Termyn8or
Posts: 18681
Joined: 11/12/2005
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FR
Ten years ago I would not be welcome here because I could not express myself all that well. Maybe fifteen. Something like that.
Lacking a typist and wanting to write things impelled me to learn. Necessity is indeed the Mother of invention.
When you read words, the spelling gives an inkling to their origin(s) and as such their meaning(s). They could whap me in the head all they want in school, but until I had the desire to express myself via the written word I had no need for grammar and punctuation. seeing the world in a larger sense, I figured the language out, learned, because I wanted to, and really there was no other reason.
I am a bit on the old side to learn other languages, and there is valid reason to do so. Spanish and the Oriental languages would be good to know, and today some Arabic languages, but I am stuck in the mold. Actually this forum among others have impelled me to learn the language, simply because I want to express my opinion.
I talk to DPs all the time. Some say English is the easiest language, others disagree strongly. Even having known people who avoid using slang because they have moved around the country so much has added something. When forced by this means, you learn. You also learn that English has it's limitations. There are twelve tenses in Polish, but the word tense in that sense means something else. Grammar is different. In another language you might say "Outside go, with shoes". This means put your shoes on before you go outside.
And of course spelling is a similar mess. Even English is bad enough. Color vs colour, flavor vs flavour. But friend is friend in German. It's just pronounced "fru[e]nd". Something like that. I have always liked German, I consider it one of the most versatile languages around, even though I understand very little of it. Maybe not in self expression like a novel or something, but in technical terms they can speak a paragraph in one word. Some words are forty letters, and are constructed "along the way" so to speak. We call something a "tri-cellular conbustion chamber" [in a cylinder of an internal combustion engine] and they have a very precise forty three letter word to describe it. Like doctors and researchers who are sometimes called upon to actually invent a word, it comes natural to them.
Rhyming is another story. Falco did Der Kommisar, which was translated to English. How exactly they did it I don't know because the grammar is a bit different and the words, let's not even talk about it. But they got it done. Translating a rhyme that must fit a musical construct has got to be a real bitch.
Sometimes spelling can be explained away by looking at the roots of the words, however in the example given, that doesn't really apply. Interjections and such are not always noted and published. In fact I made one up - "ISH". That means shut the fuck up.
Another fucked up thing about English, at least our version of it is how many acronyms become words. Changes happen so fast. ROM is a word ? Nope. Phone is not a word, just a component of a word. Telephone is a word based on the language, and it is just as improper to use the word phone discretely as it is to use the "word" tele. But we don't see it that way so it is not so.
I swear that guy sounds like one of my English teachers, but i can't really be sure because I didn't pay attention. But then I had a blind algebra teacher.
The modus of communication is fluid, unfortunately that means all those words etched in stone mean nothing. So here we are.
T
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