Best Language(s) and Why?
Mathematics. The beautiful language of the universe
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Nature creates few men brave, industry and training makes many -Machiavelli
You can safely assume that you've created God in your own image when it turns out that God hates all the same people you do
http://linguistics.berkeley.edu/~karuk/ ... -position=
Notice how most of the words for things related to water are derived from a single root using affixation and compounding.
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Learn the patterns of the past; consider what is not now; help what is not the past; plan for the future.
-Myself
Latin has the virtue of age and veneration. It is not inherently better than natural languages currently in use. You might as well through classic Attic Greek into the pot. That is the language that Plato and Aristotle wrote and spoke with.
ruveyn
Perhaps at sometime I will try to learn classical Greek since it is still somewhat useful also. It would be neat to study Euclid's Elements in its original language.
Half of the technical terms are already in English. English has borrowed many Greek root words. Examples: hexagon, pentagon. circle (kuklos in Greek), diagram (deeagramma in Greek) almost literally from the Greek.
ruveyn
iamnotaparakeet
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Latin has the virtue of age and veneration. It is not inherently better than natural languages currently in use. You might as well through classic Attic Greek into the pot. That is the language that Plato and Aristotle wrote and spoke with.
ruveyn
Perhaps at sometime I will try to learn classical Greek since it is still somewhat useful also. It would be neat to study Euclid's Elements in its original language.
Half of the technical terms are already in English. English has borrowed many Greek root words. Examples: hexagon, pentagon. circle (kuklos in Greek), diagram (deeagramma in Greek) almost literally from the Greek.
ruveyn
With circle and at least first morpheme of dia-gram those would have traveled through Latin prior to being words in English. It still would be good to know the grammar in addition to the vocabulary, since vocabulary is not the language itself but the grammar is. A person can make themselves understood in a foreign language by merely using rudimentary vocabulary and their own first language's grammar to form a cipher, but it comes across as a disjointed usage of a language.
http://linguistics.berkeley.edu/~karuk/ ... -position=
Notice how most of the words for things related to water are derived from a single root using affixation and compounding.
Ah, cool. I got the impression that English didn't so much branch out from existing morphemes because it had a breadth of sources to borrow from, like how we use Anglo-Saxon words for animals and French words for animal meats, or words for different kinds of rain originating from different places. Maybe it would use the Karuk method if no other options were available?
Some languages may be more musical and smooth to listen to than others. Some may be easier to pronounce than others but all have the capability of carrying idea.
rjuveyn
QFT
It depends upon purpose.
For singing in western music, Italian is by far the best choice because of the significant number of terminal vowels.
But for legal drafting, English has by far the richest vocabulary with the deepest range of judicial consideration.
For poetry, I'll put up Latin. Because it is an inflected language, word order is mutable meaning that a given phrase can be easily aligned with rhythmic patterns.
But these are pretty artificial constructs. The truth of the matter is that we can sing, recite and draft in any language, and the best language is the language that enables us to communicate effectively with our respective communities. All other purposes are, 'nice-to-haves.'
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--James
I like the way spoken Japanese sounds.
I took many years of French classes but still could barely understand a word of spoken French because of the slurred/mumbled French accent. Spoken Japanese is FAR easier for a non-native to understand.
Irish sounds like Tolkien Elvish, so that's kind of cool.
I am more "into" accents - identifying and mimicking them - than I am languages.
