<div style="text-align: center; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">===========================================<br>L O W L A N D S - L - 11 October 2009 - Volume 03<br style="color: rgb(153, 153, 153);"><span style="color: rgb(153, 153, 153);"><a href="mailto:lowlands@lowlands-l.net">lowlands@lowlands-l.net</a> - <a href="http://lowlands-l.net/">http://lowlands-l.net/</a></span><br style="color: rgb(153, 153, 153);">
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===========================================<br></div><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">From: </span><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="gI"><span class="gD" style="color: rgb(0, 104, 28);">Holger Otto ANDRE</span> <span class="go"><<a href="mailto:hjoab@yahoo.com">hjoab@yahoo.com</a>></span></span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">Subject: </span><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="gI">English vs Romance languages<br></span><p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Hello there.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">Is it correct to consider a language which
has a 90% or so of Latin words, as Germanic? </span></p>
<p style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">This is the case with modern English. My
concern is that Latin languages like Spanish are too much more perfect than English
because just by the Roman Empire times the Latin was a much better developed
language than the others contemporary languages (including Germanic languages).
Those who do not speak any Romance language are hard to understand this. In USA
the Spanish is becoming more and more important and is very likely that Spanish
will super-pass the English as the most spoken language in USA some
day. Even then the English speakers in USA (and other places as well) reject
Spanish as an inferior language, what makes me laugh a lot about their ignorance.
I guess this has an element of racism because the most of the people that speak
Spanish in USA are “Espaladas Mojadas” from Mexico and other poor countries
form Latin America.</span></p><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">Holger Otto ANDRÉ</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">(Computer Science) </span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">Mobile / Cellphone : +(506) 888-39-645 </span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">Office Phone & Fax : +(506) 222-40-398 </span><div style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-size: medium;"><br></span></div><div style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><font size="2"><span>San José, Costa Rica,Central America.</span></font></div><font style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" size="2"><span><br>
Website: <a href="http://www.habco.soft.tripod.com/" target="_blank">www.habco.soft.tripod.com</a> <br><br>Die Welt ist ein Wunder, ein sehr interessante Ding! <br>Wir muessen sie schuetzen. Haben Sie viel Spass. <br>CARPE DIEM. </span></font><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">----------</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
<p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
<font size="2"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">From: R. F. Hahn <<a href="mailto:sassisch@yahoo.com" target="_blank">sassisch@yahoo.com</a>></span></font></p>
<font style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" face="Arial" size="2"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Subject: </span></font><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">Language varieties</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">Hi, Holger!</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">It's great to hear from you again down there in beautiful Costa Rica.</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">Now ... please don't take this personally ...</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">"90% or so of Latin words" in English?! Where did you get <i>that </i>estimate?<br>
<br>How do you define "perfect" and "better developed" in the context of language?</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">Do you mean by "perfect" and "better developed" large vocabulary? <i>All </i>languages develop as many words and expressions as are needed in the cultures and environments of their speakers. In other words, </span><i style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">all </i><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">languages have the same lexical potential.</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">Do you mean by "perfect" and "better developed" a complex system of morphology (i.e. lots of affixes and forms for lots of cases, moods, gender and number)? If that is the measure by which you judge the level of Latin, then I suppose that Latin (or Romance languages in general according to you) must be on a similar level with the Uralic and Altaic languages (especially the Tungusic languages of Eastern Siberia), with the languages of the Caucasus, and with most indigenous languages of Australia and the Americas, including the Eskimo-Aleut languages with their incredibly complex morphologies. Furthermore, if this is why you consider Latin "better developed" then you seem to contradict your own generalization "Romance languages." In fact, if today's Romance languages, including Spanish, are considered derived from Classical Latin, then they must be described as "deteriorated" because their morphologies are much, much simpler.</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">Have you ever looked at Old Norse, Modern Icelandic, Faroese, Old English, Old Saxon and Old German, for example? They are morphologically much more complex than their respective Germanic descendants of today. The relationship is similar to that of Classical Latin versus modern Romance languages. Is morphological simplification really a sign of deterioration? Not necessarily. Perhaps it is a sign of sophistication to get rid of the "clutter" if you can say the same thing in a simpler way. Think of computer programming as an analogy. Which do you prefer: an immensely long script full of turns and loops or a much shorter script that invokes the same function?</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">Regards,</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">Reinhard/Ron Hahn, A.D.H.C.</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">(</span><i style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">advocatus diaboli honoris causa</i><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">)</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">Seattle, USA</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
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