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[-] themeatbridge@lemmy.world 30 points 2 weeks ago

Two things about English.

First, English is not one language, it's a mix of several different languages with loanwords stolen from eveey culture encoutered. Grammar and conjugation is entirely inconsistent because it is based on Romance languages, Germanic languages, and Greek.

Second, English is descriptive, not proscriptive. In other words, there are no rules to pronunciation or spelling. English words are spelled and pronounced the way English speakers spell and pronounce them. That's how England and America can end up with such disparate spellings and pronunciations. If you are understood, you have spoken English. When new pronunciations and spellings become commonly used, they are added to the dictionary. When speaking and writing styles change, so do the rules of grammar.

[-] naeap@sopuli.xyz 32 points 2 weeks ago

Aren't most languages a mix of several languages?
Like in German many words come from French or sometimes also from English words.
Only the Germans often butcher them, that they speak it as if they were real German words...

[-] zaphod@sopuli.xyz 2 points 2 weeks ago

Only the Germans often butcher them, that they speak it as if they were real German words…

English butchers words too.

[-] naeap@sopuli.xyz 4 points 2 weeks ago

Yeah, I only was speaking about the German language as example

But yeah, you're right of course

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this post was submitted on 08 Dec 2024
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