Languages Don't Begin with Grunts

Remember how Clinton asked "That depends on what the definition of is, is." Well yeah that sounds pretty funny off hand, but he's not kidding, there are tons of definitions for how is, is to be used.

Just like the word set.

I set something on the table.

Some how that word, which seems like it has only one use, has over 400 definitions and proper uses. Of which I know only the above example.

Originally posted by HKoT
But that a Good master of English can convey more thoughts, more ideas, more feelings and emotions, more occurances, more circumstances, then any other language on earth.

No.

My spanish teacher said English is the language of adverstisement.


"space below is reserved for an insult by HKot."

Hkot, please hold on now.. are we discussing the most difficult language to learn or a language that allows to express yourself the most?

Actually that's a good question, but I'd consider them the same.

The more expressive a language is, the more difficult.

English I think is above Mandarin because it is not only very expressive but has definite sentence structure. Where as with most languages on earth the sentence structure is of little use.

Originally posted by HKoT

The more expressive a language is, the more difficult.

No, it's not. Go learn Chinese.

Personal opinions vary, as do skills and opportunities to learn languages.

According to linguists (those who study languages), English is one of the hardest languages to learn. So that's the word from the scholars, folks, not from the person on the streets...

Oh -- and the ancient languages (such as Greek and Latin) were quite sophisticated. We use them today (still) in the sciences. It was only 200 years ago (or so) that they stopped publishing important scientific papers in Latin.

Originally posted by Byrd
According to linguists (those who study languages), English is one of the hardest languages to learn.

No.

By the way English is considered to be one of the easiest languages to learn from actual experts. It(s) made up of many other languages. So it derives from All of Europe. Basically, since it has connections with almost every other language it becomes easy for people to identify with it.

Damn, Another war between Lysergic and HKoT. I'll stay out of this one, just want to see the winner though.

[Edited on 5/4/2003 by FoxStriker]

Originally posted by FoxStriker
By the way English is considered to be one of the easiest languages to learn from actual experts.

Yes, that is true.

Fox your sentence structure in your last post just proves you know little about the english language.

As does your limited vocabulary.

Its called typing fast, as for you HKoT, Answer what I put, dont dodge questions.

I know 3 languages. English, Spanish, and Italian. Thats why I know English is the easiest to learn. It has connections to many languages. Ask an american man if he has learned Chinease or Indian or Middle Eastern languages.

Don't say what you don't know. I really don't like the way you answer questions because you don't answer them.

Stick to the subject, yes english is an easy language to learn.

If your talking about learning the language like a college professor, thats different for all languages.

[Edited on 5/4/2003 by FoxStriker]

I was just listening to a thing about J.R.R. Tolkien and the man said, "No one ever dared edit Tolkien's work, he knew what he was writing."

Of course he was a philology professor, or linguistics, if there is really any difference.

And a great commander of the english language, just because you can convey simple thoughts doesn't mean you speak the language to it's maximum capabilities.

That is more difficult then any other language on earth.

And your last post had proved it, there was no need for me to go further.

Just because you can order hotdogs doesn't mean you can "speak" the language. I think you'll have a hard time finding any evidence of any linguists or philology professors or language experts who would back what you claim they say.

Actually you just proved my point, I said its the easiest language to learn because it comes from many dialects and is made up from parts of other languages.

Now if you're talking about verbs, grammar, and sounds of how a language like english should be, thats when you count english to be a little harder. Not that much harder than others.

I stand by what I said that Chinese is a hard language. YOU now have culture to deal with, way different lettering. same with Arabic languages.

Learn Chinese and tell me Im wrong. Study for an hour/4 days a week or whatever you do. Don't pressume to know something you have never experienced.

I am tri-lingual and english is my second language. I agree with Fox Striker, like I have many times in the past, that English is an easy language to learn. A lot of new words in other languages come from English, because it is spoken as the primary buisness language.

None of us are completly fluent in English. But we are "speaking" it.

Couldn't have said it better myself, Thanks for the help and comments another_one and omega1

I tried learning turkish once ... I understand how they put they're sentance's together. Make's more sense the way they do it than the english language. I couldn't remember everything I read though, so I gave up on it ... I'm not going to turkey anytime soon anyway's!

Fox stop trying to back down from what you previously thought, I hate people who when their position gets thin they simply start shifting it.

At first it was "English is easy". Period.

Now you're trying to say "English is easy but is hard if you want to master it." (Like I've been saying the whole time you two tongued newb).

And now you say "Try learning Chinese" when I've been saying that Chinese is equally hard as english, except it's harder in writing than speaking versus english's tendency to be harder to master to speak, then to write...comparitively.

Why don't you just leave now defeated, and hang your head in shame.

The only thing that matters in this thread is that languages have evolved to become more sophisticated, in the case with english, however some languages like Greek have devolved to become more simple.

Ancient Greek used to be very poetic and musical, now it is fairly stripped of that essence.

But over all, languages began with grunts.