By Susan Miles Gulbransen, Noozhawk Columnist | @noozhawknews
May 19, 2021
| 7:06 p.m.
The March column “What’s Behind English Words?” looked back on one of the craziest, complicated languages. Several specific responses attracted my attention. Many quotes are included below. May these informative thoughts add to your curiosity.
Early English started in the fifth century, but today’s version formed during William Shakespeare’s time in the 1600s. It rates among the highest of 6,500 languages around the world with 1.132 billion English speakers, slightly above the next three: Mandarin Chinese, Hindi and Spanish.
English has more than a million words with about a thousand added each year from other languages such as French, Latin, Italian, German, Dutch and Anglo-Saxon. Words often have ongoing changes, but many have become archaic, unused words.
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