the English Beast, etc. (was Re: English syllable structure)

In a message dated 09.12.2001 12:29:34 AM, dreamertwo@HOTMAIL.COM writes:

>>In a message dated 08.12.2001 08:31:18 PM, trwier@MIDWAY.UCHICAGO.EDU
>>writes:
>>
>> >English does not purposely try to frighten foreigners,
>> >unlike some languages.
>>
>>     Coulda fooled me.
>>
>>     czHANg
>Me too.  I seriously thank God that He let me have English as my first
>language.  I would not have liked to try to learn this beast as a second
>language.  Chinese is horrid enough.  The only major language I can thing
>of that would be more frightening to learn as an L2 is French.  Which is,
>of  course, why I have never made ANY attempt to learn it.  Chinese I can
handle
>(sort of).
>
    LMAO... I can think of worst fates ;) Polysynthetic languages with major
tonnage of tenses and inflexions and complicated by really odd (to me)
consonant clusters and fricatives that seem to be created by peoples with
larger reptilian brains than primate ones scare me witless ::shudders::
    How can I even begin to get a rough working idea of those languages??? My
poor lil monkey-brains just go spinning while my lil ol' beady eyes go
pinball spastic & I suddenly sweat... sorta like a panic anxiety reaction
(seriously). It's like: "Ya gotta be kiddin'... THAT is a LANGUAGE?" ::dead
faint::
    Of course I do believe that my own linguistic background heavily
influences these aesthetic/subjective reactions ...  thus my linguistic
aesthetic preferences tend toward pidgin/creole-like or analytical/isolating
languages - both NatLang & ConLang.

    Amusin' eh?

Padraic Brown wrote:

>Yes, we put a kindly, welcomming Foreigner Friendly face on
>it. Only once you've mastered a few basics, then the Language
>turns on you and sucks the life blood out of you. Only too
>late has the Foreigner realised that English is a vicious and
>deadly trap! A Linguistic Labyrinth; a Philologic venusian
>Flytrap! BWAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!
    LOL sounds like some of my relatives' experiences learning English.
One cousin who learned English in rather paltry conditions and in very ragtag
pieces in Sumatra, Indonesia speaks English so poorly and so insistently
(almost a la Su Cheng Zhong) that all the Commonwealth-raised Changs (& even
the Mainland Zhangs, who speak a quasi-passable Queen's English) actually try
to avoid speaking English with the poor guy: "AiYaH! Do not be foolish. Do
not even try speaking English with him now. You will be here all afternoon
ear-aching, you understand, la?"
    Of course, I get nailed to the wall by this guy at the huge Chang/Zhang
family _tong_ "parties"... ::throws arms to the Dark Gods of Chaos &
stage-whispers, "Why me?":: (I think it's a Zhang conspiracy personally...
punishment for me, the UberBlackSheep amongst BlackSheep (*) , for being so
_outre_ even by relatively liberal Zhang Standards [We Zhangs are notorious
"troublemakers"... ]. Thankfully, my mom's family - the infamous Wong Side of
the Family -wants nothing to do with me :)).

(*) I am related to Warlord Zhang who was the "hero" who kidnapped
Generalissimo Chiang & forced him to ally with Chairman Mao against the
fascist Japanese invaders... Warlord Zhang, 101 years old, died recently in
Hawaii.  R.I.P., _gung-gung sifu_!

*gigglagoogolbyte*/*spassogoogolocteto*

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