For some of us, the Great Bowel Shift was much more recent.
I shouldn't have eaten that tripe and chick pea stew on Monday.
I have a couple of Norman friends and they don't communicate that well -
perhaps the tribe has faltered. But they are quite assertive and it's hard to
argue with an arrow in the eye.
I did at one point study Old English (Wessex dialect) but it didn't stick.
Nasty teutonic stuff.
I much preferred Middle English and can recite some Chaucer and do if prodded
or when drunk.
Riff raff - why can't we use good old English terms like Lumpenproletariat
instead?
Andrew Fildes
afildes@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
On 02/06/2011, at 1:16 AM, Ken Norton wrote:
> FOOD FIGHT!!!!
>
> Seriously, I think the biggest problem with non-American English is
> the dreaded "Great Vowel Shift" which screwed up the Anglo-Frisian
> core. However, the language was a half-breed concoction which was so
> confusing that it lead to the Norman occupation. They couldn't
> communicate very well and the Normans could, so it was an easy defeat.
> At that point, the vocabulary got enhanced by the Latin-based
> languages.
>
> I think the above was all described in great detail in a Bugs Bunny Cartoon.
>
> So, after the Great Bowel Shift, the Brits got all constipated about
> their language and it just ceased to evolve. Meanwhile, on the other
> side of the pond, we had this dude called Webster, that came out with
> this dictionary for the hoi polloi that didn't know how to spell hoi
> polloi, much less knew what it meant. Therefore, he just made sure
> that words like hoi polloi were eliminated or changed to words like
> riff raff for the riff raff.
>
> Do I have my history right?
--
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