Why is English so difficult? Because English is a patchwork language, assembled like Frankenstein's monster from the remains of other languages – German, French, Latin, Greek, and more. This explains the silent letters, inconsistent spelling, and rare sounds that frustrate learners worldwide.
Why do we have silent letters in knife and lamb? Why does ough sound different in through, tough, cough, and bough? The answer lies in English's turbulent linguistic history.
Picture this: In a laboratory, a scientist stitches together parts from different corpses and brings his creation to life. The result? A powerful creature assembled from disparate pieces that grows beyond its creator's control. Sound familiar? That's essentially how English developed.
Like Frankenstein's monster, English is a patchwork creature assembled from other languages' remains. And like the fictional creation, it has grown beyond anyone's expectations, dominating the global business world. But English bears the scars of its violent assembly – explaining why our students find it so beautifully, maddeningly complex.
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The origins of the English language are truly fascinating and diverse, but here’s a quick breakdown for context:
The Germanic Bones: Anglo-Saxon settlers provided English with its skeletal structure – basic grammar and everyday words like house, water, love, and work. These Germanic bones still support everything we say.
The Norman French Organs: The 1066 Norman Conquest performed major surgery, transplanting thousands of French words. English suddenly had sophisticated vocabulary for government (parliament, justice), culture (art, literature), and cuisine (dinner, sauce).
The Latin Blood: Latin flows through English veins via legal terms (contract, liability), academic language (university, professor), and formal vocabulary.
The Greek Brain: For scientific thinking, English borrowed Greek neural pathways: telephone, democracy, psychology, technology.
Modern Transplants: English continues evolving, accepting transplants from dozens of languages – entrepreneur (French), kindergarten (German), tsunami (Japanese). Dutch maritime expertise gave English essential sailing vocabulary: yacht (jacht), skipper (schipper), deck (dek), cruise (kruisen), plus everyday words like landscape (landschap), cookie (koekje), and boss (baas).
Understanding why English is difficult requires traveling through Britain's turbulent history – repeated invasions that each scarred the language.
Celtic Foundation (Pre-55 BC): Celtic tribes spoke languages related to modern Welsh and Irish. Few Celtic words survived in English, mainly in place names: Thames, Dover, London.
Roman Occupation (43-410 AD): Four centuries of Roman rule planted Latin seeds: street (Latin strata), wall (vallum), wine (vinum).
Anglo-Saxon Settlement (5th-6th centuries): Germanic tribes – Angles, Saxons, Jutes – brought the language that became English. They provided core grammar and vocabulary: be, have, go, come, good, bad. Crucially, they brought the distinctive "th" sound that challenges modern learners.
Viking Raids (8th-11th centuries): Scandinavian Vikings settled northern England. Their Old Norse blended with Anglo-Saxon, giving us sky, egg, knife, husband, they. Old Norse reinforced the "th" sound while other Germanic languages lost it – explaining why English learners struggle with sounds that barely exist elsewhere.
The Norman Conquest (1066): Here's where our Frankenstein story turns dramatic. William the Conqueror's victory didn't just change politics – it performed linguistic surgery. For 300 years, French dominated the ruling class while Anglo-Saxon remained the language of the “common people.” This created a linguistic class system haunting English today:
Germanic words sound direct and earthy (ask, help, start); French-Latin words sound formal (inquire, assist, commence). Business English ranges from folksy to fancy – we can choose between medieval peasants' and nobles' vocabulary.
Then English traveled to America and developed further:
American English preserved features closer to Shakespeare's pronunciation than modern British English. Americans still pronounce "r" in father and water (as Shakespeare did), while British English dropped this in the 18th century.
However, neither modern American nor British English sounds like Shakespeare's – both evolved significantly since the 1600s. There's no living museum of Elizabethan English anywhere.
How did this patchwork monster become the global business language?
Understanding English as Frankenstein's monster explains why English is difficult:
This linguistic creature, assembled from centuries of contact and conquest, became business history's most powerful communication tool. It's stitched together from different languages, but like Frankenstein's creation, English developed its own life and intelligence.
This Halloween, embrace the monster. Yes, English is frustratingly inconsistent – but it's our global language. Understanding its chaotic history makes working with it less maddening, more fascinating. When you know why English behaves this way, you stop fighting the monster and start working with it.
Happy Halloween from The English Center! May your business English be monstrously effective.
The story of Frankenstein is such a beloved classic that audiences are spoiled for choice when it comes to movie adaptations (and parodies)! Here's the trailer for the 1931 film with Boris Karloff:
For a parody that's a cult classic in its own right, check out Young Frankenstein:
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Authors: Brenda de Jong-Pauley, MA, Director, The English Center and Alexandra Roberts, BA, English trainer.
