On 09/10/2020 6:29 AM xxxxxx@gmail.com wrote:

On Thu, Sep 10, 2020 at 8:47 AM Jim Catchpole - jlcatchpole at googlemail.com (via tml list) < xxxxxx@simplelists.com> wrote:

Not to mention oddball cases like flammable and inflammable where two words that should be opposites mean the same thing.

Trying to teach my 13 year old english spelling (which is often not phonetic in any respect) is the story of loan words, words that should be pronounced one way but are pronounced an easier way as the decades or centuries have rubbed off a more awkward pronunciation, and of course the stupidity of having (for instance) four distinct sounds for the two letter combination 'oo'.

The particular one you just trotted out makes me wish that I had a flame-thrower.

English doesn't really bother to regularize its spelling, pronunciation or grammar. It seems to be just a fat, happy, popular, non-sentient pile of conventions. And we all just try to help our kids understand it (or ESL students). The number of rules violations it embodies ought to tell us that English is winking and grinning at the whole concept of regular spelling or grammar. 

The old adage is English gets new words by following other languages into dark alleys and mugging them for new words. I'd go so far as to say that'd be the mild version.

I've got friends who are fluently bilingual English and French (Quebecois) and they lament often how, if they said X in French, it would have one single interpretation, but said the most common way in English, it can have several interpretations (and some might be double entendres and quite salacious as well as being imprecise). 

I have a friend who hails from India and he tells me English is spoken in all communications between people in different Indian states - they have their own languages, but 95% of the time, if you are from out of state, they tell you to stop mangling their language and just speak English.

English is a sloppy language whose main virtue is it is the lingua franca of the globe and the language of international communication and being willing to invent, steal, redefine, and abuse any word it can get its greedy hands on. It's only case of envy is wishing it could be even more adaptive and informal like emotie-laden texting as used by teenage girls... 'U r bestest, English! BLF!' 'Smiley!'

I wonder if Galanglic (Anglic?) is more like Vilani or Terran English now? Is it super adaptable and messy or is it more formal like I'd expect from the Vilani influences? Don't know if that topic has ever been discussed...

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