NationStates Jolt Archive

American English: It's from America. Nuff said.

Mandarin: It's number two, because even an encyclopedia can't even fit all their words in. There are 75,000+ words in Mandarin, and the average "fluent" Chinese knows about 2,000 or so words. (Like me). Writing and reading is a nightmare. China's comparatively low literacy rate isn't because of faulty education, it's because of a confusing language.(American Education is actually BETTER then Education in China. It's just that many American students have little motivation.) Nuff said.

German: They never took advantage of what case language can do. Thus, they have a very strict word order. There is no pattern in finding out which noun is what gender , without memorizing each noun's gender. Why use articles in a case language or any language? It hardly changes the meaning... The only way to master german is to be a human encyclopedia. However, German is one of the coolest sounding languages. That's why they're #3. Nuff said.

French: English tends to give priority to the descriptive thereby preparing the mind for conceiving the substantive. French does the reverse. For example, when reading "the dog blue" [as the French say] you first think of the dog, and you might think of a black dog or a brown dog; but then the substantive [noun] is qualified, and you have to change your conception of the dog to a blue one. The precedence of the adjective diminishes the likelihood of error and misconception - which tend to accumulate after a while in languages which give precedence to the substantive rather than the adjective. The stupidity of French does not end there. It also has an idiotic gender system, as every Canadian schoolboy will find out. Nuff said.

British English: It's from the UK. Nuff said.

Seeing this thread I thought "what a stupid thread" even before seeing it was by Serapindal. Spooky!

On german, you forgot to mention that they have this tendency to invent new words by ramming many small words together and then contracting it.

PzKw, for instance.

Wonderful. Now, make us a chart.

What exactly is the point of this? What are the languages being rated on? Why these languages and not another language? What are we supposed to discuss? Who shot the sheriff?

On german, you forgot to mention that they have this tendency to invent new words by ramming many small words together and then contracting it.

PzKw, for instance.

I actually like that part. If I only could do it in english.

Like "doubleplusnogood"

On german, you forgot to mention that they have this tendency to invent new words by ramming many small words together and then contracting it.

PzKw, for instance.

most of the time they dont even bother contracting the words so you end up with a word that is close to 20 letters long, i think that some of the some of the scandinavian languages do the same thing, ( i might be wrong)

Your justification, especially for "American English", is quite convincing.

I actually like that part. If I only could do it in english.

Like "doubleplusnogood"
Its good untill you get some jerk who tries to ram 30 words together. Anyways ramming words together is ubercool.

Does anyone know which languages were the nouns do not have genders?

Does anyone know which languages were the nouns do not have genders?
Turkish.

American English: It's from America. Nuff said.

For the most part it is just a minor off-shoot of C17th English as was spoken in Great Britain.

Does anyone know which languages were the nouns do not have genders?

English?

Another Serapindal thread, eh?

How long until we get a spinoff thread from people who take things too seriously and take this as a threat to their nation and feel the need to defend their country by making another thread like this?

How long until we get a spinoff thread from people who take things too seriously and take this as a threat to their nation and feel the need to defend their country by making another thread like this?
Like "British English>>>French>>>German>>>Mandarin>>>American English?" :D

Like "British English>>>French>>>German>>>Mandarin>>>American English?" :D

That's too close to the actual truth.

Another Serapindal thread, eh?

Does the pope shit in the woods?

Its annoying, but I wish people wouldn't whine about having feminine and masculine forms of things. Is it so hard to remember la voiture, yet le francais?

Does the pope shit in the woods?

Why you keep asking me that, homes?

It actually says something about France. They managed to become a world power, a strong economy, and be very prosperous despite that crappy language they call French. It's very impressive.

Why you keep asking me that, homes?

You win 1 million internets.

French: English tends to give priority to the descriptive thereby preparing the mind for conceiving the substantive. French does the reverse. For example, when reading "the dog blue" [as the French say] you first think of the dog, and you might think of a black dog or a brown dog; but then the substantive [noun] is qualified, and you have to change your conception of the dog to a blue one. The precedence of the adjective diminishes the likelihood of error and misconception - which tend to accumulate after a while in languages which give precedence to the substantive rather than the adjective. The stupidity of French does not end there. It also has an idiotic gender system, as every Canadian schoolboy will find out. Nuff said.
Just like every other Romantic language, and Italian, Portuguesem and Spanish all pwn French.

Its annoying, but I wish people wouldn't whine about having feminine and masculine forms of things. Is it so hard to remember la voiture, yet le francais?
Yes it is.

It actually says something about France. They managed to become a world power, a strong economy, and be very prosperous despite that crappy language they call French. It's very impressive.

