"In 1977, Jorge Luis Borges, one of the most influential 20th century Spanish-language writers, told William F. Buckley his reasons for feeling, age 78, that English was 'far finer' than his native tongue." (from YouTube description; video is only 90 seconds long)
I didn't find a transcript for the clip above, but found this:
Borges on the two registers of English
June 07, 2023
An interesting clip of Jorge Luis Borges talking about the English language and some of its peculiar strengths has been going around lately. In the clip, excerpted from Borges’s 1977 interview with William F Buckley Jr on “Firing Line,” Borges talks about why he regards English as a “finer” language than his native Spanish. After describing how he grew up reading English books in his father’s library (“When I think of the Bible, I think of the King James Bible”) and how even having forgotten Latin is better than never having known it, Borges continues:
Borges: I have done most of my reading in English. I find English a far finer language than Spanish.
William F Buckley: Why?
Borges: Well, many reasons. Firstly, English is both a Germanic and a Latin language. Those two registers—for any idea you take, you have two words. Those words will not mean exactly the same. For example if I say “regal” that is not exactly the same thing as saying “kingly.” Or if I say “fraternal” that is not the same as saying “brotherly.” Or “dark” and “obscure.” Those words are different. It would make all the difference—speaking for example—the Holy Spirit, it would make all the difference in the world in a poem if I wrote about the Holy Spirit or I wrote the Holy Ghost, since “ghost” is a fine, dark Saxon word, but “spirit” is a light Latin word. Then there is another reason. The reason is that I think that, of all languages, English is the most physical of all languages.
WFB: The most what?
Borges: Physical. You can, for example, say “He loomed over.” You can’t very well say that in Spanish.
WFB: “Asomó?”
Borges: Well, no, no, they’re not exactly the same. And then you have, in English, you can do almost anything with verbs and prepositions. For example, to “laugh off,” to “dream away.” Those things can’t be said in Spanish. To “live down” something, to “live up to” something—you can’t say those things in Spanish. They can’t be said. Or really in any Romance language.
When people have complained to me about English being complicated and having too many synonyms, I've made the point that it's a packrat language. We have words from more than one Germanic tribe (more than just Angles and Saxons, even). We have words from Norse, and from Norman French. We have all the parts from Greek and Latin to name bicycles and telescopes, and to to sort our diseases and medicines out in fine detail.
If we like something from India, or Japan, we keep the name for it, and whatever other words we didn't have to describe it or to display or store it. 🙂
If we have two words for one thing, that's denotation (what it points to) but they will develop subtle connotations (maybe not always subtle)—like the many things to call a dog or a horse to let it range from mangey and homeless to a prize-winning star, without saying "dog" or "horse." 🙂
Dinosaur names! I live where lots of dinosaurs are found, and they sometimes get named before they're fully out of the ground. They're not named "in English," though, but of meaningful bits of Greek (mostly, I think) and Latin, strung together to make fancy scientific names that little kids love.
There used to be a live Q&A after the Jackie Chan cartoons called "Hey, Jackie...". After one episode, he said he learned English from watching TV.
I had the Jackie Chan clip on my site but the host account disappeared. If anyone sees it again, try to let me know, please. I'd like to restore video.
UNTIL I FIND CLIPS to embed, here's a transcript (and a bonus!):
Q: Do you like to watch television? Alexis, age 9
A: Yes. I learn so many things on television. Even my English I learned from TV. I like education channel. Even cartoon I can learn something. I want TV. I'm only in Hong Kong. I can watch what's going on in Morocco or what's going on South Africa and Europe, everywhere. And really learn a lot of things I don't know before. Even training, I watch TV. TV is my teacher. I love TV.
and
Q: Was it hard to learn English? Myra, age 9
A: Yes! Very, very difficult. I learned from TV, news, and documentaries. Word by word, just like a puzzle. Now I... I know perfect Cantonese, of course, my mother language, Mandarin, Chinese, Shandonese, ok English, Korean, Japanese. You have to know more, not just one language. Not enough. You have to learn second language. You're proud of yourself. Remember, learn more language.
