English sucks!

I decided I should post this after trying earlier today to communicate with non-English speakers, namely a couple of Hispanic speakers and one South Asian speaker. North Texas right now is a positive stew of diversity and I welcome it.

But English is fucking hard when you think about it.

 

Looking back, I find it odd that I learned more about grammar, specifically verb tenses, in my Spanish classes than I ever learned in my English classes.

 

La aplicación Apple Translate es tu amiga.

 

Here's a brief but interesting writeup on the origins of English grammar. Some high points: word order or syntax, originally more Germanic, was influenced by the Normans; irregularities in the verb "to be" likely come from the Norse; and the widespread discouragement of split infinitives and ending a sentence with a preposition is probably a leftover from Latin.
The Development of English Grammar | English Project

 

English? Professors?

 

gift link

Meandering? Off-Script? Trump Insists His ‘Weave’ Is Oratorical Genius.

“I highly doubt that Donald Trump has any English professor friends,” said Timothy O’Brien, a Trump biographer. “What this really reflects is that he is aware of the criticism that he is publicly saying nonlinear, nonsensical word salad, and he is trying to pretend there is a strategy or logic behind it when there isn’t.”

 

The amazing thing about English as it has evolved is how many words we steal from other languages. While the core of English is Old Norse, Norman French and Latin, we gleefully swipe from Italian, Spanish, Yiddish/Eastern European, African and Far Eastern vocabularies.

Part of it is the melting pot of immigrants who have added words and phrases, but it's easier to describe rigatoni, tamales, bongo, mensch and anime without needing to Anglicize them.

I pity the French and their futile efforts to keep their language clear of outside influences. Your father was a hamster and your mother smells of elderberry!

 

Maybe we could have a thread without Trump. Just one.

 

My fault.

But I thought the "Weave" tweet and the "English professors" lie were timely, and make a good (counter)point for this thread.

English is actually pretty easy compared to other languages. And the grammar is intuitive in many cases.

So much so, that even a glowering dunce can make himself understood occasionally.

 

That makes perfect sense. We learn our language and agree on many of its principles "because that just sounds right" without really grasping (or needing to grasp) WHY it sounds right. Or why we're actually saying some things wrong.

But when learning a language that requires you to say things like "to whom" (кому) instead of "who" (кто), you realize all those times you really should have said "to whom" in English but didn't.

 

Fuck all y'all, I'm in the Hall of Fame.