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I've heard it declared that English is the only language so rich in synonyms that it requires a thesaurus to keep track of them.

Can anyone refute this? Anyone own a thesaurus in a language other than English?
Alan Brooks

A with an Underwood
... Hubris, Arrogance, Conceit ...
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[nq:1]I've heard it declared that English is the only language so rich in synonyms that it requires a thesaurus to ... in a language other than English? Alan Brooks A with an Underwood ... Hubris, Arrogance, Conceit ...[/nq]
Lots of language maybe all? have thesauri, but they may not have that word in a particular language, so use "lexicon" instead and combine the function of both dictionary and thesaurus. But there are on-line thesauri for German, French, Russian, Spanish. Greek, Portuguese... I quit looking after that.
Then there are a lot of those electronic translators that are a hoot if you use them to translate a script, but they can probably be mainpulated to give you a few word alternatives that you can then look up indivually to see if they have the nuance you're after.
I was taught many years ago that German is the most accurate language for expressing technical information, but English has the widest vocabulary for expressing *anything!* Not being fluent in German, I don't know if that's accurate.
Caroline

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[nq:1]I've heard it declared that English is the only language so rich in synonyms that it requires a thesaurus to keep track of them. Can anyone refute this? Anyone own a thesaurus in a language other than English?[/nq]
I speak Croatian and Macedonian. Anyone could use a thesaurus for those languages as well. But since these are 'small' languages, you can imagine how the market for thesauruses is not that big. I do own a 12- tome Croatian dictionary that lists synonyms for about half the words in there. Not sure if there is a special thesaurus in book form for Croatian, but that's only due to the lack of profits should one publish something of the sort; it does not reflect the language's 'poverty'.

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[nq:2]I've heard it declared that English is the only language ... Anyone own a thesaurus in a language other than English?[/nq]
[nq:1]Lots of language maybe all? have thesauri, but they may not have that word in a particular language, ... dictionary and thesaurus. But there are on-line thesauri for German, French, Russian, Spanish. Greek, Portuguese... I quit looking after that.[/nq]
Yeah, I found some online one, but they don't seem to have that many entries, or they were built for some particular, restricted purpose. I don't see anything that's as general-purpose as a standard English thesaurus. For instance, the French have one specifically to help the language institute determine possible French equivalents of foreign words. In other words, the book is simply a rear-guard action in defense of a language, not a practical, every-day reference. I see another one for the benefit of ******* road engineers... I may have found a Spanish one, but the responses are available only by online subscription.

I'm fairly certain there's no such thing as a thesaurus in Chinese (which is the closest thing I have to a second language), but I'm open to being shown the error of my ways.
And whether such books exist in other languages, do people actually use them the way every college kid in America uses an English thesaurus? I caught Drenowski's note on Croation, which is interesting. Perhaps most languages that don't have a thesaurus, simply integrate the function into their dictionaries by listing synonyms with the definition? That's useful, but nowhere near as thorough as the way a dedicated thesaurus links you from every possible word to all its companions.
Alan Brooks

A with an Underwood
40 words for snow,
Not one for Pina Colada.
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[nq:1]And whether such books exist in other languages, do people actually use them the way every college kid in America ... nowhere near as thorough as the way a dedicated thesaurus links you from every possible word to all its companions.[/nq]
Obviously it is much more practical to have a thesaurus separate from a dictionary. For a writer its essential. People here don't really use dictionaries as well; not as much as they should. The point is, I'd say, most languages have enough synonims for one to need a thesaurus. Whether or not someone is willing to publish and/or use a thesaurus is a whole other cup of soymilk.

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[nq:1]The point is, I'd say, most languages have enough synonims for one to need a thesaurus. Whether or not someone is willing to publish and/or use a thesaurus is a whole other cup of soymilk.[/nq]
Yup, I understood your point. I'm trying to find the original quote I read about English being unique in this regard. I think it was Steven Pinker in "The Language Instinct", but I'm not certain. And it's on the top shelf and I can't find my ladder...
Alan Brooks

A with an Underwood
Having nothing to say
is over-rated.
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[nq:1]Yeah, I found some online one, but they don't seem to have that many entries, or they were built for ... its companions. Alan Brooks A with an Underwood 40 words for snow, Not one for Pina Colada.[/nq]
This is sort of a sore point with me. I have Roget's, Webster's New World Thesaurus, a slew and a half of dictionaries, including the OED, and I've tried a large number of on-line thesauri, but they all suck!

The very best thesaurus I've ever used, electronic or hard copy, was a stand-alone electronic that came "bundled" with WordStar twenty years ago. It was by "Brown Bag Software," and it was magnificent! Don't know what ever happened to it, but it never put its head above water again (at least in my line of vision) after Windows knocked DOS out of the running.

So much great software gone forever...
Caroline

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[nq:2]I've heard it declared that English is the only language ... Anyone own a thesaurus in a language other than English?[/nq]
[nq:1]I speak Croatian and Macedonian. Anyone could use a thesaurus for those languages as well. But since these are 'small' ... due to the lack of profits should one publish something of the sort; it does not reflect the language's 'poverty'.[/nq]
Sames goes for Gaelic (Irish) that has 100 ways of describing an old man (exagerating slightly). But I don't know if they're all compiled into one book under the same entry.
M

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[nq:1]I've heard it declared that English is the only language so rich in synonyms that it requires a thesaurus to keep track of them. Can anyone refute this? Anyone own a thesaurus in a language other than English?[/nq]
Wonder about the Russian language thesaurus. I've read that the Russian language is the toughest to learn. I had a wonderful book on the origins of language. The author said "What to learn Russian? Be born in Russia!"

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]Wonder about the Russian language thesaurus. I've read that the Russian language is the toughest to learn. I had a wonderful book on the origins of language. The author said "What to learn Russian? Be born in Russia!"[/nq]
To use the old joke, even little kids speak Russian.

I suspect that any language for which you have to learn a whole new alphabet is difficult. I've never heard that Russian is the "most difficult" language to learn. I suspect that honor belongs to Chinese, where you not only have to learn a gazillion and three ideograms, but voice inflection is also used to convey meaning.
There was a time I was proficient enough in Turkish, I was often asked by the Turkish police to interpret for them when they had to deal with people who spoke English, but today I'd count myself lucky if I got what I thought I'd ordered in a restaurant. Turkish is one of those languages where you add syllables at the end of a word to change tense, quality, quantity, etc. A difficult concept for English speaikers.
Greek was very diffucult for me because I'd had a semester of koine in college before moving there, and modern demotic Greek can drive you nuts because a lot of perfectly good one-letter consonants are now replaced by double consonants to get the same sound.
Once you learn the Cyrillic alphabet, Russian can be a lot of fun. I used to read a Russian dictionary because it was interesting how many Russian words are very similar in English.
I would guess that Americans have a more difficult time learning a second language than anyone else on earth, unless they are fortunate enough to be Americans who grow up in a home where a second language is spoken from their birth. If a child grows from infancy to grade school age with only one language, his brain will pretty much be wired as monolingual. Multiple languages from infancy is best.
Caroline

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"Alan Brooks wrote..
[nq:1]I've heard it declared that English is the only language so rich insynonyms that it requires a thesaurus to keep track of them. Can anyone refute this? Anyone own a thesaurus in a language other than English?[/nq]
Once, in a writing workshop, I was reprimanded for writing, "'Yes!,' he ********** to her". I actually had to pull out a dictionary to support my case.

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