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[Cap]

Although this is a piss take, I still regard the English language as the most progressive, descriptive and versatile of all languages.


ONLY THE ENGLISH COULD HAVE INVENTED THIS LANGUAGE
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Yesterday at 10:34pm
We'll begin with a box, and the plural is boxes,
But the plural of ox becomes oxen, not oxes.
One fowl is a goose, but two are called geese,
Yet the plural of moose should never be meese.
You may find a lone mouse or a nest full of mice,
Yet the plural of house is houses, not hice.

If the plural of man is always called men,
Then shouldn't the plural of pan be called pen?
If I speak of my foot and show you my feet,
And I give you a boot, would a pair be called beet?
If one is a tooth and a whole set are teeth,
Why shouldn't the plural of booth be called beeth?

Then one may be that, and three would be those,
Yet hat in the plural would never be hose,
And the plural of cat is cats, not cose.
We speak of a brother and also of brethren,
But though we say mother, we never say methren.
Then the masculine pronouns are he, his and him,
But imagine the feminine: she, shis and shim!

Let's face it - English is a crazy language.
There is no egg in eggplant nor ham in hamburger; neither apple
nor pine in pineapple.
English muffins weren't invented in England ..

We take English for granted, but if we explore its paradoxes, we
find that quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square, and
a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig..
And why is it that writers write but fingers don't fing, grocers don't
groce and hammers don't ham?
Doesn't it seem crazy that you can make amends but not one amend.
If you have a bunch of odds and ends and get rid of all but one of
them, what do you call it?

If teachers taught, why didn't preachers praught?
If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat?
Sometimes I think all the folks who grew up speaking English should be
committed to an asylum for the verbally insane.

In what other language do people recite at a play and play at a recital?
We ship by truck but send cargo by ship.
We have noses that run and feet that smell.
We park in a driveway and drive in a parkway.
And how can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same, while a wise
man and a wise guy are opposite
You have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a language in which your
house can burn up as it burns down, in which you fill in a form by filling
it out, and in which an alarm goes off by going on.

And, in closing, if Father is Pop, how come Mother's not Mop?

AND IF PEOPLE FROM POLAND ARE CALLED POLES THEN PEOPLE FROM
HOLLAND SHOULD BE HOLES AND THE GERMANS, GERMS!

[miltiades]

Like the French scholars or piss artists who were high on cognac when deciding that GRAN PRE Should be written Grand prix but pronounced gran pri , the English also were pissed out of their heads when putting a k in front of nife
and a k in front of knee yet nothing in front of rice , or lice !

[Beer Belly]

the English also were pissed out of their heads when putting a k in front of nife

From The Oxford English Dictionary:

knife

• noun (pl. knives) 1 a cutting instrument consisting of a blade fixed into a handle. 2 a cutting blade on a machine.

• verb 1 stab with a knife. 2 cut like a knife.

— PHRASES at knifepoint under threat of injury from a knife. before you can say knife informal very quickly. that one could cut with a knife (of an accent or atmosphere) very obvious. stick the knife into informal treat in a hostile or aggressive manner.

— ORIGIN Old Norse.

So I guess it was the Norwegians who got this wrong.

[Oracle]

It's just a phonetic change. The 'k' in words like 'knob' was pronounced 'k-nob' but over time it was softened to just 'nob' but retained the Olde spelling ... knob!

[YFred]

It's just a phonetic change. The 'k' in words like 'knob' was pronounced 'k-nob' but over time it was softened to just 'nob' but retained the Olde spelling ... knob!

I have a feeling the Lady like knob-tray.

The question is where?

[CBBB]

It's just a phonetic change. The 'k' in words like 'knob' was pronounced 'k-nob' but over time it was softened to just 'nob' but retained the Olde spelling ... knob!

I have a feeling the Lady like knob-tray.

The question is where?

Yfronts has a soft K-nob? No gays about for him, what?

