format_quote Originally Posted by
amirah_87
ASS SALAAMU ALAYKUM
Hmmmmm....true say but i think arabic is much more harder to learn....and lets not forget chinese/mandarin!! :happy:
wa alaykum ass salaam
Asalaamu alaykum.
I don't agree at all that Arabic is harder to learn. Arabic is much more organised. Grammatical rules are sometimes difficult to master but theres a pattern, and I find its easy to pick up after the initial 'omg this is so hard!' stage.
format_quote Originally Posted by
Woodrow
The main advantage I can see for English being so widespread, is because of it's diversity and impurity. It is a hybrid language with many roots. A person can be understood in it by using only the words with roots from their native language and adhering to their own grammatical rules. True it will not be pure English, but it will be understood.
I agree it's diversity and versatility are strengths, but it's roots are mainly germanic, latin, some old saxon words and french with a very limited influence from other languages. As far as using roots from native languages and their own grammatical rules go, I've never actually seen this done so I wouldn't know if its possible.
English has to be viewed as being many languages and not just a single language. Some exmples of the various forms we have:
True. English definately has some really interesting dialects, although many of these are dying out. Even estuary english is losing its griphold on the language.
Another good part is most English speakers do not view the language as being sacred or free from error, no matter how long we been speaking it, it seems we are still capable of common errors. Yet, somehow we manage to maintain a reasonable level of comprehension. Errors are accepted, even when laughed at.
I don't think any language is deemed as free from error. Quranic Arabic is considered something along these lines but this is because the rules have already been standardised in the Quran - Arabic itself has many dialects each with their own quirks and non-standard forms. Infact it's probably impossible to call use of language 'wrong' unless you're comparing it to some sort of yardstick. With Quranic Arabic, the yardstick is the Quran. Other languages haven't got said yardstick so forms of incorrect and correct are usually up to debate (spliting the infinitive being an example of such).
Salamu alaykum.