Our Wonderful Language

The English language is wonderfully complex and expressive, partly because it has borrowed words from almost every other language that has ever been used.  Almost every day another word is added to our language.  Sometimes the words are taken directly from another language and put into everyday use.  After September 11, for example, jihad became one of our adopted words.  Most of the words that come into common use do so for more pleasant reasons, however.  For example, the Spanish words, hasta la vista (often with baby) came into everyday use after the movie, The Terminator.  Almost everyone has at one time or another used the words adios, ciao, aloha, sayanara, skol or gracias and although they are still not officially English words, it is only a matter of time.  The words denim, algebra and mascara are all taken directly from other languages, yet who disputes the fact that they are now ours?  Other additions to the language are made up on the spot to accommodate new technology or conditions.  Words such at byte, modem and fax (no longer just an abbreviation) are obviously just a few years old but not long ago in terms of the evolution of language words like genetics, in vitro and calculator were new.  Who would give you an abacus if you asked for a calculator today?  Other words apparently come into use because they sound more impressive than the alternatives.  Take pyromaniac, for example.  Even as rich as English is though, some words still have to spread themselves over fairly wide territory.  What does depression mean?  Now put one of these words before depression and you'll see what I mean -- tropical, major or economic.  Then we have rock (a baby), rock (boulder), and rock (music)  and we have fly (in a plane), fly (a bug), and fly (zipper). On the other hand, it seems that some sounds are easier to make so we use them even when we have to spell them differently -- like flu, flue and flew.  Since so many of our words are adopted, spelling and pronunciation don't always follow clear rules.  Some of my favorite examples were featured on "I Love Lucy" sometime in the fifties.  Ricky was reading to little Ricky and encountered the words through, tough, bough and thought.  Then we have there, their, they're and words that sound very similar but have different meantings such as, win, wen and when, wine and whine,  wind (a clock,) wined and whined. As if that didn't make English difficult enough for someone who wasn't born into it, many words are used in ways not intended.  Once when an exchange student was living with us my daughter asked her to "hold on" and when the student looked baffled my daughter repeated it slowly and loudly a few times until I intervened and said "wait."  And what does "now then" mean?  As in, "Now then, where did I put that paper?"

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