I wonder if the Americans understand where the language originated.
Not only a problem for Americans, I think.
English is a West Germanic language in the Indo-European language family, with its earliest forms spoken by the inhabitants of early medieval England. It is named after the Angles, one of the ancient Germanic peoples that migrated to the island of Great Britain. Existing on a dialect continuum with Scots and then most closely related to the Low Saxon and Frisian languages, Modern English is genealogically Germanic. However, its vocabulary also shows major influences from (Norman) French (about 28% of English words) and Latin (also about 28%), numerous Greek borrowings, plus some grammar and a small amount of core vocabulary influenced by Old Norse (a North Germanic language). .
Early Modern English began in the late 15th century with the start of the Great Vowel Shift and the Renaissance trend of borrowing further Latin and Greek words and roots into English, concurrent with the introduction of the printing press to London. This era notably culminated in the King James Bible and the works of William Shakespeare. The printing press greatly standardized spelling across the many dialects -- spellings which are mostly unchanged since then, despite a wide variety of later sound shifts.
Modern English has spread around the world since the 17th century as a consequence of the worldwide influence of the British Empire and the United States of America. Through all types of printed and electronic media in these countries, English has become the leading language of international discourse and the lingua franca in many regions and professional contexts such as science, navigation, and law.
English is the most spoken language in the world and the third most spoken native language in the world, after Standard Chinese and Spanish. It is the most widely learned second language and is either the official language or one of the official languages in 59 sovereign states.
There are more people who have learned English as a second language than there are native speakers. As of 2005, it was estimated that there were over two billion speakers of English. English is the majority native language in the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and the Republic of Ireland and is widely spoken in some areas of the Caribbean, Africa, South Asia, Southeast Asia, and Oceania. It is a co-official language of the United Nations, the European Union, and many other international and regional organisations.
English is a living language and will vary over time although geographically at different rates as evidenced by spelling differences in UK and American English.
Every Country will embed their own vernacular into a local Version of English. Written Australian English is often not well understood outside of Australasia and even less so when it is spoken with our variety of accents.
And we come to Chihuahua English with its division of common and rare. There appears to be two specious arguments, “
I have/have not heard the word before” and “
The word was only used by x% of players in a particular puzzle” and therefore ought to be reclassified or excluded.
With the wisdom of Solomon and the patience of Job, Alan handles the few substantial, along with the many trivial and inconsequential, suggestions.
I am quite happy to stay well out of it.
