All languages in the world have a word for man and a word for woman. Of the languages I know, only the English language has a word that is a derivative of man and nothing else. Woman is said to come from wife-man, meaning the wife of a man. In all other languages I know, women truly have their own word.
Man & Frau
Homme & Femme
Uomo & Donna
Hombre & Mujer
Muzh & Zhena
Czlowiek & Kobieta
Gizon & Emakume
Lelaki & Wanita
O Toko & Josei
Fear & Bean
Ferfi & No
Katsi & Kali
Mies & Nainen
Mand & Kvinde
Nanzi & Nuren
Somehow, the original English word for woman was discarded. I believe the original English word used to be Vrow (suggestion for plural; Vrowe, same pronunciation) since it would be close to German (Frau) and Dutch (Vrouw). The Danish influence (where the Anglos are from) can be seen in the word Queen (Kvinde).
People snicker when they hear the word Frau, probably because it was considered that this person belonged to the house (Haus Frau), but the translation is actually lady. The Vrow is the mistress next to the Man, the master. Folks probably snicker because it was an original English word. Many English words are not in use any more. Somehow the English started to look down on their English words. In the case of woman, this derivative is now the only one remaining.
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Of all languages, English incorporated the most words from other languages (except for those languages that got supplanted fully by another language of course). So many things are awkward about English, it would take a book to describe it all.
American English is weird in yet another way. Where the English have a lot of freedom to use words in many different ways, then indicating very precise meanings and emotions, in American English word order is very regimented, as if it were a soldiers language. Read an English paper, look for letters sent to the editor, and you’ll see what I mean. It has been said that the UK and the US are two countries separated by a common language [Shaw].
Or take the word Latino. It is Spanish and the proper English word is Latin-American (or simply Latin). There is no ‘Latino’ in English; it does not exist. But we are incorporating it as if it were English and even write Latinx as they sometimes do in Spanish speaking nations.
It gets even more intriguing when discussing ‘every now and then,’ because in other Germanic languages one can hear ‘every now and than’. It’s like we say time + time and they say time + place.
The word ‘fewer’ is also peculiar because there is no opposite word for it. Fewer is based on few, while we wouldn’t say ‘manier’ as based on many. In other languages, the use of ‘fewer’ is rare.
The English put ‘I’ and ‘is’ in a single sentence. It is I. Some Americans use ‘I’ in the wrong spots as well. It belongs to Peter and I.
Should we all go back to school and learn a proper language?
Or, shall we just accept that words are words and that they point to something, but they are never the actual person or thing itself. The more sensitive we are about words, the more we all need to go back to school.
