I’m curious, are there languages that are better suited for specific things? If you knew every language on earth fluently, would you choose one to communicate the nuances of an emotion, or the inner workings of a car engine?
Not just vocabulary (though that probably plays a part) but grammatical structure, communication efficiency, logical clarity, etc…
Another framing, what do you miss from your native language? Fluency aside, what is harder to communicate in other languages?
Honestly, body language goes so far. I’ve travelled a lot and had full conversations mostly through body language and a couple of key words. Even words you don’t know are quickly discerned by how they’re said and the gestures they come with.
Probably the easiest to understand are the many different Asian languages that are structured topically. The topic is at the start of the statement like, weather, bathroom, a person, followed by the things about it. Just knowing the topic, then keywords trailing it, you can not understand 80% of it but know exactly what they’re saying.
The most challenging are those like English and French, since they’re structurally varied and often you need to hear all of something said before you can digest it.
The differences are like,
“Today I will be going down the road to see Jen.”
“Jen and I will meet today when I go down the road.”
The second sentence is high value at the start with lower additions at the end.
Fascinating, thanks for the insight into Asian languages, that’s really surprising.
Interesting take on your two examples, the important part is determined by the speaker - perhaps “today” was what was important, vs what they’re doing.
Still a neat example, but I think there’s more nuance there, depending on speaker/listener.
Great question, OP!