Aeon - English Is Not Normal
This long-form article traces the history of English from its Celtic origins in England up to today. Throughout the piece, author makes examples of the weirdness of English, for instance the weird conjugations of verbs and the unique usage of the verb "do" in questions and as filler in sentences like "I do walk". The Celts were conquered by Germanic peoples (Anglos, Saxons, Jutes), but their language wasn't eradicated but because the Celts outnumbered their conquerors. Thus, Old English was mainly spoken by Celts, creating the fist mixture of Celtic and German. The Celts used "do" in the unique way that we still do in English. Later (9th century), Norsemen came into England aplenty, but married locally and tried to speak the Old English. The subsequent generations of these poor English speakers changed the language further. Much later, Normans invaded England and spoke French. The language received a "firehose" of roughly 10,000 new words, many of which created doublets and triplets of existing (approximate) meanings; compare "kingly" "royal" and "regal". Lastly, scholars in the 15th century adopted Latin as more sophisticated, and added even more vocabulary ("regal") to the language. Greek came into the picture with scientific usage in the 18th-19th century, making etymology even more complex. The long article is worthy of a read for a relativistic and historical perspective on language, particularly the peculiarity of English.
