I wouldn’t say french is the best language by any means. I think that while it has a pretty extensive vocabulary it is quite inefficient and conservative by nature
The reason it has an extensive vocab is because the french are purists who need to invent their own version of every new word in existence, instead of just loaning words from other languages like every other language does.
An example of this is “computer”. Every other language uses that term, except for fucking french who call it an “ordinateur”
Some slight pushback from a French person: we aren’t purists, our old reactionary institutions are purist (notably the Académie Française which, fun fact, is officially “in charge” of the french language while having zero linguists in its ranks).
Hang out with a group of young adults in France and you’ll hear a ton of English and a decent sprinkling of Arabic amongst the French.
Also, it’s not just French, Spanish has “ordenador”. It makes some linguistic sense; computers do compute but they also sort and arrange numbers.
Other languages may use the word computer in their language but some also have their own word, even if not using it.
Spanish has ‘el ordenador’ and German has ‘der Rechner’.
Also, it’s a bit rich to say French has an extended vocab when English sometimes imported French words twice, like warranty and guarantee, or guardian and warden. In fact, English supposedly has more words than French.
French is purist but then English took words like ‘dette’ and ‘doute’ and added a ‘b’ just to keep it closer from Latin… right.
Les francophones aiment perpétuer l’idée que le français est une langue riche, complexe et difficile, mais en réalité c’est rien de si extraordinaire. ;)
I learned on duolingo that computer is called computadora in spanish.
Also, the german word Rechner is only used for Desktop PCs. Like, the actual chassis with all parts inside.
A Laptop is a computer but nobody would call it a Rechner.
If you use Rechner without context, everyone would assume you’re talking about a calculator.
I wouldn’t say french is the best language by any means. I think that while it has a pretty extensive vocabulary it is quite inefficient and conservative by nature
The reason it has an extensive vocab is because the french are purists who need to invent their own version of every new word in existence, instead of just loaning words from other languages like every other language does.
An example of this is “computer”. Every other language uses that term, except for fucking french who call it an “ordinateur”
Some slight pushback from a French person: we aren’t purists, our old reactionary institutions are purist (notably the Académie Française which, fun fact, is officially “in charge” of the french language while having zero linguists in its ranks).
Hang out with a group of young adults in France and you’ll hear a ton of English and a decent sprinkling of Arabic amongst the French.
Also, it’s not just French, Spanish has “ordenador”. It makes some linguistic sense; computers do compute but they also sort and arrange numbers.
This is a tad misleading.
Other languages may use the word computer in their language but some also have their own word, even if not using it.
Spanish has ‘el ordenador’ and German has ‘der Rechner’.
Also, it’s a bit rich to say French has an extended vocab when English sometimes imported French words twice, like warranty and guarantee, or guardian and warden. In fact, English supposedly has more words than French.
French is purist but then English took words like ‘dette’ and ‘doute’ and added a ‘b’ just to keep it closer from Latin… right.
Les francophones aiment perpétuer l’idée que le français est une langue riche, complexe et difficile, mais en réalité c’est rien de si extraordinaire. ;)
This is a tad misleading.
I learned on duolingo that computer is called computadora in spanish.
Also, the german word Rechner is only used for Desktop PCs. Like, the actual chassis with all parts inside. A Laptop is a computer but nobody would call it a Rechner.
If you use Rechner without context, everyone would assume you’re talking about a calculator.
French also has borrowed vocab. Not every other language calls it computer, and not even every european language does
And that’s bad?