• HobbitFoot @thelemmy.club
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    10 hours ago

    On the flip side, a lot of other languages have retained structures which require a detailed knowing of grammar in part because they haven’t needed to be learned by amateurs.

    • Mouselemming@sh.itjust.works
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      8 hours ago

      Whereas English has adopted so many idioms from other languages with different grammar that we’re entirely comfortable with the exotic phrasing, or if it’s ambiguous we make puns and/or poetry from it.

    • IrateAnteater@sh.itjust.works
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      10 hours ago

      True, though I would personally count that as a bad thing. Purity of language, to me is irrelevant. That opinion may be coloured by the fact that I’m a native English speaker, and there hasn’t been anything resembling purity in this language for thousands of years. To me, the point of language is open communication. Any impediment to that is a negative.