On 20/12/15 10:52, Michael Uplawski wrote:
On Sun, 20 Dec 2015 10:21:14 +0000,
Tom Gardner wrote:

Curiously I've been told that nowadays Germans aren't
bothering as much with all the genitive and dative
declensions on their nouns. Oh, I wish that had been
the case back then!

Be careful with such information. There is a lot of polemic going on
about one case (the „Dativ“) being abused to create relations that it is
not meant to express. But should such tendencies become the norm, the
German language will be forced to, and will ultimately, produce a new
structure which must arrange the mess of all the confusions that are
coming up.

All those declension has a function. You cannot express the same things
by just omitting a case. The French tried that and had to replace
declension by pronouns to become more comprehensible again.

Apart from that. In a language, like German, where you invent new words
on the fly, what remains of the „beauty“ of the language, is found
nowadays in masterly application of the grammar. Not much else is left.

Anyway, generalizations must be avoided. „Nowadays“, „Germans“ and
„Nowadays Germans“ are terms in need of definitions, as I insist on the
diversity of attitudes and cultural background which have an influence
on the use of the German language. Where the observation is made, it is
not valid elsewhere on another day.

Sure. Unsurprising. You appear to be taking my
vague second-hand observations more seriously
than I intended.