English is a 'fun' language

Do you find something interesting in ‘Abstemious’? Read on… ABSTEMIOUS. That’s right. Abstemious, which means indulging only moderately in food and drink (as per Oxford dictionary) has all the vowels slotted in a sequential order. So has FACETIOUS. Facetious means treating serious issues with inappropriate humour. If you really take it upon yourself to find more words with such peculiarities, I am sure you will find more but that these are the two most common words with such an oddity comes with some assurance.  

English has often been touted, though sarcastically, as a ‘funny’ language thanks primarily to the quirky pronunciation the language subjects itself to. Examples abound!

‘To’ is pronounced as ‘Two’ while ‘Go’ is pronounced as ‘gO’.

To add to the woes, there is an innate borrowing that has happened from various languages across the globe. Déjà vu? Now before you declare your verdict on the language, what if I tell you that English is more fun than ‘funny’? What if I tell you that OK originated as an abbreviation of orl korrekt, a jokey misspelling of ‘All Correct’.

There is a deluge of entertainment lying unchartered under the wings of the language, which is supposedly one of the ‘highest-worded-languages’ in the world: An entertainment so potent that it possibly drove a mad man to contribute in the making of one of the finest dictionaries in the world. Yes, you read it right!

Oxford English Dictionary (OED) wouldn’t have been possible, had it not received contributions from the prolific Dr. W.C. Minor, who while imprisoned in a lunatic asylum consistently sent material to the chief editor of OED, Sir James Murray. The relationship between the two men has been captured beautifully by Simon Winchester in his masterpiece, The Professor and the Mad Man.

The fun, however, is not confined to words alone. A truckload is waiting for you within the precincts of punctuation. Read through the following story:

A husband, really angry with his wife, pasted a note on the front door which read:

“A woman without her husband is nothing”

A smart kid was passing by and he thought of a mischief. He took out his pen and scribbled something on the note. Now, the note read:

“A woman: without her, husband is nothing”. The wife came home and gave her husband a big hug.

That’s the power of punctuation in English. It can ruin or preserve the language and, in some cases relationships as well. Lynn Truss, in her book Eats Shoots and Leaves, explains this power in a reasonably engaging manner. The book starts with a Panda joke which drives home the point beautifully.

Now a few ‘do you knows’?

1. Do you know that English is the most widely spoken language in the history of the planet?
2. Do you know that one in every seven human beings can speak or read it?
3. Do you know that half of the world’s books are written in English?
4. Do you know that over 75% of the international e-mails are written in English?

Such affection for a language which has been mimicked at from different quarters of the world is spell-binding, isn’t it? The spell, though, becomes a bit of a pain when you have to explain the following to an inquisitive first-grader:

1. Today we speak, but first we spoke. Then how come today faucets leak but they never loke?
2. Today we write, but once we wrote. Then how come we bite our tongues, but we never bote?
3. How come there is no egg in eggplant?
4. How can noses run and feet smell?
5. Plural of tooth is teeth but the plural of choose is not cheese.

This befuddlement that can drive some crazy is, to a certain extent, responsible in making the language so challenging and thus so endearing.  The charm also comes from the fact that English, since its inception, has been like a welcoming host that receives words from a whole lot of languages and makes them a part of her family.

Look up Samosa in a reputed dictionary and you will understand. Till that time spend your time with this alluring language and keep exploring.
References used:

1. Online Oxford Dictionaries.
2. www.englishclub.com
3. www.squidoo.com/eccentricities-of-english
4. Richard Lederer, Crazy English, Pocket Books, New York, 1989, pp.117-118.