need for 30 plus languages: FAQ U: >How do I learn a language? What is the best way to learn one? How should I improve on certain aspects? Read the damn wiki >Should I learn lang Y so I can learn lang X? No >What is the most useful language? Classical Scots >What language should I learn? Yiddish
Easy >It's time for school! >Don't forget your backpack! >Can I borrow a pencil? >Did you do your homework?
Medium >Math is my favorite subject at school, how about you? >My mom gave me money for lunch today at school, but a bully stole it from me. >The teacher gave me a bad grade for my essay in history class. >Please don't write on the whiteboard in permanent marker.
Hard >John isn't doing very well at school, and his parents are afraid that he will be held back next year if this continues. >They asked me if I could tutor him after school and we negotiated a fair price. >John and I created a bunch of flashcards together and mainly practiced science and [language], the two subjects he has been failing in. >Boy, this challenge sounds a lot like the one that came before but with a different topic, doesn't it?
Camden Ortiz
yeah I'm sure someone's going to correct both dialects of Circassian
Kayden Cox
Requesting help from native Polish speakers:
I've finished up a Polish-English translation of a song for the first time, and I'm not very confident that it's a good translation. Could you check it out for a second and tell me if you like it? If there are any mistakes or misunderstandings?
>-Leute, ich bin schwanger! Ye >-Äh, Glückwunsch an dir! Ist es ein Junge oder ein Mädchen? *Wow, [herzlichen] Glückwunsch! Rest is correct. "Wow" is an Anglicism btw, pronounced the same as in English. "Äh" is more like "uhm", so you made it sound pretty rude :^) >-Was sollte ich mein Sohn benennen? *Wie soll ich meinen Sohn nennen?" >-Babys brauchen Windeln, Babyshampoo, und Babyessen Correct except baby food is "Babynahrung".
Then you might as well just put every city on the map.
There's slight dialect variations in almost every city. I know someone who can tell differences in the dialect of two neighboring cities.
Evan Gonzalez
>I know someone who can tell differences in the dialect of two neighboring cities. Can't most? I mean, the differences here are slight as all fuck, but still distinct. Like you can tell that person comes from that city 20 minutes by car from here, etc.
Carson Evans
I wouldn't say most people are able to do that, but it's certainly a skill you can learn if you pay attention. The dude I know is history teacher so he probably knows a thing about etymology or two. Also those cities are probably closer than 20 minutes, more like 10 or 5 even.
Jace Garcia
How would etymology help you distinguish very similar dialects?
Henry Cook
Knowing which words tend to change a lot between different dialects, for example. Just a guess
Brayden Lopez
>I wouldn't say most people are able to do that Eh, depends on where you're from. Surely you can distinguish where someone is from in the immediate area around you. Just a simple clue like pronunciation local to only that certain place, for example.
Aiden Smith
Maybe I'm just retarded. I'm from the Ruhr area in Germany and I can't tell apart whether someone is from Essen or from Dortmund
my wife chino... I WANT TO FUCK CHINO please chino is so cute my wife chino is so cute chino chan sex chino sex with chino i'd like some more kafuu chino sex with chino kafuu chino my wife cute is so chino wife
Christian Allen
>Es ist zeit für Schule! >Vergessen nicht deinen Rucksack! >Kann ich deinen Bleistift leihen? >Has du deine Hausaufgabe gemacht?
>Mathematik ist meine Lieblingssubjekt in Schule, was ist dein? >Meine Mutter gibt mir Geld für Mittagessen am schule, aber ein Bully hat es gestohlen. >Bitte schreibt nicht auf das Whiteboard im permanent Marker.
Owen Cook
I was out with friends once and we were chatting with some random guy and just from a couple of sentences I spoke, he guessed what village I was from which was quite astonishing.
Joshua Watson
good
hoge kwaliteit op
Levi Price
very dumb argument. i dont think this tiny bit of better mutual understanding is definitely not worth sacrificing bits of your culture for. do you unironically think its better to lose that in favour of useless mutual understanding? city dwellers already have very understandable dialects whereas rural people dont, who cares? id rather not understand bavarians if that means they get to keep their language. plus, thats not even whats happening, germans grow up being exposed to various dialects, usually they can understand them quite well, but certain things just go over their heads, shit happens. if it gets really bad, people usually switch to standard german, but why should anyone use that as their default way of expression? generally speaking, being exposed to a lot of dialects rather than just speaking one standard language altogether makes you a lot more understanding in general, it works well in norway for example and they have a terrifying amount of dialects. nobody needs standard languages.
