English: A Broken Language?

[Victoriaans Nederlands]

Isn't there a specific term for conlangs that use the native speaker's language's grammar?

Umm, I forgot the specific word.

[Sovaal]

Didnt help that several times it was held against it's will and had extra vocab injected into it...

And that's how you get the Black sheep Germanic language kid.

Those naughty Normans!

Twice the Northmen have defiled our shores!

[New haven america]

Considering millions upon millions of people have been able to either learn it naturally (Native speakers) or have been able to learn it later in life (Non-natives), then I'd say it perfectly functional as a language.

[Len Hyet]

This is the second time I have heard this assertion in a week.

Ok, imagine correcting someone on english but not understanding that english is a broken language. Guys, I love commas, they make my world go round. Tell me why english isn't a broken language.

English is not a broken language because there are millions of people across the world -- 1,500 million, with only 375 million being native speakers -- who manage to learn the rules and use it effectively.

English is the language Shakespeare, Chaucer, J.K. Rowling, Ian Fleming, Chinua Achebe, and Charlotte Bronte wrote in -- writers who are very widely read even hundreds of years after their deaths, in some cases. The English of the King James version of the Bible is some of the most beautiful and lyrical -- shall we even say naughty -- language there is:

Cant.7
[1] How beautiful are thy feet with shoes, O prince's daughter! the joints of thy thighs are like jewels, the work of the hands of a cunning workman.
[2] Thy navel is like a round goblet, which wanteth not liquor: thy belly is like an heap of wheat set about with lilies.
[3] Thy two breasts are like two young roes that are twins.
[4] Thy neck is as a tower of ivory; thine eyes like the fishpools in Heshbon, by the gate of Bath-rabbim: thy nose is as the tower of Lebanon which looketh toward Damascus.
[5] Thine head upon thee is like Carmel, and the hair of thine head like purple; the king is held in the galleries.
[6] How fair and how pleasant art thou, O love, for delights!
[7] This thy stature is like to a palm tree, and thy breasts to clusters of grapes.
[8] I said, I will go up to the palm tree, I will take hold of the boughs thereof: now also thy breasts shall be as clusters of the vine, and the smell of thy nose like apples;
[9] And the roof of thy mouth like the best wine for my beloved, that goeth down sweetly, causing the lips of those that are asleep to speak.
[10] I am my beloved's, and his desire is toward me.
[11] Come, my beloved, let us go forth into the field; let us lodge in the villages.
[12] Let us get up early to the vineyards; let us see if the vine flourish, whether the tender grape appear, and the pomegranates bud forth: there will I give thee my loves.
[13] The mandrakes give a smell, and at our gates are all manner of pleasant fruits, new and old, which I have laid up for thee, O my beloved. -- Song of Solomon

Those who call it broken while not capitalizing "english' as a proper noun, those who say they love commas and then abuse them with reckless abandon, those who intersperse their posts with 'lol's to fill the gaps in their arguments, those who do not understand that paragraphing is a simple enough prospect: that different ideas require new paragraphs.... yea, verily, I say unto you, that it is not English that is broken but your grasp of the rules of English.

However, despite the beauty of the language and its proliferation across the world over the centuries, it does possess a number of irregularities (as do other languages). Some cite its difficulty in learning the rules as its proof of being 'broken'; Mandarin with its tonality and pictograms might arguably be quite a bit more difficult, yet no one claims it is broken

What do you think? Is English a broken language? Why or why not?

It's true, English is a beautiful language.

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil, for I am the baddest motherfucker in the valley.

That's how that goes right?

[Sovaal]

Isn't there a specific term for conlangs that use the native speaker's language's grammar?

Umm, I forgot the specific part.

What it is is that among the conlang comunity I think there is a specific term for such languages, such as the dragon languag fro Skyrim, which uses English grammar and simply replaces words.

[Katganistan]

Those naughty Normans!

Twice the Northmen have defiled our shores!

Well, sure, them too. Very horny guys, Vikings. Just never wore horned hats.

[The Blaatschapen]

Those naughty Normans!

Twice the Northmen have defiled our shores!

D-day was not about beating those Germans. It was merely payback time to the Normans.

And the British liked rolling on the beach so much, that they've continued to do this ever since. Spain is a popular victim especially

[Len Hyet]

Twice the Northmen have defiled our shores!

Well, sure, them too. Very horny guys, Vikings. Just never wore horned hats.

Are you saying Hollywood lied to me?

[Sovaal]

Twice the Northmen have defiled our shores!

Well, sure, them too. Very horny guys, Vikings. Just never wore horned hats.

First was the Danelaw, then the Norman invasion. Because, y'know, Norman-Northman.

French speaking vikings, goddamit!

[Katganistan]

Twice the Northmen have defiled our shores!

