English is a crazy language
Many Thai people wonder why with only 21 consonants and 5 vowels English still remains a nut to crack - compared to the Thai language with 44 consonants and 32 vowels. Then I remembered my CAMELTA prospectus which says - there is neither egg in eggplant nor ham in hamburger, neither apple nor pine in pineapple. English muffins were not invented in England, or French fries in France.
Sweetmeats are candies while sweetbreads, which aren't sweet, are meat. If we explore the paradoxes of English we find that quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square and a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig. And why is it that writers write but fingers don't fing, grocers groce but hammers don't ham?
If the plural of tooth is teeth, why isn't the plural of booth - beeth? One goose, two geese, so one moose two meese? One index, two indices? doesn't it seem crazy that you can make amends but not one amend? If you have a bunch of odds and ends and get rid of all but one of them, what do you call it? If teachers taught, why doesn't preachers praught? If the vegetarian eats vegetable, what does a humanitarian eat?
Is this some philosophical eudemonism?
Paschal Safeh
