TEFL Orion Michigan

Peculiarities of the english Language (22) “The english language was carefully, carefully cobbled together by the three blind dudes and a German dictionary.” These laughable words by cartoonist Dave Kellett aptly describe the hodgepodge patchwork that is the english language. Rising rapidly in popularity as a desirable second language, english, with its many eccentricities and oddities, continues to baffle new learners and native speakers alike. Why the hubbub? english is truly an amalgam of many languages. Originating from the West Germanic language, it has undergone centuries of change. Perhaps its greatest transformation occurred during the Renaissance, when it developed into a “borrowing language” and thus emerged its rich and diverse vocabulary. However, the aberrant nature of many english words makes it quite difficult to learn. As Richard Ledere, author of Crazy english, said, “english is the most loopy and wiggy of all tongues.” Loopy indeed! One can become rather dizzy when considering the irregular spellings, silent letters and inconsistent pronunciations. How confusing to face a common pronunciation yet multiple spellings such as cell, sell, sale, and sail! Or what are we to make of the words debt, know, psychiatrist or honest? Peculiar and frustrating, such exceptions defy explanation. A sense of humor and a good dictionary soften the blow of such inconsistencies. Great amusement can be had in dealing with english grammar. Interestingly, the word grammar comes from the greek language and means “art of letters.” The following humorous examples might well illustrate the phrase “it's greek to me,” when dealing with english semantics: 1. He rose to cut the rose. 2. He rode on the road. 3. The soldier decided to desert his dessert in the desert. 4. I did not object to the object. 5. The buck does funny things when the does are present. No doubt, new learners of english find such sentences no laughing matter! Nonetheless, demand to learn english is at its apex. Yes embracing english with all of its oddities is a challenge. Many cultures find english to be one of the most difficult languages to learn because it has so many unusual and contradictory rules. Even the famed playwright George Bernard Shaw grew so incensed over the illogical spelling of english words, that he left money in his will to establish the creation of a new alphabet. That effort failed and we are left with an english language chock-full of nonconforming words and brain-teasing colloquialisms. These colorfully informal phrases present yet another hair-pulling trial for learners, but lend such delightful flavor to the language. Colloquialisms take bland, boring sentences and, using imagery, create word pictures that often hold deeper meaning. Case in point: “Knee high to a grasshopper.” “Burning –the- candle at both ends.” “Birds of a feather flock together.” “It's raining cats and dogs.” “Has the cat got your tongue?” Other instances are merely slang expressions characteristic of a specific locale. Southern American speech is particularly notable as shown in the following idioms: “I'm fixin' to do it.” “Lie down with dogs and you'll get up with fleas.” “You're digging your own grave.” “He's lower than a snake's belly in a tire rut.” Comical and meaningful, such vernacular gives english its quirky charm. Charming or not, english is peculiar. Perhaps George Orwell put best when he said, “To write or even speak english is not a science but an art. Whoever writes english is involved in a struggle that never lets up even for a sentence. He is struggling against vagueness, against obscurity, against the encroachment of Latin and greek, and above all, against the worn-out phrases and dead metaphors with which the language is cluttered up.” So, struggle or not, as far as the world of language goes, english is “da bomb!”