I prefer French to english, personally. It does do away with a number of words at times, the verbs are much easier to learn(Seeing as most of them end with ER, RE, or IR), and it seems to have really good form, not getting to irregular.

I prefer French to english, personally. It does do away with a number of words at times, the verbs are much easier to learn(Seeing as most of them end with ER, RE, or IR), and it seems to have really good form, not getting to irregular.
With the exceptions of the irregular verbs all English verbs conjugate the same way. However, English is plagued with irregularities.

With the exceptions of the irregular verbs all English verbs conjugate the same way.

No shit.

No shit.
lol. I probably could have worded that better. What I mean is in English there is one regular way to conjugate verbs while in french there are three regular ways to conjugate verbs.

Does anyone know which languages were the nouns do not have genders?
Japanese doesn't. Actually, Japanese doesn't have ANY pronouns, which makes things interesting at times.

Edit (Honesty and all that): Japanese doesn't. Actually, Japanese doesn't have ANY pronouns like he/she/it (that are used reguarly), which makes things interesting at times. Add in Japanese usually also drops the subject of the sentence and you're left with a language where you are suposed to infer what is being talked about.

Japanese doesn't. Actually, Japanese doesn't have ANY pronouns, which makes things interesting at times.

http://japanese.about.com/library/weekly/aa100700.htm

Japanese doesn't. Actually, Japanese doesn't have ANY pronouns, which makes things interesting at times.
How would that make things interesting? Repetative, maybe.

Wonderful. Now, make us a chart.
Not just any chart, but a flow chart.

French: English tends to give priority to the descriptive thereby preparing the mind for conceiving the substantive. French does the reverse. For example, when reading "the dog blue" [as the French say] you first think of the dog, and you might think of a black dog or a brown dog; but then the substantive [noun] is qualified, and you have to change your conception of the dog to a blue one. The precedence of the adjective diminishes the likelihood of error and misconception - which tend to accumulate after a while in languages which give precedence to the substantive rather than the adjective. The stupidity of French does not end there. It also has an idiotic gender system, as every Canadian schoolboy will find out. Nuff said.


Okay, I agree with you on German. Your placing of American English on top is understandable if nationalistic. Your hind-titting of UK English is incomprehensible and likely the result of the same nationalism, so I'll leave that be. Your excoriation of French, however, is just plain nonsense.

Which is more important in getting the most basic elements of an idea across: the noun or the adjective? You say the precedence of the eadjective diminishes the likelihood of error -- well, that's crap. If I am reading something like your example, "the dog blue" as the French order things, I've got all I really need with "the dog". By comparison, how many nouns are there that can be modified by the adjective "blue"? Certainly a hell of a lot more than there are adjectives that can modify "dog". Say the sentence gets cut off -- in French, "the dog..." and in English "the blue..." -- which is more specific? Now don't get me wrong, there's a shitload of things to get pissed about in the French language, but adjective precedence isn't one of them. Using seven vowels for one phoneme, now there's a lexical catastrophe.

A similar concept is the European method of writing the date -- so correct in its order that the US military uses it, even if US civilians don't. Smallest to largest makes perfect sense: day, month, year. Again, should a date get cut off and you only have the first number, you're only looking at one of twelve possible dates in the current year (in the unlikely event that the current year isn't being referenced, well, that's another story). In the US date, you've got the month, but which day? Your odds go from 1 in 12 to 1 in 28-31. True, you're likely to be in the correct season with the month first, but Euro-style still has the order of size on it's side, which would be far simpler to learn as a child or non-native, non-Western speaker.

Okay, I agree with you on German. Your placing of American English on top is understandable if nationalistic. Your hind-titting of UK English is incomprehensible and likely the result of the same nationalism, so I'll leave that be. Your excoriation of French, however, is just plain nonsense.

Which is more important in getting the most basic elements of an idea across: the noun or the adjective? You say the precedence of the eadjective diminishes the likelihood of error -- well, that's crap. If I am reading something like your example, "the dog blue" as the French order things, I've got all I really need with "the dog". By comparison, how many nouns are there that can be modified by the adjective "blue"? Certainly a hell of a lot more than there are adjectives that can modify "dog". Say the sentence gets cut off -- in French, "the dog..." and in English "the blue..." -- which is more specific? Now don't get me wrong, there's a shitload of things to get pissed about in the French language, but adjective precedence isn't one of them. Using seven vowels for one phoneme, now there's a lexical catastrophe.