Jack Barnes
When i was 11 playing Morrowind (which had no italian adaptation) helped me a lot with english The game had quite a bit of text though, i don't think you'd learn much by playing something like Minecraft
>我喜歡家書店 家? What was you trying to say when you put that character in? >我今天花了一個鐘頭打工作 "鐘頭" is a Cantonese expression. Use 小時 instead if you want to write Standard Written Chinese. "打工作" is an odd expression. It's either 打工 which is a Cantonese/Taiwanese Mandarin expression, or you can simply use "工作" as a verb here. >我有時候夜裡享受散步 我有時候在夜裡享受散步 >Hard I believe even you should have realized there are some mistakes in them? Also, please use full-shaped punctuation like ,。 when typing a full Chinese sentence. >111355126 >我买了两本老的书。 我买了两本旧书。 >我工作了一个小时。 Missed "today". 我买了两本书 "Old" books.
Camden Moore
theres a girl im talking to and she posted this on twitter lmaoooo no mms ni me gusta i cant find out what it could be :/
Noah Howard
>Fácil • Es hora de la escuela. • ¡No olvides la mochila! • ¿Me prestas un lápiz? o ¿Puedo tomar un lápiz? • ¿Hiciste la tarea?
>Intermediario • La matemática es mi asignatura más favorita en la escuela, ¿y tuya? • Hoy mi madre me dio dinero para el almuerzo, pero un matón lo quitó. • Mi profesor mi puso mala nota por mi ensayo en historia. • Por favor, no escriban en la pizarra con rotulador permanente.
>Difícil • A John no le va bien en colegio, y sus padres se preocupan de que lo dejaren el próximo año si esto sigue así. • Me preguntaron si le pudiera dar clases después del esquela, y acordamos un buen precio. • John y yo juntos hicimos un conjunto de tarjetas y sobre todo practicamos la ciencia y escocés clásico, las dos asignaturas en que tenía problemas. • Vaya, este reto se parece mucho al que fue antes, pero con tema diferente, ¿verdad?
Lucas Lewis
Probs “lmao no way, I don’t even like it”
Nicholas Barnes
>Es ist zeit für Schule! *Es ist Zeit für die Schule! The sentence sounds strange in German when literally translated. I'd rather say something like "Es ist Zeit, um zur Schule zu gehen!" (It's time to got to school) >Vergessen nicht deinen Rucksack! *Vergiss deinen Rucksack nicht! Imperative form because it's a command. >Kann ich deinen Bleistift leihen? Ja. Und der Satz ist auch richtig :^) >Has du deine Hausaufgabe gemacht? *Hast du deine Hausaufgaben gemacht? Almost.
>Mathematik ist meine Lieblingssubjekt in Schule, was ist dein? *Mathe(matik) ist mein Lieblingsfach in der Schule. Und was/welches ist deins? I don't think you can use a direct question as a subordinate clause in German. Can you even in English? "Was" instead of "welches" is less formal but more natural sounding, especially if a child would say it. You could also use "Lieblingsschulfach" instead of "Lieblingsfach in der Schule", or even leave out the "schul" in the former. >Meine Mutter gibt mir Geld für Mittagessen am schule, aber ein Bully hat es gestohlen. *Meine Mutter gab mir Geld fürs Mittagessen in der Schule, aber ein Mobber hat es mir geklaut. I used "fürs" because "für das" sounds really weird to me there. Maybe cause I can't imagine a kid saying it. Also why I changed "gestohlen" to "geklaut", which is just a more customary word for stolen. Bullying is "Mobbing" in German, a weird made up anglicism. It used to be "hänseln" but I wouldn't know how to call someone who hänsels.
Anthony Evans
>Can you even in English? Well the comma is actually an omitted conjunction, choices including 'and', 'so' and 'but'.
Jeremiah White
Facile >C'est l'heure d'aller à l'école >N'oublie pas ton sac-à-dos >Puis-je emprunter ton crayon? >As-tu fait tes devoirs?
