Skip to comments.
How the English language became such a mess
BBC News ^
| June 8, 2015
| James Harbeck
Posted on 06/09/2015 6:37:00 PM PDT by 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.
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.com ...
TOPICS: Culture/Society
KEYWORDS: english; epigraphyandlanguage; french; german; godsgravesglyphs; language
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-20, 21-40, 41-60, 61-80 ... 141-143 next last
To: Cronos
To: MinorityRepublican
Fellow Americans, don’t try to use Oxford English, and do certainly avoid trying to emulate Limey slang. If you fail to follow that advice, you’ll end up sounding like a Frenchman.
3
posted on
06/09/2015 6:40:15 PM PDT
by
familyop
(We Baby Boomers are croaking in an avalanche of corruption smelled around the planet.)
To: MinorityRepublican
Things really collapsed when twerk became a word.
4
posted on
06/09/2015 6:40:44 PM PDT
by
a fool in paradise
(Funny how Hollywood's 'No Nukes' crowd has been silent during Obama's Iranian nuclear negotiations.)
To: MinorityRepublican
I remember watching The Story of English
5
posted on
06/09/2015 6:40:46 PM PDT
by
SMGFan
(Sarah Michelle Gellar is now on twitter @RealSMG)
To: MinorityRepublican
What mess?
English is a rich an expressive language.
In a sane world — every human would be learning English.
6
posted on
06/09/2015 6:41:28 PM PDT
by
BenLurkin
(The above is not a stLikeatement of fact. It is either satire or opinion. Or both.)
To: MinorityRepublican
So let’s pronounce owah ahs. On second thought, maybe we shouldn’t pronounce that way.
7
posted on
06/09/2015 6:42:45 PM PDT
by
familyop
(We Baby Boomers are croaking in an avalanche of corruption smelled around the planet.)
To: familyop
Too right! I try to talk all blighty but I get at sixes and sevens straight off.
8
posted on
06/09/2015 6:44:36 PM PDT
by
ClearCase_guy
(Claire Wolfe should check her watch. It's time.)
To: MinorityRepublican
Ain’t nut’n wrong wiff the English language that couldn’t be cured wiff writing in cursive wouldn’t fix.
9
posted on
06/09/2015 6:44:42 PM PDT
by
doc1019
(Blue lives matter)
To: MinorityRepublican; beaversmom
According to who? This is part of the brilliance of the language.
To: beaversmom
11
posted on
06/09/2015 6:49:13 PM PDT
by
ully2
To: MinorityRepublican
First word that that stood out in first sentence. ‘Greed’.
No thanks, BBC. I’m sick of the commie class warfare.
12
posted on
06/09/2015 6:52:29 PM PDT
by
RushIsMyTeddyBear
(The White House is now known as "Casa Blanca".)
To: BenLurkin
Very true. The weaknesses of the language are also its strength.
To: MinorityRepublican
English has 205 ways to spell 44 sounds. Consider this - "cat," "kangaroo," "chrome," and "queue" all start with the same sound, and "eight" and "ate" sound identical. Meanwhile, "cough" doesnt rhyme with either "enough," "through,"8n "furlough" or "bough." Even some identically spelled words, such as "tear," can be pronounced differently and mean different things.
Mastering such a language takes a long time and requires abilities that most children dont develop until the middle or latter part of elementary school.
By contrast, a language such as Finnish has regular spelling rules. Finnish also has the added bonus of a nearly one-to-one correspondence between sounds and letters, meaning fewer rules to learn. So after Finnish children learn their alphabet, learning to read is pretty straightforwardthey can read well within three months of starting formal learning.
14
posted on
06/09/2015 7:00:23 PM PDT
by
oincobx
To: MinorityRepublican
The Dutch determined our grammar structure.
15
posted on
06/09/2015 7:05:50 PM PDT
by
Jonty30
(What Islam and secularism have in common is that they are both death cults)
To: SMGFan
Yes!
Actually, it was long and I did not see it all. Think I only caught it when it was half way through.
Seems like they never showed it again.
16
posted on
06/09/2015 7:06:45 PM PDT
by
the OlLine Rebel
(Common sense is an uncommon virtue./Federal-run medical care is as good as state-run DMVs.)
To: nickcarraway
Personally I enjoy a language that doesn’t assign a g-d arbitrary “gender” to each and every word and makes you use it differently based on that.
17
posted on
06/09/2015 7:07:56 PM PDT
by
Secret Agent Man
(Gone Galt; Not averse to Going Bronson.)
To: MinorityRepublican
Nope, it ain’t that bad, fellah. We’ums here in ammerica unnerstan it poifecly. We don’t need yore steenkin’ standardization.
18
posted on
06/09/2015 7:08:14 PM PDT
by
Veto!
(Opinions freely dispensed as advice)
To: BenLurkin
Yes, it actually is.
English owes its expressiveness as well as its confusion to its “diversity” - which libs ought to love. It’s a mish-mash of languages, really.
Other languages are a bit restricted and yet also cumbersome - anyone for gender? (The only true meaning of the word!)
19
posted on
06/09/2015 7:08:35 PM PDT
by
the OlLine Rebel
(Common sense is an uncommon virtue./Federal-run medical care is as good as state-run DMVs.)
To: oincobx
If there is one thing I would change, it would be the alphabet we use. 1 letter for every sound. “A” has so many versions, e.g.
Only problem is we would probably end up with 75 letters.
20
posted on
06/09/2015 7:11:06 PM PDT
by
the OlLine Rebel
(Common sense is an uncommon virtue./Federal-run medical care is as good as state-run DMVs.)
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-20, 21-40, 41-60, 61-80 ... 141-143 next last
Disclaimer:
Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual
posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its
management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the
exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson