Re: Comparison of philosophical languages

Andreas Johansson wrote:

> I'll happily agree that English orthography is pretty complex and not
> terribly regular, and that the English vowel system is somewhat, er,
> sophisticated,
Why? It's not a regular system of alternation, but it seems to be to be
a fairly normal system with a few more distinctions...

> but orthography is surely pretty peripheral, and every
> language has a "sophisticated" bit or two. What makes you think that
> English, as a whole, is "exceptionally difficult"? I've never heard of
> data
> suggesting that anglophone children has later speech development on
> average
> that children learning other languages, f'rinstance.
I've heard that /T/ and /D/ aren't mastered till about four or five, and
they're the only sounds I can remember actually learning (not counting
particular words; I used to say hopsital for hospital). Maybe that
counts as difficult?

Tristan.

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