My Love For The English Language (Best Language In The World)

[LuoirM]

 

[Seaspecter]

 

[AnonUnlimited]

Modern English is multiple words from many languages using a specific grammar.

 

[Prince_Azmiran_Myrian]

This is why we report translations.

 

[Tyranomaster]

Cope and seethe, less information dense languages. All these other languages have to literally talk faster in order to convey as much information per syllable as english (and many literally do).

Added note: - Other languages are like, "English is just borrowing from all these other languages". I prefer the interpretation that we had a marketplace of languages, and the free market of ideas allowed the best words and grammar rules to survive, leading to our superiority.

 

[LuoirM]

View attachment 38508
Cope and seethe, less information dense languages. All these other languages have to literally talk faster in order to convey as much information per syllable as english (and many literally do).

How dare you bring up statistic and differing points from the poster? I'm warning you, young/medifum/old man.

 

[Indicterra]

"As a wise man said, English is not a language, it's three language wearing a trench coat pretending to be one language"

 

[Tegeli]

The premier element of English is the plethora of recondite sesquipedalian words that are in truth perfectly cromulent compounds loaned from the more sensible foreign vernacular.

 

[Hoshino]

Speak I no englosh, nya.

 

[ShrimpShady]

English is just a scheme by big spelling bee to spell more bees. Ask yourself, dear ESL forum user, does your native language have a spelling bee? Didn't think so.

 

[dukerino]

I love English because all the different languages that fell face-first into its melting pot give us different layers of meaning and expressivity--from Latin and Ancient Greek we can infuse our sentences with the stultifying air of the philosophical assemblies. From the Romantic languages we're lent the mellifluous poetry and sumptuous, hedonic purple prose. And then there's this fun underclass gutter of choppy, satisfying Germanic rooted stuff like "fuck." It's a mongrel language in the best way.

 

[Assurbanipal_II]

View attachment 38508
Cope and seethe, less information dense languages. All these other languages have to literally talk faster in order to convey as much information per syllable as english (and many literally do).

Added note: - Other languages are like, "English is just borrowing from all these other languages". I prefer the interpretation that we had a marketplace of languages, and the free market of ideas allowed the best words and grammar rules to survive, leading to our superiority.

This study seems highly dubious. I am not sure how English can beat proper compound words.

 

[Fairemont]

View attachment 38500 View attachment 38501 View attachment 38502 View attachment 38503 View attachment 38504 View attachment 38505 View attachment 38506

I decided to come in here and see what this thread was all about and I immediately misread the first five highlighted languages as "luggage" and I was trying to figure out where it was going with the joke. But the joke was me all along!

 

[Representing_Tromba]

As a native English speaker, I thank you for your love of our language, but humbly request you choose a different(better) one as your favorite... like Navajo.

 

[Tyranomaster]

This study seems highly dubious. I am not sure how English can beat proper compound words.

A compound word is going to have more syllables than a single english word that describes the same thing.

For example: Streichholzschachtel -> Matchbox

Strike-wood-box. 4 syllables -> 2 syllables

English has a lot of words like this that other languages prefer compound descriptive words for.

This isn't necessarily a bad thing, since obviously in german, the word is also acts as instructions for the object in this case. However, it also makes the information density per syllable less, as they both communicate the object concept. It is easier to learn the german version, since a learner would likely already know the simpler base words (strike, wood, box) as well. In English, you'd know box, but Match would require context (i.e. having seen the matches in a matchbox, not to be confused with a match as in a game). English requires a lot of conceptual understand and context interpretation, which both lead to it conveying ideas in a more dense manner per syllable, but also making it more complex and harder to hop in to the middle of a random conversation.

 

[Assurbanipal_II]

A compound word is going to have more syllables than a single english word that describes the same thing.

For example: Streichholzschachtel -> Matchbox

Strike-wood-box. 4 syllables -> 2 syllables

English has a lot of words like this that other languages prefer compound descriptive words for.

This isn't necessarily a bad thing, since obviously in german, the word is also acts as instructions for the object in this case. However, it also makes the information density per syllable less, as they both communicate the object concept. It is easier to learn the german version, since a learner would likely already know the simpler base words (strike, wood, box) as well. In English, you'd know box, but Match would require context (i.e. having seen the matches in a matchbox, not to be confused with a match as in a game). English requires a lot of conceptual understand and context interpretation, which both lead to it conveying ideas in a more dense manner per syllable, but also making it more complex and harder to hop in to the middle of a random conversation.

Waldkampf?

 

[Tyranomaster]

Waldkampf?

Yes. There are examples in every language that go either direction. The density difference is like 5-10% or something. On the average though, English is more dense. For every forest combat, there is an ice skating. On the balance, as demonstrated by the study, English is slightly more dense (concept to concept, syllable to syllable).

And for a handful of them, where an English phrase WOULD be longer, like schadenfreude, we just use the german itself. (A lot of english is germanic origin ~25%)

 

[Assurbanipal_II]

Yes. There are examples in every language that go either direction. The density difference is like 5-10% or something. On the average though, English is more dense. For every forest combat, there is an ice skating. On the balance, as demonstrated by the study, English is slightly more dense (concept to concept, syllable to syllable).

And for a handful of them, where an English phrase WOULD be longer, like schadenfreude, we just use the german itself. (A lot of english is germanic origin ~25%)

The reality of the study is very much doubted. It is an opinion. And not a particular good one.

In fact, your first example as your entire argument hinges on a peculiar definition of the concept of "information". A premise is not exactly information.

 

[Tyranomaster]

The reality of the study is very much doubted. It is an opinion. And not a particular good one.

In fact, your first example as your entire argument hinges on a peculiar definition of the concept of "information". A premise is not exactly information.

Sounds like coping and seething to me.

 

[Assurbanipal_II]

Sounds like coping and seething to me.

I see, someone speaking from experience there.