Well, try explaining irregular verbs to students. Always a nice challenge as you search for a rule or at least some guiding principle. And, of course, many of the most common verbs we use are actually irregular. It is surprising then that verbs which have remained notoriously popular in history are all regular: explode, implode, annex, invade, divide and conquer.
Mr. Putin is just one of the fans of such boring patterns. The Economist has a fine take on his justification of annexing Crimea on the basis of protecting Russian speakers. The Economist article takes this logic and gives a graphic vision of what the world could look like if all speakers of particular languages were to be protected: imagine what the English Empire would now look like! And the Spanish one? And the Irish one … ah maybe that is the problem … we don’t all speak the same language in the same way for starters so that may influence what country you annex in a friendly way: and if you annex some land and impose your language on it does that also justify the process?
Language and politics, seldom far apart. Enjoy the original article on: http://tinyurl.com/n4pneav
P.S. After a break of some months I appear to be back on the blog. Putin has a lot to answer for. I will try and keep it regular.
