As a connoisseur
of linguistic delights, I have learned to appreciate the unique ways each
language approaches communication, often wishing that the “trick” could be
copied to other languages.
Here is a
partial list of my personal language favorites:
French – The
word si expressing disagreement to a negative statement: “You don’t want another piece of cake” “Si”,
i.e. yes I do.
Russian: the
pronoun свой [svoi], which refers to the person in
the subject: I, you, s/he, we:, they see свой face.
Spanish: the
upside down question mark at the beginning of a question: ¿You understand?
Hebrew: The
intense use of roots, making learning new vocabulary much easier: write,
dictate, address, letter, correspond all have the same root, כתב [katav].
English: the lack
of agreement in gender and number between adjectives and nouns, massively
reducing the chances of error in making sentences, as large hand(s), not
large(s) hand(s).
Italian: The
natural sing-song rhyme of the language that leaves you no option but to smile:
Io amo parlare italiano tutto il giorno.
Alas, nothing is
perfect; here are a few aspects of these languages I am less fond of, namely:
French: the lack
of firm rules to know whether a noun is masculine or feminine, which has caused
me to spend a lot of time checking dictionaries.
Russian: the
awful tendency of Russian to have one page of exceptions for every page of
rules; believe me on this point.
Spanish: the
subjunctive mode will quickly change your opinion that Spanish is an easy
language to learn.
Hebrew: the binyanim
or verb groups have always defied my understanding; call this a personal
taste.
English: The
spelling system, based on a wide base of extremely varied pronunciation
patterns, is beyond logic.
Italian:
Listening to Italian, how can you take the message seriously?
So, while I am
also fond of raindrops, whiskers, kettles, and mittens, those are also a few of
my favorite things.
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