I strongly disagree. Languages are different for different reasons. There are over 10 words in the Lithuanian language to describe the color of a horse. Do you know them? Do you need to know them now? There obviously was a point when they talked about horses a lot and needed to be very specific describing the color. There are languages where they have more than 15 words to say "snow", but that’s because they probably have plenty of it and need to be concise. The English language doesn’t really have gender either. But I suppose with all the anti-discrimination laws that have been passed, that helps staying out of trouble.
Oh NO!!! English doesn’t have the word "besikishkiakopusdeliaudavome" also (it would probably look like a paragraph). SO WHAT? How many times have you actually used that word for any other reason rather than just saying it? There was just simply no need for people to have all the forms of nouns in the English language. I am extremely glad that Lithuanian has so many suffixes for nouns. But how often do you actually use those forms of the word "summer" except for the most common ones.
There are things that the English has that Lithuanian doesn’t. And so is true with any language.
Do you noticed smiling face in the title? Do you noticed "I can’t believe"? In actual fact you not disagree but agree. This theme - my provocation.
[quote]vk_ rašė:
‘Dear’ angliškai neneša tos prasmės, kuri gaunama išvertus į lietuvių.
[/quote]
Dear = mielas. When used on its own, it’s a cute nickname, as in, hey sweetie, hey dear, etc. When used in a greeting, as in "Dear John, Dear Sue" - it’s part of the greeting, and not used to be a sweet nickname.
vk, yra kruva tekstu, parasytu senaja anglu kalba. paimk, paskaitinek. suprasi. siaip, siek tiek teorijos: old english, buvo mazdaug iki viduramziu vidurio (jei tik gerai pamenu). geriausias pavyzdys, "beovulfas". middle english, cia rasi pas sekspyra. ir galiausiai modern english. tai, kaip snekama dabar.
as nesakau, kad geriau, ar vertingesnis. as tik sakiau, kad tai anglu kalbos privalumas. kalbos, kaip visumos. bet tiek to. be to. prie ko cia sekspyras? tiesa sakant sekspyro olo pakest negali, bet cia ne apie tai.
Every language has its own periods They simply are: old language, language of middle ages and modern language…
If I had to answer vk question, I would say: YES, I think English is a quite poor language… It can’t be compared with Russian and even Lithuanian