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Most logical languages

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Michael
Diglot
Newbie
Czech Republic
Joined 6419 days ago

9 posts - 9 votes
Speaks: Czech*, EnglishB2
Studies: Latin

 
 Message 49 of 143
15 January 2007 at 1:48pm | IP Logged 
Marc Frisch wrote:
And I don't see much logic in having 5 different declension classes (with an awful lot of exceptions) and 3 different verb conjugations (+ the many irregular verbs).
Also, the declension system in Classical Latin is already kind of degenerate with many case endings being the same (i.e. puellae can be nominative plural or genitive singular) - no wonder it didn't survive.


In my opinion Latin has 4 verb conjugations and not many irregular verbs. And declension system is much better than (for example) German one, because in German it is degenerated (Herrn is genitive, dative and accusative singular). Latin declension system is very similar to Czech so it is not very difficult for me.



Edited by Michael on 15 January 2007 at 1:50pm

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alexptrans
Pentaglot
Senior Member
Israel
Joined 6525 days ago

208 posts - 236 votes 
Speaks: English, Modern Hebrew, Russian*, French, Arabic (Written)
Studies: Icelandic

 
 Message 50 of 143
15 January 2007 at 2:00pm | IP Logged 
Michael wrote:


In my opinion Latin has 4 verb conjugations and not many irregular verbs. And declension system is much better than (for example) German one, because in German it is degenerated (Herrn is genitive, dative and accusative singular). Latin declension system is very similar to Czech so it is not very difficult for me.



Many speakers of Slavic languages I've spoken to tend to find Latin quite easy because its declension system is very similar to what is found in modern Slavic languages.
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Serpent
Octoglot
Senior Member
Russian Federation
serpent-849.livejour
Joined 6357 days ago

9753 posts - 15779 votes 
4 sounds
Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese
Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish

 
 Message 51 of 143
23 January 2007 at 2:29pm | IP Logged 
Ethan wrote:
The most logical language is Esperanto.

However, as for natural languages I would say the most logically setup is probably Finnish. Hard, but everything is setup in a complex, but logical setup.
I agree about Finnish;)


Being a native speaker of Russian, I also find Latin grammar rather easy. However a friend of mine, whose mother-tongue is Russian as well, finds Latin much harder than Japanese 0_0
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Controversia
Newbie
United States
Joined 6287 days ago

11 posts - 12 votes
Speaks: Spanish*

 
 Message 52 of 143
23 January 2007 at 5:06pm | IP Logged 
I wont go in-depth with any language, but some things are just plain obvious:

French is not very logical. I don't find a reason that you have to add two words to a verb to make it negative. To my understanding gerunds don't have their own conjugation either.

English is the most illogical. Even before learning any nouns or verbs, people must I, you, we, etc. I'm sorry, but in every English book it says that "you" is used as plural as well, and I've never in my life heard someone say "you" when referring to more than one person. The exceptions are numerous, and it's absolutely annoying. (I already know English, but I share the pain with anyone learning this gruesome language)

Spanish is my native language, and while I agree it's pretty logical, I'm a solid believer that "it" should be a word in every language. There is no word for "it," which after learning English I find hilarious.
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Captain Haddock
Diglot
Senior Member
Japan
kanjicabinet.tumblr.
Joined 6528 days ago

2282 posts - 2814 votes 
Speaks: English*, Japanese
Studies: French, Korean, Ancient Greek

 
 Message 53 of 143
24 January 2007 at 5:20am | IP Logged 
Controversia wrote:
French is not very logical. I don't find a reason that you have to add two words to a verb to make it negative. To my understanding gerunds don't have their own conjugation either.


Technically speaking, "ne" is actually the (lone) negative in French, but it nearly always combines with a negative adverb or pronoun to express more specificity. "Pas" is just sort of the default. Many languages have some kind of verb-adverb modal agreement like this.

Although it sounds literary, it's perfectly possible to say something like "je n'ai pu venir" in French.

On the subject of English grievances, you can certainly add our habit of requiring an auxiliary verb in negative sentences to your list. :)

What did you mean about French gerunds not having their own conjugation?

Edited by Captain Haddock on 24 January 2007 at 5:21am

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dreaminjosh
Diglot
Newbie
United States
Joined 6287 days ago

32 posts - 32 votes
Speaks: French, English*

 
 Message 54 of 143
24 January 2007 at 8:30am | IP Logged 
Controversia wrote:
I'm sorry, but in every English book it says that "you" is used as plural as well, and I've never in my life heard someone say "you" when referring to more than one person.


Yeah, I hate "you" as the second personal plural. It's so ambiguous. I'm a native speaker of English and I don't think I've ever heard anyone use this word in normal, everyday conversation. People where I live say "y'all"- a contraction of "you" and "all". Only people in the southern US use this though (I think). Up north and out west, people tend to say "you guys" a lot. You can say "you guys" in the south too- just so long as there aren't any ladies in the group.





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Captain Haddock
Diglot
Senior Member
Japan
kanjicabinet.tumblr.
Joined 6528 days ago

2282 posts - 2814 votes 
Speaks: English*, Japanese
Studies: French, Korean, Ancient Greek

 
 Message 55 of 143
24 January 2007 at 9:43am | IP Logged 
In Canada, we say "you guys" regardless of the gender of those being addressed. "Y'all" sounds hopelessly outlandish.

However, "you" is still used very frequently for the plural.
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dreaminjosh
Diglot
Newbie
United States
Joined 6287 days ago

32 posts - 32 votes
Speaks: French, English*

 
 Message 56 of 143
24 January 2007 at 11:32am | IP Logged 
Captain Haddock wrote:
"Y'all" sounds hopelessly outlandish.


That's a very strong opinion. I guess in Canada this would sound "outlandish"... though, I don't see what hope has to do with it.

I happen to like hearing the word, especially when females use it.

People my age (26) and under don't use it so much anymore. A lot of people just say "you all" instead of "y'all" nowadays. "You guys" just wont work with the older generation though. The response to such an addressing would be icy at best.


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