English Is the Best Language in the World

Jasper   Mon Aug 17, 2009 4:45 pm GMT
OH PLEASE: "What's so special about being gender-specific? I personally think having to conjugate words just to specify the gender is silly."

I agree. Besides, basing the merits of a language on just one word is "looking at the little picture."

Let's look at the big picture, shall we? Get a book written in English, then look at its Spanish translation. The English version, you will notice, will be pages shorter.

This tends to lead to the conjecture that English is more expressive than Spanish, not less. In other words, it seems to take fewer words to express a given point in English than in Spanish.
Guest   Mon Aug 17, 2009 6:13 pm GMT
This tends to lead to the conjecture that English is more expressive than Spanish, not less. In other words, it seems to take fewer words to express a given point in English than in Spanish.


It happens that Spanish words tend to be longer that the English words, that's the reason why Spanish texts are longer. Also Spanish uses prepositions in some cases where English just puts words one after another without any prepositions. Definately Spanish is way more articulated language.
almost in Bovina   Mon Aug 17, 2009 7:23 pm GMT
<<Let's look at the big picture, shall we? Get a book written in English, then look at its Spanish translation. The English version, you will notice, will be pages shorter.>>

I wonder if you translated something originally in Spanish (some well-written literature that takes full advantage of the features of Spanish, for example) into English, would this still bel the case?

Even better would be to compare how long it takes to read the original and the English translation, at "typical" talking speed.

Of course, to be fair, you'd go both ways and take the average. I suppose you could also round-trip some translations, and see how the lengths stack up.
Jasper   Mon Aug 17, 2009 8:04 pm GMT
"It happens that Spanish words tend to be longer that the English words, that's the reason why Spanish texts are longer. Also Spanish uses prepositions in some cases where English just puts words one after another without any prepositions. Definately Spanish is way more articulated language."

What a spin! Did you work for George Bush?

The simple fact remains that Spanish needs more words than English to express the same thought.

This is easy to see even on the city bus...or on the elevator: "down" means "par abajo"...
Guest   Mon Aug 17, 2009 8:49 pm GMT
"The simple fact remains that Spanish needs more words than English to express the same thought. "

It depends . There are cases in which Spanish is more concise. Spanish drops the subject whereas in English it is always required. According to your naive thought that makes Spanish more expressive... But I agree, in general Spanish texts are longer because it is more structured and uses prepositions and relative particles more heavily than English.


"This is easy to see even on the city bus...or on the elevator: "down" means "par abajo"... "

What are you talking about? down means abajo, not "para abajo". In an elevator, bus, etc, it's necesary to express things in a concise way. Nobody would write "para abajo" in an elevator. You must be joking...
idiocy is unlimited   Mon Aug 17, 2009 9:55 pm GMT
Conciseness and expressiveness are not related.

Compare these two languages:
The man fell down
Globorodamosirisoanidsonidnsaoninoidsa gniongofidnionoindsnadnisnaidnsoanda omopmofmdsomfdposmfpodsm


Both mean the exact same thing, hence are both as expressive. The second one is a lot longer, but there is no difference in what is expressed.
Jasper   Tue Aug 18, 2009 5:47 am GMT
"down means abajo, not "para abajo"

All I can tell you is that the Latinos at work say "par abajo" when they want to go down in an elevator, while Americans simply "down". As for the verbiage in a bus? I'll get back to you with specific examples.
Jasper   Tue Aug 18, 2009 6:46 am GMT
IDIOCY: "Conciseness and expressiveness are not related."

Idiocy, you might be right, but if so, other posters are making the same mistake. Attention is drawn to the post concerning "frendicito", et. al. A number of examples proving the alleged conciseness of Spanish—not necessarily expressiveness—are given in that post.

I trust that you can see this pattern among the various posts.
houman001   Tue Aug 18, 2009 7:16 am GMT
English is common because a lot of people speak in English and a massive amount of knowledge is published in English.
But it is not necessarily a good language.
Pronunciation in English is stupid. Thanks to French it is not the worst in the world (Don't ever think about Chinese, that one is a nightmare)! Have a look at Russian or Turkish. I really like how Russian sounds.
Bottom line: WE ARE USED TO ENGLISH. CAN'T THINK OF ANYTHING ELSE!
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Oh Please,   Tue Aug 18, 2009 1:29 pm GMT
You ignorant bastards! No language is better than another! English has terms that can't be translated into Spanish, and Spanish has terms that can't be translated into English. This thread was sort of stupid in the first place. How many languages can you even speak? Honestly, are you that smart? If y'all can't stop bitching about whether which one's less expressive and which one's not, I'm gonna have to lecture you on how many ways there are to say 'hello' in Korean! There are six I can remember...

*P.S: Chinese isn't a language. You should do some research.



And... NO, I'm not angry :)
Shuimo   Tue Aug 18, 2009 2:52 pm GMT
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joseph   Tue Aug 18, 2009 3:03 pm GMT
English is more closely related to the pre-Babel language that we all spoke - say 20,000-75,000 years ago. It is based on the human structure of our mouths, our pre-existing body/sign language, and onomatopoeia. It is based on logic - and the English words that you find that seem to lean on Latin or other dead or apparently older languages, are themselves based on a language i call RWS, which is Root Word Speak. I have written a book called "Deciphering The English Code" ( not yet published ) which details this. Example: Words for Beauty start with B in English, French ( beau) Spanish ( Bonita ) Italian ( bella ) and many other languages as well. ( Often the beauty word contains a B or P sound ) . The reason for this is that when forming a B-sound, one makes a BUTT with one's cheeks. Try it! That is what our ancestors found beautiful. ( we still do ) . Of course - English B-words also represent things like balls, bubbles, bellows, blow and boobs - but these also are derived from the act of making a B with one's cheeks. As further proof, there are only two places on the human body where one has cheeks - on the mouth and the butt. And finally, this is not NEW information folks. This is exactly why the letter B looks like a butt or boobs. This information is way old. It has just been overlooked. In fact all English letters are hieroglyphs for the original meanings of the sounds they represent. It's all quite simple and amazing.
Reach me here or at joe@wigsalon.com to discuss or get an exerpt from my book.
Guest   Tue Aug 18, 2009 4:10 pm GMT
@Jasper: English is concise because it is a creole language. All creoles use few words than true languages. Remember the concise (yet expressive) way Tarzan spoke to Cheeta...English was created the same way, by dropping words here and there so the Danes, Norsemen, Anglos, Saxons and Jutes could understand each other.
ESB   Tue Aug 18, 2009 5:47 pm GMT
^^ I disagree with the above comment. Any proof of your claims?

English is not a Creole. There are Creoles derived from English, and those really do sound "pidgin" and dumb. English, despite its ostensible simplicity, does have quite a complicated grammar, even if it's not totally apparent at first.