Item — HN Reader

I don't understand your point.

I am not a linguist, but in my humble opinion, pidgin doesn't measure how far two languages are; it rather is the semplification of a language (e.g. Latin, or Italian) in order to make it easier to understand and speak by non natives.

Please tell me what your point was, as I don't know what to answer :)

1 comments

Sorry for not being more clear.

> it rather is the semplification of a language (e.g. Latin, or Italian) in order to make it easier to understand and speak by non natives.

This is exactly what happened to English; English used to have a great deal more complexity, until the French conquered England. That started a great simplification, so that the court (which was French) and the people (which spoke a very Germanic English) could communicate.

Even things like whether a table is male or female (exists in Italian, no?) were removed from English.

The problem is that you are assuming that is only a single form of complexity, while yes the declensions and conjugations have since disappeared in English (and most of the West European languages) the complexity of the word order (syntax) has increased substantially.

Also, the reduction of the morphological complexity in English PRE-DATES the Norman invasion. So, it had nothing to do with the French rulers. Not to say that they didn't leave a mark on the language in other ways.

> while yes the declensions and conjugations have since disappeared in English (and most of the West European languages)

Which languages are you talking about?

Ah, I didn't know it. Very interesting.

Thanks for sharing it.