Replying to Avatar Finrod Felagund

I feel like this is a shortcoming specific to the English language.

All the languages I know use a different verb than “plain old” fear.

French for example uses “craindre” which is completely different from “avoir peur”. The latter transliterates to “have fear” and is exclusively used in that context of fearing things, like snakes and spiders, or anything in of the world.

Same for Arabic and Spanish.
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Liberty Gal 1y ago

English is so imprecise. It also only has one word for love where most languages have many different words. I'm sure there are lots of other examples.

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Finrod Felagund 1y ago

I like to link the development of a language to the traits of its people.

Greeks have 7 words for love, and I like to think it’s because they love thinking, and wisdom, and therefore they need extra words for all types of feelings they articulate.

I wonder what made the anglo-saxons have one word for love. It’s a germanic word with indo-european roots signifying deep and intense feelings and affection for another. This makes me think the ancient saxons would not have used it very lightly.

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ᴛʜᴇ ᴅᴇᴀᴛʜ ᴏꜰ ᴍʟᴇᴋᴜ 1y ago

english even only has one form of the word "you" which is ambigous as singular and plural

i'm not a fan of english, except for its lack of cases