Why is English so hard to Understand?

Because…
English is not
English!
Peter Harte August 2015

Here now, is the five
minute history of
the English
Language…

English is German, with additives!
Anglo
Saxon
(4th Century
German)
Church
Latin
Old Norse
(Viking)
Norman
French
(1066)
Middle
English
(1430) Scientific
Greek &
Latin
Hundreds of
other
languages
Modern
English

Roman
s
Angles, Saxons, Jutes and
Frisians
Britain
As the Romans left Britain between 450 and 550 C.E., Germanic tribes of Angles, Saxons,
Jutes and Frisians from the western-most regions of what is now Denmark, Germany, and
the Netherlands, began crossing the North Sea and settling in eastern Britain. They brought
with them their customs, culture and language.
The Celtic speaking population of Britain were pushed to the west, along the Irish Sea, in
Wales, Cornwall, and Scotland. Celtic languages are still spoken
in these areas today.

Our Father who art in heaven
1. Hallowed be thy name
2. Thy Kingdom come
3. Thy will be done on earth as it
is in heaven
4. Give us today our daily bread
5. And forgive us our trespassers as we
forgive those who trespass against us
6. And lead us not into temptation
7. But deliver us from evil
Amen.

During the Viking age (800-1000 C.E.) Britain was again invaded by more
foreign speaking people, and the eastern part of the country colonized once
more.

Six hundred Scandinavian words that end in “-by,” have
come to us, from the Viking period. “-by” is the word
for a farm or a town as seen in the names Selby
and Whitby
The “sk” sound is a characteristic of Old Norse.
English borrowed, or absorbed, words as “score,”
“skin” and “sky”

Twinning of words
In Old Norse you were “ill”
In Old English you were “sick”
Old Norse gave us “skill”
alongside Old English “craft”
Old Norse “skin” survives with
Old English “hide.”

France were having their own problems with new invaders of
Viking & German descent. The King of France gave them
Normandy so they would stop threatening Paris.
In 1066 C.E. William the Conqueror invaded Britain bringing
with him Norman French.
In one fell swoop the language, government, and customs, of
the English were replaced by those of the Normans.
English lands were given to Norman knights. The high
functionaries and administrators appointed by the new King
William were also Norman.
The English had to adopt the language of their conquerors:
the Norman dialect of French.

Sometimes both the English and the French words
were retained. French lords lived in a maison
[mansion]. The Saxon peasant lived in an English hus
[house]
The French words were mouton [mutton], boeuf
[beef], veau [veal] and porc [pork]. The English raised
sheep, cows, calves and pigs.
The French words were kept to designate the meat of
the animal. Thus one raises calves but eats veal, one
raises pigs and eats pork.

Old English ‘æppel’ used to mean any kind of
fruit. It comes to mean an apple as the word
‘fruit’ takes over.
The fusion of a basic English (Germanic)
vocabulary and grammar with an influx of
thousands of French words produced a new
form of the language, Middle English.

French became the source of numerous abstract terms that
end in “–ant,” “-ence,” “-tion,” and “-ment.”
Between one third and one half of today’s English terms are
taken from Anglo-Norman or French.
Norman scribes helped to establish “ch,” “sh,” “th,” and “wh”
from an array of earlier variants
they also set “cw-” and “qu-” to “qu-,” which is why queen is not
cween.

In “The adventure of English: the biography of a language,”
(Hodder & Stroughton, UK 2003) Melvyn Bragg explains further difficulties
occur in English because of:
“the survival of old plural forms (ox, oxen),
“historical changes in Old English words (foot, feet) and;
“loan words adopting “s” as a plural (vows).”
Further there were the:
“reformers who wanted to spell words according to the way they were
pronounced and traditionalists who wanted to spell them in one of the
ways they always had been.”

