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Is English an inferior language?
I have no desire whatsoever to teach spanish people. What an odd comment.
Whats the point of coming on an english forum to insult english speaking nationalities by the way?
Xie,
you can't deny that the Chinese writing system is really overly complicated compared to the writing systems of other major languages. I think it takes at most two strokes to write a letter of the Latin alphabet, how many strokes do you need to write a Chinese character? Twenty-six letters versus at least four thousand multi-stroke symbols. It's obvious. I'm not saying Chinese characters shouldn't be used anymore. It wouldn't be Chinese anymore. In fact, I really like all those symbols and without them Chinese and Japanese would lose almost all their charm. Those symbols are what makes Asian languages attractive. So what I'm saying is another thing, a fact: it's complicated. Beautiful, but complicated, and that sure looks like a limitation in a language when compared with other ones, especially when considering important languages that could also be considered international languages. Maybe it doesn't look complicated to you, because you already know it or you are a native speaker. However, I have to say that Chinese simple grammar should compensate for its complicated writing system.
>>I just learned that Chinese tones seem to be a big limitation to expressiveness in the arts. It's not a suitable language for singing, for example. <<
Remember, Johnny, that there are many many tone languages out there, especially in Africa, see http://wals.info/feature/13 and http://wals.info/feature/13?tg_format=map&v1=cfff&v2=cf6f&v3=cd00&s=20&z3=3000&z2=2999&z1=2998 African cultures can well express itself, isn't it?
"I think it takes at most two strokes to write a letter of the Latin alphabet, how many strokes do you need to write a Chinese character?"
You don't seem to understand a thing about Chinese. Chinese characters represent syllables. How many strokes do you need to write a syllable in Latin alphabet? Furthermore, many Chinese syllables also happen to be whole words. Who many strokes do you need to write an English word? And the tonality of a language does not make the language less expressive. Tonal languages just work very differently from English.
>>Xie,
you can't deny that the Chinese writing system is really overly complicated compared to the writing systems of other major languages. I think it takes at most two strokes to write a letter of the Latin alphabet, how many strokes do you need to write a Chinese character? Twenty-six letters versus at least four thousand multi-stroke symbols. It's obvious.<< But my monolingual parents, remembering the months in English (as they appear on bills in our home) is also very difficult. No one is born to automatically believe something is hard or not hard. My ancestors would feel, as I do now, Chinese characters as completely natural and have no difficulty at all reading them, as long as they were literate. The view that the script is difficult probably has arisen ONLY since Sino-foreign relations have begun. And since the widespread economic reform of our country, even more Chinese came to believe that their language is "difficult" and even proud of it. I disapprove of this. My own name is simple to write but not that straightforward to understand even by natives. It contains 29 strokes, a relatively simple one. If you count strokes literally, then you win of course, since my own name would be more difficult than, let's say, Sebastian Weilerscheid, my own made-up name for a German male. Jan Römer, on the other hand, would of course look far simpler than my name. And not to mention the pronunciation. While I don't buy the big universalist claims of "yeah, all languages are more or less easy and difficult", I'd say square characters have the advantage of being meaningful per se. This is exactly what makes Chinese succinct without the need of a lot of visible morphemes that are meaningless when separated - namely letters, esp. for declensions, gender, etc. >>Maybe it doesn't look complicated to you, because you already know it or you are a native speaker. However, I have to say that Chinese simple grammar should compensate for its complicated writing system.<< You may also say this is just like how we judge the look of each other :) You can find a lot of discussions about beauty concepts everywhere in the cyberspace.
>>I just learned that Chinese tones seem to be a big limitation to expressiveness in the arts. It's not a suitable language for singing, for example. <<
I don't speak Chinese but I don't think Chinese people have a problem deciphering the tones in sung lyrics. I mean, four choices, you have an idea what they're singing about, and in strings of sentences you can put 2 and 2 together most of the time just from context (save for occasional ambiguities). And besides, it's not like you can tell what people are singing in English 100% of the time either. Some people are downright incomprehensible when they sing. There are websites dedicated to misheard lyrics.
No. It is a superior language: it has a status of World language, it is a Germanic language with a strong presence of Latin vocabulary, and an easy grammar.
