Thursday, February 15, 2007

Our Funny Language #II

Yes, let's face it - English is a crazy language! Here are a few more items of note.

There is no egg in eggplant, nor ham in hamburger; neither apple nor pine in pineapple.
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.

If you have a bunch of odds & ends and get rid of all but one what do you call it?
If teachers taught, why didn't preachers praught?
If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat?

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?
How can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same, while a wise man and a wise guy are opposites?

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 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, is not a race at all.

That is why, when the stars are out, they are visible, but when the lights are out, they are invisible.

Why doesn't "Buick" rhyme with "quick"?

One last one - Why do we park on the driveway and drive on the parkway?

Have a blessed day.

3 comments:

Dawn said...

I love this kind of commentary on our language - it's amazing anyone can ever learn it as their second language.

Thanks for stopping by today for my random ramblings. Come back again soon!

An Ordinary Mom said...

Very cute! Thanks for the laughs!

2nd Cup of Coffee said...

I used to tutor international students, and trying to teach idioms was the biggest challenge of all!