Spelling "reforms" in English.

ClockworkUniverse

No one ever brings up the Slavic case system, with 7 different cases determing the function of a word. Or the Germanic one, with four. Or Finnish's 15 cases.

The problem isn't the number of cases. It's the number of exceptions, which have to be memorized individually.

vandro

Russian is cyrillic alphabet, but you know what, it has great orthography, better than spanish and italian.

Chagen

When did I say anything negative about Russian?

Does no one remember my goal to be an omniglot?

MillerCross

Everyone acts like English is the only difficult language ever, when many are nearly as difficult.

English isn't difficult. At least it isn't for a Spanish speaker. But it is pretty inconsistent and...well, incomplete and it lends itself to many misunderstandings. 

vandro

The thing is, it is easier to speak than english when you come down to it. And that is what matters when you try to learn a language.

DYRE

Or languages that don't use the latin alphabet, like Russian or Japanese.

I would object to that, since hiragana/katakana is infinitely easier than the Latin alphabet (at least, the Latin alphabet as used in English) since it's extremely consistent and such, but... kanji exists, so I still have to agree with you.

Chagen

Actually guys:

Part of the reason for my RAEG is that my dad instilled a sense of American Patriotism and Nationalism (part of this was "ENGLISH DA' BEST LANGUAGE IN DA WORLD") in me at a young age. So when things like this show up, I rage because I remember that and it's an automatic response.

I still am trying to stop this. Most of my irrational raging can be explained from my dad implanting these ideas in my brain and I still hold onto them no matter how little sense they make. So when I see something that opposes them, I just go on a sort of automatic "American/English nationalism" mode.

....Does that make sense?

DYRE

lolFreudianexcuse

Forzare

Solution: Think before you vomit words into a thread

DYRE

Except don't because this thread was hilarious.

Chagen

Well, it is true. I am aware of how dumb I sound, but all those nationalist ideals my dad gave me tend to still surface sometimes.

ClockworkUniverse

Yeah, everyone has topics like that. Realizing and admitting it is definitely a good thing.

In the interest of full disclosure, the topics I should never talk about (of which I'm aware) are: newspapers, relatives I've never met and Romeo and Juliet.

MillerCross

The thing is, it is easier to speak than english when you come down to it. And that is what matters when you try to learn a language.

I guess it's a different stroke deal because I've found that spoken English is hard. 

If that's what you mean, of course.

^ Romeo and Juliet. Hmmm, elaborate (If you fell like it)

vandro

Russian is easier to speak than english.

ClockworkUniverse

^^I feel like it's one of Shakespeare's less interesting works, but the most popular because someone went "ooh, it has teenagers! Let's teach it to every single high-school student!" That, and it's used as an example of a really romantic couple despite the many, many indications that it's intended as an anti-romance. Finally, because I went to Italy with my graduating class and almost the entire stop was spent on Juliet's balcony despite there being so much more to look at in the city (that Colosseum looked pretty awesome, but I didn't get to go in).

/rant

Chagen

Vandro: I dunno.

Russian has some phonemes that have no English equivalent.

Those are hard. Such as in German, I can't tell the difference between "u"/"ü" and "o"/"ö" and I sure as hell can't pronounce them.

ClockworkUniverse

^Those kinds of phonemes show up in most comparisons between languages. English, for example, has the growling "r."

Chagen

INUH: I actually am reading a book on language right now.

It says that when babies babble, they are actually saying every single phoneme humans can possibly make. Exposure to one language then makes them only remember how to do that language's phonemes, and forget the rest.

ClockworkUniverse

Yep. Which I guess implies that babies in the babble stage would find it very helpful to be exposed to recordings of the sounds of various languages, even if they aren't learning the language just then.

Chagen

Thouh, the fact that I was born with the ability to say "ö" and "ü" is simultaneously hilarious and aggravating.

/on-topic

Also, "æ" is the coolest fucking letter ever and English sucks because they dropped it.

I almost wish that English kept the Germanic Case system. Old English was a bitchin' language.

Stormtroper

Man, this thread sure got weird out of the sudden.

French is a shitty as english when it comes down to it.

RAEG

I guess it's a different stroke deal because I've found that spoken English is hard.

Same here.

DYRE

Also... every time I look at this thread, I keep expecting it to be someone complaining about the way "reforms" is spelled.

ClockworkUniverse

Maybe this is a sign that I need sleep, but I just saw the thread title and thought "why would it be hard to spell "reforms" in English? R-E-F-O-R-M-S."

Ninja'd ... O.O

Forzare

DYRE NINJAING INUH?!

THIS MAKES ME NOSTALGIA

ClockworkUniverse

I'm more worried about the fact that he ninja'd me with the same subject change I was making.

Stormtroper

Weird minds think alike.

Oh yeah, looking at SoundSpel's examples, I think it looks pretty good.

Deboss

And spanish grammar is not weird, quite the opposite, it is something english grammar is not: consistent.

Explain "ir" then.

BlackHumor

@Chagen: You still have the ability to say "ö" and "ü".

All babies are doing is making random sounds. You don't lose the ability to move your tongue when you're an adult.

Chagen

Still, it's rather difficult for me to do it.

ClockworkUniverse

^^That's not as true as you think. People who don't learn a language with a given phoneme at a young age have not only a harder time saying it, but a harder time distinguishing it from the ones they learned.