Tommy Turtle's "Two Cases Have I" got me thinking about German. I hope this parody explains why-y-y-y-y-y. . . .

*Hochdeutsch ("High German," standard German; "hoch" is pronounced approximately HOK, with the K sort of gargled in the throat). Appendix D of Mark Twain's "A Tramp Abroad" is entitled "The Awful German Language," for the following reasons, among others: German is Latinless Latin. Its case structure, syntax, and genders derive from Latin, but it borrows few words from Latin. (E.g., the German for "turtle" is ""Schildkroete," literally, "shield-toad"; whereas "turtle" is Latin in derivation; although "shield" and "toad" are Anglo-Saxon.) English, on the other hand, has jettisoned genders and cases, but it relies so heavily on borrowing that half of English is French, mainly thanks to the Norman Conquest. English used to have "you," "thou," "thee," but boiled it down to "you," unless thou art Amish. German still has three forms of "you": "Sie" (formal singular and plural; but "she" with lowercase "s," "sie"); "du" informal singular; "ihr" (informal plural), which can also mean "their" or "her," depending on context. Awful for those trying to learn it in adulthood.