LEESBURG - Dr. Elliot Engel again delighted the audience at Kosciusko Literacy Services' annual fundraiser Thursday at Tippecanoe Lake Country Club with a humorous look at the origins of the English language.

Cindy Cates, new KLS executive director, opened the event by thanking the fundraising committee, Sylvia Aguirre, Rebecca Kubacki and Cathy Teghtmeyer. She also recognized event sponsors R.R. Donnelley and Mr. and Mrs. Howard Levin, program sponsors and reading sponsors, and provided an update on KLS activities. Lin Hutton, KLS board member, gave the invocation.

Aguirre, president of the board of directors, presented a gift to Brenda Rigdon, former KLS executive director, in recognition of her service to the organization.

During Engel's presentation, "Our Slippery Mother Tongue: A Light History of English," he said, "English is a particularly rich language - there are so many ways to read and interpret a particular sentence. When did language start? About 250,000 years ago. Before there was language, the only ways of communicating were through sign language or gestures. The first two sounds are believed to be related to blowing air out, which creates the 'W' sound, and using the vocal cords to add a hum to the sound, which created the 'M' sound."

Most languages need at least 20-22 different sounds. Hawaiian has the fewest, with only 12, and some have 30-35 sounds. Engel said, "Someone very smart and very lazy figured out that we didn't have to make 20 different sounds. We only needed 10 mouth formations or sounds. By adding a 'hum' to the 10 sounds, we came up with 20 sounds." The other six sounds are vowels.

The various sounds are in completely random order alphabetically in different languages. Only one sound is first in 90 percent of the alphabets - the "A," pronounced "aah." In 1965, some University of California-Berkley linguists determined the reason for this one consistency was that it came from the instinctive sound associated with satisfaction of basic physical instincts, hunger and sex.

The history of the English language began with Julius Caesar. As the Romans conquered various countries in Europe, Caesar dictated that Latin be spoken. French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese and Romanian words are based on Latin. But when Caesar conquered England in 55 B.C., he didn't particularly like the people, and didn't want them speaking Latin.

The people of northern Germany and southern Scandinavia, the Angles, Saxons and Jutes, were the first to settle England. The true base of the English language is Anglo-Saxon. All single-syllable and four-letter words are Anglo-Saxon German, as are the most common 100 words. In October 1066, William the Conqueror, of France, took over England, however, he didn't force the people to speak French-Latin. When French soldiers married English women, the French-Latin language complicated the simple Anglo-Saxon German language. Most longer words are derivatives of French-Latin.

According to the 2000 Oxford English Dictionary, there are 621,517 words in the English language. That compares to 180,000 French words and 150,000 Russian words. The current trend is to combine and slur words, such as "jeet?" for "did you eat?" Engel said linguists predict that by the year 2100, English will be changed to "Slurvy." [[In-content Ad]]