English is really funny

[Applegate]

Fun Fact:
Modern English is the bastard child of Germanic and Latin.

And French, and whatever the Vikings spoke...

[Wright1000]

This may be a bit off the topic, but this is a very interesting joke.
Once, GB Shaw was in a meeting where people were sharing their views about money. GB Shaw remarked that if the price is right, a normal person will be willing to do anything, to surrender anything, even honor. A lady protested, "That's not right."
Shaw replied, "If I give you a million dollars, right now, will you sleep with me?"
The lady replied, "Yes, for a million dollars, why not?"
"Then will you do it for one dollar?"
The lady replied, "What do you think I am, a prostitute?"
Shaw replied, "That has already been confirmed. But we are talking about the price now."
The lady was left tongue-tied!

[Taleweaver]

It the people of Turkey are called Turks, why aren't the people of Germany called Germs?

As I child, I had a lot of fun with the fact that Indians could come both from India and the U.S... though the latter are called "Native Americans" now.

[Wright1000]

It the people of Turkey are called Turks, why aren't the people of Germany called Germs?

As I child, I had a lot of fun with the fact that Indians could come both from India and the U.S... though the latter are called "Native Americans" now.

Yeah, I was really confused about that too (some years ago). When the native Americans were called "Indians" in movies or games, I thought maybe they were my ancestors. But they looked so different and spoke different languages we couldn't even understand. Later, I understood that they were a different class of "Indians".

[Auro-Cyanide]

It the people of Turkey are called Turks, why aren't the people of Germany called Germs?

As I child, I had a lot of fun with the fact that Indians could come both from India and the U.S... though the latter are called "Native Americans" now.

Yeah, I was really confused about that too (some years ago). When the native Americans were called "Indians" in movies or games, I thought maybe they were my ancestors. But they looked so different and spoke different languages we couldn't even understand. Later, I understood that they were a different class of "Indians".

As legend goes, that is because Columbus thought he had gotten to India (he thought he could get there faster by going in the opposite direction from usual). Instead he had landed in America and mistakenly called the natives 'Indians'. Probably confused the hell out of everyone at that point.

[Wright1000]

As legend goes, that is because Columbus thought he had gotten to India (he thought he could get there faster by going in the opposite direction from usual). Instead he had landed in America and mistakenly called the natives 'Indians'. Probably confused the hell out of everyone at that point.

I must disagree with that.
At that time, our India was not called India. It was called "Bharat" or "Hindustan".
"Hind" is the short for of Hindustan.
When British invaded India, instead of saying "Hind", they said "Ind" which soon became "India".
And Christopher Columbus was born long before that.

[Auro-Cyanide]

As legend goes, that is because Columbus thought he had gotten to India (he thought he could get there faster by going in the opposite direction from usual). Instead he had landed in America and mistakenly called the natives 'Indians'. Probably confused the hell out of everyone at that point.

I must disagree with that.
At that time, our India was not called India. It was called "Bharat" or "Hindustan".
"Hind" is the short for of Hindustan.
When British invaded India, instead of saying "Hind", they said "Ind" which soon became "India".
And Christopher Columbus was born long before that.

That is why I said 'As legend goes'. However, Columbus did reach America by trying to get to the East Indies, which was known to Europe since the Silk Road existed.

Never admitting that he had reached a continent previously unknown to Europeans, rather than the East Indies he had set out for, Columbus called the inhabitants of the lands he visited indios (Spanish for "Indians").

Columbus was Italian and worked for the Spainish. Are you sure it was the British that tagged India India? From my reading, it would seem the area was know as East Indies long before the British colonised. I'm not sure, I am only vaguly aware of that period of history.

[Wright1000]

I'm not sure what name the the Europeans used.
But India was known at "Hindustan" by most Asian countries at that time.

Back on the topic: If the plural of ox is oxen, why isn't the plural of box boxen?

[LVUER]

Really, I think we should stop talking about how funny English is. It's not funny anymore (not that I'm siding with English), it's starting to get old... unless someone have another fresh good joke about English.

Example about how funny other language is. In Indonesia, dashing/cool (for man) is "gagah". Add a prefix and suffix -> "men-gagah-i"/"mengagahi". What do you think it becomes? It shouldn't be far away from dashing/cool, right? Dead wrong. The meaning is now "to rape". Awesome, huh!? (-__-)

[Wright1000]

Really, I think we should stop talking about how funny English is. It's not funny anymore (not that I'm siding with English), it's starting to get old... unless someone have another fresh good joke about English.

Example about how funny other language is. In Indonesia, dashing/cool (for man) is "gagah". Add a prefix and suffix -> "men-gagah-i"/"mengagahi". What do you think it becomes? It shouldn't be far away from dashing/cool, right? Dead wrong. The meaning is now "to rape". Awesome, huh!? (-__-)

Just because you are not finding any interest in this, doesn't mean that it's boring.
It's true that for most people this is all rubbish.
Just like if someone tries to teach me some chemistry formulas, it will be all boring for me.
In the same way, only some people, especially English writers can understand the funny side of English. For others, its boring.

[Gear]

Example about how funny other language is. In Indonesia, dashing/cool (for man) is "gagah". Add a prefix and suffix -> "men-gagah-i"/"mengagahi". What do you think it becomes? It shouldn't be far away from dashing/cool, right? Dead wrong. The meaning is now "to rape". Awesome, huh!? (-__-)

O_o Oi. It's that kind of thing that scares people trying to learn foreign languages.

This still ties in with English a bit, but apparently American Sign Language is based off French Sign Language, and they have 70% of their signs in common. But if a British Sign Language 'speaker' and someone who 'speaks' ASL try to talk, they'll only have 1% of their signs in common (to include the alphabet signs), so communication is virtually impossible that way, despite them both speaking a...I suppose dialect...of English.

[PyTom]

But if a British Sign Language 'speaker' and someone who 'speaks' ASL try to talk, they'll only have 1% of their signs in common (to include the alphabet signs), so communication is virtually impossible that way, despite them both speaking a...I suppose dialect...of English.

IIRC, ASL isn't really a dialect of English, but it's own language - albeit one that can incorporate English words via fingerspelling.

[HigurashiKira]

It's a miracle no one has posted Abbot and Costello's "Who's on First?"



Layman's explination here.
ONLY READ IT IF YOU DO NOT GET THE JOKE

And another english joke:
"An airplane employee named John Gay is taking a flight using one of the free tickets he gets from his job. Not liking his assigned seat, he switches with someone else. Unfortunately, the plane is overbooked, so the flight attendant has to go and ask people to give up their seats, starting with holders of free tickets. She asks the man who took Mr. Gay's seat "Are you Gay?" He says "Well, yes, miss, I am." She says, "You'll have to give up your seat." Realizing what happened, the actual John Gay stands up and says "no, no, I'm Gay." A third man stands up and says "Hell, I'm gay too. They can't throw all of us off the plane." "

[Taleweaver]

Modern version of above:

(Though not so modern anymore, but it still works...)

[Aleema]

Something that has bothered me since I was a little girl (because my parents would take advantage of it) is the phrase "Do you mind?" The positive response is "no", and the negative is, "yes." Yes, I would mind if you sat there. No, I don't mind if you take the chair. But it seems to me that people have to take an extra second to process when I say "no" instead of "sure" or "go ahead". It's like ... I have to say the wrong thing for people just to understand me, or make overly dramatic hand gestures and smile as big as I can to let them know I'm answering positively. It seems the only good response to this question is the wrong one, and that bothers me sometimes.