Is English a Simplistic Language?

Perhaps it is. But before anything else let's remember that English is a language that has received contributions from other languages, in particular Latin and French. Britannia (as the island of Great Britain used to be called) was occupied by the Romans since AD 43 until AD 410. Then the Normans, who ruled France, invaded the British isles in 1066 making an even more lasting impression that modified Old English by adding a lot of new words and names. One of the many results of this cultural mixture was the formation of two word groups. One is made up  by units taken from French and Latin (hence the similarity of several words in English with some Spanish words) and the other group comes from the Anglo-Saxon, the official language in England by the time the Normans invaded the Isles. How do you distinguish one from the other? Well, the words taken from Saxon and Frech are usually long such as proprietaire or obligation while short words such as woman, can , or glass come from the Anglo-Saxon. 

Now, about that simplicity thing, let's take a look at some of those wonderful names that sound so enticing to our ears: ENGLAND for example. There is something about this word when you say it, but really when you separate it this way ==>  ENG  LAND; well, it doesn't look so fantastic. As you can see, ENGLAND  has a meaning: LAND OF THE ANGLES (Englaland seems to be the original name of England). And the same can be said about SCOTLAND meaning LAND OF THE SCOTS and IRELAND, LAND OF THE IRISH. GREENLAND is literally LAND OF THE GREEN and ICELAND is LAND OF THE ICE.  What about Buckingham as in BUCKINGHAM palace?  The word HAM means the muscled part of a hog's hind leg  and BUCKING  is sometimes used as cutting, so one possible translation for that word could be: "pieces of ham". Is it funny? Maybe, but it can be considered proof of how simplistic English (and perhaps other languages) can be. And if the meaning of Buckingham was unexpected, then try ESCORIAL  as in EL PALACIO DEL ESCORIAL, the "Buckingham Palace" of the Spanish monarchy. And that one is in Spanish.