Comments on: Why the English language is odd https://behindtheblack.com/behind-the-black/points-of-information/why-the-english-language-is-odd/ Wed, 18 Nov 2015 23:50:16 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 By: Cotour https://behindtheblack.com/behind-the-black/points-of-information/why-the-english-language-is-odd/#comment-825875 Wed, 18 Nov 2015 23:50:16 +0000 http://behindtheblack.com/?p=36904#comment-825875 She does not like this Free American First Amendment English language either.

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/11/18/watch-how-hillary-clintons-security-handles-man-calmly-holding-sign-critical-of-candidate-during-rally/

]]> By: Cotour https://behindtheblack.com/behind-the-black/points-of-information/why-the-english-language-is-odd/#comment-825866 Wed, 18 Nov 2015 23:05:55 +0000 http://behindtheblack.com/?p=36904#comment-825866 Related:

Free American First Amendment English language for me but not for thee.

http://www.judicialwatch.org/blog/2015/11/clinton-goes-after-laugh-factory-comedians-for-making-fun-of-her/

A little too thin skinned for me, and that is the least objectionable thing about her and her followers.

]]> By: D.K. Williams https://behindtheblack.com/behind-the-black/points-of-information/why-the-english-language-is-odd/#comment-825863 Wed, 18 Nov 2015 22:50:08 +0000 http://behindtheblack.com/?p=36904#comment-825863 If you examine Norwegian, it is a kind of middle ground between German and English.

]]> By: D.K. Williams https://behindtheblack.com/behind-the-black/points-of-information/why-the-english-language-is-odd/#comment-825862 Wed, 18 Nov 2015 22:48:43 +0000 http://behindtheblack.com/?p=36904#comment-825862 I am the product of several Norman knights and Saxon barmaids. Some Viking raiders and Pict barmaids as well.

]]> By: fred k https://behindtheblack.com/behind-the-black/points-of-information/why-the-english-language-is-odd/#comment-825850 Wed, 18 Nov 2015 22:35:35 +0000 http://behindtheblack.com/?p=36904#comment-825850 This well written article seems to closely follow this prior work:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1375320/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VsVz5U76kX0

Convergent thoughts perhaps?

]]> By: Garry https://behindtheblack.com/behind-the-black/points-of-information/why-the-english-language-is-odd/#comment-825700 Wed, 18 Nov 2015 17:29:25 +0000 http://behindtheblack.com/?p=36904#comment-825700 The neat thing about Japanese is that when they borrow a word, they write it in a phonetic alphabet (katakana) dedicated to foreign words. Because there are so few sounds in the Japanese language, sometimes it can be hard to figure out the original English word that served as the inspiration.

My favorite is “baa kodo,” or bar code, describing the hairstyle of a balding man who combs the few hairs he has left across the top of his head (from a bird’s eye view his head looks like it has a bar code).

]]> By: John https://behindtheblack.com/behind-the-black/points-of-information/why-the-english-language-is-odd/#comment-825692 Wed, 18 Nov 2015 16:46:49 +0000 http://behindtheblack.com/?p=36904#comment-825692 I saw a t-shirt at a science fiction convention that said something like “English doesn’t borrow from other languages, it hunts them down in dark alleys and mugs them.”

Japanese seems close to English in terms of loaned/borrowed words, and neologisms.

]]> By: Steve C https://behindtheblack.com/behind-the-black/points-of-information/why-the-english-language-is-odd/#comment-825663 Wed, 18 Nov 2015 15:57:31 +0000 http://behindtheblack.com/?p=36904#comment-825663 I have heard English described as the result of Norman Knights working to seduce Saxon Barmaids.

]]> By: Robert Zimmerman https://behindtheblack.com/behind-the-black/points-of-information/why-the-english-language-is-odd/#comment-825654 Wed, 18 Nov 2015 15:36:02 +0000 http://behindtheblack.com/?p=36904#comment-825654 In reply to DougSpace.

Maybe you misunderstand my perspective. I don’t see any of these English oddities as problems. They aren’t bugs, they are features! Or at least, they are a reflection of the way the language formed, which gave us the largest vocabulary and richest language the world knows.

]]> By: DougSpace https://behindtheblack.com/behind-the-black/points-of-information/why-the-english-language-is-odd/#comment-825631 Wed, 18 Nov 2015 14:43:33 +0000 http://behindtheblack.com/?p=36904#comment-825631 I think that a major part of English’s problems is that we have way too many vowel phonemes and too little vowel letters. So we had to invent new ways of using letter combos to make different sounds. This is unlike Spanish which has five vowel sounds and five vowel letters.

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