Below is a description and explanation of the English
language written by M. N. Gogate, from India. He has many interesting, and
perhaps even useful, things to say about English which might help you in your
studies.
Peculiarities of English Language
- Mankind uses hundreds of languages. Every language has
some peculiarities. Grammar of some languages is quite complex. Some
languages do not have sufficient number of words. Some languages have no
script. Some languages are spoken by millions of persons. Some are spoken by
just few hundred persons. We shall see here some peculiarities of the
English language.
- We all know that England is the birthplace of English
language. Due to process of history, this language has spread to many parts
of the world. It is used as a link language for International business and
diplomacy. It is rich in all kinds of literature, including technical books
and journals. It is studied as a second language by millions of people in
many non-English countries.
- English is a mixture of several languages. It contains
several words of the Anglo-Saxon dialect spoken in ancient England. It has
absorbed thousands of words from many other languages such as French, Latin,
German, Greek and so on. One can find even Sanskrit words in English. For
example, Sanskrit words Guru and Pundit are used frequently in English.
Original pronunciation and original meaning of many words have changed in
English.
- English grammar is fairly simple. Nouns in many other
languages have grammatical gender and accordingly some verbs and adjectives
undergo changes. This complexity is absent in English. Thus, the adjective
"big" is common to all nouns such as man, woman, child, book,
stone, dog, cat, river, idea, plan, and so on. Moreover, this adjective
applies to both singular and plural nouns. English nouns and position words
are written separately, without any change in nouns. For example, note these
words: in India, from India, to India. All words are separate and remain
unchanged. Obviously, this is a great advantage for searching words in
dictionaries. In many other languages, the noun takes an oblique form to
which is attached the positional word after the noun. The composite word
becomes long and difficult for dictionary purposes.
- Counting of large numbers is cyclic and simple in
English. For example, twenty-one, twenty-two, twenty-three, etc forms a
series. Next series is thirty-one, thirty-two, thirty-three etc. In many
other languages all numbers, from one to hundred are unrelated and have to
be memorized.
- Another feature of English is its sense of equality.
Pronouns you, he, she are applicable to all persons irrespective of their
age and status. In many other languages, these pronouns take different
forms, sometimes causing great inconvenience. English language does have
terms like Your Majesty, Your Excellency, and His Lordship. These are
exceptions. Basically English is a democratic language. The American
President is addressed as Mr. President. English has changed some terms,
which hurt sentiments of people. For example, the term Christian name became
awkward when thousands of non-Christians, such as Hindus and Muslims started
using English. So the term Christian name was changed to First name or
Personal name. Term Negro caused offence, and it was changed to Black
Person.
- We have seen many good points of the English language.
It is rich in vocabulary, its grammar is simple, its counting system is
simple, and its form is democratic. However, English has one great drawback,
which brings it a bad name. English spellings are highly irregular making
the language difficult to learn. Take for example the symbol (a). It is used
with different pronunciation in words alone (a-l-o-n-e), art (a-r-t), and
(a-n-d), all (a-l-l), age (a-g-e). For a common pronunciation, there are two
different spellings (c-e-l-l) and (s-e-l-l). Moreover, these two words carry
a redundant extra symbol (l). Some words carry silent letters. For example,
the word (debt) is spelled as (d-e-b-t), wherein the symbol (b) is not
pronounced. Combination (i-e) is used in word (believe) while reverse
combination (e-i) is used in word (receive). An odd combination (o-u-g-h) is
used with different pronunciations in words (though) spelled as
(t-h-o-u-g-h) and (enough) spelled as (e-n-o-u-g-h). Many and many such
absurdities of spellings can be quoted.
- If spellings are irregular, why are they not reformed?
What are the difficulties? What is the way out? Let us examine this issue.
- A language, its script, its spellings are social
institutions. Dictionaries and grammar books are prepared accordingly.
Billions of books, newspapers, documents, signboards, maps etc have employed
the current spellings. Teachers and Students, Suppliers and Customers,
Bosses and Employees, Publishers and Readers, in fact all literate
English-knowing persons are geared to the current spellings. About 200 years
ago, after America's freedom, their leaders changed some spellings. For
instance British spelling c-o-l-o-u-r is changed to American spelling
c-o-l-o-r. They did not carry out reforms on a big scale. English language
is now stuck in the mess. A student writing the word (sell) as s-e-l would
lose marks in examinations. Newspaper publishers whose primary interest is
to sell papers and not reform spellings will fire reporters, using
non-standard spellings. Since English is now a world language, it is likely
that the non-English countries may oppose spelling reforms.
- One solution lies in retaining and studying English with
its current spellings, and also in launching a parallel language, which we
may call Globish. This new language will be informal at present, and contain
initially about 2000 words to initiate the public. It will follow English
grammar and words, but the spellings would be simplified and logical. It
will consist of small letters abcdef etc, without any capitals, and with
triple dots instead of a single dot at end of a sentence. This would make
the language look somewhat different from English. Full details cannot be
given in this radio talk. By way of example, symbol (i) may stand for its
sound as in words (it, if, ill) and then English word (busy) will be written
in Globish as (b-i-z-i = bizi). All English words will be recast in Globish
according to their pronunciation using these standard relations. If some
words, such as names, cannot be respelled in this fashion, they may be
started with a letter in capital form, to guide readers. All existing
machines will serve Globish.This option deserves support of people in all
countries. Let us give legacy of an easy and logical language to the
posterity.
Above is text of author’s talk dated 24 March 1999, on All India Radio,
Pune station. Part of article & editor's inputs appeared in The Journal of
Simplified Spelling Society No.2 of 2002