Democratic Sentinel, Volume 13, Number 18, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 May 1889 — Freaks of the English Language. [ARTICLE]

Freaks of the English Language.

The curiosity of literature are certainly doubled by the English language. There is little wonder that a Frenchman prefers the guillotine to an extended course of English instruction, while the German looks at his task in wild despair and hopes for an early death. The addition of a single letter so changes the pronunciation of a word that one who is unused to the language stumbles at every step. The lettfer c changes a lover i«to clover; d make a crow a crowd; k makes eyed keyed; (/ changes a son into a tong; l transforms a pear into a pearl; s changes a lioe into 'a shoe; t makes bough bought; w makes omen into women. Little wonder that some one has called our alphabet pugnacious, and declares that he has known the time when b fit, d. cried, n raged, x pounded. —The Academic.