Re: Opinions on English (was Re: basic vocab)

Yoon Ha Lee wrote:

> I rather like it because it's a language I know what to do with.  I like
> English poetry.  I like the loanwords and I like it because I understand
> enough of its subtleties to figure it out and write in nuances.
I don't hate English, don't get me wrong, but if had a choice to choose
what language I'd be raised speaking, I wouldn't have chosen English.

> I regret I don't know Latin yet.  I actually *don't* like French's
> *sound,* aesthetically.  All these people were going on about how
> romantic it sounded, and all I heard were these honking nasals.
> <apologetic look>  Polish and Russian, OTOH, sound quite romantic to me.
The nasals don't sound romantic to me, either. Actually, I thing of
French as being a very, very ugly language, because whenever I hear it,
it's Quebec French, which is, shall we say, not the nicest of dialects.
I'm sure the French from France sounds a lot better.

When I think of romantic languages, Polish & Russian are on the list for
me, too.

> And then there's some rock song a friend played for me--can't remember
> the group--where you hear this deep voice spouting guttural German (maybe
> that's redundant), and these wild cheers in the background, and if you
> don't know enough German you hear it and think Oh no, it's a Hitleresque
> deal, and all the voice is saying in German is a recipe for hemp
> brownies.  :-p
German has those associations, just in the way it's spoken. I love the
sound of German, it's quite a constrast to what people typically think
of as the beautiful languages.

--
Robert