Moyen >Les maths sont ma matière préféré, quelle est la tienne? >Ma mère m'a donné de l'argent pour le dejenuer à l'école aujourd'hui, mais un brute me l'a volé >L'enseignant m'a donné une mauvaise note pour mon essai d'histoire >S'il vous plaît, n'écrivez pas sur le tableau avec le marqueur indélébile
Difficile >John ne fait pas bien à l'école, et ses parents ont peur qu'il va échouer l'année prochaine s'il continue comme ça >Ils m'ont démandé si je pouvais lui donner des cours après l'école et on a négocié un price adéquat >Moi et John avons créé un paquet de cartes-mémoire ensemble et on a pratiqué surtout sciences et français, les deux matières avec lesquelles il avait du mal >Putain, cet exercise rassemble beaucoup au précedent mais avec un sujet différent, n'est-ce pas?
Sebastian Sanchez
very good post I will add it to my lang pasta's
Andrew Long
>page neuf
Levi Parker
is it though? it's pretty much the standard "it's better to have a bunch of random languages for culture preservation instead of having everybody understand each other all the time"
despite this argument being made over and over for literally hundreds of years the clear trend is to homogenization of languages
culture is getting homogenized too. people are wearing traditional american dressings such as tshirts and jeans everywhere in the world. that's life
Luke James
This one was a bitch
>It's time for school! Nunc ad ludum eundum est! >Don't forget your backpack! Noli sacculum oblivisci! >Can I borrow a pencil? Possumne graphidem tuam mutuari? >>Did you do your homework? Fecistine pensum?
>Math is my favorite subject at school, how about you? Mathematica est gratissima materia mihi, quae autem est tibi? >My mom gave me money for lunch today at school, but a bully stole it from me. Mater pecuniam ad meredam emendam mihi dedit, puer procax autem eam furatus est. >The teacher gave me a bad grade for my essay in history class. Magister inferiorem gradum mihi dedit ob opusculum quod de historia scripsi. >Please don't write on the whiteboard in permanent marker. Nolite in tabula scholare penicillo indelebile scribere.
>John isn't doing very well at school, and his parents are afraid that he will be held back next year if this continues. Johannes male se habet in schola, et parentes timent ne repetat gradum annualem si hoc manet. >They asked me if I could tutor him after school and we negotiated a fair price. Me rogaverunt ut eum docerem, et pretium iustum constituimus. >John and I created a bunch of flashcards together and mainly practiced science and [language], the two subjects he has been failing in. Johannes et ego multas chartas fecimus, etiam praecipue Scientiam naturalem Rhetoricamque studuimus, materiis in quibus ille male se habet. >Boy, this challenge sounds a lot like the one that came before but with a different topic, doesn't it? Heus puer, haec provocatio similis videtur antecedenti, quamquam re differunt, certe?
Liam Nguyen
Oops I have to correct myself
>Kann ich deinen Bleistift leihen? The original sentence was "Can I borrow a pencil" not "your pencil". So it should be *Kann ich (mir) einen Bleistift leihen? The "mir" is optional I think, also on your sentence.
Jordan Lopez
>• La matemática es mi asignatura más favorita en la escuela, ¿y tuya? "Más favorita" sounds redundant, just say favorita. *¿y la tuya? >• Hoy mi madre me dio dinero para el almuerzo, pero un matón lo quitó. It sounds better to say "me lo quitó". >• Mi profesor mi puso mala nota por mi ensayo en historia. *me puso >• A John no le va bien en colegio, y sus padres se preocupan de que lo dejaren el próximo año si esto sigue así. *lo dejen It sounds more natural to say: "y sus padres temen que repita el año". >• Me preguntaron si le pudiera dar clases después del esquela, y acordamos un buen precio. *podía *de la escuela "Un buen precio" sounds like they're paying you a lot. A fair price would be "un precio justo". >• Vaya, este reto se parece mucho al que fue antes, pero con tema diferente, ¿verdad? It sounds better to say "al anterior" instead of "al que fue antes".
Dylan Baker
It's mexican slang. lmaoooo no mms ni me gusta "Lmao no mames, ni me gusta" Lmao dont be silly, i don't even like (it/him/her).
Angel Miller
...
Zachary Roberts
>despite this argument being made over and over for literally hundreds of years the clear trend is to homogenization of languages What argument are you trying to make here?
