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English is the simplest Latin based language. This has nothing to do with pronunciation but not even knowing basic words. Or how to communicate. Only a small pe

English is the simplest Latin based language. This has nothing to do with pronunciation but not even knowing basic words. Or how to communicate. Only a small percentage of Indians speak English and most statistics on it are heavily inflated. The Indian English Education system is the same one the Japanese and Koreans use. And they don't know English. The reality is it's like if you learned Spanish in middle school to highschool. That's the average English proficency. Most Indians do not interact with people outside their groups as most things are written in the languages they use. It's not Singapore or even close to it in English proficency trying to claim it is, is a lie.

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gsich 4y ago
Pronunciation and orthography vary in many cases, not simple at all. Unless you already come from a germanic language, then it's relatively easy.
- alex028502 4y ago
  Coming from another Germanic language helps you deal with pronunciation and orthography varying in English? What's the relationship?
  - gsich 4y ago
    You can just speak it in your native way and you will mostly be understood. But the "relatively easy" was to the language as a whole.
- wongarsu 4y ago
  English grammar is very simple to learn if you come from a Germanic language, but I think English pronunciation and orthography is a mystery to all of us. Even if you know the origins of the word, you still have to guess: facade is pronounced correctly, but the pronunciation of Uranus was apparently left up to a 5-year old to decide. Kindergarten and doppelganger are pronounced the German way, angst and flak aren't. The non-loanwords are somehow as inconsistent, after pronunciation changed but the spelling was preserved (and the other way around). For an unknown word you can come up with reasonable guesses, but they might be totally wrong. The only thing that makes us good English speakers is extensive exposure to English media.
echelon 4y ago
> English is the simplest Latin based language. Any sources for this? The lack of certain complex features (eg. gendered words) does make it seem true, but English borrows from a lot of sources and is very inconsistent. A comparison I like to make is that Japanese is one of the simplest to pronounce languages. If you learn the kana, you essentially learn all of the phonemes (there's a bit more nuance). I'd like to know what the simplest languages are on each dimension : pronunciation (has to be Japanese), grammar, overall consistency, vocabulary complexity, writing, etc. It would be awesome if we gradually evolved English to be easier to learn, such as in [1]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English-language_spelling_reform https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English-language_spelling_refo...
- pelagicAustral 4y ago
  Well, I learned it by watching HBO, so it can't be that hard...
  - echelon 4y ago
    Congrats! That's awesome.
- smugma 4y ago
  There are people who measure language difficulty. The uS state department does it from a US perspective but I’ve seen others https://www.state.gov/foreign-language-training/ https://www.state.gov/foreign-language-training/
basicoperation 4y ago
Whilst it uses a lot of Latin words (mostly via French), English is actually a Germanic language.
- notart666 4y ago
  I know it comes from the Angles of Angaland.
alex028502 4y ago
What do you mean by Latin based language? Or what are the other "Latin based languages" that you are comparing it to?
icy 4y ago
> most things are written in the languages they use Do you know anything about India or are you merely talking out of your ass? This is patently false—nearly all documents are in three languages: English, Hindi and the state’s local language.
maest 4y ago
> English is the simplest Latin based language. It's not a Latin-based language (French, Italian, Spanish etc are Latin-based languages). It's not clear how you measure simplicity, but, in terms of phonetics, English is quite the nightmare as the link between the spelling and the pronunciation is often determined by the history of the word, rather than by a clear set of phonetical rules. So, at least by that measure, English is far from being the simplest.
- hulitu 4y ago
  > It's not clear how you measure simplicity Compared with other european languages the english grammar is much simpler and the number of words needed to communicate is also not so high.
  - levleontiev 4y ago
    Compared with German, it's complicated. German has only "Past Perfect" and "Past simple" tenses. English has at least 4.
KrishnaShripad 4y ago
> Most Indians do not interact with people outside their groups as most things are written in the languages they use What? At this point I think you are troll account. You have already made wild and ridiculous statements like caste system being a form of "systemic slavery" in India. Now you are saying that only a "small percentage" of Indians speak English? Are you serious mate? English is the official language of India for literally everything. From giving exams to Government communications. > Only a small percentage of Indians speak English and most statistics on it are heavily inflated Where is the data for this? > It's not Singapore or even close to it in English proficency trying to claim it is, is a lie. And where do you get this data from?

