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My favourite quote about the English language: “The problem with defending the purity of the English language is that English is about as pure as a cribhouse w
by anotherevan 8y ago
My favourite quote about the English language:
“The problem with defending the purity of the English language is that English is about as pure as a cribhouse whore. We don’t just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them unconscious and riffle their pockets for new vocabulary.”
— James Nicoll
- fifnir 8y agoBut at least english pays proper tribute to the languages it took from (at with greek that I'm personally familiar) by adopting specific spellings. Words spelled with "ph" for the f sound are spelled like that because they are derived by greek words. In latin languages elephant is spelled like elefant, making tracing the history of the word much harder