2 ms·
The article seems to miss the point that Twain was a humorist trying to be funny, not a linguist trying to write a serious criticism of a language's defects.
by gweinberg 5y ago
The article seems to miss the point that Twain was a humorist trying to be funny, not a linguist trying to write a serious criticism of a language's defects.
- dang 5y agoWe've since changed the URL. A Wikipedia article about another article that's easily available is not a good HN submission. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27177026 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27177026 Side note - in all the many times Twain's essay has come up on HN (partial list at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27177031 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27177031), I don't think I've ever seen a case of a German speaker taking offence at it or even reacting defensively. That's impressive! That is not how flamebait usually progresses. In most cases, the title would be enough to get hostile reactions, and the text too, despite that it's obviously in good fun and that only a serious student of German (and master humorist) could have written it.
- arduanika 5y agoMaybe this goes to show the Germans have a sense of humor after all. Thanks for the link change.