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English Language is Weird.


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Say the following 4 words to yourself:

 

COUGH

THROUGH

ROUGH

THOUGH

 

Notice that none of them rhyme. :blink:

 

But....for some unknown reason, the following 2 words do.

PONY

BOLOGNA

5af306fce60aa_Pullingyourhairoutcartoon.jpg.b11d009018c71b3e73a4501f37cf5688.jpg

 

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1 hour ago, Alpo said:

Pretty sure bologna is Italian, not English.

 

Alpo:

     You are correct sir.

      In origin yes; however, one which we have adopted. :blush:

 

      Bologna.jpg.10207b1e66665c79f6a7ef7e865130d4.jpg

      5af31e6943ce9_BaloneyMeter.gif.e6672b40be833d2c99569ae9cf832bbe.gif

     

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Chinese is much weirder. :D

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Having worked with many people that English is their second language the one thing I have always heard is American English is a very hard language to learn due to the strange spellings, as Kit mentioned, and the use of slang and inflection when speaking.

 

Here is an example:

 

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We have a primarily an English speaking base, nothing more. Our language is an amalgamation of many languages from the very beginning. As we take on new immigrants we take on food, culture, language, and all their slang. If you spend some time in England you’ll find it to be very different from us due to their cultural growth and change over the years. Instead of referring to our language as english, I would prefer that we speak American. It’s a cultural mix and that’s a good thing. It brings a commonality among different cultures . We are a melting pot

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1 hour ago, Tennessee Trapper Tom said:

We have a primarily an English speaking base, nothing more. Our language is an amalgamation of many languages from the very beginning. As we take on new immigrants we take on food, culture, language, and all their slang. If you spend some time in England you’ll find it to be very different from us due to their cultural growth and change over the years. Instead of referring to our language as english, I would prefer that we speak American. It’s a cultural mix and that’s a good thing. It brings a commonality among different cultures . We are a melting pot

And like most melting pots the dross rises to the top.

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The Silent Alphabet

 

A as in BREAD
B as in DEBT
C as in INDICTMENT
D as in HANDKERCHIEF
E as in GIVE
F as in HALFPENNY
G as in GNAW
H as in HOUR
I as in FRIEND
J as in MARIJUANA
K as in KNOW
L as in CALM
M as the first M in MNEMONIC
N as in AUTUMN
O as in PEOPLE
P as in PSALM
Q as in COLQUHOUN (a Scottish surname)
R as in FORECASTLE
S as in ISLAND
T as in CASTLE
U as in GUARD
V as in MILNGAVIE (a Scottish place name)
W as in WRONG
X as in SIOUX
Y as in PEPYS
Z as in RENDEZVOUS
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On 5/9/2018 at 2:57 PM, Tennessee Trapper Tom said:

We have a primarily an English speaking base, nothing more. Our language is an amalgamation of many languages from the very beginning. As we take on new immigrants we take on food, culture, language, and all their slang. If you spend some time in England you’ll find it to be very different from us due to their cultural growth and change over the years. Instead of referring to our language as english, I would prefer that we speak American. It’s a cultural mix and that’s a good thing. It brings a commonality among different cultures . We are a melting pot

 

 

I once read that English is a language that came about from Norman men-at-arms trying to seduce Saxon barmaids.  

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As Professor "Enry 'Iggins" said about the English language, "In America they haven't spoken it for years!"  American regionalisms and dialects sometimes make it hard for Americans from different parts of the country to understand each other!  Even city names are pronounced differently in spite of being spelled the same.  The city in California is San Jose (San Ho-Zay).  But in downstate Illinois, it is San Joze!  In Egypt, the city is Cairo (Ky-roe). In Southern Illinois, it's Kay-ro.  Des Moines is French in derivation, pronounce De-Moyne.  And I still don't pronounce Pueblo, Colorado like the native Coloradans (Pee-yeb-low rather than Pweb-lo, the way I learned in in Chih-caw-go. :rolleyes: Toe-may-toe, Toe-mah-to.  Let's call the whole thing off! :P

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rouGH

wOmen

acTIon

 

GHOTI or FISH ?

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On 5/9/2018 at 4:57 PM, Tennessee Trapper Tom said:

We have a primarily an English speaking base, nothing more. Our language is an amalgamation of many languages from the very beginning. As we take on new immigrants we take on food, culture, language, and all their slang. If you spend some time in England you’ll find it to be very different from us due to their cultural growth and change over the years. Instead of referring to our language as english, I would prefer that we speak American. It’s a cultural mix and that’s a good thing. It brings a commonality among different cultures . We are a melting pot

 

that was a term I used in teaching 5th grade history

 

one day director of history comes in and says the correct term is now 'salad:'  we're all together but we now keep much of our former culture.

 

I think we've sprinkled too many nuts on the top 

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Talk about confusing:

Most of you will probably find this paragraph easy to read even though the words are not spelled correctly.

 

"Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy,

 it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are,

 the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteers be at the rghit pclae.

 The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm.

 Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef,

 but the wrod as a wlohe."

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That's kinda how I type anyway....

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1 hour ago, Lorelei Longshot, SASS #44256 Life said:

Xerox pronounced zerox is another strange one

should it be pronounced zeroz?

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English is a Germanic rooted language using a Latin grammar structure, with a LOT of Old and Middle French loan words that has a habit, when faced with a new idea, thing or concept, of appropriating terms from other languages, mangling them to the point of incomprehensibility for ease of pronunciation.

 

Then, there's the fact that standardized spelling rules haven't been around for a whole 2 centuries yet.

 

What's so hard about that?:huh:

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Lead

Lead

Led

 

Read

Read

Red

 

Sean Bean - Shouldn't we pronounce his name either: "Shawn Bhawn" or "Seen Been"?

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