Science > Linguistics
English language
Heimdallr:
Funny list! I always enjoyed homonyms. It's a crazy language!
Lindenlea:
--- Quote ---I wonder if you mean England English as opposed to Southern U.S. English which are so different as to almost be two different languages. I'll admit that I have to watch British movies with subtitles because I understand only about half of what they say. And forget Australians. I only understand about 40%!
--- End quote ---
Had to laugh at this one Laura, I was imagining you trying to understand a Geordie, an area in North East England which borders the River Tyne, this is my birth place, and we understand each other perfectly, but the rest of England struggles and usually subtitles any locals.
I was once told by a foreign student 'the trouble with the English language is it's full of exceptions'. I agree.
mkrnhr:
An English gentleman lived somewhere in the USA for a few months and he told me that he was chocked that people didn't understand English there :D He didn't understand people and they didn't understand him.
The funny thing otherwise when you start speaking with a group of Americans is that they use a lot of expressions (idioms) and at the beginning you just think "What are they talking about?" or "Why are they talking about baseball??". In a word, you feel you're a complete idiot :D
endescent:
Herakles, your homonyms got me thinking about some of the other great commentary I've read on the oddities in the English language. Richard Lederer wrote a book called Crazy English with some very funny, but logical questions posed. Here's a particularly ridiculous sample:
"If button and unbutton and tie and untie are opposites, why are loosen and unloosen and ravel and unravel the same? If bad is the opposite of good, hard the opposite of soft, and up the opposite of down, why are badly and goodly, hardly and softly, and upright and downright not opposing pairs? If harmless actions are the opposite of harmful actions, why are shameful and shameless behavior the same and pricey objects less expensive than priceless ones? If appropriate and inappropriate remarks and passable and impassable mountain trails are opposites, why are flammable and inflammable materials, heritable and inheritable property, and passive and impassive people the same? How can valuable objects be less valuable than invaluable ones? If uplift is the same as lift up, why are upset and set up opposite in meaning? Why are pertinent and impertinent, canny and uncanny, and famous and infamous neither opposites nor the same? How can raise and raze and reckless and wreckless be opposites when each pair contains the same sound?"
ARRRGH! :headbash: Non-native speakers, with absurdities like this, I really feel for you. Our language seems to defenestrate context and logic whenever it feels like it.
Laura:
--- Quote from: endescent on December 01, 2010, 06:05:13 PM ---
ARRRGH! :headbash: Non-native speakers, with absurdities like this, I really feel for you. Our language seems to defenestrate context and logic whenever it feels like it.
--- End quote ---
There are actually many similar issues in other languages, though perhaps not as many. Anyway, I'll take them over endless verb conjugations and subject/verb, singular/plural, masculine/feminine coordination any day!
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