Weird and Wild 9 Things You Didn’t Know About the English Language by museumoflostJanuary 5, 2018 The English language has a long history, full of detours, adventures, and cul-de-sacs. Here are 9 things you don't know, about the world's most utilised language. WEIRD, WILD and MISC <br /> <section><br /> <h2>9 Things You Didn't Know About the English Language</h2><br /> <div>Click <b>Start</b> to open the list.</div><br /> </section><br /> <section><br /> <h2>It Has the Largest Vocabulary of Any Language</h2><br /> <p>Although this is not confirmed as an absolute certainty, we are reasonably sure that there are more English words than there are words in any other language. Webster's dictionary lists about 450 000 words, and the Oxford dictionary about 615 000. Compare this to other languages that are sort-of considered similar; German with approximately 185 000 words, and French with only 100 000. No surprise then, that English is the only language that has a thesaurus; there is no equivalent in any other language.</p><br /> </section><br /> <section><br /> <h3>'Rules' of Grammar Aren't Really Rules</h3><br /> <p>The early English language was heavily influenced by Latin, and so inherited many of the grammatical conventions of that language. This was illogical, as the languages were very different, and has been compared by Bill Bryson to 'asking people to play baseball using the rules of football'. To try and force Latin grammar to fit English, early linguists adopted inventive, oddball, and flat out inconsistent ideas. Adding to this, most early grammarians were nothing more than enthusiastic amateurs, with no specific background in the study of language. Consider Robert Lowth, who published one of the first English grammar textbooks in 1762; Lowth was an uneducated rural clergyman, who had invented his own rules of grammar, and who funded the publication out of his own pocket. Nevertheless, in the absence of other textbooks, Lowth's ideas became influential, and by the 19th century were quoted as immutable laws. Something to consider, next time a grammar nazi has a dig at your prose.</p><br /> </section><br /> <section><br /> <h3>North West Germans Speak Ye Olde English</h3><br /> <p>English as we speak it today has a long, and colurful, history, but it's roots can be found in the Anglo-Saxon dialect. The 'Anglo' part of this equation came from the northern part of Germany, from an area known as 'Angeln'. </p><br /> <p>1 500 years ago, the native tribes from this area decamped to England, displacing the Celts, and bringing their culture and language with them. From the tribes of Angeln, the English language would gain such common words as 'boat', 'rain' and 'goose', among many others. In fact, the Angeln dialect is still so similar to ancient English, that linguistic historians have shown that native speakers can read medi-evil English texts without translation.</p><br /> </section><br /> <section><br /> <h3>The English King Spoke French for 350 Years</h3><br /> <p>The death of King Edward, Edward the Confessor, in 1066 left a power vacuum in England. As he died childless, several claimants to the throne came forward. One of these was William, Duke of Normandy (part of northern France), a relative who claimed that Edward had promised the throne to him. This was disputed by Harold Godwinson, Earl of Wessex, a wealthy English nobleman who claimed the throne for himself. William assembled an armada and invaded to stake his claim, clashing with Harold's army at Hastings (an event famously commemorated in the Bayeux Tapestry, above). Harold was defeated, and killed, in battle, and William assumed the throne, ushering in 350 years of French rule. French became the language of the royal court, and by extension, the nobility, a position it retained until the ascension of Henry IV in 1399. French rule of England has left an enormous linguistic legacy; at least 10 000 words of French origin are in everyday use, including common examples like justice, traitor, marriage, sovereign and parliament.</p><br /> </section><br /> <section><br /> <h3>English Nouns Used to Have Gender</h3><br /> <p>A torturous part of learning French (and many other languages) is trying to master gender. While modern English is lacking this complexity, when the French assumed control in England in the 11th century, English operated exactly the same way. Each noun was either masculine, feminine or neutral, and was preceded by a different gender article. For example, in old English if you wanted to say 'the moon', you would say 'se mona'; 'mona' meaning moon, and 'se' being the required masculine descriptor. But during the reign of the Normans, these gender articles became disconnected from English nouns, never to return. No one is certain why this happened, although it may have been as straightforward as a simpler version of the language proving more popular among common folk.</p><br /> </section><br /> <section><br /> <h3>Many Common Words Are Of an Unknown Origin</h3><br /> <p>Etymology is the study of word origins. In English, this field is particularly rich, as the language has co-opted, borrowed and claimed words from a wide variety of sources. But then there are the words whose origins are not clear; one day they are absent, or rarely used, the next they are profligate. Some of the commonest words in English have this mysterious background, including; big, bad, dog, girl, boy, log, kick, curse, fuss, bird, toad, and donkey. All of these words date from 1300 CE, or earlier, but have no common pre-cursor in any known language. They simply appeared in written records suddenly, and never left. In more recent times, words as common as bistro (dating from the 17th century), okay (dating from the mid 19th century), and gremlin (dating from the early 20th) are also of unknown origin.</p><br /> </section><br /> <section><br /> <h3>And the Dictionary Also Contains 'Ghost' Words</h3><br /> <p>A 'ghost word' is a word that has been created by typographical error. The most famous of these is 'dord', which appeared in the 1934 Merriam-Webster dictionary as a synonym for density. But the word dord was not real, and had been added by accident due to a misreading of a note; a researcher had written 'D or d', when discussing common abbreviations used for density. While dord was quickly detected, and removed, other ghost words have entered common usage. Consider 'sweetheart', which used to be 'sweetard', and 'button-hole', which used to be 'button-hold'; in both cases a mis-spelling created a variant, that then became popular. Linguists estimate there are approximately 350 ghost words in common use.</p><br /> </section><br /> <section><br /> <h3>All Airline Pilots Have to Speak English</h3><br /> <p>And not just pilots. All air crew, flight staff and air traffic controllers involved with international flights must be able to speak English, and pass an English proficiency test. The rule dates from 2001, when the International Civil Aviation Organisation settled on English as its preferred 'universal language', to enable pilots and air traffic controllers to communicate effectively. The need for a universal language had been identified in 1977, when an air crash in Tenerife (pictured) was found to have been caused by a misunderstanding between a Dutch pilot and a Spanish air controller. Two planes crashed into each other on the runway, the resulting explosion killing all 583 people on board both planes. From this point on English, the world's most utilised language, was unofficially adopted for use on international flights, the arrangement formalised 24 years later.</p><br /> </section><br /> <section><br /> <h3>The Longest English Language Word is...</h3><br /> <p>Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis. This appears in several dictionaries and, at 45 letters, is the longest English word. The listed definition is 'An invented long word said to mean a lung disease caused by inhaling very fine ash and sand dust.' The inventor of the word was Everett M. Smith, President of the National Puzzlers League in the United States. At the league's annual meeting in 1935, Smith proposed the word as a variation to describe the medical condition pneumoconiosis, a disease caused by inhaling silica dust. His motivation appears to have been solely so that the Puzzler's League could lay claim to having coined the longest word. Members of the league lobbied to have their new word included in official dictionaries, and this was successful; Merriam-Webster were the first to do so, in 1939, and others have followed suit.</p><br /> </section><br /> <p></p> More MUSEUM OF LOST Share this:Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)Like this:Like Loading... Related