Why is English such a difficult language for foreign learners? Why is it difficult for our own Native citizens? We have troubles with phonics and spelling many words. Why do you think that is? I have a theory about this.
Think about what the Unites States really is.... a giant melting-pot of people...
When foreigners first came to this country, they brought some of the French and Spanish languages here.
From physical proof found in my state of Oklahoma, there were also Nordic people living here... another language group. Did the Natives pick up some of their language? That being said, don't forget that all the tribes of our indigenous people had their own tribal languages, as well as their sign language too.
So, when the English finally made a successful colony here, we were already far established as a land of many tongues. Having new English settlers in the land already full of languages didn't stop all other languages from being spoken and used.. The English were a great and powerful influence here, so this is what our official language became- or is it?
When the first English colony was started, it was called Jamestown. English alright... but it failed. What did we learn from this besides the obvious? Some foreign language... What you say? Yes. You do recall Pocahontas and her tribe of relatives? The English were being introduced to some of our future American English. No doubt that the British English has had a large part to play, but it is not the end all.The first settlers were introduced to names of people and places that already had names... Non-English names.
When the Pilgrims started a successful colony in what they called Plymouth, they had already learned some of the New English. The Pilgrims themselves added to this new language. They weren't all English speakers... some had lived in Holland for years and I'm betting some of the Dutch language traveled with them. Am I guessing? I don't think so. I started learning some Dutch and I was a bit surprised that we have a lot of cognates. Hmmm.
LET ME CONTINUE TO EXPLAIN FURTHER- So these "new Americans" needed a bit of help to survive and who came along but Squanto. He had been captured by English traders and spent years in England- learning their language. He didn't forget his though. Notice I said traders, yes the Native Americans were being visited by traders and some of their language was being introduced to the tribes .Nordic, French, Russian that we know of... Hmmmm, again.
So, the New Americans were being taught the local tribes names and place names by a Native American who knew some of the Queen's English so to speak..... They renamed some places as the colonies increased, but most of those place names and tribal names were and are still there. OKay, okay I'm getting to it soon.
So then immigrants from Germany and Scandinavia came over and started colonies in New York and weren't even found for years. Bet they weren't speaking English. Some moved to Pennsylvania. We now have a group of remnant who we call Amish. They have their own original native language born and bred in the USA. It's a MIX of English, German and Dutch. All that time alone in the NY colony resulted in this new language. This is now being called Pennsylvania Dutch or Penn. German, but it's birthplace was here. It's official!
Immigrants from Scotland and Ireland came over too- some by force and they didn't leave their languages at home. WE even had a successful French colony in the deep South.French people were in the mid-west until the Louisiana Purchase. So place names, tribes that have learned some French from traders and trappers.. Hmmm... This story is really getting mixed up isn't it? Are you getting it yet?
WEll, we still have immigrants coming over to this day, and that's part of the reason this country is so interesting. Do other countries have a similar story? Sure they do,but maybe not to this extent. So what am I getting at anyway? Have you figured this out yet?
American English is not totally English, Native, French, Dutch, German etc...It's not really English at all.... It's a British English that had early Native, French, Spanish, Nordic,Dutch and other influences. Then all the immigrants brought their own languages over with them and names of foods, words of importance came with them and were handed down the generations of family members.
So now we have more regional differences because of large groups of immigrants settling in certain future states. Does this influence our language? I say YES. Let's look at the "Pennsylfanian Deitsch" group that we call Amish. They had a mixture of several German dialects come together in their group and it became a new language. English speaks misunderstood or mispronounced the German word for "German"= Deutsch for "Dutch". So this happened a few times with all the new languages and names being brought over. etc etc etc
Do we have a pure English dialect in North America? Not in my opinion.
You see, in my 40 something years in this country as a Native "English" speaker, I have found a few interesting words in my vocabulary. My parents would tell us kids to not "Gobble" our food down too quickly. ?? That's the sound a turkey makes. That's just weird. I never really thought about it too much until I started learning some other languages. "Gaffel" happens to be a word that means fork in several Scandinavian languages. The spelling differs but it is fork.
Of course my own state's name is not English. Oklahoma is a Native word from the Choctaw Tribe meaning " red people". Not English again..... My hometown is named after a Creek Indian Tribal Chief. Again not English. The state of Florida is a Spanish word. How much French do we speak and not even realize it? Do you see what's happened?
THIS is why American English is known to be only about 85 % phonetic..... It has other languages MIXED INTO IT. It's not English, but it's a Pidgin English that has evolved into a NEW English imho because I do believe that the British English was the overall main influencing language.
What's
Pidgin?
If you live in the USA, take a look at your state name, towns and cities, street names.... what language are they from? Now do that 50 times over.
When a foreign student is learning English, heck when WE learn English...no one realizes that many words that we are trying to plug into a English phonetic system are not, in base, truly English. Therefore problems happen.
Remember that word "gobbel" that sounds an awful lot like the Scandinavian word for fork "gaffel"? Well. my mother's grandfather immigrated from Wales- but before that he immigrated from Belgium , where he was born. I am still researching this branch of her family tree. A cousin recently had a DNA test done. Guess what? Results are.. "Mostly Danish". Hmmmm "gaffel"..... fork... "Children don't eat your food too fast with that FORK." Don't gobble that food. Hmmmm.
Maybe you didn't hear "Don't gobble your food". I bet you heard something else, somewhere in your youth....
What if we all did our family Genealogy and found similar words in our own family's vocabularies, then we taught them to our kids and grandkids. Do you see what's happened here? We have a changed, perverted, or pidin English on our hands. Nothing wrong or bad with that- it's actually quite beautiful and romantic. It's NOT pure-
BUT, as foreign students are learning ENGLISH, they expect a true form of English...and when they finally arrive here, or watch our TV shows, movies etc, or try to communicate with a Native American English speaker or navigate a town.... it doesn't always plug in just right for them. I'm almost sure that British English has some East Indian and African additions also based on it's history. Therefore those same countries surely has English additions as well.
Did I mention my dad was part Cherokee? He worked with some Creek Indians in his youth and he had to say "salt" and "pepper" in the Creek language or they wouldn't pass them to him at the lunch hour. I know these words also and they were used occasionally at the dinner table. I have since tried to look these words up, and it turns out they are not the Creek words for salt and pepper. I think a joke was played on my dad and his co workers. Who knows what they REALLY mean? But for us, they now mean -Dad's Creek "salt" and "pepper". Language is a living being imho. Remember this when you are learning a new one.
