[SOC] Englisch

[JMcAulay]

At 06:28 PM 06/03/2003 +0100, Chris G4PDJ wrote, inter alia:

>Yes, Old English and Saxon were practically the same language. English as we
>now speak it has imported a lot of French and some Latin words, but
>incorporates them into the existing Saxon sentence structure.

<snip> 

>The Americans have continued this process with new words and
>simplifications, so successfully that some American terms such as
>'rain-check', 'RV', 'whole new ball game', etc are being back-imported (via
>television) into the 'core' 'English English'.
>We will pinch a good word from anybody - we're not fussy!.

After the Normans assumed command, the Old English and Norman tongues
merged slowly, with English remaining the language of the commoners and
Norman as the courtly language for a long time.  During this period, a
tendency to ensure everybody's understanding brought about "double-words,"
many of which are still used in Modern English.  Today, they seem to be
used for emphatic effect, but hundreds of years ago such things as "Law and
Order" were said so that the Anglo-Saxons and the Normans were both sure to
understand.  Both meant exactly the same thing in the two languages.  There
are many examples of the same sort of construct, such as "thither and yon,"
meaning "there and there."  In the case of that expression, many have
converted it to "hither and yon," here and there, still using both Norman
and OE word roots.  Another advance of the English of the day was when
finally it was made the official language of Courts of Law in the Islands,
after the English aristocracy (who were, of course, Normans) lost control
of Normandy by edict of the King of France.

Curiously, some words of rather recent currency in Britain originally came
to North America from the "Home Isles" but fell into disuse in Britain for
many years.  I believe "trash" (the noun, meaning "refuse") is one of those.  

This is not intended to be French-bashing, but I am thankful that English
has no official "Word Police" as in France to monitor and control the
development of the language.

Soem who have considered expanded concepts of semiotics, linguistics, and
semantics have conjectured that because languages have developed within
specific cultures, those languages tend to maintain the cultures in
continuing philosophical modes.  Do we indeed tend to do those things which
we can communicate to others the easiest?  Or are they perhaps the easiest
for us to consider mentally?  If so, this gives support to the concept of
"national tendencies," which would be actually common tendencies of those
who use a common language.  Hey, I only write these things because I'm
primarily an English speaker.  :)

73
John WA6QPL  SOC 263