Re: Opinions on English

Must I defend my beautiful language?  A french friend of mine once said,
"English sounds like two cats f***ing in a paper sack!"  I did not, out of
politeness, reply that French sounds like someone gargling a soufle.

Here is why I love English:

We have a superfluity of vocabulary, guaranteeing there is almost always
at least two choices, often many more, for a single concept.

We have the power to verb ("verbing weirds language," says Calvin to
Hobbs), as well as the ability to create compound words of particular
aptness.  The typical English speaker, of course, believes that if it
isn't in the dictionary it isn't a word (a strange attitude!), but no one
has any doubt that "blood moist," is a horrible adjective describing
slaughter, and "silk tongued" is erotic.

We have infinite gorgeous registers and subsets of the language to choose
from.  We can be scholars, we can be hoodlems, if skilled in the language,
we can swerve from scholar to hoodlem to whore in a matter of hours.
English gives the power to make the speaker.

English sentence structure is flexible and variable, providing numerous
options for each utterance.

Finally, the beautiful words of English march across a page like drops of
raining, blending in the mind into a sea of meaning.  How gorgeous!
Perhaps not the most euphonic language in the world, English has the
flexibility that more than makes up for such a deficit.

I adore all languages, but I absolutely love my own native tongue.

--Pat

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