It really is fascinating to speak a Romance language and experience for the first time the shift from formal you to informal you and the meaning contained therein…the closeness it creates, the feeling of friendship with the other person. And also the reverse, the shock when someone uses the informal you when it’s not appropriate. We have other ways of doing this in English (calling someone sir or dude or buddy or some other word), but it’s not quite the same.
Well said. When I see people writing that their 'favourite words' are multi-syllabic, often Latin-derived, often made-up words, I remember that the most beautiful poetry (I think) in our language, Shakespeare's sonnets, are often composed of words of one syllable. Nothing against our Latin-French heritage either, of course I love that too, but English packs a lot of meaning into those little words.
It really is fascinating to speak a Romance language and experience for the first time the shift from formal you to informal you and the meaning contained therein…the closeness it creates, the feeling of friendship with the other person. And also the reverse, the shock when someone uses the informal you when it’s not appropriate. We have other ways of doing this in English (calling someone sir or dude or buddy or some other word), but it’s not quite the same.
Alas!
Well said. When I see people writing that their 'favourite words' are multi-syllabic, often Latin-derived, often made-up words, I remember that the most beautiful poetry (I think) in our language, Shakespeare's sonnets, are often composed of words of one syllable. Nothing against our Latin-French heritage either, of course I love that too, but English packs a lot of meaning into those little words.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJYoqCDKoT4
Oh, the brilliance of Borges. Thanks for this.