A similar concept is the European method of writing the date -- so correct in its order that the US military uses it, even if US civilians don't. Smallest to largest makes perfect sense: day, month, year. Again, should a date get cut off and you only have the first number, you're only looking at one of twelve possible dates in the current year (in the unlikely event that the current year isn't being referenced, well, that's another story). In the US date, you've got the month, but which day? Your odds go from 1 in 12 to 1 in 28-31. True, you're likely to be in the correct season with the month first, but Euro-style still has the order of size on it's side, which would be far simpler to learn as a child or non-native, non-Western speaker.
Noe the whole MM/DD/YYYY vs DD/MM/YYYY gets really confusing in Canada where both are used, and preference tends to vary person to person. The govt. uses DD/MM/YYYY but my union uses MM/DD/YYYY.

Oh, is this thread a RANKING? I just thought it was random remarks on a handful of languages. Anyway, since German is one of the languages under discussion, I must submit a favourite from Mister Twain:

http://eserver.org/langs/the-awful-german-language.txt

I actually like that part. If I only could do it in english.

Like "doubleplusnogood"

You can, and it's largely corporation-speak that is the culprit:

downsize
aftermarket
comptroller
seriocomic
multitask

The US seems to do it more with word parts (Latin, Greek or English bases, prefixes and suffixes) than whole words; as if the Germans had given us the "lite" version of that software while they kept the "pro" version:

flak = fliegerabwehrkanone = flieger|abwehr|kanone = literally "flyer|defense|cannon" = "aircraft-defense gun"

Sorry, but while this may seem like a dumb thread to some who posted, I'm an amateur etymologist/linguist and am fascinated by words. Yes, his rankings are arbitrary and clearly jingoistic, but I like the general topic.

Noe the whole MM/DD/YYYY vs DD/MM/YYYY gets really confusing in Canada where both are used, and preference tends to vary person to person. The govt. uses DD/MM/YYYY but my union uses MM/DD/YYYY.

I try to sign dates longhand.

9 November 2005

If I'm writing a quick note to myself, it becomes 9 Nov 5.

http://japanese.about.com/library/weekly/aa100700.htm

Cool link. Thanks.

I try to sign dates longhand.

9 November 2005

If I'm writing a quick note to myself, it becomes 9 Nov 5.
No, no, no its November 9, 2005.

It actually says something about France. They managed to become a world power, a strong economy, and be very prosperous despite that crappy language they call French. It's very impressive.
Are you joking? If you do, you should use a smiley. If you don't, you're an - insert proper insult. FYI, I love the French accent. Even an ugly girl looks better if she speaks French (I've been there, so I know what I'm talking about).

No, no, no its November 9, 2005.

As a Texan, I often have to recognise the month/date/year division. When I can, though, I prefer to progress through increments of length.

The date is within the larger context of the month which is within the larger context of the year.

Also, in my part of Texas, the name of the game is "Paper Rock Scissors", but I've recently switched to the "Rock Paper Scissors" format that I hear elsewhere. Why? Chronology! In the history of the world, rock came first, then there was paper, and then there were scissors.

So no, the other ways aren't wrong. But those are how I've decided to name things the way I do. :)
(though it's been significantly harder for me to insert the letter "T" back into my audible speech. "Batman"... "twenty"... "beautiful"...)
Confounding American accent!

Does anyone know which languages were the nouns do not have genders?

Japanese doesn't have gendered nouns or any pronouns, really, or plurals, only three irregular verbs and verbs don't change depending on what you're talking about. Example: is, am, are all desu in Japanese. Great language.

Japanese doesn't have gendered nouns or any pronouns, really, or plurals, only three irregular verbs and verbs don't change depending on what you're talking about. Example: is, am, are all desu in Japanese. Great language.
That explains all the technology.
As a Texan, I often have to recognise the month/date/year division. When I can, though, I prefer to progress through increments of length.

The date is within the larger context of the month which is within the larger context of the year.

Also, in my part of Texas, the name of the game is "Paper Rock Scissors", but I've recently switched to the "Rock Paper Scissors" format that I hear elsewhere. Why? Chronology! In the history of the world, rock came first, then there was paper, and then there were scissors.

So no, the other ways aren't wrong. But those are how I've decided to name things the way I do. :)
(though it's been significantly harder for me to insert the letter "T" back into my audible speech. "Batman"... "twenty"... "beautiful"...)
Confounding American accent!
I know neither format is wrong, I was going for sarcasm, but whatever. I use DD/MM/YYYY for the same reasons you name. As for "Rock, Paper, Scissors"
I call it "Rock, Paper, Scissors" because everyone else does.

No, no, no its November 9, 2005.

Well, don't tell the military...or all of Europe...Asia...Australia....

Well, don't tell the military...or all of Europe...Asia...Australia....
US military or the Imperial Army of Canada? The rest are, well, freaks.

