Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site flairvax.UUCP
Path: utzoo!linus!decvax!decwrl!flairvax!ellis
From: ellis@flairvax.UUCP (Michael Ellis)
Newsgroups: net.nlang
Subject: Re: Orphaned Response - (nf)
Message-ID: <311@flairvax.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 9-Jan-84 07:43:29 EST
Article-I.D.: flairvax.311
Posted: Mon Jan  9 07:43:29 1984
Date-Received: Tue, 10-Jan-84 00:34:31 EST
Organization: Fairchild AI Lab, Palo Alto, CA
Lines: 25

Spanish more regular than English?

Maybe if you only look at the spelling. The English verb system strikes
me as fairly elegant as these things go, in particular:

	VP => {PAST|PRESENT} (MODAL) (have + EN) (be + ING) VERB

...which nicely generates a huge number of modes/tenses/what-have-you
in a single formula. Sure, we have irregular verbs, but even the worst has
only 7 forms (be am is are was were been being); most of our irregular
verbs require memorizing only one or two forms - the past participle and
preterit, when it differs from the past participle.

Too bad our spelling is so horrible, though. I always felt that deciding
when to double final consonants in the participles of `regular' verbs was
the most difficult spelling task of all. For instance:

travel => traveled (or is it travelled?)
edit => editing (or is it editting?)
occur => occurred (or is it occured?)

Anyway, ancient Greek always struck me as the messiest verb system I
ever saw. You thought Russian was bad! 

-michael