In article <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, =?ISO-8859-1?Q?S=F6ren_Kuklau?= <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >On 3/23/2002 5:19 PM, Werner Purrer apparently wrote exactly the following: >> On Sat, 23 Mar 2002 07:28:09 -0400, "Brayan" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >>>german?! >>> >>>i have heard: you can say in one word, almost an entire sentence >>> >>>is that true? > >> No german is not that far from english, we have compound words but it >> doesn�t go that far. >> Acutally english and german have lots of things in common, although >> german is much harder to learn. It really has a fucked up grammar and >> writing. > >*cough* no swearing > >German is a lot harder than English, yes, but there are even more >difficult languages. German is one of the most important languages - >after English, Chinese and Japanese.
As an Americanized German I'm not sure I agree that "German is a lot harder than English". German is structured and precise when contrasted to English which seems to have 5 exceptions for every rule. Also English is still evolving with new words being added or redefined based on contemporary usage. Which would you rather deal with, fewer rules which are complex, or rote memorization of many exceptions? :-) Regarding the compounding, I seem to recall an amusing newspaper article which reported that the German government issued an edict limiting any compounding used in official government business. This vaguely reminded me of my aunt being strictly forbidden from speaking "Bayrisch" while conducting Bavarian government business. Everything's relative though. When compared to Icelandic which hasn't changed in thousands of years German seems to have prominent English attributes. :-) Mit Gruss vom Land der unbegrennzten Moeglichkeiten, :-) Peter Stein
