Anglorum est valde aliena lingua.....

First off, I'd like to introduce myself to you all. :) I'm The Nocturnal Why , sister of both The Cock-Eyed Optimist and the Gentleman. Fancy that, huh? ;)  I love to sing, play piano, debate the randomest things at night with my sister (whether I'm right or wrong), and I love to laugh. 

The English language.

Yes. It is a *very* broad subject...
but have no fear. I'm no linguist and will not be giving a long drawn out lecture. 
It's just that recently, I have been picking up on some very odd and funny things about our native tongue. 
Check out this for instance:

"There is no egg in the eggplant,
No ham in the hamburger
And neither pine nor apple in the pineapple.
English muffins were not invented in England,
French fries were not invented in France.
We sometimes take English for granted, but if we examine its paradoxes we find that:
Quicksand takes you down slowly,
Boxing rings are square,
And a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig.
If writers write, how come fingers don’t fing?
If the plural of tooth is teeth,
Shouldn’t the plural of phone booth be phone beeth?
If the teacher taught,
Why hasn’t the preacher praught?
If a vegetarian eats vegetables,
What the heck does a humanitarian eat?
Why do people recite at a play,
Yet play at a recital?
Park on driveways and
Drive on parkways?
How can the weather be as hot as hell on one day
And as cold as hell on another?
You have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a language where a house can burn up as it burns down,
And in which you fill in a form
By filling it out
And a bell is only heard once it goes!
English was invented by people, not computers,
And it reflects the creativity of the human race
(Which of course isn’t a race at all.)
That is why:
When the stars are out they are visible,
But when the lights are out they are invisible.
And why it is that when I wind up my watch
It starts,
But when I wind up this poem
It ends."

I first heard this poem years ago through a forwarded email, but it does state some very interesting facts about our beloved language. One thing you may like to know about me is I am "a latina scolaris".

(That's "a latin scholar" for all you out-of-towners;) And learning a new vocabulary has made me draw parallels and differences between those two languages. For example: In my point of view,  Latin is way more complicated--you have one single word "ago" that means "do, drive, act or treat". Another thing...
I don't believe English nouns can be classified as far to the extent as Latin ones.(Five declensions, three cases, and three genders!) Then again, in English the letters "ough" can be pronounced about five different ways, depending on the word! Here's a quote by Bill Bryson on this same topic:

English grammar is so complex and confusing for the one very simple reason that its rules and terminology are based on Latin, a language with which it has precious little in common.”

But please don't take me wrong. I am not down-ing either language. I have grown to love the awesome tool and challenge languages can be. And I'm sure there are far more mind-boggling tongues in the world, as well. :) Now for an intermission of a few fun clips that came to mind while brainstorming this post. :)

{"Why Can't the English?" from My Fair Lady}

 

{A short clip from the "I Love Lucy" episode, The English Tutor}

Ah. There. It's fun to be reminded how quirky, confusing, and fun our vocabulary is! :) If you've enjoyed this post, hop over here for more interesting notes on the English language.

And a quote to close with:

"To write or even speak English is not a science but an art. Whoever writes English is involved in a struggle that never lets up even for a sentence. He is struggling against vagueness, against obscurity, against the lure of the decorative adjective, against the encroachment of Latin and Greek, and, above all, against the worn-out phrases and dead metaphors with which the language is cluttered up."
 — George Orwell 

 In conclusion, I'd like to say that I love this crazy, confuzzling, amazing language, and am so glad that I grew up speaking it! :D Hopefully this hasn't been too sporadic and random, and you were a bit amused by reading this post. Until next time!

IMHO......

Dear World,
        Has it ever occurred to you how bad we have grown at the art of entertaining ourselves? We must have comedians, we must have television, we must have movies, and ipods and ipads and iknow not what else. We must have thousands of friends on social networking sites and we must let them know exactly what we think at the exact moment we think it. It is no longer good enough that we can send a letter without a stamp via email--no, we must hear the friend's reply (often senseless enough) immediately, and thus instant messaging, chat, and other things were created.
All these technological advances are great boons to our entertainment--I like nothing better than to get on the computer of an evening and chat with my best friends. But I wonder if these advances are as great a boon to our social skills and--perish the thought--our intelligence?
And I'm not the only one who has noticed it. Haven't you seen the little picture going around the internet?

"My Smart-phone made me Stupid."

We've all seen it--those groups of laughing, happy, congenial friends who walk into a restaurant, stare at one another solemnly for a moment, pull out their gadgets, and begin to text across, around, about, before, behind, below the table. I may be a little behind on the technology of the day, and I don't have free texts on my phone,  but I've found my tongue to be a bit quicker in conversation than my fingers could ever be.
My friends and I often lament the lack of real wit in today's conversations, and the general idea seems to be that there are just not enough opportunities. I would wonder, though, if we wasted less wit on making up the perfect Facebook status and instead put that brain-power into making clever conversation, if we'd all be a bit more charming.
Just imagine the wittiest duos that you've ever heard of...Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet come immediately to mind for me. It makes me cringe to think what some of their conversations might look like per today's conveniences:

Darcy: "Do you text as a general rule while dancing?"

Lizzy: "Yes." (pulls out her phone.) "I prefer to be unsociable and taciturn. Makes it all so much more agreeable, don't you think?"

Darcy: "ROFL."

Major cringing going on over here. That is so hideous. I know it's an extreme example but dear World, don't you agree? Our ability to make conversation seems to be languishing in the annals of texting language. (Not to mention our ability to spell properly which subject I will not even broach.) Just try it, I beg of you. Put yourself out to say one clever thing a day, and you may soon find your intelligence is not so impaired as that of your general acquaintance.
                                
Ever Yours,