(from elsewhere) Actually, yes German is a guttural and ‘costly’ language to spe

(from elsewhere)

Actually, yes German is a guttural and ‘costly’ language to speak. All languages mature by the same means from the most guttural (semitic/arabic) to the less so (russian, ukrainian), to the less so, (german/polish/french), to the less so (italian, spanish). Each evolutionary step rotates more costly sounds for less costly sounds. So while german may be more advanced than Dutch, it is less advanced than english and far less than Italian. I would agree that German is probably the ‘best’ language on earth at present – un-hobbled as is english by the mixture of old german, old french, and old latin that is today’s English. And I would agree (aside from post-war self-hatred and loss of and appreciation for aristocracy) that german culture was and probably has been for the past millennium, the best culture on earth (because of the remnants of the ‘oath’). And yes, I would agree that there is a great difference between the age and pronunciation of a language and the content of ideas expressed in its vocabulary. And yes, I would agree that we can see the future of german language losing the guttural, and moving forward on the palate, in rapid casual speech. But at present, yes, its guttural, and sounds ‘primitive’ to those cultures that have lost the guttural.

I consider German the ‘best’ language, despite the, …, retention of primitive pronunciation. In part because of its use of compounds rather than adding new terms. In part because of its construction. In part because of its content. But must of all, because it’s METAPHYSICAL content: the patterns of assumptions and values in the vocabulary.

Unfortunately, german retains gendered nouns and grammar, as well as guttural pronunciation (Russian is far worse).

English degrades relatively gracefully, because it requires about 300 words to speak about almost anything, but one increases vocabulary for greater precision, not GRAMMAR. And the vocabulary is currently around 1M words. (the vast majority of which, I admit to knowing.) The spelling retention is partly to signal the reader which root language it’s from: German (farmer), French(ruler), Latin or Greek(intellectual).

I’ve seen most people struggle with the ‘precision’ of english. in particular the propositions. English is a high precision low context language, that is not fault tolerant. it is very good for law, logic, and software programming for that reason. (just as german is better for sentimental prose).

if we taught english with a little role-play, so that the spelling signaled which person (common-farmer, court-ruler, scholar-intellectual) was speaking and in which accent, it would probably help quite a bit.

Besides the enormous vocabulary, english is very sensitive to manners (graces) because of our hierarchical class history. So we have all sorts of polite speech that is required, where in german Bitte’ serves many purposes. One of the things I like about english is the signaling of status cues as a means of conveying one’s degree of culture. I find this frustrating in some other languages because I use those english subtleties and I can’t in other languages.

Anyway.

Between english, german, and italian you pretty much can get the best of all worlds. And despite my ancestry I find very little good to say about french other than it’s what happens when posturing and effeminate signaling develop into a substitute for merit in mind, body, and achievement.