Changes

The King James Bible established a framework of knowledge of the English language, and it began to develop rapidly afterward.  English is unique in its ability to develop new words, at a rate of about 1000 new words per year.<ref>See [[Essay:Best New Conservative Words]].</ref>  English easily incorporates and adapts words from other languages, such as "detente" (French for a lessening in tensions between nations) and "tsunami" (Japanese for a massive tidal wave).

The King James Bible established a framework of knowledge of the English language, and it began to develop rapidly afterward.  English is unique in its ability to develop new words, at a rate of about 1000 new words per year.<ref>See [[Essay:Best New Conservative Words]].</ref>  English easily incorporates and adapts words from other languages, such as "detente" (French for a lessening in tensions between nations) and "tsunami" (Japanese for a massive tidal wave).

English has one of the smallest alphabet of major languages using the Roman alphabet, including its lack of accented (letters bearing a diacritic mark such as the "e" in "noël"), hybrid (such as the digraph ligature æ often used in British English in words such as encyclopædia or the ampersand character - a contraction of "et"), and pictograph characters. Hebrew has 22 characters, so is an example of a smaller alphabet. [[Futhark]] runic writing has an alphabet of 24.

English has one of the smallest alphabet of major languages using the Roman alphabet, including its lack of accented (letters bearing a diacritic mark such as the "e" in "noël"), hybrid (such as the digraph ligature æ often used in British English in words such as encyclopædia or the ampersand character - a contraction of "et"), and pictograph characters. Hebrew has 22 characters, so is an example of a smaller alphabet. [[Elder Futhark]] runic writing has an alphabet of 24.

It helps that English uses a writing system that has some relation between sounds and symbols as opposed to a purely ideographic system. This also applies to all other languages using alphabets, abjads, syllabaries, and so on - such as ancient Greek and Latin (though English developed from German, not from Greek or Latin).

It helps that English uses a writing system that has some relation between sounds and symbols as opposed to a purely ideographic system. This also applies to all other languages using alphabets, abjads, syllabaries, and so on - such as ancient Greek and Latin (though English developed from German, not from Greek or Latin).