english

One reason English has such flexibility for nimble descriptions–but which makes it difficult to learn–is the amount of synonyms. A main reason for this is the parallel streams of vocabulary from either Old English or from French.

core memory: Learning this from a middle-school textbook [loved it not just for being packed with snazzy info but because it was smaller and squarer]. I think it was called Writers Inc. Cowlike/bovine is the example that stood out. I was sat on the same side of the room as I was when I spied a classmate’s beginning German textbook and was immediately fascinated by the vocabulary. That was the year at the end of the year that I had to choose a foreign language to study the next year and I made a last-minute switch from French to German.

I still laugh at the flyer the high school counselor handed me and asked me to pass around to encourage other people to sign up for German. The main takeaway was “German is easy to learn! Look at these words! Fisch/fish. Milch/milk.” Ah hauh.* Gestern haben wir den ganzen Auflauf gegessen. All of those words are clear, right?

*Trying to orthographically represent the skeptical “uh huh” performed by Succession characters and by Rupaul when hearing contestants in the workshop explaining questionable ideas. >>’Ah hah’ looks misleadingly like “Ah ha!” ‘Ah huh’ looks like a typo and does not represent the crucial vowel change of that ‘huh’that makes it sound extra skeptical. And, knowing that English speakers usually pronounce <au> as [ah] (eg history teacher called it the Peace of Aaaahgsburg isntead of Owgsburg even though he apparently “spoke some German”), I am electing hauh.