What is wrong with you english speaking people?

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omid
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28 Apr 2016, 5:07 pm

WTH??
240 color names in English
English has too many words. I mean, like, Tabby. That in German would be "tigered cat". Even if you don't know what tiger is you would still know it's a god damn cat.......
Why do you have so many words?
I must note that German is not even my first language. Both english and german are my second language. and english is ... Baad.
Update:
Original english swearings removed.


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Last edited by omid on 28 Apr 2016, 5:11 pm, edited 2 times in total.

Kuraudo777
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28 Apr 2016, 5:09 pm

^Does this affect you personally or do you just want to rant about it? If so, please move to the Rant Thread.
You are right, however. There are way too many words for sex in English, but would you mind not making that point by swearing?


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omid
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28 Apr 2016, 5:12 pm

It affects me totally personally because I'm not making any progress in learning english.
And most of my life is reading and writing in english. Try to find clinical trials, meaningful scientific papers, or just plain reasonalbe books in german or farsi. You won't. Oh I speak farsi too. Just realized.


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Yigeren
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28 Apr 2016, 5:18 pm

English has absorbed many words from other languages. In the beginning, English was purely a West Germanic language.

Over time, it changed and absorbed words from Scandinavian languages (not modern languages, but from the Vikings), from French (from the Norman conquest) and from many other languages since then. It's just a mix of all kinds of things.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_language_influences_in_English

Although all of those color names are not typically used. They are only used when one needs to be very exact about color, especially in fashion or visual art.



lostonearth35
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28 Apr 2016, 5:53 pm

When someone is writing a story that is targeted a people with good reading skills, it helps to not use the same typical words and phrases all the time because they are too simple, boring, and do not help the reader picture what is going on in their mind. Only books for very young children where the pictures really tell the story can do that. That's why if I want to describe say, the ocean, in a story, I can't just say "there is an ocean". I have to be creative and descriptive - the colors, the scents, the sounds - so that people can almost see the ocean right in front of them, even if they've already seen it a billion times in real life and know what it looks like.

If that is wrong, then I guess I'm the worst English speaking person ever. :(



Kuraudo777
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28 Apr 2016, 5:55 pm

^No, don't feel bad! You're totally right. What you said does make sense! :)


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ASS-P
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28 Apr 2016, 6:14 pm

What is your native tongue ?
I suppose the long-running divergence between the the American-and-leaning and British-and-leaning streams of English adds to the profusion .


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SavageHerring
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28 Apr 2016, 6:20 pm

English is a pretty stupid language.



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28 Apr 2016, 7:07 pm

SavageHerring wrote:
English is a pretty stupid language.
Then why don't you just go back to speaking only your native language?

Oh, that's right ... English is the dominant language of both science and commerce in the Free World. It must really suck to have to get a quality education and a good job without knowing even one word of English.



naturalplastic
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28 Apr 2016, 8:20 pm

English does have a bigger vocabulary than most languages.

English is both the most invasive language in the world, and the most invaDED language in the world.

It started out as the language of a bunch of Germanic savage bog tribes who fled the Huns by boating to Britain from the German and Dutch coasts in the Dark Ages. Then Britain got pillaged and invaded by the Germanic Vikings from Scandanavia. So now we have two Germanic words for everything. You can rear (anglo saxon) a child, or you can raise (Norse for the same thing) a child.

And then the Normans conquered England in 1066. So now we have two germanic words, and one Latin-based French word for everything. We raise pigs (germanic), but we eat pork (French). Go figure.

Then five centuries later England turned the tables and invaded everyone else and created the British Empire. This caused English to take in words from all over the world (you can hangout in your bungalo wearing pajamas (both Asian Indian words) while smoking tobacco (Carib Indian word), and eating chocolate (Aztec word).


But look on the Bright side.

With English you dont have to worry about sexual gender!

Every other European language divides the universe into male and female. You have to worry about whether tables, chairs, human body parts, inanimate objects, and abstract concepts, are boys, or are girls before you can utter speech about them! LOL!

English bailed out of that nonsense a 1000 years ago. Everything in English is neuter. Simple.

Every language has its barriers to outsiders. Chinese has tonality. You have to sing-song the word "ma" just right so folks know whether you're talking about your mom, or about your horse, or about one a dozen other subjects.

If its not one thing it's sumpin' else.



Last edited by naturalplastic on 28 Apr 2016, 8:31 pm, edited 2 times in total.

Yigeren
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28 Apr 2016, 8:26 pm

Mandarin Chinese is far more logical than English. So is Spanish. I think either one would be far easier to learn, and they have large populations of native speakers.

I don't think that English should be a lingua franca, it's just too complicated and irregular. I'd hate to have to learn it as a second language.



naturalplastic
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28 Apr 2016, 8:36 pm

Am a native English speaking American who took Spanish in junior high and in high school.Gotta admit that I probably can still spell words in Spanish better than I can in English.



kraftiekortie
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28 Apr 2016, 8:41 pm

English IS, pretty much, the Lingua Franca of the world.

If, say, a Danish person meets a French person, and neither knows the other's language, they use English (frequently with a decent amount of success)>



Yigeren
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28 Apr 2016, 8:45 pm

^Yes, but it shouldn't be. It's not regular or easy to learn. Not that I don't like English, but it just makes more sense to use a more regular language that is logical.

I think Spanish or Mandarin Chinese would work well, or even a created language like Esperanto.



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28 Apr 2016, 8:48 pm

...Though I know no other language than English , I have seem this oddity pointed out about English ~
It has very few phrases for addressing a collective/group of people - but there IS the regional US , " " Southern " usage of" y'all " - from " you all " . That's one .
Now , if someone Southern was addressing some folks on a fore-and-aft rigged vessel who were imitating howling cats , it would be " Y'all on the yawl ~ Don't yowl " :P ! Yo . :wink:


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One of the walking wounded ~ SMASHED DOWN by life and age, now prevented from even expressing myself! SOB.
" Oh, no! First you have to PROVE you deserve to go away to college! " ~ My mother, 1978 (the heyday of Andy Gibb and Player). I would still like to go.:-(
My life destroyed by Thorazine and Mellaril - and rape - and the Psychiatric/Industrial Complex. SOB:-(! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !!


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28 Apr 2016, 10:09 pm

I have excellent command of the English language and have considered majoring in it. The only reason I'm not is because it requires a lot of reading comprehension ability, which my NLD makes me struggle with. There are a lot of inconsistencies about the language, but they make me feel more proud for excelling in it.