ampersand

While sitting in my bedroom and listening to an owl outside, I decided that the world is a giant list with no commas.

I wonder how many times a day the word "and" is uttered by human mouth. Does every language have its own variation of "and" or are there cultures that exist without the concept of the word? Is there a language in which people list one object at a time, giving each object its own sentence?

I went to the store. Frank went to the store. June went to the store with us.

I do not know about other languages, but it occurs to me that without "and" the English language would lack inclusion, and would require much longer sentences.

I went to the store. Frank went to the store with me. So did June.

Frank, June, and I went to the store.

without saying that he, she, and I went to the store, it becomes difficult to explain that the three of us went to the same store at the same time. It is possible, but needlessly difficult.

to me, the ampersand is one of the most beautifully designed characters, nay, objects ever created. so much is expressed in that single symbol, and yet most people have no idea that it has a name, a real function, or a history.

Then again, most people do not know how to speak their native language.

I have studied language in depth, and I must confess that I even have trouble speaking it at times. So many rules that are broken constantly. Of course, I am not a language purist, I understand that language must change and evolve in order to stay alive, and that 20 generations from now my language will be obsolete, but still, it is sad for one to watch such a slaughtering of something so significant as a language.


I wish that I posessesd the power to hear my language from the perspective of a non-listener.

to an American, french sounds distinct from German, which sounds distinct from Japanese, but do those distinctions hold true to other people from other linguistic backgrounds? i.e. to a french person, is German as different from Japanese as it is to me? and what does English sound like to people who do not speak it? is it as classical and beautiful as French sounds to me? or as fluid as spanish? or is it as harsh and abrupt as Russian?

which is the hardest language to learn? which is the easiest? if everyone spoke one language, would everyone get along? would there be nothing to fight over?

I suppose people would still fight.

a world with one language would be a horrid place.