365 Day Challenge (Day 3) : The English Language

Languages is the complex systems of communication that allow us to share with each other thoughts, emotions, ideas, action, and things.  I find languages both fascinating and very confusing at the same time.

For instance, let's look at my second spoken language: English.

English is derived from a Western Germanic dialect Anglo-Saxon and what is also known as "Old English".  The language made its migration from northwestern Germany to what we know now as England.  Through the course of its history, English has morphed and adapted many other languages and rules, notably after the Norman invasion of 1066 by William the Conqueror.  With it, not only the structure of English culture changed, so did the English language.  Both freedom (English) and liberty (French) can be used interchangeably meaning the same.  The word "beef" also has its roots in French.  I always felt at this point, the English language continues to change and borrow words from other languages that makes sense.

From there, England has pillaged (yes, pillaged) many countries over the course of her history.  This in turn has spread the English language all around the globe, making it one of the most spoken languages in the world.  It finds itself the official language of many countries as well as world organization as a means of common communication, as a "pidgin" language almost to those whose native language is not English.

Growing up was fun and confusing learning English.  My parents loosely spoke English back then as they were immigrants to the United States.  But the bit that they know was just a smidgen of British English.  

Try singing "Itsy Bitsy Spider".  Where the British will pronounce the last syllable of "again" like "gain", Americans will pronounce it like "gin" or "gen" (hard "g" sound).  I was forever going back and forth, trying to make it rhyme with "rain".  I wanted to pronounce it the British way, like my mom taught me.  No, says American teacher... *Sigh*

Or what about this "."?  Full stop?  Or a period?  I soon to realize for this one that at home, we say "full stop".  At school, we say "period".

Herb?  Do you pronounce the daggum "h"?  The British says "yes".  The Americans say "no".

Why on earth did the Americans drop the "u" in neighbour, harbour, and favourite?  There is probably some history behind this one.  It's probably a French/English thing anyways.  Whatever the case maybe, this, too, I had to remember that the Americans drop the "u" and the British uses it.

Even the sounds of spoken English differs between British English and American English.  Even within the UK, there are many little accents you can pick up (Londoners, Welsh, Midlands, Manchester, Scots, Irish) and within the U.S. there are also probably just as much (Northern, Boston -yes, it is very distinct, Brooklyn - that is also very distinct, Southern, Mid-west, Chicago - a variation of Mid-west, Western/Californian).  You can make it as poetic as you want to make it sound or very unintelligent as you want to make it sound.  And from meeting people all over the world who have learned English, many countries adopted the British accent to use in learning English.  Except if you were in the U.S.

There are other nuances of English that I can go on about.  But in summary, the English language has survived many hundreds of years and became a very versatile, if not confusing, language in the world.  With its many grammatical rules and language borrowing, it has endured many changes throughout the course of history.