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.

[Timocrat]

The Dutch determined our grammar structure.

It was my understanding that the structure was based on Old High German which was very similar to Old Dutch.

[Hawthorn]

>> In a sane world — every human would be learning English <<

It’s fast becoming that way, at least in most parts of the “educated” world. From what some Europeans and Asians tell me, many of them no longer consider English a “foreign” language.

Rather, English has truly become the default international language that virtually every educated person uses when traveling or communicating outside his/her own country.

[Hawthorn]

>> Or you could raise the house up.
Or raze it down. <<

Or we can “sanction” (approve) something as long as we haven’t “sanctioned” (banned) it!

[Hawthorn]

>> I could never understand the gender thing <<

I don’t think it’s meant to be understood, at least according to the dictators of modern culture.

It has long been accepted by linguists that gender in languages like French and Russian is basically arbitrary — with almost no real meaning.

And now we are told by our post-modern intellectual apparatchiki that gender as a description of human sexual characteristics is also arbitrary — with no real meaning other than the “feelings” of each individual.

[Hawthorn]

>> English is actually almost two separate languages: one is the English that is spoken, and the other is the English that we write <<

Entirely true. And your observation is a useful one.

But on the other hand, I doubt that we can find another modern language (except maybe Esperanto) where -- to one degree or another -- the situation is basically different.

That is, while spoken and written always are somehow related, they are never so closely related that a high degree of competency in reading automatically ensures competency in conversation.

[Hawthorn]

At least we don't need to fret over the plural of lebensvorsicherungsgesellschaft.

If memory serves correctly, its plural merely requires a suffixed -en.

[Hawthorn]

>> That was hugh <<

Oh, c'mon. Stop kidding around. Let's get series for a change!

[fishtank]

They’re their there

oh owe eau

bye by bi

I eye ayes

..... get it?

[fishtank]

I can't drive 55

(Geschwindigkeitsbegrenzung).

[T-Bone Texan]

We park in they driveway but drive in the parkway!

G. Carlin

[Hawthorn]

>> We park in the driveway but drive in the parkway! <<

And whereas an American girl might say, “Just come over and tap on my door when you’re ready,” an English girl once said to me, “Just come over and knock me up when you’re ready.”

True story!

[BlueLancer]

Way back in 1980 when my Australian wife was newly arrived in the States, we were stationed at Fort Hood. At that time, I used a mechanical pencil quite a bit in my job and kept wearing out the eraser ends. So I was constantly buying new ones.

One day, while shopping together at the PX, I told her that I needed to buy some more, but didn't know where in the stationary section they were located. So my wife went in search of a salesperson to ask.

After talking with a clerk, my wife, from more than halfway across the store, yelled over to me ...

"Hey, love, the lady says that they have boxes of rubbers over by the pharmacy."

I guess I don't need to tell y'all what the Aussies/Brits call "erasers". But it was definitely embarrassing.

[bboop]

Yes, English is very difficult for foreigners. When I studied Italian, we had a sub one night. She said she had wanted to teach English, but the prepositions were beyond her grasp. “You have ‘over’ the table, or is it ‘on’ the table? You have ‘under’ but also ‘below’.” She said she just could not grasp them.

I see this in my adult ESL student. She’s been with me about 4 years, speaks what would pass as ‘perfect English,’ but she is always frustrated and not understanding things. We have so many idioms that are not literal, too. Then we have the past tense, ‘ed’ ending, that is sometimes pronounced as a syllable and sometimes as a ‘t.’

Working with her always makes me glad that I learned English as a kid.

[bboop]

Mark Twain takes on the German language with great hilarity.

[gleeaikin]

Recently I bought a reproduction of a 1500’s Spanish/English printing of a long poem. The Spanish have an academy which decides regularly what changes can be made in the language, which changes are very restricted. Since I am fairly fluent in Spanish, I found I could read and understand the Spanish more easily than the English.

[gleeaikin]

Or you go to school, but you go home. Also you come to school, but you come home.

[Salamander]

Hillbillies have so many Rs we sound like pirates.

[gleeaikin]

Personally I enjoy a language that only has three major verb forms—present, past, and perfect, which are then refined by adding words like could, would, will, have, -ing, etc. While some of these verbs do not follow the standard rules, there are not nearly so many as do not follow standard rules in some of the other languages. Also, it is nice to have only one “the.”
Thoughts based on speaking or being exposed to the rules of Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese, German, and Aztec Nahuatl.

[gleeaikin]

French gender Stereotyping? I’ll have you know I love my boat, SHE’S a beauty.

[uglybiker]

Ever notice that everybody else's stuff is sh*t, but your sh*t is stuff?

Hey! Move your sh*t so I can put my stuff down!