Actually its just to the beginning student of a language that simplicity
makes it appear the language is pristine and not filled with odd grammar
and phrases and idioms. Its just from the simplicity taught to the
beginning student that makes a language look clean. I've studied German
on and off along with dug through technical papers in other languages
and once you get away from the school book stories, the languages get
messy in a hurry. I've subscribed to several German ham magazines and
some I could read on three years of classes, some I couldn't really
because the language on the street was a long ways from the language in
the text books.
The other thing is that a language is alive, not static and there are
always those elements of the society working on making that language
express their own feelings and so they expand, contract, and change the
language to fit their wishes. Unfortunately these days, the excessively
pervasive media tends to spread those localisms far more rapidly than it
did a few years ago, whether for entertainment or for confusion.
Gerald
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