My thoughts about the English language
I was reading an artical from the Daily Mail (UK) about a swift in an Israeli animal hospital being rehabilitated to fly. It was a heart warming story amidst all the unhappiness that's usually reported. As I had nothing better to do (typical for most of my days) I read through the comments. To be expected there were some negative comments regarding Israel and Palestine. But there was a bigger controversy regarding English vs. American spelling because the journalist used the American spelling of a word in a English based publication. One person posted to the spelling correction "... we here in America write... alot of other words slightly differently, it doesn't mean we're making spelling mistakes... " And a fellow responded "... you ARE making spelling mistakes. You're trying to write in English, but you are not succeeding. Bastardising English is not writing in English." I believe in good spelling and grammar but honestly it made me laugh.
English is such a mishmash of languages. I looked up the "history of England" in Wikipedia. This is my boil down from the main summary. We start with the Celtic Britons who are invaded by the Romans. The Romans leave and income the Anglo-Saxons (a Germanic people) who introduce Old English. The Vikings come raiding and eventually conquer/settle large portions of the island. Then the Normans (who also were of Viking decent) invaded from France. They also borrowed words from areas they conquered. That would certainly make for one messed up language. And that's just in the "Motherland". American English is just as mixed up with some Native American, African and Asian influences. I'm guessing the spelling differences came because we separated our selves from England before a large part of the working populace had a need to read and write.
English speakers love to beg, borrow, steal words from other languages and even make words up. Ours is a robust, growing language that is ever changing. I feel sorry for people trying to learn English as a second language because I get confused sometimes and it's my first language. How do we get "went" as a past tense form of "go"? Why is "venison" the meat form of "deer" (I think it's a Norman thing)? And "get" seems to have a multitude of uses as a verb. While the French are trying to keep their language "pure" we are adding words by the day. We as people evolve why shouldn't our language?
Just as I finished this post I found a website on the History of the English Language. "In some ways, American English is more like the English of Shakespeare than modern British English is." made me say "Wow."
English is such a mishmash of languages. I looked up the "history of England" in Wikipedia. This is my boil down from the main summary. We start with the Celtic Britons who are invaded by the Romans. The Romans leave and income the Anglo-Saxons (a Germanic people) who introduce Old English. The Vikings come raiding and eventually conquer/settle large portions of the island. Then the Normans (who also were of Viking decent) invaded from France. They also borrowed words from areas they conquered. That would certainly make for one messed up language. And that's just in the "Motherland". American English is just as mixed up with some Native American, African and Asian influences. I'm guessing the spelling differences came because we separated our selves from England before a large part of the working populace had a need to read and write.
English speakers love to beg, borrow, steal words from other languages and even make words up. Ours is a robust, growing language that is ever changing. I feel sorry for people trying to learn English as a second language because I get confused sometimes and it's my first language. How do we get "went" as a past tense form of "go"? Why is "venison" the meat form of "deer" (I think it's a Norman thing)? And "get" seems to have a multitude of uses as a verb. While the French are trying to keep their language "pure" we are adding words by the day. We as people evolve why shouldn't our language?
Just as I finished this post I found a website on the History of the English Language. "In some ways, American English is more like the English of Shakespeare than modern British English is." made me say "Wow."