Our English Language

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" rowspan="2" width=210 BGCOLOR="#99CC99" TEXT="#080000" bgproperties="fixed" background="03e8dfc3.jpg"> <div> <B>Only in English can we have noses that run and feet that smell.  </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>We can recite at a play, or play at a recital.  </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>We can ship by car and send cargo by ship. </B></div> <bR> <div> <B> We drive on parkways, and park on driveways.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>How can "quite a lot" and "quite a few" be similar, and  overlook and oversee be opposites?!?  </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>"Slim chance" and "fat chance" are the same!</B></div> <bR> <bR> </td> <td valign="top" colspan=2 height=82 BGCOLOR="#CCCC99" TEXT="#080000" bgproperties="fixed" background="03f8dfe1esnpes.jpg"> <div> <FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#336666" FACE="Arial" ><B>" Mickey on line"</B></FONT><B>     </B><B>|</B><B>     </B><A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE=" Mickey on line"><U><B>home</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id4.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="About Us"><U>About Us</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id5.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Down on the farm"><U>Down on the farm</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id6.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="More Information"><U>More Information</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id17.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="sands of time"><U>sands of time</U></A>   |   <B>Our English Language</B>   |   <A HREF="id18.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Eternal Truths"><U>Eternal Truths</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id35.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Peace that passes understanding"><U>Peace that passes understanding</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id36.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Quiet Time"><U>Quiet Time</U></A></div> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" height=398 colspan=2 BGCOLOR="#CCCC99" TEXT="#080000" bgproperties="fixed" background="03f8dfc3.jpg"> <div> <I>Our English Language</I></div> <div> English is the most widely used language in the history of the world.  </div> <div> Half of all books, and three-quarters of all international mail is in English (Quebec "francaphone nationalism" notwithsranding).</div> <bR> <div> Today 1 out of every 7 humans speak English.  No language has ever achieved such popularity in recorded history.</div> <bR> <div> English has a vocabulary of two million known words, the largest vocabulary of any known tounge, and a body of literature that has been descibed as the "noblest", including brilliant playwrites from the greats of history like William Shakespeare and George Bernard Shaw, to the modern generation incuding Neil Simon. </div> <bR> <div> Think of the best, and/or most famous novelists from Mark Twain to Charles Dickens... or the most popular ones, from Jane Austin to Stephen King... and the greatest poets in history, from Kipling to Whitman.   Again and again you will likely think of someone writting in English.</div> <bR> <div> Yet it is a crazy language. Your alarm goes "off" by going "on", only in English.  When stars are out they are visible, but when lights are out they're invisible..</div> <bR> <div> Only in English can the weather be "hot as hell" one day, and "cold as hell" the next.</div> <bR> <div> Is there pine or apple in pineapple?  A Guinea Pig is neither a pig, nor from Guinea. </div> <bR> <div> If the teacher taught, why don't we say the preacher praught?  We say one goose, two geese ... but not one moose and two meese.... one mouse,  two mice... how nice.    One index...two indices.   One kleenex, two...???</div> <bR> <div> Doesn't it seem loopy that we can make amends, but not one amend?  We can comb through the annals of history, but not one annal.</div> <bR> <div> ENGLISH CAN'T TOUCH CERTAIN SUBJECTS HOWEVER. </div> <div> We don't speak of a person who can cut the mustard, nor one who I WOULD touch with a ten foot pole.  Similarly, is anyone ever "a sung hero", "gruntled", ruly or peccable?</div> <bR> <div> When I "wind up" my watch, I get it started, but if I "wind up" here, I get it stopped.</div> <bR> <bR> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>