Marc and Mark write:
Why is Spanish not so difficult IYO? because of the Latin lexicon?
porque se escribe como se habla? easy pronunciation? I don't think it's
intrinsically easier than English or any other language, do you?
Marc
My own view is that Spanish is much more suited to be the
'world language' in that it is probably the easiest of the major world
languages to learn. This is unlikely to happen, though. Mark.
Spanish is regular, and of all the world's major languages, I'm told
only Turkish is more regular. This counts for a lot. The spelling system
is consistent and it's pretty much pronounced as its spelled. For the
most part, the phonology is not difficult either (dark-L and tap-R are
difficult for English-speakers). No language's grammar is 'simple', but
compared to, say, Russian or English or German, its grammar requires one
to memorize considerably fewer rules. Italian, so I'm told, is
also just as easy to learn. Spanish, however, has far more
native-speakers world-wide. Esperanto suffers from the
enthusiasm of its true-believers. I once heard it (rather archly)
described as 'an Indo-European language in the Slavic group'. If
a designed language, a 'conlang' (constructed language) is to be imposed
on the world, then one not quite so Euro-centric and even IE-centric
would be considerably more appropriate. Such a language would lack not
merely grammatical gender, but grammatical number as well. Agent-verb
agreement would probably be positional and not inflectional. It might
even dispense with articles. Much of the world speaks languages without
such niceties, and these features are rather difficult to learn if you
have not grown up with them. Thus. Spanish is the best
candidate available among the world's major languages to be the
'world-language'. English, however, has established itself, and I don't
thing anything is going to change in this regard. Mark
Spelling, of course, is a lot better than English, but I don't think
Spanish is more regular than other languages, eg, think of its irregular
verbs in Spanish. Marc
Gerry here: Spanish could possibly fit the category of most deserving
of the world languages to become the common denominator; however, I
think that our current world focus is economic while our newest
technology is computer-internet related and English, regardless of it's
peculiarities, seems to stand in the lead. As far as spelling
difficulties, I think that will be short lived with internet
communication and soon a recognized "speller" (like the button on our
computer) will be in place.
Gerry
--
Gerald Reinhart
Independent Scholar
(650) 321-7378
waluk@...
http://www.alekseevmanuscript.com