I know neither format is wrong, I was going for sarcasm, but whatever.

That was your first mistake. ;)

That was your first mistake. ;)
Well hindsight is 20/20.

Well hindsight is 20/20.

Maybe your's is. My hindsight is 20/10 ^_^

Which is more important in getting the most basic elements of an idea across: the noun or the adjective? You say the precedence of the eadjective diminishes the likelihood of error -- well, that's crap. If I am reading something like your example, "the dog blue" as the French order things, I've got all I really need with "the dog". By comparison, how many nouns are there that can be modified by the adjective "blue"? Certainly a hell of a lot more than there are adjectives that can modify "dog". Say the sentence gets cut off -- in French, "the dog..." and in English "the blue..." -- which is more specific? Now don't get me wrong, there's a shitload of things to get pissed about in the French language, but adjective precedence isn't one of them.

Thank you. I was hoping I wouldn't have to be the one to call that one out. I love the french language, and that is a big reason -- it eradicates one of the big irritants of english: cliched dirty jokes, i.e. "Hot, long, hard..... branding iron" and such.

Wait a second; you guys are defending the Français language. This isn't funny anymore.

Let's do some counting in French, shall we?

1, 2, 3, 4
One, two, three, four...

17, 18, 19
...seventeen, eighteen, nineteen...

48, 49, 50
...forty-eight, forty-nine, fifty...

68, 69, 70, 71
...sixty-eight, sixty-nine, sixty-ten, sixty-eleven...

QUOI?

78, 79, 80, 81, 82
...sixty-eighteen, sixty-nineteen, four twenties, four twenties-one, four twenties-two...


89, 90, 91
...four twenties-nineteen, four twenties-twenty, four twenties-twenty-one...


Yeah, that's just too much for me. Whew. Well, I'd better not stay on this thread too long; I want to get to sleep before 1:00 minus 15 tonight.

Yeah, that's just too much for me. Whew. Well, I'd better not stay on this thread too long; I want to get to sleep before 1:00 minus 15 tonight.

Are you trying to say English doesn't do this?

Passivocalia, why don't we speek about the spelling of the English language? Or is it spic? Or speek, or spik, or spiek? Oh no, it's speak. Irony aside, the English language has the most awfull spelling system I've ever encountered.

Passivocalia, why don't we speek about the spelling of the English language? Or is it spic? Or speek, or spik, or spiek? Oh no, it's speak. Irony aside, the English language has the most awfull spelling system I've ever encountered.

True, e.g. ghoti.

Wait a second; you guys are defending the Français language. This isn't funny anymore.

Let's do some counting in French, shall we?

1, 2, 3, 4
One, two, three, four...

17, 18, 19
...seventeen, eighteen, nineteen...

48, 49, 50
...forty-eight, forty-nine, fifty...

68, 69, 70, 71
...sixty-eight, sixty-nine, sixty-ten, sixty-eleven...

QUOI?

78, 79, 80, 81, 82
...sixty-eighteen, sixty-nineteen, four twenties, four twenties-one, four twenties-two...


89, 90, 91
...four twenties-nineteen, four twenties-twenty, four twenties-twenty-one...


Yeah, that's just too much for me. Whew. Well, I'd better not stay on this thread too long; I want to get to sleep before 1:00 minus 15 tonight.

Its not really hard in concept, tho you screwed up on 89-91.

Une, deux, trois, quatre...

Dix-sept, Dix-huit, Dix-neuf...

Quarante-huit, Quarante-neuf, Cinquante...

Soixante-huit, soixante-neuf, soixante-dix, soixante-onze...

Soixante-dix-huit, soixante-dix-neuf, quatre-vingt, quatre-vingt-une, quatre vingt-deux...

Quatre-vignt-neuf, quatre-vignt-dix, quatre-vignt-onze...

I had a horrid french one teacher, and still learned this. Its not hard, its just different.

And you can always say Midi plus Quarante-cinq, if you really dislike minus(as I do).

Passivocalia, why don't we speek about the spelling of the English language? Or is it spic? Or speek, or spik, or spiek? Oh no, it's speak. Irony aside, the English language has the most awfull spelling system I've ever encountered.

Yes, English has terrible spelling. I'm not about to defend Leicester, Gloucester, Warwick, or Edinburgh.

Français comes close, though. How many consonants get swallowed in "S'il vous plait"?

Its not really hard in concept, tho you screwed up on 89-91.

Sorry about that. Four twenties-nine, four twenties-ten, four twenties-eleven.

I had a horrid french one teacher, and still learned this. Its not hard, its just different.

And you can always say Midi plus Quarante-cinq, if you really dislike minus(as I do).

