More syllables than English

I've been staying out of the te reo ‘debate' – such as it is – it's not very informative either way. But I had to say something after reading B Johnson's criteria for language quality ‘te reo contains 18 syllables, English 15,831' (The Weekend Sun, September 29).

Boy is he in for a treat! Looking through my copy of ‘Georgian: A Learner's Grammar' by George Hewitt, I find a language with even more syllables than English! And many of those syllables are made of consonant clusters right at the beginnings of words! Truly magnificent words like ‘trtvili' (frost); ‘mgvdeli' (priest); and that ideal word for hot sunburned summer days, ‘gvprtskvni' (you peel us). What's wimpy English got in comparison?

I expect B Johnson will embrace Georgian with a will and that his very next letter will be written in this magnificent language, seeing as it has so many more syllables than English and is thus, by his criteria, a far less limited language. No ‘metismetad jnelia' (it's too difficult) please.

W Parish, Bellevue.

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