Jim,
I am probably the wrong person to answer this question as I am no authority on
the subject. The only advantage I have over most non-native speakers is that I
learned English the way you did ie I did not translate each word in my head to
Bulgarian.
I think Andrew D gave a good answer (although he still calls the Bulgarian
alphabet Cyrillic...:), but here are few observations:
The everyday vocabulary is much larger, with the absent of any vagueness.
The language is structured in a way that leaves any doubt about the intend of
using the words, which makes life easier, especially on the Net...:). Part of
it comes from being gender oriented, but also there is room for the
introduction of new words sometimes via slight modifications.
It is much easier to paint vivid pictures using less words and keeping the
attention of the listener at the same time. (part of it goes back to the
larger vocabulary...to illustrate, the use of the word "great" comes to mind.
Here one can refer as great to an event that affects the fate of humanity and
"great" is also used when it comes to very trivial matters. overthere you have
several words for great, a few for each instance, but they are not
interchangeable)
Now here where the fun begins:
Slight modifications of the words make the best jokes ever told. If I come up
with a good example, I would share, but has been a long week and my mind is
cloudy...you got snow there? I can't wait for the winter to come, miss the
loooong winters from my childhood.
Boris
From: "James N. McBride" <jnmcbr@xxxxxxx>
Subject: [OM] Re: USA Southwest
Date: Thu, 3 Nov 2005 08:21:56 -0700
It would seem to limit linguistic creativity. /jmac
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