English Is One of Them
Is English “weird”? Many of us might feel this is true when we’re trying to explain the complex spelling rules of the language, or the meanings of idioms such as “it’s raining cats and dogs” to someone who is learning English. Teaching or learning any language is, however, never an easy task.
But what is a “weird” language anyway? As linguists, we generally aim to be as objective as possible in the study of human language. We view ourselves as language scientists who make hypotheses about how humans use language and test them against linguistic data. Unlike so-called language police, we believe it is important to avoid where possible making value judgments about language.
Some computational linguists have used data in the World Atlas of Language Structures (WALS) to explore (tongue firmly in cheek) which languages might be considered the “weirdest.” This was not just a value judgment: They systematically compared the information on the WALS website for 239 languages from different parts of the world.
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