English is a Weird Language Michael Cheng National Chengchi University

Find the answer to these questions How many different ways can you find to make plural words in English? What are seven words that can be made plural by changing the vowel in the root of the word? How many ways can you find to make a verb into the past tense in English?

What’s weird about these groups of words: –Chrome, Machine, Attach –Over, Oven, Move How do you pronounce these words? –knead, thumb, sword, debt, island, ptarmigan, ghost

What sounds do the following animals make? –dog, cat, horse, cow, chicken, rooster, duck, bird, donkey, frog, monkey, sheep, lion, owl, pig, snake, … fox

What’s the difference between what these words mean now, and what they used to mean? –gay, awful, silly, vulgar, toilet What are these objects? –mobile vulgus, periwig, pantaloons, taximeter cabriolet

What’s the meaning behind the names for the days of the week? How are these words related? –Ask, Question, Interrogate –Cow, Beef

Where did these words originally come from? –cheese, whiskey, window, barbeque, kindergarten, anime, chunder, checkmate

Answers: Plural nouns grammar/plural-nouns/ man, woman, mouse, louse, foot, tooth, goose

Answers: Past tense verbs lounge.com/reference/grammar-reference- most-common-irregular-verb-list.php lounge.com/reference/grammar-reference- irregular-verb-list.php

Answers: Sound variation Ch is pronounced differently in each one, ov is pronounced differently in each one All of these have silent letters

Answers: Onomatopoeia ive-language/poetic-devices/onomatopoeia- examples/

Answers: Semantic Change and Word Creation Meaning has changed in all these words All of these words have been clipped into shorter versions

Answer: Borrowed words Sun, Moon, Tiw (God of War), Odin, Thor, Frigga, Saturn. In T-F Norse gods have replaced the Roman gods, but Saturn remains on Saturday. English, French, Latin => Increasing in formality and specialization English, French => One is for the animal, the other is for the meat

Answer: Borrowed words cheese (Latin), whiskey (Celtic), window (Norse), barbeque (Spanish), kindergarten (German), anime (Japanese), chunder (Australian watch out under), checkmate (Persian shah mat = the king is helpless)

English is such a strange language because it has been influenced by so many other language. –Latin, Celtic, Old Norse, French And then it’s borrowed words from languages all over the world.

In this course we will learn about how these many languages influenced English throughout history to create the language that we speak today.