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English is essentially…

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A bit of humor for your week: John Cowan has built a list of 1,000+ “Essentialist Explanations” on various languages. If you’re a language buff it’s worth checking out. Here are a few to get you started.

English is essentially a language that uses vowels no other language would accept.

-Luís Henrique

English is essentially bad Dutch with outrageously pronounced French and Latin vocabulary.

-Eugene Holman

English is what you get from Normans trying to pick up Saxon girls.

-Bryan Maloney

(via Kottke)

Shakespeare in the Original Language

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Shakespeareophiles have no doubt noticed couplets not rhyming in an occasional sonnet or soliloquy in a way that the context suggests they should. I know reading John Donne and Shakespeare myself I have encountered more than a fair share of lines that simply don’t rhyme — and it ruins an otherwise impressive structure — so I assume the pronunciation is different.

Well I stumbled upon this video which, for me, was the first I had ever heard Shakespeare in the original pronunciation. Enjoy:

Every second after 2:53 just magnifies William Shakespeare’s brilliance at a rate of about 1.5 Genius Points per second. Realizing how many tricks and puns Bill threw into his work can almost be a daunting, intimidating discovery.