Some times the English language is friggin’ perfect.
Tell me there is a better word for 🦈 than “shark”.
You can’t look me in the eyes and tell me one exists.
Sharks are perfectly signified in our mongrel English tongue.
It’s a magnificent word.
Sharky shark shark shark.
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“Tiburón” is close; it’s fun to say “aguas! Hay tiburones!”
But not quite as good as shark.
That is one of the best fucken words ever spoken.
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I also like the word “fish” for fish.
That’s a good word right there.
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English is so shit at other things that we needed to steal vocabulary from French, Greek and Latin just to have a respectable vocabulary.
But it pretty much owns for animal words.
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Dogs are more doggy than they are chien-esque or perro-ista.
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Also half these words are just norse loan words, so I don't see how that's improved the situation.
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Well of course. I did point out that English is a right bastard mongrel tongue
(Imagine I delivered that word “bastard” with enough Scottish brogue that it painted Queen Liz’ own face with a blue n white St Andrew’s Cross)
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English has many excellent qualities.
For me, one of the most obvious wants is (non-regional) curse words.
English curses are super tame, and can't be expressed with sufficient vitriol.
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"Fuck" is just sort of quietly embarassing next to "faen" or "kurwa", for instance.
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Yeah. I think you’re right.
I like the sonic, aesthetic and mouth-feel qualities of the word “fuck”, but this language lacks range, variety, creativity and “oomph” in its curse-words.
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"Fuck" itself is sort of emblematic of the problem. It's too defined and can't really contract or extend much.
"Faen" can be said quietly, loudly, quickly, slowly etc. just in itself, to express all kinds of nuance.
"Kurwa" on the other hand just sounds vicious and percussive.
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