I get a tad annoyed by this because it's like people kind of want to talk about how bad English is -- how incredibly hard English spelling is etc. -- as another way to make it sound special And it's really not *that* specialhttps://twitter.com/benjanun_s/status/1265209402786590720 …
-
Show this thread
-
Chinese "spelling" (hanzi) is objectively many times more difficult than writing English and people manage
3 replies 0 retweets 24 likesShow this thread -
It is all one big circlejerk in the end, this whole "Our beautiful chaotic mess of a language" stuff And it's like whatever, this is just what's typical for any "world language" that's the lingua franca of a large empire
2 replies 1 retweet 20 likesShow this thread -
The cliched quote about English "mugging other languages for vocabulary in an alleyway" is really boring, like you don't have to post it as a comment every time someone mentions some unusual feature of the English language, it's extremely played out
3 replies 2 retweets 14 likesShow this thread -
I really want to point out every time someone says this that this is entirely a matter of perception *All human beings* adopt words they hear from other languages when it's convenient
1 reply 1 retweet 20 likesShow this thread -
The reason you perceive English as actually "incorporating words into the language" but not vice versa is unconscious imperialism This assumption that because America is the center of the world, if a word gets commonly used by Americans it's "our word now" but not in reverse
1 reply 1 retweet 18 likesShow this thread -
Like look just as an example literally everyone in Taiwan knows the word "okay", there is nowhere you can't say "okay" and not be understood as agreeing to something, but if I said "Well that means okay is a Chinese word now" you'd balk
1 reply 2 retweets 15 likesShow this thread -
Nobody says "Oh the Chinese language mugs other languages for vocabulary in an alleyway" like this charming thing It goes the other way, they say that this is evidence the Chinese language has been adulterated and weakened by English influence, it's less authentic now
3 replies 1 retweet 17 likesShow this thread -
Replying to @arthur_affect
English is pretty flexible and it’s current global status means it will oucknup vocabulary in a way other languages don’t and spread vocabulary too, but I’m not sure it’s so unique for that.
2 replies 0 retweets 0 likes
Yeah those are features that just come with the territory of being a lingua franca If you look at the evolution of koine Greek from Attic Greek it picks up, in the broad sense, "English-like" features of simplified grammar to make adopting loanwords easier etc.
-
-
Replying to @arthur_affect
*Pickup, btw. Another interesting feature of English is that it was *not* a prestige language until the early 19th and 20th century, and even then the language of diplomacy was French. (You can see this in your old passports-- the text is translated into French)
0 replies 0 retweets 0 likesThanks. Twitter will use this to make your timeline better. UndoUndo
-
Loading seems to be taking a while.
Twitter may be over capacity or experiencing a momentary hiccup. Try again or visit Twitter Status for more information.