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), and pictograph characters. Hebrew has 22 characters, so is an example of a smaller alphabet.

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), and pictograph characters. Hebrew has 22 characters, so is an example of a smaller alphabet. [[Futhark]] runic writing has an alphabet of 24.

It helps that English is somewhat phonetic, as ancient Greek and Latin were (though English developed from German, not from Greek or Latin).

It helps that English is somewhat phonetic, as ancient Greek and Latin were (though English developed from German, not from Greek or Latin).