Re: CHAT: An introduction

----- Original Message -----
From: "Pavel Iosad" <edricson@...>


> [Christophe:]
> > >  (though I must
> > >admit, school left me with a dislike of French, alone among
> > >languages).
> >
> > Why is it always French which suffers from such dislikes? :((((
>
> Why, isn't that a sign that something *is* wrong with the language? ;-)
> *no offence meant*
First of all, I don't think that it's always French that suffers from
dislikes.  Lately, we've had a number of gallophobic remarks on line, but
that means very little in the world of linguistic likes and dislikes.
Personally, I'd put my bid in for disliking Spanish more than I dislike
French, but that dislike has personal reasons.  And German is a hell of a
lot harder for me to memorize vocabulary for.  In fact, I quite like French;
I think the nasalities are original to the Romance languages, I like how
they sound, I like the uvular r, and I find it something of an achievement
that I learned to pronounce it at all (Spanish is so easy, and I've had so
much exposure to Mexican Spanish, bein' a California girl), much less speak
it (after a fashion) when I lived in Geneva.  It's so full of idioms and
bons mots.  :)  I think, however, that Italian will be my favorite romance
language, if I ever master it.  Right now, I'm trying to get a handle again
on German.

> Well, as a wise sage used to say, 'personal predilections varies [sic]
> widely'. Which as good a basis for ignoring other people's _lámatyávi_
> as anything.
La'mtya'vi.  Please explain.  Lovely word.  Don't know it.

Sally Caves
scaves@frontiernet.net
Eskkoat ol ai sendran, rohsan nuehra celyil takrem bomai nakuo.
"My shadow follows me, putting strange, new roses into the world."

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