4 ms·

Ah, and before English today, the educated said that French was the most precise language, and before that, Latin. I agree that English vocabulary is very well

Ah, and before English today, the educated said that French was the most precise language, and before that, Latin. I agree that English vocabulary is very well-developed for concepts in the modern world, but I hope that readers will recognize that it is not this way because of some essential superiority of the language, but because many people are using it for precise communication. Imagine for example that the entire population speaking English were to die off but for a few rednecks who don't understand much of the world, and you will find that English as is spoken by them is too imprecise to apprehend most things. Or when a casual conversation steered into specialist territory, and those of a different profession felt like the conversation was Greek to their ears. English speakers would need to be trained in your profession's jargon and idioms to be able to understand what is being discussed. Here the value of English is that there is already a community of people who understand this idiom, whereas to discuss the same matter in another language would require fixing jargon and idioms that nobody is already conversant in. That is, it is the existing communities of speakers that understand specialized English that makes it developed for precise communication in a variety of advanced topics, and not some essential superiority of English in terms of how it interacts with each individual's minds that other languages cannot potentially achieve.

mikorym 7y ago
> [English is] not this way because of some essential superiority of the language This is an important point to me and something often misunderstood, even (and especially) by mother tongue Northern Sotho speakers. Perceived superiority is sometimes mere utility. As far as I know, the spelling of Northern Sotho is derived from German missionaries (though perhaps also influenced by Dutch). This has caused Northern Sotho to be incompatible with English spelling. A prudent 7-year-old Mosotho would use this as an argument to rather learn English spelling, but also to make the mistake of discounting their language based on what is essentially just an unfortunate historical choice of orthography. Contrast this with Shona, which uses English-derived spelling. The Shona people generally have impressive skills in English spelling and eloquence in the use of English. (Though this is also due to Zimbabwe being influenced more by the British than anyone else.) I think we need to admit that language itself is something that a young learner sees through the lens of utility and that superiority as a social concept would always be grossly subjective. It is funny how "supremacists" often prosecute the most competent people in their own culture (due to their competent brethren being mostly nosy and challenging towards the supremacists).

mikorym 7y ago

> [English is] not this way because of some essential superiority of the language This is an important point to me and something often misunderstood, even (and especially) by mother tongue Northern Sotho speakers. Perceived superiority is sometimes mere utility. As far as I know, the spelling of Northern Sotho is derived from German missionaries (though perhaps also influenced by Dutch). This has caused Northern Sotho to be incompatible with English spelling. A prudent 7-year-old Mosotho would use this as an argument to rather learn English spelling, but also to make the mistake of discounting their language based on what is essentially just an unfortunate historical choice of orthography. Contrast this with Shona, which uses English-derived spelling. The Shona people generally have impressive skills in English spelling and eloquence in the use of English. (Though this is also due to Zimbabwe being influenced more by the British than anyone else.) I think we need to admit that language itself is something that a young learner sees through the lens of utility and that superiority as a social concept would always be grossly subjective. It is funny how "supremacists" often prosecute the most competent people in their own culture (due to their competent brethren being mostly nosy and challenging towards the supremacists).