Re: Language changes, spelling reform (was Conlangea Dreaming)

From: "jesse stephen bangs"

> I have one worse.  I attempted to read "After Babel: Aspects of Language
> and Translation" but gave up about halfway through because the author
> would chase tangents ad nauseum and *never* seemed to get to his original
> point.  It was a like a long, dry, stream-of-consciousness on
> languages.  A great subject matter, but terrible book.  Plus, the author
> was fond of quoting long passages in Latin, German, and French without
> translating them, which I found arrogant and irritating.
> So, if anyone's thought about reading the above book, don't bother.
Chacun a son goût...I thoroughly enjoyed it. An intelligent, thoughtful man
muses on language and translation. I didn't really read it as a thesis, so
wasn't actively searching for a "point". Too, color me elitist -- I haven't
read the book in a good eight years, but I'm sure it has copious footnotes
pointing you to original texts and translations thereof if one needs to
search them out. He's not writing for auto mechanics or farmers, for
goodness sake; he's discussing difficulties and nuances with translation. As
such, I think he's allowed to presume his (Western) audience will have at
least working familiarity with those three biggies. Flawless, no -- a good
read, yes. That we can all do so well.

Kou (thumbs up) :)