Language Extinction

[Victor Galis]

29-07-2002 20:32



quote:

Originally posted by Ramo
Some languages are better than others.



I also believe that.

Still I have to mention what the "official" line of most linguisists is: each language covers the linguistic expressional needs of the people who speak it, thus no language is better than the other.

-But this means that certain languages, while adequate for their speakers would make very sh*tty linguae francae (is that the propper plural?)

[Dry]

Originally posted by Boris Godunov
One of the many reasons I love German is that you can get away with ramming as many words together as you want to form a brand new word! It's brilliant!

So, like everyone of us you liked the classical Donaudampfschiffahrtsgesellschaftsoberkapitän
, but it seems that, now that the company has gone bankrupt, we can all talk about the Donaudampfschiffahrtsgesellschaftsoberkapitänhinte rbliebenenlebensversicherungsgesellschaftskrise ?

ref: http://www.serve.com/shea/longword.htm

[Victor Galis]

Hehe Sometimes I just love German.

[Adalbertus]

Dry, these are words to extent according to your liking

The Planetary organism has already produced its anti-somata (white protective cells?)

antibodies / Antikörper / anticorps. I love those half-translations.

All languages are equally expressive.

Quantitatively, I agree. There are qualitative differences because you have different nuances in the words, which is one of the main reasons that words are adopted by other languages. The admiring "cool" has no corresponding words in German nor in French, so one uses the English word. "kühl" would give a negative touch to it. "kalt" for this is not in use and "eiskalt" already is too strong.