Username
jayles
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August 12, 2010
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748
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“Anglish”
- February 25, 2012, 4:12pm
"targe" is still found in Shakespear (Antony and Cleo??) meaning "shield", I think.
“Anglish”
- February 25, 2012, 4:09pm
"paled into insignificance" >> become as bleak nothingness???
"in the intervening centuries" >> in the in-between hundreds of years ???
"introduced en masse" >> brought over in hordes ???
"the common man" >> working folk??
"developed" >> unfolded??
"native" >>> in-born??
"purposely" >> wilfully ??
just off the top of my head...
“Anglish”
- February 25, 2012, 3:55pm
Good, we seem to be of the same mind.
I find when I am writing that I have to guess the root of the words in my head, so, for instance, "in agreement" is French, but then I have to think of that long list of Frankish borrowings. "list" is as I thought French too, although Chaucer brooks "list" as a jousting fight. And then "change" and I wonder what became of "wechsel" in English >> wristle did not make it to ME, although we have "wrestle" and "wrangle" and "wrist".
In my remarks above, I wrote "renaissance" because "rebirthing" has another meaning in today's English.
All in all, it is like learning a new tongue, scanning wonted words and thinking anew.
“Anglish”
- February 25, 2012, 11:37am
Yes the whole spelling saga is on the Wikipedia page for spelling reform; look, I would like to rid English of many latinate words which double up on living or old English ones. To get folk to take this onboard is hard enough without mudding the waters with new spellings at the same time. To me, the key hurdle is what to do about the missing wordstock, that is, OE words which didn't make it into ME and so are not even listed in today's wordbooks. The other ask is what to do about norman-french words which have become deeply embedded in our tongue: words like "change", "point out". From my standpoint (mark "point"), some of these norman-ffrench borrowings could be just taken as is: it is the later renaissance and academic borrowings straight from latin that get right up my nose. So, in my book, we must get rid of "advantage" and "disadvantage" - there are good stand-ins to hand already, such as "freme", "gain", "drawback" "upside", "downside" and so on. No let-out for not using them. Every tongue has borrowings, we should keep the few celtic words such as "carry" as they are part of our "hand-me-down" (heritage), and so too words such as "coach" (hung) and "horde" , other words borrowed, often by seamen in their seafaring. Of course we can never get rid of all those latinates, forewhy there are tens of thousands of workplace (technical) words which come from latin. We just need to focus, target, aim, (oh give me an English word) at the oft-brooked latinate words like "vocabulary" (wordstock) and seek to bring forward their use among folk.
“Anglish”
- February 23, 2012, 5:06pm
comprehensive ->> all-enfolding,
or perhaps "sweeping"
re spelling: several attempts at reforming spelling have been made; only the "American" spellings have stuck. Even the Germans rose up against spelling changes.
“Anglish”
- February 17, 2012, 11:19pm
Far be it from me to weigh in here but ...
1) Sieg is perhaps better known than "sigor' ... try googling it... though to be fair it has a dark side to it.
2) Who is Ed? "edquikened??" However most people would understand "re-quickened".
I think you need to use words that are still in "the dictionary" to be understood by all and sundry. Otherwise it will all be gibberish.
“Anglish”
- February 1, 2012, 4:37pm
By the way there is one setting where we do put something between the doing-word and the object/complement: there is a short list of how-often words which usually come (1) between subject and verb, or (2) after the helping-verb. [never, hardly, ever, sometimes, usually, often, always]. These how-often-words also come after the verb "to be" when brooked as a main verb followed by a complement. (3) This stead in the word-order hight "middle-stead".
So we say:
(1) "She always dresses well."
(2) "She is always dressed well"
(3) "She is always well-dressed"
However "everyday" is not a how-often-word; it is an adjective. "every day" (two words) does tell us how often; but it is two words and as cannot be pushed into the middle-stead.
So at last:
"They seem to be ever more and more wrong-headed" is okay as "ever" is on the shortlist.
"They seem to be more and more wrong-headed every day" is okay too.
Such is today's English word order. One could wish for something straightforwarder.
“Anglish”
- January 29, 2012, 6:56pm
I came up with "High-Reeve" because it is still brooked in some states of Canada I think, for the State-Governor perhaps.
I was quite taken aback to find out that "reason" and "seneschal" were sort of germanic in origin. I would have guessed N. Fr. !x
"Marshal" is still a rank in the Brit armed forces esp Field-Marshal, so perhaps it would be better left out of the lawmakers' ranks.
"T... to be everyday more and more wrong-headed,.."
s.b. "to be more and more wrong-headed everyday" - we like the object/complement to follow immediately after the verb in English. (Otherwise: excellent!!)
“Anglish”
- January 28, 2012, 2:28pm
bin der selber Meinung. I had a trimaran that was quite yare, although I was unyarked to go out in really bad weather.
Reasons: the whys and wherefores... or just the wherefore
the means: the wherewithal
Prime MInister->> the High-Reeve ????
Chancellor ->> Chief Steward ??? ("doorkeeper" sounds a bit low)
Questions
Five eggs is too many | July 1, 2013 |
“The plants were withered” Adjective or passive? | August 27, 2013 |
Which sound “normal” to you? | March 31, 2014 |
“it’s the put-er-on-er-er” | April 7, 2014 |
“Anglish”
Gallitrot: stimme ein. I had never consiered the lot of those who inadvertently stumble on this site.
Angelfolc: "the wind bloweth where it listeth". (from the King James bible John 3:8) I was raised on this stuff, and as you know much of it dates back to earlier translations.
OE lystan I suppose. "Der Wind blaest, wo er will."