So, it is easy for Germanic and Latin people. At the same time, Chinese or Arabic people with English as foreign language can study better other European languages of the Germanic or Latin family (German, Spanish or French). It is a very good choice as first foreign language. There is a theory. Only easy languages can be really World languages: Latin, Spanish, French and English were/are the World languages the last XX centuries. All of them are easy languages and even they are very similar.
Yes. It is true, there are 4 superior languages: English, French, Spanish and Latin.
There is also an interesting point. German, Russian, Chinese, etc are difficult languages and never could be the most powerful language during at least a century. Only 4 languages can be considered superior (the most important language during at least 100 years).
No, there aren't "grammatically" superior languages, only culturally superior languages. A lot of languages could have been as important as English. If a language is needed and is popular, you can learn it, no matter how difficult it might seem at first. But the problem is "culture".
Chinese doesn't seem like a good candidate for an important global language because of that: the Chinese culture is has not been influential, excluding negative influence (communism, censorship, human rights). Also, these damn phonemes that depend on tones don't make it suitable for the arts and entertainment in the western world, as far as I understand. If that's ok in China, that's just because they have a different culture and society, I think. If they are used to being "colder" compared to us westerners, then it's ok, but it's only ok in their culture. I believe each language is tied to its own culture, but most western languages seem to have the potential to become multi-cultural languages.
>>There is a theory. Only easy languages can be really World languages: Latin, Spanish, French and English were/are the World languages the last XX centuries.<<
My own ancestors had also run one of the biggest countries since 2000 years ago. If China were never united, it could just East Asian Europe with many states and cultures and languages. In that sense, its language should have been a world one as well... >>You don't seem to understand a thing about Chinese. Chinese characters represent syllables. How many strokes do you need to write a syllable in Latin alphabet? Furthermore, many Chinese syllables also happen to be whole words.<< Xie itself also happens to be a "big" one with 17 strokes, making my name rather unbalanced. But yeah, as I wrote many times earlier, it does have meanings. Just as how Smith and Miller won't tell you are really having such jobs, my own doesn't show anything about myself except an ancestral name.
>>Chinese doesn't seem like a good candidate for an important global language because of that: the Chinese culture is has not been influential, excluding negative influence (communism, censorship, human rights).<<
Before China had suffered technological stagnation during the 14th to 19th centuries, China used to be more advanced than practically all other countries. And even during those wasteful centuries, China had been one the strongest countries in terms of economic, military strength, etc. I'd say China was the weakest during much of the 19th and early 20th centuries, and had been involved in even more destruction during Mao's 27 years, but China had regained its influence again. I'd also acknowledge China was totally at a mess during Mao's time, but even then China had been able, as we Chinese agree, to resist both Soviet aggression and American isolation. And, finally, even won America's recognition as the only legitimate Chinese nation. I don't personally like Mao either, but with foundations he laid, P.R. China at least has been able to withstand America alone. We have our own PLA, not that kind of NATO troops and US troops stationing in my country. This isn't what, say, Germany and Japan can do now.
At this moment not. But 2000 years ago, it was by far the easiest (Classical Greek, Classical Chinese, Aramaic, etc)
***Latin is an easy language?***
Basically, yes - it is, and about as regular and phonetic as they come, and quite easy to pronounce, something which can't really be said about English, don't you agree? And Latin really is alive and kicking as well so no more talk about it being a dead language...just visit any flower show or horticultural centre and you will see what I mean......all those blooms on display have their Latin names in pride of place, with the English names in small letters usually, but not always, displayed underneath, but even if you don't recognise the flower by sight the Latin name "antirrhinum molle", for instance, is a dead giveaway for your ordinary antirrhinum. Helianthemum nummulanium presents more of a challenge though, and the "heli" bit could hint at some connection with the sun - "helios" - "helianthemum" being New Latin derived from the Greek word for the sun.....it's the common rock rose, and it reacts to sunlight in its own way as this wee yellow flower grows in moorlands, heathlands and generally wide, open tracts of exposed countryside. Oh - visit your local zoo sometime - all those gorgeous animals have their Latin names on display as well as your ordinary common or garden English equivalents. Since I've been down here in London I've really missed seeing my Mum's wee canis domesticus George. As we all know Latin is widely used in the sciences, including botany and biology. This is one of the few calendar days when both the American and the Rest of the World versions of the all number date formats coincide - 09/09/09. Just by way of a completely irrelevant addendum. |