Re:Behemoth, bully, thief: how the English language is takin...
by colechristensen on Saturday July 28, 2018 @05:52AM
(#17632436)
It wouldn't, couldn't go through standardization like that.
The article misses emphasizing or properly mention English's success started not in conquering but overcoming conquerors.
It's hard to think of English as having a single source, as what remains of that gets very small as you go back in time. The language in England and thereabouts overcame several invasions. Roman, Viking, a couple of invasions you'd call French now, among others... they all left their mark, or more accurately the native population absorbed a sizable portion of the invaders' language and established and re-established the dominance of the English language in the area.
If you take a beginners' course in French you'll probably get the line that English is 60% French, badly pronounced and it's true! (more or less)
It would sure be hard to standardize something that has a habit of repeatedly bolting on large chunks of other languages, nevermind it's modern regional inconsistencies.
The article misses emphasizing or properly mention English's success started not in conquering but overcoming conquerors.
It's hard to think of English as having a single source, as what remains of that gets very small as you go back in time. The language in England and thereabouts overcame several invasions. Roman, Viking, a couple of invasions you'd call French now, among others... they all left their mark, or more accurately the native population absorbed a sizable portion of the invaders' language and established and re-established the dominance of the English language in the area.
If you take a beginners' course in French you'll probably get the line that English is 60% French, badly pronounced and it's true! (more or less)
It would sure be hard to standardize something that has a habit of repeatedly bolting on large chunks of other languages, nevermind it's modern regional inconsistencies.