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What do you love about your languages? | ||
Tags: Reasons for study | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| cmj Octoglot Groupie Switzerland Joined 5134 days ago 58 posts - 191 votes  Speaks: English*, German, Spanish, Ancient Greek, French, Arabic (classical), Latin, Italian | Message 18 of 18 06 November 2010 at 10:21pm | IP Logged |
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Hmmm.... Here's what I've got:
French: I've spoken it since before I can remember so, like English, it's somewhat difficult for me to evaluate, since I'm so close to it, but it strikes me as particularly clear and supple. Like most romance languages, it has a comparatively small vocabulary, but I find that it is put to good use. Italian and Spanish: I'm at an intermediate stage in both these languages. Spanish doesn't hold particular appeal to me for linguistic reasons, but more for personal and cultural reasons (my partner is half Spanish). One aspect that I love, in comparison to other romance languages, is the vocabulary derived from Arabic, which gives it a somewhat unusual flavour. I also love South American literature. Italian on the other hand strikes me as an extremely beautiful spoke language, the most expressive of the Western European languages I know. This is in large part due to the tonic accent which adds a wonderful dynamism to it that I miss in Spanish and French. Latin: It's not quite my thing. I had to learn it for professional reasons, but it doesn't quite speak to me. Some Latin writers are extremely eloquent and some poetry is absolutely beautiful, but for me it will always be Greek's poorer brother. I think generally when it comes to the ancient European languages you're either a Greek person or a Latin person... German: Aesthetically, I find German wonderful. While I appreciate more lyrical languages like Italian, I also have a soft spot for dissonant languages like German and Russian. For me German is somewhat like Tom Waits' music: ragged, rough, and somehow exquisite... Of the modern languages I know, German is a powerhouse when it comes to vocabulary, with an extremely large number of words at its disposal (and words that are generally semantically transparent, unlike in English) and the capacity to build very subtle nuances into compound words. Ancient Greek: Wonderfully elastic, incredibly expressive, with a beautiful script and an extremely rich literary tradition that casts a long shadow over Latin. Greek has an awesomely powerful system of word construction to rival that of German, along with a rich variety of means of adding nuance to any sentence, including a maddeningly complex and extremely nuanced system of particles (I mean there's a 750 page book just about them...) Ancient Greek is my all-round favourite language, both for linguistic and cultural reasons. I can certainly understand why the Romans had a cultural inferiority complex with respect to the Greeks, I have one too... Arabic: The only non-Indo-European language I'm studying at the moment. I lived for 7 or so years in the United Arab Emirates as a teenager, but, to my eternal shame, never learned more than the basics. Now I'm on a mission to compensate for my younger self's foolish disinterest in languages. I find Arabic endlessly fascinating. For me it has the same wonderful dissonant appeal as German. It just sounds cool, and precisely because it is so rough around the edges. It also has the most beautiful alphabet I know, rivaled only by Chinese characters for the title of most beautiful writing system. The biggest appeal for me, though, is the grammar. I love the power and distinctiveness of the root system. I have a general love of grammar, and to find a system that is so elegant and powerful for deriving a rich variety of meanings from a simple root system is hugely attractive. I'm just looking to getting to the stage where I can't start tackling classical literature. Along with Greek Antiquity, I find the Medieval Islamic world to be one of the most fascinating cultures I am familiar with. Down the road, I want to tackle Chinese (particularly classical) and Sanskrit. Both are beautiful languages with rich literary traditions (this is what interests me most, if you haven't caught on by now : ) Particularly in the case of Chinese, I fell in love with the characters and the idea of a tonal language is starting to grow on me now too. We'll see what the future brings... Edited by cmj on 06 November 2010 at 10:26pm 5 persons have voted this message useful |
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