This crazy language of ours
Ah, the delightful quirks of the English language-a language with so many rules and far too many exceptions. But English was invented by people, not computers. It reflects the creativity of the human race which, of course, is not a race at all.
After all, there is no egg in eggplant, nor ham in hamburger, and neither apple nor pine in pineapple!
English muffins weren’t invented in England or French fries in France.
And doesn’t it seem crazy that the plural of goose is geese but the plural of moose is not meese?
And not only that, but English is full of paradoxes…
- Boxing rings are square,
- quicksand can work slowly, and
- a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig.
If teachers taught, why didn’t preachers praught? If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat? In what language do people recite at a play and play at a recital?
How can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same, while a wise man and a wise guy are opposites? We have to wonder at the unique lunacy of a language in which your house can burn up as it burns down, in which you fill in a form by filling it out and in which a alarm goes off by going on.
I’m just a former English teacher and a current lover of words!
So…I get to play with them!
PS. – Why doesn’t ‘Buick’ rhyme with ‘quick’?