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From: jeff@rtech.UUCP (Jeff Lichtman)
Newsgroups: net.music.folk,net.nlang
Subject: Re: Re: Translations rhyming (orig Re: Welsh song)
Message-ID: <853@rtech.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 30-Jan-86 03:11:08 EST
Article-I.D.: rtech.853
Posted: Thu Jan 30 03:11:08 1986
Date-Received: Sat, 1-Feb-86 04:24:13 EST
References: <892@h-sc1.UUCP>
Organization: Relational Technology, Alameda CA
Lines: 33
Xref: watmath net.music.folk:439 net.nlang:4118

>
> Of course, finding a German word which evokes the same associations
> as, say, 'slithy', is impossible, but this mistake is hardly
> going to be noticed or significant. Far more serious, in my opinion,
> is the fact that (even young) German speakers usually do not
> encounter limitations in their vocabulary every day, and that
> therefore a poem made up out of non-sense words probably 
> sounds much more unnatural to German than to English ears.
> 
> 					Thomas.

This comment puzzles me.  It implies that speakers of English have more
vocabulary troubles that speakers of German.  Why would this be?  It's
well known that English has a larger vocabulary than any other language,
so the implication is that speakers of English don't know their own
language as well as speakers of German do.

Of course, what I've just said is an oversimplification.  English has a
huge number of words, but most of these are not part of the everyday
vocabulary because they are too specialized.  I don't know German, so I
have no idea whether the same condition holds in that language.

If it is true that nonsense words sound more unnatural to speakers of
German than to speakers of English, could it be because English is a fluid
language in which words are constantly being invented, whereas in German
old words are adapted for new objects or ideas?  Again, I don't know German,
so this is just a speculation.  Someone please enlighten me.
-- 
Jeff Lichtman at rtech (Relational Technology, Inc.)
"Saints should always be judged guilty until they are proved innocent..."

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