Weird Fascinations

[Tom]

I'm fascinated at present by the English language. Not that I use it properly, but it's taken a few years for me to realise just how quirky it is. We have words that are the same or sound the same and mean completely different things (through and threw or to and two or cold and cold), words that are spelt similar and sound different (through and though), and words that are just odd (queue and cheque).

If something is not reversible, does that mean it is?

And why do we have so many different words for groups of animals? - I don't really want to know why we have so many different words for groups of animals, but find it fascinating that we actually do...

And why, if I comes before E, is weird spelt weird?

Now, the question is... do you have any weird fascinations that you would like to share with a family oriented forum?

I also used to be fascinated by buses, but I out-grew that one.

[Vulture]

I also used to be fascinated by buses, but I out-grew that one.

Just the one bus? What number was it?

[Diane CBPFC]

I too am fascinated by the English language. There was a great TV series in the 1980s called the Story of English - I borrowed it inter-library loan then bought an illegal copy on eBay as it is now long out of print. It tells the story of how English is the language that included all others it came across. We saw one episode on TV that made me want to see more - it was about how the nobility in England were all French at the time of William the Conqueror so luxury items have French names and items to do with work come from the old English.

This is interesting too: Polish vs. polish

[Roger Kettle]

English spelling makes little or no sense. I have no problem with Americans replacing "colour" with "color" but, if you're going to go about it properly, you might as well spell it "culler". I suppose that's the problem. If we spell everything phonetically, we kood be in deep wotters.

[Jack]

If we spell everything phonetically, we kood be in deep wotters.

For example, what proportion of people would spell "could" as "kood", or "Kud"? "Look" or "Luck"? "Grass" or "Grarse"? Let alone words that have even greater variation in pronunciation around the UK. Then add other English-speaking countries into the mix. Imagine how great it would be to not be able to understand people from other regions in WRITING as well as when they speak!

If something is not reversible, does that mean it is?

I'm still trying to wrap my brain around that one, Tom. At the moment I can't see what you mean at all.

[Vulture]

The thing that I always find odd is the fact that the Chinese have lots of different dialects, not all of which are understood by each other, but the writing is understood by everyone. How do they manage that?

[Tom]

Thanks Vulch, I suppose it's the same with all languages, English is the one I'm kind of fluent in. The brain is very clever at interpreting things. Look at NE1410S for example. Think it's a postcode? Look again - it's a sentence.

I think being able to write words as they sound would take twice as long.

I received a quiz question yesterday (I don't know the answer) that said there is one word in the English language that has nine letters, and each time you remove a letter from it, the word that is left is another word in the English language. What is the original word and what are the words made from it? I bet that every word has a completely different meaning from the rest.

I also have words that I don't like... how can you not like a word?? Boulevard. Ugh.

Oh, Vulch, it was the number 3 

[Vulture]

Thanks Vulch, I suppose it's the same with all languages, English is the one I'm kind of fluent in. The brain is very clever at interpreting things. Look at NE1410S for example. Think it's a postcode? Look again - it's a sentence.  I've tried this but I can never get the bat to make contact with the ball!

I think being able to write words as they sound would take twice as long.

I received a quiz question yesterday (I don't know the answer) that said there is one word in the English language that has nine letters, and each time you remove a letter from it, the word that is left is another word in the English language. What is the original word and what are the words made from it? I bet that every word has a completely different meaning from the rest.

I also have words that I don't like... how can you not like a word?? Boulevard. Ugh.

Oh, Vulch, it was the number 3    Thanks. I couldn't sleep last night puzzling over it!

[Jack]

I received a quiz question yesterday (I don't know the answer) that said there is one word in the English language that has nine letters, and each time you remove a letter from it, the word that is left is another word in the English language. What is the original word and what are the words made from it?

I learned this as Startling, Starling, Staring, String, Sting, Sing, Sin, In, I

but a google search tells me that there are actually quite a few different answers. So I guess there's MORE than one word in the English language that these conditions apply to.