[bill cobbett]

Ooh... do like threads about Our Beloved Language, to which will contribute a couple of thoughts .....

Outside the Sciences and Feelosofies, owes very little to Greek in its vocab, despite the Claims of Atheneucian Myth Spreaders.

Remarkably rich vocabulary, not the biggest vocab, that distinction belongs to one or two of the Scandanavian languages, where words can be joined together to form new and sometimes very long words almost, in theory, ad infinitum.

Very rich vocab that reflects the History of The English Speaking People, so that new words come in to the Greatest of People's Languages, in ways that don't replace the older words, so that the newer words, many from French by the way, reflecting the Nasty Norman Occupation, but rather the newer words take on ever so slightly different meanings, which contribute to the remarkable richness.

A Language, as we will all know, where context can have a profound effect on the meaning of words, contributing to this richness of meanings. For instance members may wish to reflect on two of the simplest, shortest words in the Language....

Form and Set .... can tell you that they hold the record for the greatest numbers of meanings, and depending on the context in which they are used so that each has about 60-70 diff meanings! Isn't that remarkably rich?

[Get Real!]

Ooh... do like threads about Our Beloved Language, to which will contribute a couple of thoughts .....

Outside the Sciences and Feelosofies, owes very little to Greek in its vocab, despite the Claims of Atheneucian Myth Spreaders.

Remarkably rich vocabulary, not the biggest vocab, that distinction belongs to one or two of the Scandanavian languages, where words can be joined together to form new and sometimes very long words almost, in theory, ad infinitum.

Very rich vocab that reflects the History of The English Speaking People, so that new words come in to the Greatest of People's Languages, in ways that don't replace the older words, so that the newer words, many from French by the way, reflecting the Nasty Norman Occupation, but rather the newer words take on ever so slightly different meanings, which contribute to the remarkable richness.

A Language, as we will all know, where context can have a profound effect on the meaning of words, contributing to this richness of meanings. For instance members may wish to reflect on two of the simplest, shortest words in the Language....

Form and Set .... can tell you that they hold the record for the greatest numbers of meanings, and depending on the context in which they are used so that each has about 60-70 diff meanings! Isn't that remarkably rich?

Lately, you’re starting to sound more and more like RW…

[Oracle]

Outside the Sciences and Feelosofies, owes very little to Greek in its vocab, despite the Claims of Atheneucian Myth Spreaders.

Ahem!

"In a typical English dictionary of 80,000 words, which corresponds very roughly to the vocabulary of an educated English speaker, about 5% of the words are borrowed from Greek directly, and about 25% indirectly."
Wiki

It doesn't matter that they went via Latin to English. They are Greek etymologically!

[bill cobbett]

Outside the Sciences and Feelosofies, owes very little to Greek in its vocab, despite the Claims of Atheneucian Myth Spreaders.

Ahem!

"In a typical English dictionary of 80,000 words, which corresponds very roughly to the vocabulary of an educated English speaker, about 5% of the words are borrowed from Greek directly, and about 25% indirectly."
Wiki

It doesn't matter that they went via Latin to English. They are Greek etymologically!

Cough .... Cough ......and various splatterings of incredulity .....

Think 80,000 as the typical vocab of an educated speaker is very generous... A figure of 20,-30,000 is more appropriate. Really surely a couple of scientists could do better than relying on wiki?

Your claim that 25% of the Vocabulary being Gr, brought indirectly through Latin, also seems inflated and optimistic. Would agree that about 5% are Greek directly.

So My Dear O, perhaps a little experiment ???......

Here's a couple of sentences from an educated English speaker .........

In a typical English dictionary of 80,000 words, which corresponds very roughly to the vocabulary of an educated English speaker, about 5% of the words are borrowed from Greek directly, and about 25% indirectly."Wiki

It doesn't matter that they went via Latin to English. They are Greek etymologically!

Perhaps if and when you have time you might put the claimed %ages to the test. ( Quick glance I can see one that comes directly.)