Why English is called a Weird Language?

Abstract

Many language learners are apprehensive about learning foreign languages in general and English language (EL) in particular.  They feel nervous and stressful while acquiring proficiency in English because of intricacies in English at the level of semantics, syntax, spelling, grammar, pronunciation, vocabulary etc. English perhaps sounds a little strange to many speakers of other languages. Having difficulty in learning EL, many people call it weird, queer, eccentric and funny. EL was found unusual by common public as well as the professional linguists, researchers and writers. There are certain traits of English language which made what it is perceived today by many.

The purpose of present study is to explore the weird features in EL and to investigate the contributing factors and its impact on learners. A meticulous and comprehensive categorization of the features which make English Language strange and difficult for people will be presented. Data pertaining to this was drawn from the literature available on this area apart from the recent data generated by computational linguists with the help of the World Atlas of Language Structures (WALS). Apart from this, personal experiences of researchers in the similar contexts will be presented. In the conclusion, the study is intended to provide practical ways and means to overcome the problems discussed here apart from recommending essential measures to be implemented to reduce difficulty in learning English for academic and professional purposes.