Define accident. None of them seem particularly well thought out, or planned.

Who needs to plan a language? I love the mess that is English, there's so much history encoded in it - like how our words for common farm animals are Anglo-Saxon but the words for their meat are French, which is a snapshot of England being invaded by a French speaking Norman aristocracy who ate what the Anglo-Saxon peasants raised.

I love the different dialects that are developing of it. I particularly love my country's variant, enriched with Maori. "Kia ora bro" as a greeting captures our spirit nicely.

I love the fact that English "pursues other languages down alleyways to beat them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary". It's a glorious organic mess. Much like humanity.

Of course, I'm glad I'm not having to learn it as a second language.

I agree with the sentiment. It's a mess, that isn't necessarily a bad thing, though there are draw backs.

"Of course, I'm glad I'm not having to learn it as a second language."

As I said, I agree with the sentiment :)

> None of them seem particularly well thought out, or planned.

The question is: is anything planned?

People don't even use the correct possessive version of 'it' on the internet.

Ox became Oxen because the plural 'en' was the productive plural construction at the time, and it made more sense than writing 'Oxes'.

For the other words there might have been a historical reason (or just no reason at all) for it.

French is kind of planned, that's why we're having this conversation.

"Formal French" is planned, but the language goes on without it.

For example, the AF is oblivious to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verlan (unless a word there ends hitting common usage)

> Some verlan words, such as meuf, have become so commonplace that they have been included in the Petit Larousse[3] and a doubly "verlanised" version was deemed necessary, so the singly verlanised meuf became feumeu; similarly, the verlan word beur, derived from arabe, has become accepted into popular culture such that it has been re-verlanised to yield rebeu

The Académie is much more au fait with modern French than you think it is.

This communication, from 2001, on the future of the French language for example http://www.academie-francaise.fr/lavenir-de-la-langue-franca... talks at length about verlan. Just to translate a small excerpt:

A language that stays still is a dying language. Ours is enriching in proportions never seen before. What the 21th century will bring us is verlan. It would be useless to fight it, as oral language has always preceded written language.

I think the Académie is much more competent than many people here think it is.

Ahah yes, verlan is quite common for certain words for certain people. But nobody thinks it is legit french. It's like using terms like "doggo", "boi" or "nite" in english.