Right, it's not hard (though I messed up on it). If you do the math correctly, you'll get it. But how does it help?

What reason is there for suddenly deciding, "Hey, this group of ten doesn't need it's own number. Let's just pretend that the former group of ten carries over."? Or, maybe something along the lines of, "I'm bored. Instead of creating a new group of ten, let's start multiplying groups of twenty. Now let's stop." The other Romantic languages don't do this!

Apple of the earth for potato is different, as you say. Nouns before adjectives is different (for English speakers). That unnecessary counting system, however... I'll criticise that to my dying day. ;)

Now I really should get to sleep. It's way past 1:half plus 15.

Yes, English has terrible spelling. I'm not about to defend Leicester, Gloucester, Warwick, or Edinburgh.

Français comes close, though. How many consonants get swallowed in "S'il vous plait"?



Sorry about that. Four twenties-nine, four twenties-ten, four twenties-eleven.



Right, it's not hard (though I messed up on it). If you do the math correctly, you'll get it. But how does it help?

What reason is there for suddenly deciding, "Hey, this group of ten doesn't need it's own number. Let's just pretend that the former group of ten carries over."? Or, maybe something along the lines of, "I'm bored. Instead of creating a new group of ten, let's start multiplying groups of twenty. Now let's stop." The other Romantic languages don't do this!

Apple of the earth for potato is different, as you say. Nouns before adjectives is different (for English speakers). That unnecessary counting system, however... I'll criticise that to my dying day. ;)

Now I really should get to sleep. It's way past 1:half plus 15.

English had Four score and one, Four score and two, etc...

I can't think up any good names for seventy, eighty, ninety... I think the system is fine.

Does anyone know which languages were the nouns do not have genders?
Maori doesnt have noun genders, in fact it doesnt have a seperate word for 'he' and 'she', nor does it have a word for 'is', although it does have different words for 'you' 'they', and 'we' depending on the number of people being refered to, and in the case of 'we' whether or not the person being spoken to is being included. It also has a noun first, adjective second order.

On german, you forgot to mention that they have this tendency to invent new words by ramming many small words together and then contracting it.

PzKw, for instance.English has a dialect called military that does the same...:p

Just a nerdish comment: French, Romanian, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese are not Romantic languages. They are Romanic languages (as in descended from the language spoken by the Romans).

*snip*

German: They never took advantage of what case language can do. Thus, they have a very strict word order. There is no pattern in finding out which noun is what gender , without memorizing each noun's gender. Why use articles in a case language or any language? It hardly changes the meaning... The only way to master german is to be a human encyclopedia. However, German is one of the coolest sounding languages. That's why they're #3. Nuff said.
*snip*

Uhh..Did you ever really study German? There are a number of ways to take a rather educated guess at what gender a noun might be. There are some reasons as to why some nouns have some genders, believe it or not. They do add a bit more of a challenge to the language, yes, but really, it's no big deal, over all. Great language, yes.

English had Four score and one, Four score and two, etc...

I can't think up any good names for seventy, eighty, ninety... I think the system is fine.

Here's a hint. Hardly anyone knows what a score is. Sure, we all have heard it. But only in the one instance of "four score and 7 years ago". You need a history major to recognize that Lincoln was saying "87 years ago". Nobody talks like that. That's not modern American English. They may stll say stuff like that in England, I don't know. I mean, they use the word "bespeaks" for cryin out loud.

And I like my green car. I don't know what the hell a car green is. Unless that's the putting green for the golf hole where if you get a hole-in-one you win a car.

This thread, is pointless. I can say, that the best language, is obviously Swedish. Nuff said.

Anyhow, I think Finnish doesn't have genders, but I could be wrong, and that probably means Estonians also doesn't have genders, and then maybe Hungarian (but, probably not).

On german, you forgot to mention that they have this tendency to invent new words by ramming many small words together and then contracting it.
And in English, we just pull stuff out of our asses, or do the exact same thing. Uhh...road-kill? So?

I actually like that part. If I only could do it in english.

Like "doubleplusnogood"

Isn't it meant to be "doubleplusungood? I can't remember where thats from, but I know it.

Isn't it meant to be "doubleplusungood? I can't remember where thats from, but I know it.1984 by George Orwell.

1984 by George Orwell.
Which is coincidently written in British English.

The only way to master german is to be a human encyclopedia.
Good on me.

And by the way, PzkW is an acronym - not a word. No one could pronounce it.
In English they make up acronyms all the time too BTW...

1984 by George Orwell.

Ah yes, of course.

Actually, seeing as how this is a language thread, I would rank Newspeak about 15 or 16, even though we are supposed to have a dislike for it.

here's the way that i look at language.

