About this blog

I am a native English speaker studying Spanish; my studies have opened my eyes to differing structures between the two languages. Learning a new language requires an understanding of origins or purpose in order to learn what a fluent speaker of a language "inherently" knows.

Fascinated by linguistics and history, I find myself with queries about the English language; why is it that the only written difference between the words "plow" and "flow" is their first letter, yet the endings are pronounced different?

Watching my three children's language development has been a fascinating experience. Even though their understanding of spoken language at this age is more developed than their ability to produce it, their seemingly effortless ability to acquire language is amazing.

From the first day we use our senses we begin to categorize our world. A child sees a dog and is told it is a dog; the child places into memory that a moving object with four legs is a dog. Later the child sees a cow and says "Dog" but is told "No sweetie, that's a cow." Now the child has created a new category; they place into their memory that a moving object with black and white spots and four legs is a cow.

In language there are patterns that are learned through categorization. The silent "E" generally indicates the pronunciation of the preceding vowel letter to say its name; thus, "can" turns into "cane," "hat" turns into "hate." But what about exceptions? The word "some" does not pronounce the preceding vowel letter "O" as its name even though it has the silent "E." My purpose of this blog is to have a little fun and explore the questions that children and adults might wonder but never ask.

I invite readers to respond with answers or queries of their own. For example, do you know why the word "some" doesn't follow the rule of the silent "E"? Or, does another query of the English language interest you?

This blog may not result in all of our questions being answered, but it certainly will give us an opportunity to infer, explore, and discover meaning of the language we engage with every day.