General Chat

Let's face it: English is a strange language. There is no egg in the eggplant, no ham in the hamburger and neither pine nor apple in the pineapple. English muffins were not invented in England, French fries were not invented in France. We sometimes take English for granted. But if we examine its paradoxes we find that: Quicksand takes you down slowly, boxing rings are square and guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig. If writers write, how come fingers don't fing. If the plural of tooth is teeth, shouldn't the plural of phone booth be phone beeth. If the teacher taught, why didn't the preacher praught. If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what the heck does a humanitarian eat!? Why do people recite at a play yet play at a recital? Park on driveways and drive on parkways. You have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a language where a house can burn up as it burns down and in which you fill in a form by filling it out. And a bell is only heard once it goes! English was invented by people, not computers, and it reflects the creativity of the human race (which of course isn't a race at all). That is why when the stars are out they are visible, but when the lights are out they are invisible... And why is it that when I wind up my watch it starts but when I wind up this story it ends? And more food for "Thought"... Do infants enjoy infancy as much as adults enjoy adultery? Why is a person who plays the piano called a pianist, but a person who drives a race car not called a racist? Why is a wise man and a wise guy opposites? Why do overlook and oversee mean opposite things? If horrific means to make horrible, does terrific mean to make terrible? If lawyers are disbarred and clergy-men defrocked, doesn't it follow that electricians can be delighted, musicians denoted, cowboys deranged, models deposed, tree surgeons debarked and dry cleaners depressed? Why is it that if someone tells you that there are one billion stars in the universe you will believe them, but if they tell you a wall has wet paint you will have to touch it to be sure? If you take an Oriental person and spin him around several times, does he become disoriented? If people from Poland are called "Poles", why aren't people from Holland called "Holes"? Sylvia xxx

Hi Di, So you have appeared. Just begin a thread over language and there is Di. A woman of my thoughts! I actually received this piece from my niece who is coming tomorrow - she is Dutch. Love Sylvia xxx

English is a mongrel tongue - so many words from so many different sources. And of course, word meanings change over time - in Shakespeare's day to "overlook" didn't mean to miss, it meant to "look at", nice meant foolish, etc. But I've always wondered why we can be uncouth, when there is no possibility of being cooth? nell

You can be couth if you want helen, we'll invent a new word, nothing much else to do this miserable day. And new words do find their way into the dictionary. I bet our grandmothers or even in my case Mothers, wouldn't know what the verb to google meant. Ann glos

Friend of mine from Jugoslavia was most upset. He asked "It's stupid - you have one mouse.,2 mice, for two houses why do you not have HICE! You have one sheep and two sheep - why not sheeps? Crazy peoples!"

Back to the couth/uncouth thing, my husband and I have lots of fun with this idea. If you are dishevelled, and tidy yourself, are you then shevelled? If someone is disgraced can they become graced again? If something dissolves can it solve again? If you solve a problem, if it comes back is the matter dissolved? The list goes on and on...... and I can't think of any of the really good ones just now!!

Do you know the longest word that can be made from the top row(qwerty) on a keyboard (computer or typewriter)? Bob

Di, be a bit awkward sending a message in morse code????? Len in Gosport

I like this little ditty - We’ll begin with a box and the plural is boxes, But the plural of ox should be oxen not oxes; We speak of a brother and also of brethren, But though we say mother we never say methren. Then the masculine pronouns are he, his, and him, But imagine the feminine she, shis and shim. So English, I fancy you all will agree, Is the silliest language you ever did see.

No Di, I disagree, English is comparitively easy as we don't have to learn which words are masculine and which are feminine. One of the funniest things in the French language is a bra being a masculine article - why, oh why? The two most difficult languages are Finnish and Hungarian. Sylvia xxx