NationStates Jolt Archive

If all the literature written in one of these languages was lost (including all translations), which would leave us the most culturally impoverished?

Oh--if you have a question about whether Chinese is a language--it is. Although Han, Wu, and Yue are different languages for speaking purposes--in the sense that speakers of one cannot necessarily understand speakers of another--the speakers of this and many other Chinese languages all use the same written characters for reading and writing. So if the focus here is literature, Chinese constitutes a single language. Also, it can be assumed in this poll that the definition of "Chinese," like that of "English," "German," or "French," is broad enough to encompass evolution over time--i.e., Chaucer counts as English literature too.

You know what this question feels like to me? You're asking me which limb would I rather lose...Which limb, if lost, would make me feel the worst.

I'm not sure I can answer it at all, its just too horrible to think about really. Losing an entire section of world history within that written language, losing all the insights, nuances, emotions, stories, lessons, contained therein.

Nope. I'll pick none of the above.

I'd say English or Russian... then again, I have no background knowledge in this subject.

No strong opinions. Maybe Russian. Or English if you only think about modern literature. Greek for historical reasons.

Greek, no contest IMO.

Russian. No people have a more poetic soul than the Russians.

Russian. No people have a more poetic soul than the Russians.

Agreed.

I voted Greek. If Greek were lost, we would not only lose great litereary works such as The Odyssey, The Illiad, and Edipus, but also the work of great scholars like Scrates, Plato, and Aristotle. We would be without the work of the first ever mathematicians, writers, philosophers, actors, etc. Greece is the home of Western Civilization, and we would lose the most by losing their langage, culture, etc.

you forgot sanscrit.

I'm gonna have to say Greek as well.
(We've already lost most everything written in phoenician/Carthaginian, so we can never know for sure what they would have contributed. They'd be the literature I'd bring back, if I had a choice.)

If all the literature written in one of these languages was lost (including all translations), which would leave us the most culturally impoverished?

Oh--if you have a question about whether Chinese is a language--it is. Although Han, Wu, and Yue are different languages for speaking purposes--in the sense that speakers of one cannot necessarily understand speakers of another--the speakers of this and many other Chinese languages all use the same written characters for reading and writing. So if the focus here is literature, Chinese constitutes a single language. Also, it can be assumed in this poll that the definition of "Chinese," like that of "English," "German," or "French," is broad enough to encompass evolution over time--i.e., Chaucer counts as English literature too.

A better example would be Beowulf as opposed to Chaucer. Chaucer wrote in the 1300's and, as such, wrote in Middle English and; when spoken is comparatively easy to understand. Beowulf however is written in old English and so is difficult to understand for the layman but is still English literature. Also technically speaking English literature and American literature should be separated into two different options for one is very different to the other; most especially in style.
Furthermore are you including Japanese under Chinese? Since the two write in Kanji and so it could technically be thought of as the same although I know the Japanese also write in two other forms and they read the Kanji differently to the Chinese.
All said and done, good thread choice. :D

I voted Greek. If Greek were lost, we would not only lose great litereary works such as The Odyssey, The Illiad, and Edipus, but also the work of great scholars like Scrates, Plato, and Aristotle. We would be without the work of the first ever mathematicians, writers, philosophers, actors, etc. Greece is the home of Western Civilization, and we would lose the most by losing their langage, culture, etc.

I had the same thought, but at the same time I can see why English won.

A better example would be Beowulf as opposed to Chaucer. Chaucer wrote in the 1300's and, as such, wrote in Middle English and; when spoken is comparatively easy to understand. Beowulf however is written in old English and so is difficult to understand for the layman but is still English literature. Also technically speaking English literature and American literature should be separated into two different options for one is very different to the other; most especially in style.
Furthermore are you including Japanese under Chinese? Since the two write in Kanji and so it could technically be thought of as the same although I know the Japanese also write in two other forms and they read the Kanji differently to the Chinese.
All said and done, good thread choice. :D
Chinese and Japanese are mutually incomprehensible. They use the same writing system but that does not mean readers of Chinese can automatically understand Japanese words. A similar situation is with ENglish and Spanish, which both use the Latin alphabet but are mutually incomprehensible languages.