“The problem with defending the purity of the English language is that English is about as pure as a cribhouse whore. We don’t just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.”
English readily absorbs both the best and worst of all the other languages. If some other language has a word that really
hits the mood of even just a small amount of English speakers - bam! - it’s English now, motherfucker!
Add to this, it’s chock-full of complicated and often hidden rules that can - or absolutely cannot - be broken, depending on context. No wonder people learning it as a second language have that permanently confused look on their face.
The good thing about English is that you can puke out the most half broken grammar and pronunciation and still be understood by most. I’m not aware of many other languages like that.
Pretty sure the majority of the English dictionary is just loanwords, too.
― James D. Nicoll
English readily absorbs both the best and worst of all the other languages. If some other language has a word that really hits the mood of even just a small amount of English speakers - bam! - it’s English now, motherfucker!
Add to this, it’s chock-full of complicated and often hidden rules that can - or absolutely cannot - be broken, depending on context. No wonder people learning it as a second language have that permanently confused look on their face.
The good thing about English is that you can puke out the most half broken grammar and pronunciation and still be understood by most. I’m not aware of many other languages like that.
Well it doesn’t help that modern English is a hybrid of a Germanic and Romantic language not even getting into the Celtic aspects.