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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
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To: familyop

People in Massachusetts have never learned to speak english properly


121 posted on 06/10/2015 1:53:47 PM PDT by bert ((K.E.; N.P.; GOPc.;+12, 73, ..... No peace? then no peace!)
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To: dfwgator; ProtectOurFreedom; All

And of course, the people no longer new what was KNEW.


122 posted on 06/10/2015 1:56:04 PM PDT by gleeaikin
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To: TBP; SnuffaBolshevik; All

And then you have the machines that were translating an article on hydraulics from Russian to English that kept repeating the words “water goat”, eventually identified as meaning “hydraulic ram.” And then there were the Chinese who were horrified to learn that a high school student was “hanged for juvenile delinquency,” when in fact the poor student was only “suspended for misbehavior.”


123 posted on 06/10/2015 2:02:58 PM PDT by gleeaikin
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To: Hawthorn; PUGACHEV; All

Over 50 years ago I took one semester of spoken French (total immersion) and three semesters of written Italian (also known as the grammar translation method). Today I can communicate about the same when speaking with native speakers.


124 posted on 06/10/2015 2:10:24 PM PDT by gleeaikin
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To: Hawthorn; T-Bone Texan; All

When my husband was learning Spanish he gave his Spanish speaking friends big laughs with his troubles with the radical changing verb “poder” meaning to be able or can. He kept saying “no pedo”, “no pedo”. This would be how you would say I can if it were a regular verb but it is not. It should be said “no puedo”, “I can’t”, but what he was say was I don’t fart, I don’t fart.


125 posted on 06/10/2015 2:15:53 PM PDT by gleeaikin
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To: Milton Miteybad
We be , he be, she be, it be. High Ebonics. Commendable. There is also the more common, the ''vulgate'' if you will where the pronoun is dropped and it simply becomes ''be''. As in'' Be doin'.
126 posted on 06/10/2015 3:43:05 PM PDT by jmacusa
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To: 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.

Or "new" and "knew..."

: )

127 posted on 06/10/2015 4:12:47 PM PDT by publius911 (If you like Obamacare, You'll LOVE ObamaWeb.)
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To: gleeaikin

And in French, “the boat” is “le bateau” ...Go figure! ;)


128 posted on 06/10/2015 8:44:03 PM PDT by Frank_2001
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To: T-Bone Texan

I’ve always wondered why you first chop a tree down, then chop it up.


129 posted on 06/10/2015 9:12:37 PM PDT by ProtectOurFreedom (For those who understand, no explanation is needed. For those who do not, no explanation is possible)
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To: dfwgator

My French teacher told my mother that I was the only student she ever had who didn’t speak French with an American accent.


130 posted on 06/10/2015 9:30:30 PM PDT by TBP (Obama lies, Granny dies.)
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To: nickcarraway

Not “To who?” but “To whom?”


131 posted on 06/10/2015 9:32:33 PM PDT by TBP (Obama lies, Granny dies.)
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To: Salamander
Hillbillies have so many Rs we sound like pirates.

Limies may someday come to realize that the purest form of the English language exists on only in the isolated Eastern/Southern Appalachians of the United States of America.

Wouldn't that be a kick in the arse...for them.

132 posted on 06/11/2015 1:21:59 AM PDT by Semper Mark (Vlad Tepes was a piker.)
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To: Semper Mark

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appalachian_English

Southern Appalachian

Main article: Appalachian English

Due to the former isolation of some regions of the Appalachian South, the Appalachian accent may be difficult for some outsiders to understand.
This dialect is also rhotic, meaning speakers pronounce “R”s wherever they appear in words, and sometimes when they do not (for example, “worsh” or “warsh” for “wash”.)
Because of the extensive length of the mountain chain, noticeable variation also exists within this subdialect.

The Southern Appalachian dialect can be heard, as its name implies, in North Georgia, North Alabama, East Tennessee, Northwestern South Carolina, Western North Carolina, Eastern Kentucky, Southwestern Virginia, Western Maryland, and West Virginia.
Southern Appalachian speech patterns, however, are not entirely confined to the mountain regions previously listed.

Almost always, the common thread in the areas of the South where a rhotic version of the dialect is heard is a traceable line of descent from Scots or Scots-Irish ancestors amongst its speakers.
The dialect is also not devoid of early influence from Welsh settlers, the dialect retaining the Welsh English tendency to pronounce words beginning with the letter “h” as though the “h” were silent; for instance “humble” often is rendered “umble”.

Researchers have noted that the dialect retains a lot of vocabulary with roots in Scottish “Elizabethan English” owing to the make-up of the early European settlers to the area.

RrrrrrrrhoticManderrrrrrr


133 posted on 06/11/2015 1:47:09 AM PDT by Salamander (Vested Subhuman)
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To: Salamander
Due to the former isolation of some regions of the Appalachian South, the Appalachian accent may be difficult for some outsiders to understand.

This accent is rapidly disappearing I'm afraid.

The rhythmic, verbal acrobatics that I heard as a boy are dying with the old timers.

Hopefully those of us who remember will pass it along to future generations.

134 posted on 06/11/2015 2:49:45 AM PDT by Semper Mark (Vlad Tepes was a picker.)
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To: publius911

That was just a little Easter egg for the discerning few. Well done! That proves you had a real pre-dumbed-down education.


135 posted on 06/11/2015 3:39:39 AM PDT by ProtectOurFreedom (For those who understand, no explanation is needed. For those who do not, no explanation is possible)
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To: Milton Miteybad

Aye gov’nor. The rain in Spain falls mainly on the plain.


136 posted on 06/12/2015 8:04:53 AM PDT by zaxtres
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To: dfwgator

Ah just be quite. /s off


137 posted on 06/12/2015 8:08:35 AM PDT by zaxtres
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To: TBP

I studies French in high school. Never used it after that excpet to ask a girl Voulez vous couchon aven moi se soir? Yes I said exactly that and she laughed endlessly at me and for the reason I could not phathom why until she told me she was not a pig!

A friend and I translated a WWI song into French. La ba la. La ba La. Je suis marching over there. I guess that was how it went. Gee that was almost 30 years ago.

Fun times those were. Now I am learning another gender specific language Espanol (Latin American version).


138 posted on 06/12/2015 8:13:14 AM PDT by zaxtres
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To: raccoonradio

How do you say school? I say it with an ewww! before I say school. Well at least for most public schools.


139 posted on 06/12/2015 8:15:24 AM PDT by zaxtres
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To: Frank_2001
And in French, “the boat” is “le bateau” ...Go figure! ;)

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

140 posted on 06/12/2015 1:51:06 PM PDT by dfwgator
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