Let's face it - English is a crazy language. There is no
egg in eggplant nor ham in hamburger; neither apple nor
pine in pineapple. English muffins weren't invented in
England or French fries in France. Sweetmeats are candies
while sweetbreads, which aren't sweet, are meat.
We take English for granted. But if we explore its paradoxes,
we find that quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are
square and a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it
a pig.
And why is it that writers write but fingers don't fing,
grocers don't groce and hammers don't ham? If the plural
of tooth is teeth, why isn't the plural of booth beeth? One
goose, 2 geese. So one moose, 2 meese? One index, 2 indices?
Doesn't it seem crazy that you can make amends but not one
amend, that you comb through annals of history but not a
single annal? If you have a bunch of odds and ends and get
rid of all but one of them, what do you call it?
If teachers taught, why didn't preachers praught? If a vegetarian
eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat? If you wrote
a letter, perhaps you bote your tongue?
Sometimes I think all the English speakers should be committed
to an asylum for the verbally insane. In what language do
people recite at a play and play at a recital? Ship by truck
and send cargo by ship? Have noses that run and feet that
smell? Park on driveways and drive on parkways?
How can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same, while
a wise man and a wise guy are opposites? How can overlook
and oversee be opposites, while quite a lot and quite a few
are alike?
Have you noticed that we talk about certain things only
when they are absent? Have you ever seen a horseful carriage
or a strapful gown? Met a sung hero or experienced requited
love? Have you ever run into someone who was combobulated,
gruntled, ruly or peccable? And where are all those people
who ARE spring chickens or who would ACTUALLY hurt a fly?
You have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a language in
which your house can burn up as it burns down, in which you
fill in a form by filling it out and in which an alarm goes
off by going on.
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, when I wind up my watch, I start it, but when I
wind up this essay, I end it...?
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