English (the real stuff, not this stupid american copy)- it has some bloody stupid quirks but what language doesn't? It is regarded as a hard language to learn because it is of i dying breed of language. a breed that included things like German. Barbarian, gutteral languages. the sounds are different. the word order is different.

Americano English- i see this as a 'i can't be bothered to spell things properly so lets just make everything easier' language. it has resulted in a dumming down of the language. its like the scottish dialect. borne of laziness.

French- now, as an englishman i don't really like the french. it strikes me as an over complicated language with rules that are broken as much as followed. it is, however, of the dominant breed of european romano languages. very different from mine own. my knowledge of it is limited to school experiences. the vowels always REALLY annoyed me. but that is probably my english background.

German- bloody fantastic language. seems logical and reasonable. it is one of my favourite languages. i hope to lean it one day. it just seems so... mathematical.

Asian languages- strike me as perfect for poetry. they are beautiful to see. however i think that they were SERIOUSLY complicated by the apparent need to make them attractive.

Welsh- now if you want a strange language this is your man. and i love it for it. i love going through welsh towns and pronouncing their names. i love the Ll sound. it has no comparison in english, german or french (to the best of my knowledge).

here's the way that i look at language.

Welsh- now if you want a strange language this is your man. and i love it for it. i love going through welsh towns and pronouncing their names. i love the Ll sound. it has no comparison in english, german or french (to the best of my knowledge).

I don't have much experience with welsh, but what I do have I like.

I also have to insist that "American English" and "British English" and "Aussie English" and "South African English" are all English. They are dialects. They are the same language.

Tomatoe, tomahtoe. Pop, soda pop, soda, carbonated beverage, fizzy drink, etc. Its all the same.

You can, and it's largely corporation-speak that is the culprit:

...
comptroller
...


Sorry, but while this may seem like a dumb thread to some who posted, I'm an amateur etymologist/linguist and am fascinated by words. Yes, his rankings are arbitrary and clearly jingoistic, but I like the general topic.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but the word 'comptroller' goes back at the very least five hundred years, quite possibly a lot longer, and isn't an American invention, no?

A general question: I've seen at least two posters so far who seem to be bothered by the French vowels. What's wrong with them? I've also learned French as a foreign language (like English) and yet I haven't noticed anything strange about them.

--snip--
And I like my green car. I don't know what the hell a car green is. Unless that's the putting green for the golf hole where if you get a hole-in-one you win a car.

Uh, once you get it through your head that the noun is first, car green makes perfect sense. It only confuses you if you're too stupid to realize the noun is first. The emphasis in speaking that phrase would be on "green" -- someone correct me if I spell these wrong: "auto vert".

American English: It's from America. Nuff said.


There is no such thing as "American English" there is only "English". The language has spelling changes throught the world that speeks it. English is the most widely spoken language (IE most number of places that speek it) but Mandarin Chinese is spoken by the most people

--snip--
Americano English- i see this as a 'i can't be bothered to spell things properly so lets just make everything easier' language. it has resulted in a dumming down of the language. its like the scottish dialect. borne of laziness.


Okay, I'm no Europhobe, but I'm sick to the teeth of this argument. By what rationale can the UK claim that US English is improperly spelled? You idiots spell -"or" as "-our" in some kind of ass-kissing Norman hymn to French. To top that off, you SPELL things that way and then can't be bothered to PRONOUNCE them that way! Then why bother with the superfluous U to begin with?

Colour should be pronounced "ko-LOOR".
Behaviour would be "be-hay-VYOOR".

So you can take your Anglo-superior spelling argument and get stuffed. Forgive my rudeness, but you can't call a dialect "lazy" when US English has more neologisms as a result of technology and invention than all other languages combined. How's that lazy?

There is no such thing as "American English" there is only "English". The language has spelling changes throught the world that speeks it. English is the most widely spoken language (IE most number of places that speek it) but Mandarin Chinese is spoken by the most peopleUm... No. English ranks behind Spanish and Chinese somewhere on place 3, 4, or 5...

For some reason I have difficulty accepting the rankings of world languages by someone who uses the term "Nuff said"

For some reason I have difficulty accepting the rankings of world languages by someone who uses the term "Nuff said"I personally have difficulties accepting anything by someone that supports a political party whose members would probably beat the crap out of them if given the chance the way Serapindal does :p

That's too close to the actual truth.

You are NOT trying to say that You rate French over German, are You? not that i'd mind, but my faith in this world would take a dramatic plunge..

I personally have difficulties accepting anything by someone that supports a political party whose members would probably beat the crap out of them if given the chance the way Serapindal does :p

Yes, the original answer is still hanging back :D

Um... No. English ranks behind Spanish and Chinese somewhere on place 3, 4, or 5...

