Re: The New German

Op Sat, 25 Aug 2007 23:11:23 +0800 schreef LEE Sau Dan:

"Afoklala" == Afoklala <afoklala@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> writes:

>> It's a nightmare even for native speakers. e.g. a native
>> speaker has to learn how to spell the verb in "je parle", "tu
>> parles", "ils parlent" differently, depending on the subject
>> used, even though he pronounces all three identically! And
>> they have to learn to append the "s" to the plural
>> (regularly-inflected) nouns and adjectives when writing, even
>> though they don't pronounce such an "s" in the spoken language.

Afoklala> That's as maybe, but the rules when to use which
Afoklala> non-pronounced extenseion are pretty clear cut.

That doesn't mean it's easy. That only means that there is only one
single answer to a particular question on when to use those
extensions.

German inflections (or Latin inflections) are also pretty clear cut
and you can look them up from tables (if you haven't internalized them
yet). So, they should be easy, because they're pretty clear cut?

But in those cases, there are simply too many rules. In French, there are
only 6 versions of a verb, and 2 versions of a noun or adjective. In
German, there are many more.

Afoklala> I've never found French spelling much of a problem.

Me neither.

Neither do I (a learner) find English spellings to be much of a
problem. But there are many NATIVE SPEAKERS of English complaining
all the time that "the English spelling system is so difficult", just
as an excuse to be lazy and avoid learning it properly.

English spelling IS difficult, notably because it's so furiously
UNsystematic. Of course, this is no excuse not to learn it properly.

Afoklala> The rules are quite regular. Easier than my own language
Afoklala> (Dutch),

Isn't Dutch spelt regularly, just like German?

If only that were true...
Also, I'm not just talking about _rules_ being regular, I'm also talking
about the sound-symbol problem. In languages like Hungarian or Finnish, the
same sound always corresponds to the same symbol. English is quite
different - the same letter can mean many different sounds and vice versa.
Dutch is somewhere in between.

I know what you mean. You're talking about the irregular inflections
of the plural forms of nouns (just like German). But we're talking
about spelling!

Afoklala> and certainly easier than English (which almost has no
Afoklala> spelling rules worth mentioning).

You mean the plural marking in the written language is easier for
French than for English? How come? How do you pluralize adjectives?

Not plural, spelling in general.
--
Jan Willem from Odijk, Netherlands
e-mail in From-field is wrong, real e-mail is:
jw point van point dormolen on xs4all point nl
(change point into dot, on into at)

And then there's this:
All those who believe in psycho kinesis, raise my hand.
.

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