Wednesday, April 23, 2025

NativLang explains 'What English does - but most languages can't' on English Language Day for Wayback Wednesday

Happy Shakespeare's "Birthday" (actually the day he died) AKA Talk Like Shakespeare Day and English Language Day!
On April 23rd, English Language Day explores the development, history, and culture of the English tongue.
I return to NativLang for two videos about English, beginning with What English does - but most languages can't.

English has unusual linguistic features most other languages don't! These skills really make English unique compared to other languages around the world.
Josh R of NativLang began with English spelling, which I consider to be a bug, not a feature, unless one is using it to be snobby, which I did in I ask The Archdruid and his readers 'Can you show us on the doll exactly where the educated professionals hurt you?' A Festivus airing of grievances. Then it's a feature!

Passive voice could be either a bug or a feature. Use active voice for strong, interesting writing. Use passive voice to avoid responsibility!

Josh R of NativLang summarized all of English's rare characteristics in a table.



This doesn't even include English's many vowel sounds, which don't help with spelling!

As Josh R noted, this is a sequel to Features English is missing - but most other languages have.

Other languages have unique features that English just doesn't have access to. So, English, why don't you level up your skills with these linguistic tricks from around the world?
Here's Josh R's partial list.



I expressed my gratitude about something Josh R didn't list.
I'm glad you didn't mention gender for nouns or number for articles and adjectives in addition to nouns and verbs. The former can be arbitrary and not necessarily improving understanding and the latter would be redundant.

On the other hand, I think English could use a standard second person plural. Because I live near Detroit, I use y'all, but there are other ways of saying it. What do you use?

Follow over the jump for a retrospective of the relevant top post for today.

I covered last year's post in 'Star Trek: Strange New Worlds' for First Contact Day, a holiday special.

I shared NativLang explains 'What Shakespeare's English Sounded Like - and how we know' for Talk Like Shakespeare Day from April 23, 2024 at the Coffee Party USA/Citizen Connect Facebook page then Infidel753 linked to it at his blog. The two combined for 323 default and 342 raw page views, enough for the entry to rank second during April 2024, first among those posted during the month. It continued to gain readers, ending the 2024-2025 blogging year with 455 raw page views and ranking 25th among entries posted between March 21, 2024 and March 20, 2025 and 29th overall.
Stay tuned for Throwback Thursday. In the meantime, here is Wednesday Addams, the mascot for Wayback Wednesday.


 
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