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It's shocking how the English language has changed over time. You can compare the inflectional endings of the verb 'to love' and its Old English equivalent (lufian). Code:
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Reminds me of the time I tried to read Beowulf in the original OE. Then Piers Plowman and The Canterbury Tales in Middle English. Got through them, but it was a struggle.
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I really liked English historical grammar classes at my university. We would spend a week translating some parts of Beowulf into Modern English. Then our lecturer would prepare some basic sentences in Modern English and ask us to translate it into OE. It was quite difficult bearing in mind that English wasn't our first language, but I can't say I didn't enjoy it.
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Iceape hasnt :( |
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well for old english poem, might be romantic style ... :) :) :) |
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Ic lufie še :) |
we say :
"this is an useful ... " or "this is a useful" ? |
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When the following word begins with 'e' or 'o', you use 'an':
A tiger An elephant A dog An octopus. I think that /j/ in this case *is* considered to be a vowel -but it doesn't really matter- the rule I've given always works -well almost anyway. There are differences of opinion about the correct usage for cases like: A(n) humble man |
OK,what I want to know and hopefully it will be explained here is; why is it you have had,why it isn't you have only or you had.
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It all comes down to knowing the pronunciation of the word that follows. If the word starts with one of the following sounds: ɪ - important i: - eels e - elephant ʌ - onion a: - article ɒ - office u: - ooze ... and a few others. (Here's a complete vowel/consonant list with their pronunciation. http://www.oupchina.com.hk/dict/phonetic/home.html) Obviously, there are differences in pronunciation across the world, but there aren't many of them and the word 'humble' is just one of the very few examples where the above rule would be affected. The standard dictionary entry for the word 'humble' would be starting with 'h' and that's how you would hear it in most dialects of English, however, in some regions of the English-speaking world people pronounce it with the silent 'h' (some affinity for the French language?:)) |
The point of it is: not to have two syllables next to each other that are pronounced the same and are part of two different words. It just doesn't sound right and is hard to pronounce. You'll notice that, if you try to pronounce the two words, you'll need to leave an extra long pause between saying the two words, to avoid this the above fix was implemented.
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- I saw it (there's the sound 'r' between 'saw' and 'it': I saw /r/ it) - too often (too /w/ often) - Romeo /w/ and Juliet - She /j/ is... (edit: this is the sound /j/ as in Yes, Yesterday) |
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