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.

[TBP]

WHOM!!!

[TBP]

The next big thing: Spanglibonics.

[TBP]

I am stealing that!

[TBP]

Definitely a GREAT language for singing.

[dfwgator]

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! ;)

It's like those French have a different word for everything.

[dfwgator]

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

That was hugh.

[TBP]

Shaw.

[TBP]

I studied French, still understand a fair amount (plus q’un peu), and I find it very pretty. I remember the first year the Montreal Expos were in the majors. they put an announcement on their scoreboard at Parc Jarry that mentioned “le bueau de billets au Parc Jarry.”

“Sounds like a nice place, doesn’t it?”, said one of the announcers. “It’s the ticket office at Jarry Park.”

[TBP]

You know about the company that had to get rid of its spelling and language checker when the Accounting Department reported that the company ended the year “in the African American”?

[dfwgator]

I am learning French myself, while I have little trouble reading and even speaking it, understanding other French speakers is tres difficile. It’s hard to know when one word starts and another begins.

[dfwgator]

I know a little German, he's sitting over there...

[nickcarraway]

WHO = World Health Organization

[dr_lew]

Now we don’t even want to spell things as they sound. How do spellings like hed, hart, lafter, dotter, and det look to you?

Shaddup!

[oldvirginian]

Hey!
Let’s not be forgetting Kipling!

The ONLY poet I really like.

[truth_seeker]

One of the best comedians in my estimation.

[dr_lew]

iambic pentamenter - da-duh da-duh da-duh da-duh etc.

Ha Ha!

[dr_lew]

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

Like Wolfschlegelsteinhausenbergerdorf, for example.

[familyop]

Thanks for the lesson!

[familyop]

"I am learning French myself, while I have little trouble reading and even speaking it, understanding other French speakers is tres difficile. It’s hard to know when one word starts and another begins."

Watch French movies. There are many around the Internet. Understanding comes fast that way.

[SunkenCiv]

I think text messaging is what did it. I tried it years ago, but got purple stains all over my hands. Turns out, the Blackberry I was using was an *actual blackberry”. /rimshot /stolenjokealert