[KS] the Korean language

[???]

Dear List,

With regard to Korean as "the most scientific language," such
a claim is unscientific hyperbole based on misplaced cultural
pride and nationalism. Don't get me wrong--I find the
Korean language fascinating and have devoted many years
to studying it, but all languages have the potential of being
fascinating. Always beware of superlatives when talking about
languages (or almost anything, I suppose). If we leave out
the word "most," we can make some statements about Korean
that are more acceptable and also more helpful to anyone who
might be considering learning it: for example, that its writing system
is very well thought out and fits the language very nicely or
that Korean morphology is very regular, with few exceptions
that need to be memorized.

As for the problem of homophones, I agree with Michael
Robinson. I've been living in Korea, among Koreans, for
36 years and have found homophones to be no more of a
problem than they are in English. Far from lugging around
dictionaries of sino-Korean words, most Koreans aren't
even quite sure of how to look up a Chinese character in
the okpyeon.

Gary Rector