In this blog post, we would like to introduce an amusing fact: as neutral as numbers look, there is in fact significant and enriching information embed in them. Take the number “100” for example:

Arabic: ١٠٠ (Does this look familiar?)
Bengali: ১০০
Chinese: 佰，百
Greek: ρʹ

These are just a few examples. The truth is, the number “100” is no longer a number. Many cultures see “100” as a completion, as Arabic numbers suggest. The numeral “0” is a full circle in shape, and from both symbolic and meaning perspectives, the word “one hundred” suggests a completion, a milestone, or an achievement. For instance, in French, one hundred is “cent,” which is the prefix for “century” and “centennial” in English.

Language is a living thing. The more people interact, the more flexible language becomes. With speedy communication and instant information, it is very easy to take language for granted. That is not what we do at Monterey Language Services! We are passionate about language and appreciate language.  We express the passion and appreciation through our work and our blog.  Wow, 100 blog posts that’s incredible!

An example of the evolution of English can be seen in the spellings of words in Anglo-Saxon, also called Old English.  The following passage from the epic poem Beowulf is an example:

Hwæt! wē Gār-Dena in ġeār-dagum,
þēod-cyninga, þrym ġefrūnon

The words hwæt, dagum and cyninga translate to the Modern English words what, day and king, except that certain letters of course changed.  In fact, there are letters that disappeared entirely from English.  Two such letters in the passage above are æ (ash) and þ (thorn), but others include ð (eth) and ƿ (wynn).  Over time, these letters were replaced with other letters.  For example, “th” represents all interdental sounds in English.

Another notable change in English occurred in verb conjugations.  Until the 1600s, the second-person singular pronoun was thou, with the verb conjugation –(e)st, as in thou knowest.  Then, the pronoun and its conjugation were dropped from English and replaced by you, although it still appears in religious texts and in the works of Shakespeare.

English has evolved since it first arose.  It is classified as a Germanic language, and of course maintains a number of Germanic root words, like gold.  But the language also acquired words like happy from Norse, words like nation from Latin, words like hyperbole from Greek, and words like algebra from Arabic.  During the 20th century, the language added Bolshevik from Russian and mahatma from Sanskrit, in addition to the names of numerous kinds of foods from different cultures.