Knew a French guy who's last name had an A, an I, an E and a couple L's (not in that order) after the spoken part that were all silent. He married a German woman. She RULED the home.

 

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Similarly, aitch is just a bunch of silent letters leading up to the punchline.

 

Similarly, aitch is just a bunch of silent letters leading up to the punchline.

Sweet J....is that how you spell 'H'?

 

Sweet J....is that how you spell 'H'?

Yep.

Queue and aitch are the only two 5-letter words in the English language that you can remove four letters from and it's still pronounced the same.

 

Yep.

Funny. In all my years of reading and writing English, I've never had an opportunity to see 'aitch' spelled out. When I read your original post, I couldn't make out the word: my brain simply wouldn't process it. I had to resort to manual phonics to figure it out.

 

Funny. In all my years of reading and writing English, I've never had an opportunity to see 'aitch' spelled out. When I read your original post, I couldn't make out the word: my brain simply wouldn't process it. I had to resort to manual phonics to figure it out.

English is an orthographically overcomplicated language ... but the truth is that I find it phonetically beautiful ...

 

English is an orthographically overcomplicated language ... but the truth is that I find it phonetically beautiful ...

They say that all languages borrow from other languages, but that English chases them down into dark alleys, beats them into submission, and then rifles their pockets.

 

They say that all languages borrow from other languages, but that English chases them down into dark alleys, beats them into submission, and then rifles their pockets.

I'm betting that in a couple of centuries, no more than four languages will still be in use.

When I first read all of the original Sherlock Holmes stories (plus the works of G.K. Chesterton) it took me a while to feel at ease with their way of writing, expressions and mannerisms. Even Sallinger's "Catcher in the Rye" has slang in it that at times I found hard to understand.

Language is a quickly evolving living entity.

 

I'm betting that in a couple of centuries, no more than four languages will still be in use.

When I first read all of the original Sherlock Holmes stories (plus the works of G.K. Chesterton) it took me a while to feel at ease with their way of writing, expressions and mannerisms. Even Sallinger's "Catcher in the Rye" has slang in it that at times I found hard to understand.

Language is a quickly evolving living entity.

There are certainly forces that push in the direction of fewer languages, but I think we will find that the multitude of languages will be a lot more resilient than we might think. If nothing else, significant pockets will keep languages alive specifically to prevent them from dying as a way of preserving their cultural heritage. Others will insist on creating new languages for the purpose of setting themselves apart.

I've seen estimates that there are over 7000 spoken languages today, though many of them are only spoken by a few thousand people in a geographically small area and a couple dozen die out every year. At the same time, though, there is a push to try to save as many of them as possible to preserve the cultural history they represent. A lot of those efforts are doomed to failure, but as most languages die, the efforts will only become more pronounced and will be better focused on the smaller list of languages left to save. It will be interesting to see where the equilibrium ends up -- or would be. I agree with the time frame you propose; it will take two or three centuries, at least, for it to shake itself out.

 

There are certainly forces that push in the direction of fewer languages, but I think we will find that the multitude of languages will be a lot more resilient than we might think. If nothing else, significant pockets will keep languages alive specifically to prevent them from dying as a way of preserving their cultural heritage. Others will insist on creating new languages for the purpose of setting themselves apart.

I've seen estimates that there are over 7000 spoken languages today, though many of them are only spoken by a few thousand people in a geographically small area and a couple dozen die out every year. At the same time, though, there is a push to try to save as many of them as possible to preserve the cultural history they represent. A lot of those efforts are doomed to failure, but as most languages die, the efforts will only become more pronounced and will be better focused on the smaller list of languages left to save. It will be interesting to see where the equilibrium ends up -- or would be. I agree with the time frame you propose; it will take two or three centuries, at least, for it to shake itself out.

Fun fact: Papua New Guinea has the most number of spoken languages of any country, over 800 IIRC.

I learned this by following this channel:

 

Yep. That's my understanding, too.

When I was a sophomore my Statics teach was gone for a week and so another instructor, from Iran, subbed for her. We also had a student that was from Iran. The both spoke English (more or less). The student asked a question, which the class understood well enough. But the instructor couldn't and misinterpreted it. His answer, which the class understood well enough, was misinterpreted by the student. This went on for several iterations, with more and more of the class giggling since we could understand both of them and see exactly how far off the rails the conversation was going, but they couldn't. It finally took one of the other students to respeak what each of them said so that they could understand it. Turns out, while they were from the same country, their native languages were completely different and it tainted their accents (as perceived by each other, not by any of us, who all thought they had the same accent) enough that they couldn't understand each other's English well enough to comprehend it.

 

I am originally from the the East Midlands of England. In my late teens, I worked alongside a Scotsman and an Irish man. They both spoke English with heavy accents but I could understand them. I had to act as interpreter though as they could not understand each other.

 

Al-Ew-Mini-Um.
MEE-thane
Just a few.

 

My favorite was BEE-oh-fuels for biofuels. I had a moment wondering “how are these clowns making fuel from BO”?

 

https://enron.com/pages/the-egg

 

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This is the Jokes thread -- not the Documentary Channel!

 

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