# What are the distinguishing characteristics of english? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 20, 2006, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-distinguishing-characteristics-of-english/373421 "2006-09-20T15:21:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![E.Thorp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/898d66/32.png) [@E.Thorp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E.Thorp)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2006, 4:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-distinguishing-characteristics-of-english/373421/41 "2006-09-22T04:39:12Z")
[QUOTE=kellner] For obvious reasons it’s hard to verify for me, but I heard that an average American who wants to know how his accent sounds to German ears should imagine a severe case of a stereotypical old-fashioned southern accent. [/QUOTE] I may have some insight: I’m American with a German father and many German relatives, but don’t speak German myself. I’d say “southern accent” is close, but not the Deep South drawl; a Kentucky or West Virginia accent (the “hillbilly twang”) would be closer. Flat and nasal. I was in Germany a few years ago, and my cousin’s kids (aged 6 and 4), who knew no English, made fun of my speech by making funny catlike noises: rowr raow rowr etc. As if they had sticky candy in their mouths. Not so much flat and nasal, I suppose, as halfway down the throat (especially “l” and “r”). ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2006, 10:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-distinguishing-characteristics-of-english/373421/42 "2006-09-22T10:04:36Z")
[QUOTE=Monty] Don’t forget that Dutch and English have identical alphabets. [/QUOTE] Right, that’s why in my second post I said that “if I knew some German (but not English or Dutch), I’d still have problems telling Dutch and English apart”. Telling English when your only options are “whatever you speak or English” is easy. But then, so would “whatever you speak or Swahili” be. My English is now good enough to translate from Dutch to Spanish with an acceptable degree of accuracy 😃 Scary. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2006, 10:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-distinguishing-characteristics-of-english/373421/43 "2006-09-22T10:05:41Z")
Oh, and you guys sound like you have a whole hot potato in your mouth. The potato is smaller and less hot for Br’ers than for Murkins. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2006, 12:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-distinguishing-characteristics-of-english/373421/44 "2006-09-22T12:25:42Z")
[QUOTE=Monty] What about English, John? Book, tool, cool, soon, feel, etc. Okay, that last one doesn’t have a double vowel. [/QUOTE] Oh, I was coming from the standpoint of knowing what English looks like, so I guess that’s kinda off topic. If it weren’t for the double vowels and the “ij” groupings, it would be tough for me to distinguish German from Dutch, at least at a casual glance. ---
**Author:** ![yBeayf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/e274bd/32.png) [@yBeayf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yBeayf)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2006, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-distinguishing-characteristics-of-english/373421/45 "2006-09-22T15:25:25Z")
> [@](#): > > Do you mean that “riverrun, past Eve and Adam’s, from swerve of shore to bend of bay, brings us by a commodius vicus of recirculation back to Howth Castle and Environs” means nothing to you? It’s my favorite (both sarcastically and seriously)! A pile of shit, even if selected and arranged with the greatest of care, is still a pile of shit. ---
**Author:** ![bordelond](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bordelond/32/150_2.png) [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2006, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-distinguishing-characteristics-of-english/373421/46 "2006-09-22T16:32:13Z")
[QUOTE=Monty] What about English, John? Book, tool, cool, soon, feel, etc. Okay, that last one doesn’t have a double vowel. [/QUOTE] To put a finer point on it: you’ll see _oo_ and **ee** in both English and Dutch. But Dutch also has _aa_, _ii_, and _uu_ in it’s native orthographic inventory, while English only has them in the odd loan word (_aardvark, Shiite, vacuum_). ---
**Author:** ![bordelond](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bordelond/32/150_2.png) [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2006, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-distinguishing-characteristics-of-english/373421/47 "2006-09-23T14:01:07Z")
[QUOTE=naita] To tell Danish and Norwegian apart I guess you could count g’s and k’s. Norwegian will have more k’s and Danish more g’s. I’m not sure how reliable it is though. [/QUOTE] … I knew there was a difference in the way Norweigan and Danish were written – and that is one. [More info:](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danish_language) > [@](#): > > Danish is written using the Latin alphabet, with three additional letters: _æ_, _ø_, and _å_, which come at the end of the Danish alphabet, in that order. A spelling reform in 1948 introduced the letter _å_, already in use in Norwegian and Swedish, into the Danish alphabet to replace the letter _aa_; the old usage still occurs in some personal and geographical names and old documents (for example, the name of the city of Ålborg is often spelled Aalborg). When representing the _å_ sound, aa is treated just like _å_ in alphabetical sorting, even though it looks like two letters. When the letters are not available (e.g., in URLs), they are replaced by _ae, oe_ or _o_, and _aa_, respectively. > > The same spelling reform changed the spelling of a few common words, such as _vilde_ (would), _kunde_ (could) and _skulde_ (should), to their current forms of _ville, kunne_ and _skulle_, and did away with the practice of capitalising all nouns, which German still does. Modern Danish and Norwegian use the same alphabet, though spelling differs somewhat. So it looks like _å_ is something of a Johnny-come-lately in Danish. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-distinguishing-characteristics-of-english/373421.md?page=2)