Posted on 06/15/2009 6:36:11 AM PDT by decimon
This is part 1 of 6 in a brief series describing the history of English and its grammar.
(Excerpt) Read more at scientificblogging.com ...
It was about the fifth century (AD) that the Angles and the Saxons settled in Britain.
__________________________________________
Then them Yutes came...
And them Yutes didnt talk so good...
They introduced slang into the English Language..
:)
“Between the publication of Johnson’s grammar and the rise of modern descriptive linguistics, grammar was treated as though it had the truth of a science, whereas it was but a series of personal views of language as a form of art. Right through until the 1960s, grammar was used as a hammer in an attempt to beat English into submission. In earlier times, children would leave school with an acquired ‘bookish’ use of English. With the general rise of literacy, children left school with a command of their language derived from authors such as Tennyson, Wordsworth, R.L. Stevenson, Mary Shelley, H.G. Wells, Mark twain, Longfellow, Ella Wheeler Wilcox, Charles Dickens, Lewis Carroll, Rudyard Kipling, Edward Lear and many, many more. These days it is a brave person who will stick their head above the parapet and tell others just how wrong their use of English is, and offer to correct the errors from motives of the purest altruism.”
The English language needs to be adopted as the official language of the United States and that needs to happen now.
Having an official language would mean that immigrants would have to learn the language (as a second language in most cases). English speaking Americans do not need to learn another language unless they frequently travel abroad or need to for business purposes/reasons.
This would be a unifying element for our country, not a divisive one as libtards claim.
Later
.
Children didn't go to school. I believe that in Ben Franklin's time literacy was higher than it is today.
The ones who do go to school now are more likely to read Shakespeare than Swift, but no one winds up speaking Shakespearean English. It used to be a mystery to me why Swift's English is so much closer to ours than to Shakespeare even though he is much closer to Shakespeare timewise.
ML/NJ
Going by old movies, I'd say the Brits became intelligible some time in the 1950s. ;-)
That says so much. To learn more naturally, in some setting other than the prison camp schools, might be the best way to go.
LOL!
Yep and day don’t got good grammer.
I think you meant the Jutes. They just kinda schlepped in. Oy, the chutzpah!
“Yutes” as in My Cousin Vinny...
:)
Yeppers..
:)
Back when they “schlepped” it was spelt with a Y...
Then King James and Shakespear got hold of the vord...
Oy vey...
Them too...
They used their Y’s for wig wams
:)
I may plotz. (lol)
So Y yeren’t they yigyams? Py yumpin’ yiminy!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.