linguistics

Other languages, other words

Languages fascinate me, and thus this page, Fluent French: Experiences of an English Speaker, fascinated me. I've always regretted not deeply studying any language besides English (though I have a smattering of phrases in several languages and a bit of German under my belt).

Some people have drugs, booze, or chocolate. In the end, I have words. Think of that as you will.

dia-criticism

I sometimes wish that English was more supportive of the use of diacritical marks.

This occurred to me last night while putting in the playlist. One of the songs I was listening to was Orbital's "Otoño." My thoughts started racing from there. I remembered the girl in my high school whose name was Danée, and how frustrated she must have been all the time to see her name spelled Dane'e.I like diacritical marks. When studying German I found them incredibly helpful. I find it impossible to guess at pronunciations for French and Spanish words without them. I like the certainty that they give when you're reading aloud. (Bonus points, though, to the first person who can tell me how to correctly pronounce 'Björk Guðmundsdóttir.')

Considering that English is an incredible bastardization of many languages, I wish that we used them. It would make reading easier for a lot of people…