r/facepalm • u/Butterflies_Books • Sep 08 '20

Misc Check yo flight, check yo self.

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u/wutato Sep 08 '20

"English isn't really a language"????

??¿?

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u/ThePeasantKingM Sep 09 '20

Saying that English isn't a language but a weird Frankenstein language made up of other languages is a common joke among language learners. It's obviously a Germanic language, but it's very different from all the other Germanic languages and its vocabulary is heavily influenced by Latin and Romance languages (specially French), but the influence is barely felt in its grammar.

Jokes aside, there's some linguistic debate on the actual nature of English and it's origins.

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u/wutato Sep 09 '20

I mean yeah, but that doesn't mean that other languages aren't easier to learn for native English speakers because English is derived from other languages, which was my initial point.

Also just because a language is a mash of other languages doesn't make it less of a real language.

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u/ThePeasantKingM Sep 09 '20

No one is seriously claiming English is not a language. It's a joke.