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gsich 4y ago

Pronunciation and orthography vary in many cases, not simple at all. Unless you already come from a germanic language, then it's relatively easy.

alex028502 4y ago
Coming from another Germanic language helps you deal with pronunciation and orthography varying in English? What's the relationship?
- gsich 4y ago
  You can just speak it in your native way and you will mostly be understood. But the "relatively easy" was to the language as a whole.
wongarsu 4y ago
English grammar is very simple to learn if you come from a Germanic language, but I think English pronunciation and orthography is a mystery to all of us. Even if you know the origins of the word, you still have to guess: facade is pronounced correctly, but the pronunciation of Uranus was apparently left up to a 5-year old to decide. Kindergarten and doppelganger are pronounced the German way, angst and flak aren't. The non-loanwords are somehow as inconsistent, after pronunciation changed but the spelling was preserved (and the other way around). For an unknown word you can come up with reasonable guesses, but they might be totally wrong. The only thing that makes us good English speakers is extensive exposure to English media.

echelon 4y ago

> English is the simplest Latin based language. Any sources for this? The lack of certain complex features (eg. gendered words) does make it seem true, but English borrows from a lot of sources and is very inconsistent. A comparison I like to make is that Japanese is one of the simplest to pronounce languages. If you learn the kana, you essentially learn all of the phonemes (there's a bit more nuance). I'd like to know what the simplest languages are on each dimension : pronunciation (has to be Japanese), grammar, overall consistency, vocabulary complexity, writing, etc. It would be awesome if we gradually evolved English to be easier to learn, such as in [1]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English-language_spelling_reform https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English-language_spelling_refo...

pelagicAustral 4y ago
Well, I learned it by watching HBO, so it can't be that hard...
- echelon 4y ago
  Congrats! That's awesome.
smugma 4y ago
There are people who measure language difficulty. The uS state department does it from a US perspective but I’ve seen others https://www.state.gov/foreign-language-training/ https://www.state.gov/foreign-language-training/

basicoperation 4y ago

Whilst it uses a lot of Latin words (mostly via French), English is actually a Germanic language.

notart666 4y ago
I know it comes from the Angles of Angaland.

alex028502 4y ago

What do you mean by Latin based language? Or what are the other "Latin based languages" that you are comparing it to?

icy 4y ago

> most things are written in the languages they use Do you know anything about India or are you merely talking out of your ass? This is patently false—nearly all documents are in three languages: English, Hindi and the state’s local language.

maest 4y ago

> English is the simplest Latin based language. It's not a Latin-based language (French, Italian, Spanish etc are Latin-based languages). It's not clear how you measure simplicity, but, in terms of phonetics, English is quite the nightmare as the link between the spelling and the pronunciation is often determined by the history of the word, rather than by a clear set of phonetical rules. So, at least by that measure, English is far from being the simplest.

hulitu 4y ago
> It's not clear how you measure simplicity Compared with other european languages the english grammar is much simpler and the number of words needed to communicate is also not so high.
- levleontiev 4y ago
  Compared with German, it's complicated. German has only "Past Perfect" and "Past simple" tenses. English has at least 4.

KrishnaShripad 4y ago

> Most Indians do not interact with people outside their groups as most things are written in the languages they use What? At this point I think you are troll account. You have already made wild and ridiculous statements like caste system being a form of "systemic slavery" in India. Now you are saying that only a "small percentage" of Indians speak English? Are you serious mate? English is the official language of India for literally everything. From giving exams to Government communications. > Only a small percentage of Indians speak English and most statistics on it are heavily inflated Where is the data for this? > It's not Singapore or even close to it in English proficency trying to claim it is, is a lie. And where do you get this data from?