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Re:Latin as she is spoke: How classicists tricked themselves... by ByteJockey on Saturday January 29, 2022 @12:21PM (#30128176)
English is one of the easiest languages to become "understandable" in. Presumably because of how many people invaded England historically. When another culture invades, some of the language rules are adopted, but they are universally the simpler rules, and the more advanced rules aren't integrated.

Spoken English, with it's reliance on word order, lack of genders, relative lack of verb conjugations and noun declensions make it ridiculously easy to be understood in comparison to other languages. You won't be Shakespeare, but you will be able to communicate.

Written English, admittedly, is much harder (mostly because of the early standardization), but enough natives also have trouble spelling enough words that you can still be understood.

Re:Latin as she is spoke: How classicists tricked themselves... by FabHK on Saturday January 29, 2022 @12:47PM (#30128467)
Agree. I've seen this insightful bon mot attributed to G. B. Shaw (though I can't find a reliable source):

English is one of the easiest languages to speak badly, but one of the most difficult to speak well.

Re:Latin as she is spoke: How classicists tricked themselves... by anthk on Saturday January 29, 2022 @03:47PM (#30130254)
English has a very difficult ortography (or lack of it) making it very difficult to write down a newly heard word (or the opposite, pronouncing some word you read.

Also it has far more vowels than the average romance.

Re:Latin as she is spoke: How classicists tricked themselves... by odd_perfect_num on Sunday January 30, 2022 @07:45PM (#30143008)
It's not a romance language, rather a west Germanic one.