/lit/ - Literature

[Kierkegaard No.13365755]

Holy shit is there a single language better for literature than English? I feel like I can't write or even read in my native language without cringing. You guys don't appreciate it how easy you have it if you were born into a country with English as first language.

[Anonymous No.13365808]

i've heard many people save English lets them express themselves better/have more personality. when writing. I think there is something to be said for contextual tone though, I kind of like when languages have essential words that can be taken many different ways, if only because it more easily allows you to make an agreeable headcanon even if the intent isn't conveyed properly. I genuinely like machine translations of shit in Japanese for this reason. You get the core information, and arrange it in a way that suits your tastes.

[Kierkegaard No.13365826]

>>13365808
My language fucking sucks. You can express anything in English, but in Portuguese there's nothing. It sucks. It's shit.

[Anonymous No.13365840]

>>13365826
Yeah, it sounds like Spanish with a stuffed up nose too.

[Anonymous No.13365870]

>>13365755
Marxism claims that working can give your life meaning, just that most modern jobs alienate the worker

[Anonymous No.13365875]

>>13365870
Thanks for the heads up

[Anonymous No.13365876]

>>13365755
The fact that English is better than your monkey language does not mean that all other languages are inferior to English.

[Anonymous No.13365882]

>>13365826
I speak spanish and often feel the same way, but then I read poetry and remember that it's not that the language is shit, but rather that I'm shit at using it.

[Anonymous No.13365887]

English is one of the poorest literary languages. The fact that you spend 12 hours a day on 4chan and only see your native tongue on the back of air freshners and tendie boxes doesn‘t change that.

[Anonymous No.13365903]

>>13365887
>English is one of the poorest literary languages.
Cope. English is perfect, the only "problem" is that it's filled with situational rules that make it a gatekeeping language for second language speakers.

[Anonymous No.13365916]

>>13365903
>Cope
You have to go back, summer.

[Anonymous No.13365934]

>>13365916
>such a newfag he doesn't know about eternal summer
I speak to you in a language you can hear. Take a look at yourself if people think using trendy meme vernacular like cope is an effective way to communicate with you.

[Anonymous No.13365954]

>>13365934
>take a look at yourself because I‘m using epic rebbit downvote buzzwords
You have to go back, summer.

[Anonymous No.13366011]

I like Spanish, even though it sounds like shit. French is pretty ugly though, it reads like a washed down version of romantic languages. I don't understand why everyone like it so much.

>>13365808

Yeah, I feel the same. It was the reason I gave up writing in my language and started only improving my english.

>>13365840

That's Portugal's. Brazil's portuguese is much more diverse and flexible. Still not as expressive as english, though.

[Anonymous No.13366039]

Even masters of other languages sound better when average dudes translate them into english.

[Anonymous No.13366085]

The pic's argument could be applied to prehistoric man living on subsistence, which would of course be rediculous.

[Anonymous No.13366087]

>>13365903
>the only "problem" is that it's filled with situational rules that make it a gatekeeping language for second language speakers.
Can you give me some examples of what you mean? I'm a native speaker, but I always find this sort of conversation interesting.

[Anonymous No.13366107]

>>13366087
Are you serious? English is filled with all sorts of situational rules. Things like why the plural of moose is moose and not mooses. The spelling is even worse than the spoken word due to the great vowel shift. English is a language you just have to know and not a mechanical one you can learn by mastering the rules, this makes it a difficult second language to become proficient with.

[Anonymous No.13366118]

>>13366107
That‘s not a „situational rule“, that‘s an exception to rules, braindead lusofaggot.

[Anonymous No.13366131]

>>13366107
>Are you serious?
I thought you might have been referring to some syntactical issues, actually.
>English is a language you just have to know and not a mechanical one you can learn by mastering the rules
I do agree with this. There's often some intangible quality which makes it apparent that a writer is not a native speaker, perhaps some aspect of word order which cannot be gleaned from a book.

[Anonymous No.13366135]

>>13366118
Well all the homographs are situational rules.

[Anonymous No.13366194]

>>13366135
>retard keeps throwing random words to see what sticks
I can see why you would have problems in your native language.

[Anonymous No.13366558]

>>13365755
>doesn't even know kierkegaard was a monarchist
>dares to namefag as him

[Anonymous No.13366705]

>>13365870
Working in a sense of transforming the reality.

Which is not the same as the historical determined concept of wage labor

[Anonymous No.13368187]

>>13366558
who you been talkin to space nerd

[Anonymous No.13368208]

>>13366705
Good post

[Anonymous No.13368222]

>>13365826
>one of the oldest literary traditions in Europe
>there's nothing in it
You're just bad a speaking.

[Anonymous No.13368239]

>>13365882
what poetry fren?

[Anonymous No.13368274]

Latin and German are the only literary languages

[Anonymous No.13368300]

>>13365755

>Is there a better language for literature than English

It depends on what you're using it for. For abstract images french is much better, and the romance languages in general better lend themselves to poetry, at least musically. English shines more so in prose than poetry imo, and in prosaic poetry such as Whitman. My favorite uses of English are probably Chaucer & Melville, but I don't consider either of them to be incomparable zeniths of world literature. Its sad to be a non English native and think your native tongue is poor honestly. Stop being so anglo-washed and appreciated your own people. I think English genuinely isnt a good language for poetry and is mostly valuable for its immense versitality rather than any intrinsic beauty. English, at its core, is an ugly language, and I think Chaucer did that fact the most justice. For too long British writers have been using the language like it's French, Americans saved it honestly, they got back to the gritty Germanic aspect of it but somehow refined it into this loose, sinuous style which I find to be much more innovative than what the British have done. I'm a native English speaker but am competent enough in French to say that English, while more versatile than French, can't reach the same levels of beauty that a romance language can, and shouldn't be considered the "best" do literatue in any form. It can be a really interesting language, but hardly the most literary. Also, the monolingual anglophiles in this thread are cringe as hell.

[Anonymous No.13368331]

>>13365808
>I genuinely like machine translations of shit in Japanese for this reason
You are missing 90% of the meaning like this, there is so much in Japanese that just can't be conveyed in English.
Japanese is the best language for literature because of this.

[Anonymous No.13368346]

>>13368300
cringe and spooked post

[Anonymous No.13368508]

>>13368300
Cela et les doubs ont été aperçu mon copain!

[Anonymous No.13368565]

>>13365826
but nothing beats a good "trocadilho" amirite!?