Re: Exotic languages (was Re: PimsleurApproach language courses)
| From: | Isidora Zamora <isidora@...> |
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| Date: | Wednesday, November 12, 2003, 2:11 |
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At 08:55 PM 11/11/03 -0500, you wrote:
>On Tue, 11 Nov 2003 15:03:29 -0500, Isidora Zamora <isidora@...>
>wrote:
>
>>At 07:34 PM 11/11/03 +0100, you wrote:
>>>I can only say I'm disconcerted to see Swedish on their list of "Exotic"
>>>languages ...
>[snip]
>>Now, Ojibwe, that's exotic.
>
>I have no idea. Got a URL? My knowledge of American languages is just about
>as poor as my knowledge of African languages, and I feel a compulsion to
>better myself on both counts.
I have no idea of how exotic the structure of Ojibwe may or may not be. I
just meant that, if you are offering courses in foreign languages, Ojibwe
is far more obscure than Swedish. (And I'm not implying that Swedish is
obscure. Personally, I am biased in favor of the opinion that more people
ought to learn Scandinavian languages.) As far as the English speaker is
concerned, I feel certain that Ojibwe must be more exotic than Swedish,
because it is not related to English, while Swedish is a very close
relative. Danish isn't exotic at all to the English speaker; there is so
much cognate vocabulary, and the grammar is quite similar.
Isidora
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