Why English Spelling and Grammar is Such a Mess

(Or, a Brief History of the English Language)Why English Spelling is Such a Mess

Blame These Guys for Starting ItIn the 9th Century, Viking raiders began taking over the island we now know as England.

Both spoke Germanic. Their languages merged to form Old English.The two most powerful invading tribes were the Angles and the Saxons

Germanic Languages Beat Out Celtic

Soon, everybody left who spoke Celtic was crammed into Ireland or Wales or Scotland.

Scotland

Or Maybe We Should Blame CaesarActually, the Celtic language had already been mixed up with Latin, thanks to the Roman Empire invading Britain in 55 BC.

Hwaet!

So, you start with Celtic, mix in Latin, add Germanic, bring to a boil and get Old English, but it doesnt stop there

In 1066, the Normans conquered Britain, and guess what?

They spoke French!

Since the King spoke French

French became the language of the nobles, and only peasants spokeEnglish

oui

Buy and Sell?You had to learn French words to deal with people with money.

Vin?

The Printing Press Made a Mess!

Pronunciation kept changing, but printing stopped spelling from keeping up with the changes

British trade by ship expanded world-wide

and more foreign words were borrowed into EnglishTycoon!Ketchup!

Colonization brought more foreign words into English

hickory

The worlds largest vocabularyBorrowing has made the English lexiconhuge, versatile, expressive, and complex

Close to a Universal Language

Upwards of 350 million people speak English as their first language, with many morethan that using it as a second language

So, thats how its history made such an amazing mess of English

And it keeps on borrowing, growing, and changing, even as we speak.