History of English (combined)

VictorSobakus Says:

Mar 27, 2012 - I'm sorry, but grammar is not "what the language is about" in your words, it's a branch of linguistics dealing solely with the structure of a language. Some of its other branches are phonetics, semantics, graphic, lexicology, each of them studies a part of what language is about.Now I can't get why would you state that speakers dont have to think about grammar. It's quite damn obvious we're talking about the learners, who quite damn obviously have to think about it. BUT NOT IN ENGLISH!

VictorSobakus Says:

Mar 27, 2012 - I cant see why would you involve other aspects of English and state they are difficult. Every language has more or less the same difficulties, if it isnt modal verbs it's stress or prefixes or sounds or what have you. But in English you basically have one major difficulty less - you can forget about the grammar and still be reasonably well understood. You probably dont get what I mean because you've never studied a language like Latin, Russian or Icelandic. I'm just repeating myself all over -_-

nulakiustha Says:

Mar 27, 2012 - I get what you mean coz i ve extensively studied Latin and Ancient Greek.Complex does not necessarily mean difficult and i m no stating that english is difficult.Difficulty is subjective to a large extent.I m just saying that every language has a grammar which involves the aspects i stated yesterday and need not be the kind of latin or whatever to be called a complex grammar.Grammar means how a specific language works and it also includes rules that sometimes you learn implicitly.

Kaedawn1 Says:

Mar 28, 2012 - I'm just enjoying this conversation about linguistics and grammar, almost as much as I enjoy these videos. Thanks for posting them, and thanks for talking about such an interesting subject on here! Kudos to you both! :)

neverlandfw Says:

Mar 29, 2012 - Not a single word about the thousands of english words that derive from the greek language? Pity.

Beastudios Says:

Mar 29, 2012 - Didn't Latin have a lot of Greek in it? Maybe that's why?

DMbellydanceMom Says:

Mar 30, 2012 - Love it all. Bring us more please!

neverlandfw Says:

Apr 1, 2012 - Not really. Taken from Wikipedia: "In a typical English dictionary of 80,000 words, which corresponds very roughly to the vocabulary of an educated English speaker, about 5% of the words are borrowed from Greek directly, and about 25% indirectly (if we count modern coinages from Greek roots as Greek)." So I would say this is quite an oversight from the maker of the video.

meikusje Says:

Apr 10, 2012 - It's probably because most Germanic languages were influenced greatly by Latin and Greek, but as this short is about English, and not about languages that existed in Britain before it was Britain, it's not that strange that Latin and Greek are not mentioned explicitly. Because after the Anglo-Saxons, Latin and Greek haven't had direct influence on the English language.

4ingP Says:

Apr 16, 2012 - Dammit, I just watched parts 1 through 10 individually just to find out I didn't have to.

JoinTheHabbit Says:

Apr 23, 2012 - nothing wrong with that, but german has a similar connection to english and you don't see german people obsessing over that do you? it's not meant to be critizising, but claiming france to be the most influential country gives me the feeling that frankph5 sees the use of language as a competition between countries, as many french-men do -that is actually a stereotype we austrian people have about the french, but in this case i see it proves to be true and that saddans me :(

VictorSobakus Says:

Apr 23, 2012 - Actually German has had near to none influence on English, its Old Norse that did. Language is pride of every nation, so it actually is a kind of competition. The French came and subjugated the English and their language, that's why they're "obsessing". I'm not saying I support such behaviour, but do they have the right? Yep, they do.

iqra nawaz Says:

Apr 25, 2012 - this is a nice and funny video

jennykjohnsonjj Says:

Apr 27, 2012 - Watched this in french in school and pissed myself laughing, especially when teacher explianed why we skipped the science chapter because we are just that mature!

jojoinhere Says:

May 9, 2012 - imho, this is great!

stevenvu Says:

May 12, 2012 - Firewall isn't a new word. It's used to describe a wall which stops fire from travelling.

frankph5 Says:

May 12, 2012 - French provides the base for more than 50% of the modern English vocabulary.

Roastsmaster Says:

May 14, 2012 - Such a charming video. Favorited.

CloverChoco Says:

May 15, 2012 - This is so smart and informative. I feel lucky finding this on accident. :D

leatherneck818 Says:

May 17, 2012 - lol 5:32

AaaBbbiiii91 Says:

May 18, 2012 - GLOBISH!!!! that is it the new name!!! :P

2000istheyear Says:

May 19, 2012 - Didn't Chaucer have a large effect on the use of the English language?

tmonine Says:

May 19, 2012 - You, my friend, are a starfruit.

numbchucking Says:

May 27, 2012 - That was brilliant!!