Gavin Murphy
sorry but how is it not obvious? I'd honestly like an answer because I genuinely can't see how it wouldn't be obvious to you what I'm saying
people have been resisting language change for hundreds of years with the same argument and it's always been ineffective and meaningless, progress is homogenization of language and the ability to speak to more people is more important than the very slight benefits of a grab bag of historical dialects and languages
Robert Flores
of course north americans wouldnt know what culture and its meaning is not going to argue about this with people like you as you dont understand the very fundamentals of it
Eli Kelly
I moved to canada from switzerland. but I can see from this kind of reply you're not interested in any kind of real discussion, so I should say thank you for making that clear and saving me any kind of trouble talking about it with you.
Jaxson Cruz
well in which case you might just be severely retarded and i dont see a person from switzerland making that argument at all. there is a written standard and its enough to make communication accessible, everything else is cuck shit without sense or purpose. you might enjoy living in a stale, culture- and characterless country, but that doesnt mean that everyone likes that. whats the next thing you propose, how about the entire world just drops their bullshit and speaks english, this way well understand eachother xDDD wouldnt that be epic no, fuck off nigger
Cooper Ramirez
>sorry but how is it not obvious? I'd honestly like an answer because I genuinely can't see how it wouldn't be obvious to you what I'm saying I just wanted clarification, because it seemed like you were also implying that popular trends are inherently good. Are you Swiss French or Swiss German?
Owen Edwards
yes yes of course I'm sure an argument about my heritage and current country would be very typical for you but to me that is a very boring line of conversation and all I see is a low minded individual not capable of making any convincing point or interesting argument
lucerne, now vancouver
Angel Perez
When doing the challenges I write out the sentences using whichever words I know and leave blank spaces for ones I don't know, then look them up and fill them in. Anyone else do this? Is it good practice?
Andrew Collins
my point is that culture is more important than being able to converse with people you wont ever meet, but why would you address anything if you could just get mad about the banter right xD lets just speak english everywhere thats probably for the better :D like why are you in this thread, learning a language is just useless crap, literally an artificial barrier that could be weeded out by homogenalising all conversation altogether, seems like a waste of time my guy
James Jackson
>this argument being made over and over for literally hundreds of years indeed, but >the clear trend is to homogenization of languages has only been that way in the last century and a half, when the first great waves of nationalism swept the west and, by extension, many of its colonies. before then, homogeneization was more or less kept in check by further differentiation.
James Rodriguez
I prefer looking for new words as I write, because different words often require different syntactic structures, so it isn't as simple as filling a blank space: you may have to change the whole sentence depending on the word.
Dominic Scott
>Language challenge
>Easy È ora di andare a scuola Non dimenticare il tuo zaino Mi presti una matita? Hai fatto i tuoi compiti?
>Medium Matematica è la mia materia preferita alla scuola, qual è la tua? Mia madre mi ha dato i soldi per il pranzo, ma un bullo me l’ho rubato Il mio insegnante di storia mi ha dato un brutto voto sul mio saggio Per favore, non scrivere sulla lavagna con un pennarello indelebile
>Hard John non va molto bene a scuola, e i suoi genitori hanno paura che dovrà ripetere l’anno se continua così. Mi hanno chiesto se potevo aiutarlo dopo la scuola e abbiamo negoziato un giusto prezzo. John e io abbiamo creato un sacco di flashcard insieme e abbiamo principalmente praticato scienza e italiano, le due materie in cui va male. Cavolo, questa sfida sembra molto simile al precedente ma con un argomento diverso, no?
David Green
>me l’ho rubato damnit should this be me li ha rubati? i have a habit of thinking money is singular
Charles Kelly
>Matematica è la mia materia preferita alla scuola, qual è la tua? "La matematica" Just "a scuola" >ma un bullo me l’ho rubato Since "i soldi" is plural, "me li ha rubati" >un brutto voto sul mio saggio We would more commonly say "sul mio tema" >e abbiamo principalmente praticato Could pass, but in a school context it's better to say "abbiamo ripassato" >molto simile al precedente "sfida" is female, so "alla precedente" Pretty good overall
Jace Green
That's true and I do often end up abandoning my initial structures for that reason when the words I find don't fit. I think I just like doing it that way because it makes it easier to focus on whatever gaps need to be filled in my vocabulary once I have my proposed sentences down. If my structure was right then it reinforces that as an acceptable structure and if it's not I'll see where I messed up and be encouraged not to make the same mistake again
Owen Reyes
Yep, if you want you can use "denaro" which is singular, but "soldi" is more common
Juan Ramirez
Grazie friendo
Lincoln Lee
The translation is good. I'd consider just a single change. >z ust zazdrosnych -> from the lips/mouths of the envious (people) Reading the original, I believe "zazdrosnych" is meant as a noun here. The phrase is ambiguous, so your translation is also correct. I just think it would be written as "zazdrosnych ust" if that was the intended meaning.
