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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Probably would!
The grammar is shockingly similar, in most instances just slightly more complex English.
Some word order differences and stuff, but nothing too crazy.
Main issue is pronunciation. Native English speakers often have serious trouble with the vowels.
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I learned French starting at age ten, and Arabic at twenty.
Throw me into that Norse vowel patch, I’ll figure it out. If I can handle the absolute nonsense of Parisian vowels and orthography I can survive any linguistic ordeal
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But I’m an outlier. You’re probably right in general about Anglophones
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Yeah, I was commenting very generally. I've never had much issue learning pronunciation myself, except Danish vowels.
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But I'm still convinced those are less pronounced, more groaned.