Another one of the endearing and maddening things about the English language is its ridiculously huge vocabulary. Having once ruled half the world, the language of the British brought home a lot of souvenirs which became keepsakes and finally heirlooms which took up residence in the Oxford Dictionary.
That's one reason that there are too many words in English. A more recent reason is that, even after the sun did finally set on Empire, the English language is the language of globalism and so will continue to absorb all kinds of influences. However, the English have had a romance with vocabulary ever since the Norman Conquest of 1066 brought a tide of French and Latin into the language. Suddenly the English language was dancing with several partners, and soon the Saxon peasantry could barely understand a word their overlords uttered, even on the rare occasions when it was uttered in English. PROBLEMS WITH TOO MANY WORDS IN ENGLISH? PETER THE PROOFER IS CHEAP AND FAST, BUT NOT CHEAP AND NASTY!
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December 2017
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