Re: my proposals for a philosophical language

Sally Caves wrote:
SC> Andrew, what women?  Women you know?  I'm a woman.
SC> This is an essentialist notion that "women like things
SC> because they're PRETTY."  A lot of people dislike
SC> French because of its ubiquitous nasals and umlauted
SC> "u"s, and have said so on this list.  I love it, but
SC> not just because it "sounds nice." It's because it's
SC> useful to me and it's the one language besides Spanish
SC> at home that I got somewhat immersed in.

My opinion is not based on thorough research.

My father spoke fluent French and loved the language.
A woman who stole $100,000 from me spoke some French.
I have heard people comparing languages in terms of
their phonemic beauty. German and Polish languages were
ranked low in this respect. Russian, English and Chinese
were ranked high. There is no account for tastes, of
course, but these tastes seem to influence the desire
to learn a language.

By the way, I love diversity of all kinds except diversity
of standards, which includes languages. My article about
diversity was published in the spring of 1993 in The
Trumpeter: http://www.islandone.org/LEOBiblio/DIVERSIT.HTM.

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