The English Language!

PeterCharles

English is a cobbled together language as the English are more that happy to adopt words from other languages if it suits (unlike the French).

Then of course there's
English English,
American English
Australian English
South African English
Etc, etc ...

pichuneke

I speak a bit english. So I can let you know my opinion about how difficult is.

I don't know what a eggplant is. Probably if you plant an egg, it gives you chickens

You write Shakespeare, but a spanish pronounces it "sekspir" (¿¿¿???)

If someone suddenly begins to speak to you something like "marrugeision jolliguan weingüidins ojara disbroken maraguichis okei", you have two possibilities:

He is speaking in english.
He is drunk.
Both previous at the same time.

I have discovered that my english pronunciation is much better when I put inside my mouth one or two stones

I hope it helps to find a better way to teach english.

Alan Fraser

"English doesn't just borrow words from other languages; it follows them down dark alleyways, knocks them unconscious, then rifles their pockets for loose vocabulary."
James D. Nicoll

Here's part of a fascinating/hilarious clip from the TV series Mongrel Nation, in which Eddy Izzard goes over to Friesland on the basis that if he speaks Old English then the Frieslanders ought to be able to understand him 'cause that's were many of the English originally came from. He's attempting to buy a little brown cow.
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=OeC1yAaWG34

plot-paris

my two favourite english words are:

Doppelgänger and Schadenfreude

...because these are so typical German words that it sounds riddiculous, if they appear in an english sencence

Jackson

This thread is soooooo zeitgeisty!

plot-paris

right you are Jackson. and it makes me feel terrible Weltschmerz

Alan Fraser

Jakob, my Doppelganger thanks you for the Schadenfreude induced by your Weltschmertz.

plot-paris

you sounded almost German, Alan

now, if your Doppelgänger encounters a Poltergeist in a Kindergarten, eating Bratwurst with Sauerkraut - well that would be quite a Gedankenexperiment!

Alan Fraser

I'm from Liverpool, so I much prefer Scouse to Sauerkraut. Now there's a word that's gone the other way....even if it is spelt Labskaus.

pav_3j

if we are to really examine the idiosyncrasies, then i think now would be a good time to bring up the subject of the serial (aka oxford) comma.

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

this is a far better and more concise explaination that i could ever come up with.

pav

Stinkie

@plot-paris said:

right you are Jackson. and it makes me feel terrible Weltschmerz

Some Gestalt therapy'll work wonders.

SteveCox

Well, I speak english, however the serial comma explanation on Wikipedia was somewhere over my head. In fact it was out in orbit over my head. We are making progress though. Consider the period: three sylables to identify a single small point. Now, it is no longer a period; it is a "dot" - isn't that better? And the elegant asterisk has been elevated to a star (speaking of extraterrestrial things).

That's all I have to say about that.

solo

LOl.

Welcome Steve.

plot-paris

@alan fraser said:

I'm from Liverpool, so I much prefer Scouse to Sauerkraut. Now there's a word that's gone the other way....even if it is spelt Labskaus.

but the word Labskaus will only be farmiliar to people living in the very north of Germany...

I am from the south, hence I prefer Sauerkraut.

but back to English Language: I came to London because I love the sound of British Englis. Only I discovered that there are so many different accents it is barely justified to speak of a British English (my 30 colleagues speak almost 30 different accents!)

SteveCox

Thank you, Pete. Still fumbling around this website - feeling kind of primitive and ignorant, but having a good time.

david_h

I am reminded of the wisdom of the Great Ralph Wiggam. . .

Me Fail English? That's Unpossible!

guite

@frederik said:

Have you ever wondered why foreigners have trouble with the English Language?;)

Why are a wise man and a wise guy opposites?
Why do overlook and oversee mean opposite things?
Why do women wear evening gowns to nightclubs? Shouldn't they be wearing nightgowns?
Why isn't 11 pronounced onety-one?

pav_3j

@unknownuser said:

@frederik said:

Why isn't 11 pronounced onety-one?

i can actually answer this one.

because it isn't spelt O-N-E-T-Y O-N-E, it's spelt E-L-E-V-E-N
and thus prounouncing it this way would make no sense...

he he

pav

(i await people posting words that aren't spelt the way are pronounced!)

remus

Rhino...

PeterCharles

Rhino, a shortened form of rhinoceros.
An animal well know for being the richest in the world!