History Lesson; you'll love this one

[rklenseth]

English is a mix of several languages put together because the 'English' people come from many different peoples. But the dominant language in English is German. But when the Normans, who spoke French, came to Britian alot of French was added in the English language because the Normans became dominant over the Saxon who were of German ancestry. For a while in fact, the official language of the portion of the English isles was French. That is why center is spelled centre for that is the Norman version while the Saxons spelled in as center.

When English came over to America with the English settlers, the children and their children changed the English language due to the culture they lived in. The Same could be said of the Irish version of English or Indian version or today the Latin American version. English is an everchanging language and that is one reason why is has survived unlike Latin and many other dead languages. But by changing it has developed many different versions and dialects. It has also have become one of the most complicated languages because of the changes.

[Jos Elkink]

That is a somewhat silly argument, Solfius ... if there is a 'correct' way of spelling, that is only because someone defined somewhere what is correct spelling and what isn't. If the Americans have there own definitions, and they follow those, they are just as correct as the English ... there is no such things as a 'really correct' spelling ...

[Jos Elkink]

And I'm not so sure English is that complicated a language ... most languages have a lot of influences, so that doesn't make English so special ... and English is usually quite easy to learn, I think ... except for the horrible relation between spelling and pronounciation ...

[Camino]

The French your refeering to is actually Breton, which was just a dialect. Minor thing but I had to do something to get involved.

[rklenseth]

I could've sworn it was the Normans that spoke French and had come from France. I do know that Normans took over culturally from the Saxons of that part of the British Isles.

I thought the Bretons were a Celtic cultural that spoke a Celtic language that resided near the north and central areas of France. Or am I thinking of something else.

[Solfius]

Normans came from Normandy, which is an area of Northern France, so it could well be that the Celts, and Breton, could be linked to the Normans in that way, both being form the same place.

[Solfius]

And I'm not so sure English is that complicated a language ... most languages have a lot of influences, so that doesn't make English so special ... and English is usually quite easy to learn, I think ... except for the horrible relation between spelling and pronounciation ...

Apparently the worst thing about it is the lack of cases or genders and suchlike, which is common in most European languages, I think that was wha I was told

[Solfius]

That is a somewhat silly argument, Solfius ... if there is a 'correct' way of spelling, that is only because someone defined somewhere what is correct spelling and what isn't. If the Americans have there own definitions, and they follow those, they are just as correct as the English ... there is no such things as a 'really correct' spelling ...

Seeing as the English, and the Americans both speak English, it would imply that the English speaking theor own language would be correct in how to speak it over the Americans, if the Americans speak a different kind of English, then it can't be English anymore as it is different (not in a dialect sense, as even dialects recognise the same base language, even if they speak differently to it).

SO Americans must speak "Americanish", not English.

And just because it's silly doesn't make it wrong, we all like to indulge in our idosyncrisies, one of mine is arguing pointless and stupid things about England and America, another is using words to mean completely different things than what they're meant to, and making up words

[rklenseth]

Normans came from Normandy, which is an area of Northern France, so it could well be that the Celts, and Breton, could be linked to the Normans in that way, both being form the same place.

Celts were from the region of France but are totally different in culture and language to that of the French who were called the Franks at that time by the Romans. The Franks were actually Roman settlers who came from the Italian peninsula and settled France. That is why the French language comes from Latin which was the language that the Romans spoke. I really do think the Bretons were a Celtic culture but I'm not to sure of that.

I believe it was the Normans that brought French to the British Isles and like I said French was the official language of Britian mostly spoken by nobles. The British people mostly spoke different dialects of English. There wasn't really any united English Langauge on the British Isles up until the early 1900's. Each area of the British Isles, even down to each town, had their own version of the English Langauge. I read once that you could travel just to the next town over in Britian and not understand a word they are saying because they were speaking a different dialect of English.

Believe or not the English Language became better organized in America before it did on the British Isles. It wasn't until the Industrial Revolution came to the British Isles did the English language there became united. And that is because of the transportation that occurred.

[rklenseth]

That is a somewhat silly argument, Solfius ... if there is a 'correct' way of spelling, that is only because someone defined somewhere what is correct spelling and what isn't. If the Americans have there own definitions, and they follow those, they are just as correct as the English ... there is no such things as a 'really correct' spelling ...

Seeing as the English, and the Americans both speak English, it would imply that the English speaking theor own language would be correct in how to speak it over the Americans, if the Americans speak a different kind of English, then it can't be English anymore as it is different (not in a dialect sense, as even dialects recognise the same base language, even if they speak differently to it).

SO Americans must speak "Americanish", not English.

And just because it's silly doesn't make it wrong, we all like to indulge in our idosyncrisies, one of mine is arguing pointless and stupid things about England and America, another is using words to mean completely different things than what they're meant to, and making up words

That wouldn't work to well since depending on what part of the country you live, English is different. There is a common English taught in every school but outside of school that means crap as most people turn to their culture version.

Such as I would be speaking Yankee to you. Then there is southern people, people from Boston, there are a whole lot of dialects in New York City, Spanglish, and then there is some sort of English for African Americans but I can't remember the name.

[Solfius]

Those are different dialects, but you all get taought the same kind of American English in school as a base language, and that base language is different to the one we get taught in England, and dialects emerge as well, but still with the same base (but different to the american base language)

[new.vogue.nightmare]

Those are different dialects, but you all get taought the same kind of American English in school as a base language, and that base language is different to the one we get taught in England, and dialects emerge as well, but still with the same base (but different to the american base language)

And therefore I speak American and I am proud of it ^_____^ Although I ammore fluent in gibberish o_o;;;

[Solfius]

And therefore I speak American and I am proud of it ^_____^ Although I ammore fluent in gibberish o_o;;;

exactly

[Meh]

Celts were from greece to ireland from spain to norway. Celts existed and traded with ancient Greece.

look in the dictionary for what is german {old english} what is and what is french.

spoon - middle english, old english. Now that's a word. We still say it correctly on this side of the puddle. I could say it all day SPOON SPOON SPOON SPOON SPOON

bouquet - french. What a horrible feeling in the throat. What happened to the "t" at the end? They shall be called liberty bundle from now on.

horrible - middle english, old french. What a horr... O they got me again!

English is considered hard to learn since the words have multiple meanings. Many european languages are like this. English or so I have heard does this more often than most. At the same time we have many different words that mean the same thing. It is amazing we can communicate though this morass. Many non-european languages are not. But I have heard that english is easy compared to finnish.

morass - old french - OK I reached for that one

multiple - french. that feeling in the throat again. How does "ple" say "pul" anyway? libery addition.

language - middle english - ancient french - AHHH! liberty speech

different - middle english, middle french - liberty.. ah.. I give up they win

[kroner]

Personally I think english is a horrible horrible language, so full of irregularities and rules that just don't make sense and the spelling is so unrelated to pronounciation. I think it would be a nightmare for any non native speaker to learn english. Latin is nice cause it's so logical. We should all adopt Latin . German's good to. There are probably other good languages also but not English!