D-day was not about beating those Germans. It was merely payback time to the Normans.

And the British liked rolling on the beach so much, that they've continued to do this ever since. Spain is a popular victim especially

Well let's face it: British weather is pretty.... dismal.
Who WOULDN'T want to lounge around on the Mediterranean?

[Sovaal]

Well, sure, them too. Very horny guys, Vikings. Just never wore horned hats.

Are you saying Hollywood lied to me?

Yes. George Washington never had a knife fight with Hitler atop an active volcano. Sorry.

[Katganistan]

Well, sure, them too. Very horny guys, Vikings. Just never wore horned hats.

Are you saying Hollywood lied to me?

I'm afraid so. Also opera, and Bugs Bunny.

[The Blaatschapen]

D-day was not about beating those Germans. It was merely payback time to the Normans.

And the British liked rolling on the beach so much, that they've continued to do this ever since. Spain is a popular victim especially

Well let's face it: British weather is pretty.... dismal.
Who WOULDN'T want to lounge around on the Mediterranean?

I went for a job in Berlin rather than Malta or Barcelona *cries*

[Len Hyet]

Are you saying Hollywood lied to me?

Yes. George Washington never had a knife fight with Hitler atop an active volcano. Sorry.

Bullshit that happened. I was there.

Are you saying Hollywood lied to me?

I'm afraid so. Also opera, and Bugs Bunny.

Not Bugs! Say it ain't so!

[Katganistan]

Are you saying Hollywood lied to me?

Yes. George Washington never had a knife fight with Hitler atop an active volcano. Sorry.

But Lincoln WAS a vampire hunter. *nods sagely*

[Victoriaans Nederlands]

What it is is that among the conlang comunity I think there is a specific term for such languages, such as the dragon languag fro Skyrim, which uses English grammar and simply replaces words.

Ahh, so it's actually English in grammar, just that the new "language" uses new words. I think it depends on your Mother Tongue too.

If Skyrim is made by the Japanese, for example, the dragon language will probably have Japanese grammar.

[Pasong Tirad]

Well let's face it: British weather is pretty.... dismal.
Who WOULDN'T want to lounge around on the Mediterranean?

I went for a job in Berlin rather than Malta or Barcelona *cries*

Malta's a mafia state and Barcelona's pretty hectic. I think you dodged a bullet there.

[New haven america]

Are you saying Hollywood lied to me?

Yes. George Washington never had a knife fight with Hitler atop an active volcano. Sorry.

Wait, so you're saying the Ben Franklin didn't use the power of electricity to power his rail gun and use it to attack Napoleon?

[Sovaal]

Yes. George Washington never had a knife fight with Hitler atop an active volcano. Sorry.

Wait, so you're saying the Ben Franklin didn't use the power of electricity to power his rail gun and use it to attack Napoleon?

No, he used his patented key-kite mech suit to fight Napoleons fire-dragon

[New United States of Columbia]

Wait, so you're saying the Ben Franklin didn't use the power of electricity to power his rail gun and use it to attack Napoleon?

No, he used his patented key-kite mech suit to fight Napoleons fire-dragon

Don’t forget Thomas Jefferson and his army of Gorilla’s fighting King George III in his mech suit.

[Sanctissima]

English is filthy Germanic barbari speak, insufficiently blessed with the glorious Latin tongue. Granted, it has a certain rudimentary linguistic appeal in terms of versatility and ease of use, but it lacks the finer beauty of its Romance brethren, and is, to be quite frank, a very rough-sounding language. Basically latinized Swamp German.

Also, Shakespeare is highly overrated. The eternal bard my ass.

[Katganistan]

Ahem.

English please?

[Katganistan]

English is filthy Germanic barbari speak, insufficiently blessed with the glorious Latin tongue. Granted, it has a certain rudimentary linguistic appeal in terms of versatility and ease of use, but it lacks the finer beauty of its Romance brethren, and is, to be quite frank, a very rough-sounding language. Basically latinized Swamp German.

Also, Shakespeare is highly overrated. The eternal bard my ass.

Wow, I thought he was dead, but you've been keeping him under your.... hat all this time?

[Pasong Tirad]

English is filthy Germanic barbari speak, insufficiently blessed with the glorious Latin tongue. Granted, it has a certain rudimentary linguistic appeal in terms of versatility and ease of use, but it lacks the finer beauty of its Romance brethren, and is, to be quite frank, a very rough-sounding language. Basically latinized Swamp German.

Also, Shakespeare is highly overrated. The eternal bard my ass.

How dare you.

[Luziyca]

Well, it may seem broken to some, but honestly, I'm sure that for generations, people have been saying the same goddamned thing about Chinese/French/Arabic/Latin/Greek/Aramaic/Akkadian/Sumerian/insert lingua-franca here.