The only language one should learn is English. As Robert Pattinson said it in The King, 'talk to me in English, it's simple and ugly' What is not to like about English language.
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i do agree with that, english is the only language I ever learned voluntarily
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Literally the best language. Every other language is so clunky and over-Edgar-Allen-Poetic. That's not what makes a language complex, economical resources of a language is what makes it complex and multi-purpose.
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Don't know. Too many idioms in the English. No ambiguities in German or the Slavic languages - even the writing is (with some exceptions) phonetic. So, not sure about the argument in favor is the English being economical.
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Replying to @kkolozova @NegarestaniReza and
non phonetic orthography is the least of anyone's problems. it's easy to overcome. what makes a language difficult to learn (and thus difficult to spread) is 1) variety of declensions, 2) flexible word order, 3) phonetic quirks (like tones)
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Replying to @cyborg_nomade @kkolozova and
English got around all of them in going global. most of its declensions have either been dropped or converted to analytic particles. word order is essentially fixed and direct. phonetics still has some quirks (th and lots of vowels), but those can be gotten around
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Replying to @cyborg_nomade @kkolozova and
actually, the phonetic part plays a nice function in discriminating where a speaker is originally from.
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Replying to @cyborg_nomade @kkolozova and
Yeah but now you're talking about reasons why it's good at spreading, not why it's a good language. Very u/acc move.
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Replying to @demograms @kkolozova and
indeed. but there's nothing better for a language than being good at spreading.
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Now, I think you are trying to translate the effectivity of English language back to your ideology. Computational mechanics theory and statistical analysis are far better and more reliable options.
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Replying to @NegarestaniReza @demograms and
you'll do anything for another hellthread, right? granted: how do those things explain the spread of English better than an adaptive model?
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Replying to @cyborg_nomade @NegarestaniReza and
Languages are just a stratum of a multi scalar system. You can't just imagine languages in a neutral background where they'll be freely circulated and selected. Or would you make the British Empire & American imperialism into a mere function of the spread of English?
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