Re: Roots of English language

From: Arpad (arpadia_at_centrum.cz)
Date: 09/09/04 

Date: 9 Sep 2004 06:09:16 -0700

> neoholistic <ekqbwpo@terra.es> wrote...
> But for us it is the language of the "supreme literature" (as it is
> commonly believed among us to be unsurpassed).

You must be crazy. The *only* great Spanish-language writer was
Borges, and he was sure that Spanish wasn't suitable for writing great
poetry:

"Oui, la langue espagnole est tres lourde. Si vous dites 'tristement',
'gaiment', vous en avez le triste et le gai, ou en anglais si vous
dites 'slowly', 'quickly', vous entendez slow et quick ; mais si en
espagnol vous dites 'lentamente', 'rapidemente', vous n'entendez plus
que "mente", qui est la partie mecanique du mot."

And to quote from his ENglish interview:

"I do think that Spanish literature began by being very fine. And then
somewhere, and already with such writers as Quevedo and Gongora, you
feel something has stiffened; the language doesn't flow as it did..."

A very apt description. Arpad