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Languages: simplification or aggravation | ||
Tags: Easiness | Difficulty | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Philological Room |  | |
| prz_ Tetraglot Senior Member Poland last.fm/user/prz_rul Joined 4859 days ago 890 posts - 1190 votes  Speaks: Polish*, English, Bulgarian, Croatian Studies: Slovenian, Macedonian, Persian, Russian, Turkish, Ukrainian, Dutch, Swedish, German, Italian, Armenian, Kurdish | Message 1 of 21 30 August 2011 at 1:16am | IP Logged | ||
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I've heard many opinions about the way that the languages should evolve. While some dream of simplifications of alphabets, grammar and pronunciation, others say that if harder the language is, then better.
What is your opinion in this issue? If it comes to me, I'm definitely pro simplifications - for the simple reason that I'd like to learn as many languages as possible. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Chung Diglot Senior Member Joined 7156 days ago 4228 posts - 8259 votes 20 sounds Speaks: English*, French Studies: Polish, Slovak, Uzbek, Turkish, Korean, Finnish | Message 2 of 21 30 August 2011 at 1:56am | IP Logged | ||
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Languages simply evolve, and having chosen to learn any language, I tacitly accept that I will put up with whatever it is. If it'd become too aggravating, I can simply stop learning it.
3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Kartof Bilingual Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 5066 days ago 391 posts - 550 votes Speaks: English*, Bulgarian*, Spanish Studies: Danish | Message 3 of 21 30 August 2011 at 3:40am | IP Logged | ||
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I guess that simplicity or difficulty is really subjective. It depends on what your native language is. That being said,
from a purely linguistic perspective, ignoring any linguistic bias, you can more or less say that most languages are as difficult as one another. If it's not one aspect of the language that's difficult to digest, it's another. If it's not the pronunciation, its the grammar and orthography. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| learnvietnamese Diglot Groupie Singapore yourvietnamese.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4949 days ago 98 posts - 132 votes Speaks: Vietnamese*, EnglishC2 Studies: French, Mandarin | Message 4 of 21 30 August 2011 at 4:22am | IP Logged | ||
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I prefer and expect that languages would evolve in the direction that allows of better human communication through clearer and more precise expressions.
And I boldly guess that in the long run languages would become as simple as and where they can be while simultaneously introducing new features/characteristics that would enable more accurate expressions in an elegant manner. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Arekkusu Hexaglot Senior Member Canada bit.ly/qc_10_lec Joined 5381 days ago 3971 posts - 7747 votes Speaks: English, French*, GermanC1, Spanish, Japanese, Esperanto Studies: Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Estonian | Message 5 of 21 30 August 2011 at 4:42am | IP Logged | ||
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Evolution -- be it linguistic or biological -- is not a controlled process. I'm not sure
what having an opinion about it would change. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Cainntear Pentaglot Senior Member Scotland linguafrankly.blogsp Joined 6011 days ago 4399 posts - 7687 votes Speaks: Lowland Scots, English*, French, Spanish, Scottish Gaelic Studies: Catalan, Italian, German, Irish, Welsh | Message 6 of 21 30 August 2011 at 12:07pm | IP Logged | ||
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Simplification sounds good in theory, but...
In language, there's this notion of "iconicity" -- that something can be completely unique and instantly recognisable. Some linguists believe that irregular forms aren't just an accident -- they've evolved specifically to be iconic so that they're easier and quicker to understand. "Simplification" could actually make a language harder to learn....
The classroom, perhaps? Many ideological notions have been pushed onto language in our schools. For example: the rejection of the (traditionally accepted) double negative in English; the artificial life-support for "whom"; and the split infinitive rubbish ("to go" is not the infinitive, "go" is; ergo "to boldy go" doesn't split the infinitive). Edited by Cainntear on 30 August 2011 at 12:08pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Ygangerg Pentaglot Senior Member United States Joined 5318 days ago 100 posts - 140 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Arabic (Written), Mandarin, French Studies: German | Message 7 of 21 30 August 2011 at 12:22pm | IP Logged | ||
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I don't think language as a whole is becoming simpler or more complex. Different languages change in their own different ways, but I don't think any language is simply ineffective for lack of "clearer and more precise expressions," as learnvietnamese says.
I would ask the OP if "simplification" means doing away with morphological case and verb markers, a la Chinese, or developing a completely regular and predictable system of these, a la Arabic? Both of these languages allow for very clear and precise expression. Would it involve only those sounds that are easiest to learn? Which are those? I just don't see what "simpler language" would refer to, if it were to be complete enough that one could express any thought they desired. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Марк Senior Member Russian Federation Joined 5056 days ago 2096 posts - 2972 votes Speaks: Russian* | Message 8 of 21 15 April 2012 at 7:45pm | IP Logged | ||
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Languages are always simplified, but they can become more complex simulteniously as a
result of this simplification. 6 persons have voted this message useful |
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