A recent conversation in the Orinoco Delta with a Venezuelan girl prompted this article :
- "Spanish has more words than English," she starts out.
- "Uh-huh." I'm pretty sure an absurd conversation is about to unfold, so I pursue. "I've heard English has the most."
- "Well, English has a lot." She takes the bait. "But Spanish has more. We have a lot of words that mean the same thing. For example, we can say that good food is delicious, flavorful, and rich."
- "Like synonyms ?"
- "I'm not sure about those," she hesitates, "but we can describe things a lot of different ways." Check and mate.
Now I'm not defending English, nor do I believe that its vocabulary is richer than other languages (however useless the comparison is). And certainly, my own personal vocabulary is limited. But almost everywhere I go, there is someone who would like to correct the unknowledgeable Anglophone. Even in Sweden, where they call nipples "breast warts." That's just ridiculous !
And not only do people pridefully declare that their mother tongue has more words, it's also more difficult to learn. I'm still waiting for someone to boast that their language is also the ugliest anyone's ever heard. (And God knows I've traveled through the Netherlands and Denmark....ziiiinnnng !)
- "Spanish has more words than English," she starts out.
- "Uh-huh." I'm pretty sure an absurd conversation is about to unfold, so I pursue. "I've heard English has the most."
- "Well, English has a lot." She takes the bait. "But Spanish has more. We have a lot of words that mean the same thing. For example, we can say that good food is delicious, flavorful, and rich."
- "Like synonyms ?"
- "I'm not sure about those," she hesitates, "but we can describe things a lot of different ways." Check and mate.
Now I'm not defending English, nor do I believe that its vocabulary is richer than other languages (however useless the comparison is). And certainly, my own personal vocabulary is limited. But almost everywhere I go, there is someone who would like to correct the unknowledgeable Anglophone. Even in Sweden, where they call nipples "breast warts." That's just ridiculous !
And not only do people pridefully declare that their mother tongue has more words, it's also more difficult to learn. I'm still waiting for someone to boast that their language is also the ugliest anyone's ever heard. (And God knows I've traveled through the Netherlands and Denmark....ziiiinnnng !)
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