No, English is the most widely spoken language in the world (Widely is defined as the most places that speak it, not most people). However the most spoken language in the world is Mandarin Chinese (most spoken meaning most people that speak it)

So you can take your Anglo-superior spelling argument and get stuffed. Forgive my rudeness, but you can't call a dialect "lazy" when US English has more neologisms as a result of technology and invention than all other languages combined. How's that lazy?

I think you would find that latin actually out-ranks American-English when it comes to neologisms formed on the basis of technology and invention. Afterall, they've been coining them for over two thousand years and continue to do so today.

True, e.g. ghoti.

hah! every single damn english teacher i had so far used that one. AND then i took philosophy and we did it again. oh, yes..the fame of one word..

Okay, I'm no Europhobe, but I'm sick to the teeth of this argument. By what rationale can the UK claim that US English is improperly spelled? You idiots spell -"or" as "-our" in some kind of ass-kissing Norman hymn to French. To top that off, you SPELL things that way and then can't be bothered to PRONOUNCE them that way! Then why bother with the superfluous U to begin with?

Yourself and Mellivorinae seem to have missed the fact that American-English has not created new simplified spellings of words - instead it has preserved the spellings which were commonplace throughout the UK in the C17th. A great many American spellings are actually archaicisms when it comes to British-English.

Okay, I'm no Europhobe, but I'm sick to the teeth of this argument. By what rationale can the UK claim that US English is improperly spelled? You idiots spell -"or" as "-our" in some kind of ass-kissing Norman hymn to French. To top that off, you SPELL things that way and then can't be bothered to PRONOUNCE them that way! Then why bother with the superfluous U to begin with?

Colour should be pronounced "ko-LOOR".
Behaviour would be "be-hay-VYOOR".

So you can take your Anglo-superior spelling argument and get stuffed. Forgive my rudeness, but you can't call a dialect "lazy" when US English has more neologisms as a result of technology and invention than all other languages combined. How's that lazy?
Or, you could, as you were the ones who borrowed and bastardised our language, show a little bit more respect to the origins of 'your' language, and shut the hell up? Yeah? :p

you're all wronge! it's
ryupisasa>yopenese>mandarin>punjabi(/hindi)>spanish>mongolian>japanese>arabic>german>russian>bengali :p
the rest aren't even good enough to put on here. english's a horrible language...
let's all start speaking yopenese!
ti ku, tiw? sopr ipuu uyuun!
or some other language!
sai hengo shaanii man'u shai lyupisasa!
zhongwen shi ye hao yingwen!
espanol es mas mejor que ingles!
nihongo no hoo ga eigo yori ii desu!
and that's all the languages i am capable enough in to say 'this language is better than english' in that langauge...

Uh, once you get it through your head that the noun is first, car green makes perfect sense. It only confuses you if you're too stupid to realize the noun is first. The emphasis in speaking that phrase would be on "green" -- someone correct me if I spell these wrong: "auto vert".

It's called sarcasm, look it up.

Calling (or even implying) that people are stupid when you are, in fact, the person who doesn't get it, makes you look...well...:rolleyes:

Or, you could, as you were the ones who borrowed and bastardised our language, show a little bit more respect to the origins of 'your' language, and shut the hell up? Yeah? :p

Exactly how did we borrow your language? I seem to remember something about being colonized by Britian... Were the British landowners that ruled the US in 1776 supposed to decide to use a different language because we threw off British rule? What sense would that make? And if your objection here was to the tone of the post, consider the tone that was being responded to.

Composed nouns rock. The best I can think of right now is "folkesuverenitetsprinsippet". But of course, "the supporter of the principle of the people's sovereignty" would be "folkesuverenitetsprinsipptilhengeren" and "the bunch of supporters of the principle of the people's sovereignty" would be "folkesuverenitetsprinsipptilhengerskaren". -Not very much used in every day conversation, but cool nonetheless.

While on the topic of crazy new ideas from the 18th century translated into Norwegian, I also like the word "rettsstat", meaning "constitutional (democratic) government" (apparently,) as an example that you can never have enought 't's and 's's

Exactly how did we borrow your language? I seem to remember something about being colonized by Britian... Were the British landowners that ruled the US in 1776 supposed to decide to use a different language because we threw off British rule? What sense would that make? And if your objection here was to the tone of the post, consider the tone that was being responded to.

Actually, immigrants to America came from all over Europe. Meaning they did not all speak English, Portugese or Spanish to begin with.

Français comes close, though. How many consonants get swallowed in "S'il vous plait"?

I can only see two...

