Hilarious essentialist comparisons of English and other tongues

By at 12:13 am Tuesday, Aug 30

This list of "Essentialist" descriptions of English (scroll around on the page for essentialist characterizations of other languages) made me laugh aloud six times before I even hit the scrollbar. These esentialist statements take the form "Language X is essentially language Y under conditions Z."
English is essentially any other language spoken with a very hot potato in one's mouth. --Ivan Derzhanski (based on Alain LaBonté on Swiss French)

English is essentially Low German plus even lower French minus any sense of culture. --Danny Weir

English is what you get from Normans trying to pick up Saxon girls. --Bryan Maloney

English is essentially French converted to 7-bit ASCII. --Christophe Pierret [for Alain LaBonté]

Inglish iz issenshali a langwidje dhat, wen rittun fonetkli, iz ilejibul tu netiv spikerz. --Peter Bleackley

Link (via Making Light)

Cory Doctorow

Upcoming appearances

* Feb 9, 2012, DeKalb, IL: Day of Doctorow, NIU
* Feb 10-12, 2012, Chicago, IL: Capricon 32
* Feb 13, 2012, Arlington, TX: UT Arlington College of Engineering Distinguished Speaker Series
* Feb 16, 2012, Victoria, BC: 13th Annual Privacy and Security Conference

Recent books:
* Context (essays)
* With a Little Help (short stories)
* For the Win (YA novel)
* Makers (adult novel)

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