German has the cool feature of just cramming a bunch of words together to make a new word. That’s about the only thing I know about it as someone who’s just interested in language as a concept.
For people interested in language who speak English, I will recommend this book, which kinda blew my mind explaining why my native tongue is so stupid for good reasons:
Well, English prefers genitive constructions, and rarely compounds more than two words, so native English speakers have trouble to parse words like Kindercarnavalsoptochtvoorbereidingswerkzaamhedencomitéleden, Speciallægepraksisplanlægningsstabiliseringsperiode or Rindfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgesetz, despite compounding being a core feature of Germanic languages, not only German. English just cought a severe case of French back in 1066…-
English isn’t stupid. It’s organic. Just like any other language. Two native English speakers can communicate with each other clearly and easily, which is the point of language. Saying a language is stupid because it is difficult to learn by non-native speakers, or because it is easy to get your wrist slapped by a hard-nosed grammarian is just hand-wringing.
Learn about the Great Vowel Shift and how the timing for it, as well as the timing of the printing press, created a mess of a language with few consistent rules. It’s a stupid (written) language because history made it that way.
I mean, you are kind of missing my point. Native English speakers (or writers) can communicate easily with each other. That is literally the only thing that matters in a language. The consistency of grammatical rules is irrelevant.
German has the cool feature of just cramming a bunch of words together to make a new word. That’s about the only thing I know about it as someone who’s just interested in language as a concept.
For people interested in language who speak English, I will recommend this book, which kinda blew my mind explaining why my native tongue is so stupid for good reasons:
Highly Irregular: Why Tough, Through, and Dough Don’t Rhyme and Other Oddities of the English Language
It’s really not that different.
German: Dampfschiffkapitän
English: steam boat captain
German, if compound words worked like in English: Dampf Schiff Kapitän
English, if compound words worked like in German: steamboatcaptain
Sadly, for some Germans it does
Well, English prefers genitive constructions, and rarely compounds more than two words, so native English speakers have trouble to parse words like Kindercarnavalsoptochtvoorbereidingswerkzaamhedencomitéleden, Speciallægepraksisplanlægningsstabiliseringsperiode or Rindfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgesetz, despite compounding being a core feature of Germanic languages, not only German. English just cought a severe case of French back in 1066…-
English isn’t stupid. It’s organic. Just like any other language. Two native English speakers can communicate with each other clearly and easily, which is the point of language. Saying a language is stupid because it is difficult to learn by non-native speakers, or because it is easy to get your wrist slapped by a hard-nosed grammarian is just hand-wringing.
Learn about the Great Vowel Shift and how the timing for it, as well as the timing of the printing press, created a mess of a language with few consistent rules. It’s a stupid (written) language because history made it that way.
I mean, you are kind of missing my point. Native English speakers (or writers) can communicate easily with each other. That is literally the only thing that matters in a language. The consistency of grammatical rules is irrelevant.