If you ask me, those other Euro countires are just jealous: English has somehting like 30% more words thatn French (even if you take out the French loan words) and about twice as many as German; not to mention about ten times more than Latin. You want subtle, we got it!

Steve

P.S. I think those weird southern affectations of dimorphic vowel sounds, like "good luck" ("good lack"), "gas mask" ("gess marsk") and so on, come from the French influence in mediaeval times. This didn't extend to northern parts of England, so you tykes speak a purer form of English that goes back to Alfred the Great, and none of this poncy modern Plantagenet-speak.