Engrish
Pages
- 1
- 2
| Author | Topic: Engrish |
|---|---|
|
Shock Trooper
Member # 3368
|
written Monday, August 22 2005 04:52
Profile
If English was good enough for Jesus it's good enough for me :P -------------------- "Like most of life's problems, this one can be solved with bending" Posts: 287 | Registered: Tuesday, August 19 2003 07:00 |
|
Master
Member # 4614
|
written Monday, August 22 2005 13:03
Profile
Homepage
I believe Jesus spoke Hebrew. But he can certainly understand English. -------------------- -ben4808 For those who love to spam: CSM Forums RIFQ Posts: 3360 | Registered: Friday, June 25 2004 07:00 |
|
Law Bringer
Member # 335
|
written Monday, August 22 2005 13:19
Profile
Homepage
Do you have any evidence for that? —Alorael, who finds it equally likely that Jesus has a staggeringly large entourage of translators wherever he goes. Even the Savior, or perhaps especially the Savior, can't waste time learning every language. He's probably a very busy man. Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00 |
|
Shock Trooper
Member # 3368
|
written Tuesday, August 23 2005 13:09
Profile
By the way, I was kidding. Tee Hee. -------------------- "Like most of life's problems, this one can be solved with bending" Posts: 287 | Registered: Tuesday, August 19 2003 07:00 |
|
Nuke and Pave
Member # 24
|
written Tuesday, August 23 2005 13:36
Profile
Homepage
The best thing about English is that, at least in America, most people neither know nor care about proper spelling and grammar, removing the need to understand the hardest part of the language. For example, my high school English teacher told me that there is no difference between simple past and past perfect and they can be used completely interchangably. This makes English the easiest language in the world to learn, because the few hard parts that it has are also too hard for native speakers. PS Ben, if Jesus lived in Israel 2000 years ago, he probably spoke Aramaic. Hebrew for him would be like Latin for modern Catholics (dead language used only in religious literature). -------------------- Be careful with a word, as you would with a sword, For it too has the power to kill. However well placed word, unlike a well placed sword, Can also have the power to heal. Posts: 2649 | Registered: Wednesday, October 3 2001 07:00 |
|
Off With Their Heads
Member # 4045
|
written Tuesday, August 23 2005 14:00
Profile
Homepage
Try to tell any English speaker about the subjunctive mood. He or she will laugh in your face. I think I'm going to move to Germany, where they have the decency to preserve declensions. Although I guess they have that, um, spelling controversy. Zeviz, I think the problem is that Ben doesn't care about being factually wrong. -------------------- Arancaytar: Every time you ask people to compare TM and Kel, you endanger the poor, fluffy kittens. Kelandon's Pink and Pretty Page!!: the authorized location for all things by me The Archive of all released BoE scenarios ever Posts: 7968 | Registered: Saturday, February 28 2004 08:00 |
|
Mongolian Barbeque
Member # 1528
|
written Tuesday, August 23 2005 14:18
Profile
I don't know what you people are talking about. Jesus spoke Esperanto. Entirely in iambic pentameter, and laced with alliterative anagrams. [ Tuesday, August 23, 2005 14:20: Message edited by: Icshi ] -------------------- The A.E. van Vogt Information Site My Tribute to the Greatest Writer of the Science Fiction Golden Age Posts: 907 | Registered: Monday, July 15 2002 07:00 |
|
Shock Trooper
Member # 3368
|
written Tuesday, August 23 2005 14:46
Profile
Actually I believe it was Interlingua in a series of anapaests that he spoke in mainly. I'm not sure if he threw in iambic pentameter in there or not. -------------------- "Like most of life's problems, this one can be solved with bending" Posts: 287 | Registered: Tuesday, August 19 2003 07:00 |
|
Law Bringer
Member # 335
|
written Tuesday, August 23 2005 15:58
Profile
Homepage
Jesus has too much self-respect for Interlingua. If he really did speak all these languages, he was such a fair guy that he probably switched off every sentence. Maybe even every few words. No wonder the word of the Son of God is so difficult to decipher! —Alorael, who could even see Mr. of Nazareth making some mistakes speaking. It has to be hard to juggle that many languages at once. Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00 |
|
...b10010b...