Jose Lopez
>Non dimenticare il tuo zaino Generalmente l'uso degl'aggettivi possessivi è più raro che la controparte inglese (ed è peraltro uno degl'indizi che il testo in questione è tradotto). In questo caso mi risulta meno macchinoso dire "Non dimenticarti lo zaino". >Hai fatto i tuoi compiti? Anche qui, generalmente non serve specificare "tuoi", dato che, a parte casi particolari, ci si aspetta che uno studente faccia almeno i suoi.
>Matematica è la mia materia preferita alla scuola, qual è la tua? *La matematica *a scuola ("scuola" è uno di quei luoghi che non richiede articolo) Inoltre a me pare più naturale "la tua qual è" o simili. Fate vobis. >Mia madre mi ha dato i soldi per il pranzo, ma un bullo me l’ho rubato *me li ha rubati, soldi è plurale. >Il mio insegnante di storia mi ha dato un brutto voto sul mio saggio Mio qui è ridondante: se ti ha dato un voto, non lo dà certo sul saggio altrui. Anche qui, è una questione di contesto: se si sta parlando con studenti di altre scuole, ad esempio, "il mio insegnante" ha senso; altrimenti sarebbe più comune dire semplicemente "L'insegnante". Ad ogni modo, uno studente raramente utilizza il termine "insegnante," sebbene sia la traduzione corretta di "teacher." "Professore" è il nome comune. Stesso dicesi per "saggio": "tema" o "relazione."
>Mi hanno chiesto se potevo aiutarlo dopo la scuola e abbiamo negoziato un giusto prezzo. O anche equo (che però va dopo "prezzo"), specialmente nella forma "equo compenso". >John e io abbiamo creato un sacco di flashcard insieme e abbiamo principalmente praticato scienza e italiano, le due materie in cui va male. *scienze, al plurale. Nel parlato si tende a porre "principalmente" (e forse altri avverbi?) dopo il verbo, ma tant'è. Alla Crusca verrà un aneurisma se continuo. Praticare di per sé potrebbe anche andare, ma così anche "fare pratica" od anche il più comune "ripassare". >Cavolo, questa sfida sembra molto simile al precedente ma con un argomento diverso, no? *alla
Luis Foster
Nice one. Have you thought about studying from a Latin prose composition textbook? There’s a good, classic one, can’t remember the name.
Jason Robinson
>despite this argument being made over and over for literally hundreds of years the clear trend is to homogenization of languages Uh no? The trend is literally the opposite of what you say it is; even now languages are evolving into new and separate ones, all the time, and this is practically an unstoppable process even with the internet
Aaron Morales
You're right. Fixed.
Lucas Phillips
My main problem with it is that it uses the wrong adjectives. There's no such thing as 'Waaslands', only 'Waas', and it should be 'Kust-West-Vlaams' instead of 'Kust-Vlaams'. I also believe 'Kempisch' is more common than 'Kempens'. Also >implying Limburgish is still spoken in Belgium, or Brabantic in the Netherlands At this point they've become little more than an accent to common Flemish and Dutch respectively. Otherwise, the map is actually pretty accurate, as far as the south of the Germanic area goes.
>nobody needs standard languages. It's a starting point for people to learn a language if nothing else, but I agree wholeheartedly with every word you wrote. Too bad the people in charge don't share our views.
>how about the entire world just drops their bullshit and speaks english Man, I really, really hate how so many people push that kind of "your 'language' is actually just a retarded dialect, you should look beyond your provincialism and speak the standard language because more people speak it" bullshit. Next time I encounter someone like that I'll ask them why they aren't speaking English.