Anyhow, I think Finnish doesn't have genders, but I could be wrong, and that probably means Estonians also doesn't have genders, and then maybe Hungarian (but, probably not).

I don't know for sure, but I think the Fins differentiate between male animative, male inanimative, female animative, female inanimative and neuter. Which was what Scandinavians did with pronouns a thousand years ago (and the Icelandic still do.)

Exactly how did we borrow your language? I seem to remember something about being colonized by Britian... Were the British landowners that ruled the US in 1776 supposed to decide to use a different language because we threw off British rule? What sense would that make? And if your objection here was to the tone of the post, consider the tone that was being responded to.
Sorry, I forgot Britain was the only country to control America :rolleyes:
Apart from Spain...
and France...
and Portugal...
and the Netherlands...
and Russia...
You could've had any one of those languages (in fact, you nearly went for French), yet you chose English. And now you complain.



I notice you didn't complain about me saying you bastardised our language :p

I can only see two...

Three, unless I'm mistaken. S'il vous plait.


Sorry, I forgot Britain was the only country to control America
Apart from Spain...
and France...
and Portugal...
and the Netherlands...
and Russia...
You could've had any one of those languages (in fact, you nearly went for French), yet you chose English. And now you complain.

Oh, come on. We all know very well that English was the official language of the British thirteen colonies.

EDIT: And I was about to agree with you on the bastardisation charge, but who here said that American English was a preserved version of 17th century English? I find that unlikely, considering that Englandish has many more silent vowels; it doesn't seem like they would have been added on.

But if it is true, then does it mean that Americans only stopped bastardising the language at an earlier point in time, whereas the Brits kept it up for a good many more years?

EDIT: And I was about to agree with you on the bastardisation charge, but who here said that American English was a preserved version of 17th century English? I find that unlikely, considering that Englandish has many more silent vowels; it doesn't seem like they would have been added on.

But if it is true, then does it mean that Americans only stopped bastardising the language at an earlier point in time, whereas the Brits kept it up for a good many more years?
Well, if it is true, it shouldn't matter. Our language, our right to bastardise!

Well, if it is true, it shouldn't matter. Our language, our right to bastardise!

Its not "your language" though. Care to guess why its called ENGLISH?

Its not "your language" though. Care to guess why its called ENGLISH?
British English is no longer American English. One day it will be the difference between Middle English and modern English.

Well, if it is true, it shouldn't matter. Our language, our right to bastardise!
British English is no longer American English. One day it will be the difference between Middle English and modern English.

And our conclusion? You bastardise yours, we'll bastardize ours, and the world shall spin harmoniously.

They may stll say stuff like that in England, I don't know. I mean, they use the word "bespeaks" for cryin out loud.


We do?

We do?
Your posting of this question bespeaks of your incredulity.:p

Sorry, I forgot Britain was the only country to control America :rolleyes:
Apart from Spain...
and France...
and Portugal...
and the Netherlands...
and Russia...
You could've had any one of those languages (in fact, you nearly went for French), yet you chose English. And now you complain.



I notice you didn't complain about me saying you bastardised our language :p
Other languages considered:
Greek
German
Latin

There were probably more, but these are the ones in addition to French and the Queen's English that I can remember.

(Can you imagine "Εμείς οι άνθρωποι" for "We the People"?):D

Three, unless I'm mistaken. S'il vous plait.

I think the l is allowed to stay.

Three, unless I'm mistaken. S'il vous plait.
You are mistaken. The 'l' is pronounced. Only the 's' and 't' are silent.

You are mistaken. The 'l' is pronounced. Only the 's' and 't' are silent.

If anybody wants an example of mangling consonants they need look no further than the English names Cholmondley and Featherstonehaugh.*





* pronounced 'Chumley' and 'Fanshaw', for them not in the know.

Its not "your language" though. Care to guess why its called ENGLISH?
Eh? I am English...

I also have to insist that "American English" and "British English" and "Aussie English" and "South African English" are all English. They are dialects. They are the same language.

Tomatoe, tomahtoe. Pop, soda pop, soda, carbonated beverage, fizzy drink, etc. Its all the same.
Yes they are dialect of the same language.

There is no such thing as "American English" there is only "English". The language has spelling changes throught the world that speeks it.
Of course there is such a thing as Standard American English'. It is an English dialect. Different dialects of a language are, well, different. It is sometimes useful or even necessary to identify dialects, and fortunately enough this can be done easily for instance by presupposing the language name with a qualifying dialect name.

I say good sir, not only did you fail to use the phrase "The Queen's English" But you also appear to have got your pointy whatsits the wrong way round.

Might be an idea to correct that before someone notices your mistake old boy.