Member # 869
|
written Wednesday, August 24 2005 01:29
Profile
Homepage
quote:This is true of most languages. I recently followed an interesting online discussion about how even native Chinese speakers often forget how to write the characters even for fairly common words, and in colloquial writing will often substitute another character with the same sound but the wrong meaning if they can't remember the correct character. -------------------- My BoE Page Bandwagons are fun! Roots Hunted! Posts: 9973 | Registered: Saturday, March 30 2002 08:00 |
|
Nuke and Pave
Member # 24
|
written Wednesday, August 24 2005 08:26
Profile
Homepage
That's true to a certain extent. However, most languages are far more complicated even after you account for common mistakes. A Russian laguage teacher would never tell a student "don't worry about the difference in noun case". A lot of things such as noun cases and noun genders, which influence adjective and verb endings are completely natural for native speakers, but hard to learn for foreigners. PS Are Chinese languages tonal? If they are, they are very hard for westerners even if you ignore common spelling mistakes. [ Wednesday, August 24, 2005 08:27: Message edited by: Zeviz ] -------------------- Be careful with a word, as you would with a sword, For it too has the power to kill. However well placed word, unlike a well placed sword, Can also have the power to heal. Posts: 2649 | Registered: Wednesday, October 3 2001 07:00 |
|
Off With Their Heads
Member # 4045
|
written Wednesday, August 24 2005 09:54
Profile
Homepage
Yes, the Chinese languages are tonal. They are not as extreme with it as Vietnamese, but it's there. I think some languages manage to be more grammatically incorrect than others. English has a history of evolving very, very quickly (compare Greek — it takes only minimal training for a Modern Greek speaker to read Koine, spoken a couple thousand years ago), but it was standardized hundreds of years ago. That means that the spoken language has evolved in such a way as to leave the written language behind. Moreover, some of the rules were pretty arbitrary to begin with. My favorite example is using the subjective case as a complement for forms of the verb "to be." Virtually no one naturally says, "It's I!" or "The one who did this was he." As far as I know, this was decided to be correct because this is what languages with full noun case forms (Latin, etc.) do, not because of any existing spoken practice. The only other language I've really heard spoken and understood is Spanish, and it's a lot less grammatically incorrect than English most of the time. (For instance, "Soy yo" is very normal in spoken Spanish, and "soy me" or something bizarre like that would sound very, well, bizarre.) Also Spanish speakers rarely have the same kind of trouble spelling their language as English speakers do. Also, compare: "How are you doing?" "I'm doing pretty good." (We all know this is incorrect, right? But we hear it all the time.) vs. "Como estas?" "Estoy bien." (If you were to say, "Estoy bueno," they'd laugh at you.) I hardly think the difference between an adjective and an adverb is an advanced feature of the language. So yes, I think English is noticeably grammatically incorrect compared to other languages. [ Wednesday, August 24, 2005 09:54: Message edited by: Kelandon ] -------------------- Arancaytar: Every time you ask people to compare TM and Kel, you endanger the poor, fluffy kittens. Kelandon's Pink and Pretty Page!!: the authorized location for all things by me The Archive of all released BoE scenarios ever Posts: 7968 | Registered: Saturday, February 28 2004 08:00 |
|
Master
Member # 4614
|
written Thursday, August 25 2005 16:56
Profile
Homepage
quote:Yeah, I just say a couple days ago that the whole movie Passion of the Christ was done in Aramaic. I must be wrong there, or just don't share the modern concensus. -------------------- -ben4808 For those who love to spam: CSM Forums RIFQ Posts: 3360 | Registered: Friday, June 25 2004 07:00 |
Pages
- 1
- 2