Also include Gaelic languages like Irish and Scottish influencing English. I remember making a Portuguese colleague pronounce the words “bough”, “lough” and “tough”. It was funny and a realisation that the English language is just as non-sensical as any languages. Millennia of language mixing made any attempts to make sense of any language rules farcical but in amusing way.
Blame the Norman French.
nooo Why did the Norman-French army of William, Duke of Normandy, have to Invade in 1066? It could have been so much simpler …
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Hastings
A lot more Germanic, anyway. We’d have a lot more in common with our cousin tongues.
Also include Gaelic languages like Irish and Scottish influencing English. I remember making a Portuguese colleague pronounce the words “bough”, “lough” and “tough”. It was funny and a realisation that the English language is just as non-sensical as any languages. Millennia of language mixing made any attempts to make sense of any language rules farcical but in amusing way.