I’m coming up on veinte dias en Costa Rica ahora. Wow. It doesn’t feel like it has been that long. Tomorrow we are leaving right after school to travel to San José. And yes, for anyone who is about to say it, we are going to be careful, no we are not bringing our computeres, yes we are coming back before dark, no we aren’t bringing anything incredibly valuable. We are looking forward to the trip. Noah is researching and planning where he wants to go eat, Benjamin just wants to explore, and I just want to make sure I know where the bus stop to get home is. ;-) (And thus, the three stereotypes of our trip, the cultured tourist, the adventurer, and the worried expatriate just trying to get back to su casa.
I’ve been contemplating the advantages of mixing Spanish and English together to form a new language (not Spanglish...that name has already been taken). The idea would be to condense language to make it more economical. For example, I was trying to sing “Yes, we have no bananas” in Spanish and the literal translation turns out something like “Si, nosotros tenemos no bananas.” How cumbersome is it to say “nosotros tenemos” instead of “we have”? On the other hand, in Spanish if I want to say “something” I can just say “algo” and if I want to say “and” I can just say (or type) “y”. What if we combined the two languages by taking all the synonyms/direct translations and choosing whichever language had the shortest word for that particular idea? Instead of saying “We have something and it is big ” (7 words, 8 syllables) or “Nosotros tenemos algo y es grande” (6 words, 12 syllables) we could just say “We have algo y es big” (6 words, 7 syllables). Just as a note, yes, I realize that the Spanish version of this sentence is not entirely correct, I am using it for an example...even if it is a poor one.
The best thing about the combination would be that you don’t actually have to give up any long, beautiful words that you enjoy. It would not be removing anything from the vocabulary of either language but merely supplementing it. Writers could still use the grand words, but you would have the option of saving tons of time by using the shorter words.
...Or we could all learn Chinese which seems to be composed completely of monosyllables ;-) Just think, we could just be using monosyllabic grunts to communicate! Future generations may think of us as cavemen, but that’s okay because we think of past generations as cavemen anyway ;-)
I'm glad you're going to San Jose, and that you are preparing in advanced. You need not worry if you are prepared : D
ReplyDeleteOr should I say...
Fun time SJ. No prblm. U pland... hey- this looks like text messaging!