How the English language became such a mess

BBC News ^ | June 8, 2015 | James Harbeck

[MinorityRepublican]

First, the greed: invasion and theft. The Romans invaded Britain in the 1st Century AD and brought their alphabet; in the 7th Century, the Angles and Saxons took over, along with their language. Starting in the 9th Century, Vikings occupied parts of England and brought some words (including they, displacing the Old English hie).

Then the Norman French conquered in 1066 – and replaced much of the vocabulary with French, including words which over time became beef, pork, invade, tongue and person.

[Yaelle]

The English language is built for expression and fun. The structure is such a great base for creation. It’s simple to learn. The hardest phonemes can be skipped without much problem. Adele is a multi millionaire for her use of the a english language, and she can’t even say L.

I am glad it’s my maternal tongue because the nuances are so rich, and you can make it do so very much. French is more descriptive, German is like Legos, infinite construction possibilities, but the layers of wit and meaning in English beat them both. I don’t know other languages except a bit of Hebrew.

[gusty]

It could be also due to the fact the Anglo-Saxons came from the area that includes the Netherlands.

[hanamizu]

I have read (but have no personal experience with) that Finnish, along with Hungarian, is an extremely difficult language with several (like more than a dozen) declensions of nouns and adjectives that English is mercifully free of (except for our pronouns which come from Norse). So Finish may enjoy rational spelling (like Spanish) but the rest of its grammar is incredibly complex.

English is a difficult language for non-native speakers to master, but oddly a very easy language to get by in. “No tickee, no shirtee” is often cited as an example.

Ah, but spelling. GHOTI
Of course it is pronounced “fish”
The gh of tough, the o of women, and the ti of nation.

[Frank_2001]

True! French for example is filled with what would be known as gender stereotyping : Le bureau (the office) La maison (the home) etc etc... The French are doubtless trying to do something about that, however! ;)

[Vince Ferrer]

I like English because it can do this:

Airplane cockpit

Don't call me Shirley

Golly!

[Swede Girl]

I agree....I could never understand the gender thing.

[Swede Girl]

Yes. The Story of English was one of the best programs I have ever seen. Amazing.

[Petrosius]

If you think that English is bad try learning the 2000-3000 characters you need for Chinese. Of course you could also try to learn all 85,000.

[bboop]

Good for songwriting and poetry. Also it is naturally in iambic pentamenter - da-duh da-duh da-duh da-duh etc.

[D_Idaho]

GHOTI = FISH

[familyop]

"Say, your uncle wouldn’t be named “Bob”, would he? ;-)"

As in "Bob's yer uncle?" Is that a figure of speech outside of Canada?

[PUGACHEV]

English is actually almost two separate languages: one is the English that is spoken, and the other is the English that we write. For example, the subject/verb "I can" is usually pronounced "I kin", whereas the common use of contractions renders "I cannot" into "I kant" when spoken. One wishing to lean English must be alert for both forms. On the other hand, the ease with one can express relationships between nouns, particularly possessive relationships, makes English much more streamlined that the Romance languages. Notice, for example how much shorter signs or instructions are in English as compared to Spanish when you see them side by side.

English also has a marvelous and unique proclivity for making nouns into verbs, almost without limit. We can "Google" something or "railroad" someone. One of my favorite examples was in the film, "The King's Speech", when King Edward's brother asks him what he has been doing lately, he replies the he has been "kinging".

[kiryandil]

...And Bob’s your uncle is an expression of unknown origin, commonly used in Great Britain and Commonwealth countries. Typically, someone says it to conclude a set of simple instructions, similar to the French expression “et voilà !”.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob%27s_your_uncle

[zaxtres]

Gallagher says it best....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDFQXxWIyvQ

[SteveH]

ping

[RitchieAprile]

das Fenster (the window)
die Fensterscheibe (the windowpane)
der Teller (the plate)
die Teller (the plates)
die Kaffemaschine (the coffee machine)
der Anrufbeantworter (the answering machine)
das Faß (the keg)
das Spielzeug (the toy)
das Kind (the child)
der Kaffe (the coffee)
das Kaffee (the café)
die Hose (the pair of pants)
der Stiefel (the boot)
die Stiefel (the boots)
.....

[Pelham]

The English and the Americans, two peoples separated by a common language.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

Then along came The Internet and the people no longer new the difference between Loose and Lose, There and Their, and other challenging homophones.

[TBP]

My high school Latin teacher (also and English teacher) said that all the “short, ugly words” were Germanic, but the rest were Latinate.

[TBP]

"The French don't care what they do, actually, as long as they pronounce it properly." -- Professor Henry Higgins, My Fair Lady