The words we needed earliest and used the most frequently are usually the most irregular. Eleven and twelve were about as high as we needed to go at some point. Their weirdness is a sign of their importance.
Author: Arika Okrent
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 9780197539408
Category: LANGUAGE ARTS & DISCIPLINES
Page: 273
View: 854
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"Perhaps you're reading a book and stop to puzzle over absurd spelling rules, or you hear someone talking and get stuck on an expression, or your kid quizzes you on homework. Suddenly you ask yourself, "Wait, why do we do it this way?" You think about it, try to explain it, and keep running into walls. It doesn't conform to logic. It doesn't work the way you'd expect it to. There doesn't seem to be any rule at all. In Highly Irregular, Arika Okrent answers these questions and many more. Along the way she tells the story of the many influences--from invading French armies to stubborn Flemish printers--that made our language the way it is today"--