Features of the English languageEnglish has changed so much in the last 1500 years that it would now be hardly recognizable to the Anglo-Saxons who brought the language across the North Sea. Although they would be able to recognize many individual words, they would not recognize the way those words are put together to make sentences. Old English, like modern German, was a highly inflected language, i.e. most words changed their endings or forms to show their relationship to other words in the sentence according to number (singular, plural), gender (masculine, feminine, neuter), case (subject, object), tense (past, future) etc. Some modern English words still inflect, but much less so than in other European languages. The English verb ‘to ride’ inflects into five forms (ride, rides, riding, rode, ridden) whereas the equivalent German verb has sixteen forms. The English word 'the’ has only one form, whereas other European languages would have several different forms. The trend towards simplicity of form is considered to be a strength of English. Another strength is the flexibility of function of individual words. Look at these uses of the word 'round': There was a round table. (adjective) He bought a round of drinks. (noun) He turned round. (adverb) He ran round the field. (preposition) The car tried to round the bend too quickly. (verb) This flexibility, together with a flexibility towards the assimilation of words borrowed from other languages and the spontaneous creation of new words have made English what is today, an effective medium of international communication. English has achieved this in spite of the difficulties caused by written English, which is not systematically phonetic. Some loan words Arabic admiral, algebra, mattress Spanish mosquito, cigar, canyon Italian piano, violin, spaghetti Dutch yacht, boss, deck Hindi pyjamas, shampoo, bungalow Turkish yoghurt, kiosk Japanese tycoon, karate Malay bamboo, compound Nahuatl (Aztec) tomato, chocolate Qucchua (Inca) coca, quinine Hungarian coach, paprika Classical Greek theatre, astronomy, logic Gaelic whisky Russian vodka, sputnik Finnish sauna Chinese tea, silk Portuguese marmalade Eskimo anorak Czech robot Farsi (Iranian) lilac Basque bizarre Carib canoe Australian Aborigine kangaroo, boomerang Modern French rendezvous, cafe Modern German kindergarten
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