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Take the English language, for example. Specifically, let's look at numbers. I'm sure, if you're reading this, you have enough sense to know your numbers up until at least 10. If not, then I assume you're some kind of monkey working in a secret government test of some kind. We all know a one. It looks like this:
Or, depending on what kind of font you're used to using, like this:
Or any one of a billion other takes on the same general graphic. We know what a one is, and what it looks like, and how it differs from, say, an eight. And we know that when we see a '1', it means that there is one of whatever it is we're deeming worth counting. What we never really stop and think about, though, is how the hell we came up with this.
Now... I'll readily admit that I'm not an expert on lingustics, although I do proudly own a copy of "The Highly Selective Dictionary for the Extordinarily Literate", and perhaps some man like Noah Webster or someone could come up to me and say 'Yeah, well... if you go back... like... a gazillion years and look at the drawings that primative man left in the dirt outside his hut..." and I would quite happily take his word for it. After all, he's the guy who spent ungodly hours trying to figure out how to write down the pronunciation of words like "Androgynous", and wonder about how stupid a person would have to be to not know how to spell and/or pronounce the word 'door'.
But the fact remains that most English speakers are completely clueless as to why we use the words we use. I know I am. I've thought about this a lot, because I don't have a job and have to find ways to occupy myself to keep from just going out and hitting people randomly. And it's not just the language that has this sort of question attached to it.
One of the few Calvin and Hobbes cartoons that I can recall has our big-headed child asking "Isn't milk weird? I mean, who was the first guy to look at udders and say, 'I think I'll squeeze these and drink whatever comes out of 'em.'" I've also read this compelling question in other places, which, I guess, proves that I'm not the only person who thinks about moronic things. However, this is a very good point. Who was that guy? Was he arrested for assulting a cow? Did they let him go after they found out how tasty 'cow-juice' was with baked-goods? This is why I need a time machine. Well... not me personally, because I'd probably just use it to sneak into Woodstock, destroy the Backstreet Boys en utero, and make a friggin fortune betting on sports events. But someone with a bit more responsiblity than me. Like a russian physicist or something. (Don't ask me... I just have a hat full of country names. I pull one out when needed.)
I dunno... we'll probably never know. Or even if we do know, most of us won't care, so why give up our time and sanity over it? C'mon... let's go have a drink. But you're buyin'.