Jeremiah Peterson
This site seems like a great source of comprehensive input if you can find translations of songs you know in the lang you're learning
Ian Wilson
grazie mille, non aspettavo una risposta così approfondita. mi piace che tu l’abbia scritta in italiano >Alla Crusca verrà un aneurisma se continuo che cosa intendevi con “alla crusca”? is it something like “by god i’ll have an aneurism if i continue” ho cercato quella frase su google e non ho trovato niente
Andrew Ramirez
If you can't find a translation or even the song you're looking for there, you can just request it. An autist will have it done for free within days. For instance, I couldn't find the lyrics to that song on the internet and I requested for a transcription in Polish before I translated it. Love this site.
you were the user who posted about nedersassisk right? do you have a background in that by chance? things like that are even more reason for me to care about preservation so much, because the ones who do want to keep their language alive are powerless, its sad to see
Aiden Lee
How's it going bros
Andrew Nguyen
>you were the user who posted about nedersassisk right? do you have a background in that by chance? That was probably me, but I just know the basics by reading some stuff on the Saxon Wikipedia and listening to the podcasts by Wearldspråke on YouTube. I find them reasonably easy to understand, but that's certainly in part because the guy who does them lives in the Netherlands, so the accent and some of the vocabulary is closer to what I'm used to. Just last year they got their language recognised as a regional language in the Netherlands, though, so not all hope is lost. Of course the Dutch language union tried every trick in the book to stop the recognition from happening, but luckily they lost. Belgium's still royally screwed, though - literally none of the indigenous languages have any official status.
Bretty good.
Robert Lopez
ye the nazis already started with that shit here because one people are supposed to speak one language. the last few centuries had that very theme all across europe though, come to think of it, there was the welsh not in great britain, the symbole in france to suppress breton speakers etc, but even nowadays the goethe institute is very keen on prescriptivism, its sad. neither does the state do any big initiatives for indigenous languages, i think Sorbian gets like 2hrs screentime per week and there are tiny news sites for low saxon, but for example no single course in school to make people able to speak to their family or generally to become more culturally aware of ones own region. none of that. its a shit situation.
Tyler Jenkins
>Bretty good. based good for you lad
Ian Sanchez
this is why nationalism is the same shit as globalism but on a smaller scale. lets take all german people and stick them together and make them all speak the same! great idea. now all the dialects and languages are dying out. germany actually seems to do pretty well in that regard, but other regions not so much
Ayden Garcia
Nation states needed one language to be able to exist, but I wonder what the future will bring first: nation disintegration or the end of standard languages. I doubt we'll still be around to see it, though.
Mason Cooper
Doubtful If anything, the concept of standard dialect will die out long before the disintegration of nations.
Hudson Robinson
知命者不怨天, 知己者不怨人.
The one who knows fate resents-not heaven, The one who knows oneself resents-not others.
Did I put this well?
Owen Rodriguez
mong. there is no classical scots. only scots. scots language never changes always stays the same.
Evan Richardson
How do you say that your cell phone is ringing in German? > mein Handy ringt
do Germans still call cell phones Handy or have they moved to smarthandy?
Isaiah Fisher
mein handy klingelt >ringt ringen is a word but it means to wrestle >smarthandy under absolutely no circumstances at all
Jack Hernandez
Danke schön.
Carson Carter
Lo trovo affascinante che l'eccezioni di italiano e spagnolo hanno diventato estremamente simile in i loro eccezioni di coniugazionie. Per esempio, la fine dei verbi "roto" e "rotto" da "rompere" e "romper" o "era" e "era" da "essere" e "ser". Realmente, mi chiedo come questo ha venuto essere - come la mutazioni dei verbi diventavano tanti simile in sia lingue che sono piuttosto separate dalla terra
Isaac Thompson
All those exceptions have a latin origin. Era from latin erat, roto from latin ruptum.
Jackson Lopez
True but they both evolved their endings in the same way - like the -um ending became -o and it didn't necessarily have to evolve that way. Like, one of the languages could have just said rutu instead of roto instead or something like that
Daniel Bennett
I wonder where did these seemingly related articles come from, considering latin had no articles
That's because many exceptions were either Latin exceptions as well, or were regular but Vulgar Latin had already moved past them, leaving them crystallized as exceptions. Similar phonological developments did the rest.
They come from various forms of "that" in Latin: il = lo = le = el = "illum" = that.MASC.ACC la = "illa(m)" = that.FEM.ACC gli = i = "illi" = those.MASC.NOM le = "ille" = those.FEM.NOM les = los = "illos" = those.MASC.ACC les = las = "illas" = those.FEM.ACC