Stolen from? The English got invaded by the Romans, Normans, Vikings etc. Didn’t have much choice in that word adoption.
Comment on Languages
Flower@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks agoEnglish pronunciation depends on the language they stole the word from.
IcyToes@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
Bluewing@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Oh, we steal words. And we will continue to steal words until we have them all!
Domitian@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
The Celtics got invaded by the Romans, then by Saxons, then by Vikings/Danes, then by Normans in the 11 Century. Then they spent the last 900 years invading everybody else.
SlurpingPus@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Ehh, Normans mostly kept to themselves. The folks didn’t have to adopt any of their language, except to speak to the king and upper administration. But French language was perceived as fashionable, so the vocabulary crept into English — the division between crude everyday Norse/Germanic words and ‘elegant’ highbrow Norman words is still present in the choice of which ones were chosen to stay in the language for any particular topic.
Tiger666@lemmy.ca 3 weeks ago
What about Normandy?
nullify3112@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
And guess who they stole a bunch from? Yes, French. Blame the French. Blame the Franks and the Normans specifically for making the pronunciation weird.
Phunter@lemmy.zip 3 weeks ago
It also depends who you’re talking to and/or where you are.
decolo@piefed.social 3 weeks ago
That part’s not as well unique to English though.