Re: unsusribbe

[roberto <roberto@nomade.worldonline.co.uk>]

on 26/7/01 11:17 PM, James Pokorny at j.pokorny@worldnet.att.net wrote:


> This is something most native speakers of English have a difficult time
> dealing with in learning a new language.  I remember my Latin teacher in
> high school telling us "There's no logic behind it --
I wouldn't agree with that. There is no "straight" logic in the western
sense, but then, what logic is there behind a minor chord being "moodier"
than a major? What logic is there in microtonal variations that our ears 
are
barely able to detect?

>just memorize the correct
> word endings."  Good advice, though it *did* bother me for a while.
And rightly so, it's easier (and more useful, although more time consuming)
to understand the psychology of a language rather than memorising it.
Once you have achieved that your instinct will tell you weather and object
is male or female, even if you don't "logically" know why.  Perhaps your
teacher had only studied the language from books and never lived with any
descendant of the Latin speaking people.

> After studying some modern languages I saw his point -- there really is 
>no
logic or reason behind gender of words.
I could give you endless examples of the contrary - but that would
definitely be off-topic!

>I was surprised when learning Hindi
How long did it take you? I am tempted by Hindi too.

>to find that not only do objects (nouns) have different genders, but
> the verbs used to speak about the actions these objects perform also 
>change
> gender to match the object.  Very intriguing.
A good way to exercise the brain and other more abstract "feeling devices" 
-
Imagine to transfer the concept in music creation and see how it can enrich
the aural palette...
> 
> My apologies for being WAY OT
I hope fellow loopers won't find this too off-topic. I believe language and
music have a lot in common.

Roberto

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