Melvyn Bragg continues…
“In a desire to make the roots of the language more evident and
perhaps give it more style, more class, some words that had
entered into English from French were later given a Latin look. The
letter “b” was inserted into the words “debt” and “doubt.
“Words thought to be of Greek origin sometimes had their spelling
adjusted so that “throne” or “theatre” acquired their “h.” “Rhyme”
on the other hand was awarded its “h” just because “rhythm” had
one.
“On a similar whim, an “l” was inserted into “could” because it was
still present in “should” and “would.” In the sixteenth century this
became a fad designed to winnow out the under-educated.”

It wasn't until the 14th Century that English
became the dominant language in Britain
again.
In 1399, King Henry IV became the first
king of England since the Norman
Conquest whose mother tongue was
English.

The English Alphabet does not help
Modern English is based on at least forty sounds.
The alphabet has only twenty-six letters.
Three letters (c, q, x) duplicate sounds already represented by other
letters or by combinations of letters, and most letters can stand for
more than one sound.
English is often no longer phonetic in spelling, meaning that in many
cases, that which is written is not what is said. Pronunciations have
significantly changed over the centuries, while spellings have not kept
up or have not changed at all.
The spelling of knight, for example, reflects the way it was spoken
centuries ago when there were almost no “silent letters”.

English - A Family Tree

A Pop Quiz
One Question Only
1. What factors have made
English such a diverse
language?

We have covered the broad
history of the English
Language
Let us briefly examine words
and word use

If you Understand and Write English you know the spelling of
tens of thousands of words. How is this possible?
You recognise patterns in words – patterns such as
morphemes
Morphemes are a minimal meaningful language unit which
cannot be divided into smaller meaningful units
Take, for example, the prefix “in-,” and the suffix “-in”
You can see both used “indiscreet,” and “assassin.”

Identify a common morpheme and present a
theory as to the root meaning of the following
words:
1. Podiatry,
2. Podium,
3. Antipodes,
4. Arthropod,
5. Tripod.

Identify a common morpheme and present a
theory as to the root meaning of the following
words:
1. Recognise,
2. Cognisance,
3. Incognito,
4. Cognitive,
5. Precognition.

Identify a common morpheme and present a theory as to
the root meaning of the following words:
1. Television,
2. Telegraph,
3. Telephone
4. Telepathy,
5. Telescope.

Identify the root meaning of the
following words:
1. Conscience,
2. Omniscience,
3. Prescience.

Some Further Confusion
Mono = single, alone. Monarchy, rule by one person
Poly = many, much. Polyglot, a person who speaks many
languages
If mono is one, and poly is many what about Monopoly?

Some Further Confusion
Heteronym
Is a word that is spelled identically but whose meaning will differ
depending on its pronunciation:
lead, means “to guide.” However, when pronounced LED, it means
a “metallic element.”
Homonym
Is a word that is spelled and pronounced the same but does not have
the same meaning
left (opposite of right) and left (past tense of leave).

What resources can you use to improve your
understanding of a word?
Etymologies provide the origins of a word and if or how
that word has changed
Consider the origin of “sophistication.” It derives from “sophistry” -
to mislead or adulterate.
A Thesaurus provides a list of related and contrasting
words
synonyms are similar words and antonyms are opposite words
A Good Dictionary – not a school edition or a concise
edition

Audience Participation – again!
Can you explain the difference between a verb and a
noun?
A verb is…?
an action, occurrence, or state of existence
A noun is…?
person, place, thing, quality, or action

Use the active voice to make your writing clear.
Contrast the active voice with the passive voice:
In the active voice, the subject performs the action of the
verb
The cat scratched Joanna.
In the passive voice the subject receives the action
Joanna was scratched by the cat.

Writers usually use the active voice rather than
the passive. It’s considered to be a more
powerful and straightforward form of expression.
The active voice also uses less words to convey
the same message.

To use English effectively you need to understand its
foundations. Take a few minutes and review what you
have learned by using the following questions:
① Can you explain some of the factors that make the English
Language difficult to understand?
② What can you do to improve your understanding of English?
③ Can you explain the difference between a verb and a noun?
④ How would you contrast active voice with passive voice?
Enjoy your journey with this difficult, yet intriguing,
language.

Why is English so hard to Understand?

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