| Winstep Forums http://forums.winstep.net/phpBB2/ |
|
| English Language? WAS "Yellow Arrow stuff..." http://forums.winstep.net/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=11855 |
Page 1 of 1 |
| Author: | Magpie [ Fri Jul 30, 2021 12:19 am ] |
| Post subject: | English Language? WAS "Yellow Arrow stuff..." |
I take it, then, that you believe English to be a single monotheistic entity. One that is static and all English speakers agree to. The question I’d ask is, whose English? English speakers can't even agree on a single spelling or even word definitions. Look at such common words as 'pants'. It means different things on each side of the Atlantic to the point where it can become confusing. You can’t even say that British English is the one true language, because there are many ways of speaking the language within England itself. Ever been to Birmingham? Also, ‘when’ is an important question. I can read Middle English and some Anglo-Saxon. You have to study to learn them because they are so different from what we speak today. Chaucer was proper English for his day, but I don’t see you advocating for speaking like him or as English was spoken in the time of Shakespeare. How much did the language have to change for each of those versions of the language to no longer be correct English? Interestingly, the oldest form of English, in terms of pronunciation, is actually spoken in the Appalachian Mountains, in the US. It is the closest to Elizabethan English in existence. However, because the language has changed so much everywhere else, I doubt that you would accept the way they speak as proper English. However, if you hold to an unchanging language, they would be the only English speakers in the world to speak the language properly as theirs is the form that has changed the least in the last 400 years. The idea that English is a static language and that it will remain the same generation to generation, over multiple continents, is clearly untrue. Read Dickens and then spend the rest of the day speaking as they did in his time and see how well you get on. Yes, people will understand you, but they will also wonder what’s wrong with you. You went to Oxford. Good for you. I went Exeter. I've studied linguistics for years and have backgrounds in both etymology and paleography. |
|
| Author: | nexter [ Fri Jul 30, 2021 12:54 am ] |
| Post subject: | Re: English Language? WAS "Yellow Arrow stuff..." |
If your sole purpose is to talk about language you should at least have the courtesy to post in the appropriate "Off Topic" forum, to which I have now moved your post. However, I don't have the slightest interest in continuing the conversation, so talk to yourself - you seem well practised in that. Yawn. |
|
| Page 1 of 1 | All times are UTC |
| Powered by phpBB © 2000, 2002, 2005, 2007 phpBB Group http://www.phpbb.com/ |
|