6. …is why Latin words sound more prestigious than Germanic ones

Think about the difference between a house (Germanic) and a mansion (French), or between starting something and commencing, between calling something kingly or regal. English has a huge number of close synonyms, where the major difference is the level of formality or prestige. Latin is almost always considered prestigious form.

The names of animals and meats also reflect this phenomenon. The old story goes that, in English, the animals have Germanic names but the cooked meats have French ones. For example, swine is Germanic but pork is French, sheep is Germanic but mutton is French. The likely cause is that English-speakers work on farms while those consuming those produce are French-speakers.

7. The concept of “standard” spelling is fairly recent

There are many reasons why English spelling is so erratic including the lack of an academy, the contributions of Noah Webster (see below) and the introduction of William Caxton’s printing press just before major changes in pronunciation. But the idea of correct or incorrect spelling wasn’t really considered important until the 17th Century when the first dictionaries were published. Even then, it was largely a debate for academics and writers.

For example, Shakespeare was liberal in his spellings of words, often using multiple variants within a single text. His name itself has also been spelt in different ways over the centuries.

8. One man is largely responsible for the differences between American English and British English spelling

Noah Webster, whose name you still find on the front page of many American dictionaries, was a patriot. Born in West Hartford, Connecticut in 1758, he believed that a great emerging nation like the United States needed a language of its own: American English.

Webster found the English in the textbooks of the time to be corrupted by the British aristocracy, with too much French and Classical influence. He wanted to write American books for Americans to learn, books that represent a young, proud and progressive nation.

Between 1783 and 1785, he completed three books on the English language for American schools. During his lifetime, 385 editions of his Speller were published. The American spelling of color was originally the British spelling of colour, but later editions changed this spelling. Other differences include the spelling of American center versus British center, and traveler instead of traveller. Webster wanted to make spelling more logical, befitting a nation founded on progressive principles. This is a rare example of a dictionary writer trying to lead the English language instead of describe it.

In the UK, the use of Americanisms will almost certainly make people uncomfortable. But not all Americanisms are what they seem. For example…

9. -ize is not an American English suffix

There is a popular belief that words such as popularise/ize, maximise/ize and digitise/ize have different spellings in British and American English.

Look at that z – isn’t that typical of American English?

Not according to the Oxford English Dictionary, which rejects the French s for a good old British z:

10. The English language is going to change a lot, like it or not!

The only thing that is constant in a language is change. When a language stops changing, it becomes purely academic, like Latin or Ancient Greek.

New words are coined continuously. If you asked someone 20 years ago if they’ve googled the person they’ve just friended on Facebook, they’ll stare at you in confusion (the spell checker still underlines these words in red).

Vocabulary changes faster than grammar, but even English grammar is evolving. For example, who is increasingly being used to replace whom. For example, “Who can you blame?” Decades ago, this sentence was red-lined due to grammatical errors, but now it doesn’t look like a problem right?

Likewise, “Gulliver’s Travels author Jonathan Swift” is an example of a grammar that sounded very strange even 50 years ago but does it now?

One thing is for sure: with well over a billion people speaking English around the world and, for the first time, most of them speaking it as a second language, there are plenty of changes to come!