Grammar Girl Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing
Why is this a question? with Paul Anthony Jones
May 30, 2024
Author Paul Anthony Jones discusses why English lacks gender like Spanish and French, the hardest languages to learn, and the history behind why Q is always followed by U. They also explore the evolution of grammatical gender, the significance of the letter Q in English, the influence of gestures in language, and the possibility of a separate US edition of his book.
29:40
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Quick takeaways
- English lost grammatical gender due to historical events like the Norman Conquest, simplifying the language.
- Languages like Japanese with simpler grammar structures pose lesser challenges for learners compared to English.
Deep dives
Origins of Grammatical Gender in Language
The podcast delves into the origins of why certain languages have grammatical gender while English does not. It traces back to an ancestral language that classified nouns into animate and inanimate categories, evolving into the gender distinctions we see today in various languages.
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