Originally Posted by Dr. Jamshid Ibrahim Originally Posted by

Why is English Special?

English is special for a variety of reasons. Those I know are:



1. English vocabulary is huge. Putting all European languages into one wouldn't be a match. According to language databases English has more than one million even without taking into consideration compounds or derivatives.



2. English is a wedding of two most important world langauges (economic and political powers) namely German and French. Moreover, there are borrowings from almost all languages in the world. This makes English truly global and the language of doubles (double words, meanings...)

Thus it is a powerful tool for expressing subtle differences and shades of meaning.

Just take:



Germanic (poor farmers) and (the rich) Romance

Consider the following words for names of animals and their meat:

Cow---------------------beef

calf----------------------veal

sheep-------------------mutton

pig/sow/swine----------pork



And now the following alternatives:

give up-----------------abandon

give in------------------surrender



3. English is global (see my views on this issue in a different thread).



4. Easy and difficult to learn

Easy because the Germanic endings were lost and gender is not an issue like the German or French article. Difficult because it is so subtle and huge. The spelling is chaotic and not consistent with the pronunciation or simply take the tenses or the prepositions!



5. The English alphabet doesn't have difficult diacritical signs like the French accent or the German Umlaut or other ligatures which make them cumbersome. It is easy and simple.



Could anybody make some additions?

Thanks

Regards

Jamshid