Language is a mix of genes, habits, visible structures and hidden structures. Hidden structures probably deserve more attention.
My favorite example is adjectives and nouns ‘agreeing’ or adopting parallel endings for number and gender. English is the only Indo-European language that lost this parallelism. BUT: We retain number-harmony on exactly two words, this and that. We effortlessly say this tree vs these trees, that house vs those houses. We don’t notice the peculiarity and we don’t try to extend the pattern to other adjectives.
I noticed a more subtle hidden structure just now. I was rereading an item from last week to be sure I said what I really meant to say. While rereading I caught a typo:
A 1945 radio show called Rogue’s Gallery featured a detective named Rogue versus his nemesis Eugor. The premise and the whow were both mediocre.
It tickled me so I read it out loud for chuckles, automatically saying Hwow. In my dialect HW isn’t distinctive; all initial W is just W. Nevertheless, the distinction must be available beneath the surface, popping out in this discordant spot.
