English has a much larger and more nuanced vocabulary than any other language. The closest contender is Russian, which sounds terrible, takes forever to say, read, or write anything in, has very different written and spoken forms, and in practice consists of streams of stereotyped phrases, not of words. Compared to Russian, English is child’s play. The second closest contender is French, which sounds great, is easy to learn, but is hard to pronounce well. It used to be the language of international diplomacy and did a much better job than English. Spanish would be even better in terms of ease, without the difficulties of pronunciation and with an incredible spoken speed, but lacks the vocabulary of the other contenders.
Chinese takes the prize for both spoken and reading speed. Even with ideograms it’s easier to learn than Russian. It is the only language that I have tried that I find easy to pronounce (glitch in my brain?). Writing is problematic though. Maybe speach to text can fix that, especially given it’s (also problematic) small vocabulary. Tonality may impair expressivity by reducing the set of avenues for vocal expression.
English has a much larger and more nuanced vocabulary than any other language.
That’s a feature, not a bug.
Russian, which sounds terrible … French, which sounds great
That’s in the eye of the beholder (should I say the ear of the listener). To me, Russian sounds OK, but French sounds just awful. (Plus, the pattern of stressing all last syllables makes any kind of poetry sound like military chants to me.)
French … is hard to pronounce well.
More like it has higher standards for what counts as ‘well’. In my first days in Dublin everyone could understand me despite my then-awful spoken English, to the point one could suspect they had telepathy or something; on the other hand, the French seem unable (or unwilling) to understand at all any less-than-perfect French.
I prefer the sound of Klingon to the sound of French. I’m not kidding.
Also, my general impression (as one who speaks native English and near-native Russian) is that English has more nouns and adjectives with more nuances, but Russian has more, and more nuanced, verbs.
English has a much larger and more nuanced vocabulary than any other language. The closest contender is Russian, which sounds terrible, takes forever to say, read, or write anything in, has very different written and spoken forms, and in practice consists of streams of stereotyped phrases, not of words. Compared to Russian, English is child’s play. The second closest contender is French, which sounds great, is easy to learn, but is hard to pronounce well. It used to be the language of international diplomacy and did a much better job than English. Spanish would be even better in terms of ease, without the difficulties of pronunciation and with an incredible spoken speed, but lacks the vocabulary of the other contenders. Chinese takes the prize for both spoken and reading speed. Even with ideograms it’s easier to learn than Russian. It is the only language that I have tried that I find easy to pronounce (glitch in my brain?). Writing is problematic though. Maybe speach to text can fix that, especially given it’s (also problematic) small vocabulary. Tonality may impair expressivity by reducing the set of avenues for vocal expression.
That’s a feature, not a bug.
That’s in the eye of the beholder (should I say the ear of the listener). To me, Russian sounds OK, but French sounds just awful. (Plus, the pattern of stressing all last syllables makes any kind of poetry sound like military chants to me.)
More like it has higher standards for what counts as ‘well’. In my first days in Dublin everyone could understand me despite my then-awful spoken English, to the point one could suspect they had telepathy or something; on the other hand, the French seem unable (or unwilling) to understand at all any less-than-perfect French.
I prefer the sound of Klingon to the sound of French. I’m not kidding.
Also, my general impression (as one who speaks native English and near-native Russian) is that English has more nouns and adjectives with more nuances, but Russian has more, and more nuanced, verbs.