LL-L "Lexicon" 2005.09.25 (02) [E/LS]

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From: Global Moose Translations <globalmoose at t-online.de>
Subject: LL-L "Lexicon" 2005.09.24 (07) [E]

Gary wrote:
> Being brought up in England, I always heard that English has the biggest
> vocabulary, but this was due to the huge amount of scientific words and
> concepts.
> The vast majority of scientific papers are written in English, and so lots
> of terms are simply not
> translated into other languages. It could probably be argued that if they
> were to be translated then the Germans would create a word or simply
borrow
> the English word, but until the time that ALL the scientific texts and
terms
> are translated, then I think English probably does have the largest
> vocabulary.

I don't really buy that, because German used to be the language of
scientific publications before English took over. Also, practically all
newly coined English scientific words are derived from Latin and can thus
also be claimed by other languages - or the English words can simply be
taken over in other languages and then count there, too, such as "computer"
or "firewall", which are undoubtedly part of the German vocabulary as well.
But anyway, if you count all words coined in scientific papers as part of
the vocabulary, then you can't blame the average speaker of English for
using so few of them!

Moreover, I was thinking about verbs such as:

ablaufen, auflaufen, einlaufen, unterlaufen, überlaufen, vorlaufen,
nachlaufen, fortlaufen, anlaufen, weglaufen, verlaufen, mitlaufen,... etc.,

which are separate words, but not "run up, run off, run away, run by, run
past, run down..." - that's just one word with a bunch of prepositions
added... you can ask any German. :-)

Also, in many cases, English has only a Latin word for many things (e.g.:
significant, redundant), while German has one or more Germanic words, and
the corresponding Latin word as well. But it also depends on the subject; as
a translator in both directions, I often notice that one language has ten
synonyms for something, while the other has two or maybe three; in English,
there are many more different words for "destroy", and in German, many more
words for "idiot"...

Mind you, I don't really care which language has "a larger vocabulary"; I
just don't think that English can rightfully make this claim. There must be
languages with plenty more words than both English and German - probably not
Tokpisin, though, and certainly not Dutch because, since their last spelling
reform, they've had to make do with the same word for a badger and a
necktie, and only one word for leather, ladder, theory, learn, and teach...

Actually, coming to think of it, "leer" seems like the mother of all false
friends in European languages - meaning all of the abovementioned terms in
Dutch, "empty" in German, "ogle" in English, and "read" in Spanish - any
others?

Gabriele Kahn

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From: jonny <jonny.meibohm at arcor.de>
Subject: LL-L "Lexicon" 2005.09.24 (07) [E]

Moin, Oider,

du schreyvst:

> Hi, Gary and Jonny, jy olen nacht-ulen!
Keyn Nacht-Ul. Ick haar all meist uutsloopen; weyr tou frauh no Bed hengohn.
Man- wat ennig't kanns' Clocker Fief jo noch ne bedrieven; kiekst gau mol in
de Sabbeleck van LL-L.

> (I promise I won't lapse into Viennese this time, though I am tempted to
> address you with Viennese "Oida" instead of the usual Missingsch "Alder,"
> Jonny, because I like it better, and the two are used in exactly the same
> way.)
'Oida', 'Alter' un 'Alder' ward hier von junge Lüü' alltohoup bruukt, mit or
ohn' '... -eh!'.

> > Just two years older than you ...
>
> 'neem Wult Du dat den vun af-weten, olde snüffel-nees'?  Waar Dy!
Hesst du sülvst all mennigmol schreyven- Alter ;-)??!! Bourn in
'einunföfftig or 'tweyunföfftig, stimmt jo woll, wa?

Best' Greutens

Johannes "Jonny" Meibohm

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From: R. F. Hahn <sassisch at yahoo.com>
Subject: Lexicon

Jonny, dat luus-our:

> Sabbeleck van LL-L

Waar Dy!

> > 'neem Wult Du dat den vun af-weten, olde snüffel-nees'?  Waar Dy!
> Hesst du sülvst all mennigmol schreyven- Alter ;-)??!! Bourn in
> 'einunföfftig or 'tweyunföfftig, stimmt jo woll, wa?

In Dyn droum!

Kumpelmenten,
Reinhard/Ron

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